Aion Fx has a good rundown of the history.
Like lots of older effects there weren’t a lot of components so each component makes a heavy change in sound. I can attest to this as the Aion clone I made to Yngwie spec sounds quite different EQ wise to the block logo MXR Distortion + I bought.
Josh Scott did a good indepth rundown on the history as well.
Some will, some won’t as much between them. The opamp does clip in these circuits as well, but never before the diodes do which gives full on clipping even with very low gain setting. There are a couple of things that will make a bigger difference between them though.
The first is the input coupling cap combined with the loading the guitar sees. The MXR will let more low frequency info through, and will load the guitar down less. It also is fed at a much higher impedance from its bias rail. The DOD cuts a bit more bass (even more in the yellow 80’s version and the yjm308) and also loads the guitar down a little more.
The second is the .001uf cap to ground right at the input of the MXR. That is going to directly affect the resonance frequency of the pickup and push it down. It is akin to having a really long or cheap cable.
The third is that both circuits have a similar shelving filter within the -fb loop surrounding the opamp (lowpass shelving filter comprised of the feedback resistor 1M, the .047uf capacitor, and the combination of the 4.7k resistor with the gain pot. Because we are talking about -fb and in a perfect world 180deg inversion - it’s not though, any capacitance with in this loop shifts that - it manifests as a high pass shelving filter as far as the output is concerned.) this makes the amplifier gain frequency dependent. At the max setting of the gain, both are exactly the same giving a highpass shelving boost with a -3db point at 720hz near the filters peak frequency, starting its 47db rise at 3hz. The difference between the MXR and DOD is when you start rolling the gain down.
The fourth is at the output. The MXR and the reissue Yellow 250 from the late 90’s early 2000’s will only give you a maximum 250mv - 350mv output signal from the device. This may have been done on the non germanium dist+ to more closely mimic the expected output signal from it. The older 250’s and the YJM308 will allow the full signal level set by the diode turn on voltage, through - a heavily clipped 500mv-700mv.
My experience with the 250 reissue and dist+ line up perfectly with your explanation, they were both too dark, normally that would not be an issue but the neck SD Fury was just mud, this into an SL Plexi and 4 x 12. The 308 is going no where, I sometimes use it just for it’s eq at the end of the chain with the gain set to 0.
Every distortion I’ve tried has had similar characteristics other than each one being EQ’d differently. I think it comes down to neck and bridge tone balance within your entire rig’s tone chain. The other thing I’ve noticed is some pedals tend to clean up and respond to guitar volume better than others.
That said, I’m happy to have more YJM branded OD options, I’m excited to see what MXR comes out with.
An excellent alternative is JHS “Overdrive Preamp” - I A/B’d it with a DOD and a Fender YJM as well as a DOD 250 and dang - the JHS pedal rocks!
It all depends on what you are using it for and what you want to get out of it. There are certainly places in the design you can approve on, and make less noisy at that. If you even wanted to you could incorporate some simple downward expansion to quiet it more and still get away with a three pot box. It’s all really where your tastes lay, and what you think sounds good.
Full disclosure I didn’t read the entire thread but there’s a clone called the DemonFx Overdrive Preamp that has three versions of this pedal. I don’t own the originals but used to have the MXR years ago. It’s really interesting because it’s not transparent or “amp like,” it’s a very synthetic and quirky square-wave circuit that frankly doesn’t work well through a practice amp but I can see how it might really shine paired with a cranked low-gain amp like a raw Marshall.
On that note I’d love to see YJ return to the lower-gain sound, it takes a true beast to shred like that and IMO YJ doesn’t need all that delay and gain. Seriously the one time I saw him live the sound was punishingly loud and bad, I couldn’t hear a fucking thing.
Sadly those days are gone it’s likely his tone is shrill and overloud now because he like many rockers in the pre in ears days has extensive hearing damage and the high hearing range is what goes first.
Nugent and Neil Young have similar issues
Does he have in-ear monitoring? If so, I’m surprised that they don’t measure his hearing and then feed in a signal that’s corrected for his loss (boosting the high frequency, etc.), so he gets as close as possible to people with normal hearing?
I thought about YJM’s pedalboard, and I love his ES-8, but there are pedals that are conspicuous by their absence, and they would be amp modelers like a PROFILER Player, Quad Cortex, etc. I can’t imagine buying a Distortion+ as it really wants to be done in software, and it’s best to use PA to get a nice sound that is below the level of needing hearing protection; stacks don’t really make sense any more. I’m all for a SM57 on his favorite tubes, but going deaf is no good.
Doesn’t matter really he has always been a loud player since day 1. Before any of that stuff existed. I’m sure the hearing loss, if he has it, was well developed in his 30’s. His brighter more cutting, drenched guitar sound has been a staple of his career for the majority of it at this point.
Maybe. Who knows, that’s more of a question for him. I’m under the suspicion he either doesn’t care, or he hides it.
I don’t think any of those are really his bag.
Well not exactly. You can approximate the vibe through frequency manipulation in software, and very well. But there still are some characteristics of the hardware version that still evade even the best DSP has to offer. Again probably not his vibe.
Or much earlier if he didn’t wear earplugs.
Yes, indeed! YJM has been very uniform in his taste from what I can tell, and I don’t expect him to change.
I assume MXR will just do replicate of the Fender YJM Pedal with probably slight EQ mods to suit Yngwie’s “new” taste.
However, I think you can achieve a very close Yngwie sound with any of his pedals and that the majority of his tone probably comes from the Marshall plexi head and cab.
I still prefer his old tone honestly, not sure which part of his gear contributed to that or if it was just the same but dialed down abit, but nevertheless it’s another YJM Gear to add to the collection 
The number one single most important thing in that chain is his guitar IMHO. I own an older YJM, and it’s unmistakable regardless of what you put it through. Everything else is important as well, but as far as gear, I would rate that guitar as being up there on the significance level.
Two very different opinions on this subject. Personally I’d add the cab and speaker being important too, probably more than the amp and guitar. For example a YJM signature into a an OD into an angry plexi with a 4x12 will put you in articulate hard rock tones like malmsteen, Nuno and VH if you have the chops. Take that same guitar and plug into a Twin, and its another thing entirely.
100% on both accounts, a lot of tone is in the hands, I think it’s the dampening and feel, by dampening I mean muting under high gain is not just for noise, you can modulate the brightness dynamically.
Technique is another thing, single and double escape have very different sounds to my ears, it’s got to do with the pull off or hammer on that is required for single escape.
Then there’s note choices, vibrato and trem usage that varies from player to player, JB is totally off the ranch with his outwardly and singular right hand technique.
It really is the single coil type sound that’s the majority of his tone. Like I can get close on my standard telecaster on the neck pickup. That’s the sound of Malmsteen. Blackmore and Uli Roth too.
heh Well, I am a pedal junkie - I love 'em! Never used to, but now I love 'em. It’s okay to me if my particular guitar/pedal/amp combo+howIplay doesn’t sound like the artist to whom it’s a signature. I wants it badly. My precioussssss…
yeah that fender neck tone, high glycemic index viscosity, molten flowing glassy lava 
edits: … creative endavours
Stratocaster neck pickup is the best neck pickup but I can get the time like 95% there on my Telecaster.
lol Brand new YJM MMXR overdrive is on order! Should be here some time in October I would wager! It’s red! That means it’s faster! lol
Wasn’t the fender one red too?