MXR Blue Box

Very straightforward indeed: one knob for the output volume and one for the blend between wet and dry signal. The blend dial seems to work the other way around to most pedal dials (ie you get more of the wet signal the further anticlockwise you turn it), which is curious but not really difficult to figure out.

If yr one of those types who fret endlessly about the quality of yr tone and so on, then steer well clear of this pedal. The tracking is fine one the higher settings but turn the blend anticlockwise past about two o'clock and the signal starts jumping around between ovtaves at random. Past about eleven o'clock the whole thing goes absolutley crazy; low frequency rips and full on sonic flatulence galore! And I love it! I can see why some people may be using this as a paperweight soon after purchasing it but personally I think it's amazing. I used to think that the signal was rather weak (which in fairness it is, quite often it could do with a good nudge from another fuzz/overdrive unit) but i've found a way of incorparating that into my playing. Here's how it interacts with the rest of my current set-up:
Epiphone LP-100 >> Boss TR-2 Temolo >> MXR Blue Box >> EHX US Big Muff Pi >> Dunlop Crybaby Wah >> Boss DD3 Digital Delay >> Whatever amp is available.
I play wonky experimental stuff which borders on electronica at times with an ecstatic slant. This pedal is pretty cool for noisiness and abstract details. If yr not after that (or at least Sonic Youth style semi-coherence) you may have some probs with it..... BUT I love it so i'm giving it a nine!

Big like and deceptively (reasuringly!) heavy. I love the little clips you can put on the knobs that make them llok like roller skate wheels too! Only annoyance is that you have to unscrew the back to get at the battery but i'm running my pedals from a power pack now.

This one is gona split opinions but personally i'm a fan of it. It's fairly versatile, amkes a lot of belching noise and seems highly reliable. Definitlely a keeper.

very easy to use. two knobs -- output and blend.

this particular octafuzz-like effect is quite excellent. i'd give it a 9 or 10 except that it's not true bypass so i hear it working ever so slightly when it's in the chain but not engaged.

the sound is always great to play with. it can be a bit of a one-trick-pony and for that reason i use it sparingly. right now i have it set up:

am tele > blue blox > deluxe memory man > voodoo lab tremolo > modded fender blues jr.

solid, solid, solid. not a huge part of my sound so i gig without a backup.

never dealt with mxr.

i play spaced out blues/jazz/rock so this fits nicely into my rig. i've been playing for 18 years and have a lot of boutique pedals. this is the only pedal that i use which is not true bypass. but heh, it's also the only one well under $100. if it were lost or stolen i would probably buy a red witch fuzz god.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to operate the Blue Box. There are two knobs. However, it was a little confusing at first since the octave effect, which is adjusted with the Blend control, is at maximum level when it is turned to the extreme left, whereas most pedals the most extreme sounds come when the knob is at the extreme right.

This thing sounds great. Well actually it sounds horrible. Either way if someone is looking for a pedal to really alter their sound, this is it. YOu can get cracked out Video Games sounds, to a nice subtle fuzz, with plenty of suboctave fuzz in-between. My only complaint is the noticeable drop in volume when the effect is engaged. That can easily be remedied by placing it in front of a booster. This pedal works great with my rig. I use a 72 Fender Tele and an 80's Epiphone Dot. They both sound great with the Blue Box. I play through a Roland JC-120 and '56 Multivox Premier 50 (for vibrato) and they both sound great. I have way too many pedals to list but, one that makes some really quirky sounds when used with the Blue Box is the Boss HF-2 Hi-Band Flanger. This flanger only really affects the higher level frequencies and generates a subtle flange effect by producing a tone one octave above the original signal, if that makes any sense. When mixed with the Blue Box which produces some tones two actaves below, it sounds really cool. (I apologize for not being too knowledgeable about the technical aspects of the HF-2, I just know it sounds good with the Blue Box.)

This thing is an original, and its a tank. Don't think I'd be needing abackup any time soon....unless it is stolen.

Never had a problem, lets see what the future holds.

You can't really say that this box fits with any particular genre, but it can really add color to any one's sound. This is not some thing that you would want to use often like a TS-808, but when it comes time to kick in the solo, this is a refreshing alternative to the Tubescreamer.

No manual...don't need one, this aint your usual "i wanna sound like..." pedal, Two knobs; Level and Blend (which they should re-name "Road to hell")! Easy!

This is an oddball, the signal is not boosted with the pedal on and this is a downright shame coz this pedal is a motherfucker! I performed the C11 mod on mine which does boost the volume slightly, however you can boost the sound with a Tubescreamer after it. It's not a noisy pedal, the fuzz is nasty with an onboard soundgate that makes it "break-up" rather than sustain gracefully, it's a good fuzz sound. Then there's that blend control which adds a two octaves below effect. It seems to loose tracking though so it jumps about, and can sound like a demented Nintendo game going through a fuzz box, up full is complete hell, unusable in the concept of music. If this pedal was loud it would be one of the most evil things man has created.

Like all MXR pedals, this pedal will will probably "outlive" the owner.

Never had any problems.

I've been playing 16 years and have used valve amps, i'm bored with traditional sounds so i searched for an evil lo-fi fuzz. This pedal delivers but the volume is a big shame. I would definitely replace this if someone was foolish enough to steal it (it's the sort of sound that could give you nightmares for years to come), I've played a Gibson Les Paul Junior and Fender Music Master through this and it sounds evil everytime. On full settings everyone thinks i've blown a valve or my amp is fucked, the exact reaction i wanted!! ;) I could not compare this pedal, i've tried loads, as i said it's an oddball/a one-off.

As simple as can be. Two knobs - one for level, one for insanity. As for how easy it is to get a good sound out of it... it depends on your definition of a "good" sound. Some people would probably hate this thing and consider it useless. I think it's fantastic and sounds great no matter how you tweak it.

Not sure if this is the vintage or reissue. I think it's the reissue though.

Raven RP450 Hollowbody > Ernie Ball Volume Pedal > Vox Wah > MXR Blue Box > Dano Compressor > Proco Rat > Ibanez TSDX9 > Dano Vibrato > EH Small Stone

Crystal quiet in my setup, doesn't seem to mess with the tone more than any of my other pedals have. Quiet all the way around, effect always sounds good.

With the blend knob all the way to the right, you get a nice solid fuzz tone. Start turning it left, and it's like Satan appeared in your amp. It's an octaver of some nature, but switches frequency at random, creating some very interesting sounds. With the blend knob all the way to the left it creates a dark, ominous tone that you can hear jumping frequencies. I keep the blend at about 11 o'clock for some nice Atari on Acid sounds.

The reason I run this right after my wah is because if you use the wah, it allows you to almost control where the frequency jumps. It's freakin' awesome! This pedal is fantastic, great for spacy jams. I use it a lot during spacy, psychedelic jams when I need something to scare small children and animals.

Built like a tank. I'd gig without a backup as it's not a huge part of my sound.

N/A - Haven't needed to talk to them.

This pedal is fantastic for what I use it for! I needed something just plain weird and unique because I like making strange sounds. I had gotten a Digitech Synth Wah before this because I really wanted a synth tone, but this thing beats that out. The Synth Wah had massive volume swells and just wasn't doing it for me. This isn't a true synth by any means but it does what I want it to do. It's just plain weird!

I play a variety of music, largely jamband oriented, but with influences ranging from Phish & the Dead to Metallica & Slayer to Miles & Coltrane to electronica.

As others have said, it's the height of simplicity - two knobs, one controlling output, the other controlling the effect. The only way it could be simpler is if there were no knobs at all.
The only reason I deduct the one point is because of the strange reverse function of the Blend knob - it's a bit counter-intuitive. Usually the leftmost area of the dial is no effect, and the rightmost is the largest amount of effect.

It does what it does very well....and since it's the only one of its kind, you can't compare it to anything else. Totally silent for me. May not track perfectly on the 2nd octave, but that's part of the charm.

Heavy metal casing...but you have unscrew the bottom plate to change the battery. This is the only apparent downside. Use an AC adapter! Otherwise, as tank-like as Boss.

N/A

A strange pedal, not terribly useful (how many times do you remember hearing it in songs you like? OTHER than Sonic Youth or Zeppelin's Fool in the Rain? Exactly)... but still QUITE interesting to play with. If you get one cheap, and have some time to kill, it's good to play with. Maybe a nice musical result could come from it. Based solely on what it's meant to do, it's a great pedal.

Comon dudes... 2 knobs, I mean... Level amd Blend... Duh!

Okay...
Here's the real deal.
If your into playing stuff like "The Beatles", or if your like "the finnest distortion in the world is never found"... Then this effect is NOT for you... Its a noise maker... It makes noise, and makes it sounds pretty damn good. Not people have mentionned thid but I finf that this peddle is THE peddle to get that weird "John 5 solo" sound from Marilyn Manson. His music is AWESOME, but let us stay focussed on the effect. It makkes a really weird kind of nois (make that noises). sounds really neat (as in "wow, that's a guitar your playing?".
THIS PEDDLE IS THE SHIT!!!!
AWESOME

hmmm... make of steel... life: 900+ years

Never dealt

For Marylin Manson music: AWESOME
For "the true distortion": Not so good.
Makes really weird noise, makes noise sound good.

It did not take me too long to determine how the knobs interacted on this lovely contraption. On the downside, it is necessary to remove the backplate to change the battery and the AC jack is in a potentially awkward place.

The lower octave tracking in this beast is insanely bad ... which makes it an EXCELLENT noise pedal. The tracking actually seems to get worse the more you blend in the octave (turn the "Blend" knob to the left). Also, the internal gate is fairly harsh, so it is easy to get retro arcade game/synth sound effects at certain settings ... and it should react with digital amp modeling devices without producing unwanted hiss. The only drawback here is its curiously low output level (even with the "Level" control dimed). This leads to a volume drop when the pedal is engaged, but can be compensated for with post eq, a boost, or another fuzz after the Blue Box in the signal chain.

This thing is pretty much a solid steel brick ... but I have only owned mine for about a month, so only time will tell.

Have not needed to contact them just yet.

MXR struck gold with this design, IMHO. The only missing component would seem to be a sufficient amount of stock output gain (volume).

-2 knobs + an on/off switch......

Sound qualiy???? I use this pedal to basicly play noise, which is great for tring to enulate Wolf Eyes, Hair Police, Lightning Bolt etc........

Don't know just got it.

never dealt and dont think I ever will.

Dont buy this pedal if you have conventional playing in mind. More options are always good but in this case
If you like the end of Mildred Pierce By SONIC YOUTH you will not be disapointed by this pedal.....(i'm not suggesting this pedal was used on the track though, even though Thurston does use them ).

It's very easy to use. Mine came with the wrong directions (they gave me Cry Baby directions)but within 10 minutes i was able to get the sound i wanted out of it. The two knobs control output and blend. Output is obviously how loud the effect is and blend controls how much of the octave effect is mixed with the distortion. Extreme left on the blend control gives you Atari music on the high frets, and on the low frets it sounds like a Floyd Rose tremolo pushed all the way down so that it's touching the body. Extreme right on the blend control gives you a strange distorion. Both sides ARE useable, and with the blend control in the middle it gives you a great balance between the distortion and octaves.

This is the reissue and i was worried it wouldn't sound like an original, but it does. On their site, www.jimdunlop.com, they have a sound clip of the reissue. Currently i'm using the following setup: Gibson SG>>DOD death metal FX86>>MXR Blue Box>>Cry Baby>>Alesis NanoVerb>>Peavey Butcher (120 watt all tube)>>Crate 4x12. However, i have a DOD fx56 American Metal distortion pedal, DOD dfx5 Digital Turbo Distortion, and a DOD fx40b EQ that i just won off ebay and should be arriving soon. i also want to upgrade to a Peavey 5150 II. As you can see i only use DOD and MXR stompboxes (the Alesis reverb unit is rackmount). This unit is very quiet because it has a build in noise gate. The only audible noise it makes is a very quiet clicking sound when you arent playing and the effect is still on. Unless your amp is cranked, everyone around you is quiet, and your not playing, you wont hear it. If your playing in a band nobody with ever notice. The effects this thing produces are perfect. The distortion is a little strange, but so is the octave effect, the whole thing is strange. Don't buy this and expect to get the classic MXR distortion, because it isnt there. The distortion is colored by the octave effect. This is what Jimmy Page uses on "fool in te rain", and it allows you to pull off some Tom Morello tricks (he uses the Digitech Whammy, which is similar to this unit). Tom Morello is my favorite modern guitarist, if you have never heard him you should. He was with Rage Aginst the Machine and is currently with Audioslave. Download "Ashes in the Fall" "Down Rodeo" and pretty much anything else by Rage to hear some these tricks. Head from Korn also uses this effect. You can check out Morello and Head's rig at www.guitargeek.com.

I haven't used this enough to be able to judge the reliablity. It is very solid looking. Take it apart and look how thick the metal casing is. It comes with rubber slip-ons for the plastic knobs, which look very cool. I would definaltey gig without a backup, and i wouldn't worry about it.

Never had to deal with Dunlop (MXR is owned by Dunlop). Never had to have it repaired. the guy i bought it from shipped it to me in the original box with the warranty slip that you fill out and send in. I wont be filling it out, waste of time.

I play many kinds of music. Everything from Nu-Metal(slipknot) to ska(sublime) to classic rock(Hendrix)to Old School Metal(Anthrax) to Alternative(Incubus)to Blues(Leadbelly)to Grunge(Nirvana). This thing can be used in all of these styles in one way or another. It's especially good for Nu-Metal and Alternative. Ive been playing for at least 8 years. i own all the gear i've already stated, and some strat knockoffs, an Oscar Shmidt acoustic, a crappy Rouge distortion that ill be selling soon, and some other little things. The Gibson SG is my most prized possesion. I would buy it again if it were stolen, its just as usefull as a Cry Baby, i don't know why more people don't use it. Probably because it's not a very well known effect. Everyone i tell about it thinks it's called a "Blues Box", and that it makes blues overdrive. I love everything about this pedal, there is nothing i wish it had. I originally wanted to get a DOD fx33 Buzz Box, but they are in the 150 dollar range used, and damn near impossible to find. This effect is more musical than the Buzz Box and much cheaper. This should be on everybody's pedalboard. like the Cry Baby, this is a pretty weird effect, but it can be used in so many ways that it amazes me why not many people have started using them as much as Wah type effects.