Pedals that exceeded your expectations

[marqueemoon]

I want an Adineko badly. As mentioned above it has a huge range of sounds, and the spooky/weird ones are very fun.

Gonna add my Lehle volume pedal to the list. Spendy, but it was a big step up from passive, and has become an essential part of my setup.

Oh, and the Bananana Matryoshka bass synth. I generally have pretty boring taste in pedals, but I love this one in my bass setup. Unlike a lot of octave and synth pedals there’s more of an element of chaos like something’s going to explode.

[cpeck]

I was kind of blown away by the Way Huge Fat Sandwich. Sounds fantastic on bass and guitar.

The yellow hybrid Tonebender is also a truly ridiculous fuzz. I have two of them.

[thegreatbigsby]

I've been smitten by the All You Can Boost from FFX. Bought it used on a whim, and it really is as versatile as advertised. You have a boost going into another, so you can go from a clean boost to an overdrive sound with ease. Just use Boost 2 as a master volume. I usually have it set somewhere in the middle where it adds maybe a bit of compression and a tiny bit of drive. Sounds good with every guitar I have tried into it. The first boost pot is pretty sensitive and it gets loud fast, but it's all managable.
And then you have a footswitchable EQ, which at first I found a bit weird because it reacts differently than I'm used to. It's almost all mids I think, just low mids, high mids, and well, mid mids. But live or in the studio I found it enhances exactly the right frequencies I need to cut through or to help the guitar sit in a mix. Plus, the one I have is pink.

[wooderson]

The Eventide Rose (though maybe not if it was at current retail). The interface initially seems kind of baffling but the filter is great for getting the right repeat sound, great modulation, loooooooong reverse if you want it, flanging/chorus sounds, all the good stuff.

If the design wasn't quite as ugly (I like violet, could do without the actual rose graphics and font), it would be a much more popular pedal.

[cestlamort]

I’ve long been curious about these. I’ll admit that the pseudo Roktek aesthetic gave me pause.

Funny how “pink” is coded as “delay”

[OffYourFace]

Strymon Deco & Volante. I've had them awhile now. I always have my reservations about 'software in a box' but these two deliver all the time.

I only use the Deco with guitar but mainly with synths. The Volante lives permanently in an Aux send of my 16 ch mixer for all my synths.

[krossfader]

I'm going with the Digitech Obscura - the slept-on delay cousin of the Polara reverb. I'm not a delay power user but this thing has a ton of great voicings and I haven't gotten a bad sound out of it.

[ryland]

Strymon Deco & Volante. I've had them awhile now. I always have my reservations about 'software in a box' but these two deliver all the time.

I only use the Deco with guitar but mainly with synths. The Volante lives permanently in an Aux send of my 16 ch mixer for all my synths.

I just got a Deco and am VERY impressed. The Through Zero Flanging it can do has me all a-twitter.

[JVG]

The Deco is a great pedal. I had one for several years, but actually sold it a few months ago as i wasn’t using it much. Sometimes i regret that decision, and may even buy again, now that there is a V2 with tone control on the saturation side.

[OffYourFace]

The Deco is a great pedal. I had one for several years, but actually sold it a few months ago as i wasn’t using it much. Sometimes i regret that decision, and may even buy again, now that there is a V2 with tone control on the saturation side.

if you get it please let us know how that function is.

[JVG]

The Deco is a great pedal. I had one for several years, but actually sold it a few months ago as i wasn’t using it much. Sometimes i regret that decision, and may even buy again, now that there is a V2 with tone control on the saturation side.

if you get it please let us know how that function is.

Will do, although it’s unlikely to be any time soon.

I think the tone control would considerably increase the pedal’s versatility. I rarely used the saturation side of my V1 Deco, because i found it too dark and uninspiring.

[Twang Deluxe]

I was blown away with the TC MojoMojo.
Cheap, but not cheap sounding

[JamesSGBrown]

About to take my Deco to use as outboard in mixing. What a great little unit!

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I was searching for a keenly-priced Fredric Effects Super Unpleasant Companion and ended up buying their keenly-priced Mutant Fuzz instead. Plugged it in to try it out and was more than happy with my purchase. At low settings on both amp and guitar volume (after a mini Dynacomp clone) I got closest I've managed yet to a sound I've chased for yonks - the rhythm guitar sound on And Your Bird Can Sing.

Only found out after I'd bought it that there's a mk.II "improved" version, which might account for the bargain price, but I'm more than happy with this one, which, I should point out, also sounds great in full-blown, wide-open fuzzbox mode.

[JSett]

I was searching for a keenly-priced Fredric Effects Super Unpleasant Companion and ended up buying their keenly-priced Mutant Fuzz instead. Plugged it in to try it out and was more than happy with my purchase. At low settings on both amp and guitar volume (after a mini Dynacomp clone) I got closest I've managed yet to a sound I've chased for yonks - the rhythm guitar sound on And Your Bird Can Sing.

Only found out after I'd bought it that there's a mk.II "improved" version, which might account for the bargain price, but I'm more than happy with this one, which, I should point out, also sounds great in full-blown, wide-open fuzzbox mode.

I've had a couple of his Unpleasants, MkI & MK2 and currently have one of the Super Unpleasant Companions. They've all been great. The MK2 was great on bass - so much so I gave it to my bassist.