MXR’s Super Badass Dynamic OD is an excellent compact overdrive pedal with great dynamic sensitivity and a flexibility that will see it playing a crucial role in front of both clean or driven amps.
Pros
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Compact size.
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Two modes.
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Great dynamic response and clean-up.
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Wide range of gain.
Cons
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Nothing.
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This pedal is the fifth from MXR with ‘Badass’ in its name, and the third of the compay’s ‘Super Badass’ pedals, completing a trilogy of dirt alongside the Super Badass Distortion and Super Badass Variac Fuzz. Based around MOSFET clipping diodes, it’s a basic three-knob overdrive pedal with Output Volume, Gain and Tone knobs plus a two-way toggle switch that gives you Cut or Boost.
The Dynamic OD pedal sounds tonally most neutral and transparent in the Cut position with the Tone knob set close to midway. With the Gain knob set at minimum, you’ll get unity gain and clean sound around 11 o’clock, leaving plenty of knob travel for dialling in some clean boost that you can liven up by turning the tone knob clockwise from the neutral point, adding some crisp note definition.
If you really want more emphatic tonal sharpening, then setting the toggle switch to Boost actually adds some gain and pushes the upper mids forward for plenty of extra bite.
Lots of boost options, then, with adjustable tonal flavour that will push an amp nicely into drive or add an extra layer to another drive pedal. But getting the Gain knob involved opens up loads more possibilities because there’s a wide range of drive available, from the light crunch of an amp just starting to break up, to well beyond that.
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
The pedal actually responds very much like a driven tube amp and lives up to its name as a Dynamic OD. There’s a superb response to playing dynamics and the pedal offers really great clean-up with some guitar volume roll-back; you can (and may wish to) keep this pedal on all the time, controlling things with your volume knob.
At the top end of the Gain knob’s range, there’s quite a full-on sound, especially in Boost mode, with lots of harmonics and a touch of fuzz on the bottom-end. It can be as aggressive as you’d like it to be (it is a Badass, after all!), but the Tone knob works brilliantly in dialling back any unwanted fizz and adjusting the overall output EQ to sit with the rest of your chain.
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
Specs
PRICE: $129 /£149
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Drive pedal
FEATURES: True bypass
CONTROLS: Output, Tone, Gain, Boost/Cut switch, Bypass footswitch
Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.
