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MXR M-80 distortion settings...
- Thread starter King Weapon
- Start date
I have one of these pedals too but I hardly use the distortion. When I do I just max the gain and the blend and play with the volume.
I set the gain at about 12:30 and the balance at 10:00. I leave the color on all the time as it's on when the distortion us in use anyway. Great little box
Preamp is set as follows:
Bass: 12 o'clock
Mid: 12 o'clock
Treble: 1-2 o'clock
Clean volume is at 12 o'clock
Distortions is set as follows:
Volume: 12 o'clock
Blend: all the way
Trigger: all the way
Gain: 12 o'clock
The color is always on.
I get a nice crunchy sustain-y sound out of this for my distortion tone.
For my clean tone the preamp is all ways on and i get a nice custom tone out of it.
Bass: 12 o'clock
Mid: 12 o'clock
Treble: 1-2 o'clock
Clean volume is at 12 o'clock
Distortions is set as follows:
Volume: 12 o'clock
Blend: all the way
Trigger: all the way
Gain: 12 o'clock
The color is always on.
I get a nice crunchy sustain-y sound out of this for my distortion tone.
For my clean tone the preamp is all ways on and i get a nice custom tone out of it.
How many people actually use the distortion channel on the M-80? I like the EQ and DI but am still playing with the distortion channel. I've read quite a few reviews where people say they don't like the distortion.
I've had the M-80 for a few weeks now. I have come to find that with the gain CCW all the way and the blend at 9 o'clock, it gives a nice grit tone that is not too distorted of fuzzy. The blend may be turned up to 10 o'clock for a little more bite without being over the top. More aggressive than those settings, I don't like the tone.
2 days ago, I bought a Bad Monkey, as it got mostly good reviews and I was looking for more of an overdrive sound on the cheap. I am very let down, and it will be returned. It sounds like total a$$ without the M80 on. It gets better with the M80 preamp kicked in, but the lows drop off. When you compensate with the low dial on the BM, it does bring up the bottom, but not in a good way. It makes the tone sound fake if that makes any sense. You could bring up the lows on the M80 to compensate instead, but when you kick off the BM, too many lows are present. You can keep tweeking back and forth to make it work, but I've concluded the BM is a big time tone sucker with a crappy EQ. The OD on it is nothing to brag about either in my application (light - not too heavy). The M80 can exactly duplicate the light drive of the BM with a killer EQ on board. I also leave the color on all the time.
Back to the M80...I've concluded it's got what I need. I no longer gas for the Sansamp, and have stopped looking for an overdrive pedal.
2 days ago, I bought a Bad Monkey, as it got mostly good reviews and I was looking for more of an overdrive sound on the cheap. I am very let down, and it will be returned. It sounds like total a$$ without the M80 on. It gets better with the M80 preamp kicked in, but the lows drop off. When you compensate with the low dial on the BM, it does bring up the bottom, but not in a good way. It makes the tone sound fake if that makes any sense. You could bring up the lows on the M80 to compensate instead, but when you kick off the BM, too many lows are present. You can keep tweeking back and forth to make it work, but I've concluded the BM is a big time tone sucker with a crappy EQ. The OD on it is nothing to brag about either in my application (light - not too heavy). The M80 can exactly duplicate the light drive of the BM with a killer EQ on board. I also leave the color on all the time.
Back to the M80...I've concluded it's got what I need. I no longer gas for the Sansamp, and have stopped looking for an overdrive pedal.
xring said:
+1
Personally, I'm not a distortion fan, but I've found very usable overdrive tones with the distortion channel on the MXR M-80. Played solo, the OD seems ho-hum, but in the mix it really comes alive. So....yes, I do use the distortion channel on the M-80 for OD and clean boost.
I recently had my own personal shootout between the Sansamp BDDI and MXR M-80. I posted most of my thoughts on this shootout in this thread.
phillm47 said:
You shootout made very interesting reading, thanks.
Since my last post Ive had a chance to use the M-80 with the band and youre right, the distortion sits in the mix very nicely.
I love my M-80, I change the distortion a lot, I am actually looking at buying a Peavey XXX stack if I do, I will run the parralel out from the M-80 into the XXX then I will lower the bass on the XXX and then blend the two amps together, or I may use the cross over in my Peavey head and cross over to the XXX but I think I would rather run the parallel from the MXR, this should give me good distortionand a bad back
Got a bunch of settings for different tones and songs. here's my preferred setting:
All in o'clocks
EQ: bass: 1, mid: 12, treble: 1
Distortion: blend: 12, gain: between 1-3
gives me that sorta nikki sixx thump groove bass tone with lil grit to it.
I searched online for a twiggy ramirez setting and when i tried the one suggested in the manual for mxr m80, it didn't sound right so here's my version:
Everything stays the same as above only the blend (2) and gain (3) change. Boost the mids and highs just a tad on the amplifier eq and leave the bass at noon, and there's a good twiggy sound. Oh p.s. must have a thunderbird or humbucker bass. Preferably passive.
All in o'clocks
EQ: bass: 1, mid: 12, treble: 1
Distortion: blend: 12, gain: between 1-3
gives me that sorta nikki sixx thump groove bass tone with lil grit to it.
I searched online for a twiggy ramirez setting and when i tried the one suggested in the manual for mxr m80, it didn't sound right so here's my version:
Everything stays the same as above only the blend (2) and gain (3) change. Boost the mids and highs just a tad on the amplifier eq and leave the bass at noon, and there's a good twiggy sound. Oh p.s. must have a thunderbird or humbucker bass. Preferably passive.
i used to use mine more as an over drive. i would set the preamp pretty much flat and the clean volume at noon as well. the drive knob would be all the way down, but blend all the way up. and i would just adjust volume to desired level. it sounded pretty good to me. i just dont need the preamp and all of the extra functions from it. i felt like i would have rather had the distortion by it's self.
When I first got it (as a gift), I didn't like it that much. Added a little extra to my passive bass, but I NEVER liked the distortion circuit. And then one day, I just liked it. Weirdest thing ever, I can't really explain it. It is in the top three of my distortions/drives, with the Hartke Bass Attack and black big muff in there too.
I have a quick question about the distortion on the M80.
With the blend set low, say at 9:00 you still get a scoop from the 'color' button. As you rotate the blend further to about 12:00 you seem to get more mids as the distortion starts to take over from the clean tone. Pushing the blend further, past 2:00 for example, you get a very middy tone which needs bass EQ added to beef it up a little.
Does adding more blend act to make the EQ flatter and maybe even boost mids or is that just an illusion ?
With the blend set low, say at 9:00 you still get a scoop from the 'color' button. As you rotate the blend further to about 12:00 you seem to get more mids as the distortion starts to take over from the clean tone. Pushing the blend further, past 2:00 for example, you get a very middy tone which needs bass EQ added to beef it up a little.
Does adding more blend act to make the EQ flatter and maybe even boost mids or is that just an illusion ?
Hmm, I never noticed myself but i will try this theory later and get back to you.
