Worst pedal you've ever used?

[Rusty]

...vintage 1970's FENDER BLENDER...yuck

[Jenix]

I tried friends digitech death metal. wow, just wow.

[Del Pickup]

The DOD Classic Tube pedal was pretty awful. I've still got it - but only cos no-one would take it off my hands!!

[djdeacon]

Originally Posted by charlie chitlin

Any compressor.
OK...I'll be slipping into my Nomex undies now.

Actually, I tend to agree. I fight compressors. I like being able to control my dynamics with my playing. They're necessary when recording, but I've never been able to do anything useful with one live.

[studio1087]

The first generation ZOOM pedal..the silver box with two plastic pedals. I bought one on ebay for $6.00 and it was supposed to do ever effect in the universe.

$6.00 - I got what I paid for. What was I expecting??

[Flat357]

JHS Wah ... I was a naive kid

[Big Lug]

Originally Posted by Lance

That horrible Boss Acoustic Simulator.....

I'm not sure anything can really be any worse.

Yep.

[Newfie_J.]

Boss mega distortion.
I love pedals and I always try to find atleast SOMETHING cool about it!
Nope.
Not this one.

Even the crappy DOD Supra distortion had 1 cool sound when you cranked the gain and zeroed the tone.

[fakeocaster]

Another vote for the Boss AC2


"In the end there can be only one"

[hatecrew]

Digitech Death Metal
Line6 Uber Metal
EHX Dr Q Nano
Boss AC-3

I've had a long list of pedals that i used to have... and I've got to say that most of the disappointments were the metal high-gain distortion pedals.

Luckily for me I never bought the Digitech...

I actually like EHX but the past 3 EHX pedals i had so far (sold all of them already) generated so much noise that they were unusable. what a disappointment.

[Radspin]

A RAT that I bought new in 2006. I bought it on an impulse and got rid of it soon after--just a cheesy, bright, tinny, crappy-sounding distortion that was awful using live. I've heard that older RATs are much better.

[vjf1968]

Well lets see. A Morley Rotating Wah, which was basically a giant piece of machinery with a pedal attached to a big silver box. Totally impractical for live use and noisy as well. And it sounded like s#*t.

A Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face. I know its a classic and there are a legion of fans who swear by it but I could not get this thing to sound good. Maybe they are better going through a EL84 amp than a Twin.

A Boss Flanger or any flanger in general. To me its an effect that just does nothing. On the other hand I do have a vintage MXR Micro Flanger that does a pretty convincing fast Leslie effect

EH Big Muff. I can not stand these things. Had a NYC one as opposed to a Russian made one. There are better pedals out there that do the job better in a smaller footprint and are a lot less noisy.

Nowadays I try to steer clear of pedal fads and trends and try to stick with pedals that have some staying power and a lot more flexibility.

[teleclem]

Originally Posted by Beerts

the Behringer acoustic simulator stunk! and the Digitech Eric Clapton thing I thought was a sonic disaster too (just my opinion)

hated my behringer acoustic thing! it was baad.

[ghosttour]

Vestax delay. Ugh.

[Vol. Knob]

ROSS Distortion. Just plain bad. But then again, I had it in '87 and I was 17, playing an Ibanez Blazer (strat copy) or a Kramer flying V copy, through a Peavey Classic. The pedal could have been the only good thing in that signal path. Add to that, I was an aspiring shredder who worshiped Yngwie.

A few years later, a Rocktron Distortion Generator. Just Aweful. It sounded like the distoriton Boston gets. I was 21 (1991) and played a Heavy Metal Strat through a Fender M80 Halfstack and was more into Napalm Death and Morbid Angel. So Boston styled distortion was not for me. In retrospect, my entire rig at the time sucked.

In the late '90s as my taste and ablities changed for the better, post Nirvana era, a Russian Sovtek Big Muff was the most dissapointing (Strat & Tele, Pro Reverb, playing Alternative Rock)

As my tastes, ears and abilities improved.... I'd say the Danelectro Fab Tone is the one that has been the most offensive that entered my signal path for any length of time (three years ago, Strat & Tele, Pro Reverb, playing southern rock, blues, and Grateful Dead covers).

Currently I use one pedal, a Vox Valvetronix Tonelab SE (Strat & Tele, no amp, direct to PA, playing modern rock covers, '90s covers, '80s covers, '70s covers, '60s covers, originals.... and Grateful Dead covers..) . It does not suck. But I bet I could program some aweful sounds into it.

[guitarzan13]

A Dan-o Psyco Flanger.....way over the top swirly

[Tiki]

Fulltone Distortion Pro.

This is not the worst pedal I've heard, but it was the most disappointing. I bought it as soon as they came out expecting great things. I've had it for several years and have tried many times to like it but this pedal just doesn't cut it for me.

[KeepSwinging]

Originally Posted by Paul in Colorado

DOD Supra-Distortion. It seemed OK in the store. I lived with it for a couple of years. I hadn't owned a distortion pedal in years and just figured it was me. It wasn't.

A friend of mine has one he uses with his bass for making it sound bad.

I'm going with the same thing. That pedal was so plain and cheap, ugh. I think my mom uses it as a paper weight now, it's the best use for that pedal.

[TelZilla]

1987 RAT. Just sounded buzzy and metallic to me...

[MBradford6288]

Dano sitar swami. Yikes!!!