The worst pedal you've ever owned?

[dystrust]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

Yeah, I figured that image would get pulled. Found it on Google.

Found this pic of the one I sold some years ago, buried in the depths of a 2TB drive

That's the one. Pretty cool if you think of it as an OD / Dist pedal, and really disappointing as a preamp.

[Stratman]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

All the ones not supported by Seymour Duncan anymore!

[Stix]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

Securb, your "to each his own" approach is hard to disagree with. That's why I mentioned the Digitech Tone Driver - I doubt many people could find an OD pedal that struggles to reach unity gain useful.
Other than that, I sometimes love "bad sounds". For example, many Muff-style pedals sound "bad" in a really cool way to my ears. One just needs to find a way to use a piece of gear. Many have said this before: the older I get, the better I am at getting something I like from just about any piece of equipment...

[Securb]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

Yeah, I figured that image would get pulled. Found it on Google.

Found this pic of the one I sold some years ago, buried in the depths of a 2TB drive

Yep that is the unit I have. In the loop of the JC120 it sounded anemic. Infront of the amp it sounded fantastic. The reason there are 5 million distortion pedals is we all have different tastes and styles. I am sure there is someone out there getting a killer tone with a Metal Zone, I wouldn use one for a door stop. I swear by my original MXR+ I love the graininess, but others might think it sounds like a box of bees. I think the answers here are a bit off. People are describing pedals that didn't work for them vs pedals that are faulty in some way, not that there is anything wrong with that. I have done it in the past. Now I tend to look at a piece of gear objectively and think it might not work for me but someone else might love it.

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

Yeah, I figured that image would get pulled. Found it on Google.

Found this pic of the one I sold some years ago, buried in the depths of a 2TB drive

[dystrust]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

This thing:


Maybe if I had an all-tube amp to run it through it would've sounded good, but I couldn't even use it as a boost into an MP-1. I did run it into the Return of a solid state head, but found it weaker than weak. Maybe it was a bad unit, I'll never know as I sold it many years ago.

Your image isn't working, so I'm having to guess which version this is. Your description sounds a lot like the Chandler rack Tube Driver I used to have, and I agree that it sounded weak used as a preamp. Cascaded into a Big Muff (like David Gilmour does), into a Mesa Studio Preamp, or into the front of my bro's JMP 2203, it was amazing. I always thought of it as a really versatile rack-mounted overdrive pedal rather than a rack preamp.

Regarding boosting an ADA MP-1, I've yet to find anything that sounded generally good in that role. A tube screamer wasn't bad, but it always seemed fuzzy an indistinct IMO.

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

^ Lol

[B2D]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?



Danelectro sitar swami.

I was in my prog phase in High School and thought this would be a cheap way to get sitar sounds.

I didn't know... OH GOD I DIDN'T KNOW.

I thought it was broken.

This thing is the Jar Jar Binks of effects pedals.

[James Rock]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

Owned - DOD Hard Rock, just couldn't do anything interesting to middle of the road. I like 'bad' sounding pedals like the Death Metal or the HM-3 I just bought because they can be used for something but the DOD Hard Rock is just boring.

Used - Behringer Octave, each section of the range switch only provided octave down on a few notes totally unusable nothing like a BOSS OC-2

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

The Chandler is like a Marshall in a rack. I used it with my JC120 in the thrash band and it sounded fantastic. Recently I had it going into the Quad Reverb side by side with the JCM 2000 and the similarity was astounding. I also used it for a while as the preamp in my JBL stack. The thing has never let me down. The rack unit also has the bias and contour control to further dial in your tone.

This thing:


Maybe if I had an all-tube amp to run it through it would've sounded good, but I couldn't even use it as a boost into an MP-1. I did run it into the Return of a solid state head, but found it weaker than weak. Maybe it was a bad unit, I'll never know as I sold it many years ago.

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

I've never tried one, and I find the idea of a Death Metal distortion pedal WITH NO GAIN KNOB simply hysterical.

As a rule, I don't use any pedals that have the word "metal" in their name. They usually have dismal mids and overly harsh tones.

Worst distortion pedal I've ever owned was an old DOD distortion pedal that my uncle gave me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the tone that I like. It was more fuzzy than a distortion.

[dominus]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

^That actually sounds killer. lml

Yeah, I've tried using a lot of pedals like that. Plugging them into the computer and using the right IR opens up a huge amount of possibilities. (The fact that you can scoop some of those older pedals up for $30-ish used helps. )

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

^That actually sounds killer. lml

[dominus]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

Easily Digitech death metal. Such crap. Impossible to find a good tone on it. I still have it though bc it makes me laugh bc its so terrible

[skeleton bob]

Re: The worst pedal you've ever owned?

This one?





I agree ...it was my first/worst distortion pedal ever..

Yup I had that. Like a fart in a bucket.