Ampeg Scrambler

The ease of use is super easy. You just use your ears and whatever tuning and turn away to dial in your specific tone. You can mix and match to hold off some of the full on fuzz you get and tone down the octave up. You'd have to be a tard not to get a good sound out of it.

Id say the guy who wrote the first review is a plonka/numpty (if your from U.S he's a Jerk/fool) The pedal is indeed not an 8 but a 10 by far. I have 2 of these pedals and Ive own 5. The sound is glassy fuzz that will peel your face off like nothing ive heard. The clarity is spot on and the octave up is unusual as it isnt as separted as alot of fuzz/octave up pedals. The octave clang/ring modulation when dialed in full is awesome and provides a unique sound.
I play Qotsa/heavy hard rock and its Ideal. The sound you can get out of it are unbelievable. I use a Vox AC30 1980s with Celestion Blue's and the tone is spot on. Its not a novelty Item that I think some people may describe its a secret weapon in your pedal board that not very many people will have. This is the typa pedal that will make a mediocre riff sound huge and unique. The sound is consistent across the pedals from personal experience.

Looks like its built like a (US Sherman) Churchill Tank and looks very sturdy. My only criticism is that the knobs arnt as stiff as they could be. Lol, sounds gay with the pun but its a tru observation. Probs could tighten them up but ive owned 5. They dont make them anymore so its off to pedal specialist repair man at my nearest high end music store to get fixed. Dont take this pedal to an amateur as he may destroy your tone. I have had no problems with any as yet.

They dont make the pedal anymore so no customer support Im afraid. Pedal repair man would probs be able too sort it but again dont take it to an amateur.

Im giving it a 10 because its highly rated in the pedal world and its unique. I would never sell the 2 I own because they are the bollocks for tone and thats the long and short of it. If your into indie music dont bother cos it will rip your face off. These are going up in price ??200 in sterling for one so if your thinking of selling dont or stleast wack a ??200 reserve on it.

Just two knobs here, but they're a bit enigmatic. There's "Texture", which adjusts the harmonic content (ie-octave effect) of the fuzz tone, and "Balance", which lets you blend a clean signal with the fuzz, so's it's not pure treble blastin' atcha'. Fool with 'em a bit, and they both start to make sense. The owners' manual explains both knobs in depth, and also offers a few suggested settings to try.

Even among fuzzboxes, this a wierd bird, having a clangy ring-modulation/octave effect that combines with the buzzsaw fuzz. Supposedly this box was the inspiration for Dan Armstrongs' equally wacky Green Ringer effect. Ever hear Tommi Iommis' guitar solo on Black Sabbaths' "Paranoid"? He didn't use one of these pedals, but it sure sounds like it. The fuzz, like a lot of 60's style fuzzes (this is a reissue, by the way), has oodles of treble and not much sustain, and gets REAL buh-zarre if you play chords. But for badass biker fuzz, and crazy retro single-note solos, it'll do the job. For real wierd fun, put your guitar on its' neck pickup, crank the texture knob, and start playing around the 12th fret--crazy, clangy octave effects abound here!

When I bought this pedal, the battery connection didn't work, so it only works with a standard 9-volt adapter. The pedal itself, however is built like a freakin' tank, and weighs about as much! You could probably run this thing over and it'd still work.

Bought used, but have dealt with the folks at Ampeg before, but that was before their recent takeover--dunno about the current folk. Previous experiences weren't too bad; it took a little while to get someone to help with the specific problem I had, but they did get back to me.

I'm fond of oddball pedals like this; it will get used in my recording studio from time to time, but likely'll never get hard daily use, unless I join a Cactus tribute band (they used Scramblers alot!). I've also got to admit I wouldn't pay the new price on one of these guys, either--last I checked, they sold new for nearly 300 bucks, and that's a lot of cabbage for this kinda' wierdness, even though it feels almost feels like it's built to that price level. If this box were a pizza topping it'd be anchovies; most people will have no use for this thing, but a few (like me!) are gonna' love it!