Worst effects of the 80's and 90's.

[The Shocker]

http://proguitarshop.com/andyscorner/worst-effects-from-the-80s-90s

Agree, disagree or want to add to the list?

[MR. CREEPER]

I owned the Xtortion(still do actually). It was great as afr as I am concerned. Made my tone for the latter '90's, and into the 2000's till I did some major amp upgrading. This was the precursor to the Megadistortion, and I think sounded better. I also bought the Black Licorice at one point, cheap, just for fun, and it was ok, not great. However, the Xtortion, in my opinion, was better sounding than the Metal Zone.

[The Riffer]

I was in a band with a dude who had something called a death metal pedal. To me it sounded unbelievably shitty, and he loved it. I cringed every time he stomped on it.

[RAGER]

^That's always the shitty thing about being in a band with another guitar player.  I try to avoid that.

[MR. CREEPER]

In some cases, yeah. I had played the Death Metal pedal, and the Grunge pedal. Of the two, the Grunge sounded better. However, either was to my personal liking. Xtortion had a great tone shaping section, and had more of a higher gain DS-1 type sound.

[Chovie D]

I own a bunch of those. there was a time when i would buy ANY pedal if it was $15 or less. just to have a bunch of different sounds in the studio.

I both agree and disagree with the article I guess.

Boss has made some clunkers for sure. that weird chorus with the buttons? the slow Gear? but they are legendary and therefor collectible. Xtortion even .

some of those ibanez soundtank pedals are really good. tubescreamer is fine, delays, phaser, tremelo, all good. the foot switches blow on em.

worst effects to me are the metal, thrashmetal grunge, anything with the genre name on the pedal is gonna blow.

blues driver is okay i guess.

[rayinreverse]

We just used a Boss Metallizer on a track.  Normally I would hate that pedal, but it fit the song so well.  I think quicksand used it to record Slip.

[Lumpy]

The DOD SupraDistortion legitimately sucks. Only sounds good if you roll everything way back (and who's actually gonna do that?)

[liquidsmoke]

I was curious about the Death Metal Pedal many many years back but never bought one.

These look like something from a super low budget '80s sci-fi movie


Whoa, that pic is huge. Sorry.

[spookstrickland]

I don't think there is any really bad pedals.  They are all good for a certain sound that in the right context can be just right.  Now some pedals are built like shit though.  Sountanks and those old rocktecks are for sure built like shit!

[Lumpy]

Death Metal pedals are kinda cool, but my experience is that they can only do one sound (the distortion is always up full, you only get EQ and Vol knobs). I think they could be useful for recording (as one layer of multi-tracked guitar, or for a guitar solo, or put your backup vocals through it, or on your cheap keyboard etc etc).

[bbottom]

I've never played one, but  Gonkulators sound pretty terrible. For some reason they actually go for a good bit of change now too

[dogfood]

I bought a dod octave shifter which only works on the neck pick up and warbles in and out of effect??!!  FUCK THAT!  At least most pedals have shit tone or break.  This one just flat didn't "effect".  80's.

[xayk]

I've never played one, but  Gonkulators sound pretty terrible. For some reason they actually go for a good bit of change now too

I got one new in like 1996, still have it. It's a borderline unusable pedal from a heavy music standpoint. But it's interesting for noise, and comes in handy for NES/C64 type stuff, if that's your thing. Despite the dumb eBay prices, I just can't seem to get rid of it.

[Chovie D]

some of the really bad pedals are collectible and demand pretty good prices on ebay. The gonkulator, Xtortion... and the buzzbox.

the buzzbox truly sounds like somethings broken, its just pure noise. people like thurston moore were using em at one point.
I own one was playing it and it actually blew the transformer in my 72 champ somehow.

[RacerX]

Any chorus pedal.

[Jake]

I would have to say that some of the worst effects of the '80s and '90s were mullets and singers that slurred every line into an "AAAAaaaaaa," respectively.

[Lumpy]

Any chorus pedal.

Any chorus pedal in 80s heavy metal is probably bad. But chorus is good when Andy Summers uses it. It's good in post punk stuff like Echo & the Bunnymen.

Some people turn the rate all the way down and leave it on all the time, because it adds subtle movement/depth, without being noticeable. (dudes who like "tone")

So while I usually hate chorus, it can be good sometimes.

[Chovie D]

when effects were first becoming popular amongst us guitar playing kids, we all thought we needed a chorus "OMG it makes your guitar sound like a 12 string! I can play the Rain Song!!"

[VOLVO)))]

Ive done the low rate chorus trick playing black metal before.


Buzzbox killed my beta Lead one time.

Those cheap Fender pedals are garbage. I have the Chorus, sounds uneffected all the time.

[Chovie D]

I wouldnt turn one of these down

[VOLVO)))]

Me either, funky..

[eddiefive10]

I wouldnt turn one of these down

My room mate in college had one it was pretty bad ass

[dogfood]

Any chorus pedal.

this.

[Pissy]

There was a time when the 1958-1960 Les Paul's were not popular. All it took was for a guy like Eric Clapton to develop a new sound with one before they became the most sought after items in the history of rock musicians.

I'm going to do that with Rocktron effects. Yep.