Unpleasant Surprise Fuzz. It is soooooooooooo good!
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Pedals that (far) exceeded your expectations...
- Thread starter cnltb
- Start date
Unpleasant Surprise Fuzz. It is soooooooooooo good!
It's a really neat pedal. The repeats get a bit drowned out for my taste on bass, but the swelling self-oscillating feedback is super tasty. I use it as a here-and-there sound effect. Unlike the EHX Memory Toy, it stops feeding back when you cut the pedal off, so you're not in danger of kicking on a screaming noise machine by accident.
I just read your post, and yeah, that's a lot of MXR. Some might even say that's a Way Huge amount of MXR (Get it? Way Huge...MX...oh, never mind!) But it's earned if you ask me, because MXR has been hitting some major home runs over the past few years with their pedals.
I see what you did there!
I like the form factor, they sound great and they're moderately priced and readily available second hand. What's not to love?!
I grabbed one of these recently for dirt cheap (under 50$) due to the mixed reviews I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but it blew me away especially for the price. Sounds great, low noise, very compact, and some useful features.
Got it mainly for stereo limiting, to use with stereo synths and FX. Also for stereo loops to prevent the volume from building too much with louder loops. So far it has worked great for any compression needs, be it high gain guitar leads or subtle limiting for loud effects. Aside from being stereo it has a sidechain jack, and dual VU meters on the front for the comp/reduction and the input or output level. The VU's are super useful, makes it easy to avoid overloading the inputs.
It has like 24db of clean boost on tap, with very low noise even at some fairly extreme settings. I have the Xotic SP comp which is nice for some stuff but nowhere near as versatile.
LOL...isn't that self-oscillation great??? But I've heard from a handful of bassists that the Carbon Copy Bright works better on bass since it doesn't get as dark. If I had a use for delay beyond playing "Bang The Drum All Day" every 3 years with my old band that I'm so glad to be out of, I'd have already gotten it.
I had both, and actually kept the regular carbon copy! I thought the delays were prettier, and the modulation sounded better with the delays!
And yeah, I'm all aboard the MXR train too lol. Their stuff is easy to find, and actually reasonably priced, and most importantly, they are simple and sound good!
It is not a very fancy entry but the EHX LPB-1 @$29.95 was a big surprise for me. I bought it about 7 years ago to level match (or get closer) between six string guitars which it turned out it wasn't really transparent enough for. However, it is good as a dirty boost or low-med gain overdrive for bass or guitar and a decent always on for dirty blues guitar. I have also used it on a mono synth and a combo organ to great result. I like the one knob simplicity and just thinking about it is giving me GAS for more one knob pedals.
The HX Stomp blew me away, so much in fact that I returned it...and got a Helix. I agree that the Helix might not count as a pedal since I think of it as more of a super audio computer in an awesome form factor.
I will also jump right on the C4 bandwagon. A lot more to that pedal than I thought initially (and I had high hopes). Having said that, the FI is still pretty darn good too.
I saw that someone already listed it but the H9 is a workhorse.
One not listed yet - Retro Mechanical Labs Mig Fuzz. It's basically a Muff (Green Russian based I think) but it is really tricked out and way more versatile than I thought it would be.
I will also jump right on the C4 bandwagon. A lot more to that pedal than I thought initially (and I had high hopes). Having said that, the FI is still pretty darn good too.
I saw that someone already listed it but the H9 is a workhorse.
One not listed yet - Retro Mechanical Labs Mig Fuzz. It's basically a Muff (Green Russian based I think) but it is really tricked out and way more versatile than I thought it would be.
My sister found an old guitar pedal in the closet of a house that she bought and gave it to me. Wasn't expecting much from an abandoned mystery pedal. Turned out to be a high end Klon knockoff, which really sounds fantastic. OK haters, it does cut a tiny amount of bottom end, but it dials right back in. It's an always on transparent OD with very convincing tube style harmonics. Use it every show. Free!
Saying "exceeded my expectations" might be too much of a stretch, but, I wanted a compact envelope filter. Those mini ones didn't do, it but the mxr bass envelope filter kills it. I'd still get the 3leaf audio one for the big board but as a small compact filter, the mxr is a beast.
MXR Phase 95 - I only bought it because I wanted a mini phaser and wasn’t sure which “version” of Phase 90 would work best for bass. But I end up using every setting for different situations and it’s a classic sound.
Both my Xotic BB and RC pedals. Simply excellent sounding, flexible, killer devices. I keep it simple live - passive bass, tuner, and one of these two pedals (depending on the gig), and a Radial DI. I'm usually using some unknown backline amp, and these pedals breed confidence in what I'm sending DI to the FOH. I basically don't care what the amp is this way. It's very freeing.
I love the tone I get from my Barber Linden.
Oh man, Earthquaker Afterneath definitely. Couldn't believe how well it worked on bass. That's one where you can keep every knob right at noon and it's perfect.
+1 Line 6 HX Stomp.
+1 Barber Linden EQ.
Iron Ether Polytope.
EQD Dispatch Master.
Becos Stella Pro Comp.
+1 Barber Linden EQ.
Iron Ether Polytope.
EQD Dispatch Master.
Becos Stella Pro Comp.
There’s several whose performance easily exceeded my expectations.
Barber Linden EQ
I wanted something that could give me a B-15Nish tone and feel. Turns out that for all intents and purposes it actually nails the B-15 sound. And then takes it two steps further.
Formula B Soviet Tank
A very refined tweak on a Soviet Muff circuit. For the record, I’m not a big fan of using fuzz effects on bass for the most part. But I heard this one in a club one night and realized I finally found a fuzz pedal I could relate to.
Analogman King of Tone
You’ve heard the hype right? It’s just another dual OD/boost box, right? Well I thought the same thing. But after having one to play around with for a couple of weeks now, I’d have to say I now think at least some of the hype is true.
Dry Bell Unit 67
Got a great review on TBer Scubaduba’s compressor thread in the Effects forum here. So that alone made it worth a try. It’s a compressor, two band EQ, boost with a hint of Rangemaster-like variable mid emphasis all rolled into one svelte pedal. Probably the single most musically practical pedal I’ve ever bought.
Supro 1310 Tremolo.
Dual mode trem pedal (amplitude and harmonic) that has a “hidden” feature that takes it beyond its stated purpose as a tremolo. To quote Supro’s product description:
Keeley Bassist and Ovnifx Smoothie
Two very different compressors (one transparent one not) that just sound good all the time and are incredibly easy to dial in. Truth is it’s very hard to make a bass sound bad with either one. If you have ever worked with other compressor pedals, you already know how amazing that is.
Barber Linden EQ
I wanted something that could give me a B-15Nish tone and feel. Turns out that for all intents and purposes it actually nails the B-15 sound. And then takes it two steps further.
Formula B Soviet Tank
A very refined tweak on a Soviet Muff circuit. For the record, I’m not a big fan of using fuzz effects on bass for the most part. But I heard this one in a club one night and realized I finally found a fuzz pedal I could relate to.
Analogman King of Tone
You’ve heard the hype right? It’s just another dual OD/boost box, right? Well I thought the same thing. But after having one to play around with for a couple of weeks now, I’d have to say I now think at least some of the hype is true.
Dry Bell Unit 67
Got a great review on TBer Scubaduba’s compressor thread in the Effects forum here. So that alone made it worth a try. It’s a compressor, two band EQ, boost with a hint of Rangemaster-like variable mid emphasis all rolled into one svelte pedal. Probably the single most musically practical pedal I’ve ever bought.
Supro 1310 Tremolo.
Dual mode trem pedal (amplitude and harmonic) that has a “hidden” feature that takes it beyond its stated purpose as a tremolo. To quote Supro’s product description:
“The Supro Tremolo pedal features pre-amp and power amp sections, with an actual output transformer deployed to recreate the magnetic saturation and coloration of the original vacuum tube based effects found in these historic amps.”
Half the time I’ll dial the tremolo effect on it all the way down and just use it as a preamp. And it does (to my ears) sound just like a Supro amplifier. Now that I did not see coming.
Keeley Bassist and Ovnifx Smoothie
Two very different compressors (one transparent one not) that just sound good all the time and are incredibly easy to dial in. Truth is it’s very hard to make a bass sound bad with either one. If you have ever worked with other compressor pedals, you already know how amazing that is.
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