Dr Distorto

[soundchaser59]

I bought one Line 6 pedal, and they had a rebate offer to get another core module for free. So my choice for the free module was the Dr Distorto.

It is not really a distortion module, although it will do distortion. It is actually - near as I can tell - a sustainer. For single note leads it will somehow allow any note you hold to feedback, not amp feedback but more like a simulated feedback that is generated by the pedal. I dont know how it works, but it does sound pretty good. The overdrive aspect of it sounds pretty good also. I have a compressor in front of it, and the sustainer parts of the signal work great for me. It just happens to impart a tone that I really enjoy playing leads with. And it's nice to know all I have to do is hold a note and it will sustain for quite a while. No special tinkering with the amp or leaning the pickups into the speaker.

I dont know if it's worth the $$$$ they might ask for a new one, but it is an intersting concept. They have a pedal housing that will allow you to remove the little DAT sized module that makes the effect and replace it with any other module, turning your pedal into something completely different. For example, remove the delay module and replace it with a phaser module. One pedal, several different effect modules. The one I bought was the echo park delay, which I am getting a lot of use out of, and the free one the Dr Distorto has worked out well. It does require several minutes of tweaking to get to know it, though, so keep that in mind. I read the manual, it is not completely intuitive what it does.

Interesting concept for changing a pedal into something else, I'm surprised no other manufacturer thought of it before now. Anyway, I'm not a huge Line 6 fan, but I never had any problems with the amp I used to have, and these pedals dont sound too bad. So it's worth a test drive if you have some spare pedal money laying around. 

[Stephen]

So it's worth a test drive if you have some spare pedal money laying around. 

Yer kidding right?
I've lost a fourth of my meager net worth in the last 3 weeks, with all this stock market crappola!
I'm so poe, I can't even pay attention.
 

[soundchaser59]

I was referring to that wad of cash under the mattress........ you DO have one of those, right?? 

[Buddah]

Although the module thing sounds neat I think most people want several different boxes available at any time. You can't stop in the middle of a song and switch the module.

I wonder if this effect is included in the POD X3 I have

[soundchaser59]

Although the module thing sounds neat I think most people want several different boxes available at any time. You can't stop in the middle of a song and switch the module.

True, but for my studio doodling it is nice. I never use all 3 of these fx at the same time, so I can get by with just 1 pedal and 3 modules.

Might be handy for changing pedal order, though. Instead of having to redo the whole pedal board, you would just swap around the modules.