Proto-punk legend Wayne Kramer has been honored with a feral new signature overdrive pedal that re-creates the guitarist's raw and relentless tone while it celebrates his pioneering attitude.
The new, limited-edition MXR Jail Guitar Doors Drive pedal from Dunlop/MXR is the result of a collaboration between the late guitarist, his friend Jimi Dunlop (CEO of Dunlop) and Daredevil Pedals owner Johnny Wator. Kramer's fingerprints are all over this pedal. In fact, its tone fuels the title track of the MC5's final album, 2024's Heavy Lifting.
As for its name, Jail Guitar Doors was Kramer's charity, which provides musical instruments and art workshops to help rehabilitate incarcerated individuals. Kramer himself spent four years in federal prison in the late ‘70s.
The Jail Guitar Doors Drive pedal features two uniquely voiced gain circuits controlled by a single dial. This solitary knob simultaneously adjusts the output levels of both circuits as well as the saturation of the resulting distortion.
There are no flashing lights, fighter jet–style interfaces or glitzy LED screens. The pedal is as simple as they come. It feels resolutely punk rock, and it delivers a mighty bark.
Compounding that sentiment is the pedal’s artwork. Created by Obey Clothing founder Shepard Fairey, a man best known for his iconic Barack Obama "Hope" poster, it depicts Kramer and his trusted star-spangled Strat in gorgeous, symmetrical two-tone fashion.
The MXR Jail Guitar Doors Drive is available exclusively on Reverb for $199 via The Official MXR Jail Guitar Doors Drive Reverb Shop.
For the pedal's release, Reverb partnered with Kramer's friend and musical cohort Tom Morello to create the demo video.
“What they've tried to bake into the MXR Jail Guitar Doors Drive distortion pedal is not just Wayne's sound but Wayne's attitude, and the grit and the rawness of Detroit and the MC5,” Morello explains.
“The rawest moment in the history of rock and roll is that live recording of ‘Kick Out the Jams’ that starts with ‘kick out the jams motherfucker!’” he continues. The track is the title cut from the group's live 1969 debut album, recorded in Detroit's Grande Ballroom. “It unleashes itself like the four horses of the apocalypse running wild in a Beverly Hills crystal shop, bringing his Detroit power. It's just beyond.”
It's a sentiment that echoes Kramer's own feelings about the MC5.
“I think the band represented a sense of unlimited possibilities," Kramer said, "that there could be a new kind of music and a new kind of politics, that there could be a new kind of lifestyle
“Like any generation, we saw a seismic shift in the way we approached life. I think that spirit that anything is possible held up pretty well.”
In related news, Morello is busy spearheading the organization of Black Sabbath's mammoth final show in Birmingham next month.
“The idea,” the politically-charged guitarist tells Guitar Player “is to curate the greatest day in the history of heavy metal for the greatest band in the history of heavy metal.” All evidence suggests it will be.
He has also been morphing his son into the perfect shredder... but only after he pulled him away from his video games.
