“It’s been a long journey and a labor of love. I can’t wait to hear everyone’s reaction – I think you will all be amazed”: MXR's Randy Rhoads Distortion+ pedal finally gets a release date

An August 20 release date has been set for the eagerly awaited release of the new Randy Rhoads signature MXR Distortion+ pedal. 

The pedal, created after Rhoads’ legendary “chip pan” pedalboard was opened for the first time in 40 years and dissected by the MXR boffins, has faced a series of delays since it was announced in December ’22.   

It was in January this year, after an initial 2023 launch date was slated, that we got a further update. Kathy Rhoads D’Argenzio, Randy’s sister, had asked fans to “hang on tight”, with the pedal delayed until late spring, which has since come and gone. 

At long last, then, there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

“I am so excited about this project from Dunlop,” Kathy says in a fresh Instagram post. “It was a ‘hands-on’ project for me as I was able to personally help [the] design. It’s been a long journey and a labor of love. I can’t wait to hear everyone’s reaction. I think you will all be amazed.”

She added that there will be “some surprises as well”, with a pedal that former Machine head guitarist and Rhoads devotee Phil Demmel also had a hand in crafting. 

In terms of new information beyond the release date, there isn’t anything to get too excited about – save the tease of surprises – but having that alone feels triumphant. 

How long the project has been in the works by this point is hard to say, with Kathy saying she’d been collaborating with MXR “for quite some time” back in 2022. But if the MXR tone gurus have been able to carefully prise the secrets out of Rhoads’ mystical pedalboard and recreate it for a production pedal, it will be worth the wait. 

The Ozzy Osbourne guitarist is known for his signature Jackson V and love of Marshall amps, but his chip pan ’board is arguably just as notorious.  

An MXR Distortion+ sat at the heart of the chip pan’s signal chain and was a key player in sculpting his hugely influential guitar tone. 

The ’board was stored in a flight case and featured, at the very least, eight switches and nine control knobs, but what exactly they all operated has forever been a mystery. 

Four decades after the guitarist’s passing, MXR was granted a peek behind the tonal iron curtain to aid the genesis of the new pedal. 

Rhoads D’Argenzio says the pedalboard was returned to a “secured location,” after its scrupulous inspection, rather than its former Musonia home. 

Musonia, the North Hollywood, California music school, and Randy Rhoads museum founded by the guitarist’s mother, Delores, was broken into in 2019. Several of Rhoads’ instruments, plus photos and memorabilia were stolen, prompting the pedalboard’s new, hush-hush location. 

Thankfully, all the missing items were eventually retrieved and returned to Rhoads’ family.

Stay tuned for more updates about the long-awaited MXR Distortion+ over the next few weeks.