Is MXR M80 only for heavy distortion?

[Chrisk-K]

On every M80 video I've watched, its distortion tone is very heavy. I wonder if the M80 is capable of creating mild distortion or gentle overdrive.

[rekesbass]

Yes,by reducing the gain and adjusting the blend it can be subtle. I use mine with the gain @9:00 and the blend @11-12:00(o'clock)puts just a little wool on the edges.

[metallicafan18]

I used to have one. I could get a very nice subtle growl/grind. It was a very useful pedal. I loved it.

[Grrface]

I just purchased mine yesterday, but in my playing with it, I've got a very light distortion with the blend at about 9 o'clock. Just enough to add a little bit of bite to what I'm playing without being overbearing.

[Chrisk-K]

Thanks. I'm ordering one!

[Laurent]

It is possible to blend in some light amount of disortion by either lowering the gain or by just blending in a small amount of distortion but this pedal does not do overdrive tone well. It is an aggressive sounding pedal and warmth is not its strength. The DI part of the pedal and the tone shapping control are really excellent but if you are looking for light overdrive, a Hematoma or a Pork Loin might be better options for you.

[c-ba55]

It is not overdrive, it is distortion. You can make it be a little or a lot of distortion and keep the clean tone underneath, but it is like making hot sauce with capsaicin and water. You can make it as hot or not as you want but it still won't taste like hot sauce.
I think it's a pretty useful pedal all in all, but it is what it is.

[SurferJoe46]

I kinda disagree with it not being warm. Warm as in a puppy dog - maybe not - but warm as in to add a lot of tone to a flat EQ - then YES it can in spades.

It will provide that tube-crunch and a nice roll-off if you push the GATE a little bit and so far I have not run out of interesting things it can do.

Actually, I have removed a couple of stomps from my use with the MXR 80. It can offer me a great DI, (that's usual for a pedal of this sort) - but it has three zones of activity and one of total bypass and it is very useful. Plus it has pretty lights.

I don't know what I did without it for all this time. My bad.

For overdrive, I just crank in a little DOD Super American Metal (a guitar pedal) and I'm there or I just turn up the GAIN on the amp and that works too - clipping is pretty much the same as OD to my ears.

[Mark Olson]

I used to use an MXR M-80. Great pedal! I loved that one so much more than the Sansamps. I could get more overdrive-ish tones out of it with weaker pickups. As far as being heavy goes, if your bass sounds like a bass, you're gonna start sounding pretty heavy as soon as you start to add some drive to your signal! Something we have to live with as low-enders. But heavy in the sense of "heavy metal" yes it's possible to not sound like heavy metal with this pedal, but it can be difficult because the distortion can be very grainy.