Remember the DOD Grunge?

Spirit of 76

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Do ya'll remember the DOD Grunge Pedal?

I remember when it came out I was really looking forward to getting it. But few weeks after having it, the pedal just stopped working. I sent it back to Musician's Friend and they promptly sent me a new one.

That one died just as quickly.

I didn't abuse them or drop them or do anything that would have killed it, they just flat out worked one day and the next they were dead (I assume it was a first production run bug as I got mine right when they came out).

Anyway, I ended up sending it back and I just took a refund, which was too bad cause I liked how it wounded with my gear when it worked.

Anyone else have a similar experience or, hopefully, a better experience with one of these?
 

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Isn't that the one with the 'Butt' and 'Face' knobs? I don't think I ever tried it. What's it's thing?
 
I have one. It doesn't work. I should probably dig in there and find the Achilles' heel. I could become rich. ;)
 
DOD went through a phase where they started giving "funny" names to the knobs on their pedals. The "butt" knob was the bass knob. I guess that was supposed to qualify as hip Gen X slang back in the mid 90s. I remember the DOD deathmetal distortion pedal had a 3-band EQ with knob names like Growl = Bass, Scream = Mid and Pain = Treble.

Eventually, this extended to goofy graphics printed on the pedal chassis. Their "Meatbox" sub octave pedal looked like a raw steak, marbled with fat. It looked horrible. But some of those old DOD pedals actually sounded pretty good ... or functionally weird.
 
DOD went through a phase where they started giving "funny" names to the knobs on their pedals. The "butt" knob was the bass knob. I guess that was supposed to qualify as hip Gen X slang back in the mid 90s. I remember the DOD deathmetal distortion pedal had a 3-band EQ with knob names like Growl = Bass, Scream = Mid and Pain = Treble.

Eventually, this extended to goofy graphics printed on the pedal chassis. Their "Meatbox" sub octave pedal looked like a raw steak, marbled with fat. It looked horrible. But some of those old DOD pedals actually sounded pretty good ... or functionally weird.

Here is an interesting video about these pedals.

[video]3lcYixBzD5I[/video]

https://youtu.be/3lcYixBzD5I

Anyone know how to embed a YouTube video?
 
I still have one :D don't know if it still works or not, I know a couple people that still have their first run of those and still getting mostly daily use. I might dig it out and give it a try, I have the same circuit (was basically just a mid-scoop fuzz) in a pedal that isn't so glitchy.

edit: mine is a fx69B.......still works, so I guess they went in and fixed whatever issue their first run one did have.
 
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FYI: The Grunge and the Death Metal are the same pedal, that shares the same circuit board. There's just a couple of components that are changed and where one pot is connected. I always thought it would be fun to add a switch so that you could switch between the two.
 
I know DOD was really trying to cut costs back then so that makes sense. I know they are still having some financial issues, as most of their US staff was let go some time ago (before the pandemic).
 
FYI: The Grunge and the Death Metal are the same pedal, that shares the same circuit board. There's just a couple of components that are changed and where one pot is connected. I always thought it would be fun to add a switch so that you could switch between the two.

That’s interesting, I have a Grunge and a Death Metal, and I haven’t compared the boards but they sound different enough to me. But I can believe it.

re: the overall vibe — I would compare it to a Metal Zone, in that it has a very heavily distorted hard clip that obscures the sound of the guitar, and is not dynamic, however with careful tweaking can sound cool. At least for practicing at home.


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That’s interesting, I have a Grunge and a Death Metal, and I haven’t compared the boards but they sound different enough to me. But I can believe it.

I'm getting my wires crossed. I just looked at my DOD Grunge, and it isn't the pedal I though it was. It's the Digitech Grunge and Digitech Death Metal that are same board internally. I don't know if one of those company's took over the other. Seems odd they'd both have the same name pedals.

My Death Metal (Digitech) circuit board says "Grunge" right on it. If I can find it, I'll post a pic.
 
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Yeah, the DigiTech Grunge and D.M. pedals were (at least as far as I knew) basically an update on the former DOD models — but with a separate cab sim output, in addition to a ‘normal’ out.

I haven’t tried that line...but I was always curious, as cab sim is so useful for some purposes.


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That makes sense. My DOD Grunge is all full sized through-hole components. The Digitech Death Metal is mostly more modern surface mount components.
 
Yes, I remember the DOD Grunge pedal very well! I remember when the ''newer DOD versions'' came out and always wanted it. Ended up buying the Supra Distortion instead at the time. I have owned two Grunge pedals but ended up selling them. I picked up the DigiTech version, too, but to me it didn't sound the same. The same with the Death Metal pedal. Both the DODs are great, though. Also, the Ice Box Chorus is very cool from DOD.
 
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