MXR DD-11 Dime Distortion

Easy to get many great sounds from this pedal. Great layout.

I use a Les Paul Standard w/EMG 81 & 85 pickups into a Marshall JCM900. I've been playing for 16 years, and play out every other weekend. I can't believe some of the bad reviews this pedal has gotten, but no pedal is going to make a Peavey Bandit sound good anyway. I play hard rock and metal, and this pedal is amazing, it replaced a Keeley Metal Zone on my board. The Keeley is great, but very processed sounding. The Dime has tons of distortion and sustain, and the most effective EQ section I have ever used in a pedal. It actually lets your guitar's tone shine through very well also. It has true-bypass and works great wit other pedals. Amazing for Leads and Rhytmn!!

Indestructable, it has survived heavy gigging without a problem. A tank!!

You'll probably never need it, but this is an American company, so contact is no problem. Try contacting Boss!

If I ever lost this, I'd buy another in a second, I love this pedal. I had thought the Keeley Zone was the ultimate Metal pedal, this one kicked it's butt, and it has true-bypass switching. Check one of these out through a nice setuo, you will not be dissappointed. It's meaner than the lead channel ofthe JCM900, exactly what I was looking for.

Its a pedal, how hard can it be? Just switch the knobs around and find the sounds that suits you.

I love this thing. I played it through a PRS 10 top custom 24 and a fender 100. The lows where a little dull for my liking but I can't say I spent a lot of time with the PRS (bros guitar). I also played it through a $160 Yamaha Pacifica and the trebs where great and it destroyed the feedback my cruddy ass thing gave. The lows where really muddy on the Yamaha (what can you expect with a cheap ass started) but the PRS had decent lows and incredible mids and highs. I also love the "Scoop" setting which is fun to solo in. Anyway, if this thing can make a pretty bad Yamaha and a fender 25 to a PRS and a fender 100 both sound pretty damn good, I'd fo for it.

This thing is a tank. You could shoot this thing and prolly couldnt break the casing. Solid metal, still awlays gig with a backup

Screw customer support, fix it on your own. (Unless MRX ripped you off of your money, then you can complain).

I can bust out almost any metallica song on this thing. I've been playing for about 2 1/2 years and played a good # of pedals before buying, loved this one from the start. I own a Jackson sl2h select ,fender 100, yamaha pacifica (very nice starter thing actually), and I've played it through a PRS ten top at a gig. They all sounded incredible. If it were lost or stolen, I would prolly buy another one if I had the money. Love the scoop and treb, dont like the bass. Very great pedal, recommeneded if you need to make your equipment sound better then it actually is.

How much easier do you want a pedal? This is extrememly easy to use, even for a primate at the zoo!

I've submitted this review because I think a lot of people dont understand THAT YOU NEED A GOOD AMP to have a pedal SOUND GOOD. Running this though my Carvin MTS (all tube) 212. This pedal is what a metalzone cant be. Hell, Dimebag doesnt even have this thing cranked at all. Once you turn up the output and distortion you have shearing tones. The bypass switch is rad, gets you that Euro Metal Tone I have always wanted. Any metal tone you want this pedal is able to achieve.

Go ahead and chuck this thing out the 3rd story window, probably only scratch it. It's a tank.

Never delt with MXR, but they included the power supply, how rad is that?

MXR even gave me a free t-shirt, woohoo! Overall this is probably the best distortion pedal on the market today unless you're running a very nice botique amp. For the rest of us sad saps this is a solid piece of equpiment you wont be selling in a few months because it stinks. Thats of course if you play metal, might have too much output for you classic/new age rock fellas.

simple, but not effective, at least for me.

I was totally embarassed with the sound of this pedal. I'm a hardcore metal/death freak. I even use the seymour duncan dimebag pickup. I bought the pedal because the distortion I use right now doesn't have a bypass feature so I can't click it off like a stomp box. Honestly, I think this pedal is a hunk of shit when compared to my Genesis-3. It's not very distinct or alive. I give MXR credit for the indestructable enclosure though. I can't dial in nearly as much metal on the dime as I do with the genesis-3(loud or studio). I tried it with a REAL guitar and several REAL amps. I don't care if the genesis-3 isn't a REAL pedal(I'll know someone will say that, and that doesn't matter since the tube amp makes up for it). Go ahead and buy the dime if you want, but I'm sticking to the genesis-3 for distortion. I guess I'll get a keeley looper and control it like a pedal that way. At any rate, you WILL NEED a noise supressor for the dime pedal!

should last past armageddon.

It's built very well. The only thing I could really milk out of it was a crazy mid lead sound, but I rarely play like that.

Hi there - got to admit, I got a little agitated redaing all those opinions posted earlier. Wanna know why? - Try the next coumn, please... thanx!

This is a piece of equipment that is completely bound to whatever you're using as Amp, is sounds as good as as it's "allowed be be": Try a good guitar and a valve amp (or some tansistor amp with the same qualities - there are some, don't let yourself get confused!!!), it's a matter of combining the right things...

Dunno..

It's got quite versatile EQ...

Very easy, control layout similar to that of any amplifier or any other pedal. Manual not necessary, just plug in and start experimenting!! I found that with this pedal, as with most pedals and amps, you need to spend some time trying different settings. I have three different amps and three different guitars, and I tried all of them in different combos with this pedal. I feel that this is the best way to get a true evaluation of what the pedals potential is.

I use Heritage H-150CM guitars (Made in Kalamazoo, like a Gibson Les Paul but BETTER!!) with Rendal Wall and Seymour Duncan pickups. I play through three Fender amps (Blues Jr, Deluxe Reverb, Hot Rod Deville 212) and run through a pedalboard with the following pedals: Bad Horsie Contour Wah - Jeckyl and Hyde Ultimate Overdrive - Dime Distortion - Boss Delay/Reverb - Small Clone Chorus - Boss Tuner Pedal. I play mostly classic blues influenced rock (Led Zep, Gary Moore, Aerosmith-also like U2). I love the tone that my Ultimate Overdrive gives me, and wanted something with more mids and a little more aggression to go with it. I tried a Metal Zone, and actually used it for a while, but it sounded too artificial to my ears. So the search began, I didnt care what the pedal was, as long as it gave me the sound I was looking for. So I tried out lots of pedals and I found the Dime Distortion. I do not listen to Pantera, and could care less what Dimebag uses. I tried out this pedal and loved it, it cuts through very well live, and is not as noisy as my Ultimate Overdrive pedal. I tried different settings, and I found my personal "sweet spots". I wont tell you what they are, because your ears need to decide that for you. I love the tone, it does not sound an AM radio like a Metal Zone, and to me just sounds more realistic. The only knock I have on this pedal is the amount of distortion available, I wish it had more distortion on tap, but it works fine for me, Im not a metal-head. I kick this pedal on when I want some more aggression, and it does the job. My solos cut through really well, and the pedal is crunchy enough to suit my tastes for rythm playing. I have no use for the tiny "focus" button, and do not use it. Sounds good in tandem with my Bad Horsie and my Small Clone, although most of the time I just use it with some Delay. I use the pedal with all of my amps, and it sounds good to me with all of them. I am very pleased with it, although I wish it had more distortion on tap, and I wish it was powered by the more common Boss style AC adapter. Because of these two dislikes, I am going to give it an 8, hey, nothings perfect!!

Built like a tank, use it every week, no problems so far. Time will tell, but I think its going to last.

Again, I play classic/hard blues based rock. I have been playing now for 8 years, and have had all kinds of amps, guitars, and pedals. I like this pedal, its a great match for my style of music and my guitars seem to love it. I compared it to the Metal Zone, Rampage, Digitech Metal Master, Jackhammer, Ibanez Smash Box, and Line 6 modeler pedals, and I came back to this one, the Dime Distortion. I dont buy things based on the "name", I buy based on the "tone", and this ones got it in my opinion. As with anything, you need to know how to play, and no piece of gear no matter how great can make you sound good - its mostly in the fingers. Die hard metal players may not like it because of its lack of distortion, but for classic/hard/eighties rock it suits me just fine. If it were stolen I would probably buy the MXR Double Shot, which includes the Dime Distortion, along with another more "classic" distortion.

This pedal is very easy to use, and it also simulates dimes pq3 and pq4 parametric eq's which is more of a shelving eq.Those of you that don't know what that means, lets just say that you can't spin knobs back and forth drastically like a cheap amp or pedal. Its very precise and has a wider eq sweep.

I was basically following dime's tone for a while now. Thats why I bought this pedal.I was playing out of a 5150 head and randall cab for a while but I didn't care for the cold distortion on that head. Even with the bias knob and tesla tubes.I finally got a randall rg100 head and ditched the 5150!It was definetly more of the tone I was looking for. Than I got a furman pq3 eq which got me pretty close to dimes actual tone(PRETTY CLOSE WHEN DIALED IN RIGHT)but when I got this pedal last week I actually unplugged the furman because I was finnally getting his sound without the eq!So as of right now I run a les paul double cut with emg's to my dime wah,then to the dime distortion then to the clean channell of the rg100 stack. thats it,and I'm finally happy with my sound after about 10 yrs. of throwin down the heavy shit and I didn't need a giant amount of effects to do it!

Ive only had it for a couple weeks so I'm not sure but as a gigging guitarist I think I'm going to get a back up just like I do with everything else I use on stage.Mxr is a reputable company! I'm not worried about it.

never had to

One of the best things I've ever got for my sound aside from the dime wah and my parametric!

Pretty straight-forward, minimal fiddling, diagrams included

I'm using a fender guitar with a peavey bandit 112, I played around with this pedal for a couple weeks and finally decided I prefer the amp distortion better, this pedal didn't really have the low-end crunch that I was looking for, but it is a good pedal which could sound better on a different setup. It gives your guitar definition without a high-pitched fuzz, but too me it sounded a little weak for my style.

A OK

Well if I didn't need my 90 bucks back I'd probably keep it but my amp distortion still sounds more professional and meaner. It's definitely better than the boss metal zone for live playing at least. One thing I didn't like was that it didn't have enough bass and I couldn't turn the low knob all the way without it sounding funky, but it would work for some styles.

quote: "Not very easy to use. the EQ does influence to many facors. and it takes a very subtile setting for the 'right' ton. a 1/2 dgree over and the sound is completely different."

It's just like freaking amp controls. HOW HARD IS THAT?!? People pay good money for a device that has tone knobs with this kind of control variety. It's a good thing that it changes drastically. Better than buying one that you have to turn to full to get little to no change at all like alot of pedals

quote: "No sustain, no "Pantera tone" as it says in the ads.
...nowhere near enough sustain and punch for extreme metal. "

Get the right gear. A pedal is only part of the equation! Learn how to play. Did you ever hear of a compressor or sustainer(if you claim it has no sustain)..Did you ever hear of a parametric EQ or sonic enhancer? I'm not sure if you're playing with a kmart fisherprice guitar or not, but real pickups always help.


"The other pedal that I can think of that has similar features is Boss Metal Zone. That pedal sounds much better and is more versatile than the Dime."

No shit. This pedal was made for Dimebag sounds and nothing else. DUH!

Very dependable... unlike some of the reviews of so-called players

true bypass, MXR name... alot of tweaking features.

set everything to 12 0' clock and it sounds good, not hard at all.
the diagram that comes with the pedal shows you a good place to
start making adjustments for the tone.

It sounds awsome, Im running my les paul with a dimebucker at the bridge straight through the pedal and into my Marshall jcm 2000 dsl head with a 1960 b cab. very very quiet low feedback. I get the perfect thunk and for rhythm sections realy bright lead sounds. Sounds just like dimebag. I dont know what those other guys are playing through but sounds like they need be playing through a half stack not a wimpy 1 12. sounds like the bands im influenced by pantera, megadeath, slayer, testement, dio, in flames, at the gates ..........

solid as a rock

havent needed to!!!!!

for the style of music im playing its perfect (hard rock and thrash.)
Ive been playing for about 8 years best thing ive come across worth the hefty price. If it were stolen I hunt the fucker down and slay him with it A little blood on your pedal never hurt any one.