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whoismarykelly wrote:Extremely tangential post warning

Some of the most unique pedals I have ever used came out in the early/mid 2000s when options were limited and people with crazy ideas surfaced every other year or so. This was well before the boutique cottage industry boom so something new was usually something cool rather than an obfuscated big muff or TS808. I remember playing an SB101 in a used gear shop and being blown away by how weird it sounded. I bought a PS3 instead that day because of Mode 7 but when I went back to get the SB101 the next week it was gone. I think the price tag was $99. The same shop got another one in a few months later but it was broken. Every SB101 I saw after that was broken in some way so I would open them up to see if it was anything obvious. Every time, which was really only another 2-3 SB101s, I saw a completely different board which was crazy. I've not seen two SB101s that are the same design.

Anyway, the SB101 was one of half a dozen truly unique and weird pedals out around then. The Robotalk was the only sample and hold option at the time. And the LAL Riplet was a weird envelope tremolo. There were very few ring modulators. We all put up with the insane quirks of these pedals because there was nothing else. The Robotalk needed two isolated 9V supplies to work. Literally two wall warts because whoever designed it refused to design a worthwhile bipolar power supply. Or they figured people would rather use two 9V wallwarts than one AC power supply. The SB101s were always breaking. An EHX Frequency Analyzer was an awesome ring mod but it was huge and took a 40V power supply! Then the boutique boom happened and the need to use these quirky pedals went right down the drain. You can get simple effective pedals now that cover almost every unique sound of those older boxes. A Digitech Turbo Flange has an arguably better and more useful random mode than the SB101. There are dozens of pedals better than the Robotalk. More ring modulators than I could ever see the market needing flood the webshops.

Its crazy. But sometimes I still long for those early 2000s pedals, even with all the stupid bullshit we put up with to use them.

Dandolin wrote:Dat post^^

I bought and returned two busted used ones before I got one that worked.

Back then it seemed perfectly normal; the wages of sin, or panning for gold

KaosCill8r wrote:Interesting pedal that one. I did hear whisperings that the Pefftronics dude was going to get back into business and re-issue the Rand-O-Matic. I hope so but it could be just wishful thinking on someone's part.

digi2t wrote:

KaosCill8r wrote:Interesting pedal that one. I did hear whisperings that the Pefftronics dude was going to get back into business and re-issue the Rand-O-Matic. I hope so but it could be just wishful thinking on someone's part.

I had a recent email exchange with Jeff Vallier ("THE Pefftronics dude") , and he said as much as well. He was looking at maybe coming back with a new and improved Rand-O, with maybe stereo outputs, and some other goodies.

No timeline, or anything, so it may just end up being pie in the sky.

moid wrote:

Uncle Grandfather wrote:Yeah the Rand-O-Matic is pretty amazing by today's standards and I would be all over an updated version...though that seems more a pipe dream. Really glad I scored one, with the mix fully dimed is amazing

digi2t wrote:Yeah, the real trick is to get the trimmers inside set just right.

Uncle Grandfather wrote:

digi2t wrote:Yeah, the real trick is to get the trimmers inside set just right.

Thanks for the tip