Paul Riario talks about the Double Down pedal brand MXR.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:19 What's up? Paul here from Guitar World and today we're going to be checking out
00:22 a novel booster pedal made in partnership with the MXR Custom Shop and
00:26 Jack White's third man hardware company, the Double Down. Let's check it out.
00:34 What is the Double Down you ask? Well quite simply it's an inspired take on
00:40 the original MXR micro amp pedal which incidentally is an absolute favorite of
00:45 White's and was also an essential part of his guitar rig. But now the Double Down
00:50 has replaced that and it is the mainstay of his sound. But let's get to the point.
00:55 The Double Down is effectively two micro amp pedals in an eye-catching stomp box
01:00 with two outputs allowing you to use it as a one into two signal splitter. And
01:04 since the Double Down is loaded with a pair of micro amp circuits you get two
01:09 independent channels of classic MXR preamp gain boost. So sort of our first
01:15 step of wanting to split between two amplifiers. I've always been using you
01:20 know two amps and usually now and for last like decade or more it was like the
01:24 Vibroverb, a 64 Vibroverb and 100 watt Silvertone. And the ability to in the
01:31 studio or live to go to two different places with it. A true stereo output. And
01:36 so this was the collaboration, the Double Down. So the ability to send that
01:42 signal to two different places and control the volume for each one. Very
01:45 simple but coming in very useful in the studio and on stage. I love it because
01:51 it's sort of very clean for a while then you get up here it gets dirty and
01:54 overcharged and it's kind of great. You could almost just only, I could
01:59 imagine just doing gigs with only that. The Double Down pedals single input jack
02:03 splits your signal into two separate outputs each with its own gain control.
02:08 Where you can balance the volumes of two amps or where you can push up to 26 dB
02:13 of signal boosting power. You'll notice on the left side of the pedal is a phase
02:17 switch that adds a pronounced stereophonic effect by inverting the
02:22 phase of the second output signal. And on the right side is a buffer switch so
02:26 that you can choose between true bypass and buffered bypass switching. So for my
02:31 setup I have two super amps. One which is a 1x15 speaker and the other combo over
02:37 here which is a 1x12. So let's hear both of these dual amps right now without
02:43 engaging the Double Down. Here's what it sounds like.
02:48 So let's have some fun with the Double Down. In one amp going through the Double
03:06 Down I have a fuzz and a chorus and in the other amp I have a reverb. So when I
03:10 engage both you get to hear like this myriad of great tone.
03:16 So let's hear it with the Reverb.
03:18 Reverb.
03:20 Reverb.
03:22 Reverb.
03:24 Reverb.
03:26 Reverb.
03:28 Reverb.
03:30 [Instrumental]
03:55 [Instrumental]
04:11 [Instrumental]
04:25 The only thing to note is the double down doesn't double up on the foot switches,
04:30 which means once you engage its solitary foot switch,
04:33 the gain boost is automatically applied to two amps or not.
04:37 You don't have the option to boost one amp or the other.
04:41 [Instrumental]
04:43 The double down is available in a standard and a reverb exclusive iteration.
04:47 You can order the limited edition yellow edition of the double down
04:51 exclusively on Third Man Hardware's Reverb Store.
04:54 And you can also order the standard edition black pedal at Third Man Hardware's Reverb Store
04:59 as well as at the Third Man Records Web Store.
05:03 If you're a gigging guitar player who uses a dual amp setup,
05:06 the double down does wonders as both a signal splitter and a dual boost pedal.
05:11 Having two separate MXR microamp circuits in a single box gives you twice the firepower
05:16 to light up two separate signal chains with just the right amount of supercharged microamp boost.
05:22 Definitely check it out.
05:24 [Instrumental]
05:53 [Music]
05:59 [Music]