OT- Whats the worst effect you ever bought? Play with?

[Projectile]

So why does the picture that Rob linked show it as a Center-negative setup  

That's what I just explained above in response to that picture. The orientation of terminals is the same as on any standard Boss style adapter. The problem is not the orientation. It's the fact that the positive supply terminal is connected to ground. That's what "positive ground" means. It's not the same thing as simply reversing the terminals. 

If so many people are having trouble understanding this concept on a forum dedicated to building pedals, imagine trying to explain it to somebody who doesn't know anything about electronics at all. Basically, it means that the pedal will work fine with a standard adapter, but if you try to daisy chain any other pedals off of the adapter, you create a short circuit which could easily damage your gear. Since everyone daisy chains pedals these days, it's an incredibly retarded design decision. It's almost like EHX is trying to trick you into frying your gear. I can't see it as anything but utter negligence on the part of EHX.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Ahhhhh. I got it now... Sorry it has been a long weekend! 

Definitely stands to reason that EH could have included a charge pump to fix this issue. That way polarity would not be a problem and you could daisy chain with the rest.

Might be a good topic to raise with EH. If I were you I would call them up and let them know what you think. You never know, they may offer to replace the pedal with something more to your liking 

This is, of course, assuming that you purchased the pedal somewhat recently 

[newfish]

Ahhhhh. I got it now... Sorry it has been a long weekend! 

Definitely stands to reason that EH could have included a charge pump to fix this issue. That way polarity would not be a problem and you could daisy chain with the rest.

Might be a good topic to raise with EH. If I were you I would call them up and let them know what you think. You never know, they may offer to replace the pedal with something more to your liking 

This is, of course, assuming that you purchased the pedal somewhat recently 

Fleabay.  Probably from someone who realised they couldn't daisy-chain it.   

The positive ground has to be there for a reason.  It's not as though any manufacturer throws a product together in 20 minutes (we hope).
There must have been some thinking, meetings, head-scratching going on at some stage.

I doubt there's be room for a chargepump - it's pakced in there, even with lots of SMD components.

So.... anyone wanna buy a really great chorus pedal...? 

[Projectile]

The positive ground has to be there for a reason.  It's not as though any manufacturer throws a product together in 20 minutes (we hope).
There must have been some thinking, meetings, head-scratching going on at some stage.

I doubt there's be room for a chargepump - it's pakced in there, even with lots of SMD components.

The original didn't have positive ground, so you wouldn't think its little brother would need it. I don't see any reason for using positive ground in a stomp box. It's usually used in things like telephone and automobile systems to prevent corrosion, but I'm not aware of any benefit in an audio circuit unless you have a lot of pnp transistors you are trying to get rid of. As far as I know, changing positive ground to negative ground is just a matter of swapping out all of the pnp transistors for npn, and reversing the orientations of any diodes and polarized caps (correct me if I'm wrong), but I'm not sure about the ICs. My guess is they found they could build it a few cents cheaper using a positive ground, or something retarded like that.

[Fox]

Boss HM-2.....just sounds terrible!
Boss OD2......sounds good but no volume.....needs modded but can't be bovvered

[Jurgen]

Boss HM-2.....just sounds terrible!

I don't like it on guitar either (although it did seem to work for Justin Broadrick) but it makes a great bass fuzz!

[CynicalMan]

Now they have the Neo Clone out, which is negative ground and has a depth switch. Other than that, it's not that different from the Nano Clone, but they still gave it a new name. That tells me that Electro-Harmonix knows that they screwed up big-time.  

[blkmagik98]

DOD FX33 Buzz Box- sounds absolutely horrible, but that's why I bought it.  It has a cool two octave down thing that I like for certain leads, but there is no way I could imagine running it all the time for a distortion. I saw Greg Anderson of Goatsnake using one the exact same way a couple of months ago.

Michael

[endorphin]

Worst pedal ive ever had was a Beringer Multi Effects pedal it looked like a Boss pedal  i thought it had an aluminum case cause it was heavy then when i pulled it out of the box i found out it was a metal plate screwed on the bottom    the effects it claimed to have sucked.

[DavenPaget]

I sort of didn't buy it but built it... well, it was my Dad's idea.  I blame him.  :]  At the time I was using an acoustic with a retrofit pickup through a terrible amp and we figured, why not try building our own distortion!  It consists of a stereo headphone preamp kit with one output looped back to the other input so you get two-stage gain.  We also tried to add diode clipping but we bought the wrong diodes and overdrove them until they broke.  Recently I found the board in a drawer alongside the project box, battery connector, 3.5mm jacks and a switch.  Finished it off, dubbed it:


Listen here!  Note the "fart" noise it sometimes makes when sliding fingers up the strings to reach the next power chord.
http://soundcloud.com/nexekho/awful-drive

And, err, I use it now.  Not to any great degree but if added softly to the end of the effects chain it adds a very subtle harsh edge to the tone which I kinda like.

OHMYGOD it's truly awful , but oh well .
GOD IN HIMMEL ! I didn't know you were a metallica fan