Washburn Lyon Distortion

This pedal is very easy to use. Volume level, low, high, and distortion. cant get much more basic than that. Access to the battery is fairly simple, just unscrew one little black knob, and that takes like 5 seconds.

The sound is HORRIBLE. I'm pretty sure i can make a better distortion pedal if someone harnessed the power of my vocal chords. I took this through 3 different amps, and 2 different gutiars, just to be sure, and on all of them it blew. if the distortion was turned past about 2 it started to hiss and feedback horribly. The low and high just add to it. they appear to do audibly very little for the sound. I even tried to run it through a Digitech RP80 to further equalize it. It made it sound a little better, but not alot, no matter what combination of noisegate and compression i used. The only person that would like this pedal for its sound is a beginner.

Its built very durable. Multiple drops on concrete did not do anything to it. However, i dont know if i would use a backup at a gig because i would never EVER use this pedal to play a gig. Ever. If all the other pedals on the Earth blew up i would just go straight into the amp.

Never dealt with them.

I play metal, hard rock, 70's rock, all that. it sucks for all of it. except for clean tones. And by that i mean click the pedal to bypass it.

No surprises with the volume and distortion knobs. The low/high tone control scheme, unlike the one-knob configuration you usually find on distortion boxes, is a little trickier, but just a little, and in a good way. The High knob functions like a normal tone control--turn it up for high end, turn it down and the highs disappear. The Low control, otoh, seems to incorporate a midrange function as well. Full on, you get a nice ballsy bass end, but turn it down and the mids are accentuated. Full off and both bass and mids are gone. While this takes a bit of getting used to, it makes for a somewhat more flexible tone control system.

Ergonomic note: I don't really care for the shape of the knobs.

Wow. What can I say but that the Lyon Distortion is a drop-kickass pedal, especially if you're into thick, high-gain metal type sounds. It seems to have a natural mid-scoop response when both tone controls are cranked, which makes it perfect for metal imo. In my setup it seems to go best with my Epi Les Paul, ie humbuckers; my strat sounds good through it as well, but as you might expect not as buttery-thick. I found that of all my distortion sources, including my amp's dirty channel, the Lyon was the best for things like drop-D tuning, pinch harmonics (effortless!), and general (lousy, in my case) shredding.

Hasn't cut out on me yet, but then I haven't really put it through the grind since I got it after my gigging band broke up. It wouldn't have seen much use anyway since I'm not predominantly into metal... :-P Seems pretty sturdy, though.

erm...

First off, this is my first review in ages, so hopefully I haven't lost my touch...

You can never have enough distortion pedals, says I. And far from being a boutique pedal snob, I actually think cheap pedals are kinda fascinating. So I wasn't at all disappointed when my girlfriend, who at that time didn't know a distortion box from a dishwasher (she does now, though; I've since bought her an acoustic guitar and have started teaching her how to play), found this pedal at Target and offered it to me for my birthday. I didn't really appreciate it, though, until recently, when I started really trying to get back into practicing after a long slump. I've traditionally been more of a fan of fuzzy distortion, see, and my usual go-to pedal for years has been my red DOD Supra Distortion. But lately, having been entranced and brainwashed by shred-guitar videos on YouTube, I've started tinkering with more metal-flavored playing (which I suck at, but can fake fairly well), and while my other pedals have their pluses in that direction, the Lyon really comes to the fore here.

I think what really floors me is that this excellent tone comes out of a cheap pedal with a silly name/logo, which is unpretentiously available at a discount mass-market department store. If your ego demands that you wouldn't be caught dead with any of that amateur crud in your pedal rig, I suggest you send your ego out for a long bathroom break and give this little grease nugget a try. Look, if you don't like it, you know where the customer service desk at Target is, and unlike some music store salesmen the nice lady there won't make fun of you. She probably doesn't know a distortion box from a dishwasher.

Could not be easier. Play with it for about one minute and you can find your perfect sound.

This pedal can really scream. But at the same time, you can get a really low distortion. The range of sounds that come out of this pedal are crazy. I use it with a Fender Ultimate Chorus amp and sometimes a Peavey Studio Pro 112.

Very reliable. Have had it for about a year, and played about a gagillion gigs with it, and it still doesn't even have a scratch. Never had any problems with it whatsoever.

Never had to deal with them.

Personally, I love this pedal. It's great for any kind of distortion you need. Yeah, it's fairly cheap in price, but don't let that make you think that it's at all bad quality. I would definetly buy this again.

Very easy to use. could not find an easier or better pedal.

AMAZING sound. i love it. can make a barely distorted classic rock clean, to a screaming metal distortion. incredible.

nothing wrong with it. awesome.

never had to deal with them

best pedal iv ever had. could not find a better one.

Lookout Sweetwater, Musicians Friend, AMS, etc. I'm walking thru Target and what do I spy? A distortion pedal? Target? Whaaaa? Yes, it was right next to the genuine authentic Pro Guitar Outfit. I have a Roland GP8 and a POD 2.0 and a POD XT Pro and an Eventide GTR4000, a SansAmp Original and a Boss OD20. I'm thinking...I don't need this pedal. But I couldn't resist. Besides, if its a clunker then the return will be a breeze. Back next week for paper towels and to grab the wah I saw anyway.
Its a pedal. 4 knobs-level,low,high,gain. Step on it to make it go. Step on it to make it stop. No manual. Some short directions on the genuine plastic packaging. But if you can't find the spellcheck button what good is a manual? If this is tough for you how on earth can you play the guitar? Should you be allowed to play guitar?

I play a 5-string Barbera Ultralight. I tried this pedal in front of the rack POD and also in front of a Crate VC508 tube amp. It was readily apparent that the snarling lion on the pedal was appropriate. It bites! I'd say its harsh compared to all my other distortions. Turning down the highs and boosting the lows helps but my axe is already bottom heavy so...nyeh, not going to work out. It is quiet actually with only the usual noise that comes with turning up the gain. It reminds me of my experience years ago with a Boss DS1 and I think this pedal is close to that. I'm going to try it in front of some other options I have, but I think the outcome will be the same. There is a rig out there somewhere that this pedal is right for probably. Maybe its great when hooked up to that Pro Guitar Outfit.

I don't know as I've only had it a few days. It seems as solid as a Boss. And I thought it looked cool too. Nice paint job. Silver and black and the dangerous looking lion!

Do I call Washburn, Target, China? Seems really solid and well built but you never know.

I play a lot of styles. I have a lot of gear. This pedal is going back I'm fairly certain. Good to know that if my 420 other means of generating distortion all fail on me at once I can just pop out to TARGET and get one of these. I could make it do in a pinch.