Worst Pedal Names?

[MechaGodzilla]

brb gonna make a tubescreamer clone called the MUTILATED FEMALE GENITALS and if anyone complains i'll just make fart noises with my mouth, signalling my status as unlovable chumpweed

[Olin]

brb gonna make a tubescreamer clone called the MUTILATED FEMALE GENITALS and if anyone complains i'll just make fart noises with my mouth, signalling my status as unlovable chumpweed

Are you mocking me?

[kaeth]

I'll play devils advocate here and say that words have more than one meaning and that choosing the worst one may not be fair. The word raptio itself, though affiliated with something pretty gross, existed before and after the practice that's been mentioned and has meant something closer to "kidnap" or "abduct", which makes a lot more sense in context of a Japanese guy or gal was googling "what is Latin for abduct".
In the context of the pedal (a freeze/stutter pedal where the signal is "abducted") that original and more traditional use makes more sense, certainly more than the practice that comes up on most cursory google search, which makes no sense within the context of the pedal. Idk it seems to me that a good analogy would be if someone called their new phaser The Swastika and people assumed it was the Nazi one even if there was nothing at all alluding to that.

Its pretty obvious that people shouldn't put swastikas on guitar pedals. Even if it's unrelated to Nazism, the assumption that all people are going to make is that it's a Nazi pedal, and no one is so clueless as to pretend they don't know that. It's in bad taste. I think if someone was dead set on putting a swastika on their guitar pedal, the onus would be on them to make clear that it is disentangled from Nazism. There better be some really overt Hindu or Buddhist imagery or whatever accompanying it for context. It doesn't really matter whether you intend to do something revolting if you did it -knowing- people would associate it with the revolting thing. It's in bad faith to pretend otherwise.

When I type "raptio" in google, the first result is a wikipedia article about rape. The rest of the results are all either about rape, or the very same pedal. I find it unlikely he was unaware what it meant, and what people would associate it with.

[Olin]

Its pretty obvious that people shouldn't put swastikas on guitar pedals. Even if it's unrelated to Nazism, the assumption that all people are going to make is that it's a Nazi pedal, and no one is so clueless as to pretend they don't know that. It's in bad taste. I think if someone was dead set on putting a swastika on their guitar pedal, the onus would be on them to make clear that it is disentangled from Nazism. There better be some really overt Hindu or Buddhist imagery or whatever accompanying it for context. It doesn't really matter whether you intend to do something revolting if you did it -knowing- people would associate it with the revolting thing. It's in bad faith to pretend otherwise.

When I type "raptio" in google, the first result is a wikipedia article about rape. The rest of the results are all either about rape, or the very same pedal. I find it unlikely he was unaware what it meant, and what people would associate it with.

Don't know how comfortable I'd be claiming "no one is so clueless [...]" in the same thread that has the Pussy Melter being released in 2019.

Just because something is the first result/a popular result is present shouldn't condemn a word that on its own has a separate meaning. Yes, it's realistic that he might have known about the more common usage but it's also possible that he chose to disregard that and just use the word literally instead. I don't believe the onus would be on them to prove that didn't mean anything malicious considering it's an effects pedal and that they've done absolutely nothing outside of a less than ideally named pedal to even insinuate anything malicious, sexist or inappropriate (that I know of, if there's something out there on the contrary I'm welcome to stand corrected). I do personally agree that the name isn't great, but as devils advocate I don't think there's any use in condemning something and refusing to own anything by a company because they maybe used an archaic word inappropriately.

[retinal orbita]

“Pussy Melter” is a bad look and lame as fuck but doesn’t carry the same connotation as rape.

[retinal orbita]

Eventide Rose might be the dumbest looking/named pedal.... it’s a terrible combo! Maybe it sounds great? How would I know?

[Olin]

“Pussy Melter” is a bad look and lame as fuck but doesn’t carry the same connotation as rape.

Completely agree but the point was that they 100% knew it was a stupid thing to do and did it anyway. Also important to note that it's an archaic form of "rape" that doesn't carry the same sexual connotations it does now (by no means am I saying that makes it any better, just that it also isn't fair to use an archaic word with modern meanings).


To add to the pile, let's all remember the Dr. No Turd Fuzz

[jrfox92]

I'll play devils advocate here and say that words have more than one meaning and that choosing the worst one may not be fair. The word raptio itself, though affiliated with something pretty gross, existed before and after the practice that's been mentioned and has meant something closer to "kidnap" or "abduct", which makes a lot more sense in context of a Japanese guy or gal was googling "what is Latin for abduct".
In the context of the pedal (a freeze/stutter pedal where the signal is "abducted") that original and more traditional use makes more sense, certainly more than the practice that comes up on most cursory google search, which makes no sense within the context of the pedal. Idk it seems to me that a good analogy would be if someone called their new phaser The Swastika and people assumed it was the Nazi one even if there was nothing at all alluding to that.

Its pretty obvious that people shouldn't put swastikas on guitar pedals. Even if it's unrelated to Nazism, the assumption that all people are going to make is that it's a Nazi pedal, and no one is so clueless as to pretend they don't know that. It's in bad taste. I think if someone was dead set on putting a swastika on their guitar pedal, the onus would be on them to make clear that it is disentangled from Nazism. There better be some really overt Hindu or Buddhist imagery or whatever accompanying it for context. It doesn't really matter whether you intend to do something revolting if you did it -knowing- people would associate it with the revolting thing. It's in bad faith to pretend otherwise.

When I type "raptio" in google, the first result is a wikipedia article about rape. The rest of the results are all either about rape, or the very same pedal. I find it unlikely he was unaware what it meant, and what people would associate it with.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qV7xbAVOY0[/youtube]
We've literally had this exact discussion about swastikas because a certain eastern pedal builder covered his pedals with swastikas for a hot second. Cultural differences exist, and being ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that symbols and words mean the exact same thing to everyone worldwide is a bad take, period.

[kaeth]

We've literally had this exact discussion about swastikas because a certain eastern pedal builder covered his pedals with swastikas for a hot second. Cultural differences exist, and being ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that symbols and words mean the exact same thing to everyone worldwide is a bad take, period.

No one said things don't have other meanings. This is a bad faith discussion already. Man-on-the-street segments are not representative of populations as a whole - they interview hundreds of people, and then edit it down to the 5 or 6 responses that reflect the view they want to present. People in Japan by-and-large aren't oblivious that WWII happened. Swastikas having other associations doesn't negate the fact that one of those associations (globally, the most pervasive association) is to the Nazi party. You can use swastikas when it's appropriate, but throwing caution to the wind when doing so is probably going to justifiably upset a lot of people. Engineering plausible deniability by hiding behind "intentions" is just being a troll. It's like calling a pedal "fuzz f*gg*t" and then saying "how do you know I didn't mean a bundle of sticks?". Even if that's the intention, it's a dick move, and everyone knows why.

[Benn Roe]

Idk it seems to me that a good analogy would be if someone called their new phaser The Swastika and people assumed it was the Nazi one even if there was nothing at all alluding to that.

I 100% wouldn't use that pedal either, especially if it's a phaser.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I agree Olin it's not impossible that he did it by accident, who knows. I'd never heard of the word before and as you say maybe he looked it up in a Latin dictionary that didn't have the definition that is the first Google hit. However, now I know that meaning, even if it was an accident I'd rather not have it on my board (good thing I didn't want one so this was never a dilemma). Same thing with swastikas, good analogy. It's possible for someone to do it out of a different cultural background but I couldn't buy it because even if they're the other way round symbol that isn't the Nazi one it's not a great look in Western (for now) Europe

[D.o.S.]

I am almost positive we had this discussion on the forum about the pedal before, probably in the context of the seppuku era being discussed above.

since we're talking music history and things that aren't acceptable now but were back in the day, is it worse to subsidise Iggy Pop or buy a Raptio in 2020?.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Yes I'm sure we've had this discussion on the forum before. I know for a fact we've discussed it dos

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to buy a raptio. Just not a thing I want. Last Iggy Pop album was great

[UglyCasanova]

[D.o.S.]

Forgot about that mess.