"It's good, but not for me"

[Jebberz]

Boss GT-1B - All effects was from good to wow (did not bothered tamper with the amp sim) except for the pitch shifter that was underwhelming (at best) and artificial sounding. Too bad I often need -2 and sometimes -4 pitch. Otherwise it would have been a keeper.

 

[bound'n'blocked]

Either of the Tech 21 Geddy tone-clone pedals. Look...Ged's my favorite player. I LOOOOOVE his tone. But the pedals, while it sounds like there is a little tiny Geddy in there, just seem so one dimensional.

And, I was actually able to dial in a pretty respectable representation of his tone with my regular Sansamp pedal.

BnB

 

[ObsessiveArcher]

Eden WTDI - Nice clean (no coloring) and flexible (midshift) preamp with DI. I just prefer the Mesa Subway DI, which also matches well with my D-800+

SansAmp VTBass-DI - I could get some decent grind and understand why people really like this preamp. At the time I was passing it through a GK MB200 or Ampeg B2R and was not a fan. Maybe into a clean power amp or the D-800+ it might have liked it better. I'm not opposed to trying it out again. It seemed OK with my Warwick $$, but I think it would work better with my P-bass.

MXR M80 DI - The clean on this sounded great. I really liked it. The distortion, however, sounded horrid in the bedroom. Thinking back, I should have attempted to try the distortion out in a band setting before moving on. Lots of mids and lows with some distortion sits well in our band mix. I'm starting to build up GAS for this again. It's never too late to fix your bad decisions, right?

 

[BurningSkies]

View attachment 3548399 Anyone tried one of these? It was given to me and it needs a new tube so I haven't really tried it. I know it's a guitar pedal but I thought it might be cool.

I had one of these briefly back in the 1980's and used it occasionally for guitar. Put a new tube in it and see if you like it. I didn't end up feeling overwhemed by it but people at the time seemed to. I feel like it was an attempt to 'warm up' a whole lot of solid state 80's guitar amps and maybe some of those more modern sounding 'super-strat' style guitars that tended to have brittle pickups.


Everyone will hate me for it, but for all the raves about the Southampton Fifth Gear (full sized one), I couldn't make it sound like anything I wanted to hear. I was really really surprised but it just didn't do it.

...Also I have an ol' japanese OC-2 which is supposed to be one of the 'good ones' (label on bottom is in Japanese, the whole deal)...And it always ended up being a tone-suck any time it was plugged in, it had one really great sound that didn't get to unity gain, so basically it ended up needing a sub-loop with volume boost to be useful, for maybe one song a set.

 

[DDXdesign]

That's what the Chunk knob is for, sets the volume of the dirt channel. Use that to get the right balance of low/high channels then adjust the master volume from there.

Time for a 3rd?

Oh it would actually be a 5th or 6th try for me =0) But the Chunk knob just raises the volume of the high-band dirt - the meat of the signal drops in volume overall because of the crossover applied with Mix, that's the volume difference I mean.

 

[dannybuoy]

Oh it would actually be a 5th or 6th try for me =0) But the Chunk knob just raises the volume of the high-band dirt - the meat of the signal drops in volume overall because of the crossover applied with Mix, that's the volume difference I mean.

Ah, if you mean struggles trying to get the volume equalised between mix on and off, I get you. I just pretend the pointless Mix button is not there!

 

[bigsnack]

The Wren and Cuff Phat Phuk B. I can absolutely see how a lot of folks would love that pedal. It adds a nice, musical bloom to the low end and a bit of sweet sheen to the top end. I think most folks would consider that pedal a "magic sauce" type of pedal that they always want on, but for me it just helped me realize that that's not my type of sound.

 

[AlexanderB]

EHX Q-Tron+. I like drippy funk envelopes, but that pedal's settings all sat right in between the settings I was hearing in my head, and never quite did the thing I needed as a result.

With even just one more parameter control, the DigiTech Bass Synth Wah would be a lifelong winner for me, but again, it could only get about 80% to what I needed. They're certainly fun, though.

And ultimately, after working with it for years, I decided I'd never really been 100% happy with my Swollen Pickle's layout. Sounded phenomenal, but it literally stressed me worrying about if a tiny knob nudge would make it destroy my amp, or suddenly go from a bear's intestinal rumble to a hive of bees on an LSD-infused dandelion trip. But I couldn't just pop off the knobs since it interacted with other pedals enough to need occasional tweaks.

There's more but I wanna give someone else a chance

What additional control would you like to see on the Bass Synth Wah? I have one and share your frustration, at least when bringing the pedal on gigs.
I prefer to use it in the effect loop, but then I have no eq to tame the piercing treble from some sounds.
I think that pedal belongs in a proper loop of its own, with eq pedal and maybe a resonant filter as well...

 

[Real Soon]

What additional control would you like to see on the Bass Synth Wah? I have one and share your frustration, at least when bringing the pedal on gigs.
I prefer to use it in the effect loop, but then I have no eq to tame the piercing treble from some sounds.
I think that pedal belongs in a proper loop of its own, with eq pedal and maybe a resonant filter as well...

In particular the synth settings frustrated me, because I could set the overall frequency of the effect but not the range of the envelope itself. Having that would have been perfect for a song needing a quick, very small attack, but the pedal would only do a quick, very TALL synth attack. And yeah, it badly needed some LPF assistance at times. So... two more knobs!

 

[Low Down Brown]

Darkglass Vintage Ultra V2.

I definitely understand why people like it but it just wasn't for me. I never really liked the EQ section. Never got it to sound the way i wanted it to.

 

[BassBrass]

Thanks for the suggestions !
I know the Plus pedal. It's quite big and I am not sure if it sounds any better than freeze, although it seems to have more features.
And superego is ehx as well...

My "Plus" pedal is being lent to a keyboardist right now...looks just right under his keyboardstand, to engage it is laborious, the pedal action is slow and heavy...it's fidelity is probably superior but I much prefer the EH versions for speed's sake (I use Freeze with trumpet, small simple, does what I need, but Superego with bass) Because of the auto setting on Superegos...no longer do you have to move your foot to sustain, it's in the volume of your attack. As long as you play loud enough (and this level can be set) that note will be captured. I'm doing some very Cello-like things with it. The effects in the SE+ the real big one are no way as good as the effects I put in the send/return but it does have some better fine tuning of other controls, I don't really use all what it could do. (One effect that a f.vocalist liked so it's getting used if you know what I mean, is the shimmer program on the EH Ocean's 11 in the send/return. It's the best shimmerr I've heard used with the SE. It has a good 5th up reverbed harmonizer too

Your negative opinion of EH is understandable, there are often obstacles to their preset choices, trying to do too much like my newish Attack Delay which works better than other efforts at that one thing, but they added too many other features, made it way overly complex. Fortunately you are not required to use all of it, but what's left could probably fit in a smaller box... Sometimes EH hits a bullseye and many people have favorites over that years. They are a nutty madcap company and apt do do anything, and I'd prefer that to a boring effects company. who needs it. They've done some innovative work with certain circuits that started with the POG and eventually branched out to all these 9 series emulators. The superEgo was a bulls-eye for me, but my 1st effect was the EH DrQ which I used with bass & electric trumpet for abt 30 years. I had an original Clone Theory and Frequency Analyzer. They were both fantastic may they r.i.p.

 

[zontar]

AT least half of the distortion pedals out there qualify.

 

[Iristone]

ESP basses. The one I got my hands on was mud city even through a Hartke half stack. Could be how the amp was dialed.
EHX big muff pi, good for bluesy guitar chords, makes bass sort of disappear. But I LOVE it for bluesy guitar chords.
Roto 77s. Maybe a scale length thing, but never got much punch (or its reputed brightness and growl) on my SG bass, which with trusty old roto 66s, has BOTH punch and growl in spades. Might bring out even more thump from my Warwick though. But most people would find a Warwick growly and a Gibson thumpy. Curious, isn't it? OTOH the Roto 88s on my Epi Viola is great, not as rubber-bandy as La Bellas.

 

[Iristone]

Note that ESP basses are NOT good in my experience. The price tag indicated otherwise.

 

[Iristone]

Oops, I forgot it's pedal only.

 

[wncBass]

Pedals with a blend, always sounds like two separate tones.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Pedals with a blend, always sounds like two separate tones.

 

[socialleper]

Any octave pedal.
Big Muff fuzz.
Pedals that add "synth" effects.

 

[Bboopbennie]

Not a lot of love for the DIamond comp pedal.
Just a tone killer playing in a band live. Really tried
To like it ,but after using a tripple c comp no love here.

 

[Feral Feline]

Anything EHX apart from freeze.
I see the appeal but just don't like ehx as I have found all of their pedals i tried somewhat lacking. The one ehx pedal I like is freeze for doing something I have not seen done by anything else.( heads up appreciated!!)
Anything Darkglass I tried.
I just didn't warm to them but may well try again.

The Freeze has a big brov, the Superego, and there's even a fat Superego called SuperegoPlus, both have an auto sample function as well as what Freeze does and a send return for putting other effects in the frozen/sustained/sampled whatever tone. (thats there I put my Rainbow Machine and always a phasor) Then there's This: Invalid Link Removed

i would trade an EQD Tentacle (just a clone of an old homemade pedal, the dan armstrong Orange Squeeze) for an Aftershock because even though Aftershock "does so much" none of it sounds as good to me as the simplest analog circuit. I Love the new SA synth, btw. I have kept a lot of pedals that have been replaced on my boards (2) but they are all mostly great, just a little imperfect vs what I use now.

Add to the list a "freeze" pedal that's not EHX, and been around a long while:
Z.Cat

Better still, Zcat has two models of freeze, one with reverb and the other with delay & chorus:

Hold - Reverb

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As for "good but not for me": A few companies that may make decent pedals, but where the proprietor is a pushy egotistical jerk or has questionable business practices etc.