Your guitar pedals — tell us about them

[Phil OKeefe]

This thread was Dub-T-123's idea. 

Tell us about your guitar pedals/pedalboard/pedal collection!

 

[RBSinTo]

Phil,

My guitars don't have pedals. I took them off when I motorized them.

RBSinTo

[ksdaddy]

I've got a Belle Epoch Tape Echo and a cheap Behringer digital delay, neither of which I've used in at least 2 or 3 years.

In the 80s I used a ProCo Rat and a Boss CE-2 Chorus.  I had an original Tube Screamer (yawn). Wish I had stuffed it away for ebay riches later on. I had no idea.

Never was much of a stomper I guess.

[jdgm]

I (still) have about 40 pedals but I'm not up with the modern ambient reverb and glitchy ones.  Or loopers - which is my bad, as they say.

Might post pics.  Most recent pedal I got is the Eventide Ultratap butI don't like having to have a computer app in order to access all the features.  I have a few delay pedals including a Dub Dark Cloud...I wish I'd asked him to add a tap tempo function now.

A modded Rat and/or DS-1 is a fine thing; I have both, and 2 modded Boss GE7 eq pedals.  My favourite chorus is the Ibanez DCF10; I used to collect chorus pedals and wish I still had the Ibanez CSL which was one of the very best-sounding choruses I've heard.   The MXR reissue chorus M134 and M117 flanger are 99% accurate reissues as far as sound goes - I know because I had originals and still have an old MXR limiter which is a fine soft-knee compressor. 

The Keeley 4-knob comp deserves its rep.  The Foxrox Octron II is  brilliant.  The Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe + has plenty of good  sounds but is fussy with connections and too large. The VS Route 66 OD/comp is very useful and I also have an Xotic AC+, though that has been superseded by a King of Tone; sneer if you like, but it's the best-sounding overdrive I've ever had by a country mile.

I've noticed that some of my pedals don't like being connected to a common psu however good it is.

We need a pedal thread badly (or even bigly) so 

I am not into Klons or Klones; I bought a cheap one and it did nothing that can't be done with a fairly standard OD pedal IMO.

Edited April 6 by jdgm

[Californiaman]

Wow!

Where to begin? Well let's start with one of the very first pedals I got as a gift from my family way back in shoot 2009, maybe.  Anyway, it's the HomeBrew Electronics (HBE) Ultimate Fuzz Octave.  This is by far one of the most incredible pedals in my collection.  It's got a vintage or modern toggle, It's got the octave up side as well as regular fuzz.  Ive played it side by side to my Fultone Octave pedal and it is far superior in my opinion.   So that's one of my all-time favorite pedals.

My oldest pedals I got back in the late 80s.  They are Boss Bass Pedals.  I was playing bass back then and wanted some tonal variation.  So I picked up the Boss Bass EQ, a Boss Bass Flanger and a Boss Bass Chorus.  I still have them and break them out from time to time when I want to get creative with my Alembic Spoiler.

I guess the very first guitar pedal I ever bought was the Boss HM2 Heavy Metal Pedal.  Talk about dialing in the Judas Priest Tone!!!.  In fact, my daughter was taking a guitar class in school and had to perform a song for the class.  She chose Priest's "Breaking the Law" and of course it was that high-gain metal machine of a pedal that helped her nail the tone.  I bought this pedal in the 80s as well. 

The oldest pedal I own is my Thomas Organ Crybaby Wah made in Sepulvada, CA.  It's old and I haven't played in some time.  It needs a good cleaning and going through, but last time I used it, it did exactly what it's supposed to do.  After I go through it and clean it up, I'm thinking of putting it up for sale.  A lot of people collect these older wahs so we'll see.

So it's no secret that I like Fulltone Pedals.  I've never owned a bad one and I like the products because the have never let me down.  They do exactly what they are designed to do.  Which brings me to my next statement.  If you have something against Mike Fuller, say it somewhere else.  Because I don't want to read it or hear it.  Your opinion is your own, but keep it to yourself.  I buy his  pedals because they're good, they do what they are supposed to do and the build quality is awesome.

A few years ago Fuller made 244, '69  Slight Return fuzz pedals, based off the Fuzz Face design.  Well I ponied up the cash and ended up getting No. 45.  Great Fuzz Face tones.  Love the way this sounds with my Stratocaster.

One of my favorite pedals is my Fulltone MDVII a Deja Vibe.  It's the white, rocker pedal version and I love this thing.  It's great for the Hendrix stuff and of course Robbin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs".  And this brings me to what some people might think is a Fulltone fixation.  Believe me, Mike makes great pedals and I've bought a few in my time and have never been disappointed.

Which is why I bought the germanium Fulltone Ranger OC74.. The versatility of this is due to the range of six different settings on it and a level knob to boost the output.  It rocks!

Now for the latest rabbit hole:  I was in Palm Desert not too long ago and came across a Old Stock In the Box Fulltone OCD.  It was built in June of 2005 so it's fairly early.  The price was right at $80.00 so I bought it.  Fell in love with it.  I think the OCD is one of the best overdrives out there.  I love the build quality of Fulltone products, they're built sturdy, like a tank, and they do exactly what they are supposed to do.  So .....  

Recently I found a bunch of Fulltone Pedals for sale on Craigslist.  They were all in pristine shape.  Some of them were the big boxes too. Vintage.  I decided to contact the seller and well I've bought a bunch of them.  I think I started with the Custom Shop Fulldrive 3 20th Anniversary.  This pedal has a lot of features but it's basically an overdrive and a boost.  In fact, I was using this morning. There are two settings for the drive, 90/s and Wide Asymmetry.  The pedal can be used OD and Boost or Boost and OD.  So that's cool.  You can also use it with just OD or just Boost.  I think it's certainly board worthy.

Shortly afterwards, because the seller was willing to set them aside for me, I picked up the vintage Octafuzz, the vintage '70 Fuzz, a Soul Bender Mark II. 

Of course the latest is the OCD Ge I picked up last week.  It's every bit the pedal I expected it to be.  It's got a little more bottom end of the mid-range and that's OK.

So.... that's just scratching surface of my collection.  The Fulltone collection has been a wonderful addition, as I think I own roughly nine or ten Fulltone pedals now.

This is a thread that I'd like to see keep going.  I'm looking at one of the Dweezle Zappa pedals he's got up for auction.  If I can get it at the right price, I'll post it next.

Edited April 6 by Californiaman

[Sheepdog1969]

Ibanez Tube Screamer  TS808

Ibanez Tuber Screamer  TS5

Behringer Ultra Chorus UC200

Seymour Duncan Studio Bass Compressor

and my favorite:  Ross Distortion

['Scales]

My live set up for gigs:

 

Tell you about it? ...  well, it has some pretty lights that move around, and it shows letters. There are buttons that probably do something too!!

[Dub-T-123]

16 hours ago, Phil OKeefe said:

This thread was Dub-T-123's idea. 

Tell us about your guitar pedals/pedal collection!

 

Don’t leave us hangin!! I heard someone said “Biphase”?! 
 

I have a Mutron Phasor II which is almost 1/2 of a Biphase. A fine gentleman from this forum sold me a box of broken pedals for $20 and I fixed the mutron and harvested parts from the others (broken DOD pedals with nice bbd chips)

 

Here’s a super old photo I dug out of Imgur 

 

And heres a random old pic of one of my builds. If you know you know! Wima TFM?! Yer boy is shellin out

 

Edited April 6 by Dub-T-123

[Dub-T-123]

I’m trying so hard not to make disparaging remarks about Fulltone but I just can’t seem to contain it. Fulltone SUCKS I freakin hate all their **** except the tape echoes 

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Fully acoustic, so none.

[Sgt. Pepper]

4 hours ago, Dub-T-123 said:

I’m trying so hard not to make disparaging remarks about Fulltone but I just can’t seem to contain it. Fulltone SUCKS I freakin hate all their **** except the tape echoes 

 

Doesn’t Robin Trower use Fulltone stuff?

[Phil OKeefe]

5 hours ago, Dub-T-123 said:

I’m trying so hard not to make disparaging remarks about Fulltone but I just can’t seem to contain it. Fulltone SUCKS I freakin hate all their **** except the tape echoes 

 

Mike can be a controversial guy and rubs some people the wrong way, but I think he and Fulltone have made some great pedals beyond the tape echoes. One of my favorite pedals of all time is my V1.3 OCD. It's a fantastic overdrive pedal IMHO. YMMV. 

[Sgt. Pepper]

20 minutes ago, Phil OKeefe said:

Mike can be a controversial guy and rubs some people the wrong way, but I think he and Fulltone have made some great pedals beyond the tape echoes. One of my favorite pedals of all time is my V1.3 OCD. It's a fantastic overdrive pedal IMHO. YMMV. 

A controversial guy as in he has his own thoughts and opinions and expresses them?

Just like that d-ouch wad Neil Young, or Bono, or Springsteen, you can have any opinion you want as long as it’s the same as theirs.

Edited April 6 by Sgt. Pepper

[Phil OKeefe]

8 hours ago, Dub-T-123 said:

Don’t leave us hangin!! I heard someone said “Biphase”?! 

 

I won't be posting a picture of that one, or of my Boss Box 40 set - both are boxed up and in storage ATM, but I do happen to have a few of my other Boss pedals sitting out, so here's a shot of some of those. Most of these are newer pedals (circa 1990s to 2020), but the CE-2 is from 1980, the PH-1r is from 1983, and the BF-2 is from 1981. The SG-1 is the fourth one I've owned over the years; I got my first one the same year as this one is from - 1980. At the time, it seemed like I was the only one who used one; you never saw them on anyone else's board. This one is darned near flawless... and yes, I have the box. 😉 

 

 

I currently have three pedalboards, one of which has a Carl Martin switcher on it and a bunch of mini pedals that I use for live use when I don't feel like taking the two main boards. This is my main "dirt" board. 

 

And this is my main modulation and delay board. 

 

I have a bunch of other pedals that are not on any of the three boards. Mainly, they're all in their original boxes in a closet, and I take them out whenever I need them for various projects. I also have all of the current generation Maestro pedals. I don't have any pics with all of them together, but here's a shot of several of them in use with my two Boogies. 

 

 

[Phil OKeefe]

52 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

A controversial guy as in he has his own thoughts and opinions and expresses them?

Just like that d-ouch wad Neil Young, or Bono, or Springsteen, you can have any opinion you want as long as it’s the same as theirs.

I personally don't have any problems with Mike. I never have. I was just acknowledging that some people do. IMO, he's as entitled to his opinions as anyone else is. 

 

[Phil OKeefe]

8 hours ago, Dub-T-123 said:

 

And heres a random old pic of one of my builds. If you know you know! Wima TFM?! Yer boy is shellin out

 

 Very nice! A good, clean build with excellent parts! 

[Sgt. Pepper]

5 minutes ago, Phil OKeefe said:

I personally don't have any problems with Mike. I never have. I was just acknowledging that some people do. IMO, he's as entitled to his opinions as anyone else is. 

 

Except here as a mod you have to toe the party (company) line. I’ve expressed my opinions here and a few times sent to guitar jail.

Edited April 6 by Sgt. Pepper

[Phil OKeefe]

3 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Except here as a mod you have to toe the party (company) line. I’ve expressed my opinions here and a few times sent to guitar jail.

I don't get into political discussions here, if that's what you mean. And that same rule applies to everyone here, whether I agree with their POV or not. 

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

4 minutes ago, Phil OKeefe said:

I don't get into political discussions here, if that's what you mean. And that same rule applies to everyone here, whether I agree with their POV or not. 

 

I don’t think I have ever been booted for politics. All of them are a waste of  air as far as I’m concerned.

[Phil OKeefe]

Back to pedals, here's a few shots of some builds I've done. IIRC, these were all from kits, or PCBs I bought and then sourced the parts separately. 

First is a Vox V806 clone. It's a treble booster, but definitely different than your typical Rangemaster clone. 

 

 

A Pep Box fuzz clone. The PCB came from ghost pedals in the UK. I tried to do the engraved label plaque similar to the ones on the original Pepe Rush pedals, but with ghost acknowledged instead of WEM, and credit to Pepe Rush as the designer. 

The clear coat messed up the paint, but I ended up liking the effect, so instead of stripping it down and redoing it, I just left it alone. 

 

And the gutshot... 

 

And here's a P2P wah I built from a kit... I think I have about five different wah pedals. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Phil OKeefe]

Here's a fun one that I ordered directly from Stu Castledine in the UK - the Magical Mystery Box. It's a Vox Conqueror preamp circuit, complete with the Midrange Boost, in a pedal. This, and the Aclam Dr. Robert (a Vox UL730 preamp in pedal form) are both great for getting mid-era Beatles tones. Both are especially good running into my AC15. 

 

 

[Dub-T-123]

1 hour ago, Phil OKeefe said:

Mike can be a controversial guy and rubs some people the wrong way, but I think he and Fulltone have made some great pedals beyond the tape echoes. One of my favorite pedals of all time is my V1.3 OCD. It's a fantastic overdrive pedal IMHO. YMMV. 

I don’t know anything about his personal opinions or anything like that, I just hate what he does with his pedals.

 

The whole thing with the 69 and Soul Bender was that they were made with the mythical NKT275.
 

If you don’t know, the Newmarket NKT275 was the transistor model used in the first version of the Fuzz Face, made popular by Jimi Hendrix. Germanium transistors were made obsolete by silicon transistors in the 60s-70s so Newmarket stopped producing the NKT275 long ago. The remaining stocks of this transistor have all been bought up long ago and the modicum of scraps we have left have all been picked through several times. 
 

Back when repairing electronics was still a thing, a guy would open up a broken radio and see an NKT275 inside. If he comes to the conclusion that the transistor needs to be replaced, he goes to Radio Shack or Fry’s and looks for an NKT275. Silly boy, that hasn’t been available for over 50 years. No need to worry though, a modern manufacturer saw this (incredibly niche) business opportunity and decided to produce modern germanium transistors for use in repairing vintage electronics.

 

Their factory produces a huge batch of transistors which are very inconsistent. If a batch of transistors comes out with specs that are close enough to the specs published on the datasheet of a common obsolete part number, they are labeled with that part number to be used as replacements

 

So we have newly manufactured transistors marked NKT275 which are not affiliated with the actual Newmarket NKT275 in any way. They didn’t use any original manufacturing equipment or anything like that, it is completely unrelated to the original part

 

Enter Fulltone. He reads the room and sees that there is a ton of hype surrounding the NKT275 but an extreme lack of knowledge or even a desire to understand. He can say anything he wants knowing that nobody will question him. 
 

I feel like if you’ve made it this far through my long winded post you can pretty much connect the dots from here. 
 

Guy prints OC75 on the front of the box of his rangemaster clone, uses modern remake of OC75 which is in no way related to a real OC75. There are countless superior NOS options available for less money but Fulltone intentionally confuses their customers by using a modern remake of a hyped part #

 

This type of marketing really hurts the honest guys and puts the lowest common denominator up on a pedestal. When I see the Fulltone ranger I see something altogether embarrassing. Your mileage may vary

 

The tape echoes on the other hand required extensive R&D and they almost undersold them in marketing which is kinda baffling but also makes sense. They were probably losing money on the tape echoes but raking it in on the nonsense 

 

basically in a nutshell if you want to buy a Neumann u47 but you think Warm Audio can stamp VF14M on any tube and sell it to you for $400 then Fulltone is your guy

[Retired]

I have a Zoom G3Xn Multi-Effects Processor, a MXR analog Chorus Pedal, a Boss Compression Sustainer, a Digitech Screamin' Blues pedal, A B9 electro -harmonix Organ Machine pedal. Also a Marshall electronic amp with over 80 sounds. I used to use them but not in the last several years. 

[Dub-T-123]

**** that didn’t even feel good to get off my chest. I hate Fulltone but he’s just a net negative on the whole industry. Whining about his BS just makes you feel and look bad.

 

Anyway Phil you did a great job on your DIY builds and you have EXCELLENT taste in general. 
 

Your Lovetone stuff is especially nice. I built a copy of the Meatball and Cheese Source and they’re both incredible. The meatball is easily the best analog envelope filter ever made 

[Phil OKeefe]

33 minutes ago, Dub-T-123 said:

Anyway Phil you did a great job on your DIY builds and you have EXCELLENT taste in general. 
 

Thank you. 

Quote

Your Lovetone stuff is especially nice. I built a copy of the Meatball and Cheese Source and they’re both incredible. The meatball is easily the best analog envelope filter ever made 

Thanks again! I am a big fan of the Lovetone pedals. "Big Pedals To Trip Over" is one of the best pedal marketing lines of all time, IMO. And they really are unique and fun pedals. 

The pedal with the Mr Zogs sticker (Sex Wax) is a Lovetone Big Cheese clone. I also have a FTelettronica Anonymous Flange, which is a clone of the Flange With No Name. I eventually would like to get one of the originals, but whenever I see one up for sale, they're always priced too high for my tastes. I'm hoping to eventually find a great deal on one, but they're so rare that it's unlikely I ever will. But hope springs eternal! In the meantime, the clone is quite nice, and nails the sound of the originals, which again, I don't own, but I have used them before.  The Meatball is really the only other one I might eventually pick up. Since I have a Brown Source, and a Big Cheese clone, I really don't need a Cheese Source, and I'm not a huge fan of ring modulation, so I doubt I'll ever pick up a Ring Stinger.