GEAR SPOTLIGHT
PIGTRONIX
DISNORTION
MICRO
REVIEW BY ERIC TISCHLER
STREET PRICE $129.00
I’m familiar with
Pigtronix, but the
Disnortion Micro is the
first of the company’s
pedals that I’ve played;
it won’t be the last. As
its name suggests, the
Micro is a smaller take
on Pigtronix’s standard
Disnortion, which is a
very big box with a lot
of features. Despite its
name, the Micro offers
an astonishing variety
of tones, too.
There’s a lot going
on in the Micro, which
probably explains why
the little pedal is so
heavy. For starters, it
offers both overdrive
and fuzz: the “Gain”
60
GEAR SPOTLIGHT //
knob controls the
amount of dirt and
fuzz simultaneously,
and the small switch
above the footswitch
determines if the
overdrive and fuzz run
in sequence or parallel.
When both gain engines
are run in sequence,
the Micro offers rip-
roaring distortion; in
the first quarter of
the Gain knob’s travel
there’s wonderfully
amp-like sustain and
compression. Advancing
the knob moves the
sound further into
distortion. After about
2:00, you’re in fuzz
land. With the fuzz
Pigtronix Disnortion Micro
and overdrive running
in parallel, the tone is
more open and, the first
half of the Gain range,
you can really maximize
the pedal’s touch
sensitivity.
The character of the
fuzz effect is greatly
affected by the “Fuzz
Shape” control. This is
a six-way rotary with
settings for flat EQ,
a mid boost, two
different low-pass
filters, a treble boost
and a mid-cut. The
“Drive Tone” control
is a low-pass filter,
too—applied to the
Drive engine—and,
working in conjunction