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First off, THIS ISN'T A PEDAL FOR EVERYBODY. The Blue Box is an ancient design - from around 1974. It's glitchy and works best on the A, D & G strings in the upper registers (above the 10th fret or so). And it isn't polyphonic - single notes only.Now, having said that, the sound it produces is truly unique to this pedal. Thick and wooly! I had the Boss OC-3 Super Octave and HATED IT. (It's best function is as a paperweight.) The biggest complaint I have with this pedal is that it isn't very loud, the volume drop when you engage the pedal is quite hard to miss. I solved that problem by running the pedal into an MXR Classic Overdrive. If you want to blow up a small guitar amp, this may be your ticket. I find it's best to palm mute the strings. Any extraneous noises interfere with the signal processing. I would indeed recommend this to a friend but with warnings. It may not work too well in a live setting but it's a great studio toy. Jimmy Page's solo in 'Fool In The Rain' is probably the best known use of this pedal but Wings guitarist Jimmy McCullough put one to good use on 'Wino Junko' from the 'At the Speed of Sound' album.

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I liked the sound, but the volume drop from engaging the pedal is ridiculous. There's a simple way around this: clip the C11 capacitor off. Voila, gain is back! The tone is more aggressive (the cap is a low-pass filter, I believe) but this is not necessarily a bad thing - and if you're handy with a soldering iron you can always change the value to something less extreme, and/or put it on a switch so you can go back if you want to. It's a waaacky sound, once you get it dialed in. Pretty simple - one knob is level, the other is amount of fuzz vs. low-octave mixed in. All the way CW it's a nasty fuzz pedal, all the way CCW it's fat, fuzzy, synth-bass. Mix to taste. There are probably better (or at least different) pedals like this out there, but at this price point I'm betting this is the one.

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I bought this just for the odd sound of it, it does have a volume drop but not too bad. Works well with an overdrive stacked with it.

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The MXR M-103 Blue Box is a combination octaver/distortion pedal, with a bit of pitch modulation thrown in for extra insanity. When played without other effects, it sounds like a rabid Atari 2600 on a rampage! Combined with a slow and deep chorus and a bit more rock distortion, you can get cool sounds similar to to '70s rock or even a bit like '60s psychedelic. This is not a polyphonic pedal, so chording with this box doesn't work so well. Use single notes for best results; and use chorus, delay, or harmonizer pedals later in the effects chain to flesh out your sound. I've also tried MXR and DigiTech phasers with the Blue Box, with fun and interesting results! Keep the Blend knob around the 10 or 11 o'clock position for less randomness and a bit more control over your sound. The Blue Box is built tough, and is a lot of fun to use! This pedal is a great value; and provides unique sounds for rock, metal, industrial, punk, alternative, and experimental music!

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The Blue Box Fuzz is durable, easy to use and fun to experiment with.

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I bought this thinking it would be a cool addition to my collection but I was dead wrong the volume drop is awful the tone is terrible all settings were terrible. If I could I would give 0 stars

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This is the sweetest pedal ever! There's none like it!

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