Yesterday I was trawling the steadily emptying shelves of my friend's music store, which he is closing after 30+ years. In years past I stumbled on hidden treasure there — NOS pedals and such. That is rare now, since so much of everything has been sold off. Yet as forgotten inventory emerges, like the remains of shipwrecks and wooly mammoths revealed in the drought-ridden Danube and Rhine these days, I discover unsold gems.
I asked him what was up with Dophix pedals, and whether I could play a few. We settled on "you try it, you buy it". Either he or I would take home each that I played (since he is strict about "new" meaning "unplayed", and I respect that). In the end, I bought two of the three I played, and he took home the third plus a duplicate of one other.
So... to business.
The ones I demoed were LUSSURIA (discontinued), DAVID and NETTUNO. LUSSURIA had impressed me in online guitar demos. The fluttering from low frequencies fed into the drive was beautiful, reminding me of BJFe. But in hand, I found it to be too "bass adjacent" and not really suited to bass guitar.
Similarly, I liked the guitar demos I heard for DAVID. A punchy, big tube amp kind of thing; possibly as one reviewer suggested, Marshall-esque. In hand it was better than "bass adjacent" through some of its range. And what a sound at all times. A bonafide ***-kicker, tactile, with rich harmonics and credible tube amp-like compression, etc. Really nice.
Because I hadn't heard any demos of NETTUNO, imagine my surprise when upon playing it I was immediately seduced by its thickness and fundamental (pun intended) suitability to bass guitar. Its simultaneous composure and anger, its earthiness and violence, is something you just have to play to really appreciate, I think. What a honey. I dubbed it one of my favorite silicon fuzz pedals at once. Not a wide range, but one big sweet spot and all quite usable. When I was done playing, my friend said "That last one was brutal." He was not wrong.
I asked him what was up with Dophix pedals, and whether I could play a few. We settled on "you try it, you buy it". Either he or I would take home each that I played (since he is strict about "new" meaning "unplayed", and I respect that). In the end, I bought two of the three I played, and he took home the third plus a duplicate of one other.
So... to business.
The ones I demoed were LUSSURIA (discontinued), DAVID and NETTUNO. LUSSURIA had impressed me in online guitar demos. The fluttering from low frequencies fed into the drive was beautiful, reminding me of BJFe. But in hand, I found it to be too "bass adjacent" and not really suited to bass guitar.
Similarly, I liked the guitar demos I heard for DAVID. A punchy, big tube amp kind of thing; possibly as one reviewer suggested, Marshall-esque. In hand it was better than "bass adjacent" through some of its range. And what a sound at all times. A bonafide ***-kicker, tactile, with rich harmonics and credible tube amp-like compression, etc. Really nice.
Because I hadn't heard any demos of NETTUNO, imagine my surprise when upon playing it I was immediately seduced by its thickness and fundamental (pun intended) suitability to bass guitar. Its simultaneous composure and anger, its earthiness and violence, is something you just have to play to really appreciate, I think. What a honey. I dubbed it one of my favorite silicon fuzz pedals at once. Not a wide range, but one big sweet spot and all quite usable. When I was done playing, my friend said "That last one was brutal." He was not wrong.
That's what I said about it three years ago (almost to the day). I still have that to say. But for these Dophix pedals I must make an exception. I mean, I might treat them to some artist tape eventually. But I won't reject them for their admittedly subtle and tasteful graphics.
