MXR Blue Box

Two knobs (Level and Octave Blend), of which one is never used...Dur...

I use a Telecaster with the following pedals: Sola sound volume, MXR Blue Box, Lonax Delay, Boss Overdrive, RAT, DOD Grunge, EH Ring Modulator, Boss DD3.
My pedal appears to be true bypass so I haven't had any problems with noise as some people have complained about.
There are two knobs - one for Level which you have to keep maxed or else you get a volume drop, the other for blend. Blend at full you get a sick noisy fuzz, about 1 O'clock you get Octave fuzz, at 10 O'Clock it jumps randomly from octave to octave and sounds like it's exploding and it full anticlockwise you get a burbling low exploding noise which doesn't let any of you original signal through. If you're into sick and wierd sounds it sounds great. If your into normal music you'll hate it. My favourite trick is to let the chord ring at the end of the song and let it jump about - it sounds like the delay from hell.
This pedal has no gain at all, you can't use this as your only pedal or it sounds wimpy, but if you have an overdrive or another distortion after it to boost the signal you can get some stupidly heavy and horrible sounds. It's great for stoner rock, industrial, metal and other evil music.
Although it's got a reputation for being unpredictable you can also get a very good octave sound. It tracks very well if you set it right. I was fustrated with Boss and similar octavers because they killed my sustain, and rumbled and died at the slighted loss of volume. This octaver sustains happily and you can even play chords. I'd like to see you do that with the OC2. The OC2 and the rest sounded so synthetic and cheesy I hated them but this just sounds big and heavy unless you play up the neck (and then it sounds like a Nintendo Great!)

Much more solid than a Boss. See how many cliche's you find about Boss pedals in the reviews? Go figure.

Never dealt with them. But the pedal didn't come with a battery and had a cry baby manual. Doesn't bode too well.

I play all sorts of noisy music.
I like this pedal, I like any weird pedal really to make more noise with.
I wish it had more gain, it would make it's noise making potential a lot higher. I guess I wish that the Level Knob was replaced by a knob to sometimes reduce the fuzz because if you play anything other than powerchords or single notes through this it just sounds like a mallet hitting you with noise. Ever a minor chord would get lost. It doesn't bother me much because I sometimes just use noise to make textures and create feelings rather than actually playing notes. It's good for beginners in that sense I guess. Changing the Fuzz might take away you beautiful simplicity and primititive nature of this pedal though. An octave up would be interesting as well - imagine if it jumped around through three or four octaves! It's a really evil sounding fuzz so step up doom rockers. You can get some unsettling tones with this.
One thing is that it has a bizzare AC adapter socket, so it's batteries only. But they last quite a long time so it's no big problem. It's very small and compact, it shows EH that you didn't need to make thouse huge pedal cases to sound good.
I like this pedal, I don't know if it's worth what I paid for it but It's still cool. It is an "effect" not a main distortion though.

I knew what it did before I got it,therefore it was very easy for me to use.Those unfamiliar with the actual effect may be confused and wonder,"is it supposed to sound like that?"

Setup is unimportant.Use with an envelope follower and achieve any synth model tone on the Line6 filter modeler-no shit.I personally knew what I was gettin myself into when I got this.I did my homework and read the reviews here from people who have similar taste in music to mine and also heard it on the dunlop website.I can nail and surpass the sounds of the EH microsynth.And the Mario bros.thing everyone was talking about-I can do that too.Many would say not to use this all the time but if your basically a synth player with guitarist's dexterity then why not?The tracking goes apeshit and is extremely random in shifting between low octave one and oct.two.Its a rarity that you get both at the same time but it doesn't really matter because this thing is an oddball effect for weird ass music and if yr a shredder who masturbates to Satriani tabs then don't bother-you'll hate this.But for me,it's everything I expected and more(good straight fuzz tone from this thing with both dials at max)

If I were to make a battlebot out of this and one out of a Boss pedal,this one would fuck it up.But I've got athe musical equivalent of a crack habit so I don't play D&D and build robots.

don't know really don't care.It won't break.

I make strange sounds.I can't wait to run a mic into this and beatbox over some of my guitar explorations.I've been defying musical convention for 15 years now.If this were stolen or lost,I'd buy it again.I think it'll be safe because my town is like Night of the Living Buttrockers and this ain't a Metalzone or some Digitech multi.I did not compare it to anything else because there's nothing you can compare it to.It included these 2 rubber parts to put around the knobs so you can adjust settings with yr footwhilst playing.I'm now dating my bluebox and my green box(DOD envelope follower) is my mistress

This is one weird ass pedal. i'll get into that in the sound quality section though. This thing only has 2 knobs, it's very easy to use. one is for Output, the other is for blend. THe output only changes the volume, and doesnt change the sound any, so basically the blend knob is all u can do to change the sound. with the blend knob all the way to the left, u get the low octave note and the fuzz. the higher u turn it up, the less of the octave u have, and once it's all the way up u get this really weird distortion. I have to give it a 6 though because you cant make the pedal sound any different and you cant control the distortion level. I like the nice compact shape of it though, and it also looks really cool and has an LED so u can tell when it's on and off.

Okay, this thing sounds REALLY screwed up. it's SUPPOSED to. If u're looking for analog tube distortion or if u like to play jazz u better not buy this thing. No matter what the settings are on with this thing, it is REALLY distorted. It has this weird fuzz to it that will NOT go away. you cant control it. from what i read in the reviews here, i thought u could make it go clean. it CANNOT and WILL NOT. the sound it gets is REALLY cool though, it's basically laughable. if u turn the blend knob all the way down and just play a bunch of random notes it sounds just like centipede. this thing seriously sounds like Atari music. i use my bass with it, and i play a low E and just go higher and higher on the fretboard and it sounds just like pole position. seriously. it sounds JUST LIKE IT. i was done in my room and my mom goes "what were u playing in there?" like i was playing my atari! (i still have one that still works!!) also, i need to stress this, this pedal doesnt have very much sustain at all. with all that weird fuzz and distortion going on u think it would, but it DOESNT. aaannnd if u try to palm mute or something like that the notes get this really weird decay to them. it's fun to mess around with though. also, ive noticed that messing with the volume knob on ur guitar can help u create different sounds. like turned down quite a bit and if u pick pretty hard the note kind of fades in and out in a weird cool way. u have to play different with it on but u can really create some cool noises that u NEVER could with any normal distortion pedal. using this thing on a bass for doing anything other than atari music is WORTHLESS. it barely accepts any of the notes u play. it'll jump around and try to find the right note, resulting in more atari sounding music. which is pretty fun, i like to make it do that on purpose. u CAN use it if u have the blend knob all the way up, and then it just gets weird ugly distortion, and isnt't worth using really. there basically isnt any practical use for this pedal. i cant fit it into any songs, unless i want to play a screwed up rendition of it. other than that, it's just a toy to mess around with. it's fun, but i wouldnt buy one for over 50 bucks. I love this thing, it's crazy and it's basically the frankenstein of guitar pedals. You just have to be into making weird noises or else you wont like this thing at all. im not going to leave an opinion on the sound quality though, because the thing that makes this thing so cool is the LACK of sound quality. it's so screwed up, u cant say it sounds "good"! it sounds COOL. one thing i dont like though is that if it's in the chain, even if it's off, u hear this weird, faint, really fuzzy sound wheneveru play anything. its like the same note u're playing, but really fuzzy. it's quiet, but not quiet enough to not notice. so i dont put it in the chain if im not using it. i definately wouldnt have it in the chain if i was recording and not using it, becuase this noise is pretty noticable. also, u have to have the output knob just about all the way up or it's quiet than the clean signal. i think that it sucks, cuz u cant hit the blue box and go from a normal tone to a weird fuzzy tone and have it a lot louder than the other tone u just had. so u have to work around that. other than that, i dont have any complaints. it does what it's supposed to do, which is to be weird!

Like every other MXR pedal ive used, this is a sturdy pedal and it has a really good footswitch. u have to push down on it pretty good, so i dont think it'll give out on me any time soon (if ever).

never dealt with MXR before. never had to. thats a good thing.

This is a very cool pedal. Sometimes i think "man, i cant do anything with this but make atari music." but i know that if i sold it i would REALLY wish i hadn't later. they're not popular at all, and pretty hard to find, and i dont even know if MXR makes new ones any more. i dont know how they'd make money off of them. All i know is that this is a really cool pedal. u can do a lot of stuff with it that normal pedals will never be able to do. i like hitting 2 notes that REALLY dont go together and letting them ring, it sounds like something blew up (in an atari game of course). Basically, when u play it u cant tell the difference between a Low F and a Low G on the bottom string, but thats okay. it's fun to hit them and see what comes out. this thing does something different every time u play a note. i like how the note will jump around and try to get to where it's supposed to be but never quite gets it. The only thingi dont like about it is that u cant control the distortion, but the thing is without that weird fuzz it wouldnt be a Blue Box. i just wish i could control it somehow. I dont think i'll ever sell this pedal, if i do i will regret it later. i got mine for 50 bucks used, and it was worth the money. i would recommend it to anyone who likes weird noises and likes to spend time playing and just tweaking knobs and seeing what comes out. i dont think people who like blues and traditional music will like it much, because it wont get any traditional tones, and it doesnt really have much of a use in a "normal" sounding song. It's one of my favorites just cuz it's so weird and it's really a lot of fun to mess with. if u want to use this as a straight octave pedal u BETTER NOT. it always has the fuzz on it, and plus the tracking on this pedal sucks. it's supposed to. it's a great weird pedal, but it wont do a lot. i think i might wanna gte a EH bassballs or a DOD Buzz box or something else to fill my need for weird pedals. but this is definately a great choice for a weird pedal. I'd give it higher than i did, but it's not very practical and u cant use it a lot during songs just cuz it's so weird. but that's what makes it fun.

With only two knobs (and one of them is an output level), it never gets too complicated. Some might find the lack of control a little frustrating (just mix and output level), and you can have a little trouble getting the octave to track, depending on how and where you play.

If you want to take a look at the sound coming out of one of these, you should probably check out the taglines they sell with: "A musical synthesizer?" That's a good place to start, and a decent explanation for the lack of a Gain control. This isn't so much a fuzz pedal as it is a waveshaper-it essentially obliterates the sound of your instrument, chopping it into a very odd, hard clipped tone.

The lower octave is something truly special, and definitely unique. Keep your mind on that Musical Synthesizer line, because if you want an octave-down distortion, you are in the wrong place. Unlike most octave pedals, you can dial this thing to give you just octave, none of your original pitch, and have that octave come thundering through like a freight train? if you can control it well? which may take a little practice. As you pick down to the lower range of where that octave will track, you can actually hear the cycling of the waveform, like an oscillator moving slow.

Anywhere between the two extremes will give a nice stacked-oscillator sound, with the original pitch and the tone two octaves down. The waveshaping on the original tone will handle chords just fine (though, careful, this is not a dynamic distortion pedal), the octave will get messy.

The output is gated-when it's not making noise, it is dead silent (probably to keep the thing from tracking on any random hiss that comes through your pickups). Simply because the way this machine works, there is sort of a muted high end on it. This is a pedal for the low end, and it's just not very bright and sparkly. Personally, I like to run a Big Muff after it, because it really brightens up the straight tone of the Bluebox.

I've been looking for this for years? if I'd known that this is what the Bluebox did, I would have picked one up a long, long time ago. This and a decent filter will take you to town in higher style the the Boss SYB-3 or the EH Microsynth (neither of which I have ever been happy with). The Bluebox is pure goodness? dense tone, odd sounds, and no lag (viva analog!).

Of course, I am stepping up to the podium on this one because of the previous review? which just can't be allowed to remain the top entry for this pedal-- "are people so incapable of being objective or can't they admit they've spent their hard earned money on a mythical piece of junk?" Ye gods, man-how can it be that everyone who likes this pedal "has no taste?"

On the other side, I am not a nostalgia player. I don't emulate anyone, and I'm not a fan of 70's rock. I like to use this before a MoogerFooger Low Pass Filter and run fat, squelchy synth tones from it. The pedal may be limited, but it is still unique-a strong, distinct synth tone, a basic oscillator that I can modify myself with any outboard effect imaginable (seems like most synth pedals come with nasty, non-bypassable, thin little filters)? just a powerful foundation for lots and lots of sonic wildness.

Don't let the prejudices of a few bring you down? they are definitely the few. This pedal may be for freaks, but there aren't many posts by people who dislike the Bluebox.

Use the Mix to either get a terrible Fuzz sound or a terrible Octave sound

What is wrong with people? Just look at the scores below - are people so incapable of being objective or can't they admit they've spent their hard earned money on a mythical piece of junk? When I went through a phase of buying MXRs in the 70's I noticed that this script version (very important - NOT)sat in a dealers window in the West Midlands (UK) for some years and eventually we agreed a price and I bought it. Well I see now why nobody else wanted it. It was the biggest piece of crap I have ever bought. The tracking was absolutely dreadfull but worse than that, the fuzz tone that the Octave sound was derived from was just noise. I repeat it is the worst effect I have ever owned (the Distortion+ came close) and I have been through almost everything. I grudgingly give it a 1 because 0 isn't an option.

I had most of the MXR units and yes they were great at the time (my favourites were - Phase 100, Distortion II, Limiter and Micro Amp - see also my review on the Loop Selector). But things have moved on guys - nostalgia is only worth so much. These devices didn't even have true bypass. I kept all of mine in great condition and I just laugh at how people are clambering to get hold of some pretty beat up units. If you buy one of these then you are either a fanatical collector or you've got no taste. Don't say I didn't warn you. Another grudging 1.

2 knobs input jack output jack

i tried using this with my guitar but everything ended up sounding like wanky 70s psychedelic crap (no wonder jmascis owns one).
now i use it for drum, vocal and synthesiser processing.
i get incredibly fierce drum sounds by running my kawai r100 through the blue box and setting the blend knob anywhere from 12 oclock to full right (4 oclock?). very hardcore :wumpscut:, fiendflug style sounds that fill up the mix in a hurry.
i use the blue box with blend set pretty close to full right for vocals as well. good if you produce some higher harmonics with your voice by whispering or screaming, but more i tend to get too much rumbling from a straight singing or talking vocal style. also, since the octave doubler doesn't always lock onto the fundamental, it's hard to sing melodically through it.
hooking up my arp omni, the blue box gives a whole new dimension of sounds by sweeping the blend knob while playing. great for putting up dynamic walls of noise.

dropped it on the pavement when i was bringing it home. can't even find a scratch or dent in it.

no contact

i make electro/ebm and noise music and it works great for that. it's biggest shortcoming is, of course, it's very low output level. i wouldn't pay the $115, i've seen them advertised for, but really a great value at $50 or less.

Very easy to use. A bit harder to figure out how to deal with
the volume loss. Takes some time to change the batteries.
After using it for about 15 minutes it loads my pickups
and causes them to distort even on bypass mode unless I
put a buffered pedal between it and my guitar.

Various strats with various humbuckers -> Blue Box ->
Trace Elliot tramp tube 60w combo. Causes no noise.
When the blend pot is on max it only fuzzes your guitar
and when its on min it only lets through the weird
synthesized lower octave. Set elsewhere the blend pot
mixes up these signals. You can use it as a fuzz box
only but still it has its characteristic industrial
sound. The lower octave tracking is very bad and funky,
but thats the way its meant to be. This pedal is for
weirdness and serious noisy freak out music anyway.
You can possibly make the tracking better by putting
various sustain adding pedals before it.

At least it looks indestructible. I've had it
for just about a month so I cant tell for sure.

It is a guitar pedal but I've already tried it out with my
drum machine, vocals and also tried it with a guitar to
a 120W Yamaha bass amplifier. The bass amp gave nice low
gritty random octaves, but I guess it wouldn't be that
useable for anything more than just fooling around.
The Blue Box connected to a drum machine was however
quite useable for any kinds of industrial music.
Yes it works in vocals, but only if you want a lot
of noise.

Two knobs, one for VOLUME and one for BLEND. VOLUME is self-explanitory. BLEND is a little tricky, but it took a cowderhead like myself to figure it out in about a few seconds. When BLEND is at zero, it is a plain octaver, and you can't get a decent sound unless you play high up on the neck. When you turn BLEND ot max, it causes the pedal to be a fuzz-box type effect. Your mission (if you choose to accept it) is to find some sound you dig between zero and max. When the BLEND is somewhere in the middle and play somewhere high up on the neck, you can get some really really weird sounds out of it that sound like some old Nintendo games. The fuzz-box type effect kinda reminds me of old Black Sabbath for some reason, but I am probably just on crack. Oh, and mine didn't come with a manual.

I my chain (so far) is Gibson HAWK --> Blue Box --> Boss Metal Zone --> Carvin VTR 2800 100w tube amp --> Jackson 4x12 Cabinet. It is probably one of the most quiet pedals I have ever played; there is no unwanted noise whatsoever. I mostly use it for a boost when I play solos because I set the VOL at max and BLEND to somewheres between 10 o'clock and 12 o'clock. It gives me a really really cool tone that really stands out. The reason I gave it a 9 was because there's a slight drop-off in volume when it is selected. Also, the sound gets a little middy when used by itself. It really isn't that noticible if you use it on it's own, but I can really tell when using the Metal Zone. No biggy, though. Also, the sustain on this thing will keep on going IF you keep the note fetted. Once you pick your finger up, it will die a quick and painful death. But I like it, so again, no biggie. I heard that Buzz Osborn from the Melvins uses one of these thingamajigs, and it does not surprise me.

It's a MXR, which equals "hunk of metal that can withstand anything up to and including thermonuclear war." The only thing is that the light tends to be a little tempermental, and does not come on sometimes, but if you can't tell that this pedal is on, you must be Hellen Keller or something.

Never called them, YET. But I will contact them about the light messing up.

I started playing punk (and am in what I call my ?pseudo-punk / cacophony of noise? phase) and enjoy noisy bands like the Melvins, Sonic Youth, Big Black, and even Flipper, and this pedal really gets me all hot and bothered. I read all these reviews on this baby and couldn't wait to go out and buy one. It suits my personality just fine and I really enjoy making a godawful racket with this thing. It's simple enough for a dunderhead like me to figure it out, and it makes all sorts of cool noises to keep me occupied for many hours on end. I suggest that if you are into shredding, or into guys named Yngwie, or bands with (or had) lots of hair and makeup, you will not like this pedal one bit. But if you are into making an ungodly menagerie of a racket to raise Cthulhu from his watery slumber, this is the pedal for you. Enjoy!

The Blue Box was extremely easy to use. I brought it home, plugged it in (oh yes, and added batteries), and began to make noise. You could honestly teach a very dumb person to do this, because it only involves turning knobs. However, the real magic begins when you begin to understand what each knob does, and what happens when you put it where. Then, you can balance both knobs to get precisely the sound you want. It took me about 2 days to get the exact sounds i wanted (but one of those days was just messing around) so i'd give it a 9.

I am using a Fender Jazzmaster or Epiphone G-400 Deluxe into a 95Q Crybaby, into A Big Muff, into A Poly Chorus, into the Blue Box, into a Crate GFX-212. The Blue Box creates no noise at all in this position (but it may be hard to tell if it does, due to the rather noisy Poly Chorus). When I played Guitar-Blue Box-Amp, i had no problem at all. Very Quiet operation, and wonderful Sound. The effects on this baby sound awesome, but if you aren't careful, the volume will drop, which was really frustrating before i got the hang of it. Have you ever heard the solo to "Blue Skies Bring Tears" by the Smashing Pumpkins? I think that really wet, chaotic fuzz sound is from a Blue Box. If you turn both knobs all the way up, you can't even hear separate strings or chords. So, you can use it as a fuzz box, but honestly, i think it works best on extremely noisy solos or noisy parts in your songs. My band plays a funk-alt-metal-no wave kind of music, and this pedal fits nicely into songs with noisy sections. If you REALLY want a spacy chaotic section in a song that will make Mom think the house is falling, put your reverb pedal or reverb channel on all the way. With the blue box and reverb, you can get a really really awesome sound that will complement any Sonic YOuth-ish noise sections in your music. My only problem was the occasional volume drop, but you just need to learn how to use it. A perfect 10.

All MXR pedals are built sturdily (which is more than i can say for an old Small Stone i had that fell apart) and i have no problems with the switching. My only suggestion is that before you switch off the Box, Slowly bring the volume down, so the immense noise doesn't just click away into silence. I would gig without a backup, and if anyone stole it, I would get extremely pissed (and im usually pretty non-chalant). I can always depend on this pedal's construction.

I never had to deal with MXR/Dunlop about the Blue Box, but when i had a problem with a Crybaby i had three years ago, they were pretty helpful.

My band is pretty diverse as far as music goes, but there is nothing i love more than making noisy solos, and the Blue Box is perfect for me. I have been playing for 10 years now, and this is one of my favorite pedals. If it were stolen, i would try to find another one. I like the fact that its sonically diverse, because its like a fuzz box on one end of its spectrum, but like a hurricane on the other. I'd compare it a little to a Frequency Analyzer, not because of its sound but because of its awesome noise-making power. I also love the reverb-blue box trick. My least favorite part of this pedal is the "octaver" thing, but since its apart of the pedal, i dont have a problem with it. It's just my personal preference. I don't recommend this pedal for everyone. I suggest you go to a store and find one, and PLAY IT FIRST. This only represents my viewpoint, not yours,

If you have one finger capable of turning a knob, then you are set.

I run a Yamaha Pacifica into a Danelectro pratice amp (hey my simple bedroom jammer's rig, I don't want the neighbors to shoot me!) My Effects chain is like this: Guitar >> crybaby wah >> boss ds-1 >> proco rat >> old Pearl Flanger >> blue box. With this setup, the blue box is completely quiet. No hum, no white noise, nothing. Even with all my dist pedals on this thing doesn't make a peep. The only beef I have with it is that it tends to get, for lack of a better description, pixelated and scratchy sounding. But this is all a part of the weirdness of this thing

Built like a goddamned tank. I would feel confident that the thing would not break even if I jumped off of a highrise onto the stomp switch. The one effect I have had for a few months that I have not need to change batteries with and I use it every day when practicing.

Never dealt with Dunlop/MXR

I play mainly anything that I think has a good sound to it, and I am a HUGE Nirvana fan. I have been playing for almost a year now so I am still in the experimentation phase as far as effects and the like are concerned. I would definately track down and rape with a blow torch anyone that stole this from me, it is the ultimate noise maker. I guess this is just one of those oddities that you have to hear to believe. I had no Idea what this thing sounded like until I bought one. Everyone I have leant it to loves it. I do wish it was a little louder but that could be due to my setup as others have had to only set the output to half way while I have it set to full on. Just for kicks I wish it had a distortion level setting as this thing combines distortion and Octaver (in case you didn't know) and it woudl be good to fool around with it. I would recommend that people at least try these little beauties or consider MXR effects in general as they feel really fucking solid. I would buy another MXR pedal if need be.