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Which Reissued Pedals Fall Short


pboudreau

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Which classic reissued pedals just don't make the effort to capture the tonal qualities of the originals? Granted, no one wants to be mired in the past and improving on a classic pedal is admirable, but which companies seem most interested in making it "look" authentic while they the sound,components, and workmanship reek of "don't worry, they'll buy it if it looks right".

 

I don't have first hand experience, but I've read a lot of complaints about Dunlop reissues. Dunlop bought the rights to a lot of defunct pedal companies.

 

Also, even the developer of the original Mutron III says avoid the reissue.

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I've had the dunlop ri fuzz face, and it sucked. You know how the booteekers say they make sure they match the transistors and that they're at the right value? Dunlop said {censored} that and you get something that sounds flabby or shrill or just plain horrible.

I think the eh ri big muffs suck, except for the green one. I've had both the black and the usa ri (older, non-tb version a while back), and they sounded too boomy and harsh. The black one didn't get fuzzy enough. I've never played a "real" big muff, but the clones I've been thru (and currently own) blow the ri I've had completely away. The green one was pretty good, but I liked the icbm better.

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Originally posted by PFDarkside

It's kind of amazing how many trademarks the Dunlop co. bought... Fuzz Face, Crybaby, Uni-vibe

 

 

Yeah, dunlop did a real {censored}ty job on the univibe. I actually thought the rotovibe wasn't that bad of a pedal, but it shouldn't be confused for an univibe. They really seem to slap Hendrix's name on any pos and expect it to sell. I actually thought the crybabys weren't that bad. They could be a lot worse. And I thought the vox v847 wah was much worse than the cheapest/most basic crybaby. Yeah, they don't really measure up to vintage or the booteek ones, but I've been thinking about picking up another crybaby for like a sawbuck just because I don't use wah that much and am a cheap bastard.

 

To add to the list, let's just throw the whammy on there to get it out of the way.

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I was going to say the Dunlop Fuzz Face, but then I recall people saying that back in the '60's, you had to go through a case of 'em to find a good one.

I'm not sure that there's even one "good one" per case today, but there are surely plenty of crappy ones.

The FF circuit just seems to be mass-production resistant.

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Up until less than 10 years ago, Dunlop was pretty much the only company making "reissue" pedals.

Its understandable why mass producers of pedals modify designs that failed to be profitable when mass produced decades earlier.

Many of these products were discontinued in the first place because they could not be mass produced at a profitable price point. It's a pretty risky endeavor to produce a product identical to a known failure.

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Can you ever really say that EHX pedals were/are "original" and "reissue" though? By their own admission they built pedals using whatever they could get their hands on, so there was never any consistency in the production. I appreciate that the company has moved through several production timelines, but there hasn't ever really been any consistency.

Fuzz Face and Rangemaster are kind of the same. Nobody took the time or effort to measure and match the transistors back in the day, so there were an awful lot of stinkers in with the good ones.

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I'm looking to buy the Maestro Fuztone FZ-1 reissue. Can anyone tell me if that one falls short compared to originals. Keeping in mind we are not talking beautiful tone (but I love it) in either case.

It is supposed to be a technical clone(same transistors, components,etc)

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Originally posted by surfcat

So, since I have the Dunlop Univibe that everyone says sucks, what difference would I hear if I played a boutique one? I've only played the Dunlop, and it seems to sound like a univibe to me.



+1

Not the Univibe Chorus thing but this one:

100402.jpg

Actually sounds nice.

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Originally posted by capnbringdown

I've had the dunlop ri fuzz face, and it sucked. You know how the booteekers say they make sure they match the transistors and that they're at the right value? Dunlop said {censored} that and you get something that sounds flabby or shrill or just plain horrible.

 

 

Dunlop RI's are hit or miss.

 

I have one that sounds fabulous. Did a shoot out with a Dave Fox hot silicon and a Dave Fox Capt Cocconut ge/si fuzzfoot and the Dunlop held its own - slightly bassier and slightly raspier but just slightly

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I'll add the Maestro Fuzztone FZ-1A reissue. Too much gain. Not 'strangled' and 'spitty' enough. Maybe they felt it needed to sound more modern as the original tone was pretty raw.I sent it off to Howard Davis in Brooklyn (he comes up in a lot of forums) to mod it to original (or as close as possible) spec's.

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It's not a pedal, but there is something seriously wrong with the modern Rockmans. These things used to kick butt 20 years ago.


p594b-a14d6763f78e00bbe6d8ca8cbc031195.j



oh man I remember that thing. I didn't know they still made them. I never played it but always thought it would sound cool.

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I think it's a general rule that reissue pedals don't sound as good as the original. Or atleast that's what people always say.


I've heard alot of negative reviews of people comparing the Whammy, dunlop stuff, mxr stuff, etc. Unfortunatly, I've never had the chance to compare them myself.

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