Price paid: $ 120
Purchased from: Musicians Friend
Ease of Use: First off, I would like to say this is not a pedal for beginner guitarists, at all, you have to have some serious experience to use this pedal, and it can make your solid state 15 watt sound like a screaming Marshall tube stack. The manual gives a few sample settings, but that was the last thing I was looking for. The settings tell you how to use this as a gain boost for your ap, how to use it as a primary Overdrive pedal, and how to use it as a volume boost. Pretty much this pedal is very, very easy to use, with some knoledge and experience with playing the guitar. // 6
Sound: I run an Epiphone Gothic Flying V with EMGs into the Maxon, and a Boss Noise Suppressor, to a Marshall MGHDFX100 Head and MG412 Cab, and I have no desire to go buy anything else. If you use the pedal the way I do, it can get quite noisy at high volumes because I use this pedal as a volume/gain boost, thus I purchased a Boss Noise Suppressor, and now I have the exact tone I have been searching for. I can probably achive the tone of my favorite artists, like Matt Heafy of Trivium, or Kerry King of Slayer, but I'm really into my own tone so I haven't bothered to try. // 10
Reliability & Durability: This is my most dependable piece of equiptment, it is run with an AC adaptor, and it is always turned on, so I'm not really stomping on it excessivly. I would totally bring this to a gig without a backup, because it is so reliable night in and night out. // 10
Impression: I play heavy metal, and if I inspire any heavy metal players to go buy one of these, I hope you dont expect to hear balls to the walls gain. You have to do alot of messing and playing with this pedal to get the tone you want to achive. This pedal really adds chunk to your palm mutes when used with your amps natural distortion, and it makes everything more clear, which is very important. I have been playing religiously for 4-5 years now, and I own this Maxon, a pair of Epiphone Flying V's, an Ovation Acoustic, a Dunlop Crybaby, a DigiTech Multi-Chorus, a Boss Noise Suppressor, and a Boss Metal Zone, that now sits in its box in the top of my closet. There isn't one thing that I wish I had asked prior to buying this pedal except maybe "Can you knock off about 10 bucks?" I went down to the local music store and checked this pedal and the Ibanez TS808, and pretty much they were similar, except the Maxon was a little less harsh on the midrange and had more tonal control. If this were stolen, I wouldnt have to buy a new one, because I would hunt down the SOB that stole it, beat his you know what, and take my Maxon back. // 10
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