Pedals I do not recommend

ICBM

IanSavage said:

That might have been where I was going wrong, I think I was using it with a Morley Tremonti in front of it which IIRC is buffered? 

Yes, so it would have sounded horrible even when the wah was off! Mine was the same, I have a Dunlop 535 (no Q) which is buffered. With a standard Crybaby it was OK with the wah off and awful with it on.

daveyh

I cannot for the life of me get on with the Crybaby.

To those of you Fulldrive haters - damn you!  >- Love mine, can't seem to get a bad sound out of it. And that's why these threads are brilliant, such different experiences

IanSavage

ICBM said:

IanSavage said:

That might have been where I was going wrong, I think I was using it with a Morley Tremonti in front of it which IIRC is buffered? 

Yes, so it would have sounded horrible even when the wah was off! .

Ah, okay - I retract that then, might see if I can pick another one up cheap secondhand! 

ThePrettyDamned

PolarityMan;245058" said:

speaking of muffs the metal muff was a huge dissapointment, utterly balls.

Oh man, I liked this... The top boost was nasty unless you had just a small amount, but the drive itself is pure modern sludgey mayhem, and gets tight enough for thrash.

And sounds like nothing else I've heard so far. Ive offered my Qtron for one!

Hootsmon

I got on OK with the 6 band MXR.........

my pedal would be.....FULLTONE GT500 gray version....fizzy fuzz ball

Bucket

Morley Mini Wah - too small, and most of the sweep was in a tiny section of the middle of the pedal's travel. Very difficult to control and get a decent, expressive sound from. And the footswitch was beside the pedal, not under it (who thought that was a good idea?) So it required some very fast tap dancing to turn it on, then some very slow footwork to try and get a decent sound from it. All told - shite.

As mentioned, the Metal Zone is pretty hideous. Tbh, pretty much any dedicated metal distortion I've tried is absolute toilet - with the notable exception of the Hardwire TL-2, which is magnificent. It's been a mainstay of my board for years.

MXR Dyna Comp. Holy shit, found it totally impossible to get a usable sound from. Terrible. 

Heartfeltdawn

My hall of fame:

Catalinbread Silver Kiss Mk 1 - horrible piercing nasty overdrive. 

Analogman King of Tone - well built but so boring. Not worth the price at all especially after getting a Bluesbreaker Mk 1 made for me by a friend for £50 which tramples all over the KoT. 

Boss DD20 - I've had three of these. All of them broke very quickly.  

Line 6 M9/13 - lousy stereo implementation. Stereo delays summed into mono if you put a reverb after it, effects loop that sums to mono...typical Line 6, fabulous interface but shitty technical aspects. 

Virtually every Ruetz modded RAT clone I've played - oh goody, dull sounding RATs with none of the fun of a real RAT. 

Fulltone Fulldrive - just sounds crap with humbuckers. Much better with single coils. 

crunchman

hootsmon said:

I got on OK with the 6 band MXR.........

my pedal would be.....FULLTONE GT500 gray version....fizzy fuzz ball

There were some circuit changes to the early GT500s - the later ones are meant to be much better.   According to a thread on TGP there were changes at serial numbers 169, 1211, 1743, and 2382. 

I really like mine (silver) but the serial number is in the 2400s so I've got all of these changes.

Full details at:
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=350934

mike257

ICBM said:

IanSavage said:

I wasn't a fan of the EHX Double Muff or Nano Clone, either - the former really had no right having the word 'Muff' anywhere on it as it was a pretty nondescript overdrive / distortion at best

I liked the Double Muff - it was halfway between a fuzz and an overdrive, one of the rarer combinations - but it didn't play well with other effects… in particular it hated buffers in front, and went very thin and shrill - which also meant it wouldn't work properly with a wah before it either.

This.  I loved my old Double Muff.  It's based on two stacked Muff overdrives, not the Big Muff fuzz, so I think a lot of people get them with misplaced expectations of double fuzziness!  I got some great tones out of it so long as it stayed at the front of the chain, although I've seen schems for simple mods to make it play nicer with other pedals in front.  Great drive sounds into a valve amp and the single Muff mode worked surprisingly well into a Marshall AVT to warm it up and make it a bit more dynamic.  Lots of possibilities, mine only went as part of my self-enforced massive board downsize.

Gassage

Strymon El Cap - so artifical.

ThePrettyDamned

Gassage;247935" said:

Strymon El Cap - so artifical.

Wow, really? I've never tried one, but have heard one demo'd in store, and it really did sound quite magnificent. A bit hi fi on some settings, but that into a hot rod deluxe sounded really pretty.

Gassage

It colours. I have a Timeline and that colours too but it's so darned versatile.

As it happens, I might get a Chrono Delay.

I have a new TES on order.

stickyfiddle

Funny people keep mentioning the Dyna Comp - I have a BYOC one and I love it. It's either just a smudge of comp to clean up a clean jangly part, or tonnes of switch to make slide playing easy.

Pedals I haven't liked include:

Any modern Big Muff. I've tried them. I love the idea, but they're just flat lifeless crap that makes you disappear in a mix. The old Ram and Triangle circuits are glorious though. 

Digitech MultiChorus. It wasn't awful, as long as you want to sound like Slash on Paradise City. For everything else, it's shitty.

Line 6 DL4. I really liked how it sounded, but I don't know anybody who's gigged one and not had it break within a couple of years. Not sure how they've got away without updating it either in construction or sound- I bought mine 10 years ago! The cost to manufacture must be way less than it was back then, but it's gone up in price!

Bidley

Jetfire said:

With the MT2, I believe Entombed used them on Wolverine Blues but Im not 100% on that. However, thats a awesome sound. For the rest of us using one, its a bucket of plop.

That would be the older HM-2 ('Heavy Metal").

Gassage

I'm deffo in agreement re the modern Muff.

Timmy is another one I just don't get. I really don't

Heartfeltdawn

Gassage said:

It colours. I have a Timeline and that colours too but it's so darned versatile.

As it happens, I might get a Chrono Delay.

I have a new TES on order.

I miss the mocking of Cornish gear that went on at HCFX

impmann

Anything with 'DOD' written on it that is either a drive or distortion... Never heard or played one that hasn't sounded like a fizz fest.

EH The Worm - just rubbish!!!

DrJazzTap

Boss CS3- never got on with one, they always sound so noisey to me.

Digitech Hyperphase, i like my phasing old school. This just sounded a bit to digital to me.
.
Digitech Distortion factory- lots of sounds non of them that great.

I agree on the Synth wah, as much as i love them. They are not suttle, I have had two, and chances are I'll end up buying another one.

hugbot

Line 6 Dl4, it was great for the features when it came out but its not actually all that nice sounding.

Also I saw someone dissing the black secret and that's my favourite gain at the mo. It's just a bit nastier sounding (in a good way) than the stock rat2.

JD50

Well I've had a boot load of effects over the years, some have disappointed & some have baffled me as to how they attained such mythical status, yet the ehx 1st generation worm i had beats them all......... The effects were soooo subtle i could not tell if the unit was on half the time, i can only surmise i had a faulty unit.

On the flip side i have been pleasantly surprised by some cheapos that have done a sterling job in my collection and happily sit alongside pedals I've paid cork sniffer money for.
Behringer RV600 & Nux Mod Core, paid less than £30 each & have stood up to regular rehearsals & gigs.