Morley MOD-DDB Deluxe Distortion

Not that easy to get a good sound from. Frankly it is a little weird. I turn the drive/distortion all the awy off, put the tone in the middle or slightly boosting the treble, and set the gain for a slight volume boost.

The distortion is not so good, despite being what looks like a variation of the Tube Screamer circuit. But what is good, is this pedal makes my neck humbucker sound like a Strat single coil. I use it as a treble boost with the distortion/drive all the way down, and it has a unique musical tone sound to it that boosts the treble a little bit and creats a real bell-like Strat like Tone.

In trying to improve the distortion I changed out the two silicon clipping diodes for an led and a silicon and a germanium diode for more headroom and smoother clipping. Still have to turn the drive/distrotion all the way down.

I use EBMM Petrucci and '83 San Dimas Charvel into Marshall Studio 15's in stereo with 2 tube screamers, and echo units, and a Dime Wah and Chicken Salad.

I put this pedal in after the chickn salad to boost it and add treble. It helps with solos and with echo use. I Like it quite a bit for this.

But for distortion, not so good.

Very reliable. Heavy and thick Die-cast unit, with a simple circuit board screwed on inside. I don't think you could break it if you tried.

Morley is very responsive.

It has a really good treble, bell like tone and volume boost application for me, but I don't like the distortion. So it is a limited use, but what I use it for it does very well and in a very unique way.

I have two tube screamers (Keely and Analog Man modded) so I don't care about the distortion really. I am going to continue to tinker with alternate clipping diodes and mosfets to see if I can improve the distortion.

Three knobs. It doesn't get any simpler. Drive Tone Output.

This pedal sounds great. I have owned many amps and distortin/overdrive pedals and this one beats most of them. It will hold its own against a mesa recto (I know, I own one). When the drive is at a lower setting it has a nice growl/purr, and when turned up it gets very heavy. There are a couple things. first is a lack of mid control. The tone goes from low end to high right away with no middle ground. Second it is very noisy. with that said it beats the heck out of a lot of other pedal that lose some bass when turned on. I use to obsess about which distortions/overdrives sound the bes for my set up, but I am finding tha the simplest way is the best.

Very dependable. I have been running it off of my one spot daisy chain power supply with no problems. It will outlast any of my boss pedals, and will most likely kick as long as my mxr dyna-comp.

no need.

A great distortion for live playing. a bit too noisy for the studio. not the cookie cutter sound from other brands and still one of the best sounds I've heard.

Been searching high and low for this pedal. Finally scored one at the local Guitar show from Tim Swartz of Timtube tubetone Amplifiers.
3 knobs is the key to heavanly tone!

See my review of the Pro Dist/Wah/Volume pedal. Is is basically the same distortion circuit. It is capable of huge amounts of gain if needed, but I love how it lets the true character of your tone through. Not buzzy, very crunchy, lots of detail and articulation. I wish there was a mod to make my Rat2 pedal sound like this. There is certainly some noise present, but aren't these pedals all just noise generators anyway?? This pedal can nail the early Angus/JTM45 tone. Tim Swartz said "this one's a sleeper", so I guess some year guys will tire of modding TS9's and trying every boutique pedal out there and discover the ugly little Morley Deluxe distortion.

Very dependable, bomb-proof casing. However I did gig with it without a backup, and unfortunately one of the 2 requiered 9volt batteries started to die! Between sets I replaced one with a half-dead used 9volt which got me thru till the end of the show. But it raises the question of where to find the freakin' 18volt adapter with the old-fasioned mini-phone type plug? Perhaps I'll have to make one, or splice a plug to the end of a danelectro 18v adapter. Or 2 battery clips coming off my pedalboard power supply. I dunno. Sounds like I'll spend more on that than the pedal itself!

Morley are good people, they answer their email and keep their site updated, so no problem here. This pedal is probably older than the guys who work at Morley! I think it was made by Tel-Ray.

I use this as my main overdrive\dirty tone thru a Peavey Classic 50 tube head or a Marshall 1959slp 100 watt re-issue. I control the madness with a Morley Little Alligator volume pedal. I play mostly hollow-body jazz/rockabilly type guitars with TV jones pickups (the best)fitted with Bigsbys.(setzer-like setup) This pedal is a great tool to use with a big, loud single-channel tube amp. For a lead boost,I use a Boss GE7 eq pedal. I have A/B'd this with a TS9 re-issue, a vintage DS-1, Vox Valvetone V-810, Ibanez Smashbox, ProCo Rat2, Morley Jerry Donahue, turboTS9, various "death-metal pedals" and this one beats 'em all. The new Dunlop Zakk Wylde pedal might be a close contender, but not as clear and authentic-sounding as my Morley.

ummmm.. ya, its a 3 knob distortion pedal.... how much simpler can it get?

BADASS PEDAL!!! u used to own a new MAXON Sonic Distortion and i thought that was great, then it got stolen. So this is my replacement... now i really wish i just bought this in the first place.

i, like the lucky person below me, use an Ibanez Musician. i also use an Acoustic 270 head, Legion Sound 412, and a ZOOM Trimetal Distortion.

The DDB gives me just enough distortion by itself to play in a hardcore band and use the Trimetal for solos or anything else that calls for more... not only that, but it cleans up very well.

have only had it for about a week. i dont have an adapter for it, ant it takes 2 9V batteries so i dont know how long they last. it looks really tough though!

dont know...

GREAT pedal. when buying this pedal, i compared it to a Sonic Distortion, Turbo Tubescreamer w/ 808 mod, random Boss effects, whatever else was in front of me at guitar center... this just beat them all. the most.... natural sounding distortion pedal i have ever played. all i need is the adapter....

Three controles and just one way to go: The warmest distorion sound I ever heard. It isn't hard the find the right sound at all, it's all in there. It's a bit hard to push on the switch button, but with full weight it will work.

I use it with a ibanez musician (off course two warm sounding humbuckers) and a marshall valvestate twin speaker (2 x 40 watts). Even with my transistor amp it's sounds great!. It's a bit noisy when switching the on/off button. It's my own sound and it hasn't been used by big names, so it's really MY sound.

it's like a tank....throw it 40 feet away...plug in and play it again.

sorry

I got it from my teacher...i didn't have enough money for something else. But i'm so used to it now, i can't do without it. I would try to find this unique sound again if i'll lose the pedal.

Three knobs, distortion, tone, output. Big red led to let you know it's on!LOL

A little noise but I've tried everything and this is the one for me. The only one that comes close is the Jeckyll/Hyde. A very unique texture of distortion, somewhat compressed, I guess that's why it's the ONE!

Built like a tank. Throw it on the highway and let an 18 wheeler roll on it and it will probably work???

Never dealt with them.

I play mostly rock, oldies, blues. I've been playing for 25 yrs and this is the pedal I was using back in the 80's. I sold my original and was lucky to find one this cheap on ebay. I use a Fender Lead I & II. Peavey Encore 65 all tube that kicks butt. I just had to review it because it's one of those overlooked pedals. Peace!