The world's most disappointing pedal?

Teetonetal

meltedbuzzbox said:

Sassafras said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

I do tend to find it's generally you guys that are into your forties and beyond that bang the boss drum the most.

Because with age comes great wisdom.
  

Or stubbornness and an unwillingness to change :-p

Don't know about that.

I started life with boss, mainly as it was all I could get. Then went mfx. Then stopped playing.

Came back and went all boutique. Gradually gone back to boss for lots of things. Partly due to cost, availability and quite a few switch failures on other stuff. (Ehx, empress,  Roger mayer) or build quality issues  (jhs, ehx). Pedals with 3dpt really piss me off as many make stupid popping noises.

For large chunks if what I do (mainly short notice depping) boss just works.

I have es5, dd500, PS3,  sd1, bd2, dm2w, fz2 and rv5

Now I think that lot gives me a wide range of sound and options. I can do everything from country through modern rock.

I agree there are areas where boss are poor or boring, phaser, flanger and tremolo spring to mind. But generally their range is solid.

I also can't remember the last time I saw a touring band without at least one boss pedal on the guitarists board.

For my own amusement I do like other companies, chase bliss, moog, empress etc all go very cool stuff. But for work, boss is easily good enough.

TTBZ

I'm sure it's just down to not spending enough time tweaking it but I find myself disappointed with Helix having now tried a rack and Native. I know there are good tones in it given the amount of videos on youtube, however I just can't get tones I'd be happy to drop that kind of money on. Don't get me wrong it sounds good, I just can't make it sound good enough for me and I've had better results, dialled in easier, using much cheaper equipment. 

meltedbuzzbox

My response was a joke fella.

At the end of the day it is all about whatever works for you.

I'm sure you can get a passable sound with your choices but I'd argue it's not the best sound you could have with what's available on the market.

Teetonetal

meltedbuzzbox said:

My response was a joke fella.

I realize, but I'm in the dying days of my 30's. I need to defend myself against accusations of Boss related obstinance.

ICBM

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the Korg Miku yet...

I found it disappointing - it wasn't actually as crazy or as 'vocal' sounding as I expected, the range of sounds was quite limited and all sounded basically very similar, it didn't track well and there was an annoying volume change. It might have been more usable in a parallel mix loop, but the lack of variety and control over the sound itself would still have made it a one-trick pony.

Also I have to say the Boss SYB-3 (I think I had that not the 5) Bass Synth pedal was crap. That also had to be run in a parallel mix to make it any good, and even then wasn't brilliant. The Digitech Synth Wah was miles better.

shaunm

This thread has inspired me to want to build a Boss board. 

Those 500 series Boss pedals any good? I’m sure I could have a pedal board with those three pedals 

meltedbuzzbox

shaunm said:

This thread has inspired me to want to build a Boss board. 

Those 500 series Boss pedals any good? I’m sure I could have a pedal board with those three pedals 

The delay gets a lot of love. The modulation is a bit of a mixed bag. The reverb again has a mixed reception. 

Teetonetal

meltedbuzzbox said:

shaunm said:

This thread has inspired me to want to build a Boss board. 

Those 500 series Boss pedals any good? I’m sure I could have a pedal board with those three pedals 

The delay gets a lot of love. The modulation is a bit of a mixed bag. The reverb again has a mixed reception. 

Yup, the delay is great. Especially after the recent firmware update.

Grocer_Jack

Anyone come across Toadworks pedals? I bought one off eBay that was some sort of Tweed sounding thing, or supposed to be at least. I saw a great YouTube demo (I know, I know...) and it was £50 or so on eBay.
Well I had this thing in the house for literally 30 mins at the most before I took it down to Chandlers and did a trade for a Pork Loin + cash. What a piece of crap - unbelievably hissy and thin sounding. Tone control went from ice pick to dog-hearing frequencies. Hideous. It used to make me smile that is was in Chandlers for about 5 years right up until the bitter end in 2016.

i see the Pork Loin was mentioned earlier - great pedal for bright rigs I think. Mine used to be great when I was playing Jazzmaster into AC30. Shouldn't have sold it. 

p90fool

MikkiMcMurderer said:

Anything branded Jimi Hendrix I have always found to be bad enough to return...

Their Slight Returns Dept must be busy. 
 

DesVegas

@p90fool bloody genius

Grocer_Jack

The Toadworks pedal that I mentioned was the L'il Leo. I had to google it, as it was so dire that I'd erased all memory of it. 

57Deluxe

Fuzz Face
Rangemaster
Solar Bender
anything by Colorsound

if it hadn't been for either nothing else available or fancy-schmancy 70s version of dayglo colours and wacky fonts, no-one would have given them floor space...

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ff/8f/a3/ff8fa3074125933441ce516c752a82f2.jpg

Samgb

meltedbuzzbox said:

shaunm said:

This thread has inspired me to want to build a Boss board. 

Those 500 series Boss pedals any good? I’m sure I could have a pedal board with those three pedals 

The delay gets a lot of love. The modulation is a bit of a mixed bag. The reverb again has a mixed reception. 

I have the MD500 modulation. And quickly sold all my other modulation. Its great. You need to take some time to learn the inner tweaking options which are many.   

EricTheWeary

Grocer_Jack said:

The Toadworks pedal that I mentioned was the L'il Leo. I had to google it, as it was so dire that I'd erased all memory of it.

I had one, it was great. 

Well it it was great until it broke. I gave it away to someone on here who also thought it was great ( once he’d repaired it). I don’t recall it as hissy although it was bright - but I was chasing something like Wilko Johnson in a box and it worked okay for that. 

Winny_Pooh

57Deluxe said:

Fuzz Face
Rangemaster
Solar Bender
anything by Colorsound

if it hadn't been for either nothing else available or fancy-schmancy 70s version of dayglo colours and wacky fonts, no-one would have given them floor space...

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ff/8f/a3/ff8fa3074125933441ce516c752a82f2.jpg

Thing is, fuzzes sound great into slightly dirty compressed amps like Marshall Plexis turned up. They don't work into a Fender Deluxe reverb.

HAL9000

I nominate the Marshall Bluesbreaker BB2 (not the BB1). Anyone who’s ever heard one will know I’m right.

ICBM

57Deluxe said:

anything by Colorsound

if it hadn't been for either nothing else available or fancy-schmancy 70s version of dayglo colours and wacky fonts, no-one would have given them floor space...

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ff/8f/a3/ff8fa3074125933441ce516c752a82f2.jpg

Are you mad? They sound brilliant!

OK the build quality makes Electro-Harmonix look rugged and military-spec, but in those days they probably thought no-one would care after first battery ran out and they'd just buy something new...

HAL9000 said:

I nominate the Marshall Bluesbreaker BB2 (not the BB1). Anyone who’s ever heard one will know I’m right.

Both of them are. How they could name such a bland, boring pedal after one of the best-sounding amps ever, I don't know.

Grocer_Jack

Winny_Pooh said:

57Deluxe said:

Fuzz Face
Rangemaster
Solar Bender
anything by Colorsound

if it hadn't been for either nothing else available or fancy-schmancy 70s version of dayglo colours and wacky fonts, no-one would have given them floor space...

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ff/8f/a3/ff8fa3074125933441ce516c752a82f2.jpg

Thing is, fuzzes sound great into slightly dirty compressed amps like Marshall Plexis turned up. They don't work into a Fender Deluxe reverb.

Hmm - they most certainly do work into smaller fenders!

Grocer_Jack

EricTheWeary said:

Grocer_Jack said:

The Toadworks pedal that I mentioned was the L'il Leo. I had to google it, as it was so dire that I'd erased all memory of it.

I had one, it was great. 

Well it it was great until it broke. I gave it away to someone on here who also thought it was great ( once he’d repaired it). I don’t recall it as hissy although it was bright - but I was chasing something like Wilko Johnson in a box and it worked okay for that. 

Mine was the silver one with single tone control. I think there was a black one with bass and treble too - which was yours?