The most coveted and useless guitar pedal EVER.

[rbcguitar]

This will get a response.

Useless; (to me only, circa 1982)

Summer, 1982 I bought an original TS-808 Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro and ran home to try it out (at the time I had a Marshall 50 watt full stack, dripping with tone, turn guitar volume down for clean, up for solos, only effects were a EH small clone and mxr flanger, all my band played were Rush, Zepp, Purple, Rainbow, etc... main guitar was a '62 Gibson SG, just so u know)

Plugged the TS in, played with it for a few minutes then gave it to a friend, never used one since, to me it sucked the low end out of my amp, made the distortion sound brittle and to my ears at the time, really sucked arse, hard. The worst sound I ever heard from my amp.

God, how I wish I would of kept it to sell on ebay now, lol 

[noelgrassy]

MacLaughlin reprise;

There's a Hendrix tribute album that came out a few years ago with solid performances by the effin' Who's Who of Rock. Brian May, Paul Rogers, Carlos, Vai, etc.  MacLaughlin, Sting & Vinnie Colliuta[sp] do the power trio gig and as it fades out you here John mash his RingMod dealybob and go for it. They @#$%in' fade it out.

Years later on one of his albums he releases the jam that ensued and yes, it was so too much "win". MacLaughlin said in print that other than his custom
Rex Bogue built triple metronome{?!!!!} that RingMod was his favorite FX pedal. He did say it's application was sadly a very narrow window in the scope of musicality.

*That triple metronome was stolen, Rex Bogue croaked and no one has any idea of what exactly the circuit contained. You know John, he
had something similar built many years later and the complexity of it's rhythmic computations is well beyond this feeb's acuity or ability to describe.
For an accurate description find the interview Robert Fripp wrote after visiting John in his home in the South of France. It's a mutual adoration society that ends up giving us great insight into these to Goliaths of the Strumazoo. {They both perceive tonal colors in similar hues for example. Oh yeah, John offers Bob some chocolates that Bob adores and he says outright, "They're the only thing I like about France". ouch!   

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, it's a pretty nice little unit for its time. I especially like the reverbs and the ping-pong delay that it has.

Anything made by Zoom

I'd agree for the most part. However, for recording, my Zoom 9030 has faithfully served me since 1992. I created a few of my own made from scratch presets that I still think sound good compared to all the things that I have built. I kind of use it out of convenience more than anything, although it also does nice direct recordings with the built in amp simuators and stuff. It's being used on all of the tunes on my MySpace page.

Yup. I almost replied with a similar post. I had a 9030 back in the day and that thing, for '92, was a kicking bit of kit. It's processing capabilities still make some modern day stuff look pretty weak in comparison. It's amazing how good 14-bit (or was it 18, I can't remember now) conversion can sound really when it's implemented well. Not to mention it was a 1/2 rack unit. Man, the stuff I've owned and sold over the years. Kind of makes me wish I wasn't so quick to turn stuff...

As for playing ring mods all the way through a song...well: https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/870088/sounds/rpm2009/dawn.mp3 -- guilty as charged.

[BRingoC]

I need to look into some of those guitarists, I have never listened to anything by the Mahavishnu Orchestra (maybe I shouldn't admit that).

Full up the pedal is pretty out there, I only just got it fully working and need to play with it more, I'll check out the less than full blast settings.

I don't know how much I spent on it, it was part of several parts orders, over the course of a couple of years, in fact it had been sitting in my to do pile for about a year and a half without working on it.  I can say I feel accomplished having finished it though, I did it on perf board.

I had a TS as well, first pedal I bought.  Plugged it into my solid state fender, played around with it, then was perplexed because nothing I heard sounded like tube, nor screaming.  Pedal never got much use after that, in fact I think I threw it out, it didn't even get the respect of being given to a friend.

I think the Boss spectrum may in fact have the advantage as useless pedal on a price per knob ratio. They made that thing from 1979-1981, spanning two decades, wow.

Anyone have a pdf manual for this thing?  I did find an old review from sound on sound that cleared up most of the questions though.

[iaresee]

Yeah, it's a pretty nice little unit for its time. I especially like the reverbs and the ping-pong delay that it has.

I used to have a killer stereo patch that I used to cop Ballerina 12/24 with on my 7 string....ahhh....those were the heady days of youth. That ping-pong delay made that patch just pop.

[soggybag]

... And you know what?  I think I have finally found a use for those momentary DPDT stompswitches I bought by accident. ...

Great idea! A momentary switch would be a great addition for any Ring mod. This got me thinking, would it be possible to use two switches, a typical bypass and a momentary switch. Where the momentary switch would switch the effect in when the bypass was off and out when the bypass was on?

Looks like Small Bear has some DPDT momentary switches. It doesn't look possible with a single pole.

[Paul Marossy]

I need to look into some of those guitarists, I have never listened to anything by the Mahavishnu Orchestra (maybe I shouldn't admit that).

Full up the pedal is pretty out there, I only just got it fully working and need to play with it more, I'll check out the less than full blast settings.

I don't know how much I spent on it, it was part of several parts orders, over the course of a couple of years, in fact it had been sitting in my to do pile for about a year and a half without working on it.  I can say I feel accomplished having finished it though, I did it on perf board.

I had a TS as well, first pedal I bought.  Plugged it into my solid state fender, played around with it, then was perplexed because nothing I heard sounded like tube, nor screaming.  Pedal never got much use after that, in fact I think I threw it out, it didn't even get the respect of being given to a friend.

I think the Boss spectrum may in fact have the advantage as useless pedal on a price per knob ratio. They made that thing from 1979-1981, spanning two decades, wow.

Anyone have a pdf manual for this thing?  I did find an old review from sound on sound that cleared up most of the questions though.

Dude, you have to check them out. You're missing out on a lot if you don't expand your horizons a bit. John McLaughlin is one incredible guitarist, and the Mahuvishnu Orchestra days were some of how best work.

Yeah, it's a pretty nice little unit for its time. I especially like the reverbs and the ping-pong delay that it has.

I used to have a killer stereo patch that I used to cop Ballerina 12/24 with on my 7 string....ahhh....those were the heady days of youth. That ping-pong delay made that patch just pop.

Yeah, I love that ping-pong delay. One reason I don't like my ART SGX-2000 as much is because it doensn't have a ping-pong delay. 

[connie_c]

Anything made by Zoom

have to dissagree, the ultra fuzz is one of my favourite pedals. its not just a copy of a fuzz factory as it is sometimes accused off. its very different. it can do clean boost, big muff ish stuff, fuzz factory oscilation(but in a more controllable way) good overdrive sounds, cravy interference sounds. find one and try it and your mind will be changed. its my most used pedal live. and i work in musical instrument retail and go to the trade shows. ive tried lots of pedals.