I bought this pedal because I really didn't like the distortion circuit that was built into my amp. What I wanted from this pedal was a nice bluesy tone with the gain turned down and a nice hard rock crunch with the gain on full, boy was I disappointed, this pedal run into a clean amp by itself does not give you any kind of distortion at all. period. to get a good blues tone you have to turn the gain knob a bit past 12 o' clock, and with both knobs cranked you can only achieve a mild overdrive, sort of like a lynyrd skynyrd tone, no hard rock or even classic rock tones to be found. I guess when MXR designed this pedal they intended it to be run in front of a dirty amp, which is the only way that you are gonna get even close to randy rhoads tone. all in all good pedal, and I'm gonna keep it, but still I think that the name is misleading, I think that Overdrive+ would be a more fitting name

This is a very functional pedal. It's a great pedal for straight distortion but is also extemely funtional. If you use a Marshall amp especially, this pedal is a great pre-amp to boost your signal. I play heavy metal and thrash metal and the functionality of this pedal can allow me to play a myriad of songs with little tinkering. And Randy Rhoads used it which automatically requires any serious guitarist to buy one.

I recently purchased this pedal, and I must say that it's rather amazing. I use it with a B.C. Rich Beast, A Marshall JCM900 50-Watt High-Gain Dual Reverb amp, and a Dunlop Classic Crybaby. It can get just about any distortion that you want it to get. From a bluesy, light distortion to a heavy, high-gain assault, this pedal's tonal possibilities are nearly limitless. It's definately the pedal to buy if you want to play with some bite to your bark.

I bought this pedal because I was aware that randy rhoads used it, and I really liked his tone.

When I recieved it, I was exactly what I thought it was going to be. If is more like a clean boost when the distortion is below 12 o'clock, but when you turn it past that you hear it's true colors.

It sounds pretty good by itself, but I recommend putting it into a dirty amp, or even run it into another pedal (I recommend the digitech tonedriver). You get a really thick and heavy Zakk Wylde tone. You'll need a noise gate but the sound is to die for.

I bought my original one back in '74 and haven't ever played a better effect. Back in the 70's I played my SG through it and it would pick up Canadian radio late at night in Rhode Island. Funniest thing was when I was playing at a club the police radio would come through my amp and everyone would know what was going down. Nice memories of a bigone era.