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Toadworks: Mr. Ed (List: $200)
There’s a certain Mr. Ed in guitardom that we know of for his inspirational ‘brown sound’; Edward Van Halen of course. His early Marshall tone was an undeniable signature that got many guitar dweebs tinkering with tube amps to acquire that fried but commanding distortion. Along the way, such tinkering exhausted many of our coffers in addition to mental breakdowns in trying to figure out how it happens; short of getting a costly Marshall tube amp to monkey with, was there ever an implement to replicate this tone?
Build/ Features
Mr. Ed here is the subsequent version of the original, the latter being different by virtue of dimensions (much wider- along the measurements of Rocktron’s Austin Gold). Along the way, the manufacturer designated Mr. Ed into its Player Series which sport the trimmed width, a more respectable label font & black knobs. The current dimensions are indeed the same as the average MXR units.
Mr. Ed is a 3-knob affair so the authority it has to offer is rather straight-forward; minimum fuss, maximum playability. You will have to remove the entire base-plate for battery access & that’s about the only gripe in this department.
Rating: 90%
In use/ tone
Upon plugging in, you’d expect the brown sound to take over but not quite. As a stand alone pedal, Mr. Ed proves to be a grizzly-voiced unit, with a signature fried, middle frequency response so it sounds very much like a distortion with a generous serving of fuzz. The gain on offer has a generous sweep, the player is able to generate a polite response ala BOSS’ DS-1 pedal & a more robust output at the other end of the sweep but the signature growl is ever-present regardless of whichever knob you manipulate. The intensity of Mr. Ed is definitely more pronounced with reference to the afore-mentioned BOSS pedal but nothing as protrusive as MI Audio’s Crunch Box.
Mr. Ed’s brown sound replication can only be effectively manifested when in use with another drive/ distortion unit or your amp’s driven channel.
Mr. Ed here was paired up with Marshall’s Guvnor Plus to evoke a plexi-like tone & true enough, the brown sound made its presence heard. Mr. Ed is less authoritative when used as the primary distortion source, even when boosted with other mild-type units. It is rather apparent that this pedal works much better as a pusher rather than being pushed.
In use with a solid state amp’s dirty channel, the signature growl was also present but the fusion here is more commanding & had a less compressed quality. However, potential buyers need to watch how much gain Mr. Ed operates on, as excessive amount would churn out a fuzzy output which masks clarity, particularly unbeneficial to single coil pickups (especially in the neck position)
Tone test equipment:
• Guitars: Ibanez RG321/ Gibson SG Special/ Fender ST72
• Pedals: Marshall Guvnor Plus/ Beta Aivin M-200/ Ibanez TS9/ BOSS DS-1
• Amps: Epiphone Valve Jr head/ Marshall MG15 MSII/ Ibanez ValBee
Rating: 80%
Mr. Ed, as its name suggests, has its personal inclinations. If you are looking for a medium intensity distortion unit this is one with a rather distinctive character but its appeal is limited in relation to its function as a drive booster. This is where the fabled brown sound can be heard but it is not a sure formula for this replication. Mr. Ed fares poorly in this light in use with a metal-type distortion at the primary helm; the brown sound becomes less distinctive & the player would be better off not having it in the signal chain if a fuzz-like response isn’t the cup of tea. If you are looking for a simple distortion unit to enhance your drive tone, Mr. Ed is a costly affair.
Overall rating: 82%
Product availability:
• Ebenex
Likes:
• Distinctive distortion voicing
• Healthy drive sweep
Dislikes
• Does not manifest brown sound as distinctively in use with other intense distortion
• Battery access requires base-plate removal
• Price
Worthy competitors:
• BOSS: DS-2 Turbo Distortion
• Ibanez: DS-7 Distortion
• Digitech: Hot Head
• Carl Martin: Crunch Drive
• Guyatone: HD-3 Hot Drive
• Artec: TWH-1 Twin Drive
• Biyang: DS-7 Distortion
