Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

[Little Pigbacon]

Let’s keep this lighthearted.
Zero points for mentioning any Bill Finnegan pedal.

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To me the most overrated type of pedal is the clean boost. In my brief experience, they do nothing apart from make it louder and slightly more opaque. I’d rather boost with an overdrive and get some interesting coloration, or just use higher output pickups. I find when I use a clean boost with lower output pickups, I don’t get the benefits of a lower output pickup... or a higher output pickup. How many of these things are just glorified buffers with level controls? What’s a clean boost that might change my mind?

 

[Diego]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Let’s keep this lighthearted.
Zero points for mentioning any Bill Finnegan pedal.

******************************************

To me the most overrated type of pedal is the clean boost. In my brief experience, they do nothing apart from make it louder and slightly more opaque. I’d rather boost with an overdrive and get some interesting coloration, or just use higher output pickups. I find when I use a clean boost with lower output pickups, I don’t get the benefits of a lower output pickup... or a higher output pickup. How many of these things are just glorified buffers with level controls? What’s a clean boost that might change my mind?

Try a Zvex SHO. Into a dirty amp, since they don't compress as much, you can have raging overdrive or perfectly clean sounds from your picking strength.
And that's a common cliché but I've never had it as good with any overdrive or distortion pedal. They limit the dynamic range too much.
With a SHO it's like the guitar could go up to 25 instead of 10 on it's volume knob, and that kicks ass. No experience with other boosts here.

My vote for most overrated pedal? All wahs or chorus.
Both effects have been overdone beyond belief and they're a staple on guitarists I don't care about in 99% of occasions.
If anything, they're a sad reflection on how endogamic most guitar players are.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Anything by Strymon

Every other pedal in the world does the same thing they do, just at 1/4 of the price. Plus, you mostly have to attend high end worship services to actually hear them used anywhere....

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Compressor.

It's a terrible effect, IMO. It makes things sound exactly the opposite of how I want them to sound. There is literally never a time in which I want to compress dynamics, outside of intentional overdrive. I put a lot of work into how the dynamics and micro-dynamics are crafted; it's my number one consideration as a musician. The last thing I want to do is to make them more flat after putting all the work into getting them in the first place. If I want something to sound flat, then I'll play it flat, not run it through compression. Yet some people swear by it.

P.S. I will also add that I think the most underrated is e.q. It's the most powerful and versatile effect you can use, but hardly anyone uses it.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Let’s keep this lighthearted.
Zero points for mentioning any Bill Finnegan pedal.

******************************************

To me the most overrated type of pedal is the clean boost. In my brief experience, they do nothing apart from make it louder and slightly more opaque. I’d rather boost with an overdrive and get some interesting coloration, or just use higher output pickups. I find when I use a clean boost with lower output pickups, I don’t get the benefits of a lower output pickup... or a higher output pickup. How many of these things are just glorified buffers with level controls? What’s a clean boost that might change my mind?

Keeley Katana.

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[Sirion]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Wah. Wah can be used well, but it is too often used to cover up when a player has nothing to say.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

My two cents, the Whammy.

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[OsvyRock]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

BOSS?
I prefer MXR all the way!

 

[chadd]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Anything over $200 for a single effect.

As for the clean boost, I use one to juice a couple of my pedals or my dirt channels while retaining the same basic tone. It turns my AC booster from a slightly gritty clean to a nice mid gain dirt pedal. I do roughly the same thing with my OCD clone, though I start with more dirt on that one. On my amp's dirt channels, I get a tighter low end and more saturation with the boost. It may not sound like much out front, but it does just enough to make me happy.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Notice where I put my clean boost in the chain (which flows right to left).
Note: the boost is the white pedal on the left.

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[beaubrummels]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

I started to agree with wah, but now I think wah is just overused more than its overrated.

For me, fuzz is way overrated. Like getting into which chips produce the best fuzz overrated. In the end, they all just sound like fuzz. Maybe some are more nasty and harsh while others more tolerable, but I haven’t found a use for one for more than 3 minutes and never in the context of an actual song. (I reserve the right to change my mind in the future, but for now that’s where it’s at for me.)

 

[dave74]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

I like a slow broad-sweeping almost auto-wah sound during some leads, but not really the quicker vocal wah wah thing, but personally I have no desire for an actual wah pedal, or whammy for that matter.
The whammies can do much more though, like octaving, but just like with the slow auto-wah thing I'd just prefer to get close to it from a standard stomp.

Loose flatulent fuzz isn't for me either. My OpMuff is about as far in that direction as I'd ever want to go, and it's really more of a sizzle crunch than a true fuzz. I love good fuzzy but defined distortions.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

This is great, it’s like a rorschach test of what your shortcomings are as a guitarist. They are all just tools that reflect on the guitarist.

Mine is hard clipped distortion pedals. They sound awful compared to any other option. Rats, DS1s, Distortion +, DOD250, etc. A clean boost, fuzz, transistor boost, FET distortion or soft clipped overdrive into an amp all sound better to me.

That just means I clearly haven’t learned how to use them effectively, right?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

I never cared much for chorus. I don't know how much of that comes from me not having much use for it in my arsenal, or how much people have over and misused it in the past, but I certainly don't have a space for it on my board. It just seems that everyone and their brother was doing the whole "clean picked high output bridge humbucker drenched in chorus" thing over arpeggiated chords way too much back in the day.

If I do need a chorus like effect, I use a Univibe. I find them much more pleasing to the ears.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Notice where I put my clean boost in the chain (which flows right to left).
Note: the boost is the white pedal on the left.

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What I notice here is a Metal Zone...

 

[Demanic]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

What I notice here is a Metal Zone...

A Keeley modded Metalzone, thank you very much. And I use the Keeley Katana to make it even louder for leads. I also have the volume knob pulled out on the Katana to use it as a top boost.[emoji41]

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[Mincer]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Anytime I hear a flanger, I always think a good phaser would sound better.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

Compressor.

It's a terrible effect, IMO. It makes things sound exactly the opposite of how I want them to sound. There is literally never a time in which I want to compress dynamics, outside of intentional overdrive. I put a lot of work into how the dynamics and micro-dynamics are crafted; it's my number one consideration as a musician. The last thing I want to do is to make them more flat after putting all the work into getting them in the first place. If I want something to sound flat, then I'll play it flat, not run it through compression. Yet some people swear by it.

P.S. I will also add that I think the most underrated is e.q. It's the most powerful and versatile effect you can use, but hardly anyone uses it.

That’s funny because I’m exactly the opposite, especially when I’m playing bass. With bass I want my notes on or off! This is probably because I’ve spent so much time recording. On recordings everything is compressed.

When I’m playing guitar I rarely roll back the volume. I don’t clean up my tone that way. I switch to a clearer tone.

Dynamics sound fine when you are playing by yourself. On stage they get lost. You can hear it right by your amp. The people in the back of the room can’t.

And clean guitar sounds wonderful with compression.


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[Mincer]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

I dig compressors for certain things...mostly to make notes pop in a very overly compressed way (think Albert Lee-ish).

 

[Demanic]

Re: Most overrated pedal or type of pedal

If anything, I think compression is underrated. At least compression used properly with a good quality compressor. It's one of those effects that you aren't supposed to notice when it's in use, but you notice when it's turned off.

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