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MXR M78 Custom Badass ’78 Distortion

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12
138 Guitarist November 2011
MXR STOMPBOXES £109-£134
EFFECTS
MXR
pedals
£109-£134
by Trevor Curwen
MXR M78
Custom Badass
’78 Distortion
MXR M195
Noise Clamp
A practical way to make hiss history
A classic circuit gets hot-rodded
I
n this first of a new series of
pedals, MXR has taken a
classic distortion circuit
(although it is not saying
which!) and modified it to
produce a hot-rodded version.
Sounds
The ’78 puts out a recognisable
raunchy distortion with a solid
mid-range. The tone control
adds some sharp top end, while
the crunch button gives more of
everything, boosting dynamic
range and the distortion’s
harmonic content, effectively
giving you two voices – too bad
it’s not footswitchable.
Verdict
Responding well to playing
dynamics, this is a really good
distortion pedal with plenty to
offer, particularly if you are a
fan of late-seventies rock.
T
he Noise Clamp is
designed to reduce hiss
and excess noise in your
effects chain. You connect
your pedals (or maybe just one
that’s particularly noisy) in a
loop from the send and return
jacks and set a threshold where
your playing opens the gate,
letting the full sound through.
Sounds
Capable of up to 26dB of level
reduction, the Noise Clamp
greatly reduces extraneous
noise in playing gaps and can
keep chording and riffing well-
defined. We used it to great
effect on an extremely noisy
vintage fuzz and, since it has
two modes where the loop can
be bypassed or active when the
pedal is off, you can use it as a
switcher for the loop.
Verdict
A neat solution to a perennial
pedal problem.
The Bottom Line
We like: Classic hard
clipping distortion; two
voices; useful EQ
We dislike: Battery access
The Bottom Line
We like: 26dB of reduction;
works as a loop switcher
We dislike: Trigger level
could need careful setting to
match your playing dynamics
GUITARIST RATING
GUITARIST RATING
M78 Custom Badass
’78 Distortion
PRICE: £109
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Distortion pedal
FEATURES: True hard-wire bypass
CONTROLS: Output, tone,
distortion, crunch
CONNECTIONS: Input, output
POWER: 9V DC from adaptor or
battery (included)
DIMENSIONS: 70 (w) x 121 (d)
x 32.5mm (h)
M195 Noise Clamp
PRICE: £119
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Noise gate pedal
FEATURES: Buffered bypass, two
internally switched bypass modes
CONTROLS: Trigger
CONNECTIONS: Input, output,
send, return
POWER: 9V DC from adaptor or
battery (included)
DIMENSIONS: 70 (w) x 121 (d)
x 32.5mm (h)
GIT348.rev_mxr.indd 138 10/7/11 11:48:48 AM

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