FX54 Attacker

This puppy works very well for slide blues playing using a humbucker equipped guitar (SG Standard) into a smaller (Fender Super Champ) tube type amp. Think: Derek Trucks. It will NEVER produce Metal sounds. Don't expect any pedal to do something it wasn't designed to do.

I have been using mine since buying it new in the early 90's. Take good care of your equipment, it will take good care of you.

Child's play.

Never had the need.

Been playing the blues for over 30 years. I have written songs just because of this pedal and the sound it inspires. Maybe this little pedal isn't the be-all-end-all sound every guitarist searches for, but it surely deserves it's day in the sun.

Ok, my entire setup, is actually quite complicated, but only part of it involves the Attacker (I use an old MXR Loop Selector pedal with my main distortion on the a-loop, and the b-loop runs as follows: MXR B-send --> Dunlop Cry Baby --> Nobels Overdrive Special (WAY underrated o.d. pedal...) --> Boss SYB-3 Bass Synth (set to a really weird, sci-fi distortion sound) --> Line 6 DM4 Distortion Modeler --> Sans Amp Classic --> MXR B-return) Anyways, the relevant part of my setup lies on the A-loop of the MXR, and it runs like this:                ___DOD FX54 Attacker    ______________ MXR A-send ---<___DOD FX86 Death Metal Distortion____>-- Radio Shack 4-Channel Mini-Mixer. The way it works is: I split the signal from the Loop Selector with a simple y-adaptor cable, then I run one side into the Death Metal with the highs cranked, the mids completely scooped, and the lows at about 4 o'clock; the other side runs to the Attacker, which is set with full distortion and compression, and the tone knob at around 10:30. The idea here is that I can get the full bottom and sharp highs of the Death Metal and combine them with the relatively warm low-mids of the Attacker. When used in this fashion combined with another pedal run parallel, the Attacker becomes a whole different animal. I love the way it sounds like this! I'm kind of considering replacing the Death Metal with a Boss Hyper Fuzz (a totally kick-ass pedal!), or one of the new Ibanez Tone-Lok dist. pedals (Smash Box of 7th Heaven). I don't run through an amp at all normally, instead using a Zoom 505 at the very end of my effects chain running a "User Patch" centered around the built-in "Amp Simulator" effect (this feature is THE reason I still have this pedal; it makes EVERYTHING sound fatter, fuller, thicker, and better, in my opinion (I also use a tiny bit of chorus in that patch). The Attacker by itself is an o.k. sounding pedal, but I recommend trying the method I use to utilize it's lovely low-mids without sacrificing the option to get those shrill highs or friendship-ending lows... It makes me think of what kind of sound Tool might have used if they had been around in the mid 80's, and slightly more mainstreamed (<--I really don't know what that means :( My rating of "8" is mostly because of how it can complement a much more extreme distortion pedal rather nicely...by itself I'd give it a "5" or so...simply because as a standalone it doesn't produce the type of distortion I would normally use...

Since I've got this thing hooked up to my MXR Loop Selector, my foot NEVER touches it, so I'm not at all worried; all it has to do is carry a signal and stay attached to my pedalboard... I don't use backups for anything per se...and this is for two main reasons. 1. my entire setup is centered around distortion versatility, so if something were to break or stop function on stage, I'd just use a different pedal to get a similar sound, nuff said. 2. the pedals that I do actually step on are all 3 times more sturdy than my car (SansAmp, Line 6 DM4, Boss, and MXR) if they're gonna die, it's my own friggin' fault, so it's not gonna happen any time soon...anyways 99.999999999% of what I do with my pedalboard and pedals is recording direct (through the Zoom 505! HAHA!), so I'm really nice to my pedals anyway. This thing IS, however, made of metal, and regardless of what some of these other reviewers have said, this thing won't fall apart unless you remove all the damn screws, so take my advice: if you own one, don't remove all the damn screws, and it won't fall apart, ok?

Well, as far as using this thing for a regular old distortion stomp box, if this is hard, then you're in the wrong friggin' business...

This is probably the least likely addition to my pedalboard given the style I play, except maybe the SansAmp (my style is somewhere between Tool, Deftones, and Nine Inch Nails, all sealed up in a nice little bow :) I am going to judge this pedal overall basically based on what on life would be like without it... on the one hand, I would have an extra space on the pedalboard; and on the other hand, my A-loop distortion would sound like crap. so I'm gonna give it a "7," although I believe "7.5" would be more accurate............

awesome fat sound

very reliable sturdy and solidly built

an idiot could use it

don't know

good for any heavy types of music