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

[Transmogrifox]

Another one up on the RP12...I have an RP20, same thing, just has the tube added.  The tube distortion sucks as badly as the grunge, fuzz and OD.  The solid state section is useless to me.

When I first bought it, I thought, "I'll never have to buy another distortion pedal again, this thing has it all!"

A year later I had a crybaby way, 6 seperate distortion pedals, and now I'm building stuff.  

The RP weak stuff :  
Wah and envelope filter
distortion
pitch shift effects (whammy is ok...kinda kool)
Chorus and flanger

I do like the reverbs, delay, compressor and string swell stuff as well as the LFO section...very tweakable.  It was a great idea, just needs better quality on some parts.

Another unsatisfactory pedal:

Danelectro Fab Tone

At least it's a one-trick pony with some mods I did to it.

[LP Hovercraft]

I'd probably say the worst I'd heard was the Fuzz Face I made as my first foray into DIY   The Arion Tube Sound is a real sh%& breather too.  The Boss PH-2 is good as a measurment of what not to make your own phase shifters sound like.  Not a stompbox, but the distortion sound on a solid state 100 watt mid 90's Crate head peels paint.  Which is probably what their design team was sniffing while they came up with that.  I'm not a fan of Dunlop Wahs, but it's probably because I've been spoiled by Clyde McCoy.  By the way, was Clyde McCoy some kind of funk superstar with a huge afro and a nasty-smelling index finger?

[petemoore]

That;s one over the top unit !!!
 we had three...Akron Music and I...
 I never sorted out which was which and after the second repair was glad Roger didn't either...I don't know what I was doing or what was happening but I gotta hand it to those guys for really going out of their way to honor the warranty..
 It definitley is not subtle, Does not clean up at the guitar, not what I would choose for my '1rst string' Fuzz.....sounds kinda like 1,000 bees trapped in a hot box...great for outstanding lead penetration in thick mixes though...very Heavy Fuzz...gotta dial it alot to 'find' it, the knobs are interactive.

[RDV]

By the way, was Clyde McCoy some kind of funk superstar with a huge afro and a nasty-smelling index finger?

Trumpet player on 'Lawrence Welk'(with a nasty smelling index finger). :wink:

Regards

RDV

[LP Hovercraft]

Trumpeter in Lawrence Welk's band!!??  It seems so much more wholesome than the soul brother #1 I had idealized poor Clyde to be within my head.  I thought Miles Davis was the only guy using wah with trumpet back then.  Thanks for the history info!  I might even watch some Welk for that guy, but I'd have to get a few drinks in me to buffer the extreme cheese.

[RDV]

Which Syd song is that??

Regards

RDV

[RDV]

From Fulltone site:

Clyde McCoy was a big-band Trumpet Player in the '60s... not a great musician, but one famous for getting a muted "wah wah" sound. This led to Vox trying to approximate this muted trumpet sound in a pedal...hence the Vox "Clyde McCoy" wah wah circa 1967.

I made up the Lawrence Welk part, but he played that type of music.

Regards

RDV

[LP Hovercraft]

"No Good Trying"  from The Madcap Laughs is where I lifted that quote.  I am pleasantly suprised that there are a lot of Syd freaks on this site.  Ha!  you got me on that Clyde source.  I do think Herb Alpert is pretty hip but Welk's a little too far in the bad/good category.  Martin Denny, Esquivel-(the Mexican Duke Eliington) is pretty cool but kinda square stuff too.

[thebales]

boss gt-8. a couple of the effects were usable (auto-wah, delays especially reverse, and whammy come to mind), but overdrives and distortions were shit - as well as most effects. couldn't justify that much floorspace for a handful of gimmick effects so i parted with it.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

A funny thing about this thread is some of the hated pedals are now pretty valuable

[Nasse]

I traded a secret fuzz prototype for a Behringer Bass Limiter Enhancer. Dunno if it is any good, my bass has been away for many months. I might get new bass next month. On the other hand, summer is comin, and I need somethin to keep bedroom window open when weather is fine.

[rousejeremy]

The WORST pedal I ever bought, Deltalabs Stereo Chorus. It was hissy when activated and the chorus was bland and lifeless. I'm debating on just harvesting it for parts. What a POS.
My brother used this little Zoom multieffect for years. It was grey and had two plastic footswitches. It was and still is the worst sounding pedal I ever heard.
I bought a DS-1 for 15 dollars once. That sounded bad but I got it to try all the mods and now it has a place on my pedalboard.
Boss Acoustic Simulator.
MXR Smartgate. (useless)
Metal Zone
Danelectro Fabtone

[blooze_man]

Behringer Ultra Feedback Distortion.

[FlyingZ]

For topics based on opinion we should include years of professional experience. No offense intended but opinion posts by amateurs tend to change yearly.

Worst effect for me is the Clon clone, almost a TS but with twice the components. My top four in 25 performance years: TS9, Rebote, OS, CH1

[Jazznoise]

I got a Dunlop Wah and within a year the switch went, so I had to swap that out. But it's very subtle unless there's a distortion unit infront of it. I'm not mad about the sweep either, it's very high. I was 14 when I got it (I just thought HENDRIX USED IT OMG) but it's fairly featureless and other than this weird thing I do where I tune my wah to the notes I'm playing I haven't found very much use for it. Sometimes I put it in the feedback loop of my Deluxe Memory Boy to filter the delays but I more often than not leave it at home, unforgotten.

I'm also undecided on my EHX Graphic Fuzz which I got online for 30 quid. Hard to get a good tone out of it. It's got a good overdrive sound and a cool compression/sustain thing (which when cranked lets me to crazy, controlled feedback stuff) but, ironicly, the pedal would be much better if it had a well designed filter circuit instead of a graphic eq!

[mistahead]

Zoom 505II - the little two pedal grey "wonder"... as in you "wonder" how anyone but a learning guitarist who wants an entry level multi box would try to justify keeping it... noisy, annoying, but affordable. I was happy to finally give it to another learning kid and get myself a TonelabST... oh wait - did I just admit to a commercial unit being something I love...

[rousejeremy]

Zoom 505II - the little two pedal grey "wonder"... as in you "wonder" how anyone but a learning guitarist who wants an entry level multi box would try to justify keeping it... noisy, annoying, but affordable.

That's the one! Just awful.

[pinkjimiphoton]

i think the worst pedal i bought was the reissue of the eh clone theory.,...i even called eh before buying it, to see if it was the same as the original with the vib/flange switch. they assured me it was the "same circuit" and i bought it online before they were even in stores.

this pedal sucked so bad, you'd think it was president of the new world order. i mean...useless. didn't sound anything like the original, the stereo out didn't work, and it had so much hiss you'd swear it was...i dunno what. all i know is that it sucked.

once i get my chops up a bit more, and can afford it, i'm gonna build one myself. and get it right.

in the end, after having it unused for years, i sold it to gc last summer for a paltry 30 bucks...and was glad.

[jbgron]

Worst pedal I've ever built are the many variations of the Echoplex EP-3 booster/pre-amp.  I own a bunch of real EP-3's and all of these pedals sound nothing like a real EP-3, not even close.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

For topics based on opinion we should include years of professional experience. No offense intended but opinion posts by amateurs tend to change yearly.

We should also exclude those with years of pro experience, since they're old and set in their ways and don't like anything new that they feel has too many buttons.