Riot Review

This is a distortion pedal and the controls are pretty basic: Volume, Tone and Distortion and also a 3 way voice switch. It's extremely easy to get a good sound out of this pedal and it was designed to use on the clean channel of an amp. This is the best distortion pedal I have tried in my 24 years of playing metal and I have tried ALOT of them.

Ease of Use:	10
Sound:	9.5
Reliability:	10
Impression:	9.5
Overall rating:	9
Reviewer rating:	9.8
Users rating:	8.3
Votes:	6

overall: 9.5

Reviewed by: Trassi, on july 27, 2011

Price paid: $ 200

Purchased from: Ebay

Ease of Use: Now this is my first review on Ultimate Guitar and what a product to start with I must say. This is a distortion pedal and the controls are pretty basic: Volume, Tone and Distortion and also a 3 way voice switch. It's extremely easy to get a good sound out of this pedal and it was designed to use on the clean channel of an amp. With the Drive at 5 o clock it sounds really similar to my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Drive sound and at 12 it sounds really similar to a Marshall JCM 800. This is the only distortion pedal I have tried that sound just like an amp. The manual for this is short but then again you really don't need it since it´s impossible to go wrong with this pedal. // 10

Sound: I have tried this with my Hamer Chaparral Elite (with sustainiac), a 1996 Gibson Les Paul Studio, also a 7 string Schecter Hellraiser and a PRS SE Custom 22 through a Peavey Classic 50 and a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier and it sounds amasing with all of them. I also have a TS 9, MXR Black Label Chorus, MXR Micro Flanger, Boss Noise Suppressor, Boss RV 3 Digital Delay/Reverb and a Line 6 M5 in my chain and the Riot sound great with all of them. With the TS 9 it sounds incredible (with the volume of TS 9 at 5 o clock and Drive a zero) and you can get any sound you want with this combination. It can get a bit noisy so the noise suppressor is a must. This is the best distortion pedal I have tried in my 24 years of playing metal and I have tried ALOT of them. It handles anything from Guns N' Roses to Lamb Of God (and heavier then that with the TS 9). // 9

Reliability & Durability: I am already gigging with it with all 3 of my bands and it's as reliable as a pedal can get. The buttons are plastic but the rest of it is all metal. This pedal will probably outlast me since I doubt tanks are as well built as this and I will not need a backup (couldn't afford more anyway). // 10

Impression: I play in 3 metal bands. 1 old school death metal, 1 thrash metal and 1 Metallica tribute band and it fits all those styles. I have been playing for 24 years and have alot of gear. Some of it I have mentioned but I also have a Schecter C-7 Blackjack, Vox cooltron valve tremolo, BOSS DS-1 (just got a Keeley mod for it) Boss Stage tuner, Vox Valvetronix 50 watt and a Line 6 Pocket POD espress. If it got stolen I would cry like a baby and beg my wife to let me buy a new one. I love everything about it. The voice Switch is a really cool feature and my favorite sound is the midddle setting. I did ALOT of research before buying this and tried or listened to every high end metal pedal out there. This one sounded most natural so I bought it and will never regret it. It's perfect for me. // 9

overall: 10

Reviewed by: TeleMA50C, on february 09, 2012

Price paid: $ 160

Purchased from: eBay

Ease of Use: This pedal has Distortion, Tone, and Level knobs as well as a 3-way switch for different midrange voicings. It's very easy to get a good sound, and with a little tweaking from there you get a great sound. This pedal has some system for turning it on and off remotely, but I haven't messed with that (I use a Rocktron switching system so I don't need the pedal to do it). // 10

Sound: I put this between my American Standard Tele and '74 Twin Reverb, set the knobs to noon (mid voicing switch to middle) and instantly was transported to Van Halen land. This thing seriously rips. It does the Marshall-in-a-box thing well, but in a way that is very adjustable and is the size of an MXR pedal. It's got a ton of gain on tap, so you get a wide range of possible sounds, and the tone control is very good for going from a lot of bite to a mellower sound. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This is an extremely well built pedal. I don't see it breaking any time soon. The housing is really strong (and looks great!), the switch well made, the LED VERY bright, and the knobs high quality. It's just a wonderful pedal that is built to be as durable as it is great-sounding. // 10

Impression: I do lots of Rock, prog, blues, jazz (not really applicable here but still), and this pedal does well in all of them but really excels at hard riffing, soaring leads, and anything else needing the brown sound or a similar killer rock tone. I have a large selection of drives and distortions that all serve their purpose in different scenarios, but this one could probably be used in all those situations successfully. It's like a more amp-like RAT the way I have both of those set up, and while the RAT would be superior for EJ emulation, the Riot takes the cake for EVH, Zeppelin, all 80s hair, and most other things played through a cranked Marshall. // 10

Comments

[mcarter@acp-inc]

I own the Riot also and love it ! I have also owned several other top rated distortion pedals and this is my favorite. I concur with this review

[stratomaster123]

My friend has this pedal and it's disgusting how clean it can get if you roll down the volume on the guitar. I didn't even know that he had the thing on!

[Cold Reader]

Will be getting this to do my new Shecter justice

[Andragon]

So you have a Dual Rec and you don't think it's enough for Death/Thrash metal?! Damn. Good review though.

[Trassi]

Well actually I do use the Dual Rectifier drive but sometimes when we play festivals we cant use our own equipment and that´s when the Riot comes in handy and also I use it at home with my Peavey classic 50 cause it doesn´t have enough drive for metal.