The Morley Just Distortion is a vintage distortion pedal from Morley, and its defining feature is what it leaves out: there are no controls on the outside at all. As Josh Scott and Nick of JHS Pedals described it while looking at one, "there's a battery hole, and there's a foot switch that sometimes works, but there are no knobs"1. Everything the pedal does is fixed inside the circuit, so the player's only interaction is stepping on it.
Dating the pedal
The unit examined by JHS Pedals carries a serial number starting with 98, and on that basis they guessed it dates from 1998: "I'm looking at the serial number, I see that it starts with 98, so I'm going to assume these are from 1998?"1. That is an assumption from the serial number rather than a documented production date, so it should be read as a guess about when these were made, not a confirmed date.
What it sounds like
Because there are no knobs, the distortion amount and the output level are whatever the circuit delivers. JHS Pedals' verdict after playing it was that the core effect holds up: "This is a good pedal with a totally usable amount of distortion. Yeah, the volume was a little low"1. Their overall read was that it is "good pedal, but too whoofy. A knob would help balance that out"1, meaning the low end sits heavy and there is no tone or level control to trim it.
With no level control, the pedal runs quieter than unity by the account of the players who tried it, and the footswitch is reported to work only intermittently on the unit they examined1.
Where it sits among Morley's distortions
The Just Distortion is one of several distortion pedals Morley has made. Others covered on this site include the Morley MOD-D1B Distortion One, the Morley MOD-DDB Deluxe Distortion, the Morley PDW-II and the Morley Distortion Wah Volume. For the wider category, see Distortion Pedals.
Videos
Chris Mann
ChoptonesOfficial
Aldo Braga
Sources (1)
- DO THEY NEED KNOBS?, JHS Pedals
