MXR DD-11 Dime Distortion Review

Crank the gain, boost the lows and highs, and hit the Scoop switch for a rhythm tone that will annihilate. Dial the mids back in and mow down the competition with a lead sound that can penetrate steel.

Ease of Use:	8.3
Sound:	8
Reliability:	8
Impression:	7.7
Overall rating:	7.6
Reviewer rating:	8
Users rating:	7.2
Votes:	42

overall: 8

Reviewed by: ironbird PPS, on august 23, 2004

Purchased from: musician's friend

Ease of Use: When I first opened this thing and started tweakin it my first thought was "what a piece of s--t". But it came with a manual. And showed different types of distorion. And it showed the exact settings that dimebag uses. (That's who it was modeled after: Dimebag Darrel of Pantera.) And then I upped the gain and treble a little and I got a great sound. It was a good 80's metal distortion with sensitive screaming and harmonics. And when you mute. // 8

Sound: I play a Bc Rich Ironbirs theough Pyramid 900d amp. And with my setup it gave it a good 80's metal distortion with sensitive screaming and harmonics. And when you mute the strings you dont get a shit load of feedback, like on other high-gain applications. If you max out the bass and gain you do get feedback, but you dont need to, you get a great sound w/o doin that. Kepp in mind; this is a solid state effect but with a double-humbucker setup you will get a sound that is pretty damn close to dimebag's. // 6

Reliability & Durability: This thing is f--kin indestructable. I baked over it with my car accidentally and it was still perfect, worked fine. One thing that is really cool is the letters and knobs glow in the dark. I do alot of playin in the dark and this makes it so I dont have to turn the lights back on when I'm changin the settings. It's the best. // 10

Impression: In 2 years of playing the guitar I've been searching for something I can get screams out of without having to worry about the huge-ass ammount of feedback when I stop playing. and this does that. There are some quirks that can be easily gotten used to. Like when you are turning the bass up and you get to a little more that half-way the sound scompletely changes, kinda wierd I know. It is pretty good, if only there more sounds you could get out of it, I would sleep with it. // 8

overall: 9

Reviewed by: GodxEatxGod, on july 17, 2012

Price paid: $ 45

Ease of Use: When I got the Dime distortion pedal it was just the power supply and the pedal so when it came to getting a good tone out of it I whent online to find the manual. The first time I tried to set it it sounded like a P.O.S. but when you fiddle with it you get that signature Dimebag tone that blasts out brutal tones. // 8

Sound: I am playing through a Peavey Windsor all tube head and a Bugera Cab. The head has pretty much the basic setup with a decent British style distortion, When you plug this thing it it turns into a metal beast! I just got a Washburn Culprit Dime sig guitar that really shows the tone and playing style he had. I also have a Kramer Striker 300-ST with the Dimebucker in it and it shreds like a metal stallion. // 9

Reliability & Durability: This pedal is made out of aluminum or metal either way it seems pretty sturdy, only complaint would be that I wish the camo was actually painted on besides a full body decal. This thing could defiantly be used for gigging without a second thought. // 10

Impression: I have been playing around 3 to 4 years and I play metal to blues and this suits my metal taste just well. I am a Dime fanatic and I love that this Pedal can give you almost the same tone that he had. If it was stolen I'd probably find another one but I got this one for a steal at $45 so I am more than happy with it and is advise many to buy it and share in the great metal tone that Dime had! // 9

overall: 7

Reviewed by: laneychief, on october 19, 2006

Purchased from: www.guitartek.com

Ease of Use: When I first bought this pedal, I couldn't wait to get it plugged in, I plugged it in, put my amp through clean, and stomped. First thoughts were. 'What a rip off' The sound was rubbish, no better than my amp distortion in fact then I looked through the manual, which contained all sorts of preset adjusments and told me to put my amp distortion behind aswell for more crunch, I did that played with the settings for a while, and I finally got it sounding great, I was so glad it wasn't a rip off, it just takes time to get it sorted out to your own preference that's all. // 9

Sound: I am using this pedal through a Marshall MG100HDFX and an Epiphone Les Paul. The only time you get a horrible sound i.e. feedback, is either when everything on the pedal is turned up full, or when the amp distortion is on and everything on the amp distortion settings is on full. You can acheive Dimebag Darrel style distortion reasonably easily after you have set it up to how you want, all you have to do is depress the scoop Switch which adds much more treble to the distortion and gives it that sound that he was so famous for, of course it won't make you play like him. That would be very very hard! // 9

Reliability & Durability: Well to start with I used this pedal all the time, I loved it, I thought it was absolutly brilliant, then one day I went to plug it in and I got no lights no power no nothing. I checked to see if it was the power lead by plugging that into my Jim Dunlop crybaby. That worked fine. I then started the long process of sending it back via warranty I sent it off about 3 weeks ago and it still hasn't returned, from america which was a pricey shipping fee as I live in England. Big dissapointment. // 4

Impression: I play all styles of music, but when I'm playing metal this pedal excels, it is brilliant for that, not much else as the tone is so metal like, the distortion is brilliant for pinch harmonics, absolutly amazing. I love the scoop Switch which instantly gives Dimebag style tones. Overall this pedal was amazing, until it broke and it still hasn't been returned by the slow warranty service. // 6

Comments

[MESAexplorer]

Can you tell me the settings for this thing you use to get a pantera tone. I've owned this thing for a long time, every amp i try it with it sounds very bland, no tone, just a sharp distortion. From my experiece, this pedal sounds like you took the Kill Em' All tone and turned the bass knob back to about 70.

[permanentmarker]

how did u manage to drive over the pedal? were u doing a gig on your front drive or somethin?

[USAPeavey]

Dude your front drive way is the safest place for any pedal. Didn't you know that? lol

[Chickenfrmheck]

USAPeavey wrote:

Dude your front drive way is the safest place for any pedal. Didn't you know that? lol

lol nice

[the.spine.surfs]

Hey, that's where I keep my pedals.

Tempting...I'm looking for a good metal tone without the massive exposion of feedback all over my face. That's a pain to clean up.

[synyster.punk]

ive used it when i was out buying a pedal and on a budget, it sounds ****ing awesome, i played it with my ibanez gio thru a Crate 150 watt amp and behinger 4X12, but not sure what models, and it sounded great. i dont like marshalls, they have too much mid range so i didnt use one.

[Shredboy]

great pedal this is... I just bought one... my dean should sound awesome thru it!

[Offroadryda]

ive been comparing pedals lately and idk if i should get this pedal or for $30 more get the krank distortus maximus pedal?

[splicky]

I've just been given this pedal as a present from my father so it will be very interesting to see what it sounds like...Happy playing!

[ChrisCutler]

Hmm. This or Boss Metal Zone?

[e-mail]
help please

[nutinpwnsgibson]

dude anythings better than a metalzone. this pedal seems nice i still dont know wat metal distortion to buy

[Realturka]

I compared a MT-2 and Metal Master and that crappy metalzone pedal surely woulda bowed down to the Master.

[deanplayer18]

damn i want this pedal with the crybaby from hell to boost it ive tried it before with a dean razorback 225 with emgs 81 an 60(james hetfeild style) running threw a crate flexwave series and man was this a metal beast even tho the emgs boost the sound already without the pedal just going in threw the amp on od setting i already had a great metal sound but once i turned on the pedal wow it was just brutal even tho it had a weird phase/flanger sound to it the guy said that was a big part to his sound which makes sence i guess since dimebag did use and mxr flanger for the cowboys from hell intro but all in all a good high gain metal pedal with dimes hardcore xtreme metal sound i wanna try this also with his dean razorbacks with his signitare pickup as well ur sure to have some extreme fun geting some pantera tunes out of it

[bossboy]

hey ironbird i h8 to be a dick but Dimebags tone was solid state mostly untill hes later years

[Wyldejs30rr666]

I own that pedal and I use it everyday, bossboy's right dime used solid state for most of his career, will he was in damage plan he switch from Randall to Krank and i dont think he ever did used that pedal actually. will in damage plan he was using wylde OD, I never seen a dime dist, for those who didn't know. Awsome pedal gives me a greet tone with my marshall.

[triviumfan52]

I just bought one of these and at the moment I'm a tad dissapointed by it. I've only had say 30-40 mins fiddling around but I think the sound is pretty poor. My amp isn't the greatest but The MXR Cry Baby sounds good through it so I don't see why this shouldn't!
Can anyone enlighten me as to what settings they are using/ liking on this... Cheers.

[Wyldejs30rr666]

I like to play all that remains and trivium on my marshall i never use the scoop switch doesn't sound good to me. I mix my amp disto with the pedal.

[Sigmar123]

I bought this pedal about a year ago (online, just because it had Dime's name on it) -Just like most of you guys, I didn't like it one bit in the start. But it grows on you. The preset setting that they say Dime used, sounds really close to him. I use it alot with the scoop button up, so it sounds kinda AC/DC-ish. I rated it 7.

[brad_sadler_666]

Hey, I'm looking to metal the f*ck up
Dime is an idol of mine, is this a worthwhile pedal to get?
I'm 15 so I don't have the finance to buy another if this isn't right for me.
Thoughts?
[e-mail]
cheers, much love xx

[Betzefer]

Man I ordered this pedal yesterday without even trying it, the demo video on youtube looked so ****ing awesome and I'm a die hard dimebag fan... I wanted to try it out first but my local music store ran out of stock with it and so they told me to drive all the way to Tel Aviv (I live in Israel) where they have it in stock... so I said **** it and just ordered it off Ebay, anyway the reviews I read here made me a bit nervous about it, the moment I get my hands on it I'll work for weeks to get the perfect setting and I hope it's gonna sound as good as it should.

[Kear Bear]

how does this sound on a tube amp?

[TheShredifi]

umm, its a signature pedal. its not really supposed to be very versatile.

[adsauzier]

TheShredifi wrote:

umm, its a signature pedal. its not really supposed to be very versatile.

It actually is, when I tried it out at a Guitar Shop with a clean amp, I found a cool Punk and Classic Rock Setting. Any setting with the Scoop button is practically Dime's Tone.

[RndyW0]

Shredboy wrote:

great pedal this is... I just bought one... my dean should sound awesome thru it!

I use my Razorback through it, freakin amazing. If you're looking for a Pantera sound then hit the scoop button. If you're looking for a Pantera sound, then take off the scoop button.

Sounds brilliant playing anything else but Pantera as it is very much like Dimebag is playing in that band.

[milwaukeerocker]

we used to have pedal tournaments at the music store i worked at.....and this hunk of crap never made it outta the 1st round. we used a fender twin and an orange tiny terror. boo to this pedal.