French toast... changed????

[aron]

I played a French toast a long time ago and loved it. It had a sweet smooth sustain and the octave function was great. I remembered this and just purchased a recent one. Mine is not as smooth and while the octave is great, the distortion is more fuzzy than I remember. Nothing wrong, just that I remember it being better.

I should probably just use my Foxx Tone Machine clone instead.

[Mark Hammer]

While certainly build quality is more reliable, and part tolerances tend to be better than the good old days, it is hard to imagine that contemporary manufacturers are less immune to unit variability due to component tolerances than they ever were.  Just the 5% resistors alone ought to introduce enough variation.  I guess the fact that so many people buy their budget pedals over the net, or bubble-packed like Behringers, that the idea of trying a couple out to find the "good one" simply never enters into the picture any more.  Not that it ever did, mind you.  I can't remember EVER buying a new pedal after trying out a few of the same model to find one that suited my tastes and expectations.  I see no reason why wave soldering and SMD parts should really change any of that.  Sometimes you get a good one, and sometimes you get one that's just "pretty good".

[aron]

You are probably right. I should have tried some of the others. Oh well, ratty tone it is!

[Dan N]

I have an old one and the parts are through hole. You could try changing the clipping diodes to germaniun (silicon in there now) for a smoother distortion. The down side- the pcb's are really prone to pad lifting when heated.