Back in the day, if you wanted to use a distortion pedal and keep your low end intact, you had to split your clean and dirty signals between two amps. With the MXR Bass Distortion, there’s no such need—this pedal puts control over the clean/dirty mix right at your feet with separate Dry and Wet level controls. The Tone control, which only affects the distortion signal, is a simple high cut filter for dialing back the top end, and the Distortion control sets the distortion signal’s intensity. 

Finally, the MXR Bass Distortion’s raunchy sound comes in two flavors, selectable via the LED/SIL switch. The default SIL setting uses silicon clipping diodes for an aggressive, biting sound and a bit of compression, while the LED setting uses LED diodes for a more wide open sound and a nice gain bump.