The most coveted and useless guitar pedal EVER.

[BRingoC]

So I have finished (still a few debugs to go) a ring stinger, and I have to say, for guitar, forget about it.  This pedal would work great on a keyboard, where there are not the subtle dynamics that come through on a guitar, but for the variations that come through on the guitar it just dosn't work well.  Unless you play single notes with a sustainer/ebow the attack and decay of a guitar does not suit the pedal.  I imagine that I will finish this off then it is going to sit on my shelf and only get used for a few minutes every six months.  Anyone have better luck than me?

[Mark Hammer]

I haven't attempted one, but have most of an Anderton Ring Modulator - a MUCH simpler beast - built for what is probably the 3rd or 4th time (previous ones have gone somewhere else).  And you know what?  I think I have finally found a use for those momentary DPDT stompswitches I bought by accident.  This is an effect you temporarily turn on for when you really need it, and then just go right back to clean.  I like ring modulators, make no mistake, but they are NOT a set and forget type of effect that anybody who strums will find great use for.

[BRingoC]

I like the "forget" option.  It sounds like a novelty to be honest.

[GibsonGM]

+1   
Has the odd use in recording, that kind of "Low spark of high heeled boys" background noise by Steve Winwood.   Otherwise, not very useful or worth keeping on the board, IMHO.

[Paul Marossy]

I think this is in the same category as the Crash Sync and similar pedals. It's not the sort of thing that you would use every day...

[iaresee]

I love a good ring mod. I think the pedal format gets a bad rap because you (usually) can't tune the frequency. The ring mod on my ModFactor, with the expression pedal set to control the frequency, is quite musical. Useful. I'll flip it on, do a quick seek for a sweet spot, and leave it to add some strange texture to overdriven chords.

And I've played one of Mark's ring mods and it was awesome. Inspired a whole song.

[DougH]

I always thought this was the most coveted and useless guitar pedal ever: http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-BOSS-SP-1-SPECTRUM-EFFECTS-PEDAL_W0QQitemZ150342585709QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar_Accessories?hash=item23011dcd6d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

[iaresee]

DougH: that reminds me of a pedal that was for auction a few years ago. It was just a shunt box. But the wire was some super old cloth covered wire. It was sold as a mojo-imparting device. That's my idea of useless.

[Mark Hammer]

Things that people forget about ring modulators are that:

• They came from the synthesizer world, where it was assumed that both carrier and modulator might be fairly "pure" waveforms of stable amplitude with strictly controlled harmonic content.  Guitars aren't like that.  As a result one needs to precondition the guitar signal to more closely approximate the type of signal that synth ring modulators might expect.  Roll off those highs, and compress that sucker.
• Guitar players want to use them in a quasi-melodic sense a lot of the time.  That is, as an "effect" imposed upon something else, rather than as a mere source of noise and weirdness on its own (although sometimes....).  If the modulating frequency is set too high, you get audio nonsense, and an overwhelming desire to shut the thing off, as the output becomes unpredictable.  The lower the modulating signal, though, particularly when the amount of modulation is moderate, the more "pitched" the output becomes, as the sum and difference move closer to the input signal.  If you can play a riff and the sum/difference values are close enough to the original pitch, it starts to become more planful in how one uses it.  I doubt it would ever become a set-and-forget effect like a chorus or phaser, but when youcan still hear a riff going up and down the fretboard as intended...sort of...it becomes an effect you're willing to tolerate a lot longer.  Back in the days of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jan Hammer (no relation) would leave the ring modulation on for extended periods, and play solos that could get lengthy.  But because the waveforms were the "right" kind on his Minimoog, and because the modulating frequency was juuuuuuust in the audio range, and able to produce sum/differences not too far away from the original note, the solos were actually expressive.

[John Lyons]

Mahavishnu Orchestra fan here...
Mark's right. The higher frequencies are less atonal ( less likely to tip you over into "what the $#%$%#" and it's a balancing act between total chaos and playing something that"works" with the band/song.
You have to learn to play the pedal so to speak. Moderation...

John

[Gus]

Tube Screamers

[rousejeremy]

Anything made by Zoom

[Taylor]

I'm a ring modulator junky. I've built and used several of them, including the Ring Stinger. I love it. As for useless or musical, it's a matter of what kind of sounds and music you're into. If you're playing straightforward rock or blues music, I can't see it being too useful. For me, making experimental classical music, I need 4 of them on my board.  

For me, stuff like flangers and fuzz pedals are useless one-trick ponies.

[Strategy]

Having built the Maestro Ring Modulator earlier this year I've been thinking about this a lot. RM's are extremely musical if you dial the carrier osc pitch pretty high up and then set the blend to mostly dry signal- like 75% or more. What you get is a fizzy resonance that resembles nyquist aliasing, but hte pitch of the note you are playing will still convey in spite of the (usually atonal) ring modulation going on. Very musical, and cuts through a mix. Set to ultra low frequencies, your ring mod can do some tremelo tricks.

It is interesting how it's been treated. I've been listening to all my 1970s miles davis LPs, and I notice on "Live at the Fillmore" and "Black Beauty," Chick Corea is using a ring modulator extensively on Rhodes piano. What's funny is, its not on any of the studio albums from the same period, so I'm guessing that Miles vetoed it  

Guessing from the sound character and time period of those live albums and the relative scarcity of standalone ring mod's during the early 1970s I"m guessing Chick's ring mod was the Maestro. I tried out my clone (the GGG one) on my friend's Rhodes and its a dead ringer for 1970s far out fusion sound on those albums.

Try as I said not using 100% wet signal on your ring mod, set the carrier osc to fairly high frequencies, it will change your approach to it.
-Strategy

[DougH]

Speaking of Mahavishnu Orchestra- there's a cut on "Visions of the Emerald Beyond" where McLaughlin goes nuts with his guitar plugged into a ring modulator. Can't remember the name of the track, and I used to skip it when I listened to the album due to the errr...uhh...musicality of it, but anyway...

[Paul Marossy]

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.

[JasonG]

How much did the RS cost to build? My yamana Majic stomp had a tunable ring modulator and it became one of the top 5 effects that I used it for.   if I ever find a good ring modulator to clone it will have a momentary switch. It's nice to throw in some Devo tones / atonal  riffs here and there but not on a whole song.

[iaresee]

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.

[Nitefly182]

I think its just the Ring Stinger that is so unpleasant for a ring modulator. The Frequency Analyzer and the ZVex Ringtone are actually fantastic pedals with nice clean and clear modulation. You can use them musically but I agree that the Ringstinger was mostly noise.

[rousejeremy]

Wayne Krantz does some of cool stuff with a Ring Modulator. He almost sounds like a drummer when he clicks it on, and he'll even trade fours with a regular tone and the Ring Mod.