MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion 

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

This pedal literally made me go from absolutely hating my tone to loving it. I didn't even know it existed until I went to my local music shop and saw it next to the sansamp I went there to buy. Tried them side by side and within minutes my mind was made up. So much more control, better build quality, and less expensive = no brainer. You will love this thing, especially if you want more of a tube sound but on a solid state budget. I would buy another in a heartbeat and I absolutely refuse to plug in without it.

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

Very rarely does a musician find a piece of gear that stick around forever. As for myself, basses and amps have come and gone but this unit has stayed. Mainly because it can make any bass or bass and amp combo sound better. Period. Indispensable piece of kit. Seriously.

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

It adds nice richness to your tone, while still allowing you to make it your own. The distortion is awesome and eliminates the need for an additional stomp box. My favorite feature is that you can blend the distorted signal and the clean signal to dial in just the right amount. I use this pedal, a compressor, and a chorus, and I can get any sound I will ever need or want. The pedal is dead silent and built like a brick. Awesome buy.

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

This is a solid D.I. with great features in a solid, compact design.

If you are looking to plug your bass straight through to the soundboard, mixer, or PA then I would highly recommend this unit. It has many power options including 9V battery, 9V AC power, or Phantom power (power comes through the XLR out from the mixer).

I also found it to be a nice pre-amp for my solid-state combo amp and can get great sounds from it.

The distortion is pretty good! I wasn't expecting a lot but it impressed me. It has a built-in smart noise-gate that is switchable (only usable with distortion channel). The blend knob is handy for blending the distortion in with clean signal. There are separate volume controls for clean and distortion. All in all, it is a very usable distortion channel.

If you are looking for crazy distortion, and don't need the functionality of a D.I., I would look for a standalone pedal like the Boss ODB-3, which I also own.

The main difference I found between the MXR M-80 and the Sansamp D.I. is the ability to adjust the EQ on the mids. With the Sansamp, you can boost either Lows or Highs but with MXR you can boost or roll back highs, mids, and lows. There is also a "color" switch which is comparable to a 'mid scoop' on other units. Adjusting the EQ to subtract mids and using the "color" switch can be OVERKILL so use it wisely.

Overall, this is a great, functional product that serves it purpose very well.

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

If you are looking for a DI unit for bass with some EQ, distortion and channel switching possibilities with a pristine bypassed tone that is phantom powerable - this is the unit for you. Trust me - I've tried several.
I've tried several bass-specific DI boxes from sansamp (bass driver deluxe and standard, VT deluxe and paradriver). Compared to all of them the MXR M80 beats them in the one area I care about the most : it has pristine bypassed DI tone - no added hiss or hum and no loss of highs or lows.

The more time I've spent with it the more impressed I am with it. It is very, very versitile. You can use either channel as a mute (for example) or the clean channel as a boost.

The color switch is a bit extreme in terms of a mid scoop. Yes, it will sound great solo'd but you will get lost in a mix... I just dial down the bass and increase the mids and I get a nice 2nd clean tone. Then I add a touch of gain, blend it in and I get a bit of grind that helps cut through a mix.
Built like a tank. Never a problem with it. I always use it phantom powered and it has worked superbly. I don't bring my amp to gigs anymore since I got this pedal.
I have three pieces of equipment I bring to every gig - a bass, a tuner and the M80. I HIGHLY recommend this unit. The distortion is NOT very tube like imho, however, I think it gives a nice tone when used sparingly. When using more distortion, it can get pretty outrageous, which you might like but I find little use for.

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

I have used this box with a couple of G-K amps and as a direct box for home recording. It makes already great sounding bass rigs and guitars even better. Noise gate is a nice feature to smooth out the tone. The distortion channel is outstanding, just what I was looking for, and no loss of bass frequencies. It also gives my single channel 1001 RB2 a "de facto" Channel 2 for OD/Distortion. Sounds great with my other pedals, too. I'm sure to be finding even more uses for this device as time goes on.

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

I was considering the SansAmp, Eden WTDI, & Seymour Duncan Paranormal pre-amp boxes. I took a chance on this one and I'm very pleased. I like having 2 channels. The distortion channel took me a little while to get set the way I wanted, but that's just because I was being picky. The distortion channel does NOT suck out your bottom end. The best overdriven/distortion I've messed with. Distortion channel can be used clean depending your gain & blend settings on the pedal. I bought a power supply, but love the phantom power capability. I use that at my church. I also don't have to take my combo amp anymore. The sound guy has better control of me in the house. Got compliments from one of the guitar players too about this pedal. I also use this box to boost my signal from a bass of mine that has a lower signal. This thing is built like a boat anchor. It's heavy, but that's good in my book because I think it will be durable. It seemed to me that some of the lower notes on the B string didn't have as much sustain thru this box. Could be my bass though. Not a huge bother to me. Great value for the $$$.

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

I had been looking at the M-80 and the Sansamp Bass DI. I bought the M-80 off craigslist for wicked cheap and I'm super glad I got it! I haven't used the DI function on it, but the preamp itself is AMAZING. It's so beefy and fat and improves the overall sound quality a lot. The distortion function isn't too bad at all either. The Blend function is great and helps shape the overall sound. The only drawback is I wish there was a separate EQ for the distortion. But overall, it's great. I love it!

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

If you're like me and you obsess over your bass tone/eq, you might be prone to spending more time tweaking your knobs than actually sound checking. I bought this item so I'd have a back up if my amp died at a gig. Did I mention that I'm a little OCD? First thing I did was set my SWR working pro 15 flat on the eq, literally every knob at 12 o'clock. Then I plugged in this little guy ran it flat and pressed the "Color" switch. After boosting the bass just a little and cutting the treble just a little, it was perfect. Played the gig set up just like that. Distortion not really going to get you that old tube amp sound, but if you want to go heavy it's pretty sweet, too.

Comments about MXR M-80 Bass Direct Box with Distortion:

Owned mine for a couple of years now, I'm not a live gigging player these days, but still do some live shows now and then and a fair amount of studio time.My take on the device it eats batteries first of all but that is pretty typical of this type of device,I don't have an abundance of outlets in my studio so I've dealt with it.Being that I use bat's I was pretty mad when the bat door tabs that hold the bat in place broke...pretty lame design.Far as what it does, with enough know twisting and time you can make some nice tones, I have a pretty plain jane old swr combo and this box gives it some nads I'll admit. I don't agree with what the lil manual/brochure thing said about settings=certain sounds. Have used it directly into my mixer and into my computer with pretty decent results.All in All I'm happy with the purchase