Washburn Soloist Distortion

Good all around pedal...good range of blues distortions, it does have a true by-pass and it is probably manufactured by Artec because it is the exact pedal as their by the same name just a different color and name...

I use a strat-vintage set-up so it gives this a bit more of a bite....

I believe it will hold up well most Washburn/Artec stuff does

Never used them!

If you want a biting overdrive with a nice range of gain/distortion then this is a good buy....true by-pass so no interference in off position. For the dollars it s a great buy, I have seen none better for that price. I believe if you stuck a Marshall tag or a Fender/ EH etc on it, you would not paying the 2-3x's more!

This pedal has volume, tone, contour, and gain knobs. Volume controls the actual output to the amp, it works strangely, if you turn down the volume on the guitar you clean the sound but the intensity remains the same, if you want to make it louder using your guitar knob wont make a difference either.
Contour and tone are complicated. They interact with each-other, it's almost like dialling a sound of a mesa-boogie, you mess with one knob, you mess with everything.
Gain is self explanatory, on 0 provides a dirty overdrive and on 10 a hard rock sound. No metal (unless you overdrive your amp).

No manual. So you make it as you go.

Tone is the most subjective thing there is. It is a personal religion. I'm more than happy with the tone of this pedal. Can go from an overdriven sound to an healthy crunch to a more aggressive territory.
The better part of it is the true bypass. Unlike some pedals I've had it is really a TRUE Bypass! There is no difference between pluggin in directly into the amp or trough this pedal. No click sound when you connect it either.

Metal case plastic bottom, looks durable time will tell. Would I use it without backup? For 20??? buy 2 - yes 20 euros at thomman.

This pedal is the same as the artec soloist - same factory or something. The only difference is that this one costs 20 euros and the artec 40.
This is an excellent pedal per se and for the price I doubt you can get anything better.

For the price I recommend check one of these (get it new or even try to find it second hand) and give it a try. It is worth your time and you might find yourself loving this pedal more than anything you

This pedal is pretty boring and run of the mill, but i will admit that for the price it kicks ass. I would say that it is more of a heavy overdrive pedal. It's a good pedal for a kid, a guitar, and an amp. Great for a beginner with no cash. This kills my first pedal from the mid 80's, and has a true bypass. Seriously though, for the money it is impressive.

You can do a lot with this pedal. From blues to classic rock. The quality is mediocre, construction is tough and ergo, and the price is beyond fair. So I am very forgiving. 10 years ago, a pedal of this quality would have cost you $100.

It seems pretty solid, but fairly new. I buy pedals cheap and them sell them, and this one is heavy and Washburn generally has decent stuff, so i imagine it is pretty tough.

Have no idea.

I'll give it a 7. I wouldnt be surprised if washburn pedals became one of the staples. A good introduction, but serious players... move on.

Very easy
Output control
Gain control
Frequency curve control
Tone control

-A bit more than your typical overdrive gives you

This pedal was used on 2 solid state heads, 1 tube head and a solid state practice amp.

Good to very good but not great to astounding.
It's a pretty straight forward overdrive with a couple extra controls to give you a bit more variety over the performance.

It could be a bit smoother and cleaner though. This is a very bright pedal and as with all bright tones, the treble gets very slashy and peircing which equals killer harmonics but the high frequency clarity tends to escape the range of human hearing and has that somewhat white noise static sound.

With the tone completely cut and the shape control gutting the midrange out, you get maximum clarity for complex lead work. Open the two up a bit and you get punchy bright tones for rhythm and blues. There is no dark, smooth setting though so if you're looking for the ultimately midrange driven lead tone for metal and jazz, your amp and speakers will have to handle this need.

The circuit is nano board so you won't be easily changing caps so it's more suiting to your demands though I suspect simply adding a cap to the tone control pot itself is the ticket.

This is also a pedal intended for OVERDRIVING an amp with an already killer distortion. If you have a small practice amp who tend to have that classic, wimpy distortion, this is only going to lard it up, not MUSCLE it up to screaming metal.

DOD style so it's nice and heavy and nano board is very tough generally so we will have to wait and see.....

The other reviewers were extremely generous.

It's a great pedal for the money, don't think you'll be getting anything else in the 20-30 dollar range that can compete.

I've been through some expensive pedals and some cheap pedals. It's on par with the oh so exaggerated legendary tube screamer and far more affordable with a little more versatility only unlike the TS, you can't really mod the circuitry.

Worth the money though, just don't spend over $30 total.

Very easy to use. Just move the knobs and see what sound you get!

Top notch sound. I have tried many pedals and this is about as good as any of them. I play it front of my tube amp and get a real good classic, smooth rock sound with great sustain. However, as another reviewer pointed out, it can be very sensitive when the "gain" is maxed out. It's like it makes the pickups alot more responsive to every movement your hand makes. If there is a problem with the pedal, that is it and some might not even call it a problem. It's very quiet. This a not a metal pedal, but somewhere in between an OD and metal pedal. I think Washburn tried to copy the MXR and they did an excellent job doing it.

Made out of metal and looks like it's built well. The switch isn't real smooth when stepped on, but it should last. I would gig with it, no problem. It's made in China, but it's well designed.

This is the best "bang for the buck" pedal I ever bought. I paid $25 on Ebay and I am going to get another just in case this one craps out. But I don't think it will. You could slap MXR, RAT, BOSS, T REX or whatever on this baby and it could go for $70 or more, it sounds that good. Get one.

This pedal is not as simple to use as you might expect. The contour and tone controls are fairly interactive.Varying settings can illicit incredibly disparate tones. With the contour knob acting as a cut and the tone knob functioning in its traditional role an open setting and a compressed tone can be achieved. The gain knob doesn't offer metal levels of dirt but combined with the massive amount of volume in this pedal, it can definitely overdrive most amps into a nice lather.

I have played this pedal through a Peavey Delta Blues and a mid 60's Gibson Skylark (think tweed fender champ.)I tested it alongside a Hao Rust Driver, this gave me a nice reference point for the type of grind the Soloist was capable of producing. Admittedly, I am a fan of British flavored distortion, so this was the first sound I tried to replicate with the pedal. It was successful in mimicking the mids common to British distortion, however it did not immediately compress in the same manner. This lack of compression was initial a turn off but as I played along with the contour and tone controls I was able to achieve some reasonably fluid sounds.

But after playing through the pedal for awhile, I realized that this pedal exceeds at something far different than what I had expected. At the setting that I found the pedal to be the most musical, at least through a clean amp, (Tone 7, Gain 4, Contour 7, Volume 7)it produces a sound that is truly a cross between a dimed Twin and a Marshall plexi. Each note is distinguishable and requires a precise picking attack to fully appreciate. This pedal doesn't reward sloppy picking and Palm muting but it does sound glorious when notes are articulately picked and chords fingered precisely. I really believe playing through this pedal will make me a more articulate and fluent picker.

Through an overdriven amp, the Soloist has enough volume on tap to put you in rock lead heaven. The tone control and contour knob allow the pedal to cut through a din of instruments nicely. Keeping the gain tamed in and the volume cranked pretty high gives a nice gain increase without really affecting the tone of your setup.

If you are willing to lend an extra bit of attention to your picking and fingering, this pedal will reward you with a thick/midrangey distortion flavor thats well suited for anything from blues to hard rock.

The pedal is housed in a metal MXR style case.It appears tough enough to withstand the trials of the average weekend warrior.I do, however, notice that the switch doesn't click as solidly as I would like but there is no indication that this will be a problem.

I hear Target will except any return.

This is one review that I fear I will regret writing. This is the second review that I have done on these Target Pedals (see wha wha)and I am convinced that these things offer more bang for the buck than any other pedal now available. Not since the late nineties, when you could still get 10 series Ibanez pedals for close to nothing, has there been a series of pedals gettable for such little cash. I believe these will be collectors items at some point.My next purchase will be the Blues Overdrive Pedal that was offered. They can still be had for less than twenty bucks on ebay.

Great sounds with minor tweaking, lots of tonal range.

Cross between a disortion and an overdrive. Fairly transparent with a good amount of drive. My new favorite pedal. Really cuts through. No mud at all! Excellent sustain. The only way to describe it is, it sounds like a cross between a Marshall Shredmaster and a treble booster with a bit ore hair... It not only sounds good live it records well too! It loves tube amps!

6 months and holding. For $39.99 at Target, if it craps out I'll buy another....actually, I have a backup already!

Target will take anything back! Washburn!.....I'm sure I won't be needing to call them.

Used it with Strats into a Bassman 10, Ampeg VT40 and a Musicman HD130....Got stellar results with each. This is a hard driving distortion pedal for a seriously sublime grind.I would not recommend it for Solid State amps or those into whatever the "metal du-jour" flavor is right now. This is a players pedal....and definately a sleeper. For $39.99 go to Target and grab one ASAP.

Pretty easy to get a good sound out of it. Has two large knobs, "level" and "tone". Also has two small knobs, "gain" and "contour". Between these controls, there is quite a bit of range. The package says "from tube driven tweed to heavy distortion tone." Probably not for metal, but has a good hard rock distortion sound. Can be used with 9v battery, or AC adapter. Battery compartment is right on the bottom, very easy to access.

I am running this through a 100 watt Blue Voodoo head and Celestion Vintage 30's, with a Strat. The Strat is loaded with SCN noiseless single coils. Would love to hear a Les Paul through this. As I said above, very wide range of usable distortions, although not super heavy metal style. Very quiet, not noisy or buzzy at all. Says "true bypass" right on the top.

Haven't had it long enough to put it to the test. It is built reminiscent of the MXR style pedals. All metal with a big steel button for a switch.

Haven't needed it, probably wouldn't bother them over a $40 pedal.

Got this at Target, of all places. I am very pleased for $39.99. For the price, I thinks it's made well, sounds great, and has alot of range.