NPD: ZVex Distortron

[ken361]

Re: NPD: ZVex Distortron

Bought it on Thursday, took it to rehearsal today.

<3 <3 <3

My Stiletto does very good clean and excellent heavy crunch. I wanted something to get the "in between" light/medium crunch, like a cranked Deluxe or JTM 45. The Distortron does exactly that, and it does it better than any other pedal I've heard. It can do higher gain stuff too if need be, but I like it as a medium gain pedal.

The Distortron is the little brother of the legendary Box of Rock. It's basically the distortion side of the BoR with a couple of tweaks. There's a low/high gain switch. On low gain it's the same as the BoR; high gain piles on some more juice and takes this baby into hot-rodded Marshall territory.

The Subs switch solves a problem a lot of people have with the BoR: too much low end. At 3 you get the gigantic lows the BoR is known for. 2 gives a moderate low end cut that works well with modern high gain amps that already have tons of lows, and 1 cuts a lot of the lows for a nice tight crunch. I find the Stiletto likes the pedal on 2 best: 3 is a bit flubby, and 1 is not fat enough. Your amp may vary, and that's why the switch is there.

When I demo'd the pedal in the store, I played it through a Hot Rod DeVille. It sounded damn good there, but it sounds friggin' incredible through the Stiletto. Based on this and on the things I've read, I gather that the BoR and the Distortron like EL34 amps best. I've also tried a BoR through a Traynor YCV-50blue, which also sounded incredible and also has EL34's.

My only complaints relate to the enclosure layout, and I guess you could say this about any ZVex pedal really. My big clumsy feet don't do to well with the switch so close to the knobs. I also don't like the DC jack being so close to the input jack. I had to put it in a less than ideal spot on my pedal board to ensure the input plug didn't block the DC jack.

Anyway, the Distortron is my dream pedal for adding a third tone to my two channel amp. It has a "real amp" feel to it that you only get from a high quality pedal. It breathes, grunts, and sings like a cranked tube amp would. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a Marshall-in-a-box type of thing, or anyone looking to make their small clean amp sound like a big, cranked stack.

so your pedal sounds just like the BOR if you wanted it to? did you compare it cause it is cheaper.

[MetalManiac]

Re: NPD: ZVex Distortron

I want one thing an one thing only from the Zvex, and that is a Plexi in a box to run in front of my JMP. AFAIK, its the best Plexi in a box, although I've only heard clips in comparison the another competitor, the Lovepedal Purple Plexi.
As Far as Hotrodded Marshall pedal, that could be dozens of pedals, from the 808 , to the Marshall Shredmaster, Rat Od-1, Dod 250 ( all of which I have).
If your talking SLO or Splawn maximum 'pushing the envelope' style Marshall boost, then I've never really heard a pedal achieve that..at some point the little boxs just sound like a swarm of angry Hornets, and that ain't good.

[Diego]

Re: NPD: ZVex Distortron

Finally tried the Distortron today.

Through a Bugera 1990 with matching 4x12, and a stock Squier Bullet. Not the best guitar but that's irrelevant.

Wow! I agree with whoever said that it felt like a Marshall about to explode! It does feel alive.
It gives that feel that I've only heard through recordings.
Everything I've heard from Vox, Roland, etc. trying to be a Marshall, sounds very tame, flat and controlled compared to this.
Very transparent, fantastic dynamics.

I'm definitely selling some of my pedals to finance this one. It's just too good not to have it somewhere on my board.

But I do have one question for the Distortron owners, because as expected, things got very loose with high gain settings (regardless of the sub switch) and that's fine,

But if you throw a boost set to hit the Zvex input hard and clean, does it get tighter or it's still loose?
I'd love the alternative of the Distortron with plenty of gain, but tight or loose depending on what I want to hear.