MXR M75 Super Badass Distortion Pedal Reviews

I had been trying other distortions like a Rat and DS-2 with my Vox AC15C1 and they still sounded a bit thin through the normal channel. With the bass around 2 o-clock, mids at 11, and treble at one I found the sound I was looking for. The low end was now there and more than just hearing the mids and highs the amp felt like it had the speaker moving more. People say Vox amps are worth the time it takes to get used to and I see why. My amp is more versatile than expected. This pedal changed my opinion.

I am very pleased, with MXR distortion pedal, fits in well on pedalboard makes great pedals and Sweetwater is my go-to place for all music needs, great service always.

This pedal is very versitle. You can go from a nice clean boost to a cool fuzz easily. What I appreciate the most is the 3 band EQ it really helps shape the tone. Its got a nice price definatly worth every cent.

If you can't get a great sound out of this no offense but it may be you and the way you're setting it or the gear and the way your setting it up. Because it sounds GREAT. Buying another one. I have over the yrs bought a lot of pedals and this can hang with some of the best. Adjust your playing if it doesn't sound right. Are you playing it with too much distortion through an overly distorted amp? Lower your gain a bit in your amp. Use a light crunch and you'll see a big difference. Don't over do it. It's not meant to be used that way. Again, no offense. It takes yrs to figure things out.

The MXR Super Badass Distortion Pedal is a great addition to a pedal board, particularly for getting started with essential effects. It provides basic distortion features at a reasonable price. MXR pedals feature rugged, metal housings and quality components. It appears to be solid, durable, and built to last. I'm very happy with this purchase from Sweetwater.

Greg J.

You can go from a little to a lot on the distortion. It also allows you to adjust the Bass, Mid's and Highs on the pedal which is a huge plus!!!! Great for Blues or all out Metal!!!

I am so excited to find somewhere to order my products from that use so much care in the way the package to ship! And the follow up after are great!

Need we say more?? I love this pedal. I am playing a lot of heavy stuff right now, and this pedal does the trick. I am so happy to click this on and have a nice chunky distorted tone that sounds amazing whether I am in standard, or dropped. Thanks MXR and Sweetwater for keeping it real!

After watching numerous videos on this pedal, I bought one. I am playing the new Fender Deluxe Reverb Tone Master amp. I play a Gibson LP's with Humbuckers and P90's This pedal sounds really nice running through a Clean amp like the Fender. I'm getting everything from light breakup, all the way to blow your skirt up gain. The EQ section allows for a lot of Tonal variation as well. Definitely a great piece of kit!

Been around 27yrs since I have purchased a new distortion pedal, just always used the gain on my Ampeg rr212 but I recently purchased a 65' deluxe reverb and love the tube distortion and have had a few of them but anyway cause of the music I am working on with the band I wanted the perfect pedal friendly all tube amp and I can't say enough about the fender.
I did my homework and with the help of Patrick and Ian and a very big thanks for making it a easy process being my first online purchase, anyway just like the amp this pedal is unbelievable and exactly what I was looking for so thanks again guys, I couldn't be happier and I look forward to working with Sweetwater in the future.
Think next I'll need a new Dunlop wah and those we'll be the only two pedals I'll need for awhile and definitely will be getting some decent cord's.
Thanks again guys.
100%analog always!

I've bought over a dozen pedals recently trying to find that classic hard rockin guitar sound and I found it in this awesome pedal, I find this pedal alone is all you need for heavy booming electric guitar sound! Thanks to my sales guy Nick and thanks to Sweetwater for their great service!!

Bought as a replacement for one I lost . Been using this pedal for a few years . I was able to simplify my pedal board because it so versatile ,now I just have this and a ts9 for my overdrive/distortion. Does everything from chunky metal to light dirt . I also like it with single coils. Great pedal all around.

This pedal has a lot of character. It’s fat and Marshall-ish. If that’s your thing this is one of the best in my opinion. It will do everything from low gain crunch to saturated. The 3 band eq makes it very flexible and there’s tons of available output. It can be used as an overdrive or distortion. Clean-up with the guitar volume is good, not great. It does clean up fairly well, but loses some high end when you roll back the guitar volume. Still perfectly usable. That’s really my only nit-pick.
Some reviews say it’s dark. I disagree. There’s plenty of available sizzle. I typically set the treble a little higher than the bass and mids. Cuts through just fine.

I bought this to improve on the limited capabilities of the Marshall class 5 amp. I bought both the boss ds-1 and this mxr super badass, did a side by side comparison and really fell in love with the warm tones from the mxr vs boss. And the sustain...good God, what a sustain. I play an Epiphone Les Paul and pair this with a boss rv6 reverb pedal for some awesome classic 80s metal sounds (eg iron maiden) ...if you prefer thrash, simply drop the mid. The pedal conveniently has an output knob which greatly helps. I thought I was stuck with an unsatisfactory purchase when I bought the Marshall class 5 due to it's limited features and only one channel, but this pedal remedied that and made the playing experience just awesome.

I have had this for a while now, and I am blown away by it. I haven't used pedals for a long time, ( I have used multi fx) I decided to try this. I play through a clean amp and this turned my amp into a higher gain monster. It cleans up well with a volume roll off, and is very easy to use. I have been playing for 30 years and have tried lots of distortion pedals, and this is the my favorite so far. In my opyit is misnamed it should have been the Ultra Mega Totally Super Badass.

Owned this for more than 4 months now and still have not gotten a bad sound from it. Play with the knobs in various settings all over the place and it is exactly what it says.....BADASS. I can get extreme lows, scooped mids, and screaming in your face leads from this little bad boy. Its the last dirt pedal in my chain and I push it with the MXR Il Torino and WOW they just give me non stop awesome sound and tone that wont quite. Buy one (or 2) you will love this thing from the minute you step on it

Great pedal, it is very versatile pedal from rock to metal, does not get to shrilly on the high gain settings.

I originally bought this pedal for use with guitar, but found it works great on bass as well. It's solidly built, reasonably priced, and provides a good tonal range with the active three band EQ. Pushing it with a boost sounds great (I recommend the MXR Micro Amp+ which is also excellent). I am very pleased, and may even pick up another one just to have one dedicated to my bass pedal board. I have tried many other distortion pedals and this one really stands out in quality and value.

Excellent pedal, can do almost everything. Use the gain at 9 o'clock and put a Xotic BB preamp to boost it, tone and sustain for days!

This is the best distortion pedal ever made.
I've tried almost every overdrive and distortion pedal, but this is the best one. I can't stop playing guitar when I am using this pedal.
Do yourself a favor, buy this one. You will be in love with this pedal. Good job MXR.

I was searching for a pedal that gave me that thick, chunky, aggressive yep transparent and clear sound much like modern metal acts and this is it! Those as advertised It's BAD*** and easy to dial in a great tone. Very versatile and if your a tone junkie like me you'll love this pedal!

Man, I've been searching for this sound for a long time. That thick, deep, chunky distortion sound. This pedal paired with my DSL 40 on the clean channel makes the perfect hard rock to heavy metal sound. Another great MXR product.

I'm not one to leave reviews, but this pedal is definitely super badass. Just like Sweetwater's customer support, and my sales rep Bart.

Unlike GoDaddy, who disabled my site for week without explanation or response, Bart called me within an hour of placing my order to make sure everything was correct. GoDaddy, please be like Bart.

IT is true bypass.it is one of the best distortion pedals I have ever used.best distortion pedal for the money.is great for metal and rock of any kind.is very affordable and is built like a tank! I highly recommend this pedal to anyone.

I have bought, used, sold, traded, etc. lots of pedals and done the $200+ pedal thing for the right one. Currently have a nice board with six pedals that fit me well but when someone pulled Hagar's "Heavy Metal" out of their butt for jam at band practice I found I had a need for a power distortion pedal.
Did a bit of you-tubing and decided this might be an option. Plugging into the M75 for the first time is a great deal of fun. No fizz, just fat distortion all the way through the dial. Output is huge, and my only beef is that unity is so low. Its loud.
Best thing about this pedal is the EQ with the mids. This tone stack makes a huge difference in the sound, and the mid knob is extremely useful. Sounds great with singles or humbuckers. I run to through a Peavey Delta Blues and it sounds huge. Totally happy with the price, too. You can spend a lot more but I'm not sure you can get much of a better distortion pedal.

First of all shout out to my sales engineer Evan Mulvihill, just a nice helpful awesome guy. Had this almost a week and it is like having three to four pedals in one. Can do a nice clean boost, Van Halen soaring tone, to early metal. The best part is you do not have to dime the dist. knob to get a nice chunky sustain lead and I have my amp set on clean as you can get. Upgraded from the custom 78' Badass which I did not even have year.So save yourself the money and get this!

This pedal is amazing!! It's the thing I've been looking for for years! I am an MXR junkie now! I go back and forth from blues to metal all the time and, this little guy makes my tone even sweeter.

Yes sir!! that's the money for distortion.

I was expecting a good petal but was blown away by this one. The touch sensitive control and range of a little grit to full blown metal is just what it says: Badass. I'm sold on MXR

Incredible pedal! With the bass mid and treb you can shape the tone of any amp. Its like having an eq and a distortion pedal all in one!

Turned my Solid State Fender Twin into a Marshall on steroids. Love this pedal the EQ lets you tweak it exactly how you want. I was contemplating an od808 or a tube screamer but really excited I picked this up!

JUST. BUY. IT. After you realize you no longer need your other distortion pedals, you can sell them and justify the impulse buy your about to make.

for this to be so small' it's very loud and controlling...i love it. thanks

I bought this pedal back in 2012 and it is still my main distortion pedal. I've found I can dial in many useful sounds ranging from Blues, Classic Rock, Punk Rock, Hard Rock, and even 80's Hair and Metallica type metal.

One of the things people need to understand about this pedal is the sensitivity of the distortion knob. When most people describe their pedal knob settings, they think in terms of 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, etc. With the M75 distortion knob, you need to think in terms of 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, etc. because it is very easy to blow by your desired distortion sound by making too big of a distortion knob adjustment. The 3 EQ knobs are also key to this pedal's sonic versatility. Once you get in the sonic ballpark in terms of distortion, the 3 band EQ allows you to fine tune the character of your distortion. It's the combination of the distortion with the EQ that allows this pedal to do so much. This pedal even helps my retubed Peavey Valve King 112 6L6 amp sound Marshall-esque when needed!

The M75 can give your sound a lot of punch and crunch, the only negative I've found is that I can't get what I consider to be a smooth and rich overdrive sound. It's unrealistic to expect one pedal to do everything, so my M75 is paired with a M77 Custom Badass Overdrive. With this combination, I can dial in just about any overdrive or distortion sound I need in the Blues / Rock spectrum outside of serious metal.

I've had both pedals for 10 years and haven't had any issues with either, they are built like tanks!

Great pedal. I like how you can really control the amount of distortion. Works great for the classic rock tunes we play.

This pedal is an excellent "Swiss Army Knife" type pedal. "old-school" treble booster to a very convincing "Bassman" tone to a "JCM 800" to a great clean boost tone to the most versatile Distortion maybe out there, this pedal delivers with exceptional clarity. I love this pedal!

This is a great distortion pedal. I am using it to turn my 2 channel head into a 3 channel. It works great. Nice growl, easy to use and quiet.

Everything you need, and nothing you don't! Very musical EQ, a ton of gain on tap. However, dialing down the gain will give you a nice, warm bluesy tone. Works well in my effects chain...adds a little noise, but not too much!

I didn't set out to buy this pedal. I won it in an online contest. I feel compelled to write a review because it is so good. It's unbelievably versatile but I use it primarily as my lead tone. I have a one channel amp and set it right on the verge of overdrive for my rhythm tone. I engage the MXR on a relatively low distortion setting with an elevated level setting and it produces the sweetest dirty lead I've had out of my rig. Just fantastic. Classic Rock overdrive all the way to metal distortion. This thing nails it.

With my distortion I'm looking for good crunch. I'm a fan of MXR's products, and when my MXR Distortion III died I wanted that sound. The M75 is the Distortion III with the 3 band eq which I love.

The beauty of this pedal is the range of different distortion nuances you can get from it. With 3 band EQ it is really tweakable from subtle over drive to hard rock distortion. Also nothing beats analog distortion. Digital is good for certain effects, like delay, but distortion should be analog.

Putting together a my first actual pedalboard, I have been trying to make sure I have the necessary utility pedals before getting deep into the fun candy pedals. With the b7k, the VMT, and everything that can boost, I have great options for smooth round and punchy glass like dirt. To make my rig have another voice I wanted an "Unorthodox dirt" 1, this things output is insane. 2, the 3 band eq helps dial it in. 3, it really has its own flavor of sound.
If the tube screamer was green tea, the super would be more like Rojo tea. 4, less talked-about things, its fits the color scheme I didn't realize I was doing lol.
I think this guy is a great overdrive and definitely worth throwing in the pile of pedals to try out if you haven't

My gear:
Fender MIM Stratocaster HSS (with Seymour Duncan JB)
Bugera V22 Infinium

Appropriately named, this pedal gives a nice crunchy distortion tone for blues or classic or hard rock. If you like the Marshall sound but don't want to dish out hundreds of dollars for one this would probably be great for you. If you turn the distortion level all the way down and mess with the EQ controls it can be very transparent, going from the slightest breakup to a thick, powerful crunch that holds true to your original tone, but at about 3 o' clock it starts to sound pretty mushy and undefined (probably isn't the best pedal for metal).

I originally picked this up to boost the midrange of my Big Muff and to get some light break-up without having to crank my amp to volumes that would piss of my neighbors (my amp's distortion channel sounds pretty weak at low levels), and it did its job very well. It works well for boosting other distortion pedals and it can add some flavor to them with the tonal control it offers. However, it doesn't take being boosted very well, as again, it can get pretty mushy at higher gain levels.

The 3-band EQ makes this pedal pretty versatile, as the usual single tone knob can be limiting at times. It has dark-sounding highs and bright lows so it's not very open-sounding compared to my clean tone (a slight difference), but it may tame any "icepickiness" you may have. The mids have a throaty quality to them which I'd compare it to ACDC's tone, and when the mids are boosted this pedal kind of gets that "cocked wah" sound.

Bottom line is, it probably won't blow you away but it definitely won't disappoint. I'd recommend it to someone who's just getting serious about guitar and wants to pick up a good distortion pedal for a decent price. If you're not into anything super heavy I'd give it a try.

I was getting nostalgic for my 1st pedal - a 1985 MXR Dist+... so, I went to the store to try and buy the M77 Modified OD (which they didn't have), and I came out with this baby instead. Man, this thing really hit the spot. I think it has a really naturally smooth amp like distortion that is in NO way fizzy, buzzy, raspy. As I've gotten older, I've got no patience for endless tweaking anymore; my time to play is precious enough, so, with all the knobs at 12 o'clock it's pretty much perfect for me. You can use the 3-band EQ to suit different amps & guitars combinations, but for me it's been plug & play - yeah !!!

i had this pedal for about 2-3 weeks, its nice quality but it eats battery up and is pretty noisy
and be warned THIS IS NOT A HIGH GAIN PEDAL

After I saw this at or near the top of every "best distortion pedal" list, I picked it up and I was pretty disappointed. I could not find a setting I liked on this pedal. It had a dark/muffled tone no matter how I adjusted it. If a mid scooped sound is what you're going for, it will do the trick, but if not, I would look elsewhere.

If you pick light with a good pedal it will be clean sounding and if you fit the strings hard you get more dirt. Not so much with this guy. Same amount of dirt just less loud. Good drive sound though. Returned.

Bought this a few weeks ago. I am not impressed with the pedal. My opinion save an extra $40 and buy a Modified Proco Rat.
But of course with any Distortion pedal it's what your ears here and what it's needed for.
I use my distortion strictly for soloing. Not for crunchy chords. But no matter what setting I used on the Bad*** my Modified Rat sounds better.

I received the MXR noise gate pedal at the same time in the same box. The noise gate pedal is smaller and built like a tank. This pedal seemed like it was made of plastic, very light, and noisy. I do have the 10 band EQ MXR pedal that I wouldn't be without along with the MXR Smart gate pedal. This pedal just wasn't for me so I returned it after about an hour. The noise gate pedal wouldn't even get rid of the noise this pedal created, but every other distortion pedal has no noise with the MXR Noise Gate pedal. I wasn't pleased with the sound of this pedal either. I was really hoping for something better.