Beautiful, useless pedals

[Swimming Bird]

What pedal(s) do you have that you love the sound of, but can't manage to use on your board. Also, why.

For me, there's the MXR Blue Box. I can make tons of interesting noises with it, but it's too distorted for chords, too gated for sustained notes, buries itself in the mix, needs a compressor after to handle the volume drop issues and is generally useless on bass when you don't run the dry mix all the way up to get rid of the -2 oct/glitch bit. A shame as it sounds friggin' awesome, takes up almost no board space.

[KarateKid25]

Beautifull and useless to me is my micro synth. Great sound, but constantly broken, therefore, useless

[vegas532]

I acquired a stock '68 Fuzz Face just to have it (obviously), but it's horrible on a bass.

[kevteop]

Every delay I've ever had (but I've figured out what I need is a reverb and an analogue tap-tempo delay, and a switch box to change the order of them, and exp. pedal control over delay time, and feedback, and a momentary switch to just fire the occasional note through the delay, and a blend to mix the delay signal back into my dry signal...)

Blah. I'd have to spend a fortune to get delay working live how I'd want it.

I also really want to keep my Big Muff on my board because it sounds so awesome, but in a band mix it doesn't sound awesome.

[rratajski]

Originally Posted by Swimming Bird

For me, there's the MXR Blue Box. I can make tons of interesting noises with it, but it's too distorted for chords, too gated for sustained notes, buries itself in the mix, needs a compressor after to handle the volume drop issues and is generally useless on bass when you don't run the dry mix all the way up to get rid of the -2 oct/glitch bit. A shame as it sounds friggin' awesome, takes up almost no board space.

Yeah...who needs to have Mega Man 1-3 on their board? Not me!
Not a fan of that pedal.

[RickenBoogie]

I'll second your Blue Box, gnarly as all get out, but useless. Love the small size and color.

[bassman1185]

For me it's the Danelectro French Toast. Yeah, I know it's a little cheapie, but it sounds stinking GOOD. On its own, at least. In a band like mine, it just gets buried in the mix. It sounds really cool to run a drum machine through it, though.

[tranceFusion]

Electro Harmonix Bass Balls..

[Melvin7822]

Originally Posted by kevteop

Every delay I've ever had (but I've figured out what I need is a reverb and an analogue tap-tempo delay, and a switch box to change the order of them, and exp. pedal control over delay time, and feedback, and a momentary switch to just fire the occasional note through the delay, and a blend to mix the delay signal back into my dry signal...)

Blah. I'd have to spend a fortune to get delay working live how I'd want it.

I also really want to keep my Big Muff on my board because it sounds so awesome, but in a band mix it doesn't sound awesome.

I don't think it would cost a fortune to get the delay how you want it. Modifying a delay for expression pedal control is relatively simple. It would be pretty easy and cheap to build a momentary switch. I think the switching of the order ability would be the only thing in which you would have to invest money.

[Ryan Mohr]

Originally Posted by vegas532

I acquired a stock '68 Fuzz Face just to have it (obviously), but it's horrible on a bass.

I find it hard to believe that it would be horrible on bass.

[LuckyCondlins]

Originally Posted by tranceFusion

Electro Harmonix Bass Balls..

I use it for four notes in 1 song.

Its a short break down. I only strum the strings 7 times! haha

it gets 7 strums right now!

[b to g is yummy]

Originally Posted by LuckyCondlins

I use it for four notes in 1 song.

Its a short break down. I only strum the strings 7 times! haha

it gets 7 strums right now!

Pardon the observation, but you sound suspiciously like a guitarist!

[Pilgrim]

60's Univox SuperFuzz. It's one of the great fuzz pedals of all time and I love the sound of the pedal solo, but in a live performance the fuzz is so aggressive that the notes lose all definition and the bass disappears in the mix. I still have it, but I never use it.

[Crabby]

My bassballs never got used much.

[Thunderscreech]

EHX Holy Grail. if you set it on flerb and turn it to, like, 2:30, it makes this really cool flanged sound, but kills your tone and low end.


Actually, on any setting past 12:00 it does that, but it's especially noticeable on bass.

[Reuben]

I concur on the Blue Box. It's a brilliant invention, but weak with bass.

Have you ever tried the Buzz Box? It was a short-lived pedal made by DOD, for the guitarist for the Melvins, and it's kind of like a Blue Box for shredders. More controllable, just as weird, and ugly to look at, in a cool way:

http://www.noiseguide.com/product_in..._buzz_box_fx33

[KarateKid25]

Originally Posted by Crabby

My bassballs never got used much.

+1 Owned one for about a year and it would have seen about 6 hours use all up.

[beyondthe48]

devi bass fuzz (gated attack, lack of mids)

ehx xo qtron+ (cant find a way to work it into a song, its too funky for post-metal)

[JimmyM]

70's Big Muff Pi. Yeah, I know, Smashing Pumpkins and all that, but I could only succeed in getting mosquito tone from it, even when blended with clean. I loved that mosquito tone, but I never used it on a single gig or session on either bass or guitar because it was just way too much.

[jinithith2]

I was feeling like my micro POG was starting to feel a little useless but I now use it almost always when I distort or fuzz my Bongo. Sub octave adds muddy lowend goodness (just enough of it when I tweak it right) and octave up adds definition without sounding synthy or guitary if I add just enough.

Also, I worked it and a detuner into a tapping bass solo and sounds so much like an organ