MXRDuke of Tone Overdrive

Full of great tones!

This Overdrive is perfect for a country guitar rig and versatile enough for other genre's too.

I wasn’t able to uncover the “magic” in this pedal like others have found. I was able to achieve a nice overdrive in the boost and o/d settings, but I wouldn’t say that this pedal blew me away. I guess I was just expecting a little bit more relative to my other high end pedals. I do appreciate the tiny size and the Mxr/analogman collaboration concept of bringing an “analogman pedal” to the masses. I also have the Timmy and I like the Timmy more for what it’s worth- maybe not as many tonal options (gain wise) but I feel like it compliments my rig better than the duke...

I WANTED and TRIED to be dazzled by the MXR Duke of Tone. After all, I paid $150+ for it. It *IS* a good pedal (hence my 4 stars). But after trying it for about 90 minutes, I realized it added little (perhaps nothing) to my current arsenal of overdrive pedals (not one of which is out of the ordinary). For example, I happened to have a Boss Blues Driver later in the signal chain when trying the Duke and noticed that the Duke's OD option (there are three options: OD, Boost, Distortion) produced a sound barely distinguishable from the Blues Driver. At one point, while not looking at the pedals, I thought I was playing through one when I was playing through the other. The Duke's Boost option would be great for pushing an amp or another pedal into higher gain, but I have other, much cheaper, pedals that can do that just as well. Finally, the Duke's Distortion option was surprising; I assumed it would produce significantly higher gain/distortion than the OD option, but actually it sounds like a somewhat different overdrive pedal; what it produces doesn't seem to be what most people would call "distortion" (as against an "overdrive" sound). Conclusion: I'd say the Duke of Tone is "a good pedal, overall" but one that you might want to skip if you have some decent overdrive pedals already. If I lost my Duke of Tone, I definitely would not buy another. If I lost ALL my overdrive pedals, I would not buy it again.

I have to start my Duke of Tone (DoT) review by admitting that I've never owned or even played the King of Tone or Prince of Tone from Analogman. The King of Tone was a handmade, dual-switch boutique overdrive by Analogman founder Mike Piera. The pedal gained a cult following and gearheads piled onto a waiting list that could stretch out years in length. Analogman tried to address this by releasing the compact-sized Prince of Tone, but demand for that pedal also overwhelmed supply. Recently, Piera and MXR shocked the pedal industry with a joint venture whereby a new, micro-sized overdrive pedal - the "Duke of Tone" would be mass produced under the MXR Custom Shop banner.So, despite never actually playing one, the idea of ordering this legendary pedal off of Amazon for a reasonable price ($150) was too good to pass up. All three of the pedals trace their lineage to the Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, which was available in the 1990's, and only very recently reissued. It's a low-to-medium gain overdrive that does more to enhance your tone than take it over. The DoT is similar to the Prince of Tone in its controls and layout. You get three modes: OD (soft clipping with smooth compression); Boost (clean boost with no clipping); and Distortion (hard clipping; more compressed and more gain). Many players will tell you that the Boost mode is their favorite, particularly as it enhances the definition and clarity of whatever pedals and amps come after it in the signal chain.My impressions of the pedal? Being familiar with other Bluesbreaker circuits (including the Snouse Blackbox and Mooer Blues Crab), I was surprised at how much the DoT impressed me - especially with its versatility. You can absolutely use it as an "always on" tone enhancer, and on Boost mode with the volume turned up and the gain set at or near zero, your tone will remain clean, but with added dynamics and sustain.But there are also a lot of other excellent settings on the DoT. While it's certainly not meant for shredding, the driven sounds in OD and Distortion mode certainly offer a lot more gain than anything you could get from an un-modded Bluesbreaker circuit. I liked the DoT so much, I reworked my already-crowded pedalboard to place it in front of my HX Stomp. The compact size, extreme versatility, and very low power draw (6mA) make it no-brainer addition to any pedalboard.

Aun probando el sonido, pero hasta ahora muy bien! Una distorsión limpia para acordes y bueno para darle un empujon a la disto de tu amplificador o pedal.

Secondo me questo è tra i migliori pedalini overdrive in commercio della MXR.. è la riedizione di un pedale boutique ultra costoso e raro realizzata in maniera 'seriale' da MXR insieme al creatore originale del pedale boutique, quindi questo è una garanzia che il pedale abbia lo stesso circuito del pedale originale. il pedale è anche molto versatile perchè può fungere da boost, da overdrive o da distorsore.. personalmente per me il pedale è fantastico in modalità 'overdrive' dove colora il suono e lo fa crunchare divinamente.. mentre in modalità 'distorsore' ritrovo un effetto sgradevole sull'attacco delle note basse, e questo motivo insieme al fatto che è fin troppo costoso è la ragione per il quale ho messo complessivamente 4 stelle e non 5. Ad ogni modo per chi cerca questa sonorità così caratteristica consiglio di provarlo!