Fender Duel Pugilist Distortion Pedal Reviews

Mike was especially professional, courteous, respectful, and focused in taking care of my first time ordering [& answering the questions I had as a first timer!]. Evidence to this fact is I will specifically request MIKE SINGER in all future Sweetwater equipment purchasing. The candies included in the delivery and ALL the special care and thoughtfulness is profoundly AMERICAN in it's highest integrity!!!

Thank you Mike & SWEETWATER!

JOHN S.F.

First, five stars for Sweetwater! Always a great help. Unit arrived and the bypass switch wasn't working - Sweetwater immediately replaced it.

As for the Duel Pugilist itself, I had to knock off half a star. Everything is exceptional except the naming of the Bypass switch - it should say "On", since that is what it does - and the Bypass function. I can't think of a better name for the Bypass function, though. It's some complex processing that gives you a wide variety of great tones at the cost of lots of confusion and the time you have to spend figuring it out.

1) All settings are very responsive to pick attack, quite "tubey".
2) Using just Distortion A on a light gain setting gives you chrystaline Fender tube-style breakup, much like the great-sounding Fender Santa Ana Overdrive I tested side-by-side with the Pugilist.
3) Using Distortion B with heavy gain gives you wide-range yet chewy tone with smooth compression.
4) Turning on both distortion circuits in Mute or Bypass Mode (yes, more confusion) you can balance airiness and girth using the Blend knob.
5) Turn on both circuits in Serial mode, and wow - instant Tube Screamer style midrange boost with top fizz nicely smoothed out and the low end tightened right up. Fender's descriptions don't give you a hint of this. Not for everyone, but if you like that TS flavor, it's here.
6) Global EQ! Fabulous! The main reason I've been testing overdrives and distortion pedals for a couple of years is to get rid of a high-end fizz I'm getting with all my amp combinations. Could just be my aging ears, but it's harsh enough that I just don't want to play anything distorted because that fizz is too harsh.
> But the high EQ knob tames that fizz! I set it at 9 o'clock and am rewarded with warm distortion and compression, musical and smooth yet still clear enough to cut through the mix, with no fizz!
> Added feature - if you put The Duel Pugilist in Bypass mode, turn on the Bypass switch, and turn off both Distortion circuits, the global EQ will still be engaged so you can massage your entire signal chain, not just the distortion from this box.

Completely flummoxed on the design of the Fender Dual Pugilist. It's a great sounding pedal, but, IMO, two major design flaws, i.e. it's bonkers to have a "3 switch unit" where two lights means two channels are ON, but the other light means the other channel's OFF. WTF? I'd like to know what rocket scientist designed that feature, as it's incredibly confusing for the user.
Case in point, in order to bypass the unit, and only need to step on one switch to activate the drive, like a regular stomp box, you need to have one channel "on" - even though it's not on. Then, step on the bypass switch, turning it off (when it already looks off), thereby activating the drive, as in the attached pic.
I've used a ton of pedals and haven't the slightest clue why you can't simply step on A and have it work and step on B and have it work, without having to deal w/ the backwards bypass switch?
Additionally, IMO, Fender encounters another design flaw by laying out the switches in "Hebrew". Channel A is on the right, B is center, and Bypass is left. Why in the world didn't the designers just go left to right, i.e. "A, B, Bypass," like we read in English? Nutso.

Maybe just a me thing but, it took a second to get the 3 switch idea down.
It doesn't beat my orange amp wide open, but it does offer the layers I need in a live setting.
Super easy use. Con is it is pretty big on the board.