Thoughts on the MXR M85 Bass Distortion?

[Ethanol]

I've been thinking about getting one, but there's no way for me to try it before buying, so I wanted to see what the general verdict on it is here. On paper it sounds like the perfect bass dirt pedal: you have both the Rat and the Turbo Rat in one pedal, with a clean blend. No need to use two amps or a blender pedal anymore. It sounds great in concept but for some reason there isn't much information about it out there. I couldn't find very many reviews for it, I rarely ever see people have it on their boards, and not many bassists in big-name bands use it. The only ones I could find are Les Claypool and Rex Brown, but the pedal's obviously not old enough to have been on any Primus or Pantera albums, so I'm not sure what type of sound they use it for. Is this pedal an underrated hidden gem, or is there a reason people don't talk about it as much as other pedals in the same series like the bass compressor and envelope filter?

My main goal is to use it for Tool tone: Justin Chancellor uses a Turbo Rat for distortion in his bi-amped rig, but I don't have the money or the space to run a clean and dirty amp together. So I'm mostly going to leave it on LED mode. Right now I'm using a Boss ODB-3, which gets the job done well enough I guess but I've been looking for something better. It has LED clipping so it kind of sounds like the Turbo Rat, but it's not very usable. I leave the gain all the way off and the blend at only 5-10% because any higher than that is too much distortion. Also its EQ sucks, I have to keep the treble low or else it's all hiss, but when I do that I lose my tone because it has no mid knob. I'm hoping that the M85 would solve all these issues by having a more versatile tone knob, separate clean and dirty volume controls, and a more usable gain range. But I couldn't find a good demo video of someone fiddling with knobs and demonstrating how it sounds in a metal context.

There's also the question of the M80 pedal, which seems like it would be an upgrade because it's a preamp. But it looks to me like a huge downgrade. Even though it adds a noise gate, you lose the tone knob and the silicon/LED switch so it has a lot less possibilities. I'm assuming that it's just based on the regular Rat? Or does it have no relation to the M85 and is a completely different distortion circuit altogether? Since I'm specifically looking for the Turbo Rat tone, the DI+ probably isn't the option for me, I was just curious because I couldn't find an answer

 

[Hypocrite]

I've been thinking about getting one, but there's no way for me to try it before buying, so I wanted to see what the general verdict on it is here. On paper it sounds like the perfect bass dirt pedal: you have both the Rat and the Turbo Rat in one pedal, with a clean blend. No need to use two amps or a blender pedal anymore. It sounds great in concept but for some reason there isn't much information about it out there. I couldn't find very many reviews for it, I rarely ever see people have it on their boards, and not many bassists in big-name bands use it. The only ones I could find are Les Claypool and Rex Brown, but the pedal's obviously not old enough to have been on any Primus or Pantera albums, so I'm not sure what type of sound they use it for. Is this pedal an underrated hidden gem, or is there a reason people don't talk about it as much as other pedals in the same series like the bass compressor and envelope filter?

My main goal is to use it for Tool tone: Justin Chancellor uses a Turbo Rat for distortion in his bi-amped rig, but I don't have the money or the space to run a clean and dirty amp together. So I'm mostly going to leave it on LED mode. Right now I'm using a Boss ODB-3, which gets the job done well enough I guess but I've been looking for something better. It has LED clipping so it kind of sounds like the Turbo Rat, but it's not very usable. I leave the gain all the way off and the blend at only 5-10% because any higher than that is too much distortion. Also its EQ sucks, I have to keep the treble low or else it's all hiss, but when I do that I lose my tone because it has no mid knob. I'm hoping that the M85 would solve all these issues by having a more versatile tone knob, separate clean and dirty volume controls, and a more usable gain range. But I couldn't find a good demo video of someone fiddling with knobs and demonstrating how it sounds in a metal context.

There's also the question of the M80 pedal, which seems like it would be an upgrade because it's a preamp. But it looks to me like a huge downgrade. Even though it adds a noise gate, you lose the tone knob and the silicon/LED switch so it has a lot less possibilities. I'm assuming that it's just based on the regular Rat? Or does it have no relation to the M85 and is a completely different distortion circuit altogether? Since I'm specifically looking for the Turbo Rat tone, the DI+ probably isn't the option for me, I was just curious because I couldn't find an answer

First off, the M80 pre-dates the M85 by at least ten years, probably more. It works great as a clean preamp, and while the distortion is pretty harsh on its own, it works well in a band mix. The three-band EQ is very musical, you definitely won't miss a toneknob. The gate works well too, just don't expect it to work on anything in your chain before the M80, I could only get it to work on the drive from the M80. All in all, its a damned good pedal, often overlooked because of the Sansamp.

Regarding the M85, the less said the better. I could never get it to sound right. The independent volume knobs are, IMO, way worse than a single blend knob and really contributed to the "distortion on top of clean sound" in stead of the two sounds melding in to a single, usable signal. Also, it was far too dark for my liking. I'm well aware of the pedigree of MXR and Ryan Ratajski, but the M85 is one of the worst dirt pedals I've ever had. Honestly, your money would be better spent on a cheapo Joyo Splinter.
IMHO, YMMV, my 0.02 cents etc. etc.

 

[HelpImaRock]

I like the M85 in theory.

The controls are fine. Keep the clean blend off, set the other controls to taste, and then bring back in the clean signal. I prefer Turbo mode to standard. At low gain levels it probably achieves your goals.

I don't like the reverse travel on the tone knob, but that's also because I like how the standard RAT filter works the opposite direction. At higher gain levels, I found it squelchy, like other bad RAT clones. It also didn't have enough gain to keep up with the pickup in my Reverend Watt, which is 16k. It works better with my Squier Mustang.

I still have it, but I'm not sure for how much longer.

 

[theunknowndude]

I had the above issues as well… on paper it looks awesome and demos sounded great. It just didn’t play well with my active bass as much as I thought… standard mode was too compressed and led mode was too squelchy. It played ok at low gain but I bought it cos I wanted high gain distortion like I used my Proco turbo rat but was just hoping to get back some low end…

not quite the same but I ended up using my mbd1 as my distortion/ grind pedal and sold off the m85

 

[Ethanol]

First off, the M80 pre-dates the M85 by at least ten years, probably more. It works great as a clean preamp, and while the distortion is pretty harsh on its own, it works well in a band mix. The three-band EQ is very musical, you definitely won't miss a toneknob. The gate works well too, just don't expect it to work on anything in your chain before the M80, I could only get it to work on the drive from the M80. All in all, its a damned good pedal, often overlooked because of the Sansamp.

Regarding the M85, the less said the better. I could never get it to sound right. The independent volume knobs are, IMO, way worse than a single blend knob and really contributed to the "distortion on top of clean sound" in stead of the two sounds melding in to a single, usable signal. Also, it was far too dark for my liking. I'm well aware of the pedigree of MXR and Ryan Ratajski, but the M85 is one of the worst dirt pedals I've ever had. Honestly, your money would be better spent on a cheapo Joyo Splinter.
IMHO, YMMV, my 0.02 cents etc. etc.

Thanks for the response. Yeah from doing more research, it sounds like a lot of people don't really like it. I saw one person say the clean and dirty signals were out of phase with each other so he had to use a blender pedal with it. Which seems redundant to me when you can get a real Rat for way cheaper than the clone. The only upside of the M85 is that it has its own blend, if you can't use it then it defeats the whole point. I think I'm just going to find a turbo rat and use a blender.

The M80 DI pedal sounds promising though, after going and listening to some demos of it. I have a sansamp bass driver and a darkglass b7k, and they both have their ups and downs. I like the voicing of the sansamp but it doesn't quite have enough gain on tap for me. The darkglass has more than enough gain but it gets super noisy. The M80 seems like the best balance between the two, it has tons of gain but it's a smooth distortion, not fizzy and clanky like the b7k. Might be worth getting one and trying it myself

 

[heavyfunkmachin]

Hi, I think it’s a good pedal, BUT the blend of dry and dirty is phasey. It sounds good in 100% dirty, but something odd happens to low mids when you blend.

I replaced it with a MUCH better pedal: the commodore Rat bass. It has 3 clipping modes and the blend is WONDERFUL. Highly recommended

 

[Hypocrite]

Thanks for the response. Yeah from doing more research, it sounds like a lot of people don't really like it. I saw one person say the clean and dirty signals were out of phase with each other so he had to use a blender pedal with it. Which seems redundant to me when you can get a real Rat for way cheaper than the clone. The only upside of the M85 is that it has its own blend, if you can't use it then it defeats the whole point. I think I'm just going to find a turbo rat and use a blender.

The M80 DI pedal sounds promising though, after going and listening to some demos of it. I have a sansamp bass driver and a darkglass b7k, and they both have their ups and downs. I like the voicing of the sansamp but it doesn't quite have enough gain on tap for me. The darkglass has more than enough gain but it gets super noisy. The M80 seems like the best balance between the two, it has tons of gain but it's a smooth distortion, not fizzy and clanky like the b7k. Might be worth getting one and trying it myself

Yeah, I must say I didn't really know what "phase issues" were back when I owned the M85, but I do remember the best sounds I could get from it were with zero dry signal blended in.

You'll definitely be covered for awesome preamps then! I've never owned a Sansamp, but I use a VST version in my DAW all the time, it definitely has "that" sound.
I've also had the B7K (Ultra), I actually sold my M80 to buy it, and while it is a great pedal, I had to let it go because of the low knob being centered at 100Hz. I prefer lows at 60-80Hz, my DG X7 is centered at 80Hz, and I think the M80 is centered at 60Hz, great for that full, throaty, growly low end. I seem to remember the drive being pretty clanky, but maybe that's just in solo, I think I used it with a band only once or twice.
Anyway, I regret coming in to this thread, because as happy as I am with my X7, now I'm GASing for an M80 again!

 

[wongahcheng]

I got one not too long ago! Was aware of it for a while but never bothered about it because I usually use either fuzz or clean, with occasional slight grit. Overall, I am very happy about it, but it is also because I know exactly the sound I was looking for. The M85 replaced my ss/bs mini (great pedal, but it is the perfect example of jack of all trades, master of none - with exception to its lighter gain), and I use it on silicon for higher gain stuffs, LED for lower gain if needed. Someone actually suggested it to me when I was looking for a dedicated bass fuzz, so I went to the local GC to try it out. MXR's promo video on it is a very accurate representation of its sounds - heavy! It gets me where I want, and now I cut through the mix better than I did with the mini previously. The dry/wet blend controls are very usable, to me at least. I have the tone control set at 1-2 o'clock, because anything higher it gets too fizzy for my usage.

 

[Ethanol]

I ended up going with an idiotbox blower box and I love it. Mine is the older, more blocky version with 3 knobs on top and the volume up by the power input. It's basically a rat but for bass. It was originally made to replicate the Voivod nothingface tone, but it's a lot more than that, the gain knob is very useable. It can do everything from slightly gritty tube amp tone to full on fuzz. It doesn't have a blend knob, but it's made to not lose low end so it doesn't really need it