MXR - THE PEDAL PEOPLE!

All about MXR

Favoured by many a guitar legend in the 1970s and 80s, MXR pedals are now making a comeback with Signature models and reissued classics…

Here in the absolutemusic guitar department, we’ve long been big fans of the MXR range of pedals. Although we don’t have enough room to demo the whole range of MXR stompboxes past and present, we have enough on show for customers to appreciate how good and how much fun they are, and to share our love for these compact, sometimes quirky pedals.

Once upon a time

The company (full name: MXR Innovations) was established in New York state in 1973 by three pals Keith Barr, Terry Sherwood and Michael Laiacona. This trio went on to found yet more industry big names – Whirlwind (Laiacona), Alesis (Barr) and ART - Applied Research & Technlogy (Sherwood) – but not before taking the guitar effects world by storm.

The first release was the M-101 Phase 90, put through its paces on Van Halen’s first two albums. This was followed by the M-102 Dyna Comp compressor, the M-103 Blue Box distortion and octaving effect, and the M-104 Distortion+.

Two variations on the M-101 were also released: the M-105 Phase 45 with a slightly softer phase effect and the M-107 Phase 100 programmable phaser.

Read the script

The pedals released between 1973 and 1983, known as the Reference series, were powered by a 9V battery giving up to 500 hours of use. The input was directly connected to the circuit’s power supply, they used carbon film resistors and, like many other pedals of that period, they had no LEDs, A/C adaptor jacks or true bypass.

These early pedals were made in the basement of the founders’ workshop, the logos being silk-screened by hand on to the cast-aluminium boxes made by the Bud Box Co. in Ohio. The italicised typeface used for the boxes gave rise to these pedals being known as ‘Script Period’. Nowadays, they’re highly sought-after and collectors will pay up to \$1,000 for an original Script Period pedal!

Out of the box

Around 1975 the company logo changed to the box-style we know today, hence the ‘Box Period’ pedals. The cases changed from aluminium to zinc and there were changes inside as MXR upgraded the carbon film resistors to less noisy metal ones, and different diodes and capacitors were adopted.

As time passed, the MXR boffins began to use LEDs in their pedals and added AC power, leading to some MXR greats: the M-108 10-band graphic EQ, M-134 Stereo Chorus and M-143 Limiter.

The end but not the end

By the early 80s, MXR introduced a range of inexpensive plastic-cased pedals known as the Commande series to compete with cheaper competitor products. MXR also released the 2000 series of reworked classics – including the M-201 Phaser, M-202 Dyna Comp and M-204 Distortion+ – as well as a range of rackmount and desktop effects, but by 1984 market conditions had become too tough and the company closed its doors.

A modern turnaround

The MXR pedals we see today are developed and manufactured by Jim Dunlop (home of the Crybaby Wah) who bought the MXR licensing rights in 1992.

As well as reisuing some of the MXR classics (M-101 Phase 90, M-108 ten-band EQ, etc), Dunlop has developed a Signature Series with pedals being developed, inspired and endorsed by legendary MXR fans like Eddie Van Halen, Kerry King, ‘Dimebag’ Darrell and Zakk Wylde.

We love them and if you step into our showroom and give them a try, we’re sure you will too!

OUR FAVOURITE FIVE…

We have a wide range of MXR pedals on demo in our soundproofed guitar room, but here are our favourites:
1. [MXR 74 Phase 90] (£104) reissue of the 1974 Script series style model for those classic Van Halen swooshes
2. [M-169 Carbon Copy] (£109) giving up to 100ms delay time!
3. [ZW44 Zakk Wylde Overdrive] (£80) is the ultimate in crunchy screaming lead tones
4. [M132 Super Comp] (£73) takes compession another step on from the classic Dyna Comp
5. [M-152 Micro Flanger] (£84) first seen in the 80s