5 Worst Pedals Of 2017

Just as there is best of the year, there is also some pedals that didn't really seem to hit their mark. This isn't to say that they don't do the job their were meant to do, its just that sometimes the fact that they even exsist is a a head-scratcher. Let's take a look at some of the worst pedals of 2017.

EHX Blurst

I wanted to like this thing when I saw it. EHX has the habbit of bringing unexpected and fun products to market, but the Blurst was flirting with line between junk and genius and fell right over to the junk side. This is a pedal that dares you to try and use it. There is are some interesting special effects in this box, but I can't see that anyone could find use for it other than a noise maker. Some may need weird and interesting noises and this will provide, but for many of us, this is a waste of space.

DOD Rubbernecker

This pedal is actually a solid delay. It has some unexpected features and it expands of what you are capable of with analog delay. However, it suffers from timing. The Rubbernecker is now in the shadow of its big brother, Carbon Copy Deluxe. These two delay may possibly share some DNA, but given the choise between the two, most are going to go with the pedigry that the Carbon Copy brings with it.

BOSS/JHS AngeryDriver

This pedal came straight out of left field. The Angery Driver is a colaberation between JHS and BOSS. It combinds the Angery Charlie and Blues Driver. Both pedals are outstanding in their own right. So the decition to combind the two comes as a big surprise. Although, the pedal works on a technical level, it robs itself of some the best qualitiest that come with each respective pedals.

Keeley D&M Drive

What is basically a signature pedal, the D&M Drive actually works against itself. I understand why this pedal happened. These two brits that talk about pedals on the internet have the capability to sell plenty of pedals if they recomend them, so why not give them an endorment deal? Well, the whole perpuse of their show is to help guitar experience many differnent guitar product and maybe help with purchasing choices. If it turns out that they just shill for whoever is lining their pockets, then it doesn't help their credibility.

TC Electronic Rush Booster

This year we saw a whole slew of new pedals from TC Electronic. It's no coinsedence that this come after the buy out of TC by Behringer's parent company. What make the Rush booster worse than most other pedals in the same line is that TC already make a great boost for the same price. The Spark Boost is great and compact. For a one knob boost, you don't need a huge, heavy enclosure. This seems like some kind of oversight.

Ugly Guitar Truth: DOD Rubberneck Analog Delay

DOD just released the information on their newest analog delay. there is a lot more than meets the eye with pedal. It has 1.5 seconds of delay time, adjustable rate and depth of modulation, bypassable buffer (tails/no tail), quarter/eighth/dotted eighth note subdivides. There is a rubbernecking feature that allows "rubber band" stretched sound, whatever that really means. You can hold the tempo footswitch and engage a regen effect with an adjustable parameter. An actual effects loop will let you insert effects that only affect your trails. Lastly, there is a remote input, so there you go. That all seems fine. Is there any ugly truth. Well...


It's Actually A Strong Offering


So, you look at the features and you can get a little overwhelmed. It seems like you have way more than you could make use of. The features are really all related. For delay users that really capitalize on the analog part of this pedal, the feature list make a lot of sense. You might be tempted to call this a 'shoegazer' pedal. But really, the interface is simple enough to quickly set or tweak. But it is $250. Is that good or bad? Well, take a look at similar pedals: EHX Deluxe Memory Man, Empress Tape Delay.. It's spot on really. It actually packs a lot of features in a pretty package for a reasonable amount of money. Not to mention that it sorta has a feature that is somewhat unique.


Conclusion


I like it. I want to use it and experience the rubbernecking feature for myself. I don't think it would get a spot on my pedalboard though. I really dig these analog delays. They make really cool noises. But digital delay do it well enough. And that might be the ugliest truth. I would put a Boss DD-500 on my board because it could probably do 95% of what this pedal does and then a lot more. Not to mention it is in the small ball park cost wise. I can't tell you that  you should pay 250 dollar for a pedal that does so much less, but if you are in the market for an analog delay that does neat things, this one is a great option.

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The Ugly Guide To Buying Your First Guitar Pedal

Let me start by saying that the previous post about "Your First Guitar Pedal" was just awful, and not very helpful at all. Having said that, lets try it again...


So there you are, standing in the store or, more likely, looking at a website. Let's do this: find the guitar effect page, then select the box that sorts everything in order of cheap to not-cheap. Now we should be looking at some very reasonably priced items. The first pedals you might see are some by Danelectro. There are some of these pedals that are diamonds in the rough, however we are going to move past most of these because of their durability. They are affordable, but they are made from plastic and won't stand up to much rough housing. For the same reason, we are going to skip past the Behringer pedals. These aren't bad choices, but I'd prefer to have a pedal that I can grow into rather one that I'll quickly out grow.


Now we are up to pedals that cost right at $50. This gives you a lot of options. There is a pedal that you are going to want to buy. It is a Boss Distortion. It is Orange. Do not buy this pedal. For some reason, every guitarist wants to buy this pedal. I bought one. Everyone who has played pedals has been temped to pick up one of these pedal. resist that urge. Put. The pedal. Down. So you have a choice to make, but don't worry, I'll help you. There are four pedals: Boss SD-1, TC Mojomojo, TC Dark Matter, DOD 250* (*currently at $50, but I've seen it at $99 when not on "sale", but it can be regularly found for $50 new) All of these pedals are very solid, but you have to know what you are looking for. These are all overdrive/distortion pedals. So decide how much grit you want and pick your pedal. Just want a little grit? DOD 250. Little more? SD-1 or the Mojomojo (the mojo has bass and treble control, the SD-1 has a more classic sound) The Dark Matter is a flexible distortion that punches about it's price tag.


But wait, what about BandX pedal that cost (<50 and="" best="" bread="" distortion="" it="" overdrive="" s="" says="" since="" sliced="" strong="" the="">


Most of the pedals that fit into that statement above have a few things going against it. Modtone, Outlaw, and many others aren't going to offer the type of support that the larger established makers can. It's important that your first experience with effects be a smooth one, otherwise you might get a bad impression due to a bad QC or customer support. Boss (Roland), TC Electronic, and DOD (Digitech/Harman) are going to stand behind their product and offer warranties.


What about this one guy that makes a pedal that's the greatest thing since sliced bread?


 Again, there are reasons why your first pedal shouldn't be one that fits into the previous statement. Not to say that boutique pedals, I like them. The main thing that deters me from recommending these pedal is the price. Many people just getting into effect don't want to invest more than they have to. Also, there are so many builders and sometimes their products can be a little cryptic. You might want to buy a light overdrive and end up with a over the top fuzz pedal. It might be exciting to buy from a boutique builder, but when it's your first go-round, then you should get your feet wet before jumping into the deep end.


Should I only buy Boss/TC/DOD pedals, of course not. But these are good pedals to get your start. It is a new experience to have the capability to adjust your tone without taking you hands off the guitar. These are great pedals that can serve as a great jumping off point for anyone looking into guitar effect pedals.

The Ugly Truth About The Line5 M5 Stombox Modeler

If you've red my other posts that mention Multi-effect processors, then you know that I am not a fan of them. I like true-bypass and clicky-clacky switches. However, I understand that true-bypass is not always the best thing and soft switches can work just as well, but that's why they are called, preferences. So when looking for pedals that create certain effects, I stumbled upon the Line6 M5. I was previously aware of the "M" series, but I admit that the M5 has never been on my radar. The larger units, for me, have stole the show. The M9 and M13 are large "all in one" type processors that we are used to seeing, but the M5 is something different. It doesn't want to be your "everything in one box" product. What the M5 has done is taken many of the effects from there other successful pedals and put them in a little box that could find its way onto a pedalboard. That is exactly what has peeked my interest. Even though this pedal has some nice features, there are some ugly fact that we need to remember.

It's still digital

Yes, this is just like all the other little processors that we scorn. It is going to take your signal and have it's little binary way with it. There is a way around this. A bypass box will maintain your analog tone. that is until your run it into a delay, reverb, chorus or other pedal that use those ones and zeros.

It's a processor

That means that there is a learning curve. Must likely before you start making awesome noises, you are going to need to read the manual. Failing that, you are going to need to spend hours with this thing to get the most out of it. Sure, there are going to be presets that are "usable", but in order to make it bow it you will, you will have to learn the inner workings. Menu screens and editing and things that I couldn't tell you about will have to be done to change and edit the effects. Using more than one effect for a particular set? You're going to have to set that up in advance.

Digital Distortion

Those two words don't belong together. I actually owned the Line6 Distortion modeler. It was absolutely terrible. Nothing sounded natural. I thought it would help nail some tones that my Fender Twin I was using at the time wouldn't produce on its own. I tried a every setting, but it wasn't adding up. There is a reason everyone talks about the DL-4 and FM-4 but the other two (the blue and gold ones) get left out of the conversation. They ether don't offer anything unique, or in the case of the distortions, they don't hold a candle to what they are modeling.

It's Huge

Yes, the pedal is not giant, but there are tonnes of effects in it. A few of my favorites are: Seekwah, Auto Swell, and pitch-shift. That's well and good, but tonnes of options make shuffling though of those other things a little of a pain. It's almost like have a million dollars, but its all in singles, or something you aren't likely to use (like yin). But on that rare occasion that I need a chorus, phasor, flange or crazy mod, it's there. There is also the bulk of the thing. It is the smallest in the line, but it will still dwarf most single pedals. Think original EHX Muff to get an idea of the size of this thing.

In conclusion

I want a Electro Harmonix Pitchfork, DOD 201 Phasor, Boss RV-6, Boss Slow Gear, and Seek Wah. Those pedals alone would cost close to a grand. Will this pedal do everything that those other pedal will? Absolutely not. Will it add a lot of flexibility to the sounds that a already made and make sounds close to those that I've listed. Kinda. There have been a few pedals that have made me excited recently. This is not one of them. But it is a little bit of all of them.

The Ugly Truth: DOD Gunslinger MosFET Distortion

A few days ago DigiTech posted on there website that the DOD Gunslinger is available for sale. I was unaware that this pedal was even in the making. I can think twitter to bringing it to my attention. Checking YouTube gave me an idea of what it sounds like. I am a bit of a MosFET fan. I really dig my EHX Glove MosFET OD. Throw in High and Low controls along with 9v/18v switching and you have a lot of features in a nice little box. DOD always put their pedals in a nice sturdy box with attractive designs. They now throw in LEDs for no extra charge. (although DOD now charge $99 for remakes of pedals that used to sell at about half that) I have to admit that I am excited about this pedal, but everything isn't so great.

It's Another MosFET Drive

When I hear MosFET I think of Fulltone's Fulldrive2. I've never really enjoyed using that particular pedal, but I really like my MosFET Glove. Just like "Tube Overdrives" the market is getting a little crowded with pedal makers putting out their MosFET pedals. This one tries to separate its self with some neat features and it seems more saturated than other pedals of the same type. I don't know that anything I've seen about this pedal makes me think that it is anything unique.

 It's DOD

I don't want to put any particular brand on blast, but Harman/DigiTech/DOD (mostly DigiTech) has let me down more than other pedals. (Boss is number 2 if you were wondering and my board is about 40% Boss). So DigiTech is DOD and they are remaking these classic pedals which is fine. I think I like these DOD pedals more than anything that Digitech has put out in the recent past. I've never use the originals, but the remakes that I've played have been solid. They just have that stigma about them. If I bought this pedal, I'd be looking for it to fail somehow.

It's Overpriced

Like I mentioned before, the reissue of the classic DOD pedals have come with a decent price hike. I'm not saying that they have to be dirt cheap, but pedal that are as simple of the DOD 250 is a little hard to justify at $99. I will say that Musician's Friend has put them on their SDOTD for half price, and that seems like a great deal. EHX put out there dirt pedals for a little more than $50. Being as cheap as I am, it was like Christmas. I have to wonder how many units they are selling. Out side the reissues of classic pedals, is the DOD brand even relevant any more?

In Conclusion

This pedal is worth a look. It may or may not be worth the full price tag. I think if you can catch this pedal on sell, then the flexible EQ and great sounds (that I've only heard via Youtube) are worth you adding it to your line up if you are looking for a MosFET Drive and the EHX Glove didn't float your boat.

**With a little reading I've found that this pedal might be a reincarnation of an old DOD pedal of olde. The FX100 Integrated Tube was basicaly a ModFET distortion with the same type of tone controls. Like the other Reissues, they are 100% faithful. Still, very interesting strategy DOD (Harman... or whatever) have adopted.