What’s Your Favourite & Worst 2023 Effects Pedal purchases?

Darren

Best: Early 90’s Ibanez TS-9
In 20+ years of playing I’d never tried a TS-9. Fantastic pedal. 

Worst: Friedman Buxom Boost. 

They have rave reviews, but for me it wasn’t a pedal I wanted to keep. 

spev11

I'd like to add the Behringer Octave Divider to my answer , it;s bloody fab

Del_Preston

@Wazmeister; would also love to hear your thoughts on the H90.  Any chance of forwarding me what you’ve probably already sent to the other two queries?  Cheers!

Wazmeister

Del_Preston said:

@Wazmeister; would also love to hear your thoughts on the H90.  Any chance of forwarding me what you’ve probably already sent to the other two queries?  Cheers!

Maybe Im not the target audience for it mate... 

I just find it too, I dunno, digital ? 

It lacks, imho, the warmth of other multi effects

allen

Not sure what I've got this year, but the Meris LVX sticks out as great. I've got a LOT of delay pedals and it seems to be able to do anything.

richman6100

richman6100 said:

@Wazmeister Interesting that the H90 makes your 'worst' category. Why's that? I have one on my wish list, although I've never used one, so it'd be good to hear why you don't rate it. Don't want to derail this thread, so feel free to DM me if that's easier.

As for my own purchases, I think I've been lucky because those pedals I've purchased are all still on my board:

Zvex Super Duper
Zvex Sonar
Drybell Vibe Machine v3
Great Eastern FX Focus Fuzz Silicon

All are rather splendid. I'm late to the Zvex party, but the two are own have bags of character. The Super Duper is easily the best boost I've tried. Set moderately low, it makes every drive pedal I push with it simply sound better. 

In addition to the above, I recently added a Thorpy Tacit Blue germanium fuzz. It's rather splendid and very versatile. It's different enough from my Magnetic Effects Black Moon fuzz (also germanium) and the silicon Focus Fuzz for all three to have a place on my pedal board. The only downside is that, having a completely full board, I had to lose the excellent Thorpy Fallout Cloud. A Thorpy has ousted a Thorpy, so to speak. I can see myself swapping between the two when the mood takes me. I think I may have a fuzz addiction developing...

Lebarque

richman6100 said:

richman6100 said:

@Wazmeister Interesting that the H90 makes your 'worst' category. Why's that? I have one on my wish list, although I've never used one, so it'd be good to hear why you don't rate it. Don't want to derail this thread, so feel free to DM me if that's easier.

As for my own purchases, I think I've been lucky because those pedals I've purchased are all still on my board:

Zvex Super Duper
Zvex Sonar
Drybell Vibe Machine v3
Great Eastern FX Focus Fuzz Silicon

All are rather splendid. I'm late to the Zvex party, but the two are own have bags of character. The Super Duper is easily the best boost I've tried. Set moderately low, it makes every drive pedal I push with it simply sound better. 

In addition to the above, I recently added a Thorpy Tacit Blue germanium fuzz. It's rather splendid and very versatile. It's different enough from my Magnetic Effects Black Moon fuzz (also germanium) and the silicon Focus Fuzz for all three to have a place on my pedal board. The only downside is that, having a completely full board, I had to lose the excellent Thorpy Fallout Cloud. A Thorpy has ousted a Thorpy, so to speak. I can see myself swapping between the two when the mood takes me. I think I may have a fuzz addiction developing...

Three fuzzies on the board?! I salute thee.

greejn

Keeley Halo. Don't fully understand it but it always sounds great!

adam_farmer

Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Edition is my favourite. I sold the 3 knob version about 3 years ago and it's the only pedal I sort of regretted selling even though I don't like hearing compression on guitars or records. I got the lots of knobs version this time and have set it quite neutral with the Dry mix high - it's probably acting as a gentle boost pedal. Guitar to Cali76 to Amp is a nice set up.

Kurtis

I can't remember the last time I bought a pedal. Probably a boss looper, which I liked but is no longer working. Using an old headrush delay now but it's a bit basic and plus I like using the "tape" delay on it too. 

There's a few I'd like to try but can never be bothered when it comes to it. There's still lots of combinations to try with the ones I have. 

Petepassion

I guess my favourite would have to be The Zvex Box of rock, gets me closer to a driven valve amp than any other pedal I've tried. It's simple, relatively cheap and also has a great boost switch, nearly always on.
   Also love my Jimi C fuzz face...it's proper! 
   Worst would be the Friedman Dirty Shirley pedal...just didn't do it for me.

gatheredinsong

Kurtis said:

I can't remember the last time I bought a pedal.

You should leave this area of the forum now. Save yourself some money! 

richman6100

Lebarque said:

richman6100 said:

richman6100 said:

@Wazmeister Interesting that the H90 makes your 'worst' category. Why's that? I have one on my wish list, although I've never used one, so it'd be good to hear why you don't rate it. Don't want to derail this thread, so feel free to DM me if that's easier.

As for my own purchases, I think I've been lucky because those pedals I've purchased are all still on my board:

Zvex Super Duper
Zvex Sonar
Drybell Vibe Machine v3
Great Eastern FX Focus Fuzz Silicon

All are rather splendid. I'm late to the Zvex party, but the two are own have bags of character. The Super Duper is easily the best boost I've tried. Set moderately low, it makes every drive pedal I push with it simply sound better. 

In addition to the above, I recently added a Thorpy Tacit Blue germanium fuzz. It's rather splendid and very versatile. It's different enough from my Magnetic Effects Black Moon fuzz (also germanium) and the silicon Focus Fuzz for all three to have a place on my pedal board. The only downside is that, having a completely full board, I had to lose the excellent Thorpy Fallout Cloud. A Thorpy has ousted a Thorpy, so to speak. I can see myself swapping between the two when the mood takes me. I think I may have a fuzz addiction developing...

Three fuzzies on the board?! I salute thee.

Why, thank you. The Black Moon with a Strat's volume rolled back is utterly sublime. The best fuzz I've encountered for that sound. The Tacit Blue is more versatile, works with any guitar and can do a thicker, heavier sound and is brilliant when paired with a univibe style pedal. The silicon Focus Fuzz works better than the other two (which are both germanium) with a wah pedal. Ergo, I need all three. That's the story I'm sticking to anyway.  ;-)

Cols

soma1975 said:

1991 pedal. Fuck that thing. 

Sonus Jimi Mod 68 Fuzz. That thing is incredible sounding. 

What was up with the 1991 pedal @soma1975 ?  Seems to get good reviews.

soma1975

Cols said:

soma1975 said:

1991 pedal. Fuck that thing. 

Sonus Jimi Mod 68 Fuzz. That thing is incredible sounding. 

What was up with the 1991 pedal @soma1975 ?  Seems to get good reviews.

It was noisy in the 'something is wrong' way including noise moving any of the pots and signal was passing through when the volumes were at zero and pot crackle could be heard even when pedal was disengaged and it was all very grounding issue hummy. Seller said that was normal and passed on some passive aggressive comments from the builder saying 'most people use the switch when they don't want to hear it' and suggesting I was mad. 

Also, plugged into my Marshall I got a lot closer to 10 tones with regular pedals instead of this. It just didn't sound good enough to warrant all that bollocks and I certainly won't buy another pedal from there. 

Aside from that it was great. 

Alex2678

I bought @soma1975 ’s 1991 and wasn’t as bothered by the issues he had (and didn’t have the same negative feelings from interactions with the seller/builder) but it still didn’t hang around very long. 

My least favourite of the year was the Malekko Ekko, it did sound great but I suppose I discovered why digital was invented - I found it hard to control to get a sound I wanted without running into oscillations when I hit a bit harder, and at some settings it got pretty hissy.
My favourite so far is the JHS lucky cat I replaced it with, all the right knobs in all the right places. Sounds great, very usable controls, particularly the ‘darken’.

chrisj1602

Favourite - got another Strymon Deco. Such a good pedal, don’t know why I sold the last one.

Worst - Maestro Ranger Overdrive. I just don’t think it played well with my amp.

Cols

soma1975 said:

Cols said:

soma1975 said:

1991 pedal. Fuck that thing. 

Sonus Jimi Mod 68 Fuzz. That thing is incredible sounding. 

What was up with the 1991 pedal @soma1975 ?  Seems to get good reviews.

It was noisy in the 'something is wrong' way including noise moving any of the pots and signal was passing through when the volumes were at zero and pot crackle could be heard even when pedal was disengaged and it was all very grounding issue hummy. Seller said that was normal and passed on some passive aggressive comments from the builder saying 'most people use the switch when they don't want to hear it' and suggesting I was mad. 

Also, plugged into my Marshall I got a lot closer to 10 tones with regular pedals instead of this. It just didn't sound good enough to warrant all that bollocks and I certainly won't buy another pedal from there. 

Aside from that it was great. 

I suppose the core guitar sound of Ten is a JCM 800 being pushed by a Tube Screamer, so if you’ve got the first half of the equation then I guess you don’t need a dedicated solution.

Sorry to hear it was a noisy bastard.  That would drive me nuts as well.

PudWud

Favourite is probably the Origin Halcyon Gold, not sure if it sounds like a real Klon or not and I don’t mind as I use the least Klon type settings anyway (adaptive 2 and Mod mode with dry off). But it sounds really nice. 

Least favourite would be Keeley Noble Screamer. Just couldn’t get a decent sound out of it with my set up. Only ODR-1 type pedal I’ve ever liked is the Nordland. And that’s just because you can cut the bass and reduce the saturation. 

Kurtis

gatheredinsong said:

Kurtis said:

I can't remember the last time I bought a pedal.

You should leave this area of the forum now. Save yourself some money! 

 

I've built a few but moved a while back and never got round to sorting my stuff out. There's probably a bit of money tied up in it all! 
I have a fuzz on a bread board somewhere that I was tweaking for ages that I'd definitely like to box up and use. Should become my main dirt hopefully.