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440 Envelope Filter

  • Features:
  • Sound Quality:
  • Reliability/Durability:
  • Ease of Use:
  • Customer Support:
  • Overall Rating:
  • Brand:
    DOD
  • Model:
    440 Envelope Filter
Tags: brand#dod tax#aqb

Reviews

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440 Envelope Filter

Review By:
fitter, healthier
fitter, healthier on 5/26/10 8:34 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Price:
Features:
Sound Quality:

This is for the green issue. For those that want to hear this pedal, I made a youtube video comparing the dod 440, fx25, 545 and Tonefactor 442. The 440 definitively won this shootout, in my opinion, not just in terms of getting radiohead tones, but as a good subtle USABLE guitar effect. It has a limited but very useful range with a guitar. The Mojohand is close but it cuts the volume slightly and is lower output than the 440. It could be that the 442 is based on an older version of the 440. The green one is actually a 90's reissue. The fx25, while not completely different in tone, has a much more dramatic sweep. If it's range is set to mimic the 440's range it's tone becomes rather thin, but it is also capable of deep quacky funk wah tones that the 440 is not as suited to. I would recommend this for funk or bass. The 545 is more similar to the fx25 but with an even deeper sweep. My favorite for electric kazoo or bass but not guitar. This one has attack and resonance controls. This is a very powerful filter that sounds huge on low frequencies. I found it hard to dial in a tone close to the 440 on this pedal, it was either way too fat and deep or too thin. Very hard to find a medium. For some funk whacka whacka this is probably a better pedal, but it can't do subtle and vast like the 440.

Reliability/Durability:

10

Ease of Use:

For a two knob pedal this isn't the most intuitive. It reacts to the volume of everything that proceeds it in a chain, you can end up tweaking it in response to every little tweak on your other pedals.

Customer Support:

Digitech/Harmon are still in business but are trying to forget DOD ever existed it seems. Too bad, DOD made some great pedals in the early days. Now DOD makes Lexicon and the hardwire pedals. (In a round about way) I bet they aren't answering DOD related questions, though i haven't tried.

Overall Rating:

I love this pedal more every time i use it.

0 Comments Tags: brand#dod tax#aqb

440 Envelope Filter

Review By:
Ted Thomas
Ted Thomas on 5/4/07 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Gene Twomey's Island Music
Price:
Features:
Sound Quality:
As someone else pointed out, there's a bit of a learning curve required in order to adjust your playing to its idiosyncrasies, but once you figure it out (it should take all of two or three minutes), it's a mighty fine sounding addition to anyone's stompbox lineup.
Reliability/Durability:
I've been using this for the better part of 26 years and the only thing that's ever needed to be replaced is the battery.  You'll be hard-pressed to find anything on the market today that's built this tough. It's never occurred to me get a backup as I know this will work every time.
Ease of Use:
Two knobs and a switch to stomp on.  So easy a caveman could use it. I bought mine new in '81 and have long since lost the manuals and box, but the manual is downloadable from DOD's website.
Customer Support:
Never been an issue.  I'd assume that their customer service is on par with any other company's, which is to say that you'll wonder how some of the phone reps ever made it to their current age, never mind actually getting a job.
Overall Rating:
I play whatever I'm in the mood for, be it blues, rock, punk, and even a bit of metal every now and then to clean the wax out of my ears.  I've been able to incorporate the pedal into any style to give it a psychedelic touch. I've been playing for 30 years as of this year.  I have a collection of vintage stompboxes (mostly MXR and DOD) that I bought new while I was still in junior high and high school.  I've bought new pedals out of curiosity, but always end up selling or returning them right away because they're cheaply made, mostly plastic, and don't deliver nearly the punch of their ancestors.  I guess I'm just spoiled by pedals that were designed for a lifetime's worth of service. If I were to lose my 440, I'd get my butt on eBay and buy another one right away.  After 30 years, I know what I like. There's nothing I don't love about my old DODs/MXRs and there's nothing I hate about them.  I like their simplicity, their reliability, and most of all, their sound. When I bought them, they were the standard pedal everyone was using.  There was no need to compare them, though I have bought newer models/brands of similar pedals, but they just don't stack up. It's been a great addition to my collection and has helped creative opportunities occur that might never have happened otherwise.
0 Comments Tags: brand#dod tax#aqb

440 Envelope Filter

Review By:
chuck-ZYpo.
chuck-ZYpo. on 1/16/06 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Price:
Features:
Sound Quality:
Sound quality is not what makes this pedal special.  in fact, the quality of the sound is not so great. There is major coloration that occurs when the pedal is activated. But that hardly matters. What makes this pedal a gem is how unique and simple this filter works. This pedal features the famous VTL5C4/2 Opto resistor. This part is commonplace is some of the most cherished analog compressors dating all the way back to the beginning of compression. The reason for afinity with these units is the gentle sweeping that these LEDs create. Most envelope filters attack rather quickly and give you a chopping sensation with your dynamics. This pedal, however, reacts to your sensitivity with a gentle precision. The harder and faster you play, the faster the attack. It follows and reacts to you perfectly. The thing is like a glove.
Reliability/Durability:
I haven't had any issues. The other DOD equipment is stellar. Newer stuff is garbage and plastic.
Ease of Use:
This pedal needs some proper training to use correctly. You have to play within its own confines. If you try to fight it, it definetly is not going to work for you. If you learn to play with it, it'll be your best friend.
Customer Support:
who knows.
Overall Rating:
it deserves a good score because of how simple and pure it is. However, I can't give it more than an 8, because it is limited in its use in that you have to play within its rules.
0 Comments Tags: brand#dod tax#aqb

440 Envelope Filter

Review By:
Graham-J0BSM
Graham-J0BSM on 5/11/05 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Price:
$164.00 USD USED
Features:
Sound Quality:
The setup im currently using includes a Boss Digital Delay (DD6), a Boss Overdrive (OD3), Boss Distortion (DS1), DOD Envelope Filter (440), Dunlop Wah, Digitech Whammy (WH 1). i play a 70's Tokai Strat through a Vox Cambridge re-issue. I've never found the effect to be noisy, although it is weak without a boost or overdrive. To achieve it's full potential i believe it must be boosted. The sound of bands such as Radiohead are very apparent when using this pedal. Some Portishead sounds can be found with some tweaking too.
Reliability/Durability:
I would rely on this pedal at a gig, although i am yet to play one. i use it in my bedroom and it's great. However, the fact that they are discontinued makes them harder to come by and so if anything did happen a backup would be needed and it would be expensive and time consuming to hunt down another of these bad boys!
Ease of Use:
The fact that this pedal only has two knobs to tweak makes it friendly to look at. However appearences can be decieving as finding the right sound can take a while due to the complexity of the knobs. Knobs from left to right are: Level and Range
Customer Support:
N/A due the discontinuation
Overall Rating:
It's a fine pedal to add to your board regardless of the genre you favour. One test of this envelope filter and you'll pay anything for it. The wah is subtle but that's what makes it so great.
0 Comments Tags: brand#dod tax#aqb

440 Envelope Filter

Review By:
Rob hunter
Rob hunter on 8/3/04 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Price:
$180.00 USD USED
Features:
Sound Quality:
i use: American Tele->BOSS GE-7->Proco Vintage Rat->BOSS SD-1-> Danelectro Tuna Melt Tremolo->DOD440->MXR Phase 90->fender princeton chorus the sound quality is great, again my settings are level at 3 oclock and range and 9 oclock. this pedal is definitely not noisy at all. Best of all it sounds KILLER when you hit the overdrive on, especially the SD-1. You definitely get those jonny greenwood violent intimidating guitar wails.
Reliability/Durability:
my unit must be over 20 years old, and it works fine, i think its been pretty dependable! I dont think it would be easy to find another backup for this baby!
Ease of Use:
2 knobs, a level and a range, the green dod440, the superior one. it may take you a while to find the setting you like the most, and the pedal's envelope effect is hugely dependant on how hard you hit the strings. the harder you hit the more it will shine. while the softer you pick its as if the effect is not even on. pure genious. ive foudn the best sound to be level at 3 oclock and range and 9 oclock. 9 for it taking me a while to find the sound i want.
Customer Support:
uh no.
Overall Rating:
definitely worth the price paid. one of the best vintage envelope filters out there. very hard to come by nowadays, if you find one for under 200, consider it.
0 Comments Tags: brand#dod tax#aqb
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