stock MXR pedals any good?

[sandman]

My dad just told he found a cool guitar store with bunch of
MXR pedals.It's really hard to find any pedals other than Boss in
my country(ex-Yugoslavia) so I may consider some of these MXR boxes.

my current pedals:Boss TU2,DD-3,CS-3,OD-2,CE-3(borrowed),Crybaby Classic,VS J&Hyde(arriving in two days)

I play 1979 strat and a cheap P90 Squier tele.

How do MXRs compare to EH or Boss pedals in same price range?

Did you like any particular of the MXR pedals?


MXR M-103 BLUE BOX seems attractive.....

or anything fuzzy sounding

thanx

[zoooombiex]

i actually like the phase 90 stock, although many seem to like to do the r-28 script mod. also, if they have any old mxr pedals, the envelope filter sounds great.

[John Phillips]

They're OK, although not quite as well-built as the old original ones and arguably not as well-designed as the Boss ones in some ways.

They're neither 'true' bypass nor buffered, but simply mechanically switched on the output side. The old ones were too, but since the switch wasn't mounted on the PCB you could easily replace it with a better switch if 'true' bypass is required... which is quite difficult with the new ones.

It can matter - some, eg the Phase 90, are 'tone sucking' (noticeable loss of treble when bypassed) and some, eg the Blue Box, leak the effect signal slightly into the bypass (annoying). Neither problem occurs if you run a buffered pedal (eg any Boss) in front though.

They do have a nice 'organic' tone - not quite as good as the originals but in general nicer than the modern Boss pedals IMO. The Blue Box in particular is like nothing else out there - I had a reissue recently and liked the sound enough that I'll probably look for an original one.

EH are even further in the same direction - worse build quality (and in some cases sound quality in terms of noise etc) but most of them do very cool and trippy sounds, a bit more extreme than the MXRs mostly.

[zoooombiex]

Originally posted by John Phillips
They're neither 'true' bypass nor buffered, but simply mechanically switched on the output side. The old ones were too, but since the switch wasn't mounted on the PCB you could easily replace it with a better switch if 'true' bypass is required... which is quite difficult with the new ones.

very true ... i have both pedals in true bypass loops to avoid this.

I've used a lot of the more recent mxr stuff. On the plus side, they're generally reliable, small, and do some cool stuff. The phase 90, blue box, micro amp, all do some cool stuff. The EH stuff sounds awesome, but I'm a little worried about reliability.

[sandman]

Originally posted by John Phillips

It can matter - some, eg the Phase 90, are 'tone sucking' (noticeable loss of treble when bypassed) and some, eg the Blue Box, leak the effect signal slightly into the bypass (annoying). Neither problem occurs if you run a buffered pedal (eg any Boss) in front though.

so I can get away using them without a looper if i put some of my Bosses in front - which i certainly will

thanks

[g3rmanium]

Originally posted by sandman
MXR M-103 BLUE BOX seems attractive.....

I had one of these. It sounded extremely dark, nothing like the sample on their website. They also don't sound like the vintage ones.

[cvansickle]

I like my EVH Phase 90. It's not true bypass. This past weekend, I did some experimenting and A/Bing with a bypass switcher. I can detect definite tone suck without the bypass box.

There's no room on my pedalboard for the bypass box, unfortunately. Today, I'm sending the EVH to Effects Doctor for a true bypass mod. I think it's worth it.

[marcusprice]

well, if he's only got a choice between boss and mxr... its tough, cant always been too picky. how about ebay?

the dyna comp is solid i think...not an effect though.