BBE 427

So, I've got stuff I've had forever, and some of that stuff is too old, too cool, and too precious to me to use very often. A great example is my MXR vintage Script Logo Distortion +. For most folks, it's worth about 200 bucks. For me- all the memories, all the time spent with it, makes it absolutely priceless. I'd rather sell my guitar than this pedal. So the irony is, that means I can't use it very often for fear of it deteriorating more than it already has. I've been on a quest to have something that sounds like it, but I don't need to fear hurting or losing. I've tried the boutique route and the cheap route, and found nothing. It's just a random, once inn a lifetime sound. So I got this pedal not really trying to replace it, but trying to find another thing that would become as unique. In that venture, it's a success. This doesn't sound like any other distortion pedal, and I dig the sound.
BBE is the  electronics half of G&L guitars- makers of Leo Fender's more pure guitar designs-and Paul Gagon runs and helps design this stuff. So, if you don't know- Leo was the guy who invented the Telecaster, and the Stratocaster, amoungst other tthings, so, yeah I hold him in high regard. Paul was a legend in sound engineering for people like me. The sound of sunset strip Glam Metal? Yeah, more so than the musicians, he invented that. Then, he was the guy who came up with all that great pointy guitar stuff for Charvel/Jackson. If you want a gain-heavy but still musically ear pleasing distorted guitar sound, this guy should be your man.
So, seeing as the MXR was a favorite for Randy Rhoads, who is my hands-down favorite for that kind of sound, it makes sense to go back to the Paul Gagon well. The 427 is his "Muscle Car" take on the EHX Big Muff Pi. Now the Pi is much more the sound of the 70's, but, important to my purposes, a chief competitor to MXR's Distortion +. Given that Gagon is an 80's guy, I knew this wasn't going to sound like a Pi, really- I figured it would be voiced like a super thick, compressed fuzz pedal, and it kind of is, but really, it's not. Yes, the sweepable EQ compresses the signal in a strange way, and yes, it's a more fuzzy kind of distortion than, say, a Boss Heavy Metal pedal, and because of those two factors, it does remind me a bit of the MXR, but the harmonics come out less than the MXR, and where the MXR is more muddy and beefy, this just sounds stolid, and thick. So, yes, it'll fit the bill, but it's not a sound I think everyone can use. Put it about halfway between the EHX Tortion and the Wampler Plexidrive.
The QC on this thing is off the charts, however. The hammond style enclosure has a blue metal flake paintjob that seems tough enough that it could take a bullet, and a gut check shows a vero board hand wired so well, with poly caps and metal film resistors- it's built like an Army radio- I could easily see putting this in combat- literally. There is no stage abuse I can foresee that would harm this in any real way. OK- the knobs are plastic, so, if they literally took a bullet, they might crack, but the pedal would still function. I am certain. It comes with its own wall wort, so even if the battery choice is shaky, you'll make the gig.
So, yeah, happy with this one....