Description
Bob Bradshaw spent decades hand-building signal-chain gear for touring rigs before MXR partnered with Custom Audio Electronics to put his designs within reach of the rest of us. The MC-402 is one of the first results of that collaboration: a dual-purpose overdrive and clean boost that stays faithful to the original CAE circuitry Bradshaw kept exclusive to his clients since 1980.
The overdrive side is built around a classic, low-coloration drive circuit. Dial the gain down and you’re in bluesy, edge-of-breakup territory; push it further and it moves into full-on crunch. What sets it apart is how it responds to your guitar’s volume knob — roll off and the pedal cleans up gracefully, tracking pick attack and dynamics instead of thinning out like lesser drives do.
Independent of the overdrive, the MC-402 also houses a standalone boost — the same signal-conditioning circuit CAE used for years to solve level and impedance issues in professional touring rigs. It’s a genuinely useful tool on its own, whether you need a solo push or a way to compensate for a long cable run.
Both circuits are built with quiet, high-quality components designed to sit cleanly on a crowded board without adding noise or fighting with neighboring pedals. True to CAE’s philosophy, the control set is kept deliberately minimal — just what’s needed to shape the tone, nothing to get in your way.
- Combines a classic dynamic overdrive with an independent clean boost
- Touch-sensitive response to guitar volume and picking dynamics
- Low-noise design for trouble-free use alongside other board pedals
- Minimalist control layout in the CAE tradition
- Designed by Bob Bradshaw of Custom Audio Electronics, built by MXR/Dunlop
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