# any Vintage MXR pedal users?



## MERCYFULFATE (Aug 12, 2008)

hello from the USA.i have a friend here.

i have a thorough collection of Vintage MXR pedals that i still thoroughly love. i am a 28 year player and have been using them since then,. yea i use other brands but nothing like the analog tone of these babies!


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

OK I'll bite

I have recently taken my mid seventies MXR flanger out of the box. Been there since I last used it on my Clavinet keyboard around 1981-2.
Pluged it in and it sounds great with my Tele and Strat.

Sometimes it pays to keep old boxes.


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## Hamm Guitars (Jan 12, 2007)

I used to have a brown/tan MXR distortion. I lost track of it and I have no idea what happened to it. 

It was very Randy Rhoads-ish.


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## gtrguy (Jul 6, 2006)

I*'ve got a circa '77 transition block/script logo Dynacomp... not really my thing, not into the squash. On the other hand, I haven't plugged it in in years...hmmm..... back later...

gtrguy


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I've gone through a bunch over the years. At one time, in the late 70's, I had a 6-band EQ, and Envelope Filter and a Noise Gate on my pedal board. Liked them but had to sell them all. Later, I re-bought (and once again re-sold) an Envelope Filter and scored a grey flanger, which quite honestly I could not sell fast enough. Just hated it. A couple years ago, I bought a Commande Series "Stereo Flanger" (the plastic box ones). Decent sound but nearly flexible enough. I've made a handful of Envelope Filters, Distortion+, Blue Boxes, and Dynacomps for myself. All decent pedals when you mod 'em up.

My biggest gripe with stock MXR pedals was that they never seemed to do enough. Those damn big knobs on that little box looked nice but made more than 2 controls impossible.

Many people mistakenly think that somehow the tantalum capacitors in the older ones were essential. Not so. They were essential to getting the board to have a flat enough profile that you could nestle it between those huge pots and the back cover plate, but were certainly not necessary to the design. They just bent over sideways nicely and came in a much smaller package than electrolytics of the day.


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## gramatica (Dec 3, 2007)

You mean like these? :smile: I got these in the early 80s... This might be a good time to sell them off!

L-R 6-band EQ, 2 micro flangers!, phase 90, distortion +


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## MERCYFULFATE (Aug 12, 2008)

GTmaker said:


> OK I'll bite
> 
> I have recently taken my mid seventies MXR flanger out of the box. Been there since I last used it on my Clavinet keyboard around 1981-2.
> Pluged it in and it sounds great with my Tele and Strat.
> ...


yes Sir it does. i have two of the MXR ac powered flangers(non led) and also have two Mxr Micro flangers one with led 81 and 82 models.

great analog flangers.


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## MERCYFULFATE (Aug 12, 2008)

mhammer said:


> I've gone through a bunch over the years. At one time, in the late 70's, I had a 6-band EQ, and Envelope Filter and a Noise Gate on my pedal board. Liked them but had to sell them all. Later, I re-bought (and once again re-sold) an Envelope Filter and scored a grey flanger, which quite honestly I could not sell fast enough. Just hated it. A couple years ago, I bought a Commande Series "Stereo Flanger" (the plastic box ones). Decent sound but nearly flexible enough. I've made a handful of Envelope Filters, Distortion+, Blue Boxes, and Dynacomps for myself. All decent pedals when you mod 'em up.
> 
> My biggest gripe with stock MXR pedals was that they never seemed to do enough. Those damn big knobs on that little box looked nice but made more than 2 controls impossible.
> 
> Many people mistakenly think that somehow the tantalum capacitors in the older ones were essential. Not so. They were essential to getting the board to have a flat enough profile that you could nestle it between those huge pots and the back cover plate, but were certainly not necessary to the design. They just bent over sideways nicely and came in a much smaller package than electrolytics of the day.



great post!
although i disagree with most of it. respectfully of course.
again, i have been using Vintage MXR pedals for years. not only are they legendary for a reason but they were the imo the best analog pedals out there.

the Sprague caps they used in the big MXR flanger (117) were needed.they are also legendary as with the Reticon BBD ic chips. MXR always used CTS pots which were also the best.


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## MERCYFULFATE (Aug 12, 2008)

gramatica said:


> You mean like these?  I got these in the early 80s... This might be a good time to sell them off!
> 
> L-R 6-band EQ, 2 micro flangers!, phase 90, distortion +


great pics. i have all of those. my MXR micro flanger also witht he box came from a guy in Canada.

are you selling them?


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## gramatica (Dec 3, 2007)

I PMed MERCYFULFATE, but this is a high level of the story of my pedals...

I might be selling them... but they are a bit modded. I mostly added power adapters and LEDs to the units that didn't have them. 

And I don't have a fully working setup (electric and amp) at the moment, either. So I wouldn't feel "honest" about selling something that I don't know for sure works! Also, I have two flangers because the bucket-brigade chip in one is somewhat smoked. It works, but only as a gently sweep... so I leave it on all the time.

So they are somewhat for sale! I could ask a lot more for them if I had faith in their performance!

Back to the thread at hand!


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

I have one of those 6 band eq's . Used it for a while but last time I used it it was noisy. Buddy looked at it said it was ok just noisy. 

Any thoughts? 

yeah I'd sell it too.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

MERCYFULFATE said:


> great post!
> although i disagree with most of it. respectfully of course.
> again, i have been using Vintage MXR pedals for years. not only are they legendary for a reason but they were the imo the best analog pedals out there.
> 
> the Sprague caps they used in the big MXR flanger (117) were needed.they are also legendary as with the Reticon BBD ic chips. MXR always used CTS pots which were also the best.


Well thank you!:smile:

I didn't say they *weren't* great. I liked mine, and only sold them because I had to, not because I was fed up with them. And yes, they DID use good pots, and even now I like that style of knob. Trouble was that when you have some sense of what the pedal can do with just a liiiiiiiiiiiittle change here and there, it can be frustrating. Myself, I was spoiled after my purchase of a PAiA Phlanger. Once you have 5 knobs and voltage control, the 1-2 knob standard that both MXR and EHX employed at the time felt confining. At least MXR had a good excuse for not fitting more inside the package. EHX had those big honking boxes and they *still* only packed one knob and one switch.

For your interest, though, bop on over to my site - http://hammer.ampage.org On pages 10 and 11, I have a set of scans of a shortlived newsletter that Craig Anderton had in 1979 called DEVICE. Somewhere a few issues into it, there are the results of a readers' poll which lists favourite pedal companies, best service, etc. It'll give you a sense of what one particular constituency at the time thought (do keep in mind that these would almost all be "tinkerers" or would-be tinkerers) about MXR pedals. It seems many would concur with your opinion.

The old 6-band was a great pedal. Its only shortcoming was that you couldn't bypass it. It was, however, my overdrive at the time, simply because it was designed to provide more boost than it could comfortably handle with a 9v battery. One neat trick I used to do with it was a "backwards tape" emulation. I suppose nowadays it pales beside full digital reverse playback, but it sounded very cool at the time. It worked like this. First, I'd set my compressor (a Univox) for some moderately serious squish. Then the compressor fed an MXR Envelope filter set for long attack time. The EF then went to the 6-band. The 6-band, in turn was set with the lower 3 sliders turned way down and the upper 3 sliders cranked. Since the EF would sweep from low to high, and the combination of attack setting and compression made it do so more slowly, the first part of the note was very soft (because the low bands were attenuated on the EQ), and the latter part of the note would increase in volume to the point of overdriving. Perhaps not as gradual a volume increase as a Boss Slow Gear, but it softened the attack enough to provide a reasonably convincing swell. The fact that the 6-band would clip towards the end of the note helped immensely in mimicking a reverse effect since true reverse has more harmonic content at the "end" than at the beginning.


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## gproud (Mar 2, 2006)

*edit* I have found one.


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## MERCYFULFATE (Aug 12, 2008)

mhammer said:


> Well thank you!:smile:
> 
> I didn't say they *weren't* great. I liked mine, and only sold them because I had to, not because I was fed up with them. And yes, they DID use good pots, and even now I like that style of knob. Trouble was that when you have some sense of what the pedal can do with just a liiiiiiiiiiiittle change here and there, it can be frustrating. Myself, I was spoiled after my purchase of a PAiA Phlanger. Once you have 5 knobs and voltage control, the 1-2 knob standard that both MXR and EHX employed at the time felt confining. At least MXR had a good excuse for not fitting more inside the package. EHX had those big honking boxes and they *still* only packed one knob and one switch.
> 
> ...




wow, another great post. i think we could have some beers together.:food-smiley-004:

i certainly hear where your coming from, i also now understand your first post better.
the PAiA Phlanger is one awesome flanger. out of all my many flangers one that really stands out is my 81 DOD R-870 rack mount flanger/doubler. that thing is amazing. better than my MXR flanger/doubler.

thanks again for your responses. very informative. and im now going to the site you linked me too.


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## Buzz (May 15, 2008)

I had my vintage stereo chorus stolen a long time ago. I found one cheap last summer and I like it, and I usually dont really like chorus. I noticea a slight boost with it. I also bought an older model micro amp. I dont know if its any better, or different than the new ones but its a great useful pedal. Its got the Texas instruments chip in it, if that means anything.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

A bit of ad copy I was reading from 1983 implied that the 2000 series pedals could be easily adapted (or were already adapted) for remote switching. The pictures I have seen of them do not seem to show any such jack or point for adaptation. Do any of you good folk out there have any pedals from that series, and would you be able to confirm/deny the existence of such a capability?


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## Drazden (Oct 26, 2007)

I just picked up a 1980 Phase 100 yesterday. This thing sounds unreal. It's a little subtle, though... I'm running it into the front of my amp, so I think I'll try it into the effects loop instead.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

I love dynacomps. Had one years ago; sold it, regretted it, tried a bunch of boutique comps and none ever really clicked. Finally got an old transition dynacomp, which has already been modded for TB and with a DC jack...I like it though.
EDIT: If I'd known gtrguy had one lying around I might have bought his...


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## Solid_Gold_Soundlabs (Sep 20, 2006)

I love the old MXR stuff! Really fun pedals! I think the blue box and filter are my fav, i also have a phase 45, dyna comp and 6band eq (noisy) as well as some NOS script phase 90 boards which sound phenomenal; lots of potential! I used to have a Chorus and limiter....wasn't too crazy about those...

If you're into the vintage thing, they are great!


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

I'd love a blue box -- they're odd little contraptions. Rory Gallagher used one for a while.


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## Solid_Gold_Soundlabs (Sep 20, 2006)

devnulljp said:


> I'd love a blue box -- they're odd little contraptions. Rory Gallagher used one for a while.


Mine is a '77...definitely in my top 5 favorite fuzz pedals!

Great pedal but could use a few tweaks. Some extra kick, variable high cut and an expression pedal input would be great....something i'd love to build when i get a chance!


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## 23cicero (Mar 25, 2008)

I know this should be posted in the gear for sale thread but since it is a 'vintage MXR thread' I might as well put it here: I have an old blue 6 Band MXR EQ in fantastic shape that I'd be happy to sell/trade if someone was interested.

I've watched these things on Ebay and they go for anywhere from $70 to like $140 -- it's the craziest thing. Anyway, if anyone is interested just send me a note -- say $90 shipped...

(and if this is a problem putting this in the wrong thread: my apologies)


By the way: It sounds great -- waaaay better than my stock GE-7. But I hardly use any EQ anyway and I'm interested to see what Greg at Solid Gold can do with my old, beat up GE-7 so I'll take my chances...


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## Archer (Aug 29, 2006)

I have gone through dozens of compressors and STILL keep coming back to my old Super Comp.

I love it.


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