MXR Jail Guitar Doors Drive

The MXR Jail Guitar Doors Drive is a limited-edition analog drive pedal with a single control knob, built as a tribute to the late Wayne Kramer of the MC5. MXR says it "cranks out powerfully rich tones reminiscent of two dimed-out 100-watt amp stacks"¹, and the pedal's stated inspiration is the raw, gritty tone Kramer used on MC5's early 1970s recordings¹. It launched on June 3, 2025 at $199, sold exclusively through MXR's official Reverb store²³.

What makes it unusual is how it works: two gain circuits in series, both governed by one knob. It was designed by Johnny Wator of Daredevil Pedals together with the MXR design team, fusing Wator's Drive-Bi Dual Gain Distortion with the MXR Micro Amp⁴. A majority of the proceeds from each sale goes to Jail Guitar Doors USA, the nonprofit that carries on Kramer's charity work¹.

Two cascading gain stages on one knob

The core idea of the pedal is its single DRIVE knob, which raises the output of both circuits at once. As you turn it clockwise, the first stage feeds into the second, boosting overall gain and volume⁴. MXR describes the result as cascading gain stages, the first circuit driving the second, for a sound reminiscent of two dimed-out 100-watt stacks⁴.

For a player, this means there is no separate gain and volume setup to balance. The one dial controls output volume and gain together⁶: low settings give a cleaner, quieter output, and turning it up pushes more signal from the first stage into the second, so the pedal gets louder and dirtier at the same time. MusicRadar summed up the control scheme in four words: "One footswitch. No messing."⁶

The controls and footswitch

That is the whole interface: one knob and one footswitch. Connections for guitar cables are on the top of the enclosure rather than the sides⁶, which suits tight pedalboards where jacks on the sides would eat width.

Power and connections

The pedal runs on 9V DC with a center-negative plug⁵ and draws only 2 mA⁴, low enough that it shares easily with other pedals on a power supply. The manual recommends a 9-volt AC adapter such as the Dunlop ECB003/ECB003EU, or an MXR Brick Series power supply⁴.

Input impedance is 450 kΩ and output impedance is 25 kΩ⁴, figures in the usual range for an MXR analog drive pedal.

A Wayne Kramer tribute built from the Drive-Bi and Micro Amp

The circuit is a fusion of two existing designs. Daredevil Pedals' Johnny Wator worked closely with the MXR design team to fuse his Drive-Bi Dual Gain Distortion with the MXR Micro Amp⁴. The Drive-Bi supplies the two cascading gain stages; the Micro Amp, MXR's long-running clean boost, is the other half of the pairing.

The pedal is named after Wayne Kramer's charity, Jail Guitar Doors, which provides instruments and art workshops to incarcerated individuals as rehabilitation tools³. The charity itself takes its name from a song the Clash wrote in tribute to Kramer after he was sentenced to four years in prison on a drugs charge⁶. The pedal was designed with Kramer before his death, alongside Jimi Dunlop and Johnny Wator².

Tom Morello, who demoed the pedal at launch, described what the design team aimed for:

A majority of the proceeds from the sale of each pedal is donated to Jail Guitar Doors USA¹, a point MXR and the press coverage both emphasize³.

The artwork

The enclosure artwork was created by Shepard Fairey, founder of Obey Clothing and best known for his Barack Obama "Hope" poster. It depicts Kramer and his star-spangled Stratocaster in symmetrical two-tone fashion⁶⁷.

Where to find it

The Jail Guitar Doors Drive is a limited run¹ that launched exclusively on Reverb via the Official MXR Jail Guitar Doors Drive Reverb Shop, priced at $199³². As a limited edition, it is not part of MXR's regular dealer lineup the way pedals like the MXR Distortion + or the MXR Super Badass Distortion are.

MXR also lists a Jail Guitar Doors Overdrive, model JGD2, with the same single DRIVE knob, the same true-bypass footswitch with red LED, and the same power and impedance specifications, including the 2 mA current draw⁸⁹. Its manual describes the same Daredevil and Micro Amp circuit fusion⁹, so players comparing the two should check which version a listing refers to.

Players looking at other single-knob or high-gain options in the MXR line can compare it against the MXR Prime Distortion or the MXR EVH Modern High Gain, or browse distortion pedals more broadly.

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