Ever re-visited a pedal and changed your mind about it??

[iama]

Somehow, and I can't explain, I've bought the Fab Chorus three times! Sometimes, I'll move a knob and think "Holy s--t, that sounds amazing". Other times, meh.

 

[Sam Xavier]

Yes.

Sometimes more than once with the same stinking model of pedal. I have owned several FD2's for example.

I think after 37 years of playing, that I now know why this happens. Especially with drive pedals.

_____long-winded theory no one cares about below ______

Guitarists (at least the kind of guitarist I am) tend to compare pedals to each other while in a quiet room. You string three or four or a dozen pedals together, and you stomp on pedal A, play a riff or chord, turn off pedal A, turn on pedal B, play the same riff or chord, turn off pedal B, turn A back on, repeat, move on to C, D, E, F, G, then back, etc., etc.

All while listening to just you play in a quiet room.

I'm not sure this should be the only deciding factor in wether or not to keep or flip - even though we probably all do it. I still do, dang it!

Try this experiment - listen to some of your favorite guitar tracks in any genre and try to isolate them in your "mind's ear" if you can. Really listen to how those tracks sound and attempt to strip away all the other instruments.

Most guitar tracks would sound like crap, or at least have some distasteful quality to them when heard in isolation. The engineer just knew what to do to make it sit right. It probably involved shaving off a TON of bass, and adding some top end sizzle that would make it all pretty shrill if you heard it alone.

This is why the "my pedal lacks bass" phenomenon of the last decade has caused pedal modders to wreck their Boss DS-1s and SD-1s. They keep upping the input cap until the bass is too thick. Sure, sounds nice when no one else is jamming with you, but get in a band or recording situation, and the bass player will give you dirty looks for getting out of your lane.

At least I think that's why I have owned four or five OCDs.
Eddie

Had proof of this in a band, years ago. They wanted a classic Santana tone, so I dialled one in. Everyone said it sounded shite, too harsh, too toppy, etc and wanted me to change it. I convinced them to go with it and play. In the band context, it was just right.

 

[LSMFT6]

Micro POG. It replaced a PS-5 (my first pitch-based pedal) and back then I thought it was the bee’s knees. I picked another one up a year or so ago on a whim and was considerably less impressed now that I’ve tried some of the more recent offerings. I greatly prefer the Tender Octaver over the Micro POG.

 

[thekeefus]

When I first got a KOT/POT I didn't get what the big deal was.....I just recently got a POT again and love it

 

[Kevy_Metal]

Yes, both the EHX Crayon and Dunlop Silicon Fuzz Face Mini. Tried them both out and they just didn't stick around at the time.

After I revisited them, the Crayon turned out to be the perfect pedal I never knew I needed and the Fuzz Face should never have been sold in the first place.

 

[Gaheba]

There has been times ive sold pedals I thought were good but not great in order to upgrade and get something better (more expensive) only to find myself missing the original and going back to it.

Also there’s been times I’ve had huge expectations for a pedal, got it, been a bit underwhelmed initially, learned how to dial it in, reassessed it with reasonable expectations or tried alternatives and realized it really is a great pedal and used it happily for years.

The story of me and the FD2! Sold my push/pull FD2 only to buy the mosfet version a few years later. I nearly sold that 12 months ago too, but the more I tried other overdrives the more I found myself coming back to FD2. Its permanently on my big board now.

 

[madisonaudio]

Every day!

 

[tozum]

Fulltone Clyde Deluxe

 

[White Buffalo]

sure; the timeline, klon, and cornish ss-series.

had a timeline a few years ago and dug it from the start, but some silly biases convinced me otherwise and saw me sell it fairly soon after getting it. i almost immediately regretted it, mainly because i'd spent a lot of time dialling in some incredibly unique sounds... that only occurred to me after it was gone and there was no way to get them again. fast forward to earlier this year, bias-free, and i picked one up again, quickly learning just how truly indispensable a pedal it is. i'm able to successfully emulate all my favourite delays on the timeline- all it takes is some careful tweaking and a/b'ing. it's not currently on my board as i'm back to my el cap, which has been my favourite delay for the past five or so years, but it'll be back on soon- for live there's just no better option, imo.

ah, the legendary klon! got one back in '06 or '07 when bill was still selling them for $350, but upon receiving it immediately knew it wasn't for me or, more specifically, my applications... i was all about playing into an exclusively clean amp back then and the klon into a clean amp just didn't work- or at least it wasn't the optimal way to run it. running it as a standalone overdrive into a pristine clean amp is *not* a good sound. you could do a nice tone-enhancing thing into a clean amp, but there were several cheaper pedals for that kind of thing... so i shelved it for a good five or six years before revisiting it about three or four years ago and falling absolutely head over heals in love with it. i'd grew up, my balls dropped and got some hair, and i started playing into cranked up overdriven amps. the klon came alive in this context and took my tone to the point where you could really say "the sound was electric". what you gotta' do is turn the gain up to about 10-11:00, tone around 12:30/1:00 and volume around 12:00... stomp that sucker into the front end of a light-medium cooked amp and you will be in sonic nirvana. i also did learn how to better use it into a fully clean amp- and that's actually one of my favourite ways to run it... here's how you do it... you get an overdrive pedal that's designed to go into clean amps... i use an ocd, for example... and you put the klon in front (yes, in front!!!) of that pedal and set it similarly to how i detailed above... what it does in this context is it beautifully gooses up your overdrive and adds a ton of harmonic complexity/overtones with a really nice chewy quality. i just love it, couldn't be without it.

cornish ss-series... had an ss-3 a long time ago, which was my main overdrive for several years, but foolishly sold it during one of those "want to see what else is out there" moments. the ss-3 had such an incredibly complex, yet articulate and clear voice. it was the closest i've been to having a sound i felt was a 100% extension of me. "my" sound. after several years i decided to order another ss earlier this year... except this time around i went for the ss-2 (which he'd recently reintroduced; it was the predecessor to the ss-3 and didn't have a hi + lo cut knob- only a tone knob). as soon as i took delivery i knew it wasn't for me and was a drastically different pedal to the one i'd love a decade earlier. i quickly learned that the hi and lo cut knobs on the ss-3 are absolutely essential and were implemented for a reason... the pedal without them is very very flubby and bass-heavy, so much so that i hear very little or zero resemblance to the ss-3 circuit i adored, which was much brighter and more brilliant sounding. you can crank the tone knob on the ss-2, but then it gets brittle pretty quick imo and just isn't the same. i'll be keeping the ss-2 as there's always an application for all these different sounds, but will definitely order an ss-3 soon.

 

[Produktsumme]

I never sell gear. Ever. When I feel my bank account gets hurt too much when I have GAS, I don’t buy. It is a nice feeling going to your cabinet full of pedals and to think “hmmmm, what overdrive do I play today into which amp?” And BAM, once set up surprisingly musical stuff happens (to my ears ar least)

 

[patient81]

Currently on my 3rd Tube Screamer Mini.

Just never really gave it a chance after picking up a couple on the cheap and flipping them fairly quickly. Then I had been really struggling when trying to jump out of a live mix during solos and other boosts just weren't cutting it.

So I start thinking maybe a TS style pedal could be the answer and it's been staring me in the face this whole time so started seeking out another TS mini and lo and behold... it's exactly what I was looking for and will likely never part with it again.

 

[witafro2]

That’s me every time I sell a FD2 MOSFET but they’re just so abundant and affordable i don’t feel bad selling them. I just know at some point it’ll be on my board again.

 

[Caprica]

It’s the fulltone ocd pedal for me. I guess when I bought the pedal years ago, my playing techniques were not able to utilize all the greatness out from the pedal.

I recently play through the pedal
Again and so surprised how great it sounded. Definitely a keeper.

I am a 2nd time OCD owner too!

 

[Riffa]

I bought an MXR Shin Juku pedal not long ago. I could get a decent sound out of it but not a great sound.
It's been sitting on top of a spare speaker cab and today I plugged it in again at the settings that I last played it with. Wow!
Can't believe how good it is sounding!

What's going on??

I tried the Shin Juku at Sam Ash about a year ago. I was unimpressed, but got the pedal anyway. Somehow I knew it would sound great with my rig. I was right. I love this thing!
I used to hate the TS 9 when I was younger. A number of months ago, I picked up a modded one to give it a go, and now I don't know if it's the mod or my maturity, but I really like it this time.

 

[Bucksears]

Boss DS-1
Wampler Plexidrive

 

[supergenius365]

I was wowed by the Timmy when I got it. It sat unused for months.

Now I have 2 on my board.

 

[Hector Arcadius]

No, not really.

 

[stargazer747]

Done this myself with maybe more than half of every pedal that I currently have on both my pedalboards and a few of them three or more times! Only a few of them I was sold on right from the start and they were keepers, the rest I bought, tried, for some reason didn't like, then returned. Only to buy it again after watching some good youtube.com video demos on it and thought, "hmm, I actually like the way it sounds..."

 

[embrionic]

oxblood