Love it, hate it, can't live without it
Over the past 25 years, I’ve had gear that I’ve loved, I’ve had gear that I’ve hated, I’ve had gear that I was lukewarm about. This is the only piece of gear that I’ve ever had a truly “love-hate” relationship with. I love it because it instantly and brilliantly delivers some of the most Godly and unGodly tones on the planet – sounds that you would be hard pressed to squeeze out of ten carefully selected pedals and the best vintage amp you could get your hands on. The sounds it produces make it far and away my favorite pedal of any that I have. But I hate it because, unlike any of my other pedals, you have to stomp on it REALLY hard to engage it and disengage it (a design defect, not just a fluke with mine), which does not lend itself to being able to just take off to some higher spiritual level and forget about the world for awhile. Especially if you play sitting down like me, you’re dragged mercilessly back to reality every time you need to get the thing to come on or off. Not that it’s ALWAYS hard to engage. It’s just not reliably or consistently NOT hard to engage, which can make it all the more frustrating – every time you think you can relax with it, it throws an irritating curve at you. Its only somewhat saving grace is that, with Digitech’s FS-3X footswitch connected to it, you can at least easily switch between the different tones that it offers once you’ve got the Hendrix pedal on.
My passion and disdain for this pedal are so great that, after years of dealing with the aggravating stomp situation, I finally put it up for sale on EBay, then pulled it before anyone could bid on it, then finally went through with selling it, only to come back three weeks later and buy someone else’s.
So can it help you get a cool Hendrix-y sound? Basically, it’s the closest thing to a “magic box” that I’ve found musically, and yes, you have to work quite hard to not sound amazing using this pedal. And of course, just because the tones are meticulously gleaned from specific Hendrix songs (under the guidance of Zeppelin/Hendrix producer/genius Eddie Kramer), and just because the tones you get can sound pretty much dead on EXACTLY like what’s in those songs, that doesn’t mean that you can’t tweak the knobs on the pedal to customize some cool sonic variations for yourself to use in creating your own material.
So having just been blissfully reunited with this pedal, I’m still in the second honeymoon phase with it and as such, I’m currently focused on all the things I love about it. Would I recommend buying one? Yes. If you love Hendrix’s sound, or even stuff like WolfMother, nothing beats it. It was discontinued awhile back (my guess is because of the design flaw, but who knows), so you can’t buy them new in stores anymore – EBay’s the place. Good luck. Your legs will get some exercise if nothing else.Read full review
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