Check out current (Oct) issue of Guitar Player

[Mark Hammer]

Picked this up over lunch.  This is kind of a special pedal issue, which GP has now and then.  Reviews of 16 distortion pedals, including the Box of Rock, Metal Muff, plus some things I've never heard of before (Talos Ass Bite, Uncle Ernie's Overdriver, Ilitch heavy Metal).  A second article reviews 28 "other" pedals, including much of the Tone Core, Fab and recent BBE pedals, some Foxx, Moolon, Carl Martin, etc.  Finally, a 3rd article provides a more detailed review of the Digitech Brian May Red Special pedal.

Um, they don't mention anything about barfing on schoolmates anywhere that I could see.  I'll keep looking, though. 

[hairyandy]

They must've been too intimidated to do a feature article on the "Beef Curtain"!   

[Mark Hammer]

Oh yes, and the current (SG cover, October) issue of Vintage Guitar pits 11 different production delay pedals against each other.

[brett]

Uncle Ernie's Overdriver

[Fret Wire]

Interesting names, but nothing beats Metasonix' Agonizer and Butt Probe. Or their ad copy.
http://www.metasonix.com/TX1.htm

http://www.metasonix.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=34

[WGTP]

My old Vox Tone Bender cranked thru an Ampeg VT-22 made me feel like puking.   

[JHS]

You can be shure you can junk most of the reviews in GP.

Everything is good, nothing is really bad, that's the problem, not only with GP but with most of the magazines. It seems that manufacturers can polish turds with big  ad-contracts.

For ex. take Carl Martin. Most German shops dropped the company due to very poor quality and the trouble the had w their customers.
I'm shure you won't read this info in a CM-Fx-review in GP.

I remember a decade or two ago when reviews were much more useful and GP didn't fear to write the truth about some crappy products, had been more critical and checked stompboxes and amps in the studio and on the road w 5 different amps and guitars.

JHS

[Eric H]

Interesting names, but nothing beats Metasonix' Agonizer and Butt Probe. Or their ad copy.
http://www.metasonix.com/TX1.htm

http://www.metasonix.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=34

Too bad the soundclips don't match the hyperbole .

-Eric

[Mark Hammer]

You can be shure you can junk most of the reviews in GP.

Everything is good, nothing is really bad, that's the problem, not only with GP but with most of the magazines. It seems that manufacturers can polish turds with big  ad-contracts.

For ex. take Carl Martin. Most German shops dropped the company due to very poor quality and the trouble the had w their customers.
I'm shure you won't read this info in a CM-Fx-review in GP.

I remember a decade or two ago when reviews were much more useful and GP didn't fear to write the truth about some crappy products, had been more critical and checked stompboxes and amps in the studio and on the road w 5 different amps and guitars.

JHS

I don't have a problem with the positive nature since few companies would provide products for review if they did not have confidence in it.  Keep in mind that none of these magazines sends someone to the music store with $1500 in petty cash with instructions to buy whatever is new.  So, we should expect positive comments.  What I find unsatisfying about a lot of review as just how little I can tell about the product and how it sounds from the comments provided.  There is a desire to use nudge-nudge, wink-wink terminology that will make the musician feel like you're talking to them in particular, and a lot of that is not especially specific or unambiguously descriptive.  Maybe one day they will post samples on line, taken from their product tryout, and we'll be able to know just what they based their description and decision/rating on.  To be fair, at least magazines provide information about what was used to test the piece of gear.

[Doug_H]

Sounds like a super-duper pedal issue!

GP is fun for the big glossy pictures and finding new stuff I haven't seen before. I don't find the text too useful (kind of starting to sound like Playboy or something...) with all the marketing-speak and etc.

[phaeton]

Many years ago, (i think) in Guitar Player they had an article named "Stompbox Stampede" (they also had a David Gilmour feature in it, and a young picture of him was on the cover).  They reviewed a couple hundred pedals from the early days on up to present (1994-ish?).  I don't recall gleaning a whole lot of info about what they really sounded like, but it sure was an entertaining read.  Stuff like "The Magic Combobulator 10 can pound out the tape-delay repeats until your brain gets mad and goes home" or "The  Grumbler produces lots of rich, flatulent, sticky fuzz" and/or "The FlimFlam Wah passes the puking guitar sound test."

I mean to track it down again someday, as it'd be interesting to read it with the knowledge of pedal workings that I have now. F'rinstance, theres a (very early) fuzz device, forget the name (maybe there was more than one like this) that you connect directly to the guitar and then plug the cable into it.  They mentioned "The only distortion effect we tested where the distorted tone was quieter".  Nowadays I completely understand how that's possible and (probably) why it was the case.

Just sayin.....

[The Tone God]

Stuff like "The Magic Combobulator 10 can pound out the tape-delay repeats until your brain gets mad and goes home"...

Actually that was Super Replay Four Second Delay Sampler. I have the issue on my shelf. June 1995.

Andrew

[Mark Hammer]

I know just the issue you mean and have it at home.  I do believe that was the one with the "Penguin Love Game" pedal that mystified everyone.  The article was posted on their website for a while.  The new website appears to be organized differently, and I'm not able to find the archived articles like before.  They have a 12-distortion-roundup from the last couple years, but that's about all I could find.

[The Tone God]

I would not be surprised if they took that article off the site as I believe it was spun off into a book.

Andrew

[Dave_B]

Too bad the soundclips don't match the hyperbole .

I don't know, I kinda like the clips on this page. 

[phaeton]

Stuff like "The Magic Combobulator 10 can pound out the tape-delay repeats until your brain gets mad and goes home"...

Actually that was Super Replay Four Second Delay Sampler. I have the issue on my shelf. June 1995.

Andrew

I couldn't remember any of the actual pedal names, so i made them up as I went.  I *almost* pinned that one on the EHX Memory Man.  If that issue is June 1995, then that gives you an idea of how long ago I'm remembering this from :-D

It was a fun article.

[markm]

I guess the thing that got me about the review of the zvex entry was the reviewer's observation of the crackling pots.
They didn't seem to understand that concept and seemed to imply there was something wrong with the unit.
I vowed I would stop reading GP as I thought it was becoming "worthless" to me but, then they went and put Petty in an issue and
Marty Stuart in another, so, I didn't quit yet!

[Dave_B]

what
I guess the thing that got me about the review of the zvex entry was the reviewer's observation of the crackling pots.
They didn't seem to understand that concept and seemed to imply there was something wrong with the unit.

That's what I was getting at, too, Mark.  I've read plenty of reviews where the author at least contacted the manufacturer to make sure it wasn't just an early production issue, since that wouldn't be real fair to the effect maker.  Granted, it's on the artwork, but I can see readers still assuming it's a design flaw. 

It sort of reminds me of an online review of a Leslie simulator where the reviewer doesn't seem to understand how to get the most basic sounds out of it. 

[idlechatterbox]

Not sure it's the same problem, but I knew a guy who was a sort of entry-level writer at a car magazine, where you also find hardly any negative comments, lots of spin (verbal as well as tire-skidding), etc. When I ripped into him for calling himself a "journalist" and making a pretense of being objective, he replied that in fact most magazines of that type barely scrape by, and they realize that their paychecks that month come from the glossy ad by Brand X that they just happen to be road-testing that month as well. He also mentioned lawsuit-phobia, where a big company (admittedly, the pedal companies are smaller than Toyota, but still...) can more or less hint that even slightly negative remarks might be subject for legal action, or at least legal scrutiny.

Maybe the analogy someone made to playboy is apt: nice photos but don't expect reality 

[markm]

what
I guess the thing that got me about the review of the zvex entry was the reviewer's observation of the crackling pots.
They didn't seem to understand that concept and seemed to imply there was something wrong with the unit.

That's what I was getting at, too, Mark.  I've read plenty of reviews where the author at least contacted the manufacturer to make sure it wasn't just an early production issue, since that wouldn't be real fair to the effect maker.  Granted, it's on the artwork, but I can see readers still assuming it's a design flaw. 

It sort of reminds me of an online review of a Leslie simulator where the reviewer doesn't seem to understand how to get the most basic sounds out of it. 

It certainly does seem like the reviewer was implying that the unit was defective.
I guess it would be a common reaction to the unknowing user, although it is labled "crackle okay". In a simpler world, a crackly pot is a dirty or "no-good" pot right? .......or a no-good-crackly pot.......take ur pick!