What your best and worst FX pedal buy of 2014?

RaymondLin

I have a Skreddy P19 and a Bogner Burnely on the way, the Burnley hopefully arrive next week, not sure when the Skreddy will be, it's not left the states yet !

GavHaus said:

I'm super excited about the Fairfield Circuitry Meet Maude turning up on Tuesday. That and the Earthquaker Devices Hummingbird turn up on Tuesday so should make it on the last day of the year.

I think you will love it.

A picture to tie you over

GavRichList

Much obliged!

NervousJohn

No pedal disasters... I'd been using a
TC Flashback for 9 months or so but all I was trying to do was emulate tape and analogue delays. I grew up on copicats and the TC was just a little sterile and hifi. So I swapped it with Shaunm's Carbon copy and couldn't be happier. Horses for courses I guess.

tone1

Best of 2014 for me was a Palmer Solid Metal which goes ace with my Cornford Carrera and does anything from ACDC to Gilmour and Metal if you want it! And the best bit was the £30 I paid for it. The only downside is the size as it's a bit of a beast!
Worst was a Lovepedal High Volt which I had high hopes for but sounded pants

hugbot

My worst pedal I've bought this year is a dyna comp. though I love the sound it's so very noisy, and intermittent noise too, not normal comp noise. I feel like I could have better spent that money on a cheapo clone. favourite pedal is the boss re20. I used to own an El Capistan and I feel like the re20 has more personality somehow, especially the awful reverb which is part of the charm.

ThePrettyDamned

hugbot said:

My worst pedal I've bought this year is a dyna comp. though I love the sound it's so very noisy, and intermittent noise too, not normal comp noise. I feel like I could have better spent that money on a cheapo clone. favourite pedal is the boss re20. I used to own an El Capistan and I feel like the re20 has more personality somehow, especially the awful reverb which is part of the charm.

The dyna comp is a tough one.

The sound it makes is great - it's *the* compressor tone, for me.  But they are damn noisy.  

Everyone and their cat recommends the Xotic SP comp, so that'll be what I try next. 

JohnPerry

ThePrettyDamned said:

hugbot said:

My worst pedal I've bought this year is a dyna comp. though I love the sound it's so very noisy, and intermittent noise too, not normal comp noise. I feel like I could have better spent that money on a cheapo clone. favourite pedal is the boss re20. I used to own an El Capistan and I feel like the re20 has more personality somehow, especially the awful reverb which is part of the charm.

The dyna comp is a tough one.

The sound it makes is great - it's *the* compressor tone, for me.  But they are damn noisy.  

Everyone and their cat recommends the Xotic SP comp, so that'll be what I try next. 

suhr koji>xotic sp by a distance and second only to the Cali in my experience

ThePrettyDamned

JohnPerry said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

hugbot said:

My worst pedal I've bought this year is a dyna comp. though I love the sound it's so very noisy, and intermittent noise too, not normal comp noise. I feel like I could have better spent that money on a cheapo clone. favourite pedal is the boss re20. I used to own an El Capistan and I feel like the re20 has more personality somehow, especially the awful reverb which is part of the charm.

The dyna comp is a tough one.

The sound it makes is great - it's *the* compressor tone, for me.  But they are damn noisy.  

Everyone and their cat recommends the Xotic SP comp, so that'll be what I try next. 

suhr koji>xotic sp by a distance and second only to the Cali in my experience

Does it squish like a dyna comp? 

I need dat squish, bro. 

JohnPerry

Fo sho. Hugely versatile. Does the whole Diamond "sheen" thing to full squish

ThePrettyDamned

JohnPerry said:

Fo sho. Hugely versatile. Does the whole Diamond "sheen" thing to full squish

Sweet, I'll see if I can try one. 

Sheen does nothing for me, gimme squish any day. 

I've heard the DOD Milkbox is a great bit of kit, too. 

dilbert

I've lashed out on a few stomper's this year, that have caused me to rethink my pedal lineup of 3 years. They are as follows:

• A Mooer True Boost from @rich75. I thought I was happy with my LPB1 until I tried this.
• Joyo Sweet Baby. Superbly transparent low gain O/D.
• Joyo Crunch Deluxe. Under rated box which is a shame as it does everything from a bluesy crunch to a really creamy lead distortion. 

No dogs to report. 

ICBM

hugbot said:

favourite pedal is the boss re20. I used to own an El Capistan and I feel like the re20 has more personality somehow, especially the awful reverb which is part of the charm.

I almost bought an RE-20, but there's not enough space for it on my board without losing three pedals - two, I could have lived with.

Totally agree about the tin-can reverb too - accurate to the original, and it's so nice to see they resisted the temptation to 'improve' it and make it normal. Other things do smooth normal reverb already.

Jaded

ICBM said:

I almost bought an RE-20, but there's not enough space for it on my board without losing three pedals - two, I could have lived with.

Totally agree about the tin-can reverb too - accurate to the original, and it's so nice to see they resisted the temptation to 'improve' it and make it normal. Other things do smooth normal reverb already.

That is the thing I miss the most about the RE-20, the delay was great but I found myself mostly using the reverb on its own. Wound up selling it on because I figured it was a bit much to have a pedal that size and that expensive only to use one setting. If there had been a way to set them up independently i.e. footswitches for each I'd have definitely kept it.

hugbot

This is the big issue I have with it so far really- no presets.

Grunfeld

Boss FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster

I've only had it 3 hours but it's obviously the win of the year because I reckon there is no song that cannot be improved by holding your guitar aloft and holding a note forever.  I've just tried "Maggie May" with indefinite feedback and it's an improvement.  This is gonna go down so well at the wedding we're playing next week!

ThePrettyDamned

Grunfeld;459660" said:

Boss FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster



I've only had it 3 hours but it's obviously the win of the year because I reckon there is no song that cannot be improved by holding your guitar aloft and holding a note forever.  I've just tried "Maggie May" with indefinite feedback and it's an improvement.  This is gonna go down so well at the wedding we're playing next week!

I've not tried one, is it a good booster?

I have a df-2 and it took me a good few days before I realised it can be a distortion box as well as a "wooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" box.

Lew

allicio;454318" said:

I dont think anybody builds a bad pedal well not these days. Obviously everybody's taste is different but I don't think there are truly bad pedals

That sounds like a challenge. Give me a soldering iron, some parts and a few hours.

Lew

Best? Hmmmm...Walrus Descent and Bearfoot EGDM are standouts but I think Warped Vinyl is probably the correct answer despite the top end it shaves off when the mix gets wet.

Worst was a Fuzzhugger Algal Bloom mini. Maybe the non mini one is better.

Grunfeld

ThePrettyDamned said:

Grunfeld;459660" said:

Boss FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster

I've not tried one, is it a good booster?

Seems to be.  The booster function is a big f*ck off volume knob which goes from 0 to +20dB boost apparently (and I can well believe it).  And you've got two EQ's:  One goes from flat to varying amounts of mid-hump.  The other is a regular tone knob which goes from really treble to very bass. 

Basically, I suspect that this is going to replace my Tubescreamer on my board because I've already dialled in a slice of  mid-hump plus  a bit of treble, and a volume boost which is identical to my gigging TS sound, and of course this pedal has the feedback gimmick which is something I use a couple of times a night anyway but isn't always 100% reliable, but with this pedal it is.

EDIT:  I think the only think I don't like about it is the colour!  But that's not a deal breaker.

alalalkasar

I love the re20, the thing alot of people seem to find with it is it looks like it should be able to do lots more than it can. If you bear in mind that it is just a tasty delay pedal with a weird reverb as a bonus then its great. Basically it does one quite nice sound and sits in a live mix really well.