so when Mike decided to re-create it, and it sounded better than i expected (i really dislike all the MXR distortions i've heard), i put my order in and enquired about possibly buying the prototype. and he managed to get it shipped to me in time for a recording session last weekend.. thanks again Mike!
anyway, this is the prototype Dist2 going into a Cool Cat Drive: with typically shoddy playing. Squier 25.5" Jagmaster with Fender Wide-Range Humbuckers, Peavey Delta Blues 115 (EQ set neutral). Tone is in the toes.
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oh, and the TBone RB100 ribbon mic, at £60 (blemish) is fucking stellar - just stick it in front of the amp and you're done. no fucking about.
My review:
It's a great distortion on its own, the drive has good note-articulation and frequency range. the gain does muddy up at lower settings.. but setting it anywhere between noon and cranked covers a lot of ground anyway. with the gain cranked, the guitars volume knob works really well to lower gain without losing a load of treble.
The 'Filter' knob is kind of like a Rat in reverse. at zero setting the filter is wide open, turn it up and the highs go away, but the lows and mids stay in tact. so pretty much a low pass filter i guess?
The 'Resonance' control adds a parallel drive circuit which has some serious girthy low end and low mids. from zero, it starts adding a tight low end EQ which doesn't need much to make it sound phat as hell. this is obviously where using it to boost other drive pedals works very well indeed.. you can send other pedal beserk. TS-9 sounded like it was exploding, and a DOD Bass Grunge started making splutterly nintendo-fuzz sounds like you hear in a lot of Devi's stuff.
Plenty of volume too. true bypass, small box, 9v, versatile distortion/booster = no brainer. buy one.
