Ashdown James LoMenzo Mega Drive vs Dunlop MXR M85 Bass Distortion
The Ashdown James LoMenzo Mega Drive and the Dunlop MXR M85 Bass Distortion are both pedals sharing bright, transparent, full. The Ashdown James LoMenzo Mega Drive leans aggressive and saturated. The Dunlop MXR M85 Bass Distortion leans high gain and gritty.
cited
Blended from circuit-archetype lineage, dynamic feel, tone-signal overlap and tone-vector distance — the tone vector itself is derived from editorial description text, not a measured acoustic signal, so this reflects how similarly the catalog copy describes the two, not a lab measurement. Shown only within a gear class, and only where there's enough evidence to be meaningful.51% — moderately similar
cited
Genres both listings are associated with.- Rock
- Metal
cited
Derived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.- bright
- transparent
- full
- mid-forward
cited
Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$159.99via Reverb
The Ashdown James LoMenzo Mega Drive is a bass drive pedal designed with Megadeth bassist James LoMenzo, debuted at NAMM 2023 as an evolution of the Ashdown HyperDrive. It features sweepable highpass and lowpass filters for targeting specific frequency bands, a drive blend knob to mix clean and driven signals, adjustable input gain, and a VU meter for visual input monitoring. The circuit delivers a wide gain range from warm deep harmonic overdrive to bright cutting distortion, with full-spectrum frequency shaping rather than the HyperDrive mid-only approach. Suited for heavy rock and metal bass playing, it preserves low-end fundamental clarity while adding harmonic aggression on top. Used by James LoMenzo live with Megadeth as his primary bass drive.
The MXR M85 Bass Distortion is a bass-specific distortion pedal from MXR by Jim Dunlop, designed to deliver high-gain distortion for electric bass while preserving low-end clarity and the clean bass fundamental through a wet/dry blend control. The M85 features two independent clipping modes, a dedicated blend control for mixing distorted signal with clean bass signal in any ratio, and a mid-boost control. The wet/dry blend is the critical practical feature, preventing the distortion circuit from eliminating the bass fundamental that full distortion engagement typically removes. The M85 covers classic rock bass grit through to modern metal bass distortion.
cited
Genres this gear is documented as being used in.- Hard Rock
- Classic Rock
- Punk
- aggressive
- saturated
- high gain
- gritty