Gone_Shootin
New member
I'm sure some, if not all of these pedals have been reviewed on here, but here's a rundown I wrote awhile back of the pedals I own. Hope it helps somebody.
These are my opinions based on my experiences with these pedals.
MXR Wylde Overdrive: It's a great pedal for pushing the front end of amps or other dirt boxes. With amps it brings out a bit more of a bluesy/harmonic bite in the tone and in front of certain pedals it can bring out a really convincing tube amp like growl. But if you're looking for high gain distortion, look elsewhere. This is a fairly low gain pedal that lets a certain amount of clean signal through at the same time, or at least to my ears. For certain low gain tones, it does work well, but again, there are better pedals for that role too. So for me, I use both my Wylde Overdives strictly for pushing the front end of stuff with. The one pictured here stays at home for screwing around with and the other stays up where my band practices with my live rig.
Fulltone OCD Version 4: This is a great pedal. It has a very convincing tube amp like tone on it's own. It's very touch sensitive for a pedal, and when pushed with the a Wylde Overdrive, it really growls. Alot of people like to use the OCD to push the front end of amps, which the OCD works well for since it has up to 30db of volume available, but for me it doesn't add the extra snarl that the Wylde adds, so I don't use the OCD in this role. IIRC, the HP/LP switch switches, between a couple filter caps and gain levels. the LP side is more scooped out like an American flavored amp and has less gain, whereas the HP side has more gain and has more of a British flavor.
Radial Tonebone Plexitube: It's a pedal that I kinda like and hate. I kinda like it because it is capable of some good tones, and it responds well to being pushed by the Wylde on certain settings. But I hate it for 4 reasons.
1: The controls are very touchy. Granted the pots are fairly stiff, so it's harder to mistakenly bump a knob and change a setting (which I do like), but the pedal is very sensitive to setting changes.
2: It's finicky about what amps you use it in front of. If your amp isn't clean enough, you end up with a highly annoying tone that....wow, it just sucks.
3: The gain isn't entirely useable. Sure it's capable of high gain, but too much past noon and it gets waaaaaay too fizzy. I can tolerate a little fizz, but this thing is capable of what you'd expect out of a can of Coke that's been in a paint shaker for 10 minutes.
4: Like many users, I've noticed that even when you find a decent tone, it still isn't quite "there". So every time I use it, I spend alot more time messing with the controls that I do actually playing.
Zvex Box Of Rock: This pedal sounds alot like the OCD in HP mode. Very Marshally. But there are a couple differences. One is that it has an on board clean boost after the distortion side, and it is exactly that, a nice clean boost. The other is that it only seems to like being in front of British flavored amps. But it is still a great pedal, maybe not as good as the OCD, but still good. But like the OCD, it also sounds great when pushed by the Wylde.
MXR Fullbore Metal: An awesome pedal if you are after peel the paint off the walls modern tone. Some say that it's a Mesa Rectifier in a box, but I disagree since I do own a Triple Rec and while the Fullbore is very modern sounding, it isn't quite the same. But I didn't buy this pedal to sound like my Triple Rec anyway. It sounds good in front of any of my amps, but it's not a pedal that you can set and forget. Because when I decide, for instance, decide to use in front of my Blues Jr after having used in front of one of my Marshalls, I have to mess around with the settings on the pedal to get it to sound right. But once I have it dialed in, I don't mess with it. The Fullbore is the pedal that made me realize that my old Boss Metal Zone sounded like crap, which led me to get rid of the Metal Zone. The Fullbore is what the Metal Zone should've been.
MXR Prime Distortion (not pictured): It sounded great when I tried it out at Guitar Center, but when I got it home it sounded lousy in front of my stuff. It's distortion just wasn't all that great. It did do a decent job of pushing the front end of amps & pedals, but I didn't like it as well for that purpose as well as some of my other pedals, so ended up taking it back.
These are my opinions based on my experiences with these pedals.
MXR Wylde Overdrive: It's a great pedal for pushing the front end of amps or other dirt boxes. With amps it brings out a bit more of a bluesy/harmonic bite in the tone and in front of certain pedals it can bring out a really convincing tube amp like growl. But if you're looking for high gain distortion, look elsewhere. This is a fairly low gain pedal that lets a certain amount of clean signal through at the same time, or at least to my ears. For certain low gain tones, it does work well, but again, there are better pedals for that role too. So for me, I use both my Wylde Overdives strictly for pushing the front end of stuff with. The one pictured here stays at home for screwing around with and the other stays up where my band practices with my live rig.
Fulltone OCD Version 4: This is a great pedal. It has a very convincing tube amp like tone on it's own. It's very touch sensitive for a pedal, and when pushed with the a Wylde Overdrive, it really growls. Alot of people like to use the OCD to push the front end of amps, which the OCD works well for since it has up to 30db of volume available, but for me it doesn't add the extra snarl that the Wylde adds, so I don't use the OCD in this role. IIRC, the HP/LP switch switches, between a couple filter caps and gain levels. the LP side is more scooped out like an American flavored amp and has less gain, whereas the HP side has more gain and has more of a British flavor.
Radial Tonebone Plexitube: It's a pedal that I kinda like and hate. I kinda like it because it is capable of some good tones, and it responds well to being pushed by the Wylde on certain settings. But I hate it for 4 reasons.
1: The controls are very touchy. Granted the pots are fairly stiff, so it's harder to mistakenly bump a knob and change a setting (which I do like), but the pedal is very sensitive to setting changes.
2: It's finicky about what amps you use it in front of. If your amp isn't clean enough, you end up with a highly annoying tone that....wow, it just sucks.
3: The gain isn't entirely useable. Sure it's capable of high gain, but too much past noon and it gets waaaaaay too fizzy. I can tolerate a little fizz, but this thing is capable of what you'd expect out of a can of Coke that's been in a paint shaker for 10 minutes.
4: Like many users, I've noticed that even when you find a decent tone, it still isn't quite "there". So every time I use it, I spend alot more time messing with the controls that I do actually playing.
Zvex Box Of Rock: This pedal sounds alot like the OCD in HP mode. Very Marshally. But there are a couple differences. One is that it has an on board clean boost after the distortion side, and it is exactly that, a nice clean boost. The other is that it only seems to like being in front of British flavored amps. But it is still a great pedal, maybe not as good as the OCD, but still good. But like the OCD, it also sounds great when pushed by the Wylde.
MXR Fullbore Metal: An awesome pedal if you are after peel the paint off the walls modern tone. Some say that it's a Mesa Rectifier in a box, but I disagree since I do own a Triple Rec and while the Fullbore is very modern sounding, it isn't quite the same. But I didn't buy this pedal to sound like my Triple Rec anyway. It sounds good in front of any of my amps, but it's not a pedal that you can set and forget. Because when I decide, for instance, decide to use in front of my Blues Jr after having used in front of one of my Marshalls, I have to mess around with the settings on the pedal to get it to sound right. But once I have it dialed in, I don't mess with it. The Fullbore is the pedal that made me realize that my old Boss Metal Zone sounded like crap, which led me to get rid of the Metal Zone. The Fullbore is what the Metal Zone should've been.
MXR Prime Distortion (not pictured): It sounded great when I tried it out at Guitar Center, but when I got it home it sounded lousy in front of my stuff. It's distortion just wasn't all that great. It did do a decent job of pushing the front end of amps & pedals, but I didn't like it as well for that purpose as well as some of my other pedals, so ended up taking it back.
