Are Mass Produced Pedals Good?
As of 2022, two of the most important and legendary boutique pedals in history– the Paul Cochrane Timmy Overdrive and the Analogman King of Tone –have now been officially licensed for production with the designerʼs involvement as the MXR Timmy Overdrive and MXR Duke of Tone, respectively. While it can be hard to recognize a historical moment when you’re right in the middle of it, I’m calling it: this is going down in pedal history. This pedal release is monumentally important on many levels, and it amounts to much more than the answer to the question, “Do they sound good?”
Let me rip that bandaid right off. Yes. Of course the MXR Timmy Overdrive and Duke of Tone sound good. These pedals were developed by MXR alongside the Analog Mike and Paul Cochrane, two of the most gifted pedal creators in recent history. They sound good, okay?
The real question here is: are they good? Is it good for the pedal business, for boutique builders, for Paul and Jim personally that a mass-produced version of their $300-$800 pedals have hit the market? Short answer: yes. To explain why, we first have to look at the history of a businessman named Jim Dunlop.
Jim Dunlop Saves the World
Jim Dunlop, who founded MXR, is a master of taking amazing companies, ideas, and brands and collaborating with them in a way that exponentially benefits both the company and the gear market. I’d call him a serial collaborator/product launcher. As early as 1982, he purchased the trademark for the Crybaby franchise from Thomas Organ and began manufacturing the Crybaby Wah Pedal on a mass scale. He made the Crybaby Wah, one of the most iconic pedals in early rock history, an accessible product for the masses. I can’t overstate how important this is. It meant that this wasn’t just an effect available to the musical elite. It meant that any kid like me could go to their local guitar shop, buy one and play “Bulls On Parade” just like Tom Morello. Mind-blowing.
In 1984, MXR went bankrupt, falling apart mainly due to internal disagreements about their direction as a company. Between 1984 and 1988– four years, for those who left their calculators at home –MXR did not exist. But in 1988, Jim Dunlap said, “Hey, I'm gonna buy this brand and relaunch it.” And here we are.
By 1993, the most legendary fuzz pedal of all time– The Fuzz Face –was floating in no man’s land. The copyright had bounced around between various hands for decades ultimately grinding to a halt, leaving no reliable version on the market. Enter Jim Dunlop, who says, “I'm going to take this brand and I'm going to make these pedals right.” And he does, pulling in brilliant engineers to make sure they get it perfect. As a result, Dunlop now produces some of the best Fuzz Face pedals in history, and they do it on a mass scale. That’s pretty baller.
By 2008, Jim’s son Jimmy Dunlop had taken over the family business, and he approached Jeorge Tripps about collaborating to release his Way Huge guitar pedals, which had temporarily been put on ice when Jeorge took a job with Line 6 and shut the operation down. Initially, Jeorge said no, but Jimmy persisted for several years until Jeorge said, “Okay, let’s do it.” Way Huge used to be a notoriously unobtainable boutique brand, not just because of price but also because there weren’t a lot of them made, making them both expensive and difficult to find. Jimmy literally brought this brand back from the dead and made these super weird, super cool and (previously) super rare pedals accessible to everyday players.
Seriously, someone get this man a cape**.
**If you didn’t read that in T’Challa’s voice, go back and watch Avengers: Infinity War before you read any further.
Why This Is a Fantastic
So, now that we understand the timeline of how and when Jim Dunlop resurrected some of your favorite pedal brands, let’s break down why mass-produced versions of boutique pedals are so important and, yes, a legitimately good development for the pedal industry.
A bigger audience can now access these formerly unobtainable pedals. Folks who would never have been able to buy a vintage Timmy Overdrive or King of Tone (whether due to small batch production or bonkers pricing) have access to these pedals for a fraction of the cost. That’s inclusivity and accessibility on a worldwide scale.
The builders get royalties! In other words, these mass-produced versions aren’t stealing money from the creators. They’re directly reaping the benefits from every sale.
In many ways, this signals the end of an era, and that’s not a bad thing.
I did a talk recently asking whether we may be living in the end of the boutique era, which really hit a nerve with some people. To be clear, I’m not saying that boutique pedals arenʼt fun, valuable or a sustainable production style, or that I think that small batch pedal making is going to completely disappear. The main point here is that people are admitting that boutique, small batch pedals are not necessarily better than mass-produced pedals, and that’s a very good thing. Simply put, I’ve played some utterly terrible boutique pedals, and I’ve played some astonishingly good mass-produced pedals. If you feel you can only be loyal to one or the other, small batch or large batch, then you’re severely limiting your choices.
Notable MXR Collaborations
In an industry that can be way too insular and where pedal designers are often expected to be Lone Rangers (though, if you want to split hairs, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto), collaboration is key. This is why I have partnered with companies like BOSS and Keeley Electronics, because collaboration is the key to creativity and opening up doors to new ideas. I'm so glad to see that the “Lone Ranger'' ideology is dissipating. This is how the guitar community is going to grow.
With that in mind, before we wrap things up I’d like to highlight a few collaborations that MXR has facilitated over the years.
MXR & Custom Audio Electronics
Custom Audio Electronics’ Bob Bradshaw is an industry legend who’s built rigs for Van Halen and John Mayer. He’s also a fantastic pedal designer, and in 2009 he collaborated with MXR to release the MC404 CAE Wah, also partnering with MXR to release the MC401 CAE Boost/Line Driver, the MC402 CAE Boost/Overdrive, the MC403 CAE Power Supply and the MC406 CAE Buffer. This collaboration was initiated by Jimmy Dunlop and the lead engineer was head of engineering Sam McRae.
MXR & Fuzzrocious
In 2015, Fuzzrociousʼ Ryan Ratajski collaborated with MXR to create a versatile RAT-inspired pedal specifically for the electric bass: the M85 Bass Distortion. For the record, it also sounds fantastic on the electric guitar. This project was initiated and managed internally by Scott Shiraki, and engineered by Sam McRae.
MXR & Shins Music
Pedals built by Shin Suzuki of Shins Music are the actual definition of “impossible to find,” so when I heard that MXR had collaborated with him to produce a budget pedal, I was understandably thrilled. In 2016, the project manager Jeorge Tripps collaborated with noted amp and pedal designer Shin Suzuki to produce the CSO035 Shin-Juku Drive.
MXR & Paul Cochrane
As noted above, in 2020, the M239 Timmy Overdrive was developed by creator Paul Cochrane and an MXR team overseen by Jeorge Tripps (a builder who understands boutique pedals backwards and forwards), while the project was managed internally by Dunlopʼs Joey Ossiek. My good friend Jamie Stillman of Earthquaker Devices wasn’t exaggerating when he said that the OG Timmy “lived up to its hype and then some,” so I’m beyond pumped to see this produced at a scale and price that regular musicians can afford.
MXR & Analogman
In 2022, MXR collaborated with Analog Mike to recreate one of the most hard-to-find pedals on the market– the Analogman King of Tone, which was itself based on a pedal even more difficult to get your hands on: the Klon Centaur. Jeorge Tripps initially negotiated the deal with Analog Mike over the phone, and they subsequently partnered to design the MXR Duke of Tone, a mass-produced variation on the original King of Tone circuit. The project was managed and named by Joey Ossiek.
Basically, I’m a huge fan of Jim Dunlop and of the collaborative spirit that he brought to the pedal community. He showed by example that everyone benefits from cross-company partnerships, the players and the builders. Pedal makers who would never have considered collaborating have begun to see that when the tide rises, every boat rises. And it’s a beautiful thing.