What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

Having sold off most of my pedal collection, the Metal Zone is one of the few pedals I truly miss owning. Really. I don't know how to get a bad sound out of it. Sweep the Midrange Frequency knob back & forth until you hit a sweet spot - a distortion pedal that's "tuned" to your own setup. Most of us who bought the MT-2 are accustomed to hearing it through a 1x8 solid state beginner amp, but mixing it with power tube distortion through a 2x12 is the coolest sound. And never turn the distortion knob above 3.
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

Having sold off most of my pedal collection, the Metal Zone is one of the few pedals I truly miss owning. Really. I don't know how to get a bad sound out of it. Sweep the Midrange Frequency knob back & forth until you hit a sweet spot - a distortion pedal that's "tuned" to your own setup. Most of us who bought the MT-2 are accustomed to hearing it through a 1x8 solid state beginner amp, but mixing it with power tube distortion through a 2x12 is the coolest sound. And never turn the distortion knob above 3.

Can't live by your rules, man. :-)
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

Having sold off most of my pedal collection, the Metal Zone is one of the few pedals I truly miss owning. Really. I don't know how to get a bad sound out of it. Sweep the Midrange Frequency knob back & forth until you hit a sweet spot - a distortion pedal that's "tuned" to your own setup. Most of us who bought the MT-2 are accustomed to hearing it through a 1x8 solid state beginner amp, but mixing it with power tube distortion through a 2x12 is the coolest sound. And never turn the distortion knob above 3.
Finally, someone with some sense and taste. Though usually I have the distortion set to about 12:00. And I always use it through the cleanest sound that I can get through a clean channel on whatever amp I'm running. Oh, and I have one of the Keeley modded ones.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

Having sold off most of my pedal collection, the Metal Zone is one of the few pedals I truly miss owning. Really. I don't know how to get a bad sound out of it. Sweep the Midrange Frequency knob back & forth until you hit a sweet spot - a distortion pedal that's "tuned" to your own setup. Most of us who bought the MT-2 are accustomed to hearing it through a 1x8 solid state beginner amp, but mixing it with power tube distortion through a 2x12 is the coolest sound. And never turn the distortion knob above 3.

I never really got to discover the joys of distortion pedals when I started out, even though did indeed start with a wimpy Peavey 1x10 SS combo. I used graphic EQ pedals to boost the fundamental sound, which I still like since I now have amps with excellent fundamental sounds. But many years later, I did start using distortion pedals through the clean channel once every blue moon, just to have a different flavor.

I think it was the original MXR Distortion + that Randy used to boost his old Marshalls. Limited but fun to play with. He must have used something far more impressive for boost by the time he was playing big concerts with Ozzy, because his live sound on Tribute was awesome.
 
Last edited:
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

I haven't got that many pedals, but still: Behringer flanger machine.

It has a lot of knobs and exactly one good tone in it. Which is useless because of the volume drop and hiss. But I really shouldn't complain. I got it for free because my friend wanted to get rid of it.
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

DOD FX17 (?) Wah/volume (volume fine, wah was horrendous)

Yes. I had one and it sucked so bad that only using it as a continuous controller could redeem it.
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

Yes. I had one and it sucked so bad that only using it as a continuous controller could redeem it.

I don't know if DOD ever came out with another wah. I have no idea how that pedal made it into production.
 
What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

I don't know if DOD ever came out with another wah. I have no idea how that pedal made it into production.

Sounds like a case of "me too" with the pedal production. Probably a cautionary tale for any pedal maker temped to make yet more of what's already out there. If you're going to make something, make something really useful people really need.
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

Yikes. I really have no idea what some of you guys are on about.
I recently tried a stock MZ through my 2x12 rig and dang.

Went easy on the gain, conservative with the EQ and it did a decent Pantera impression. That's the best I could get out of it. I tweaked the crap out of it; went fully clean in the amp, went with a slightly crunchy amp and taking the gain back from the pedal, as a boost, and just about every use I could think of and it just didn't deliver for me.

IMO, it's too thin and fake in the mids to do anything I really like, the high-end is either muffled or grating, always sounding "like a pedal" and never transparent, and the bass EQ sits way too low in the frequencies, which is excellent for small SS combos but, IMO, really useless for "real" (I hate that word in this context but you know what I mean) amps.

I had a modified MZ (Diezel mod) that sat the bass at a more punchy frequency and opened up the mids a bit, while taking some fizz off. I'd give that a go if I had the chance.

I guess if I wanted to get a sound like Death or Carcass, a stock MZ could be good but I'm not into Death Metal anymore.
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

I confess: I had that Rocktek Distortion pedal. Also had their Chorus and Flanger. Wish I hadn't. The flimsy wasn't as bad as the not-having-tone.
Oh well, I moved up to racks shortly after (and largely due to that), and I stuck with those for over 20 years.

Got back into pedals a few years ago when I finally got a "real" amp - Marshall JCM800 - and I don't know how you guys were/are setting your Metal Zone, but I'm pretty sure if you only had it when you didn't know what you know now, you did something wrong.

I'm nailing tons of early Metallica stuff (you know, the stuff they did way before that "Black" album) with a Metal Zone, a RAT, and even a Big Muff. You know, when they were good.

Then again, it does depend on the amp, speakers, and cabinet you're going through. Pedals do for amps what amps can't for themselves, whether it's all the work or just going a little farther. Period. If the amp already does it, and you drop a pedal that does something similar but different in front of it, you're doing it wrongly.

You don't put baseball cards in the spokes of a 10-speed, so why put a dirt pedal in front of an amp that shovels a ton of dirt by itself?

Using a Distortion-class pickup into a high-gain pedal into a high-gain amp and complaining about the noise is like peeing in the well and then complaining the water tastes like pee.
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

17 posts and nobody mentioned Boss Metal Zone....

What's up ? :firing:
Drop a $25 Monti Allums mod kit in those and they turn into GREAT sounding MONSTERS! Smooth dynamic articulate just fantastic sounding pedals. So many folk pawn then so they sell for nothing but mod one and it will blow your MIND how good they become!
http://www.monteallums.com/mp3s/MT2_Sustainia.mp3
 
Last edited:
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

The bottom line for me is : if it requires a JCM800 and at least a 2x12 cab to sound good, it's not a good pedal. I have other BOSS pedals I've had since the 80s and they work in every amp I plug them into. Just sayin' .
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

The bottom line for me is : if it requires a JCM800 and at least a 2x12 cab to sound good, it's not a good pedal. I have other BOSS pedals I've had since the 80s and they work in every amp I plug them into. Just sayin' .

Exactly my thoughts.

I bet an Epi Les Paul Special II sounds great through that amp and cab too, but it doesn't make it a great guitar.
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

Probably the Boss DS-1. The distortion was way too fuzzy, and more suited to a Nirvana tribute band lol.
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

DOD Meatbox. I paid $19 for it new. Wasn't worth it. Lol. Cracks me up that they are selling for a lot of money now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

The bottom line for me is : if it requires a JCM800 and at least a 2x12 cab to sound good, it's not a good pedal. I have other BOSS pedals I've had since the 80s and they work in every amp I plug them into. Just sayin' .

Generally true. But bottom line, if it sounds good through your specific rig, it IS good. This can sometimes apply to stock pickups also. Some people simply can't imagine running stock pickups, but they aren't all bad. That could be the secret that makes you sound just a little different....
 
Re: What is/was the worst pedal you ever had?

I've had an RP-6, an RP-14d, an RP-50, and an RP-100, and they all sounded like dry macaroni from a 49-cent box.

I had an RP 1 which I liked. So I got an RP 10, but the wah never worked. It was s big disappointment but I could use the expression pedal for other things.

The problem is that whatever guitar I used, they all sounded pretty much the same. That's when I decided to go all analog.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top