MXR Blue Box

Very easy to use. Almost too easy. It's blue. It's a box.

This effect is the Missing Link. It acts like the Missing Link, it looks like the Missing Link, it sounds like the Missing Link. And oh what a discovery! Yes, Jimmy Page already had it all figured out in the 70s when he layed down that unforgettable solo on "Fool in the Rain." But Jimmy Page had a lot of things figured out before anybody else because he was a studio rat. What's amazing about the Blue Box is it can go from THAT sound to one of the meanest distortion sounds you're going to hear. I run this one a couple of spots behind a Tubescreamer and oh my Gawd it is mean when the dials are all the way up. Dogs will howl, children will cry, and the paint will peel. Or dial it back down some and it's like playing with a melodious octave pedal on the fritz. It's an absolute delight. And, as so many others have noted, it's unpredictable. And that, my friends, is KICK ASS. When it's not being used, it is as quiet as cat fart. In fact, I think it's a bit of an introvert, because it seems to become awfully withdrawn when it's not in use.

Yes. MXR. Can't find anything better.

MXR don't need no stinkin' customer support.

The MXR Blue Box is a pervert on acid. And your signal is the hapless victim. Whether you are a tone addict or a noise maker, this little contraption can bring a smile to your face. Beware, it can make the other pedals on your board look frightfully pale in comparison.

Tricky one to answer this - I think it's incredibly easy to get a good sound out of, but then I like what it does. Two knobs, blend and gain. Despite what some people have said the gain control DOES boost the signal, BUT because this thing work sat low frequencies, you need to crank it to make it cut through - therefore the more you roll the blend off the more volume you need to roll on.

AND

If you don't like the sound (see below) then you'll never get a good sound out of it. Horses for courses.

Setup - I use either a re-issue Jaguar or Mex Tele, through (in sequence) Turbo Rat - Blue Box - Boss Hyper Fuzz - Old Russian Big Muff (green one) all in front of a Marshall 2554 valve amp (not the silver one though) and then (all boss) supershifter, DD5 delay, and flanger in the effects loop.

Normally this thing isn't noisy when off - but at the moment it's bust (see below) so it is.

Now for the actual sound - as everybody say, think Nintendo/Atari music. It makes a buzzy analogue synth sound, and constantly "flicks" between the octaves creating a glitchy sound. It's perfect if you're into repetitive riff based stuff, similar to Sebadoh's Flame. My favourite trick is using this with my pitchshifter set to harmonize one or two octaves back up, but half and half with the orginal signal - It screws around with the sound even more, and cures all the problems with it cutting through - you realise exactly how loud it is with it on full volume!

Doesn't get used much, partly because when my band kicks in most of the effect gets lost, but it sounds great if a section features it, normally a repetetive riff.

Well I've had it for 10 months and it's having a wobbly now. In the process of getting it repaired. Basically, even when off, some of the signal is coming through, plus if you touch the casing it gives the "buzz" as if you touch a guitar lead when plugged in.

Also as mentioned on other MXR problems - the space for the battery is WAY too small, squishes all the wires up, plus you will really struggle to fit a square 9 volt battery in (as opposed to those with the rounded corners)

Waiting to see what happens with the repair.

See above - asked Dunlop direct for help - received nice e-mails back, but unfortunately no service centre in the UK, so I'm sending back to the shop. The did offer to fix it if I'm prepared to send it directly to them though. Can't be arsed though, the store can deal with it!

I love it. I'm extremely mad that it's bust at the moment, and miss it immensely. The kind of music I play is a combination of stripper down bluesy/punk coupled with noisy "space" rock sections. It's great for both, but unfortunately due to the all out noisiness of my band it tends to get lost in the all out rock explosions. It's just too low!

Great fun, I'd recommend it to anyone who has an imaginitive streak, doubt you'll use it much within songs you already have - but I guarantee you'll write a song "for" it... I've written loads!

Some may say it's impossible to get a "good" tone out of this little box, but I think that's rather the point. It's such a unique sound, it's hard to compare it to anything else.
That being said, the setup is simple: Output and Blend knobs (huge, easy to futz with them with your feet) and a switch. Cant get much more simple.

I play an Ibanez AF75 hollowbody and and a modified Nelsonic Tele through a Crybaby 535, an MXR Distortion + and the Blue Box into a Peavey Classic 30. The Blue Box is noisy and hard to control, but again, that's the idea. It creates notes 2 octaves down from whatever you're playing, and switches between them seemingly at random. Almost unusable for rhythm playing, but sounds really, really cool on leads. I found that with the wah before it, if you engage the wah after the BB, and park it somewhere in the middle range of it's sweep, the octaves stay more solid and don't drop out as much, if you want a sound you can reproduce any time you want.

It's an MXR, if these things can stand up to touring with Husker Du and Dinosaur Jr, they can take whatever you throw at them.

Never dealt with them.

I play a wide range of rock music, hardcore stuff to poppy Replacements style rock and roll. The Blue Box gives me something weird enough to stand out in any situation without having to mess with a million FX. I would absolutely get another one if this got stolen, esp if I could get a good deal like I did this time.
I love MXR pedals, and I'm always on the lookout for more toys from them

The blue box is ridiclously easy to use. There are two huge knobs: "output" and "blend. These knobs are so rubbery and massive that you can move them with your feet while playing. and theres just an on/off switch. yeah. its easy to use.

I am playing this between one of the larger fender princeton amps and a strat or thinline telecaster. one annoying thing is that its not true bypass, and you can hear it very softly when its disengaged. The sound quality is good...for a blue box. a good word for this effect is confusing. it makes everything sound all synthy and drops your original note an octave. playing chords with the blend knob anywhere below the maximum sounds pretty much terrible. this can do some cool tricks on jazz runs on the higher frets. this pedal is the definiton of experimentation.

its an mxr so its built like a tank. the only thing wrong is that my lcd broke, which is a pain in the ass.

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this is a good match for experimental music. if it was stolen or lost theres a good chance i wouldn't buy this again. i just dont use it that often, even though it makes for a good fuzz pedal. its kind of like an octave divider, a ring modulation and a fuzz pedal all mixed in to one satanic pedal.

2 knobs. As other said, "blend" is the key of this effect

I use a mexican tele > Dod fx80b comp-sustainer > Nobels overdrive special > Big Muff (nyc reissue) > blue box > Aria stereo chorus > Zoom 505II (for delay and ring mod). Simply incredible, the funniest effect I never played with. And it's quiet, I mean there is no noise. My only complain (that's why I gave it 9 instead of 10) is that it do not have enough sustain, but I use it in couple with the dod comp, and it sounds still good. Like other effects (as the muff) sounds very good plugging the head of the cable in yr. hand and playing with the "blend" knob, it makes some weird bass noises.

It seems a heavy blue brick

I play a mix of grunge and noise, and my main inspiration is Sonic Youth's music. I'm very happy to have bought it, it's really great (even if my bandmates do not like it) and helps me a lot making strange noises.

very easy to use, only one knob that affects the tone, the other is for volume. the blend knob affects the fuzz/octave ratio.

THIS IS NOT A CONVENTIONAL FUZZ BOX. this unit takes your input signal, fuzzes it up, then drops it one and two octaves below the original signal. the tracking is all fucked up, and the signal jumps from octave one and two at random. with the blend knob at hard right, the pedal produces a straight fuzz effect, but its a little weak for my tastes. i have a script reissue as well as a 70s original blue box. i like the vintage model better, it seems to have a bit more 'oomph' compared to the reissue.

never had a problem with either pedal, but mxr pedals are just short of bomb-proof, anyways. knobs are solid plastic. pedal casing is a solid steel chassis.

never dealt with mxr customer support. never had to, either.

both blue boxes i own are constantly used in my music. ill chain a bunch of pedals together with the blue box, or run it into my fireworx processor to get insane results. running it just before an envelope filter will give you results similar to a line6 filter modulator (i usually use an EH q-tron as a filter). i write experimental/industrial rock/coldwave unlike anything heard before. just a bunch of brutal noise and atmospheric pads, and like i said, the blue boxes are used heavily. sometimes i like to set the blend knob at 3 o'clock and run it into a phaser when i jam out to some hendrix :)
im pretty sure zeppelin used this on the solo for 'fool in the rain'.
and for those people who say this sounds like shit: do your research before you buy something. IT'S SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE SHIT. YOUR PEDAL IS NOT BROKEN. this pedal isnt for people who jerk off to steve vai. period. i was fully aware of what i was getting into when i purchased this. its a substitute to the DOD buzz box (which are getting rare and expensive).

It's a pretty simple box to understand. You've got two knobs, output and blend, which do pretty much what they say. Output controls how, well, out of control it sounds, and blend controls how much octave effect is mixed in with your signal. I had a sweet sound out of it within about 30 seconds.

Man, this thing tracks horribly, the distortion is uncontrollable, it sounds like an Atari on LSD, and you cannot, repeat, CANNOT control this pedal. Yeah, I love the thing.

For those who don't know much about them, the MXR Blue Box is really a synthesizer pedal. It actually changes the waveform of your sound, adds a tone 1 octave down, and then adds a tone 2 octaves down, then switches between the three in an erradic and unpredictable way. Also, it's got a sweet fuzz-distortion tone. The distortion is not controllable via any parameter knob, but that kind of adds to the chaos this beast unleashes.

Anyway, don't even consider this pedal if you're looking for a quiet, predictable, clean, good-tracking, easily controlled distortion/octave pedal. That's not what this thing's all about. It's about piss-poor synthesis and uncaged sonic confusion. This thing will make just about anyone sit up and say "What the hell?"

It's an MXR. You could hit it with a hammer. It'd probably break, but you could hit it with a hammer if you wanted to...

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This thing is great. It offers a real unique sound. It's not for everybody, and a lot of people will be frustrated with it's lack of human interaction (aka the thing has a mind of it's own), but I get a real kick how it makes your rig sound like it's alive and doing what it frickin' wants to. It adds a VERY dynamic facet to your sound.

Like I said before, don't expect this thing to be anything but a Blue Box. It's not an octaver, it's not a fuzz, and I'd stray from saying it's a synth pedal too, or at least a synth pedal that you can control. It's a Blue Box, and as such, it's going to sound how it wants, whether you like it or not. It's not one of those pedals that gives a repeat performance, either. Sure, it'll sound the same, but the erradic tracking promises that no phrase will ever be repeated exactly.

Anyway, I recommend this thing 100%. If you're into a unique sound, go for it, the thing is bad as hell.

Easy to use. Stomp on the switch, turn a few knobs and see what you get. Aside from the volume/level/output/whatever control there is only really the 'blend' knob to get the hang of, this basically controls the amount of fuzziness that you get.
The main problem is that it's very easy to get weird noises from but perhaps a bit more difficult to get 'useable' sounds out of it, although it is fun trying........

I'm currently using various Super-Strat guitars (Soloists, RG's) and Strats into various Laney amps. Usually there's at least three or four other effects units in between, including a rackmount comp, various phasers, Vintage Rat, modded TS9, BD-2 and whatever else I decide I need.......Noise-wise, it doesn't create any annoying background hiss as such, but if you turn up the 'blend' control past halfway you do tend to get a lot of mushy white noise. Fun if you like that kind of thing, annoying if you don't. This unit can probably be best described as an octave-fuzz unit on drugs, the octave tracing is really loose which can give you some interesting effects. As I said above, it can be quite difficult to get some useable sounds from it, especially when you start adding distrotion/overdrive from other units. I find that having the controls at twelve o' clock (vertical) work reasonably well for me.

This thing can take a kicking. Happily gig without a backup, it's not like you'd be relying on it much anyway........ this is the kind of unit you flick on for one song to make the crowd go 'Wow, what is that?' rather than using it constantly like you would with an OD unit or whatever.
It can also be used as a doorstop if you decide that you don't like it.

Never dealt with Dunlop. I don't think I'll have to anyway, MXR gear can usually take more of a kicking than even Boss.

I mainly play blues-rock through to hard rock, so this isn't the kind of thing that is useable for most of the stuff I want to play. I don't use it anywhere near as much as I use my other, more 'conventional' units.
However, for anyone with an experimental side or for anyone who likes wierd '80's computer-arcade-game noises then it has its uses and it can be great fun to play with. The MXR Blue Box is one of a kind, I haven't come across anything quite like it. Not everyone's kind of thing, I can see why people hate it, but if you can get something useable from it then it's all good. It's the kind of unit that you'll either love or hate........ so definately worth trying before you buy. If it were stolen then I'd wouldn't say no to another one but it wouldn't be at the top of my GAS list.

2 Knobs. Easy to set. Difficult to control. I have the blend set at 1:30. Any more to the left and the sound begins to leave the ?musical? realm. The AC adapter input is the old-style 1/8? mini-plug and is not as universal as the barrel type plugs found on most pedals today.

I play this with my lap steel and then only with single note lines. It?s my secret weapon but still only used to steal attention away from everyone else in the band. Otherwise it gets old pretty quickly. Chords destroy the tracking ability. I can get really cool synth sounds if followed with some modulation effect. I have noticed that the octave tracking and volume is extremely affected by used batteries.

It?s an MXR. It should last longer than me. The connection jacks are rough and could damage the cheaper 90? cable ends if rotated when plugged in.

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Because of the rough connection jacks and battery problems, the Blue Box is really pushing me to setting up a pedal board. When I play with new people, they are always surprised when the Blue Box is engaged. Then I am politely asked to turn it off.

Piece o cake to use the box. Not so easy to control the sound on your axe.

Never did get this one. What does it do? It sounds like a Psychotic Octaver/distortion that can't track. I really think this was a mistake that someone figured would be popular. I used the original a few times during the late 70's and just never liked it. It is impossible to control the sound. Some say it gives ring modulator type effects. Don't think so. If you want to hear a lot of this effect listen to Terje Rypdal's "If Mountains Could Sing" or Jeff Beck's solo on "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" on Wired (near the end). In a word the sound is: "Unearthly". Gets a 6 for being unique.

MXR's were great quality pedals in the 70's though if you left them plugged in for hours or days with the battery they broke.

no idea.

See Sound Quality. If you want something different, this is it. I guess you could say it accentuates the unnatural overtones by driving them into oscillation (?)
Apparently Hendrix used to use something like this.