MEGA Distortion, MAAAN!!! The BOSS MD-2!

This is a perplexing pedal. I bought it off eBay, without any idea of how it might sound. So this shows just how big a BOSS junkie I am. One has to admit that the pedal sounds like it would be cool. First of all, there's that name: MEGA Distortion. Second, there's that hot reddish orange paint job. Third, and most seriously (you knew I was kidding with the first two, right?), the pedal has five controls: Level, Tone, Bottom, Dist, and Gain Boost. The idea of separate controls for Dist and Gain Boost caught my attention. Who knows what kind of sonic mayhem could be created?

Warning: if you ever try out this pedal, BE SURE YOU SET THE BOTTOM CONTROL ALL THE WAY OFF. Carefully work your way up, because this puppy produces a LOT of low end. I used my Traynor amp and set the Bottom full up. I could hear glass shaking all the way over in the dining room AND I HADN'T PLAYED A NOTE.

If you want loads of full-bodied, gut shaking bass, you might like this pedal. I discovered that it thickened up my Strat's sound so much that I had to set the Tone to around 2:00 just to keep some definition.

Now here's the interesting part. I took turns turning either of the Dist or Gain Boost controls full off, and playing around with the other control.

I found that the Gain Boost could produce a full thick overdrive if cranked full up. Please note that I said "overdrive". I did likewise with the Dist control. Maybe I'm growing deaf in my old age, but there wasn't much difference between the two. If you pressed me, I'd say that the Dist had a bit more "edge", but I was expecting something a lot more distorted. Cranking up both full up made the sound muddy, but if there were a number of useable sounds available if I didn't go full out. Cranking both controls to 3:00 gave a nice singing tone for leads.

I'm not sure why BOSS named this a MEGA Distortion. Maybe it's because you can really kick out a ton of low end. That explains the Bottom control.

But what exactly is the point of separate Gain Boost and Dist controls if they both sound more or less the same? Personally, I'd think it'd be a far more interesting pedal had BOSS assigned separate kinds of distortion to each control.

I'M NOT DONE YET! I compare the MD-2 to two other BOSS pedals! I come up with my "bottom line", then I change my mind! You can read all about it if you click here!