Your most hated pedal sound ?

Habanero

I'm wondering if anyone is going to reply Boost?

AntonHunter

Habanero said:

I'm wondering if anyone is going to reply Boost?

Personally, I can't stand Line Selectors, so overused ;-)

TTBZ

Tubescreamers sound awful unless they're boosting/tightening a dirty amp with the gain off. Into a clean amp with the gain up they just sound so bad. Dry mid heavy weak bland overdrive.

roberty

Hattigol said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

gatheredinsong said:

EricTheWeary said:

Dominic said:

EricTheWeary said:

I think cocked wah is one of those things you aren't always aware of. On Bowie records, Allman Brothers, Brian May, Bob Marley, Schenker and probably people who weren't recording in the 1970s. Probably Soundgarden, certainly Khruangbin. But maybe more useful like that than as the waggly wacka wacka thing. So I think it gets a let off for having a dual use. 

No mistaking it on 'Money for nothing '

Happy to be corrected on this but I think there’s a gap in the market for a cheap cocked wah in a box type pedal. There have been and are some expensive ones but if you can buy a wah for £60 why can’t you buy a cocked wah pedal for £60? Obviously you could just buy a wah but they are a bit weird in terms of pedal board use. Maybe it’s a bit niche. 

Magnetic did one that seemed nice, but it was a bit more expensive than that: https://custompedalboards.co.uk/shop/pedals/magnetic-effects/magnetic-effects-midphoria/

IIRC, @Jonathanthomas83 had one.

Yep, not something I found a use for outside of Money For Nothing, but if you're in a Dire Straits tribute, it's a good pedal to have around! Lovely looking thing and beautifully made. Think the new Origin FX does that sound too, though that's definitely on the upper end of the market!

I have one. We do a couple of Bowie covers and it is a key part of the Ronson sound to my ears. Great when you get it just right.

Shame Magnetic closed down. Made some decent pedals.

I got a Midphoria and a Daredevil Atomic Cock

I prefer the Atomic Cock for ease of use. It just makes the right sound for me with minimal fuss

There might be a PCB coming for DIYers: https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/daredevil-atomic-cock.7645/#post-160855

Cols

TTBZ said:

Tubescreamers sound awful unless they're boosting/tightening a dirty amp with the gain off. Into a clean amp with the gain up they just sound so bad. Dry mid heavy weak bland overdrive.

For such a terrible overdrive pedal, it sure has been copied a lot over the past 40 years.

ICBM

Habanero said:

I'm wondering if anyone is going to reply Boost?

It’s not my most hated sound, but I don’t get on with them. The closest exception is probably the MXR Micro Amp, which is a bit more middy and slightly rougher than a straight boost, but even then I have no use for one.

TTBZ said:

Tubescreamers sound awful unless they're boosting/tightening a dirty amp with the gain off. Into a clean amp with the gain up they just sound so bad. Dry mid heavy weak bland overdrive.

The hilarious thing is that’s what they were designed to do - sound like an overdriven valve amp into a clean solid-state amp like a JC-120… which they don’t at all! That they sound great into an already overdriven valve amp is just a happy accident. (Personally I prefer to add dirt rather than volume with the pedal, but both work.)

distressed

ICBM said:

Habanero said:

I'm wondering if anyone is going to reply Boost?

It’s not my most hated sound, but I don’t get on with them. The closest exception is probably the MXR Micro Amp, which is a bit more middy and slightly rougher than a straight boost, but even then I have no use for one.

SHO is absolutely crucial for my sound, it's always on. Does that subtle brutal metallic farty breakup, but not spikey.

english_bob

distressed said:

subtle brutal 

dafuq?

distressed

In lack of a better word, I visualise it like this

Secret_Sam

So it's a crochet hook?

My gran had one of those.  She could be brutal I suppose, but she thought subtle was on the other end of the railway from Carlisle.

Sunburst

Tuner - it really takes off a lot of top end and removes the hauntingness of my mids. 

Springywheel

Ring mod

longi

Spring reverb, fuzz of any kind & slap back reverb. All of which creep me out to unbearable levels. They absolutely make my skin crawl. 

Keefy

longi said:

Spring reverb, fuzz of any kind & slap back reverb. All of which creep me out to unbearable levels. They absolutely make my skin crawl. 

You’ve just described my happy place!

One man’s meat, another man’s poison…

Th4fonz

Fuzz I usually have to turn off the video or skip the track if some over bearing racket of a fuzz comes on.  

pluckbuddy

I hate that pop you sometimes get when you hit the switch. 

But seriously, any self oscillating, pad type or drone sounds are boring after about 30 seconds of trying it once, if not to the player then to any others unfortunate enough to be in earshot.

DrJazzTap

I've been thinking about this. Have to admit I like most effects pedals. 
I think its like a good whisky, if you say you don't like whisky then you just haven't found the right one for you. 

I don't like anything past a four stage phaser. Sounds too synthetic too me. I'm going to use awful words which have no real relation to sound....I think that a nice four stage phaser can sound nice and chewey. Which is bs, they are both electronically processed sounds. It's not like 4 stage phasers are grown on trees.

Ddigger

DrJazzTap said:

Which is bs, they are both electronically processed sounds. It's not like 4 stage phasers are grown on trees.

Interesting you say that. 

Many effects (mostly the earlier ones, I guess) were made to replicate situations in the real world - reverb, echo.

Some effects were made to rreplicate non-electric music - vibrato and chorus that occurs in singing, multiple instruments playing together etc.

Think of places you have been wbere there exists extreme amounts of reverb and echo.  You can get slight phasing (and flanging) effects "naturally" if you overdrive the input by shouting and clapping. 

When my son was wee, we went somewhere  where there was a lot of reverb and echo.  Children are delighted by the effect and make more noise, which increases the effect, so they make more noise, so...

For a few months after that whenever we drove under a bridge of through a tunnel, he'd start shouting, bawling and clapping his hands..

Still not sure about Ring Mod though, but the solo in Paranoid sounds ace.

GoFish

pluckbuddy said:

I hate that pop you sometimes get when you hit the switch. 

But seriously, any self oscillating, pad type or drone sounds are boring after about 30 seconds of trying it once, if not to the player then to any others unfortunate enough to be in earshot.

Woah pluckbuddy - we're talking about drone pedals here!! No-one can hear you from further than the bedroom door.

noisepolluter

Shimmer reverb. 

Also, ‘studio style compression’. It insists upon itself.