MXR DD-11 Dime Distortion

This pedal has a very good eq section, it gives you a lot of control, and because of this I found myself spending quite a bit of time fine-tuning the sound. I am very picky, so I had to spend some time with this unit. Overall, a straight - forward no nonsense pedal, easy enough to use.

Im using vintage (70's and early 80's) Fender tube amps with a Les Paul Standard. I purchased this pedal because I play live a lot, and have been using a Visual Sound Ultimate Overdrive along with my trusty Proco Rat 2. I boost all of my pedals with a TS-9 tubescreamer, to add some extra sustain and snap to my sound.
To make a long story short, the Ultimate Overdrive just would not cut through the band live, and the Rat cut through but was too fuzzy at high gain settings. I needed a high-gain pedal that would cut through the mix, and remain clear and precise. Thats why I chose the Dime Distortion. I basically have two moods, one where I want to play classic blues influenced rock (Led Zep, ZZ Top, Gary Moore, just to name a few) and another mood where I want to play hard shreddy stuff (Zakk Wylde, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, to name a few). The Dime Distortion does a pretty good job of covering the shred moods. I use the Rat for the classic rock moods.
The Dime Distortion has replaced my Visual Sound Ultimate Overdrive on my pedal board. Visual Sound makes a great pedal, but it just will not cut through live. The Dime Distortion cuts like a razor, and with the three band eq, I can fine tune my sound to just about any environment. The Dime Distortion sounds pretty good on its own, but I use my TS-9 to boost it for some extra kick and sustain. Without the boost, I would give it an 8. With the boost, I would give it a 9.
Some have given this pedal a bad review, and if your using it with unreal expectations I can see why. I did not buy this pedal to sound like anyone in particular, I bought it because it suits my style and allows me to play fast runs under high-gain situations without being muddy or lost in the mix. It could maybe use a little more saturation, but the boost from the TS-9 kind of makes up for that. I find the sound to be clear, smooth, and crunchy. It does not sound like a fizzy AM radio like a Boss Metal Zone. Overall, its not real "natural" sounding, but thats really not what I purchased it for. I wanted an agressive tone that would cut through, and still maintain clarity with lots of single notes. Power chords are crunchy, defined, and aggressive.
This pedal works well with my Boss DD-3 and reacts well to the boost from my TS-9. The Dime is very quiet for a distortion pedal, even while being boosted. Its not a tube amp, but it is a good pedal, much better than a Boss, Digitech, or others. Im giving it an 8.

No problems, built like a brick.

This pedal suits my need for high gain shred style music and hard rock. I have been playing for over 10 years now and have owned most pedals worth talking about. I like clean sounding amps, and prefer to use pedals when I need distortion/overdrive. If it were lost or stolen I would buy another one.
I like the combination of punch and clarity. It could use a little more distortion (so I wouldnt have to boost it) and a 9 volt adapter instead of an 18 volt. I dont care for the scoop button, so I dont use it. Its not perfect, but I feel that my ability as a player makes up the difference.
Death/Nu Metal players probably would not like this pedal, I know it was designed in conjunction with Dimebag himself, but the pedal just doesnt sound that "heavy" to me. It works great for me when Im in the "shred" mood, and has just enough gain/distortion to suit my style. All in all, a pretty solid unit.

It's pretty simple. Some knobs, and stuff, you know...it's got bass mid treb and output, which is volume, which is level. It's got one button. BUT THAT BUTTON DOES TWO THINGS, on AND off. It's awesome. Yeah it's also got a miniauture little button off to the side that scoops your mids of you want to be a totaly bad assed rythmn AND lead player, i don't know why they put it off to the side of the buttons, if you were gonna reach down and press it while playing you might as well just turn your mids down, but i guess you might be able to tap that bitch with your foot. The pedal used to be all green and say DIME and it was totaly cartoony and bad ass, not it's a crappy kind of camo (unlike dimes washburn or rg or warheads which had cool camo) and has his face. But who cares it's still good. Also it has an input and an out put, which is awesome cause those are pretty important. Oh and there is alight to indicate the scoopage of mids nad the oness of the effect. It is, like all mxr and dunlop pedals, TOTALY KICK ASS, and true bipass, which is really imporant. for you fools out there that means if the battery dies, (like that baby i dropped) the effect won't go CHREAACHCHHHHCHHHHHHHEISHEUCHHHHH and make those pissing me off noises that those stupid dan electro peices of cheap shit make. The only good thing dan electro ever did was make that guitar jimmy page used for slide.

It sound's like a Randall Rg 75 G2. If you read my review of that amp you would realise that this effect is AWESOME. If it could power a cab it would be a sweet head.

I dropped it, stomped on it as hard as I could and hurt my foot, Yelled at it, Threw it through a wall, Broke a guitar over it, Spilled beer on it, Threw it through a drum kit, Swung it around by the cable and whipped it into the floor as hard as I could, Bit it and tried to flush it down the toilet and it didn't break, this was all at the guitar store, i don't actually own one.

I never talked to them, is jim dunlop alive still?

This is good for people who like good tone.

Stomp Pedal. Four knobs, five switches, all said. Editing is manual, and talking about firmware revision is crazy. Is a stomp pedal for **** sake! I just read about somebody trying to press the "mid cut" switch with his foot! C'mon guys!

Hard specs are as follows: Not true bypass / 3 band EQ of huge spectrum / Scoop Switch that notches mid frequencies / High Gain (probably over 20db!) / Die-cast Zinc Housing, meaning this is STRONG / Made in the USA.

I understand fully the debate that is going on here, since IMHO the life of the electric guitar rock player could be described as the endless pursuit of the perfect distortion. From the so called ?boutique? noise generators in the US and Japan to the massive, oppressive gain of the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier and Krank heads, everyone of us had been looking for that sound in our heads at, in, on, towards and from unimaginable places. The funny thing about that is that ?the? sound we?re after evolves with our own selves. It becomes impossible to describe it after a while, and we realize that we don?t know what we want? yet we positively know. Enter distortion boxes. The choice is so vast that is impossible to choose. The methods of obtaining simulated or genuine distortion range wild. Tubes, transistors, FET transistors, interference? just to saw a couple of waves. The amount of resources placed on getting it is endless. What is undisputable, although, is that distortion defines the electric guitar.

If I confessed that I had my share of experimentation with compression, that is nothing in comparison with what I did to achieve a satisfying distorted tone. No stone was left unturned. That introduced me to all time classics and to an endless menu of timbres. At one point, I decided that the core of the solution resided in the head. In the amplifier head, that is.

Notwithstanding the aforesaid, every now and then the need for a distortion box resurrects, as happened a few weeks ago. What I needed in a distortion box now was something mild, yet with defined character and enough gain to boost up a little bit my Mesa Boogie Dual Caliber DC3. I get my distortion from the amplifier every time, but I felt that the DC3 needed an ?extra push?. I went out to check some preamplifier (or ?booster?) stomp boxes, but finally decided that a powerful overdrive or (better yet), a distortion will do just fine. To get this going, I started the hunt with an old usual classic: the MXR Distortion +. I really don?t know what happened since the late 70?s, but the modern reissues have no resemblance whatsoever to the ones I remember. Since I was already into that (and I hate DOD, ART, Zoom, DigiTech, Ibanez and Boss? distortion) the ZW44 (MXR Zakk Wyle signature) was presented to me. What a rip off! I discarded that as fast as I?m capable of unplugging an electric guitar. I dug into more serious stuff (Buddha, Mesa V-Twin, etc.) but that was not what I was looking for. Never seriously though about checking this camouflage box, but I was running out of options. I finally get it because of the radical EQ and considerable gain levels. Since the camouflage is already there, I threw it in the jungle of my home studio and we?ll see if this got what it takes to survive?

With identical specs, this pedal was manufactured in two different versions. The first runs of production presented a rectangular metal box finished in a discrete military green and the following runs, finished it in some high profile camouflage paint, together with an ugly portrait of Dime?s stenciled face (see picture). I?ve got one of the latter specimens, and I?m becoming famous for my lack of good taste. Every single time a popular player dies (the goriest and youngest the better) some manufacturer manages to pull out a ?signature? product at a ridiculously high price tag (this pedal is well over 100 USD! and compares modestly to similar stomp boxes costing half of that figure), so I guess I?m not alone in my quest for bad taste. BTW, Dime?s signature DB01 Wah from Dunlop is also available at the time of this release.

Going back to how this sounds, you'll be just right if you know what you're doing (which is not harder that getting distortion out of a distortion unit). If you're a purist about slighly crunch tones, I'm sure you'll never get this pedal... or reading this for that matter. If you want to sound e-xac-tly like Darrell (or any other) you'll learn sooner or later that the search is hopeless, and some 100 bucks stomp box will not be a magic potion. If you're after some brutal distortion (which could alternatively could scoop mids nastily) this is the one.

Looks like a stomp pedal, feels like a stomp pedal. Dependability could not be an issue. I felt that older pedals (e.g. Japanese Boss or a DA Fuzz) were somewhat more reliable, but that's nothing I can prove with hard facts. Die-cast Zinc housing is probably the highest quality (int erms of reliability) you can get today, so no complaints whatsoever.

Gigging without a backup is ALWAYS a bad idea, and I never did that when I was at the professional level. Nowadays I couldn't care less about that, but I suspect this box might survive regular abuse.

Never dealt with them. I was impressed about how much Dunlop changed over the years (just checking at their website)...

No upgrade possible, and never needed repairs. On the other hand never broke, so that's ggod news.

I mostly play shred, so this one is an arguable choice. Notwithstanding, I do experiment a LOT with tones and colors, so this pedal always come handy. I own more than 100 guitars and several amplifiers and I've been playing for more than 30 years now. I fail to see the use of this, but was in the question.

No loves or hates in particular, I will just state that this pedal is an interesting addition to anybody in the market for intense distortion. You might want to have some other pedals, but this sounds with a strong character and you'll find room for it in years to come.

The DD-11 is a very easy pedal to use. Basic nobs and a scoop button which gets rid of all the mids.
If you don't understand this pedal than i don't know why you bother useing effects at all.

Gibson Les Paul Classic, Ibanez RG 570, Vantage (don't know what model) -> sennhieser evolution 300 wireless -> morley bad horsie wah -> dime distortion -> ernie ball 6166 volume pedal -> line 6 digital delay modeler -> marshall tsl 100 head -> custom made quad
This pedal has the most raw sound i've ever heard out of a distortion pedal. It absolutely kicks the shit out of anything i've ever heard. If ur into hardcore death metal don't bother with this pedal. If u want rock, blues, heavy metal, punk and probably even jazz then this is for you. WIth the scoop button in it sounds exactly like dime (i don't really like that sound.) U can get a better Zakk Wylde kinda sound out of this pedal than using the zz-44.
I absoluetly love this pedal
It's kinda like the boss metal zone but doesn't have the digital, super fake sound.

So far so good. I've had it for 3 or 4 months now no complaints. The only thing was my power plug is a little dodgy. Every time i plug it in i'd have to fiddle a bit so it would work but after that little fiddle it's fine untill i unplug it. I've never heard of this happening before so i wouldn't worry about it.

None. Too good a pedal to need customer support i recon

I play rock, blues and alot of heavy metal (godsmack, metallica and anthrax, acdc ...) I've been playing for 14 years and this pedal has done me prowed. If this pedal was taken away from me i'd buy another. Even if it would costs me double the amount.
FUCKEN KILLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyone who says this pedal is week, or sucks the quality out or anything like that is fucked in the head. They just gotta know how to use it and YOU NEED A GOOD SET UP TO SOUND GOOD. GOOD PEDAL + CRAP AMP = SHIT
remember that folks

No worries at all, not exactly rocket science! I will say like previous reviewers, that the controls really do change the tones drastically with minimal adjustment. If you don't get your esired sound straight away, dont panic! With a few minutes spent messing around you'll soon find it.

Manual is very clear too, A+

This thing hangs! Im playing a Les Paul Custom through a Boss V- Wah, MXR ZW-44, Dime Distortion, Boss Super Chorus into a JCM 800 hooked up to a 4x12 1960B and the earth literally does move!

I run my amp on a nice crunchy dirty classic Marshall tone, anduse the Wylde overdrive to get a real nice high gain (Lizzy esq) classic rock tone, then swith to the Dime distortion for the heavy stuff. Like the previous reviewers here, i too have had a love hate relationship with my Metalzone for a few years now, but trust me this thing blows it out of the water! Massive bottom end and ear-piercing highs combined to give you that textbook Pantera, Corrosion, Down, Black Label tone without sounding artifical or too processed. The scoop switch is awesome too for cutting the mids. I hear Zakk also used it for the real heavy tunes on the Mafia album..

Looks and feels totally bomb proof like an airline Black Box flight recorder.

Cant wait to gig with it, if the internals are half as well put together as the exterior, reliability issues wouldnt even cross my mind!

Have had my Wylde Overdrive for 6 or so months now and had no gripes with that at all.

No dealings as yet,

Red Diesel play all sorts of styles, from mellow as hell ambient tunes to classic rock to Heavy as hell arse-kicking tunes like 'Trample the Weak Hurdle the Dead'. This pedal does exactly what you'd expect it to, without totally raping the natural tones of your amp like said Metalzone! So if you want a great sounding, wonderfully manufactured metal pedal, buy it today! You can even get a nice Sabbath esq old school rock sound too with the gain wound down playing through a clean channel.

My only real gripes are the fact that you can't run the thing on batteries (to my knowledge), and that the scoop switch could have done with being wired up next to the main on/off button for ease of switching when playing live (as its a bit of a fine art otherwise). Overall though, the great tone more than makes up for these little niggles.

Bleed Red Diesel!!!

This pedal is so easy to get good sounds from. Anyone can use it. Level,Bass,Mid,Treble,and Gain knobs. A cool feature is the scoop switch that I use most of the time.It gives you that Pantera, metal tone.

This is my new favorite pedal.I was using a Metal Zone, but I came across this and immediately bought it since Dimebag Darrell just died. It's sound quality is just better than the Metal Zone. It is warmer and less processed. The lows are lower and the highs are higher. It cuts through like no other pedal.I love it.

This is so dependable. I would definitely gig without a backup. The letters glow in the dark too!No more searching around a dark stage. It is solid steel. I think you could run over it with a car.

Never speaked with them.

This is definitely the best distortion pedal that I have ever used. Don't think that this is just for metal. I can get this pedal to do anything. Buy one now before they cost 3 times as much as they do now.

Easy, just turn the knobs and spend some time with it.

Im using Les Pauls with tube amps, and this pedal has the metal tone I was looking for. I have been using a Boss Metal Zone, and grew tired of the thin-chainsaw like noise it produces. The Dime Distortion is what the Metal Zone will never be, it sounds more natural, and cuts through the mix well. I had tried all the other "metal" distortions, and until I found the Dime I thought the Metal Zone was as good as it was going to get. Now Im happy, and have the metal tone I wanted. As stated by MXR, this pedal is not "pretty" or "vintage", its raw and powerful, and does not overprocess my guitars like the Metal Zone.

If you like metal, hard rock, and heavy stuff, and have a Metal Zone that you love to hate, give the Dime a try. I am keeping my Metal Zone for a backup, in case the Dime malfunctions (Im sure it wont though). Now my tone sounds more "real" and cuts through much better when I play live. I almost went for the new Rocktron "Zombie" Rectified Distortion pedal, but I have owned two of their newer pedals and they both quit working after light use. The Dime is made in the USA and seems to be a quality pedal in both sound and construction. It helps me make music.

It's so easy the only people that will have problems are bugs.

It's raw and rips you ass off.

hell yeah it's realiable. I gig without a backup of anything. Any money for a backup is quickly used for something else.

MXR is like Maytag, repair what?

I think this is the pedal for me. It does take some tweaking to get your own sound, and as many days there are in a year, so are the sound possibilities from different guitar/amp setups. This is raw distortion, not a processed or modeled sound, so you will have to configure your other effects to sculpt your own sound, whatever it may be. If you run it into a tube amp on it's own it is bad ass. I run it into a ibanez tb100 solid state combo with a boss compressor in front of it and that's it. I'm currently getting Randy Bachman type lead sounds and Tony Iommi rythym and lead sounds from it, and the pinch harmonics come through no problem. This fucker is tits!

this thing is really easy to use. volume, bass, mid, treble, gain, and scoop switch. like the other reviews say, you must mess with it for a bit in order to get a sound that is to your liking.

i play a ibanez sa160 with a sd invader in the bridge. from the ibanez, there is the dime distortion, then a digitech multi-chorus, then my fender princeton chorus 2x10. i don't use the effects loop because it muddies up the distortion, on any box. this pedal has great sound quality. it really made my sound bigger and it gave me that razor distortion. although it does not sound just like dime, it comes close. if u tune down to B, u can get a damageplan like sound out of this thing. my settings are: scooped switch on, level at 9am, bass at 3pm, mids all the way down, treble all the way up, and the gain all the way up. after playing this thing yesterday for awhile, i will have to say that it is better in my opinion than the digitech metal master.

built solid. practically indestructible. its good stuff, thats what you get from mxr.

i am sure it is great, but from what i can tell, i will have no need from it. because of how well built this thing is.

if you want a different kind of heavy distortion. one with an attitude then this is your pedal.

This pedal IS easy to get a good sound out of, BUT, you MUST spend some time with it. This pedal has some of the most sensitive and comprehensive tone controls that I have ever seen/used. Very small tweaks DRASTICALLY change the sound, so you cant just set the knobs in one place and call it a bad sounding pedal, you have to play with it. The bass, mid, and treble knobs ALL have HUGE tone shaping power, so you must spend time dialing them in.

My setup is basic, Gibson Les Paul guitars through a silverface Deluxe Reverb. I use a Boss Delay/Reverb pedal and a Dime Custom Wah. Like the previous reviewer, I cant believe that this pedal has gotten so many bad reviews. When I first got this pedal, I didnt like it. Then, I started moving the tone knobs around and the pedal just opened up. This pedal has a ton of sounds in it, and the knobs give you more range and more sounds than knobs on other pedals. I think that some of the past reviewers probably did not give it enough time or adjustment. This pedal has TONS of sustain with my Les Pauls, and I love the mid-range presence in the sound. Its not mosquito like, or annoying like a Boss Metal Zone. Individual notes ring out clear, even on the neck pickup of my Les Paul. I can get really thick sustaining lead tones, or nice crunch tones out of this pedal. Sure, if you have bad equipment, this pedal wont do anything miraculous for your tone, nothing will. But, anyone with good gear and some REAL talent should be able to get some great sounds out of this unit. I play classic rock, hard rock, and blues. This pedal is a little over the top for blues, but I still make it work (just roll off the volume on your pickups). Artists I admire are Joe Perry, Jimmy Page, Zakk Wylde, EVH, Gary Moore, and the Edge from U2. My style is a combination of all of them, and this pedal suits me nicely. You can get some bad sounds out of this pedal, but the good ones are worth it, and give me a nice aggresive/nasty rock tone. Ill give it a 9 because nothing is perfect, but its close!!

Built like a tank, very solid, no problems.

Are you sick of cookie cutter distortion pedals? I was, which is why I purchased the Dime. I wanted a mean distortion sound that still sounded somewhat musical, and not buzzy or fizzy like a Metal Zone. This pedal does the trick for me, my Les Pauls love this pedal, they sound fantastic with it. Im not sure if single coils would sound that well with it, but it sounds great with humbuckers. I dont know why so many reviewers dislike this pedal, I suspect its a combination of poor gear, and no patience. No gripes, I like the pedal. Im going to purchase the new MXR Wylde Overdrive, then, Ill have a killer pair of pedals.