What pedals have disappointed you lately?

[assboglin]

Recently I'd have to say the

TECH 21 XXL BASS EDITION.

No matter how I set the tone knob it seemed to cut a ton of bottom. Other than that the distortion was a little too crackly and not meaty enough. Sold it on ebay.

 

[dancehallclasher]

my sansamp seriously disappoints me. its defiantly not as great of a box as everyone makes it out to be.

I would have agreed with you four years ago. Now I use it constantly. So consider holding onto it.

 

[assboglin]

I have to say the Sansamps were a disappointment to me too. On their own I would use one for quick recording with bands I don't really care enough about to haul my rig to the studio, but through my rig they give shrill, ear piercing highs even with the treble and presence set to minimum, and even though I use a fairly dark sound to begin with, treble rolled off a bit, no horns.

 

[livingstone]

...Fulltone ChoralFlange - Loved it when I bought it, hated the flange from the beginning and grew dissatisfied with the Chorus over time...

I'm sorry to hi-jack but I just gotta know what you replaced it with.

Thanks

 

[shoegazebass]

I'm sorry to hi-jack but I just gotta know what you replaced it with.

Thanks

The Analogman Bi-Chorus w/deep mod Haven't looked back since

 

[Chronicle]

Moog MF-103(For bass) It was superb on guitar though.

 

[bass-shy]

My biggest pedal-related disappointments were Electro-Harmonix Small Clone, Black Russian Big Muff Pi and Mini Q-Tron. All of them had serious construction issues. The Mini Q-Tron sounded awesome but I couldn't get past the HUGE volume increase.

I was also really disappointed with the Visual Sound H2O. No matter how I set it up, either the chorus or echo side sounded really bad. Maybe I just got a bad unit?

 

[Mingus Addict]

I tried the BMS in a store and found it pretty useless. It was so bad that I'm thinking something must have been seriously wrong with the pedal or maybe with the bass. It just didn't seem to respond very well at all. I'm hoping someday that I'll try one again and have a better experience.

 

[JanusZarate]

I tried the BMS in a store and found it pretty useless. It was so bad that I'm thinking something must have been seriously wrong with the pedal or maybe with the bass. It just didn't seem to respond very well at all. I'm hoping someday that I'll try one again and have a better experience.

It's one of the few pedals where trying it in a store is the worst way to try it. Its gain trimpot (accessible through a hole on the bottom) has to be adjusted for it to work properly with the bass you're using.

 

[Jublian]

the old (black) digitech bass wah.

crackly, fizzy and weak

rather noticable click when disengaged too

 

[Mingus Addict]

It's one of the few pedals where trying it in a store is the worst way to try it. Its gain trimpot (accessible through a hole on the bottom) has to be adjusted for it to work properly with the bass you're using.

Hey thanks for the info! I wanted to like that pedal. I'll have to find a way to spend some more time with one.

 

[prsbass]

Ashdown ovtave barely tracked anywhere on the neck.
Black Cat Bass Octave fuzz successfully removed all the low-end of any bass, came with no paper work and missing a screw brand new.

All the other pedals I've sold have not been a disappointment they just weren't my bag.

 

[SnakeAnthony]

The Boss RE-20, which is sad, because I wanted to like it so bad. Its not that it didn't sound good. For someone into what it did, it was fantastic, but the delay constantly warped the pitch, not just when I was messing with it, and using the tap delay essentially did nothing, because the pedal seems to want to just do weird stuff instead of give me straight ahead repeats. I fiddled with all the knobs, tap tempo, nothing got it to be anything other than weird for me.

 

[coreyfyfe]

How was this disappointing?

the TU-2 sucks your tone because it uses an electronic bypass. If you listen to the TU-2 when in bypass mode and then play minus the pedal there is a clear difference in sound. I had mine modded by the fxdoctor, it was like 50 bucks with shipping if I remember. They basically build an internal a/b switch to make it a mechanical bypass rather than an electric one.

The biggest disappointment I had was my Ampeg SCP-OD pedal. To be fair, I was looking for a real gritty overdrive, and the scrambler is a fuzz, but still, you have to keep it around 9-12 on the dial to get decent bass tone, and it gives a huge volume boost. I actually used to use an a/b running into the two channels of my V4 which were set at different volumes so I had an equal level.

I ended up selling the SCP-OD and getting a Greedtone. I saw Minus the Bear and Cory was using one with a P-Bass through a Mesa 400+. Sounded balls to the wall. I'm not a fan of Mesa amps in the least, but this sounded good, so I decided I had to get my hands on one.

 

[pulse]

construction:

ebs valve drive, the bypass switch cuts out somtimes when switching the effect on, I have to slam it hard to engage, dissapointing for such a big bucks pedal, tone is no problem though. EBS did send me a reaplcement switch though, but I still did not find the time to get it changed

so now I switch it with a banzai effects loop switcher ...

ebs wah one: the top pedal is so heavy it does not hold its position in a spot! its impossible to set in a spot unless you jar it in place with an object - sound was good though. sold

sound:

boss odb3, its fizzy not fuzzy too my ears and with my gear. sold

complicated:

tech 21 pbddi, it only sounds useful in a studio environment as a direct box for me and then its great!, but used in a live setting very harsh and unfitting,I know a million people use it live I dont know why I cannot? (still a keepedr though)

tech 21 xxl ... I love how screamingly angry this pedal is, but it really prefers certain gear and settings. others not and then it sounds a bit lame. (still a keepedr though)

 

[KsToaDangr]

i got a cheap rogue wah/volume pedal a few years ago as a christmas present, and was really disappointed in the entire thing, not only did it sound horrible, but it was extremely cheaply built, and the unshielded wiring in it was picking up air traffic talk from the airport a block away from my old house.

sadly, i got rid of it, because distorting the air traffic would be great for a friend of mine's noise-music project.

 

[Jerry Ziarko]

+1

i did the DI thing twice. and both times my Octaver, OD/Fuzz, and Envelope Filter combo overtook it. Great minds think alike

+2 underwhelmed

 

[aksu]

Sansamp BDDI. Couldn't handle my hot pickups (would fart) or would be too scooped. when blend was low the effect didn't give an inspiring tone i was bummed

+1 , tried to like one, but it did not work with my G&L. Then I tested Para Driver.. It was like designed to my hot MFD pickups. Now I get the sound that I was always trying to achive with BDDI..

 

[kaputsport]

Here you go:
SYB-3 Bass synth
SYB-5 Bass Synth
Ashdown Suboctave
EHX Octave mutiplexor
Boss OC-3
Ibanez Synth pedal
Fulltone Octifuzz

The list goes on and on...

I have been very impressed with:
Russian Big Muff Pi
Russian Baseballs
Akai Intelliphase P1
Kaoss Pad (silver full version, K2???)
Boss OC-2
Akai Deep Impact
Zvex Woolly Mammoth

I need a Bass whammy, the DI and woolly mammoth and I will be forever in sonic bliss...BTW, I am running a kaoss pad throught the effects loop of my marshall 7400 DBS head...

All I have to say is... GET ONE!!!!

 

[OhThePeacock]

I must say the SYB-5 was somewhat of a dissapointment to me too, It took me the longest time to even figure out how to make it work at all and when I did the sound (methinks it was a buzzsaw mode) it just sounded like a farting speaker.