Thoughts on the MXR Distortion II

[Rodgre]

I just repaired a vintage Distortion II that I inherited and I have to say that I'm not impressed with it. I've tried a few scenarios (amps, guitars, settings) and have yet to find a useful tone. I have searched some HC reviews and some people swear it's their favorite pedal.

I understand how the Resonance and Filter are working (Resonance being a low-mid boost of some sort and Filter being something like the Rat's LPF) but haven't found that the Resonance really sounds that great.

So my questions are these: What do you like about it? Has anyone sucessfully modded one to get a  more interesting distortion character out of it? How about changing the frequency of the Resonance?

I'm prepared to say, "eh, it's just not for me" but being such a die-hard pedal guy, I want to find something useful in it.

Roger

[panterafanatic]

maybe some of the caps need to be replaced, they may work but as far as i've read, old caps =/= greatness generally.

that being said, i have nothing else to offer except good luck

[MikeH]

I think they sound like garbage.  But I also don't like the Dist+ or the Dist III.... so I think I'm just not an MXR distortion kind of guy.  Some people swear by them though.  I think a lot of it depends on the guitar/amp you pair them up with too.

[petemoore]

  Now which was it..the tone-twister ye' sedd ye wanted teday?
  Oh yea, the triple-doozey, what's that'n do agin ?
  You said you'z gonna be happy when we gotcha that guitar.

[Fender3D]

You can look at it as a 2 stage variant of the PAIA quad fuzz...

I tweaked it a lot, got rid of the switching system and OPamp buffer.
The result is nice, with resonance at 0 it is not too much different from a D+,
resonace control may help with the Marshall Super Lead bright channel...

[Mark Hammer]

Nice build!  I'm impressed.

[Fender3D]

Thanks Mark

[Plexi]

Bump an old thread..!

What's the deal on these one?

Found a TL074, and this one was on my list...

[Fender3D]

It's not that bad, provided you adjust filters after distortion stages to your taste, I remember LTSpice was really helpful back then...
Definitely more an overdrive than a distortion.

Watch out the reference voltage buffer, if you just use 2 resistors it won't work with stock values.

Found a TL074, and this one was on my list...

I think you'll need a TL076... 

[Plexi]

Or maybe one TL074 and one TL072