Your most disappointing pedal experience versus your most pleasing pedal experience

mattdavis

I was gutted by the SDD3000 pedal. The actual delays were brilliant but there was a ridiculous volume drop, and the blend control for the delay was really annoying. Tried it twice but was just not workable, especially with the band. 

Very dull, but I think the EP booster has been one of my most pleasing purchases. Still don’t know quite why exactly it seems to work so well, but it just always sounds good with both my Tele and Les Pauls, and with Marshall, tweed or silver face. Brilliant little thing.
And I’m always happy with any Boss pedal - they always tend to do what you expect - but standout for me is DD3 which is just a brilliant sounding little delay to my ears.  

agibbo

My most disappointing: An Analogman modded Maxon AD9. I used to love my old Ibanez AD9 until I foolishly sold it. I bought the Analogman thinking it would be the answer to my analog delay dreams, and it's way overly bright! It's like my Carbon Copy on bright mode....which I hate! Some may love it though. Soon to be seen in the classifieds here!

My best: Timmy! I love it in every amp I've tried it through. It stacks beautifully with other overdrives, and it's the one pedal thats always on any board I make.

bobbatone

Most disappointing: Timmy 

Most pleasing: Jan Ray

I’m aware they are supposed to be very similar (or the same!) but for some reason I just couldn’t bond with the Timmy despite hearing so many good things about it. I just didn’t care for the gain, and although it was nice as a clean boost I much preferred using an Xotic RC booster. 

In comparison I instantly loved the Jan Ray despite half expecting it to flop! I like it from subtle gain to pure filth and generally find it really inspiring to play with. I will say that it’s been a while since I had a Timmy, so perhaps there’s an element of experience and knowing what you want that accounts for the differences (or perhaps they are not as close in use as people suggest). Mainly I’m happy to have found a drive pedal that really works for me and it’s the Jan Ray!

Other notable pleasers:
Vintage Boss DM-2 
Source Audio True Spring 

Alvin

Best - there are three . I have to stick up for the  TC Mojo Mojo , brilliant pedal  to stack into  . The Mosky reverb , i know it isn't the best but a mere £20.00 and a reverb that is very useful ,  MI Audio Blues Pro, great screamer.

 Dissapointing ....  Gunshot , everyone raves about it but it just doesn't work for me , i rarely play at volume so it could be down to that . 

 Also  GasFX Drivethu , this one definitely chucks out to much volume so at home is no good for me. But i then built a Barber/Clark  Gainster clone to realise that the Drivethru is a copy , the sound is identical .   Except that the clone i built doesn't throw out as much volume and is much more controllable .  So now i actually found i really like a pedal i wouldn't use (ok different version - but essentially the same)  ?

  It's all subjective and very dependent on our own gear , no wonder there are so many flippers (dolphins love pedals also apparently).

Danielsguitars

I don't do pedals really and I hate the price of boutique stuff so I went searching for cheap shit that sounds good to my ears, pretty much everything I own is made by me Inc amps 

Biyang Tri reverb is superb for the money, someone compared a Strymon with it on hall setting and it's good enough for me, even poopot liked it and a mosky amp turbo overdrive and boost in one, if it wasn't cheap I'd make it

richman6100

Most disappointing - BOSS CS-3. Way too noisy and only usable through half the sweep of its controls.

Fairly disappointing - Proco RAT. Too noisy and the ThorpyFX Warthog covers its sounds and a lot more (quietly). The RAT is cheap and built like a tank though.

Best - Source Audio Ventris and Nemesis. Pretty much any ThorpyFX pedal I've tried. The Gunshot is better suited to humbuckers, the Warthog, Peacekeeper and Fallout Cloud seem to work with everything.

WiresDreamDisasters

Echo the Proco RAT thing there, Richman. Everytime I've tried one, I just come away thinking what's the big deal? Other pedals I much prefer.

ICBM

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Echo the Proco RAT thing there, Richman. Everytime I've tried one, I just come away thinking what's the big deal? Other pedals I much prefer.

Have you tried an old one? There’s a genuine difference, not ‘old snobbery’ - the 80s and 90s ones sound great, modern ones sound bland and shit, and the pot tapers don’t work properly.

The difference is the pots, not the chip as often thought - or being made in China not the US - they changed around the same time, so it’s an easy assumption to make.

pedalo

Disappointing:
Strymon Volante. I love the look, the layout and the functionality. The sound just seems lacking in magic. 

Best:
Caroline Hawaiian Pizza
Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water 

Fez

Interesting that the Timmy seems to have lovers and haters in equal amounts.
Personally I wasn't knocked out by it.
I think that with most drive and distortion pedals they sound better if you can get the amp volume up a bit. 
Someone mentioned how good the Thorpy gunshot and peacekeeper are stacked so I had to try it and gunshot into peacekeeper is brilliant. I will try them the other way round later.

WiresDreamDisasters

ICBM said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Echo the Proco RAT thing there, Richman. Everytime I've tried one, I just come away thinking what's the big deal? Other pedals I much prefer.

Have you tried an old one? There’s a genuine difference, not ‘old snobbery’ - the 80s and 90s ones sound great, modern ones sound bland and shit, and the pot tapers don’t work properly.

The difference is the pots, not the chip as often thought - or being made in China not the US - they changed around the same time, so it’s an easy assumption to make.

I believe I've owned a 90's one but couldn't be 100% sure.

MPH

Disappointing: Catalinbread Super Charged Overdrive - Did not like it on any settings.

Pleasing: Moen Fuzz Moo - Had this about 8 years, and no other muff has beaten it, and i've tried quite a few.

Semi-pleasing: Ibanez AP7 Analog Phaser - Great phaser, but had a poor bypass.

richman6100

ICBM said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Echo the Proco RAT thing there, Richman. Everytime I've tried one, I just come away thinking what's the big deal? Other pedals I much prefer.

Have you tried an old one? There’s a genuine difference, not ‘old snobbery’ - the 80s and 90s ones sound great, modern ones sound bland and shit, and the pot tapers don’t work properly.

The difference is the pots, not the chip as often thought - or being made in China not the US - they changed around the same time, so it’s an easy assumption to make.

Mine was purchased new a couple of years ago, so not an old one. I didn't particularly dislike its effect, it was the unacceptable noise it produced along with its distortion effect. Obviously masked when a note/chord was played, but it sounded like a swarm of pissed off bees during a moment of quiet. The Thorpy Warthog really is in another league, albeit at a higher price. It still surprises me how much it can do either side of distortion. Very, very versatile.

Winny_Pooh

Great thread this some interesting pleasant surprises and many others who like me were meh'd by the Fulltone OCD.

shaunm

Winny_Pooh said:

Great thread this some interesting pleasant surprises and many others who like me were meh'd by the Fulltone OCD.

This is a shock to me as it’s one of my all time favourite drives. 

Without sounding like a total snobby arse. I don’t think the older ones sound like the newer ones. The older ones have more mids

prowla

My biggest disappointment has been the recent one of buying a Future Impact synth pedal and a Tech21 Midimoose switch to control it.

One displays 0 for the 1st patch and the other displays 1 for the 2nd patch (which is actually their 1st patch, as they don't have a patch 0).

Neither gives the option of changing; one company says the underlying numbers are 0-127 so they just display what they get and the other says it's common practice to display them as 1-128, so that's what they do and it can't be changed.

Now I know I could've/should've done more research, but neither product's manuals or sales blurb state the above, so there's no official reference.

Meanwhile, if I want to use them I have to say that the 1st patch available on the FI is 1, which means I have to set the Midimoose to 2, because 1 is 0.

I'm sure that each pedal is very good in its own right, but the combination of two MIDI-branded products is unusable.

WiresDreamDisasters

prowla said:

My biggest disappointment has been the recent one of buying a Future Impact synth pedal and a Tech21 Midimoose switch to control it.

One displays 0 for the 1st patch and the other displays 1 for the 2nd patch (which is actually their 1st patch, as they don't have a patch 0).

Neither gives the option of changing; one company says the underlying numbers are 0-127 so they just display what they get and the other says it's common practice to display them as 1-128, so that's what they do and it can't be changed.

Now I know I could've/should've done more research, but neither product's manuals or sales blurb state the above, so there's no official reference.

Meanwhile, if I want to use them I have to say that the 1st patch available on the FI is 1, which means I have to set the Midimoose to 2, because 1 is 0.

I'm sure that each pedal is very good in its own right, but the combination of two MIDI-branded products is unusable.

Tell you what ... it's really not common practice to display patches 1-128.

UnclePsychosis

The inconsistent application of MIDI across gear drives me mental. 

I also get really irate by how few bits of gear offer midi thru, lots of bits of kit don't even offer it as a software option. very annoying. 

lincolnblue

Most disppointing was probably the Digitech MainSqueeze. Just couldn't get a sound I liked from it. Was far too squashy for any strumming and so never used it.

One of the best is my @Magnetic_Effects Black Moon, A truly inspiring pedal

kossofffan

Crap: Catalinbread Viper, sounded like a horrific half cocked Wah, Awful !

Best: J.Rockett .45 Caliber. Still the most accurate early Marshall vibe, impossible to get a bad tone out of it!