MXR 75 Super Badass Distortion

I have a fairly large collection of distortion pedals and this is at the top of my list of versatile units.

This can go from a slightly overdriven sound to a very high gain distortion and for the extreme metal heads you can scoop the mids very nicely.

The unit itself is very compact, much smaller than most of my pedals and very very light.

With everything at 12 o'clock you get a really nice smooth distortion sound, a classic heavy overdriven distortion. Based on the range of tones this unit can achieve, I would struggle to justify the costs of some boutique pedals which sound nowhere near as good. The tone controls on this pedal are killer!

I have very few, if any, negative things to say about this pedal. For an all round (and it really is all round) pedal to delivery a very wide range of tones, for the price it is very good.

Highly recommended.

MXR are making different distortion, all of them are great, but the most of them are specialized. This one is only distortion (no overdrive, no fuzz etc) and it is customizable for different types of music, from classic rock to heavy metal (ok, no death, trash, sludge etc, buy Boss Metal Core for it or MXR Fullbore Metal). Try to play some ZZ Top song, it sound teriffic, but if you want to play anything else it fits perfectly. It sounds dirty, so I'm not sure if you want to perform good rocking boys.

Pros:
Customizable
Strong and loud (if you want)
Strong box
Nice design
Color your tone as you want

Cons:
Not for extreme metal and pretty pop-rock

Tested on:
Gibson Les Paul
Fender Stratocaster
Marshal DSL40CR
Marshal MG10

The good stuff- all round pedal does it all, really does, from push clean to metal and all in between

Is Built better than any other mass produced pedal i have ever seen (EHX, Boss, DOD, Digitech, Tc Electronic, MXR,) i have only ever come across boutique pedals built to this quality before

powerful eq, very powerful, huge array of gain setting

now the negative, which is only really one, its good at everything but not great at anything, if you want an all round amp in a box pedal that is really well built does not cost the earth and can do all sorts well, its a great buy , but if you have specific ideas about your sound you may be better off looking at more specialized options

But you probably cant go wrong with this pedal in fair ness, its not ever going to be a bad choice, just maybe not the best one for niche sounds

I play the pedal through an Orange Ad30 and 1960A Marshall cabinet. I use this pedal for heavy stoner rock, psycadelic, hard rock and atmospheric sounds.
Mainly used for soloing or to do thick walls of sound with octave pedal.

Straight forward DS pedal versatile enough for hard and heavy rock, metal. Has this great feature that helps you out with the tone. This really can save your day on a tight situation if you need a responsive tool to enhance treble, mids or bass.

Pros:
Independent bass, mid and treble control
Punchy distortion

Cons:
Not quite fit for smooth sounds.

I find a good use for it in solos and when I need to pearce trought bass. Good when combining with my amp gain stage.

Been looking for a good 'heavy distortion' pedal for a while and its really hard to find the right one from watching videos and trying them out in stores with equipment different from your own. Thankfully with the MXR Badass I think I made the right choice.

The distortion knob alone lets you choose whether you want a light overdrive sound to an all-out heavy rock (not quite metal) sound. Definitely seems better than my old cheap MG30 Marshall amp which I could never get a strong sound out when switched to dirty mode.

It's also built really well and solid as an ox