Akai D1 Shred-O-Matic

Easy.

Anyone who doesn't know how good this pedal is, doesn't know anything about electric guitar. You'll wonder how you lived without it. Give your tube about thirty hours to burn in, this tube starts out awesome, but the tube only gets creamier after a good burn in.
Diode mode is awesome too. Mix modes are superb. A great pedal at a great price. Get one before they're gone, you'll regret it if you don't. Switch is noiseless, and this pedal has true bypass circuitry.
I got one, he he. Being a guitar hero is easy with pedals like this one.

Very good build; all metal chasis. Comes with power supply.

N/A

Kicks Major Ass!!!

I received one from eBay, so I really can't comment on a new one. Although I did read all the other comments about it, the person who rated it a "1" can't be the only one out there that has such lousy comments about it. I agree with the one guy who says there MUST be a problem somewhere. If it was that bad, why did he even take time to discredit the pedal? I hope he got his money back. Nothing on the market can possibly sound so bad!Sounds to me like he just didn't get the sound he expected. That's why you take your equipment to the place of business to try it out.(I guess he didn't)

I use a Ibanez JS100 with a Limited Edition Hendrix Wah pedal. I am currently using a Crate amp w/custom speaker, I also use a DOD Compression/Sustainer.

Very dependable. I would use it without a backup.

I've been playing 14 years and I can say it is a very good pedal and I have no intentions of ever selling it.

its very easy!

strato,tele,lp,sg,335...i think the tele is the best for this box. the box is very very silent.i dont know whats the trouble with the other guys.i use vox ac 30 with it and there`s no trouble at all. i had a maxon b808 and it caused me trouble all of time.this sounds the same and is much more debendible...cool.

yes yes yes

i`ve been playing rock for 36 yrs now and this is my pedal. stolen?? i would move back to --------------i love that brooming sound sound it makes. i wish it has a wah pedal.

I think that for the price of this unit that the sound is quite reasonable. It's unfortunate that Akai have discontiued this product (or so I have heard). If you are looking for one and you find it; don't let it go. Mine came with a manual, doesn't really tell much of use. Just the obvious stuff.

I'm using an Ibanez SA series guitar with a DiMarzio PAF pro humbucker in the bridge (close to the strings), signal from there is pretty high level and drives the input of the Shred-o-matic. The output from there runs into my homemade 19" rack power-amp (150watts, solid state dual-class) and then on into a Marshall quad-box fit with Celestion G-12L's. I'm an electronics guru and have changed the valve in the D1 to an Ei, as I found the harmonics from the chinese tube that came with it to be less than musical. With this simple modification I find the sound quality to be equally as good as (if not beter than) that of the new Marhall AVT amps. The main difference from a valvestate pre-amp would be the addition of the internal compressor circuit that Akai have used. As someone else on this page has said, the compressor is great for sustaining notes and that instant-metal-crunch sound but if you want those sutle half-dirty blues tones you may find it difficult to grab accurately; Even at lower gain levels as the job of a compressor is too reduce the dynamic range of the signal.

I have pulled this thing to pieces, examined the circuitry, looked at the soldering and wiring etc. In any normal playing situation I would trust the D1 to be quite reliable. The only possible exception would be the pedal-assign slider switch, which is sometimes a little scratchy (a least on mine). But that is a minor problem. I would use it without a backup, but that may have something to do with my budget :oP

Never had to deal with them. Wouldn't bother either, it would be quicker and easier to fix it myself ;o)

I mainly play classic metal, hard rock/hard blues. I've been playing about 5 years or so. I would like to add that this pedal has the potential to work wonders for it's price, so long as you relace the tube that comes with it for a better one. That would be my only disapointment with this unit, considering that the rest of it is built like a tank. I think control over the compressor would allow much more versatility in the sound, but there are some trim-pots on the PCB that I am yet to fiddle with for this purpose.

For those of us who can't afford that full valve head just yet...this is a good alternative in the mean time. Just remember that without a full valve power output stage you will never get that proper power compression with the speaker.

Have fun :o)

Everything is labelled.

This is for the guy below who gave this pedal all 1's:

There is either something defective about your D-1 or the rest of your equipment. The voicing of the tube versus the diode setting
is radically different. Like it or hate it, that's a fact. They sound
like two entirely different pedals. Anybody who has actually used one
would notice this. Now, you might hate *both* sounds, and that is
your perogative, but you can't claim to have used the pedal and
gotten the same sound out of both settings.

I would suggest taking your pedal and the rest of your equipment
to a qualified technician to have it checked out. Otherwise,
your opinions about this piece of equipment might be seen as
suspect. and you wouldn't want that, would you.

I wish all pedals were this well-made.

I don't actually know if Akai still repairs these things.

The tube setting sounds like a Tubescreamer, the diode setting doesn't. The Tubescreamer is a pedal that you buy when you want
a lot of midrange. Apparently, the Shred-O-Matic is a pedal you buy
when you want to complain about too much midrange.

very easy to use very hard to get a decent sound. One page manual - totally useless.

i used this "thing" between my strat & 50W marshall on a 4X12 bottom. It gets noisy as the gain control is turned past 12 o'clock. diode & tube settings sound pretty close to each other. Tube setting is louder than diode setting. There is a certain midrange happenig all the time with thisd paedal and cannot be dialed out. That's too bad because the pedal would sound pretty good if the middle was adjustable. Very Honky pedal.

I would depend on it. It has a tube. Although, the tube doesn't really lend any particular characted to the sound of this pedal. As some have already mentioned, the tube is just a gimmick. There's a little yellow light under it which make the tube shine. But the filaments on the tube aren't even on. What the F#@k?!?!

never had to deal with them.

I play rock. This pedal is good for maybe one or two songs. it's tone is not variable. You cannot diminish those midrange frequesncies which are present at all times. Too bad. Also, I think AKAI is misleading the consumers by advertizing that the D1 is a tube driven pedal, but in reality, the tube in there is just a "filter, nothing else. In fact, the filaments don't even light up. They use a LED to make it look like it's on. What a piece of crap. Oh, one last thing, Tiffany, (bitchontheradio): please shut up & play guitar if you can.otherwise, just blow your boyfriend.

Personally, I found my little pedal extremely easy to use. I can't imagine it being any easier or anyone having trouble with it. Maybe there should be a video lesson on knob turning so that people can learn how to turn knobs. Part two could be switches cause that seems to be an area where people are lacking too. It works fine for me and I love it.

The manual doesn't say much, but I guess it really doesn't need to say much. Maybe for the airheads of the world some pictures with suggested KNOB and SWITCH settings would be good, but other than that, it's just......well.....easy to figure out on your own. It tells you right on the front of the pedal what each thing is.

I don't know of any upgrade and I don't know what a firmware revision number is so I can't say on this one. I am under the impression that this pedal, along with the other Akai pedals is discontinued and I'm really bummed about that.

Also, it doubles as a nightlight.

Let's see... I have a mid 80's Charvel body with a Stewart MacDonald Jackson style neck on it and a Jackson Model 2 bridge pickup, and recently took out the tremolo and filled in the cavity with purple heart wood and put a Stew Mac solid mount Strat style bridge in it. I have a DOD preamp squeezed into the control cavity with two 9volt batteries running it and a bypass switch to be able to use it in passive mode too. I run that into a little two EL84 amp my boyfriend made for me that rocks the socks off of everything I've heard out there on the market and has its own tone. I run my little amp on 2 Celestion Greenbacks mounted in an open back gutted combo amp cabinet that's just tempoary till I get my 2x12 closed back cabinet built. With all this my little pedal sounds AWESOME! I am shocked that there are those who would say bad things about this little pedal. It has it's OWN tone, not a copy of something else already done or a variation of a pedal already done like a lot of the pedal companies do.

It's only noisy when my computer is on and I forgot to attach the ground wire to my bridge when I was working on my guitar and putting it back together but when I change strings, I'll attach it and run it to the bridge and it should quiet up the noise I have now.

I don't think this pedal is weak by any means. Like I said, it has its own sound and I happen to love the sound it makes.

I don't know if I can get the sound of my favorite artists because I don't try to sound like them. My favorite is Randy Rhoads hands down and my second favorite is Tom Keifer of Cinderella. I also love guys like Tom Sholtz from Boston, George Lynch, CC Deville, Steve Morse, Toni Iomi Brian Forsythe from KIX. I love 70's and 80's rock and metal and 90's country. I love them and their sound and I don't want to sound like them, I want to sound like me. I like original things and things that are different.

I love distortion and I ain't afraid of solid state sounds and devices. I like pedals WAY more than multieffects cheese machines. I really love the sound of my little Shred-O-Matic and I think that's a funny silly name for it like that guy in the other post mentioned, I love it.

I think that anyone who doesn't like this pedal or can't get any decent sounds out of it either aren't into the kind of music this pedal was designed for or they really don't know what good tone is (and there's TONS of people who "think" they do but don't) or is just plain stupid.

Not to mention, it doubles as a nightlight.

I would think I can depend on it. I haven't had it very long but it's built very well and I love how it's all made out of metal than plastic and I don't know about that guy who stated that the pedal on his is plastic, cause mine's metal.

Well, I WOULD use it to gig with and record, but I'm not gigging at the moment so I won't know till I get there.

And it doubles as a nightlight.

I haven't dealt with them yet on anything, but my boyfriend called them to get a schematic from them and they were very nice and helpful with it. So far so good.

No upgrade yet. Nothing repaired, it works.

It also doubles as a nightlight.

I play mostly blues based rock, but I do play a heavy metal too. This pedal is a GREAT match for both styles and I just love the sound of it to death.

I started playing when I was 14, but quit for 9 years and just got back into playing again and trying to get my equipment together.

Other gear I own: silver face Fender Champ, silver face Fender Bassman 100 that I'm modding the heck out of, Elephant practice amp, BBE 411 and 362 Sonic Maximizers, a bunch of DOD pedals (I love DOD pedals and hate boss), an Ibanez CF7 chorus/flanger pedal, a Zoom 503 amp simulator pedal, 2 Cry Babys, La Primera accoustic I got for my sweet 16, Mako TB-2 guitar (my very first electric guitar), part of a Lotus guitar I robbed the pickups out of cause they sound so great, I'm in the process of building a Tele and an Explorer and a Fender Bullet type guitar out of purple heart wood, (my gosh is it heavy....I love heavy guitars and basses) with the pickups I robbed from my Lotus guitar, Fender Jazz Bass Special (like Duff's, but metalic charcoal grey with black hardware) Peavey 4x10 bass cab and a bass amp that I won't mention because the company SUCKS so way bad and screwed me over and gave me terrible service and I would recommend ANYONE to stay away from them. Ok, I'll mention, the crappy company who screwed me over is , gosh I hate even mentioning them, gk. Screw you ** for what you did to me and my amp!!!! I should throw it off the roof like that one guy did who posted a review on his amp and how bad he got treated by **.

If my little pedal was lost or stolen, I would cry because I love it so much and it's really neat and I don't think they make them anymore so I probably wouldn't be able to get another one. But if I could, I certianly would. I sure hope they are going to continue making thes pedals and the other ones in their line cause I'd like to get and try out them. I didn't get to hear this pedal before I bought it cause no one here locally had one, I took a chance on it being good and I'm glad I did. I think it's one of the best sounding distortion pedals out there today. boss shmoss!! boss can go jump in a lake for all I care, they sound terrible in my opinion. I can't stand them. But this pedal I can stand and sit, for that matter.

What I love about it is, it has it's OWN tone and I think it really sounds awesome and lives up to it's silly name. There is no pop or any kind of stupid sound when you step on the switch, it just simply and smoothly changes between off to on or vice versa. A lot of pedals have a pop or some kind of noticable sound when it is turned on and off, not this pedal. I love the little mid rangy "honk" that everyone is talking about. I think it sounds great. I haven't had a chance to really crank my amp with it on, but at low volumes it really sounds great. Maybe someone got a bum pedal cause mine is awesome! I love the all metal case and the big area for your foot to be freely able to hit the switch and how it's wide so it won't tip over if stepped on at a weird angle. It's not crouded like a lot of pedals and the knobs are away from the switch and pedal so nothing accidentally get's hit and moved. I love the pedal feature too, but wish the action was just a hair smoother and the transition from cleaner to full on was smoother. Other than that, it's just fine. Maybe a different value pot might help fix that. I also love that it doubles as a night light. That is so funny.

The tube, I'm sure, is just run as a diode and so bassically you've got solid state diode bounding and tube diode bounding, but they both have their gifts to give to the user and I love the way they both sound. I was skeptical at first cause I'm leary of pedals these days cause most of the ones I have tried sound like crap, EXCEPT for DOD and of course, my Shred-O-Matic, and I didn't want to get something that sounded like crap. After ordering it I got butterflys in my tummy and thought I would send it back

An easy device to operate and is manual satisfactory.Gets very good sounds.

4 choices of distortion to choose from.I prefer the diode setting as it's very smooth with good sustain through my strat.No noise and the tube,smooth and passion settings are a little roougher sounding but still quite usable.Works well with other effects such as Tech 21 comptortion and Akai intelliphase.An extremely versatile pedal.

Seems well built and sturdy but would always have a backup with anything.

Akai has a good reputation and would expect good service if needed.

Been playing 35 yrs,mostly rock and blues.Has a good midrange through my Peavey Ranger and would buy another if lost.Bought this out of curiousity and price.Was surprised at how good it really is.It inspires me to play and though the engineering could have been a little better as far as the output is being controlled by the foot pedal is concerned. The drive decreases as well as the volume when the pedal is let up.The same in the drive mode,the drive as well as the volume lets up.Neither one of these are much of a problem for me as it's a fun pedal to play through.Has decent EQ and is well balanced.

Simple to use. In effect, the included one page manual is not needed.

i use this pedal between my Fender strat and a 50W plexi on a 4X12 greeback loaded cab. The tube setting is louder than the diode setting. They both sound very alike, with the diode having just a bit more gain/edge. All settings have a pronounced 1K midrange tone which cannot be dialed out unless an EQ is inserted in the chain. This pedal claims to be Tube/solid state driven but the tube really just sits there doing nothing. In fact, there's a tiny amber LED light inside the pedal under the tube, which gives the impression of a glowing tube.

Seems pretty reliable. Then again, it was made in Taiwan... The shell is pretty sturdy. The insides are a bit flimsy. Forget about changing the tube - it's buried.

never dealt with AKAI

I play blues, classic rock & metal. The pedal could be a fair match for some 80's metal, but that honking 1K midrange will tire your ears real quick. I kinda dig the pedal feature, you can assign it to the drive or volume. That's pretty good. What I really don't like about it is the lack of a midrange or a frequency contour control. When compared to an old Marshall Shredmaster, the the AKAI D1 sounds like total junk. Compared to a boss DS1, the AKAI D1 sounds constipated, harsh & sterile. I sent mine back. Bottom line: don't waste your money on this thing, it's barely a TOY.

This is very easy to use. All the settings are well-marked and logical and do exactly what they should. The pedal is incredibly rugged and professional. I give it an "8" only because it is slightlty more complex than most distortion units.

I use a Carvin into an Electar 10, then miked for recording. This combination is naturally a very good classic-rock, Hendrixy sound.

Unfortunately the shred-o-matic is the worst sounding distortion I have ever heard (and I have been hearing them since 1968).
1. It completely alters the basic tone, even with all distortion intensity at minimum. It whacks off BOTH the low end, and the high end, giving a very nasal and dull midrange sound.
2. The tube path actually sound harsher and less "tubey" than the diode path. I'm not sure how they managed that. There is really no "low-gain" setting. It starts at "ratty" and goes up to "hairy-mushball"
3. Using the pedal for adjustment to the distortion intensity is completely impractical, because it changes the volume A LOT simultaneously. Don't assume (as I did) that you can roll from clean to distortion in fine gradiations.
4. The tube and diode distortions are matched to each other in volume pretty well, so the blend and transitions do sound useable, but each one is so completely generic sounding that it still doesn't create much excitement.
5. With the higher-gain settings, the distortion is useable, but it is simply two very ordinary distortion sounds, not an infinitely variable and adjustable-on-the-fly like I had hoped. Maybe my expectations were simply too high.

It looks incredibly rugged and reliable. Maybe the most professional footpedal I have ever seen, construction-wise. I can't attest to long-term reliability.

No idea.

If I had paid more for this, I would return it immediately. It's sound is simply very cliche and unexpressive (nasaly and dull). Since I bought it on closeout, and it would cost me shipping to return it, I will probably keep it for occasional "novelty" distortions. My favorite setting is "bypass" :)
I also reviewed the BOSS ME-8 a few years ago if you want to check my general review attitude. I loved the ME-8, and am generally pretty easy to please, but the Shred-o-matic is a big disappointment. I give it an overall 3 based on sound alone. I might give the unit to an electrical engineer friend at let him experiment to see if he can overcome its numerous design problems.