When a stompbox has Jack White’s Third Man Hardware logo emblazoned on its front, you know you’re in for a treat. Ditto storied effect pedal brand MXR. Now, the two companies have teamed up to produce a truly novel effect – the Double Down.
The new pedal, explains Guitar World Tech Editor Paul Riario, is “an inspired take on the original MXR Micro Amp, which incidentally is an absolute favorite of White‘s and is also an essential part of his guitar rig.”
The new pedal, explains Guitar World Tech Editor Paul Riario, is “an inspired take on the original MXR Micro Amp, which incidentally is an absolute favorite of White‘s and is also an essential part of his guitar rig.”
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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]