“Sparkling like glass and abrasive but still so smooth”: MXR’s Randy Rhoads Distortion+ pedal is finally here – bringing a slice of his legendary “chip pan” pedalboard to market

MXR’s Randy Rhoads Distortion+ pedal has finally arrived after a series of delays, delivering a sonic recreation of a key part of the late guitarist’s “chip pan” pedalboard.

An initial 2023 release date had been slated, with Randy's sister, Kathy Rhoads D’Argenzio, saying the subsequent delay would be “worth the wait” in January.

That announcement followed a year of silence, with the pedal first teased back in 2022, when D’Argenzio had revealed that, for the first time in 40 years, pedal boffins at MXR had opened up the Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot guitarist’s pedalboard to extract its saturated distortion secrets.

Posting on Instagram earlier this month to proclaim that the wait was, at long last, nearly over, D’argenzio had called the project “a long journey and a labor of love” for a team that also included ex-Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel.

The inspection of Rhoads’ pedalboard took place at the family’s Musonia School of Music in 2022, where MXR “painstakingly spec'd Randy’s vintage Distortion+” to create a replica of a pedal that was a vital part of the guitarist’s sound.

Unsurprisingly, the final result has a black and white polka dot housing, a pattern synonymous with Rhoads. Its controls are simple and few: There are dials for Output and Distortion and a true bypass footswitch.

Its innards, though, are a little more complex, which is why the wait for this pedal to land has been so exhausting.

MXR says that Rhoads “revolutionized the art of the rock ‘n’ roll guitar player” during his tragically short-lived career, with his MXR Distortion+ pedal crucial to his success.

He “harnessed its raw energy to slam his high-gain amplifier with a torrent of harmonics,” MXR says. Its recreation vies for the same impact.

Speaking of the first time he heard Rhoads’ playing, Demmel, in the video accompanying the release says: “It was like nothing I'd ever heard; it was sparkling like glass and abrasive but still so smooth and you could understand all that was going on but it had all the high gain.”

Zakk Wylde, who would later stand in his shoes as part of Ozzy’s band, hailed both Rhoads' “technical playing” and songwriting skills, and says people still talk about him today “because of what he wrote.”

Metallica’s Kirk Hammet is equally praising of his legacy, which opens a new chapter with the MXR Randy Rhoads Distortion+.

“I was really blown away by how Randy Rhoads' guitar sounded, how great of a guitar player was,” he says.

“He had had this classically-influenced style that wasn't overtly classical. He was using all the latest guitar techniques, and he was able to incorporate all this into his sound and really just make it his own.”

“To me, Randy is the perfect mix of modal, pentatonic, and dynamic playing and he doesn't overdo any of it. It's all very tastefully done and it's super melodic. He doesn't try to outshine the song at all, his solos are perfect compositions within the bigger composition.”

Rhoads’ “chip pan” pedalboard lives in a flight case and comprises a minimum of eight switches and nine control knobs. While it remains a secret what those controls did – or perhaps more accurately, an enigma, seeing as this is the first time any part of it has been dissected – the magic of his MXR Distortion+ has been extracted for this release, 42 years after his passing at just 25 years old.

The pedalboard was returned to an undisclosed “secure location” after MXR’s research. That location, we do know, is not Musonia, which was broken into in 2019. Several of Rhoads’ instruments are pieces of memorabilia were stolen, prompting D’argenzio to relocate the ‘board.

Thankfully, the stolen items were recovered two years later.

The MXR Randy Rhoads Distortion+ is now available for $169.

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