That's what I like about it too. It's not just a noise distortion, but it still has that buzzsaw edge to it that I love. I expected it to be just another mega-gain fuzz junk metal distortion when I bought the preamp, but it really blew me away. I've probably owned 20 different distortion devices over the years, and the only ones that even touched down in the same universe as the Grunge were the Ibanez Sonic Distortion and the Peavey Rockmaster preamp, and they still were a far cry from my current tone.
After thinking about it, the only difference I can think of between the stompbox and my version would be the tone control. The Grunge in my preamp has no tone control, just master volume and gain. My tonal range comes from the chain EQ and a global EQ for the preamp, as well as speakers & guitars. But, I'm sure the overall distortion tone is the same. It's a pretty cheap buy too ($40 new). It may not be everyone's cup to tea, but I love it.
