The world's most disappointing pedal?

meltedbuzzbox · January 2018

Samgb said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

shaunm said:

This thread has inspired me to want to build a Boss board.

Those 500 series Boss pedals any good? I’m sure I could have a pedal board with those three pedals

The delay gets a lot of love. The modulation is a bit of a mixed bag. The reverb again has a mixed reception.

I have the MD500 modulation. And quickly sold all my other modulation. Its great. You need to take some time to learn the inner tweaking options which are many.

But that flanger... God damn it's bad

I think it's quiet an average pedal personally.

Samgb · January 2018

meltedbuzzbox said:

Samgb said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

shaunm said:

This thread has inspired me to want to build a Boss board.

Those 500 series Boss pedals any good? I’m sure I could have a pedal board with those three pedals

The delay gets a lot of love. The modulation is a bit of a mixed bag. The reverb again has a mixed reception.

I have the MD500 modulation. And quickly sold all my other modulation. Its great. You need to take some time to learn the inner tweaking options which are many.

But that flanger... God damn it's bad

I think it's quiet an average pedal personally.

Well thats fair enough if you went strictly off their presets? I found the presets for the flanger were bad but once i got into the meat of setting up my own sounds a bit of the dry signal back in and there you go it came to life. It is weird that a few of the presets are a bit uninspiring (some of them are fabulous mind you). I am finding it quite an inspiring piece of kit.
Never thought i'd fall in love with a Vibrato but its delicious

Clashman · January 2018

Has to be a distortion pedal I gave away but I only paid £3 for it I forget the name of it
but it wasn't beringer and it was plastic ..sounded like you were inputting your Guitar
through a slowly farting turd.

impmann · January 2018

meltedbuzzbox said:

Samgb said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

shaunm said:

This thread has inspired me to want to build a Boss board.

Those 500 series Boss pedals any good? I’m sure I could have a pedal board with those three pedals

The delay gets a lot of love. The modulation is a bit of a mixed bag. The reverb again has a mixed reception.

I have the MD500 modulation. And quickly sold all my other modulation. Its great. You need to take some time to learn the inner tweaking options which are many.

But that flanger... God damn it's bad

I think it's quiet an average pedal personally.

Boss Flanger, innit.
Horrible.
Nothing like the EHX Mistress no matter how you tweak the controls.

EricTheWeary · January 2018

Grocer_Jack said:

EricTheWeary said:

Grocer_Jack said:

The Toadworks pedal that I mentioned was the L'il Leo. I had to google it, as it was so dire that I'd erased all memory of it.
I had one, it was great.

Well it it was great until it broke. I gave it away to someone on here who also thought it was great ( once he’d repaired it). I don’t recall it as hissy although it was bright - but I was chasing something like Wilko Johnson in a box and it worked okay for that.

Mine was the silver one with single tone control. I think there was a black one with bass and treble too - which was yours?

Just looking it up mine was the Lil Leo Jr which has just gain and volume. In theory the same pedal without any tone control, maybe in practice it sounded a bit different.
I had a Toadworks Delay for a bit which was fine but when I was finding information about it became clear that Toadworks changed the spec from time to time so it was quite hard to know which one you had. Very confusing back catalogue, perhaps not a surprise that the company folded.

HAL9000 · January 2018

ICBM said:

HAL9000 said:

I nominate the Marshall Bluesbreaker BB2 (not the BB1). Anyone who’s ever heard one will know I’m right.

Both of them are. How they could name such a bland, boring pedal after one of the best-sounding amps ever, I don't know.

I remember hearing an original BB1 years ago and it sounded, welll... ok. The BB2, which presumably is supposed to be an improvement, is without doubt the most sterile bland sound I’ve ever heard.

meltedbuzzbox · January 2018

Samgb said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Samgb said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

shaunm said:

This thread has inspired me to want to build a Boss board.

Those 500 series Boss pedals any good? I’m sure I could have a pedal board with those three pedals

The delay gets a lot of love. The modulation is a bit of a mixed bag. The reverb again has a mixed reception.

I have the MD500 modulation. And quickly sold all my other modulation. Its great. You need to take some time to learn the inner tweaking options which are many.

But that flanger... God damn it's bad

I think it's quiet an average pedal personally.

Well thats fair enough if you went strictly off their presets? I found the presets for the flanger were bad but once i got into the meat of setting up my own sounds a bit of the dry signal back in and there you go it came to life. It is weird that a few of the presets are a bit uninspiring (some of them are fabulous mind you). I am finding it quite an inspiring piece of kit.
Never thought i'd fall in love with a Vibrato but its delicious

I spent a fair while removing the top end to counter the metallic jet plane thing that it does. Still not overly impressed to be honest.
I've kept the pedal as I will spend more time tweaking and messing about. The app helps a lot in that regard as the menu system is awful.
Some effects are very good. Rotary, vibrato, slicer and a few other are usable.
If I'm honest I don't think boss are good at modulation I was hoping with a new platform they would get more with the times but they to have focussed on reproducing the hideous sounds of their stomp boxes of yesteryear.

All my opinion of course

Grocer_Jack · January 2018

EricTheWeary said:

Grocer_Jack said:

EricTheWeary said:

Grocer_Jack said:

The Toadworks pedal that I mentioned was the L'il Leo. I had to google it, as it was so dire that I'd erased all memory of it.
I had one, it was great.

Well it it was great until it broke. I gave it away to someone on here who also thought it was great ( once he’d repaired it). I don’t recall it as hissy although it was bright - but I was chasing something like Wilko Johnson in a box and it worked okay for that.

Mine was the silver one with single tone control. I think there was a black one with bass and treble too - which was yours?

Just looking it up mine was the Lil Leo Jr which has just gain and volume. In theory the same pedal without any tone control, maybe in practice it sounded a bit different.
I had a Toadworks Delay for a bit which was fine but when I was finding information about it became clear that Toadworks changed the spec from time to time so it was quite hard to know which one you had. Very confusing back catalogue, perhaps not a surprise that the company folded.

Ah yes I'd forgotten about the junior. Maybe they got it right with that one?

Samgb · January 2018

meltedbuzzbox said:

Samgb said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Samgb said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

shaunm said:

This thread has inspired me to want to build a Boss board.

Those 500 series Boss pedals any good? I’m sure I could have a pedal board with those three pedals

The delay gets a lot of love. The modulation is a bit of a mixed bag. The reverb again has a mixed reception.

I have the MD500 modulation. And quickly sold all my other modulation. Its great. You need to take some time to learn the inner tweaking options which are many.

But that flanger... God damn it's bad

I think it's quiet an average pedal personally.

Well thats fair enough if you went strictly off their presets? I found the presets for the flanger were bad but once i got into the meat of setting up my own sounds a bit of the dry signal back in and there you go it came to life. It is weird that a few of the presets are a bit uninspiring (some of them are fabulous mind you). I am finding it quite an inspiring piece of kit.
Never thought i'd fall in love with a Vibrato but its delicious

I spent a fair while removing the top end to counter the metallic jet plane thing that it does. Still not overly impressed to be honest.
I've kept the pedal as I will spend more time tweaking and messing about. The app helps a lot in that regard as the menu system is awful.
Some effects are very good. Rotary, vibrato, slicer and a few other are usable.
If I'm honest I don't think boss are good at modulation I was hoping with a new platform they would get more with the times but they to have focussed on reproducing the hideous sounds of their stomp boxes of yesteryear.

All my opinion of course

It probably complete overkill for my modulation needs but it's a lot of fun. To be honest I only like a very subtle flanger anyway and that's true of quite a few of the effects. I think that is helping me overlook the flaws! The stuff I like, it does very well. The stuff I'm not arsed about I can let pass!

EricTheWeary · January 2018

Grocer_Jack said:

EricTheWeary said:

Grocer_Jack said:

EricTheWeary said:

Grocer_Jack said:

The Toadworks pedal that I mentioned was the L'il Leo. I had to google it, as it was so dire that I'd erased all memory of it.
I had one, it was great.

Well it it was great until it broke. I gave it away to someone on here who also thought it was great ( once he’d repaired it). I don’t recall it as hissy although it was bright - but I was chasing something like Wilko Johnson in a box and it worked okay for that.

Mine was the silver one with single tone control. I think there was a black one with bass and treble too - which was yours?

Just looking it up mine was the Lil Leo Jr which has just gain and volume. In theory the same pedal without any tone control, maybe in practice it sounded a bit different.
I had a Toadworks Delay for a bit which was fine but when I was finding information about it became clear that Toadworks changed the spec from time to time so it was quite hard to know which one you had. Very confusing back catalogue, perhaps not a surprise that the company folded.

Ah yes I'd forgotten about the junior. Maybe they got it right with that one?

Maybe, although it still broke!

equalsql · January 2018

Joyo Voodoo Octave:

http://www.joyoeffectpedals.co.uk/image/cache/data/uploads/B007T8OGLK.PT03-650x650.JPG

Sounds like a cat being castrated by a Stylophone

gearaddict · January 2018

equalsql said:

Joyo Voodoo Octave:

Sounds like a cat being castrated by a Stylophone

Ooh...I want one!

p90fool · January 2018

gearaddict said:

equalsql said:

Joyo Voodoo Octave:

Sounds like a cat being castrated by a Stylophone

Ooh...I want one!

I have one and it's true! That's why I love it

Flanging_Fred · January 2018

ICBM said:

gearaddict said:

The graphic equaliser (GE7?) is so noisy as to be virtually unusable.

That's a fair comment, and it baffles me why they've never fixed this very well-known issue - and the SD-1's famous bypass bleed-through as well. Neither would be hard to do.

However, the Marshalls aren't just as well-made - the switches break. Boss ones don't, or at least so rarely it's essentially never compared to anything else, especially anything that uses a mechanical switch. I've replaced only four Boss footswitches in over thirty years of professional repair work.

gearaddict said:

Generally, if they sound so great stock then why is there such a healthy modification market? Just saying...

Because people seem to like to fiddle with stuff. Personally, I've tried a few modded Boss pedals and found them no real improvement over the stock version. (Other than de-hissed GE-7s.)

meltedbuzzbox said:

I do tend to find it's generally you guys that are into your forties and beyond that bang the boss drum the most.

Maybe because they're the pedals we have found most consistent and best over the last thirty years and more... new stuff comes and goes.

meltedbuzzbox said:

They've even dropped their best feature, the big paddle foot switch from their current 500 flagship range and opted for footswitches like everyone else.

This massively annoys me. Admittedly the switches only look like 3PDTs, but I still dislike that they've thought it necessary to do that, and I probably won't buy one.

Boss fixed the problems with mechanical footswitching nearly forty years ago now, and it should have stayed fixed. If the Boss buffered switching isn't perfect - and it isn't - then the right solution should have been to develop buffered switching that is, not reintroduce the crap way of doing it... only with even less reliable switches than the big SPDT/DPDTs of the past.

To argue on Boss's side for a moment r.e. the switches on the 500 series.

if you put 3 standard Boss footswitches next to each other it would be pretty much impossible to hit the middle button without catching the outer ones. Of course you could put a gap between the switches like the dd-20 but then you'd end up with a very large pedal and people don't seem to like that much (e.g. the Vox delay lab).

I guess Boss could have come up with some sort of half width version of their standard switch or maybe the Visual Sound/Trutone type ones but I can understand the practical reasons for them to change the switches on the 500 series.

VJIves · January 2018

I'm going with the Fuzzrocious M.O.T.H. I love them as a brand and have several other pedals I think are great but I couldn't get a single thing to sound good out of it.

Adam_MD · January 2018

The first fuzz pedal I tried as a 17 year old into a fender amp sounded completely horrific and put me off fuzz for nearly 20 years until I learned I was just using it wrong.