MXR lineage

[petemoore]

Anyone know of the lineage of MXR pedals...
  Which one's came out first? Who the original tweekers that influenced the Dist+ and Micro Amp?
  Since they started making these boards and putting them into boxes, guitar playing hasnt' been the same. Nice and simple, one of each gets nice thick heavy distortion!

[Mark Hammer]

All nicely detailed in Art Thompson's book "Stompbox", excerpts of which show up here and there in magazines.  A number of "forefathers" are interviewed in it.  Interesting to learn how things came about.

MXR started out as a guy or two making mixers in their garage (hence the name MXR).  As for the "brilliance" of the Dist+ circuit, it is almost impossible to pick up any analog circuit collection from before 1975 and NOT find a similar diode-pair clipper circuit in it aimed at ham radio people.  Ham radio folks used such circuits as mic limiters to increase "presence" and cutting capability of voice transmission in otherwise noisy environments (that's noise around you, not electronic noise in the equipment).  Of course a carbon or crystal mic with voice signal will sound better behaved with such a circuit than an instrument signal containing more bottom and bigger amplitude surges.

I wouldn't swear to it on a stack of bibles, but my recollection is that the Micro-Amp was introduced one or two generations into the MXR product line, probably around the same time as the grey flanger and red limiter were.  In contrast to the way E-H developed, it was not one of the first products they issued.  The giveaway here is that it used a TL061, which is the low-power version of the TL071 and came AFTER the TL071 by a couple years.

[Danny G]

I have that book!  I need to read it again, now that I build my own stuff.

[petemoore]

Very excellent design...the board for the Dist+ and MA...interchangable.
 It certainly has stood the test of time.
 I think I was 'that' close to having what I needed decades ago when I had a Dist+ [stage thief got that one during a setbreak at a crowded gig]...had I gone the extra mile and invested in MXR stock in the form of a Micro Amp I would be [close to] where I was yesterday...running a Micro Amp into a Dist+/ ...I think my builds would have slightly greater dynamics/lower noise floor.