bad effects stories

bassmastak · #1 11-10-2008, 10:16 PM

well i cant find any threads on this so i made one.

here you can tell all your stories about your effects good or bad

well heres mine

when i was 14 i bought a digitech expression factory from the us (i live in australia) and i had to use a power adaptor for it so i got the us one that came with it and bought one of the cheap transformers used it pluged it in and it set on fire.

good bye $500

so whats your story?

Fetusyolk · #2 11-10-2008, 10:18 PM

i borrowed a Crybaby Wa from a friend, tried it out, it was pretty fun, realized it wasn't for me.

Ampeg SVT · #3 11-10-2008, 10:23 PM

Boss ODB-3, made some very harsh noise and thats about it.

My worst was the Digitech Bass Squeze, it was a piece of garbage. It didnt even compress, it just distorted the bass. I cant believe DBX lent their name to it.

bongomania · #4 11-10-2008, 10:26 PM

I can't even tell you how many nice pedals I have disassembled with the intention of analyzing the circuit or repairing some part or re-housing, only to have it sit in the parts drawer forever.

Zappstorius · #5 11-10-2008, 10:30 PM

Damn, I thought this was going to be about "effects gone bad" at live shows.

I once had a Whammy IV that I found out was not calibrated during a gig...that made things fun...and very out of tune.

jamie'sdad · #6 11-10-2008, 10:42 PM

pitchshifter and flanger use in a big band situation did not go down well with the band leader ... guitard and I thought it was funny tho ...

varunkapahi · #7 11-11-2008, 04:06 AM

the first time i went on to the stage with a distortion the sound guy said "its sounding like you've got a chorus pedal and have blown up the speakers" :S
so i jump down the stage to check it out and yes! i mean oh no! it did sound like the description

so i worked with the eq pedal and got rid of the CLANK CLANK CLANK then reduced the gain and it took a while but i got a sound i could live with :-/

The BurgerMeister · #8 11-11-2008, 04:19 AM

my first gig with a pedalboard:

got through two songs, then... no signal. checked connections as fast as i could, everything seemed ok, but no sound. i plugged direct and rocked on. i double checked everything after the show, and it worked perfectly. to this day, i have no idea what happened. it's a good thing i had my amp all dialed to sound good and crunchy without the effects, so i finished the show sounding good... but i sure missed all my cool sounds!

the lesson i learned was (of course): always make sure you, your bass, and your amp are dialed up without effects. then spice it up with those little magic boxes.