# Keepers...



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Which pedals do you own that you will _never_ move?

Some that come to mind for me are:

Dirt - 

Bearfoot DRD, Model H, Gristle King, Gain Changer and a surf green Timmy.

Fuzz -

All three of my Arcane Analog pedals, DeathDealer, FleshEater and the NKT213, 
My Buddy and the Quinnamps Mantis.

I'm not terribly attached to many modulation pedals,
though the Retro-sonic Phaser and the Mojohand SugarBaby are staying on the band board. 

Probably all of my Dr. Scientist pedals, I foolishly sold my Sunny Day Delay. 8(


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

I can't let go of my AD999 delay, Keeley BD-2, and MI Audio Megaltih Delta.

I put them up against so many pedals and they clearly come out on top. As far as I'm concerned, the AD999 should be on every pedalboard with your favourite digital delay to accompany it.


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## sambonee (Dec 20, 2007)

I guess my irreplaceable ones are, 

Moratto amp shop - I guess I could call it double dirt. It has two gain stages that each give a different drive. Oh and both low do the transparent thing pretty awesome. 

- his version of the 1st tone bender forte class stuff. 
- ring mod, based on the green ringer. 
All three of these are in the same case. One adaptor, all true bypass quite tight footprint for three pedals. 

The rest of my pedals are quite nice, hand picked by me but I could replace them. There are many good builders out there. 

I'll put up a sound clip of Moratto's three in one when I get a chance. 

Can't wait to hear others' non negotiable pedals.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

None, if I'm being completely honest with myself 

Having said that the likely long term candidates are pretty much what's on my board right now. Polytune, Xotic SL Drive and EP Booster, Mojohand Iron Bell, Boogie Flux Drive, JPFX Klone, Boss GE-7, Skreddy Echo. Still searching for "the" wah, not sure I'll ever find it  I have a BBE Ben Wah coming next week, fingers crossed.


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## Chitmo (Sep 2, 2013)

I just started keeping everything that I buy, much easier!!


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Chitmo said:


> I just started keeping everything that I buy, much easier!!


Ha! I'm in the same boat!

I forgot about wahs, my Fulltone Clyde Deluxe and the SGFX modded Cry Baby will stick around.
I have a second hand modded Vox that needs work and the Bonamossa CB I'm still weeding out.
I have a Wilson wah incoming, that should be interesting.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

I also ordered a McCon-o-wah pot for my Cry Baby which should be here next week. I'll post an opinion after I drop it in. 

http://www.mccon-o-wah.com/products/potentiometer



sulphur said:


> Ha! I'm in the same boat!
> 
> I forgot about wahs, my Fulltone Clyde Deluxe and the SGFX modded Cry Baby will stick around.
> I have a second hand modded Vox that needs work and the Bonamossa CB I'm still weeding out.
> I have a Wilson wah incoming, that should be interesting.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

davetcan said:


> I also ordered a McCon-o-wah pot for my Cry Baby which should be here next week. I'll post an opinion after I drop it in.
> 
> http://www.mccon-o-wah.com/products/potentiometer



I did a wah search a while back and the Buddah Wah came out on top - mainly cause it was noiseless with distortion, very vocal and had a perfect sweep (but not a long one - pretty focused). It just sold a few days ago though. So, not a keeper.


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## b-nads (Apr 9, 2010)

I have 3 keepers right now. My AD999 is going no where - best delay I've ever played. My Custom painted Rosie fuzz is a keeper - love the tones I'm getting and there's a lot of sentiment attached to it. My Dr. Scientist Tremolessence is safe as well - it sounds sick with my Maz and it also has sentimental attachment.

My board sounds pretty insane right now, and I think all of the pedals on it are pretty safe, but these are untouchable.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Mine has to be the Boss Digital Dimension DC-3. Its the only one that's remained on my board for at least 5 years now. I have a honeymoon with the KTR right now so I'm not going to say it is a keeper but in the last few years I've been buying OD/Dist pedals, it impressed me so much that I think it would be my main OD for a long long time. Last night during our gig, I hardly used the Zendrive which has been my go to OD since I got it.


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## dradlin (Feb 27, 2010)

Xotic BB Preamp
Timmy


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I'm thinking about selling a flanger, a phase shifter and an echo (Half rack)--and possibly a distortion-mostly to get some other pedals or similar gear.
BUt since this asked which ones I'd not get rid of, that would be most of the rest of them.

A DS-1, DOD FX-53 and an Empress Distortion for distortion
A Boss AW-3 (Dynamic Wah)
A Strymon Brigadier Delay
& probably not my Dano Fish & Chips EQ
I do like my Dano Chorus--but if I came across one I liked better I would probably give away the Dano if I didn't keep it. It didn't cost much.


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

There's only one pedal I own that I will never sell and that's my Reissue Colorsound Supa Tone Bender. I purchased it used in England in 2000 to replace the original 70's Supa Tone Bender I stupidly sold in 1998.


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## Voxguy76 (Aug 23, 2006)

adcandour said:


> I can't let go of my AD999 delay, Keeley BD-2, and MI Audio Megaltih Delta.
> 
> I put them up against so many pedals and they clearly come out on top. As far as I'm concerned, the AD999 should be on every pedalboard with your favourite digital delay to accompany it.


+1 I used to have an AD999 and to this day I haven't found a delay that sounds as warm as that one. With that being said, I will not be parting with my big box Deluxe Memory Man.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

The AD999 has to be one of the stupidest designs out there.... but in a good way. It was produced at a point in 'chip history' when the 4096-stage chips were out of production, but the 1024-stage chips were still in respectable supply. The result was a pedal that was more trim pots than anything else. My guess is that the labour to adjust all those trim pots was the most costly aspect of production.


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## JerS (Jun 16, 2014)

I've had a lot of pedals through the years, but the only two I've never sold are my TS-9 and my Crybaby. Predictable I guess, but it says something about the appeal of these units.


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## georgemg (Jul 17, 2011)

There's two I'll probably keep: my Fulltone OCD and my Keeley Compressor. 

The OCD just works for me and I could easily do a whole gig with just that one pedal if I had to. Actually I did have to at one night when my AC Booster shorted out after a pitcher of beer got spilt on it. The OCD had beer dumped on it too and it was fine, which also helps make me confident in relying it. 

The Keeley I'm keeping for a different reason. It's a great pedal but my hesitation in ever getting rid of it is mostly due to having spent a stupid amount on it ($330). I really wanted it at the time and impatiently bought it when the dollar wasn't doing too well. The worst part was a used one finally came up on Craigslist two weeks after I bought mine for half the amount.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Radial A/B/Y, Ernie Ball volume, channel foot switch for my amp. 

Everything else becomes fair game eventually. Right now a Boss ME-80 is my thing, but when something better comes along it too will be gone.

Peace, Mooh.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I think the only pedals I own, that I'd insist on keeping - if only because I can't build replicas of them myself - are my Pearl PH-44 Phaser, and my Tone Core Liqui-Flange. The Pearl is a nice-sounding phaser that has ramp-up-/down, and separate controls for fast speed and slow speed.
[video=youtube;6xbOdci8LpE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xbOdci8LpE[/video]
The Liqui-Flange has a lot of nice modulation options. Unfortunately, many of them are omitted from the flanger models included on Line 6's other floor pedals.


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## Uncle Jackie (Apr 27, 2014)

Vox Tonelab
Boss Super Distortion/Feedbacker


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

My Timmy and my T-Rex Comp-Nova. You can have those..........when you pry my cold, dead hands off them!

Honorable mention to my TC Electronics Nova Delay and SCF. And my Xotic EP and my OCD. And I have an original Roland Phase 5 (similar to mhammers PH-44) that I'd probably never sell but it's too big to use on a board. But it is tres cool.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Is the Phase 5 envelope-controllable? The schematic looks like it. I was confusing it with the Jet Phaser, that also has the ramp-up/down speed change, but has a footswitch insertable distortion section that is sort of a poor man's DS-1.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Yea, the P-5 has two fixed speeds in CC mode (and it ramps between them like a leslie - that really sold me on it oh so many years ago) as well as the envelope mode (they call it TC). But that means three buttons and a really big enclosure. And AC powered as well! Just not user-friendly by today's standards. 

My biggest board is about 3X the size of that one pedal. And any bigger board than that and I can't squeeze into the majority of the places I play without everyone else stumbling over it.


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Late to the party...

An older big box EH Deluxe Memory Man, a modded BYOC Reverb and an AM Beano Boost are all keepers. Then I have a bunch of pedals that're probable keepers (let's say they're going nowhere soon), but are more easily replaceable or perhaps they get used a little less - SGFX-modded CryBaby wah, a big box Rat and heck, even a plain vanilla Dunlop/MXR Phase 100. The rest are probably expendable...


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

High/Deaf said:


> Yea, the P-5 has two fixed speeds in CC mode (and it ramps between them like a leslie - that really sold me on it oh so many years ago) as well as the envelope mode (they call it TC). But that means three buttons and a really big enclosure. And AC powered as well! Just not user-friendly by today's standards.
> 
> My biggest board is about 3X the size of that one pedal. And any bigger board than that and I can't squeeze into the majority of the places I play without everyone else stumbling over it.


The EHX Polyphase doesn't have the ramp-up/down, as far as I know, but it does have the envelope control, which is loads of fun. I made myself a Phase 90 with touch sensitivity of speed, and I enjoy that feature immensely, so I understand why you enjoy your Phase 5. Spent coffee break earlier today looking at the schematic for the Phase 5, and it looks like a very tempting build to clone. I'll have to resist for a bit until some other things get finished, though. If I go ahead with it, I think I'd make the TC/CC switch a simple toggle off in the corner instead of a stomp switch, and add a variable resonance/feedback control and dry-lift switch for vibrato. Envelope-controlled vibrato is cool. The one caveat is that where you can still hear the notches produced by phasing at very slow speeds, you don't hear the pitch-change when vibrato is set to the same very slow speeds. Vibrato always needs faster speeds. Same with Uni-vibes. If one converts a phaser to Uni-vibe specs, more than half of the range of speeds is absolutely useless.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

I agree with your idea of moving the CC/TC to a toggle. I find I either use it one way or the other and never switch between the two mid-song. The unit could be much smaller with newer tech, DC power and only two switches. Could be a cool clone.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Check out the Keeley phaser: https://robertkeeley.com/product/6-stage-phaser/

Like the Phase 5, it has 6 stages, and does ramp-up/down, with separate variable slow/fast speeds. No touch control, but it does have tap tempo, ramping speed, what appears to be a sort of width/feedback control, and comes in a pedalboard-friendly 1590BB box that uses a standard 9v supply.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Oh man, that's sweet. I'm using an EVH phaser right not - a little limiting wrt adjustments but I like its form factor. This is a bit bigger but if I juggled things around a bit.....

And its a bit pricey but when I'm ready for something better I might look at this. RJP out here probably has them in stock. And its color is complimentary to my Nova Comp. 

Thanks for showing me that. Cheers.


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## noman (Jul 24, 2006)

Anything from Kingsley. I have the Jouster right now and the only thing that would make me change is the smaller form-factor of a Minstrel.


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## Louis (Apr 26, 2008)

Old shitty Dunlop 80's Hendrix fuzz face that Onslow modded into
the most organic ff I've ever played .


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## jayjacque (Sep 2, 2012)

It's kind of like sports teams, you think they never should trade their star players, but then they do for economic reasons or to trade for somebody else. Anyway I'm keeping a Bondi Sickas OD, and a Stereo Wet and the Kingsley Minstrel. I just sold a Scarab Deluxe I thought I wouldn't let go in favor of getting another amp. Sometimes I think I might let go of my Strymon Mobius to fund other things. Then I play the thing and fall back in love with it all over again (like I did today) And I remember how much work went into getting the sounds where I want them. She's gonna be staying for awhile.


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## Samuel Inca (Sep 6, 2017)

Do you sell the bondi sick as pedal?


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Timmy, Diamond comp, Thinking about my small board and just realized I forgot to post about my newest pedal...


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## mario (Feb 18, 2006)

Old thread but what the heck. ODs, Distortion, fuzz come and go but my Skreddy Echo, Analogman BiComp and Keeley Neutrino are keepers.


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## Cups (Jan 5, 2010)

%h(*&Would be curious for the original posters to comment to see if they kept their keepers.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Ha! Had to look, I have them all, and a few more. 

I'll throw in the OCD and Barbershop in there too.


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## BMW-KTM (Apr 7, 2015)

I have several that will never, ever, for any reason get sold.

Fulltone Mini DejaVibe
Emma Discombobulator
BOSS Digital Dimension


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

adcandour said:


> I can't let go of my AD999 delay, Keeley BD-2, and MI Audio Megaltih Delta.
> 
> I put them up against so many pedals and they clearly come out on top. As far as I'm concerned, the AD999 should be on every pedalboard with your favourite digital delay to accompany it.


How do you feel the Keeley Blues Driver is different from the stock?


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

For delay, both my Ibanez DE-7 and big box Deluxe Memory Man. Casually looking for an all in one delay, but those two will be staying no matter what. 

For drive my Xotic AC Booster is nice. 

Still casually looking for a fuzz.


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## Analogman (Oct 3, 2012)

Although, I have no plans to get rid of any anytime soon, the only absolute keepers are my Dry Bell Vibe Machine V2, Schaffer Replica and Neunaber Wet. Everything else is fair game.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Still have the Boss Digital Dimension and the KTR. I doubt I'll ever replace those 2.


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## the5chord (Oct 7, 2011)

80's Boss SD-1, OD-2, Korg SDD3000. 

Should have kept the Fulltone SSTE


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

I have a brown modded MIJ TS9, doesn't get the most use - but I've had it 12 years so far, and have no plans to let it go.

Since I play at home in an apartment, I use a Danelectro Fish N Chips 7 band EQ pedal to add a little to the mids and lows since they tend to thin out a bit at a low volume with a tube amp. Not going anywhere


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## Tarbender (Apr 7, 2006)

Without question my *Timmy.*


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## Guncho (Jun 16, 2015)

I sold all my pedals except for my wah. Everything else is in the only thing I play electric through which is Guitar Rig 4 on my PC.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

butterknucket said:


> How do you feel the Keeley Blues Driver is different from the stock?


I know it can act kinda like a fuzz. It has more gain and I believe more range with certain knobs.

It's been a while since I posted this. It's gone and so are the others. I have an ad900 on the way and get my dirt from the amp now that Michael r/t modded it into brown sound heaven. 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk


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## BSTheTech (Sep 30, 2015)




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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

Only the Stephenson Stage Hog.

If thats a pedal (actually a one-watt amplifier for driving regular amps, a la Herzog).

Everything else has been fluff 'n' stuff.

The Stage Hog could even outlast the guitars and amps, as the only eternally useful item that has no replacement.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

KapnKrunch said:


> View attachment 120145
> Only the Stephenson Stage Hog.
> 
> If thats a pedal (actually a one-watt amplifier for driving regular amps, a la Herzog).
> ...


Those are pretty cool - and precede anything Simon/Kingsley has been doing. Is there a footswitch connection to switch between rhythm and lead? And will it drive a low impedance speaker directly or does it only want to see the higher impedance of an amp input? 


As for me and keepers, Timmy is my #1. I wish I had a couple of them. All my other drive and mod pedals are exchangeable. I like to have a selection for variety but none of them, except the Timmy, seem to stay forever. The Wampler Ego and Faux Echo have been enjoyed a lot, and I'll always have a special place for my ol' TC SCF.

Surprising enough, the other pedal that is becoming a keeper is the L6 M9 on my B-board. I use it more than my A-board (with the higher end pedals) because of space issues. It handles all my mod needs (and then some) while the three analog pedals on that board get swapped around, and it sounds just fine in a live band scenario. Here it is at band practice a few months ago.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

High/Deaf said:


> Those are pretty cool - and precede anything Simon/Kingsley has been doing. Is there a footswitch connection to switch between rhythm and lead? And will it drive a low impedance speaker directly or does it only want to see the higher impedance of an amp input?
> View attachment 120169


Remote dual footswitch with LED's by-passes the unit and also toggles between rhythm and lead. Access clean (amp only), crunch or cranked tones with one click. Plug straight into any speaker and use as a practise amp. A complete mini vacuum tube amp with a ton of versatility.


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## Gavz (Feb 27, 2016)

My first pedal...Boss DD3. Still love playing it. My Digitech Polara is also a keeper for sure ...sounds so good.

Sent from my SM-G386W using Tapatalk


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I made a Rangemaster a dozen years back that still stands out as the best one I've ever been able to achieve. The transistor was cannibalized from a transistor radio I bought in 1965 with the proceeds from my summer job picking strawberries on the central Experimental Farm. I sold it to the fellow who used to own and run Retrotown Music in Ottawa, and apparently it still remains on his pedalboard. I didn't mind selling it to him at first, because I figured if I built it once, I can build it again. And while that is generally true, in this particular instance one of the components seems to have been irreplaceable. So I've tried, but haven't been able to replicate.

It was a keeper that I let slip away.


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## jayjacque (Sep 2, 2012)

This is an old thread. What's funny is, over 3 yrs ago when I posted, 3 out of the 4 pedals I said I would keep have since been sold! Anyway, currently a Rimrock Mythical OD and a Moen Fuzz Moo I got for $30 (sounds as good as most any muff type fuzz out there) will likely stay for a long time.


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## georgemg (Jul 17, 2011)

jayjacque said:


> This is an old thread. What's funny is, over 3 yrs ago when I posted, 3 out of the 4 pedals I said I would keep have since been sold!


If it makes you feel better, I dropped one of my 'keeper' pedals as well. I had two OCDs at one point (on different boards) and dropped both of them for two Rockett Animals. I've had the Animals a couple of years now and I'm still happy with them. We'll see how long they eventually stay though.

As for my other keeper, the Keeley Comp, I still have it. I get the itch every now and then to try something else out though, so that may hit the block at some point to (LOL).


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

No comment.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

My only for sure keepers are my Boss CS3, my Rocktron Austin Gold OD (thanks @adcandour ), and my Naymark Smokestack heavy OD. 

My Garagetone Axle Grease Delay is a hard maybe. I haven't found a slapback delay yet that I prefer to it.


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## KoskineN (Apr 19, 2007)

No one is safe in this pedal game, but so far:

My good old Fulltone '69 - Whatever new fuzz I buy, this one always seems to work better in the end.
Diamond Memory Lane Jr - I'm no delay freak, so this one is serving me very well with limited but great features(tap temp, time subdivision switch), plus it sounds great.
Boss OC-2 - Best octave down. I just love the organic sound out of this box. Tracking is not that great, bit to fatten riffs up, it's the best.


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## dufe32 (Feb 5, 2007)

A couple of years ago someone built me an OCD clone, with my specs. I use it when I get guitar gigs as well as on bass gigs, it's just perfect for me and what I do with it.

I don't think it's gonna go anywhere. And a no name pedal wouldn't sell well.


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## Judas68fr (Feb 5, 2013)

I haven't bought a lot of pedals recently, my board being made mostly of keepers (IMO):
- BB Preamp, used for light OD and boost
- Skreddy Echo for my delay needs,
- MojoHandFX Bayou Trem tremolo pedal
- Xotic SP compressor

I have a couple other pedals on it that I use more sparingly but that still make me pretty happy (Mooer Eleclady, TC Polytune and a Fulltone BC108 fuzz face).

But I still often gig with just a guitar and my amp (Mesa Rectoverb 25).


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

My DIY BOSS CE-2(B) copy; EQD Grand Orbiter v2.

Dirt falls in and out of favour with me; great modulation is forever.


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## YellowBrick (Mar 7, 2015)

I have an old Boss Chorus pedal that's around 30 years old since my parents gave it to me for my 18's birthday or something. That was the only gift I ever received from them that was music related so I'm keeping it forever.


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