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

[claydavis]

the ibanez soundtank bass compressor is pretty bad. all mine ever did was boost volume and add hiss. it did finally find a home-- plug in a guitar, turn every knob all the way up, and use it for instantaneous feedback at any volume. it was useful for recording feedback overdubs, and pretty good for squishing bugs.

[blabj]

looking at what you say about morleys, i would have to agree with you, but its my only pedal it was good considering that it only cost me £25 :lol: but im gonna hopefully get some effects ( preferably make them, but thats not 100% that they will work :lol: )
callum

[petemoore]

Take that only pedal [morley]  :wink: of yours, and mod it to where you wouldn't know it ... but to look at it!!!

[petemoore]

Cheep sliced car speakers...actually theyre probably not quite as bad as the Tonebender when it doesn't 'like' it.
 I guess it must have been the supercold, but I didn't have time to check it out [just before 2nd /which is last set]. I plugged it in and hit the big three string Sustaining A chord like I always do...it went GLAKc...No biggie, I just subbed in there a Si FF thing..these Ge's certainly are very nice when they're 'happy'...lol... the FF last week I  swear could be heard warming up...needing re-adjusting and sounding great about the middle of the first set...

[Doug B.]

The worst pedal i've encountered has to be the Jax wah/volume/surf/tornado/siren.  The wah part actually wasn't too bad once i pulled out the sound-effects circuits and rewired it.  But who engineered this horror???  

The "volume" mode worked backwards from the "wah" mode in terms of pedal travel.  The "surf" mode was just a wah-filtered white-noise source, and the "tornado" mode was volume-modified white noise.  

But the hands-down worst aspect was the "siren" mode.  This was engaged by stepping on a push-on/push-off switch (like a bypass switch)... located RIGHT AT THE FRONT OF THE ROCKER!  So it was real easy to switch on (inadvertantly) in the middle of, say, a hot solo?  Step on the switch the first time, a raspy sawtooth-sounding oscillator begins to sweep up... and it keeps on going higher and higher and higher... until you step on the switch again and the oscillator sweeps down.  Yeh, you have to step on the switch again to get it to sweep up... then again to get it to sweep down... etc etc etc... you get the picture.  

The designers must have really liked the siren, because you could engage it even when the whole pedal was in bypass -- it superimposed the wail on top of the straight signal.  Geesh....

- Doug B.

[Mike Burgundy]

The worst pedal i've encountered has to be the Jax wah/volume/surf/tornado/siren

Okay, I just have to react to this.
Yes, this is possibly one of the worst pedals ever concieved, layed-out and built , BUT:
it does do wonderful things in old-style, hardcore garage bands. Seriously. If you want something with DeadMoon's power and a little "modern"  whackeyness, get this pedal.
If you want a good wah, consider yourself slapped in the face and go elsewhere.

This is just one of those things that are so bad they're cool.
Who doesn't want a pedal that goes "whooo-hooooo" on demand?
C'mon, hands up!

[Mike Nichting]

Oh wow~!! The worst pedal I ever bought was the Big Muff~!! This is a piece of crap and always will be. No good tone can come from one of these.
Of course I played it through my Kustom Bass amp with 2-15's and the tuck and roll cover. The Kustom bass amp was the coolest thing ever~!!

[Doug B.]

This is just one of those things that are so bad they're cool.
Who doesn't want a pedal that goes "whooo-hooooo" on demand?
C'mon, hands up!

Hah!  I know what you mean, Mike.  But... for all it's badness... it really *was* bad! :^)

I first ran into one back in the '70s.  One of my friends who used to do stoner comedy skits had one and used it for police-siren sound effects.  Those were the days, eh?  Eh???

- Doug B.

[jimbob]

I spent time today going through a long list of effects ive either built or bought and came to the conclusion my handmade ones are so much better..So far anyway..I still have more to go through..I did compare some chorus pedals and found that My RFX Rolls Chorus/Leslie sim effect Sucks! Hard to find a good adjustment, cheaply built..My old japan boss easily beat it..Im looking for ideas about making an even better handmade chorus if anyone has any ideas? BTW..I did realize how much i liked my tychobrahe octavia w the mod from GGG's site. Do the mod!!
Also i really like my Ea Tremolo!

[Boofhead]

Boss HM-2, it never sounded good to me.

[GFR]

Fender Blender.

[dp]

It might not count as an "effect" but I got a danelectro mini tuner and it's absolutely useless.I gutted the box,dano doesn't make a mini rangemaster.

[mstoppini]

The FF with 2n2222 and bc183, also the various Dunlop jh series FF, no one sounded nearly good.
Another bad commercial fx was, in my opinion, the Boss Super Feedbacker, at least the distorsion side (the feedbacker was really funny).
Ah, I forgot, the fuzz factory (by Zvex?) of a friend of mine, almost unusable for me, a sort of farting radio receiver.
bye
M.

[petemoore]

Now THAT brings back fond memories...my brother [who used to mod my stuff way back in the 70's] bought one of these [for less than 5$].
 It was a hanging garden style build, so everything was 'strewn' between the two sides. the two sides would flex [they relied on the 90* bend for 'structural ahem uh integrity' ... so one pull on the cord [a plug in the guitar module] could pull on every soldered points, or cause 'touches' [connections] in 'wrong places...
 The FUZZ itself was pretty intense...I'll never know exactly what was in it, but it did use a 9v battclip.
 Well I 'redabbed and rebuilt, resoldered on it but at some point it failed...[would be about a collectors item now], I think I used the jacks for a speaker cabinet...and Did my first debug on a Big Muff [offboard 'streetguy' analisys stuff] so once I got that going...
 So at the time the Olson [JUST remembered]...the Olson FRIZZY FUZZ...kool name huh?...they weren' tlying...at that time was the very best sounding Fuzz unit I'd ever tried...[and only] big boost and raspy, one knob control ... and a slide  switch.
 The fond memories are what I remember most about it though...back in the day usin olson 2x1515's [homemade] and ST70 amp, I was Fuzz King there for a while...no-one on the block but me HAD a Fuzz that I knew of,...and no-one'd even heard of FF or TB or BMP etc.
 The one kid would stop by and use My Frizzy Fuzz to practice the one riff in Satisfaction for hours on end...kinda funny I didn't mind...that was 'band practice' to him...I just like being the one 'WITH' it.
 So before any A'Bing ever took place this was the BEST Fuzz ever !!!
 I wish I still had that and my brother,,,whew...
 We used to mod old junk tube amps into Pure Cream Fuzz/Octave monsters that would do WILD harmonic shifts for a 'while' ...minutes, hours or sometimes days, then blow...once the transformer blew that was IT !!! lol

[Mark Hammer]

I can honestly say that although I've tried some things that either didn't live up to their hype, lacked the workmanship needed for a product at that price point, or involved too much build time or cost for what they delivered, or fell frustratingly short in the controls or usability department, I've never met an effect I didn't like.  Even when sputtery and unpredictable, there's something beautiful and musically valid in that rawness.

[Ed G.]

I just modded a friend's Boss DS-1 as per Keeley's 'seeing-eye' mods and I have to say, it sucks a little less, but still sucks nonetheless. The only thing it has going for it is good construction and a beefy low end. The mids are blatty and the high end goes from being dull to shrieky. I still don't see what Vai sees in this thing, even modded. But then again, I never thought Vai had great tone.

[Oliver]

hi,

there is another Effekt i remember, that i testet in a Guitarstore at the Beginning of my playing (only few knowledge what Stompboxes make
what effect)  

The Danelectro Daddy O - Awful Overdrive...
And an Ibanez Soundtank (AutoWah)

bye
Oliver

[travissk]

The digital wah on my Digitech RP-12, hands-down. It doesn't really hurt your tone (and it works), but it's so incredibly weak as to prove pretty much useless. I suppose it was added in as an  afterthought.

(The wah is followed in uselessness by some of the "real" effects on the RP-12 - grunge distortion, etc.)

The unit is pretty good for string-like sounds, whammy, etc, and weird noises, though.

[RDV]

But then again, I never thought Vai had great tone.

:shock:  :?  :?:  :!: 'For The Love Of God' doesn't have a great tone? I wanna hear 'your' rig then. It must be BADASS!

Regards

RDV

[RDV]

The digital wah on my Digitech RP-12, hands-down. It doesn't really hurt your tone (and it works), but it's so incredibly weak as to prove pretty much useless. I suppose it was added in as an  afterthought.

(The wah is followed in uselessness by some of the "real" effects on the RP-12 - grunge distortion, etc.)

The unit is pretty good for string-like sounds, whammy, etc, and weird noises, though.

I agree completely. I use one live, but only the digital stuff, which works well. The E.Q. is okay too, but tricky

Regards

RDV.