I knew not what I was getting myself into. I think, at some point, most of us buy some piece of gear because someone we admire uses it. For me, that was the MXR Blue Box. True Page uses it on “Fool In The Rain” but I became interested because Jesse Lacey of Brand New uses it. And on top of that, new it’s fairly cheap, as far as pedals go. The Blue Box also introduced me to some terrific noises.
A fuzzy, synthy, sub-octavey box is how I would describe it. Two simple knobs and larger than anything sound. An Output knob for volume and Blend to take you in and out of sub-octave, glitch-synth, snarly fuzz. My friends tell me this pedal is useless, it doesn’t make any useful sounds. Well, I refuse to believe that. Get it front of a delay, add some reverb and you can get some cool stuff going on. It takes some getting used to but I really enjoy it. My guess is once you get your hands on one you’ll hear it out there more and more. I know I’ve noticed it’s sounds on more recordings now that I know what it does.
Once you get a handle on the beast in this box you may want to do something different. Again. Like mod it! Easiest mod ever too. The mod opens up the fuzz side of the pedal tremendously, but does kinda take some of the umpf outta the sub-octave, so there is a sacrifice.
This pedal is neither subtle nor transparent, but it wasn’t meant to be. It’s in your face, brash and wants to be heard. When you need people to take notice it gets their attention. It’s made to the high standard construction that I’ve found all MXR pedals to have, and keeps me coming back to “one of the big guys”.
In the age of boutique gear this one still stands.
