“Legendary” Gear: Unreasonable Expectations

[coupleonapkins]

The Line 6 FM4 was on my list for awhile (because Graham Coxon), even as the shoddy build quality of that series kept local prices around $100, but once I finally got one, it died almost immediately. Can't say that's an unreasonable expectation, but stacking two cheaper, more reliable envelope filters instead definitely did the trick, afterward.

Other non-legendary gear that has been a letdown: Ibanez Echo Shifter (looked & sounded pretty snazzy, but basically fell apart in my hands - common broken fader/PCB failure issues), Korg Monotribe (truly wonderful to the ears, but built like a cereal box pinball machine).

Once had a MicroMoog, but had to sell it just to break even on repair costs (plastic shell-era Moogs will do that do you). Also, I was terrible at playing solos (unchickcorea'd). The filter was astounding, however.

So I suppose it's just the mechanical nature of this/my old gear that failed me, but I didn't want to be that guy from Minus The Bear with a warehouse full of broken DL4s (touring will make you crazy).

[Blackened Soul]

I think the problem is more to do with understanding what a thing is and does and being able to use it within the confines of what it does. The reason the things that are “legendary” is because of who used them and how they used them and what they used them for.

[$harkToootth]

Korg Wavestation EX

[Glitches&switches]

This is an interesting thread indeed. I have been thinking about this in my quest of all these rare pedals and then I get them and honestly am disappointed in some way or another. I blame "Knobs" this all started with his videos making pedals seem like boxes of magic! I find myself moving away from effects pedals that just have too much going on and am now ensioning pedals that are simpler but excel in evey way at what they do and I am seeking out more "amateur" videos for examples when deciding on pedals and yes I still watch "Knobs" videos afterwards just because they delight me with their ambient gooeyness, lol!

[The Eristic]

Another one of mine was a Fender Twin (although, it was a Red Knob twin so ymmv). It sounded nice and it was louder than anything I’d ever heard, but something about it didn’t quite sound right to my ears. The clean sound made my guitar sound more like an acoustic guitar than anything else (I hate the way most acoustic guitars sound for some reason). And I REALLY didn’t like the way it sounded with fuzz. It made everything I put through it unbearably high-pitched. Currently, my favorite guitar tone is clean and straight into the mixing board.

Try a BF/SF example if you can (or even the '65 RI, they are plenty nice). Red Knobs tend to require a TON of fiddling and tweaking and the notch filter can fuck you up all kinds of ways if you don't know exactly what you're going for and how it's going to interact with everything else (which is what I'd probably attribute the "acoustic" quality to).

[qersty]

Another one of mine was a Fender Twin (although, it was a Red Knob twin so ymmv). It sounded nice and it was louder than anything I’d ever heard, but something about it didn’t quite sound right to my ears. The clean sound made my guitar sound more like an acoustic guitar than anything else (I hate the way most acoustic guitars sound for some reason). And I REALLY didn’t like the way it sounded with fuzz. It made everything I put through it unbearably high-pitched. Currently, my favorite guitar tone is clean and straight into the mixing board.

Try a BF/SF example if you can (or even the '65 RI, they are plenty nice). Red Knobs tend to require a TON of fiddling and tweaking and the notch filter can fuck you up all kinds of ways if you don't know exactly what you're going for and how it's going to interact with everything else (which is what I'd probably attribute the "acoustic" quality to).

The best twins are the 70s mv

[$harkToootth]

So uhh... do you still have dat prophet 01010111?
Side note -> This is on my 'to read' list... we'll get to it when we get to it.

[dubkitty]

one is the Buzzaround circuit. i bought the Earthquaker dealie in an effort to get Fripp's fuzz from the Fripp/Eno albums, and it really doesn't do that at all. the other is the Devi Ever Truly Beautiful Disaster. the oscillation is unusable--all it does is square-wave stairsteps--the fuzz less than optimal, and the electric-eye sensor doesn't do much at all. i keep it around because it's great when you put a second fuzz in the pedal's effects loop...the second pedal feeds back and the note is uber-tunable, so you can kick in the loop and get a predetermined feedback note. but other than that it's quite useless.

[01010111]

I forgot about the Devi Ever stuff. There were quite a few of her legendary fuzzes that I never tried, but didn’t care enough to seek them out after trying a dozen or so of her other pedals.

That’s good to hear about the Truly Beautiful Disaster. That and the Synth Mangler were two that I always wanted to try out. Feedback loops always are more useful than you think they’re going to be, though. Did anyone ever try the Heaven’s Gate pedal they made?

[$harkToootth]

I really REALLY wanted to make myself get the truly beautiful disaster... but from watching demos... deduced everything dubkitty said. I couldn’t do it... and that says something I had the money, found one discounted... couldn’t dot it. Honestly, I wanted it because of the FX Loop and the photocell. Since we’re all full of compliments today... I think it was Eivind’s demo that made me go... “You can pass”. Event he maestro couldn’t get the umpf factor out of it like he does so many other boxes.

[Glitches&switches]

one is the Buzzaround circuit. i bought the Earthquaker dealie in an effort to get Fripp's fuzz from the Fripp/Eno albums, and it really doesn't do that at all. the other is the Devi Ever Truly Beautiful Disaster. the oscillation is unusable--all it does is square-wave stairsteps--the fuzz less than optimal, and the electric-eye sensor doesn't do much at all. i keep it around because it's great when you put a second fuzz in the pedal's effects loop...the second pedal feeds back and the note is uber-tunable, so you can kick in the loop and get a predetermined feedback note. but other than that it's quite useless.

Is it the big expanded version of the truly beautiful disaster? If memory serves me right that was the only one that had the optical sensor? I always wanted to try that one, mostly because of the optical sensor and the feedback loop but kinda figured I would likely not find it usable for my needs, it is a nice piece of artwork though and I bet the feedback loop is fun.

[Jwar]

I'm not sure I even want to answer this thread. LOL! I've done a lot of spending over the yeas and let's just say this, nothing is ever as good as its hype. Not in my experience. Not a damn thing.

[$harkToootth]

I'm not sure I even want to answer this thread. LOL! I've done a lot of spending over the yeas and let's just say this, nothing is ever as good as its hype. Not in my experience. Not a damn thing.

You should go through every single thing and itemize why it wasn’t as good as it’s hype. You have at least 1 reader!

[echorec]

You can file these under Biggest Disappointments.

In my experience, when you purchase a truly lackluster piece, that's only the beginning of one's frustration.  

#1) Korg Nuvibe

When Andy busted out the Nuvibe, I thought, "Oh cool, it's a deeper, expanded Univibe."  Then I saw the price and was immediately confused.  Why on Earth is a pedal from Korg more expensive than their 4-voice analog synth?  I didn't want to do Hendrix or Trower covers.  I just wanted hypnotic textures for pads and soundscapes.  The Nuvibe, despite the input of Fumio Mieda, is the worst I've ever used----Foxrox and Dawner Price blew it away (more affordable, smaller, simplified layout, better sound). Honestly that $100 Viscous Vibe is probably better, even without the Toneprint programming.

I tried to talk myself into it multiple times, but I still couldn't even after they hit $300 on the used market.  Finally I found ProAudioStar (fuck those clowns) selling them for about $220, and I pulled the trigger.  What a disappointment.  The range of the rate is pitiful.  Imagine taking your favorite tremolo and condensing the speed range from 10:30 to 1:00.  Just fucking throw out everything below 10:30 and everything above 1:00.  That's what you're left with.  You can't do slow, hypnotic pulses.  You can't do fast, stutter throb.  Factor in the wave slider controls are so subtle, when you use the pedal with synths----you can barely hear any audible difference on slow pads, so you might as well never touch them.  Between the limited speed range and the uselessness of the waveshaper, I was stunned by how boring and unspectacular it was.  I immediately returned it and PAS totally jobbed me on the return--hitting me with restocking fees and inflated shipping costs totaling about $40 (even though they shipped it in an unpadded sleeve & the Korg packaging was damaged).  Fuck them.

#2 Korg (Arp) Odyssey

The Odyssey is visually stunning---I'm partial to the white face myself (actually grey), with its rainbow-colored sliders and retro-future aesthetic.  The 2600 is an all-time favorite, and the Omni used by Joy Division is a limited but useful offering.  Arp prices are extremely inflated today, and I'm not a big fan of no-memory synths.  Anyway, I pre-ordered an RV1 white face keyless module.  I was so fucking psyched for that, and it took around 4 months for Korg to ship it to Musician's Friend (what the fuck, Korg?).  I was immediately annoyed.  I've got other analog synths, which are much more intuitive, deeper, and more inspiring.  I tried a few times to replicate vintage templates found online with poor results.  On most synths you can quickly find a happy accident----on the Arturia 2600 tribute you can randomly patch and find gloriously otherworldly sounds in no time.  The Odyssey, though....bleh.  I sold it and then the real odyssey began.  Apparently Korg knew about a quirk with these units and never felt like it belonged in an FAQ or manual.  At a certain setting, a continuous tone sustains forever.  Because the Odyssey has an atypical layout, you can't necessarily intuit what is causing the issue.  The buyer couldn't get it to stop even after I referred him to a forum addressing the problem.  He sends it back, but I couldn't get it to stop either and I was following the instructions a Korg rep had left on a forum.  I couldn't get it to respond to basic MIDI signals either.  Needless to say I fucking hated this thing and I had already lost $90 shipping it FedEx cross-country.  I drove 160 miles one-way to a Korg-certified technician (FUCK YOU, Korg) and a couple months later got a call that they could find no issues with the synth.  Also, in the middle of this ongoing hassle, I called Korg 2-3 times and got rude, shitty people at Korg USA's HQ.  They'd aggressively talk over me and refused to give me any help over the phone.  Korg USA doesn't handle their own repairs, nor will they replace potentially-faulty units unless you take them in for servicing first (which can be hundreds of miles away due to the sparseness of their servicing network).  

If Tatsuya Takahashi had never gone to work for Korg, I imagine they would still be an afterthought in the synth community much like Yamaha.  Sure, they made cool synths in the 70s, but their best work was 40+ years ago.  They're content if ideas just fall into their laps.  I also feel bad for the early adopters of the Prologue who had to wait over a year for Korg to address the tuning issues.

[echorec]

I'm not sure I even want to answer this thread. LOL! I've done a lot of spending over the yeas and let's just say this, nothing is ever as good as its hype. Not in my experience. Not a damn thing.

You should go through every single thing and itemize why it wasn’t as good as it’s hype. You have at least 1 reader!

I'd adopt children, just so that I could read the hardback to them.

Legendary [Gluttons of Gear and Their] Unreasonable Expectations



Love you, Uncle Jwar.