Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

[Maggot]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

The Arion tuner kept me in tune for about 20 years! Nothing wrong with that.

[80's_Metal]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

1. Digitech Metal Master
2. Crybaby from hell
3. Memory Boy
4. Metal Zone
5. ProCo Rat
6. EHX Nano Muff
7. Dunlop Original Crybaby
8. T-Rex Bloody Mary
9. Vintage Stereo EHX memory man
10. Turbo Rat


Least favorites:
1. Morley Wah
2. Kirk Hammet Wah
3. Arion Tuner

[El Supremo]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

Favorites in no particular order:

1. Proco Whiteface Rat reissue: sounds great on any amp (clean or dirty), with singles and humbuckers (high and low output), on bass guitar and is useable for just about any style that needs od, distortion or something with a fuzzy edge to it.

2. Eventide Space: just an incredible sounding reverb that's also great for other instruments or mixing. I always have some some small room preset on, but it does some really spacey sounds. Great for when you wanna trip out without doing actual dope .
Eventide does updates on their site, so you won't sound out of date any time soon. Unless you wanted to of course.

3. Way Huge Supa Puss: Analog repeats that can get really chewy depending on how you set their gain. Tap Tempo, which you can also use to overclock to get some ring modulated tones. And to top it off, probably the most georgeous modulation I ever heard on a delay unit.

4. Mooer Eleclady Flanger: Cheapest pedal I ever bought and the only cheap knockoff at that, but sounds really nice wether used as a faux chorus or for those jetplane sounds. The original just can't compete in terms of size, cost, true bypass and sound imo

5. DOD Super American Metal: Despite its name, it does the Swedish Death Metal thing really good. I also have an HM2, but still prefer this unit for that chainsaw distortion sound. Could be sentimental value though, as it was my first pedal ever.

6. MXR Distortion + Script Reissue: When not using the Rat, this will be on the board. Can get a big deal more fuzzy whilst keeping the low end in check. Still cleans up nice with the volume knob on the guitar and really brings out the harmonics. I prefer to use it on an already dirty amp though, like a fuzzier and thicker Treble Booster.

7. Empress Tape Delay: I did a shootout between this unit and the Strymon El Capistan. The Empress won for me as the layout of the controls was better for me, less knob turning to get the desired sound, cleaner repeats at new tape settings and of course the option of having some presets. The Empress sounded great both in front of the amp or in the loop. The El Cap sounded best to me in the loop.

8. Catalinbread Belle Epoch tape delay: When the Empress is too clean and the Supa Puss too dirty, this fellow comes in. Adjustable preamp gain boost to thicken up leads, recording level controls to get dirtier and more compressed repeats and sounds excellent in front of the amp (where it's supposed to be like the real deal).

9. MXR Analog Chorus: From those 80's like chorus sounds to deep, almost univibe sounding chorus. Great sound, nice buffer and useful tone controls.

10. The 70's Big Muff a buddy of mine snagged up for like 25 bucks in the 90's. No Muff reissue/variant I ever played came even remotely close.


Least favorites:

1. Boss Metal Zone: Really hard to get rid of that annoying nasal sound. Pretty much impossible if you plug it into a Marshall. Sounded cool on my Mesa, but that didn't justify it for me to keep it.

2. Keeley Java Boost: Although great sounding, with some great tonal options, the vintage sound from the NOS parts comes at the price of a rather noisy pedal (at least, that's what I presume is the reason). Running it on an adapter made it even worse. As I don't use noisegates, the hissing noise just became a little too much for me.

3. Earthquaker Devices Tone Reaper: Ironically, to me this unit sounded more like a Muff minus low end to me, whilst the Hoof had more Tonebender/ Fuzz Face like qualities to it. Very compressed and no cleanup with the guitar's volume.

4. Fulltone '69 fuzz: Just not my cup of tea. I prefer silicon for Fuzz Faces.

5. Skreddy Screwdriver: Again, great pedal just not for me in the end. Had this one for a long time in my setup, but I always felt it lacked some gain going into a clean amp. I should probably check out the Hybrid Fuzz Driver or Lunar Module for my needs.

And that's about it.

[PFDarkside]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

I can't do a top 10, what I can do is my favorite pedals of each type.

Overdrives
"Tube Screamery":
-Fulltone Fulldrive 2
-TS9 W/ replaced JRC4558D

"Transparent":
-Timmy (love it with Fender Style amps)
-Analogman King of Tone (not truly "transparent", but works great with Marshall style amps for an extra boost)

Boost
-Keeley Katana (Outstanding Clean Boost, makes everything sound "better", with knob pulled out it adds a little grit that works great with tube amps.

Compressor
-Keeley 4 Knob (When you want a distinct "effect", this is a classic squashed stompbox compressor that allows you to dial it in for your guitar/rig

Fuzz
-Analogman Sun Face NKT275 (the premier Germanium Fuzz Face, cleans up fantastically and sounds really great)
-Skreddy (pick any... Marc Skreddy is the master of the Big Muff. They all are different but great)

Wah
-Teese RMC3 (Tunable wah, capable of most of the vintage Vox & Crybaby type tones, and many more. Also, the fuzz friendly buffer plays so
well with impedance sensitive fuzzes!)

Modulation
Phaser:
-Red Witch Moon Phaser (Chewy, delicious, the tremophase is like a unique spin on a Univibe)
Flanger:
-Hartman Flanger (Outstanding version of a vintage Electric Mistress. Gilmour, Summers, etc.)

Delay
-EHx Deluxe Memory Man (king of analog delays, with lush modulation)
-Strymon Timeline (excellent digital type tones, good tape sim & a bunch of wild options like Filtered, Trem, Pattern and Ice)

Looper
-Strymon El Capistan (A refreshing take on looping, basically a digital emulation of a tape loop that degrades, warbles and fades away as you continue to loop


Things I'd still like to try:
Fuzz: Dunlop Band of Gypsies Fuzz, Analogman Peppermint Fuzz, Black Arts Pharaoh
Rotary: Neo Ventilator
Chorus: Analogman Bi-Chorus
Looper: Boomerang III

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

Favorites: my modded Wah.
Least favorite: I never got along with Rat pedals. Also - Morley Wah Volume.

[IM4Tone]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

........................................The only exception I've run across being:
- Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator . . . this is the worst pedal I've ever used. It doesn't sound remotely like an acoustic guitar, it was expensive, it sucked a surprising amount of power when on. Just terrible in every application I tried it at.

I forgot I own one of those and you're right in your description! No wonder I forgot about it.

[ErikH]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

Favs:

1. MXR Phase 90
2. MXR Flanger
3. Boss OD-1 Overdrive
4. Boss BD-2 Blues Driver
5. Boss SD-1 Overdrive
6. Boss SD-2 Dual Overdrive
7. Fulltone OCD
8. Boss Bass Flanger
9. Boss Super Chorus
10. Dallas Rangemaster

Least Favs:

There's too many to list...LOL

[GuitarStv]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

The following have been on my board for the last year or so, and I've grown quite fond of them:
- 535Q
- Germanium Fuzz Face
- Small Stone Phaser (modded to act like a univibe)
- Mad Professor Snow White Auto Wah
- SD Deja Vu Delay

There are dozens of other pedals I'll use occasionally, but those above are pretty consistent. As far as bad pedals . . . most are usable for something. They might not be your cup of tea, but usually you can appreciate them for what they are. Hell, I even enjoyed playing with a Metal Zone once I figured out exactly how to tweak the EQ on it. The only exception I've run across being:

- Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator . . . this is the worst pedal I've ever used. It doesn't sound remotely like an acoustic guitar, it was expensive, it sucked a surprising amount of power when on. Just terrible in every application I tried it at.

[Nacho8807]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

Some favorites:

1. MXR Carbon Copy
2. ISP Decimator
3. MXR ZW44 Wylde Overdrive (my fave OD for rhythms)
4. Ibanez TS808 (best for leads)
5. CryBaby 535Q
6. EHX Metal Muff
7. EHX Russian Big Muff
8. MXR Micro Flanger
9. Fuzz Face (germanium)
10. BOSS CH-1 Super Chorus (not the worst chorus ever)

Least favorites:

1. BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone
2-10. That's about it.

[allbutromeo]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

1. MXR Carbon Copy
2. Bad Cat Tremolo
3. Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive Mod
4. MXR Phase 90
5. Crybaby Jim Hendrix Wah
6. Fulltone OCD
7. Visual Sound H2O
8. Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor
9. MXR Custom Badass 78 Distortion
10. MXR Dyna Comp

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

Likes:
1:Maxon CS-505 anlouge chorus
2:Ibanez FL-301 analouge flanger
3:Hardwire DL-8 delay
4:Hardwire Chromatic Tuner
5:Foxrox Aquavibe
6:F.I.P Dual Echo(prototype one of a kind)
7: Digitech Timebender delaymachine
8:Ibanez TS-808
9:Guyatone Moving Box Flanger
10:Hardwire Supernatural

[IM4Tone]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

Favorites:
Fulltone Fat Boost FB-3
Wampler 57 Tweed
Boss Fender Bassman FBM-1
Boss 65 Deluxe Reverb FDR-1
Boss Fender Reverb RV-5
JOYO Sweet Baby
JOYO Deluxe Crunch
Mr. Black Deluxe Plus (Rvb + Trem)
SD Twin Tube Classic SFX-03
Ibanez TS9 (not spectacular but a good ol' standby)

I can't think of 10 I don't like, but in general:
I dislike multi FX pedals (such a Digitech RP355).
I wanted a Tech21 FlyRig5 so badly when they first came out and had a long waiting list...finally got it and sent it back because of Noise and mediocre tone.
The JOYO noise gate is useless.
Love the tone of the JOYO American sound, BUT it is noisey and must be used with a noise gate, so it gets used less and less.
JOYO British Sound...noisey, and meh tone

Off the top of my head, that's it....probably more in both categories, though.

[Maggot]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

With Tube Screamers, you're always saying, "I doesn't sound THAT bad." and then you use it anyway.

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

I'm just going to say that I don't really care for Tube Screamers--they sound really unnatural to me. Honestly, I haven't played on one very much, but it probably the pedal I'm least likely to run out and buy anytime soon.

Bill

[Kac]

Re: Top 10 Favorite and/or Least Favorite Pedals

The SD Pickup Booster really helps me rock out with my single coils.
Bad Horsey Wah Pedal was very fun before it broke.
I've owned a few BOSS DS-1's and enjoy them.
SD Tweak Fuzz was a fun pedal that I am looking to re-add to my pedal board.
I also like delay, tremolo, phaser... Don't particularly have an absolute favorite there.