Worst pedal you've owned?

stickyfiddle

Off the top of my head I've only had 2 pedals I just couldn't get to sound good at all: Bad Monkey and EHX Little Big Muff.

I'd bet I could work the monkey much better now than when I was a noob, but the LBMpi was just horrid. Great at any setting in isolation, but switching it on with a band was like turning your amp off, it got lost so much. Urgh

not_the_dj

Boss AC-2 (I think it was the 2). Lots of grand ideas of using it with the band for easily add acoustic tones without the bother if bringing another guitar. Never got a decent sound from it at gig volume in the band mix.

benvall

I had the boss hyper metal pedal. I kept it for years as my mum bought it for me. Final sold it after not using it for 10+ years. It was fine when I first started playing, I didn't know any better.

mike_l

stickyfiddle said:

Off the top of my head I've only had 2 pedals I just couldn't get to sound good at all: Bad Monkey and EHX Little Big Muff.

I'd bet I could work the monkey much better now than when I was a noob, but the LBMpi was just horrid. Great at any setting in isolation, but switching it on with a band was like turning your amp off, it got lost so much. Urgh

The bad monkey works best (for me) as a boost (extra gain/bottom end) for a dirty Marshall/Blackstar type amp. Used this way I love it.

I don't like it into a clean amp so much.

ThePrettyDamned

This is quite an interesting thread. So far, a couple of pedals I quite like have come up.

Just goes to show how reviews must always be taken with a pinch of salt. Ones that have come up that I like (albeit they do need tweaking) - boss ds-1, hardwire tl-2, bad monkey.

Actually, I love the boss power stack - I chose the guvnor plus over it as it had nicer lower gain sounds, but for jcm sounds, the power stack absolutely rules, and many more expensive options stand in the shadow imo. That's another I have no idea why I sold... Though it did fund my ehx qtron.

Also love the ehx metal muff with top boost, but not tried the smaller one. The bigger one has a terrible top boost - it's too powerful, you only need the first quarter of the turn. After that it's too loud and shrill for anyone.

Richardj

I really liked the Boss MZ-2 Digital Metalizer. It was perfect for '80s metal and the chorus and digital double stuff gave avery credible Brian May type sound. Did however suck the tone out of the rest of the chain and ate batteries. Had a Behringer reverb pedal very briefly, nasty tone and so much hiss it was unuseable. Some of their stuff is OK, some is just nasty.

RocknRollDave

I had the Boss pedal that was overdrive AND distortion, with a blend knob. Hated it.

Misty

Fulltone Distortion Pro. Couldn't get anything but a nasty, buzzy, trashy sound out of it. Some may like that, not me.

T Rex Tonebug reverb pedal. Great reverb but way too noisy which I couldn't live with. I took it back and got a Boss, which was much better.

Deadman

Another vote for the Boss DS-1.

Horrible sound and duly sold not long after.

Kebabkid

Line6 PODs (preferred the Behringer V-Amp) - Just can't get on with them and didn't take to the M5 either.

Roland

A Metal distortion pedal.  A friend gave it to me, presumably because he didn't like it either.  It was so unlike my style that I tried it once and passed it on. No. I can't remember what it was, other than it was black with pink writing.

dogload

+1 for the Line6 Uber Metal. 

I was also a little disappointed by a 1981 Ibanez TS808 I used to have. 

kelvinburn

Digitech Death Metal - doesnt even have a gain knob and its default setting is wasp attack

EHX Metal Muff with top boost - got this because the sword use one.  just cant get a decent sound out of it. the boost is like having the top of your head hacksawed off and it behaves really strangely in daisy chain.  Available for trade if anyone wants it.

Danelectro Black Liquorice - Just comically bad in every way

Digitech Synth Wah - decent sounds but completely inaudible in a band mix

dindude

EHX LPB-1 boost. If you want to turn your lovely valve amp into sounding like a 70s transistor nightmare, this is the pedal for you.

Rocker

Line6 Echo Park.

ICBM

not_the_dj said:

Boss AC-2 (I think it was the 2). Lots of grand ideas of using it with the band for easily add acoustic tones without the bother if bringing another guitar. Never got a decent sound from it at gig volume in the band mix.

These do have their uses, surprisingly. I agree they sound terrible for trying to make an electric guitar sound like an acoustic (though not actually much worse than a piezo bridge, just differently crap) but they do one thing amazingly well… allow you to play an electro-acoustic through an electric guitar *amp* and have it not sound like an electric guitar. I have no idea why I tried it but it worked really well - it's an acoustic *amp* simulator not an acoustic *guitar* simulator! I haven't tried the AC-3 though so I don't know if the same applies. Bizarrely given that, for electric guitar they're more tolerable through a PA using the separate output, although not much.

stickyfiddle said:

Off the top of my head I've only had 2 pedals I just couldn't get to sound good at all: Bad Monkey and EHX Little Big Muff. 

I'd bet I could work the monkey much better now than when I was a noob, but the LBMpi was just horrid. Great at any setting in isolation, but switching it on with a band was like turning your amp off, it got lost so much. Urgh

Big Muffs only really work well with big amps, and if you turn the level up a long way. If you try that with a small amp it just goes farty and/or loses volume.

RocknRollDave said:

I had the Boss pedal that was overdrive AND distortion, with a blend knob. Hated it.

OS-2. I had a really beaten-up one of those which I got in a junk clearance sale from a shop for a tenner because it didn't work. I guessed it would be easy to fix, and it was. It sounded amazing, and I used it for a couple of years. Then I got a channel-switching amp, so I sold it thinking I didn't need it. A year or two later I missed it so I bought another (new - doh!). It didn't sound the same. Since then I've bought about three more and tried several others, and none of them sound like that first one. So I can only conclude that there was something else broken about it made it sound better, and I didn't fix that part.

It was also the pedal which made me realise that I prefer 'distortion' pedals to 'overdrive' pedals, even for sounding like an overdriven amp - my favourite sounds were all on the DS side, which really surprised me at first.

kelvinburn said:

Digitech Synth Wah - decent sounds but completely inaudible in a band mix

Probably a good thing - I had one and it sounded horrible for guitar, really harsh and artificial. Then I tried it for bass… amazing! Not the bass version, the exact same pedal. Really full and powerful - I can only assume it's the different voicing of the amps.

usedtobe

Skarloey said:

I've had a Boss HM 2 for years. I've been on the point of selling it upteen times but every time I do I give it one more chance and find a reason for keeping it. If I set it wrong it's harsh and fizzy but if I set it right it's got a rich full sound that sustains well.

I had one, that belonged to my best mate before me. I hung onto it for years, without using it, mainly for sentimental reasons. I eventually sold it, as they were going for decent money, on the bay. I had a play with it, mainly to make sure it still worked, before listing it, and found I quite liked it!

Worst ones I've owned were an old Grant fuzz pedal, and a boss style vintage chorus, which was so subtle as to be pointless. I'm not really a pedal guy, though, tbh - I can make the best pedals in the world sound like absolute shite. I don't know what it is about me...

Fortheloveofguitar

Rocker;123505" said:

Line6 Echo Park.

I have 2 of these and reckon they're great.

ThePrettyDamned

kelvinburn said:

Digitech Death Metal - doesnt even have a gain knob and its default setting is wasp attack

EHX Metal Muff with top boost - got this because the sword use one.  just cant get a decent sound out of it. the boost is like having the top of your head hacksawed off and it behaves really strangely in daisy chain.  Available for trade if anyone wants it.

Danelectro Black Liquorice - Just comically bad in every way

Digitech Synth Wah - decent sounds but completely inaudible in a band mix

I really like the metal muff! I would offer a trade, but I don't think I have any pedals I'd happily get rid of.  

I have the Qtron which I love and don't use much, but I don't know that I'd want to lose it...

kelvinburn

ThePrettyDamned said:

kelvinburn said:

Digitech Death Metal - doesnt even have a gain knob and its default setting is wasp attack

EHX Metal Muff with top boost - got this because the sword use one.  just cant get a decent sound out of it. the boost is like having the top of your head hacksawed off and it behaves really strangely in daisy chain.  Available for trade if anyone wants it.

Danelectro Black Liquorice - Just comically bad in every way

Digitech Synth Wah - decent sounds but completely inaudible in a band mix

I really like the metal muff! I would offer a trade, but I don't think I have any pedals I'd happily get rid of.  

I have the Qtron which I love and don't use much, but I don't know that I'd want to lose it...

Give it a go.  If you missed it you could always have it back
:-?