Worst pedal you have played?

[kugelspot]

The USA Bassballs mod is simple. Open up the pedal. On the bottom left and right of the circuit board, there are 2 internal trim pots that control the sweep of the filters.

Desolder them, and replace them with full-sized pots. Drill 2 holes in the casing, and there you have it.

It turns a useless pedal into something funky and musical.

Sounds easy enough. I'm pretty sure I even have a couple spare pots lying around.

It'll be nice if it really makes it as usable as you say it does. I bought the thing because I wanted to have an envelope filter around for when I need one. But I rarely need one, so I went with the bassballs, mostly becasue it was cheap, and I'm kinda regretting it.

 

[Mudfuzz]

Ibanez Thrash Metal soundtank. I left in in a store with some other stuff I was trading.... they didn't want it, I didn't want it.... I left it there and am still happy with that.

 

[Valerus]

Z.Vex Ditortron or Mastotron. Can't remember which. It even beats out the ODB-3, IMHO. Maybe it sounds good on guitar.

The Distortron is a darn good overdrive and the Mastotron is the blue gated-ish synth-ish fuzz.

 

[bigchiefbc]

I'll probably get flamed for this, but for me it's the Digitech Bass Synth Wah. The synth modes were cheesy and awful. I vastly preferred the Boss synths.

 

[bassman1185]

I haven't been able to get any useful sounds out of my BSW besides the sub-octave either.

 

[kaputsport]

I haven't been able to get any useful sounds out of my BSW besides the sub-octave either.

Really? I use the bwwwwwWWWWAAAAAAAAAPPPPP sound all the time... The filter sweep, setting 3...

 

[optikhog]

Zoom B2 Unit. Still have it and toy around in bedroom experimentation, but would never play with it in front of people. Most patches and effects are major tone suckers and a lot of the effects suck, period. But some of them are awright.

I don't think you're using it right then - if you spend some time tweaking the B2 it can sound fantastic. Although I will agree that the factory patches will kill your tone for the most part.

I totally disagree with the general statement that multi's are worse that the real thing (I'm a fanboy of the latest-gen Zoom stuff and have also owned many, many standalone effects pedals in the past). Multi's supply you with the tools and it is up to the user to set them up appropriately and sparingly. They are definitely for tweakers and should not be used by those who rely on the factory settings to define their tone for them.

Anyway, another +1 for the Behringer Bass Synth. Simply awful.

 

[pedrodelawasp]

I actually quite like my ODB-3. It doesn't exactly retain much of your basses character, but has its uses (vaguely synth-like ODs, industrial-esque sounds). Each to their own and all that, though. One man's trusty mule is another's dead horse.

The worst thing I've ever used, by far, is an Ibanez soundtank compressor. It was truly dreadful and NOISY.

It was even worse than a zoom BFX708.

 

[audiophile21]

ibanez f27 fuzz sounds like absoulute crap, whenever i try to use it i feel like my amps going to explode and completly destroys my bottom end even when i use the geb-7 bass eq

 

[gibsualdo]

Harley Benton (or GLX or Beta Avin depending where you buy it) Bass Limiter.

Thought it might do a good impersonation of the Boss LMB-3, after I found their Bass Equalizer was no different to Boss' GEB-7. Turned out to be absolute pants. Now, I'm not crazy about the LMB-3 (or limiters in general) anyway but this was just beyond crap. Ate up so much of my tone it was ridiculous, wasn't much good as a limiter either but that was irrelevant. Tweaking made no diffference to the crap tone, except for the enhance knob which made it even worse.

Just remembered, I did try a friend's Harley Benton Limiter before buying my own, that sounded a lot more like the Boss equivalent, so maybe it was a quality control issue or something. Regardless, I wont be going back there.

Anyone else had this, with 2 of the same model of pedal, that sounded quite different?

 

[thehangingmist]

I'll probably get flamed for this, but for me it's the Digitech Bass Synth Wah. The synth modes were cheesy and awful. I vastly preferred the Boss synths.

yeah i was gonna write about my BSW but realised the behringer was worse! i did spend some time with BSW messing around with the crazy useless sounds and octave thing. first pedal i sold! but seriously not the worst pedal i had but meh i just remember i hated its bypass and it was as heavy as three of my other pedals put together and so on

 

[Dale D Dilly]

I really like a few of the pedals--Bootzilla wah and behringer bass synth--that a few people have mentioned hating.

My all tme worse was a $10 Rocktek compressor pedal. Engage it at any setting for instant thin sound and static noise. Get what you pay for I guess.

 

[COOL AND DEADLY]

I have the ODB-3, it's pretty useless. I have a Korg multi effect that is brutal too. I heard the Digitech Synth Wah has a mode that plays random notes, BP magazine called it "an auto-clam feature." I got a laugh out of that.

 

[Kromwarp]

Probably worst I've used was a guitar research wah, that sounds horrible on guitar too. EHX double muff was a pretty close second though.

I didn't hate the Double Muff, but that being said, I was underwhelmed by the distortion it had

 

[riotriot]

Without a doubt the Proco Juggernaut..
I had high expectations.. I sold it within a month.

 

[EskimoBassist]

Hmmm the ODB-3 is getting way too much bashing around here in my opinion, it's really not that bad!

Worst pedal I've ever played? Either the USA Big Muff, only because the low-end loss was too great when used with my Bass, even though it does sound pretty bitchin' otherwise, or one of those ODB-3 Behringer copies. It was like ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY EARS HURT.

 

[Nerotic]

Considering that the ODB-3 has been mentioned numerous times, I'll share my second worst pedal ever played:

*puts on flame-suit*

Digitech Bad Monkey (stock)

Why this pedal got so many praises on these boards I'll never fully understand.
Yeah, it sounds alright on it's own, but sucks in a band setting.
I tried blending, EQ'ing and maxing everything i possibly could, and it still wasn't able to cut through one lousy guitar.
And that guitarist only uses a BD-2 and occasionally a TS-9 with his LP?!

 

[bigchiefbc]

Hmmm the ODB-3 is getting way too much bashing around here in my opinion, it's really not that bad!

Worst pedal I've ever played? Either the USA Big Muff, only because the low-end loss was too great when used with my Bass, even though it does sound pretty bitchin' otherwise, or one of those ODB-3 Behringer copies. It was like ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY EARS HURT.

Well, first of all, the Big Muff wasn't meant as a bass fuzz to begin with, so its probably unfair to slag it for something it wasn't specifically built for.

Second of all, re: the Behringer ODB-3 copy
You seem to be saying it sounds like crap, and yet you apparently think the Boss ODB-3 sounds ok. Every behringer I've tried sounded pretty damned close to what it was copying. Now none of that speaks to the build quality and the moral issues, which are the normal reasons people hate on Behringer.

 

[soulplane83]

If by worst you mean most disapointed in, I'd have to go with the EBS Valvedrive. It was noisy as hell when activated, EQ seemed really weak and was untameable.

 

[P-oddz]

Z.Vex Ditortron or Mastotron. Can't remember which. It even beats out the ODB-3, IMHO. Maybe it sounds good on guitar.

Hope it's not the Distortron - because I'd strongly disagree. I know this is probably blasphemy - but it has usurped my VT Bass for tube growl.

My vote: MXR Blowtorch. It's a battery/power sucker at 18v and just sounds like fart. Not my thing.