The sound is alright, maybe a tad noisy. The volume sweep of the swell isn't as abrupt for my tastes. It doesn't do the "backward guitar" thing very well. It's more gradual and well-suited for pedal steel type volume swells.
Reliability/Durability:
It's a DOD and their stuff is made pretty well. They're sort of the Hot Wheels to Boss's Matchbox.
Ease of Use:
With no manual, this thing took a few minutes to figure out that it wasn't broken. Not a very intuitive effect. What it does is automatic volume swells, but very much NOT like a slow gear or other attack delay device. It works sort of like a volume pedal, in that you have to constantly work your foot. It's got Attack, Decay and Cut/Boost controls and a momentary switch. How you work it is that you step on the pedal and hold it, then pick your note, letting go of the pedal and the sound swells up.(in "boost" mode, the effect starts from normal volume and swells even louder. Sort of useless in that respect. Once you get the hang of it, I'm sure it's easier, but nowhere near a Slow Gear.
Customer Support:
I've never had to deal with DOD, but I bet they're easy to get in touch with.
Overall Rating:
I'm into odd effects, and I'd never seen this pedal before. I was kind of dissapointed, as I expected something else. I'm not sure what DOD was thinking (I'm really not sure what they're thinking now with all the cheesy pedals they have...Milk Box, screw you, it's a compressor. Say it's a bloody compressor, idiot! Can you tell that I feel my intelligence being insulted by DOD?) I wished it was more of an automatic Slow Gear sort of effect, but it's not. If you're too incompetent to either use a volume pedal or even better, your pinky on your volume know, then maybe you shouldn't be trying to do volume swells in the first place. This pedal seems rare, and I bet I know why...
