Biggest Recent Pedal Disappointment is ...???

[AlienInvader]

So you buy the pedal and you've checked the tracking info a dozen times. You've read the reviews, heard the demos and spent an insane amount of time figuring out how it will fit with your rig. It shows up at your door, you rush down, unpack it and plug it in hoping tonal nirvanic bliss and right away it's like ... WTF, this was a MISTAKE!!!

I'll start it ...

Empress Multidrive (the most below average expensive pedal I've ever bought)

 

[0xeneye]

Empress Multidrive (the most below average expensive pedal I've ever bought)

What did you not like about it?

 

[AlienInvader]

What did you not like about it?

I guess it was just that it was such an average sounding pedal. The overdrive was WAY below average vs even a basic inexpensive tubescreamer. Thought the distortion was OK, but nowhere near as good as many of the plexi/JCM pedals out there and the Fuzz had no real personality. The dipswitch system to determine the toggle was strange, why not just have three footswitches with one for each effect? It essentially blocks you from easily doing with the pedal what it was designed for in a live setting. I think the concept was fantastic which is what sold me on it, but at that price, it just didn't have the sonic potency I was expecting. Also think a simple tone knob for each section would be better than a shared EQ ...

 

[VHS analog]

Most pedals are rig dependent. I tried an Eric Johnson Fuzz Face at GC with a Nashville tele and a '73 Fender 6L6 PA head. It sounded amazing, versatile and dynamic with great sustain. I took the FF home to my strat and Marshall, sounded like total crap.

 

[axdxm]

Red Panda Particle. I am huge into glitch/granular synthesis/stuttering. This thing just sounded thin and cheap. I'd estimate for 5-10% of trying to dial it in, you find a glimmer of a useful sound.

Zvex Tremolo Probe. Volume pedal works better and hurts your ankle less.

Death By Audio Thee Ffuzz Warr Overload. The regular fuzz sounded great but the treble boost was way to agressive to the point it was annoying and useless. A tone knob on that circuit would have been great.

 

[MSLBend]

Although I can't criticize the pedal because it sounded great, my reaction to the Strymon Timeline after about an hour of tweaking delays was that it was just way to much/complicated for my needs. I packed it up, sent it back dialed my other delay back in about 5 seconds.

 

[RouseTheBoroughs]

Empress Multidrive (the most below average expensive pedal I've ever bought)

NOOOOOOOO I wanted to buy this !!

 

[RouseTheBoroughs]

I have a few

ProCo Rat2 - Pure Garbagestortion
Boss Od-1 - Pure Garbagedrive

 

[astorminheaven]

EHX Hot Tubes NanoWay Huge Swollen Pickle mkII
Line6 Pod HD500
Devi Ever Shoegazer


When willI learn to be content with whwt I know works, and stop trusting YT reviews????

 

[guitarslinger21]

Blackout musket. Nothing wrong with it, but sound wise, it lands exactly in the center of a sea of muffs. I'm surprised it gets recommended so often when there are so many options.

 

[Holzar1988]

Two recently that get a reasonable amount of buzz: Jetter Helium and XTS Precision Multidrive. Rented both from tryapedal.net (no affiliation).

Lots of folks talk about what the Helium does to your tone, but it just left me flat and cold. The XTS, on the other hand, lived up to the tone hype. It sounded great. But it was really, really noisy, far noisier than my other two Tubescreamery pedals, the JHS Bad Monkey and Keeley TS9DX. In terms of pure tone, I probably preferred the XTS. But man, it was noisy and buzzy. Perhaps it was defective, but it just killed my interest in it.

 

[fusionid]

really anti this kind of thread because I find that pedals that sound great in one set up may suck in others.

Just my take... carry on

 

[bo13bo]

NOOOOOOOO I wanted to buy this !!

I'm sure you still can.

 

[Steven]

Well as its been said pedals are very dependent on what other stuff you´re using and how you´re using it and what you´re trying to do with it. If you have a guitar with high output humbucker pickups and a mid 70s SF Twin Reverb amp you will probably not be very happy if you buy a germanium Fuzzface. You might be very disapointed with the purchase but IMO in that case its not the pedal thats "bad", its more of an user error issue.

 

[jdel77]

As far as I'm concerned unless you've tried a dirt pedal into each of the 3 main EQ amp camps (Marshall, Vox and Fender), then you haven't given it a fair shot.
Didn't work for your rig? No problem. Something inherently wrong with the pedal?
Shortsighted nonsense.

 

[K2000]

really anti this kind of thread because I find that pedals that sound great in one set up may suck in others.

Just my take... carry on

I agree with everybody making comments like this! Everything in your signal chain makes a difference: strings, pickups, pedals upstream/downstream of the offending pedal, amp, speaker type and size, playing style, even the volume you audition your gear at makes a big difference (example: Ampeg SVT sounds completely boring until it gets hella loud, and that's when it starts to shine). But the biggest factor is probably your ears and expectations. Everybody has different tastes in music and wants different things from their equipment.

 

[AlienInvader]

As far as I'm concerned unless you've tried a dirt pedal into each of the 3 main EQ amp camps (Marshall, Vox and Fender), then you haven't given it a fair shot.
Didn't work for your rig? No problem. Something inherently wrong with the pedal?
Shortsighted nonsense.

And yet, sometimes you acquire a pedal that just seems to work no matter what you do with it, where you put it and it's super easy to dial in. The Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive and the Gristle King have been like that for me. Doesn't matter what amp I've used them with, they always sound great. If you've got to plug a pedal into three different amps in order to find out if it's a good "fit" or not, or try 4 or 5 different places on the pedal board to discover if it can work for you then at least for me, it's probably not going to be a long time keeper. I would think that most pedal makers test the sound of their pedal into a relatively stock twin or DR as their reference before they release them.

 

[64 Tele]

Mooer Ensemble King Chorus

I checked out the demos on Prymaxe Vintage and liked what I heard, liked the small footprint of the pedal.

After receiving it, both level and depth pots made noise when turning up/down. The level and depth BOTH had to be COMPLETELY full up before you could even tell the effect was on.

As we speak I'm sending it back to them to evaluate whether it's that pedal that's the issue or not.

It did come with velcro (loop part) already attached to bottom of pedal. Is that normal for Mooer to ship WITH velcro already on it? Makes me think mine was a return.

 

[Zeon45]

SolidGold FX Rosie. The demo's were great but it just didn't work for me.

 

[Motherfuzzer]

The Echorec. I have loved Pink Floyd since I was a little kid. I should love this pedal. I wanted it since it came out. Not only do I not get the hype, I don't see how anyone could like this pedal at all. It's just mud. Gave it time, came back to it later - still mud.