J Mascis’ tone? ZVEX Vexter Double Rock

These days, the name of Amherst, Massachusetts’s guitarist and multi-instrumentalist J Mascis resonates with many musicians based in the NYC borough we also call home (Brooklyn). Since the turn of the decade, our sister site The Deli, a blog exclusively focused on emerging NYC bands, has covered the blossoming of a ’90s rock revival scene that in many cases references the legendary guitar sound (and broken melodies) of Mascis’ seminal band Dinosaur Jr.  His distorted guitar tone and style in records like ‘You’re Living All Over Me’  and ‘Green Mind’ (which preceded and influenced grunge), sounded absolutely mind-blowing.

Minneapolis pedal gurus ZVEX happen to know a thing or two about that tone, since J has been a long time fan of their distortion pedals, in particular of the Box of Rock. So much so that he requested a custom version of it featuring two of them in one box with two stomp switches – a pedal that has found a permanent home in the guitarist large board (see picture of the original, hand painted model below).

Original hand painted Double Rock

Now ZVEX is announcing an improved, non custom design on that same concept, with a new design intended to deliver a lot of extra flexibility.

Here’s the list of the main improvements directly from the manufacturer:

• You can adjust the sub frequencies (like in the Distortron™),
• You can convert either channel to a Super Hard-On™ with a master volume.
• You can configure the pedal to be two Distortrons cascaded, two Super Hard-Ons cascaded (like a Super Duper 2-in-1™), or a Box of Rock™ with boost, or a Super Hard-On™ (SHO) going into a Box of Rock™.

Brooklyn bands into the distorted guitar sound of the ’90s should take note. – PDG