Ironically, I didn't like it at first. It was hard not to dial in too much. But alongside my Hot Rod Deluxe's own drive channel or an Ibanez Tube Screamer for that classic light crunch, this pedal sings as my moderate to heavy rhythm distortion phase. It has incredible versatility and its intelligent features rival that of a boutique pedal. Its controls help you shape the frequency of your sound, its Saturate switch lets you dial in killer sustain on an articulate, yet robust drive. It includes an AC chord and a rubber guard to hold your settings in place. It's an unreal value for the versatility today's diverse genres demand.

For a few years now, I have been looking for what I considered the perfect overdrive/distortion pedal. I may have found it in the Hardwire Valve Distortion. This baby is built like a tank and performs great. I've had it on my board for a few months now, and we'll see how she holds up, but so far she has scored 100.

More than an overdrive and less than a distortion, this pedal gives me the sounds I have been hearing in my head. Demons? Maybe so. But after Tubescreamers, Radial Bones, Visual 808 clones, Monkeys, and a myriad of others, this pedal is the one.

I'm playing a Strat, Tele, 335, and old Ovation Tornado thru both a Vibrolux and a Tech21 Trademark 60. All combinations sound great. No longer am I confined to the mid-boost of all the tubescreamer clones. I prefer an OD sound that does not have that midrange boost pre-programmed in. I can sound like me... and not every other guy who has a mid-hump TS clone. The mids are there if I want it, but when I want to dial it out I can. Overdrive blues, rock distortion (no metal), and clean jazz with great sustain. I just can't say enough about this pedal. I turn on the saturation, and run the drive at about 1:00, bass at 2:00, treble at 11:00 and level at about 10:00. Cleans up great with my volume control and I get all the distortion I need with bridge pickup and cranking the volume.

Comes with custom cut velcro pad for your pedal board, glow in the dark pad for dark stages, and a StompLock, which is a hard rubber cover for your knobs. When you find your sound and don't want to mess with the settings, pop this baby on and you're good to go. A really ingenious addition!

A word about customer service. I emailed to ask where to buy another velcro pad. Had an answer in one day and they're sending it to me... FREE!!! How's that?

This is quite simply the best od/dist pedal I have ever seen in 40 years of playing.

It works great for me and I'm not looking anymore.

For a while.

First thoughts - The pedal itself feels very solid with a healthy weight (not like it's actually heavy, it at least doesn't feel hollow like other pedals) and surprisingly shiny.

Features - The pedal is in fact metal however the stomplock that comes with it is not... but I personally think thats a good thing. It's made out of a dense rubber so hard stomps wouldn't put dents in it. All of the knobs have a solid click that you can feel whenever you turn them ensuring that they're already set in place fairly well. As well as the switch feels very tight.

Sounds/versatility - I'll start this section off with what I didn't like; the level knob, gain, AND bass knob all control the output db's of the pedal. Which means if you don't like much bass and cut it out of the signal by a moderate amount it will cut the signals output more so than cutting back the level knob. Now everything else I rather fully enjoyed with this pedal. In crunch mode you can roll back on your guitars volume knob and it will clean right up (which i love being able to do that with a pedal). For my live set-up I use it as a booster pedal and keep it on the entire time and just roll back on my guitars volume so I don't do a lot of tap dancing, however in the studio I have been able to use the pedal to record stacking tracks that give excellent spacing between guitars on the left and right, even when all tracks are used with the same guitar and amps.

Value - The fact that it is a boutique pedal, (or borderline anyways) has automatic true bypass, is made of all metal, and has the ability to be used as a boosting pedal and a rich distortion pedal I think it's price-tag is definitely a fair price.

Final Thoughts - I believe that this is a mighty good pedal that can be used in both live and studio applications (just as long as you don't put it in saturated mode and crank the level and gain all the way, because it will get a bit noisy). It has a decent price tag and ought to be able to take a beating. So I would recommend this pedal to any one that wants a pedal that can do most musical styles just short of heavy metal.

I have to say when I first saw this pedal I knew right away I had to try it out. I set it my way and I fell in love with it I said to myself this is a must have. I play through a vox and with this pedal and some effects trough my amp made this thing sound magical. It’s got more of a British distortion sound to it but you can set to any thing and the little switch is good because you can get a lighter crunch or a heavier sound from the pedal. I use a fender Tele USA high way one tricked out with some fender custom shop tele Texas special pickups and it makes it all the better sound. This thing is a must have for any musician. it also comes with a protector for the knobs and little switch plus a Velcro sticker so it stays in your pedal case without moving around. The there is also a glow in the dark sticker for the front so when your playing on a dark stage you can see it. For the money it’s a great deal buy this thing today

I bought this pedal because my multi-effects pedals were starting to sound a bit too digital for my tastes. I got this pedal earlier and fired it right up.... there are so many different tones you can get with it! It is plenty heavy enough to slightly dip into the metal but it is best suited for rock of all sort. If you want a good distortion pedal, buy this.