DOD FX13 Gonkulator Modulator

Four knobs seems pretty easy, but the wacky names can make it a little tricky. Luckily I got one with a manual. Anyway, the controls are: Suck, Smear, Gunk, and Heave. Suck is a mix/volume level for the distortion circuit (a DOD Grunge to be precise); Smear is the wet/dry mix for the ring modulator; Gunk controls the amount of distortion from the Grunge circuit; and Heave is an overall output volume control. Pretty easy.

So admittedly I bought this pedal only because I'm an incubus fanboy, but I've had it for about two years now and still never get tired of it. I use it with the distortion circuit turned all the way down so I just get the ring mod signal. Yes it's very easy to nail the sounds from 'Glass' and 'Pendulous Threads,' but why not create your own riffs with it?

I personally love the sound of this pedal. The way I have it set the ring mod totally takes over the sound and turns the guitar into a robot...basically. It's not a very clean or smooth sounding ring mod, at least compared to the other ones out there. The Zvex ringtone has a really crisp and smooth quality to it, as do the Moogerfooger and the Electro-Harmonix Frequency Analyzer, but the Gonkulator has this harsh, tinny tone that you can't really get away from.

The drawbacks are few I should say. When you turn the pedal on there is a loud, Bb pop (like picking at the 11th fret on the B string). I know this isn't just my pedal because if you listen closely to the bridge of 'Megalomaniac' you can hear the weird popping in the background =)

Also, while the pedal is on, you can hear the oscillator constantly droning out a Bb in the background. It's not noticeable while playing, but the second you stop it's there. I just turn the effect off when I'm done with it anyway, but it's worth mentioning.

Now the only major drawback on this pedal is that you can't tune the oscillator to anything other than Bb. Pretty much every other ring mod on the market has this feature (the Moogerfooger even has the option of controlling the carrier frequency with an expression pedal), but DOD apparently overlooked it.

I don't want to go through my entire rig, but to give you a general idea my main guitar is a Fender Mexican Telecaster. I also have a Mexican Stratocaster with DiMarzio Area '58 pickups and a 1990 Rickenbacker 330. My sound goes through a total of 23 effects at the moment with the Gonkulator sitting comfortably sitting 6th from last on my board (I keep it after my overdrives and time-based effects, but before my reverb, delay, and loop station). All of this comes out of either a Vox AC30 combo or for live use an Orange AD30 with an Orange 2x12.

I think mine was new-old-stock from a vintage pedal store (it was gift) so it's in better condition than some older DOD pedals. However I do consider it reliable with proper care. I like to think that I treat all of my effects with tender love and care. I have a total of three DOD pedals (Gonkulator, Envelope Filter, and Stereo Phaser) and none of them have ever given me any problems. My bass player, on the other hand, got a DOD Grunge from a friend and it only lasted him a couple of months. But this particular pedal was in pretty bad shape to begin with. The plastic battery cover was missing and the jacks were in a state of disrepair. It just recently died on him at a gig, but the only real problem is something with the power supply jack. It was never really all the way there to begin with, but it finally gave up that night. He's bidding on a new one on eBay though.

I consider all effects to be reliable as long as you take good care of them. But the DOD stuff doesn't seem likely to survive a fall down a flight of stairs or two.

I've never dealt with them, sorry.

I play in a sort of experimental band (we're big fans of The Mars Volta) and I would say that this pedal is well-suited to my style. I like anything that makes my guitar not sound like a guitar. But if you're looking for a ring mod to experiment with I would recommend either the Moog or the Electro-Harmonix. They're pretty reasonably priced and are still in production. Instead of going through the trouble of finding a Gonkulator and not paying the Incubus fanboy price you can get a unit with more features and cleaner sound for just under $300.

It's the only ring modulator I own so far (I plan on purchasing both a Moogerfooger and a Zvex Ringtone) but I definitely intend to keep it no matter what. It is a critical part of my live rig and I just love playing with it. Sure it's a one-trick-pony, but it's only one pedal, what do you expect? If it were stolen or lost I would be pretty mad about it and promptly replace it when I could. But I mount my pedals to my board with metal plates rather than velcro in order to prevent backstage thievery.

Yeah its alright, 4 knobs. Limited of course, but this pedal wasn't produced to make a myriad of sounds.

Ha. Well, i would like to quote a previous user:
"it is completely useless for anything except playing "Glass"."
Well then, how was glass written? Oh, of course, im sure mike went to DOD and said HEY DUDEZ OMG LOLZ MAKE ME AN EFFECT FOR THIZ SONG. psh.
He had this pedal and for whatever reason, came up with the riff in glass to use it. And it works well. If you put your mind to it, im sure you could make up another song that could include it. I have. I've made it useful for a verse riff in several songs so far...
OK, its limited, but its also a novelty pedal. Look at it. Yellow and purple glitter? what the deuce. There are better ring modulators out there. Um yeah Moog. all you tools who said moog, maybe we dont have 400 US to spend on a ring mod, unlike you.

This pedal makes a ring mod sound. It IS noisy, but that can be adjusted with various equipment these days. Sounds great with chorus modulation. Whack a whammy after it and you've got some swirling octaves going up and down every which way.

Yeah. Nice and solid case, but the switch is a bit plastic.

Yeah its a good pedal to add a certain element of surprise occasionally.
If you're that into ring mods, you can find more versatility elsewhere. Try Zvex Vex pedals. thats a really cool ring mod.
But if you want to have some occasional fun, why not get it if you can afford it? Chances are you can sell it for the same price you bought it. Cheers.

easy to use> except for the stupid knob names make it confusing and unnecessarily 'weird'. itll sell big on ebay because it looks so 'weird' but its not that hard to use.
no manual with mine.

aarrggh i bought this on a whim and despise the sound of DOD, thinking maybe this would be different..
but its quite bad, not tweakable [despite the WEIRD knob names!] i play an aria proii and a fender jag, and i use mainly analog pedals and racks, i particularly like ring mods so i got this one on a list with the moog ring mod, frostwave, modmax, freq analyser, lovetone, zvex ringtone and let me tell you, playing these in connection with one another will yield some incredible otherworldly magic, but adding the gonkulator anywhere to the chain somehow flattens my sound and it brings a terrible distortion to it. i hate DOD.

all right i guess but we'll see when i throw it out the window. not as much of a tank as boss or e.harmonix..

whatever. not worth the effort to ask them 'why?'

was fun for one second.. cant recommend it, unless you have no idea about ring mods and dont spend more than 15 20 on it.. the thing goes for 100 bucks on ebay??? who the heck thinks theyre buying a weird alternative pedal for that when you can get much better ring mods for much cheaper?? terrible terrible pedal, sorry fellas dont fall for the weird knob titles. been playing for years. gets in the way of my music, doesnt add anything .. i got mine for 35 and even this was too much

Very easy to use. The names on the knobs are dumb and confusing.

My guitar is a Schecter C-1 Artist Limited Edition Electric Guitar Seymour Duncan pickups; JB at the bridge, '59 at the neck.
I use it in my setup in this order. Morley Bad Horsie 2 Wah, Boss DS-1, DOD and Digitech Death Metal pedals, Boss CH-1,Boss PH-3, Digitech Turbo Flange, DOD Gonkulator, and a Boss DD-6. It hums some, so get a noise gate.

no problems with it ever and it is like 7 years old

never dealt with dod

It is a good pedal if you can fit it in with your playing style. If it were lost or stolen I would buy another as soon as possible. I love and hate the sounds you can get out of it. It is a very unique one trick pedal. Great for just messing around and haveing fun with.

Its pretty easy to use if you just want straight ring modulation, or straight distortion for that matter (but I hope you didnt buy this as a distortion pedal lol). The trick is mixing the two to get the sound your after. I wasnt really sure on what sound I wanted when I got this, the plan was to add some screwed up sounds to my pedal board, its all about trail and error which is half the fun.

I'm using a PRS SE II with this. Its pretty noisy, you can always hear a slight ringing when your not playing if the "smear" (ring modulation) is turned up. A noise gate fixes this though.
People will pick this pedal up, based only on the fact that Incubus' Mike Einziger uses one (check out 'glass' on S.C.I.E.N.C.E.). Now I must admit falling into this trap. I'm a huge Incubus fan and have gotten slightly addicted to picking up the pedals Mikey uses. I half wanted something to add real screwed up sounds to my guitar...but the other half was Mikey's influence. At first I found myself banging my head against the wall as I had just spent #67 on something that just made stupid noises. After spending time with it though, with a bit of exploration, you can have an effects adventure. I'm using this with other effects, put in some phaser, flanger, delay...experiment with it and you might just find that wierd ass sound your looking for.

Havent had this long so I'm not sure how reliable it is, but I got it used from eBay and its working. They discontinued this about 5 years ago, so mines at least 5 years old and its still working fine. I doubt you'd need a back-up. Most people would use this as a one trick pedal, crack it out in one or two songs, if it gave up on me during a gig I could probably get away with replacing the effect with something else and calling it "live music variety"

Never delt with DOD.
This is the only DOD pedal I own (I'm a BOSS geek)

NOTE: Contacting this company about the DOD FX-13 Gonkulator would be useless as they havent made one for a good 5 years.

I play a lot of different styles and this is clearly not gonna make it into my blues songs. I didnt pick this up to enhance my sound, I picked it up because sometimes you just want to crack out something a little different. I'm in an experimental rock band and this will make it onto a few of our songs in places. Like I said before, I got a bit carried away by the whole "Mike Einziger uses this!!" vibe, but after trying to make the most out of it, I found you can get some cool sounds if used with other effects.
Just dont buy this and expect to sound like Mike Einziger, he doesnt use this all that much.
I live in the comfort that if I look after this, I could make my money back or even more in a few years.

to get a noisy grungy distortion sound its easy just whack the suck ( ring mod ) level right down and its basically a really hissy half decent distortion. however i doubt you bought this as a distortion.
infact to get either sound ring mod or distortion straight its easy as hell. its mixing the two thats the problem its really hard to get a good sound by mixing the two. the manual is just bad comedy.

im using this with an epiphone sg g400 into a behringer gx 212 its is by far one of the noisiest pedals ive ever played the internal ocsillator makes a really annoying hum thats dogging your signal even when its off. saying this if you want a pedal for making silly noises mix this with a delay and a phaser or flanger and its totally insane. Incubus guitarist mike einziger uses this as im sure you know thats why these things fly for megabucks. the distortion on it is OK ,just like i said mix the two and its get ugly , but tbh thats the whole point of this pedal. to most ppl it does sound like a sack of shit.

mine is ok. the inputs were a bit dodgy and getting cracle was a bit of a problem. i took it apart and tightend the inside nut and it works fine now.

never delt with DOD.

if this pedal were stolen i wudnt buy it again , mainly because i cant find it now for under $200 about #110 i guess. all i use this pedal for is silly noises playing live or looping with a delay for intros/bridges or whatever. it does that job well. i wish it was less noisy then i might put it to other uses , seriously tho if you are buying this pedal just becase you love incubus and think it will turn you into mike einziger please think again , it takes some skill to get a godd sound out of it without copying the tone he gets off 'glass' i admit , i was a sucker and bought it for this reason.

I don't know about how easy it is to use because the knob names are usless when u haven't seen thousands of reviews for this thing online. Suck- Distortion, Smear- Ring Mod, Gunk- Gain, Heave-Overall Volume

This effect is very unique, very noisey, very fixated on the internal ossilator. Theres some very good things about this pedal and some very bad too. First off, it is very unique, alot of reviews on this site said it totally sucks and that you should buy a Electro Harmonix Frequency Analyzer. Trust me that cannot sound anything like this unless u site there for hours tweaking each pitch and somehow taking off it's LFO. It's unique with the right effects but alot of strings sound the same it's hard to find the freaky sounding ones. But there are a few things that will drive u crazy about this pedal it's first off alot less versatile then you think it's gonna be, which i prefer but most won't. When you turn it on u will hear this HUmmmmmm! sound
which is so annoying so you better have a hell of a noise gate. It's sounds great with the right effects (Flangers, Phasers, Delays, Certain Distortions, Choruses) but picking out the strings that sound greats a challange.

It's sort of reliable, but when your battery gets low you will know that right away because when it's ogff u can kinda hear the ring mod anyway. It's a great sturdy, and reliable pedal when made but they can get less and less reliable cuz of age. I had to take mine in to a music shop last week to get fixed because it wouldn't take my guitars input then i got it back and now the ring mod works but the distortion dosen't so I am going to take it back in tomorrow and tell them they didnt fix it right. it's relaible on structure but the age can get in the way.

The company is good but since it's been discountinued manuals arent avalible online nor does it even list it on the site

This pedal fit's my love for sci fi metal and futuristic sounding metal well but it's sometimes a pain in the ass because of all the stupid things about it like the hum and the fixated tone it radiates. It's good but it was less then i expected it to be. I thought it'd be this crazy ass metal zone sounding distortion with all these screaming robot sounds and futuristic bleeps but it wasen't. Fourtunatly I can get those sounds by mixing it with my digitech whammy pedal a delay flanger chorus Od/Dis Phaser and Effect platform (yeah im a greek lol) but it wont be that metal zone space age sounding thing as heard in the stuido of S.C.I.E.N.C.E. by Incubus (my fav band an a huge reason i got this pedal) because it has a regular old sounding overdrive but the ring mod used in small porpotions with it will add quite a bit of dirt and gain but it will not be quite as fancy as u imagined it will make some crazy stuff though, but in order to make the ring mod reach it full potential sound then you must work with it quite a while. It's easy to get the ring from "glass" off S.C.I.E.N.C.E but it was a bit dissappointed because i thought it would get those sounds " A Certain Shade of Green" and "Magic Medecine" "Cologne" and it does get the sound off magic medicene and soems ounds off cologne but not all some of that was DJ's Keyboatrds other things but theres this futuristic siren thats goes off during the verse i thought i would get idk how he does that since ik thats his only distortion on the rig so idk how he'd flip on the ring mod half way but luckely i go another distortion pedal lol but alot of those sounds may be his whammy which no place lists but ik he has one because alot of the sounds he makes are like exactly wut the whammy does but it's agreat buy just dont think you will get every wierd sound of S.C.I.E.N.C.E. only most of em

It pretty easy to use. However, instead of normal names like level,distortion,ect. it has gonk,suck,smear and heave which makes it a little difficult to understand whats going on. I would say find a manual or buy it with it. The manual is a manual, what else can i say. It took me a second to understand it, but then again i am just a teenager and just started getting into effects pedals.

The sound quality is pretty good. Whenever I switch it on it makes this noise(EHHH!) but it isnt to bad especially if you start playing right when you switch it on. So i wouldnt worry about that. THis will work with anything that you can dish up, hell sometimes i even turn the distortion on the gonkulator all the way up and the distortion on my ibanez smashbox on to get a super fuzzy sound.The effect is kinda weak on low strings ( not as good as higher) but very noticable on the high strings and is great for solos if you dont want to sound like an 80's shredder.

HHHmmm... so far it has held up ok, but it seems rather tender and fragile especially the footswitch. Another problem i ran into was that a small washer under one of the tone knobs came up a little bit. But, all i had to do was take the knob off and tighten it down with my hand and it hasnt happened sinse. Besides the know didnt fall off or anything it was just raised up a little. I have not yet gigged with it.

I would have no idea, I have not had the need for them.

I think this is overall a good pedal. I play hard rock with weird effects and what not. I use it occasionally but not quite like I thought I was going to when i bought it. I think that you may find that you use it in a different way than you think you will. But using it is using it right? I wouldnt gig with a back up but mostly because the babies are hard to get!

It is easy to us the knobs, but using it in a song is the real challenge.

This is subjective. To preface this: gotta' love the sound it makes, but if you do it's a ten. I like sonic youth, the boredoms, ect...

This is the ampeg scrambler of the future. It will only sound cooler the more times passes unlike most boxes which will just sound dated imho. Unlike what many reviewers say it is possible to use this in a non-atonal context, but U will have to figure it out 4 yrself. I have the mooger fooger ging mod ang had a colorsound for years. This would B cooler if you could change the carrier tone, but it wouldn't make it any less atonal.

This is great "weird noise" box and there aren't enough boxes that try to be inovative so it deserves a ten here.

I have to say despite what is said about dod I've never had 1 break on me, and I've had a few. When people say the switches break it is true, but it's the actaul plastic pad that breaks and the pedal usually still works. Boss pedals have a problem where the switch stops engaging or engages intermittently. I've had the problem more than once. but everyone says they are totally reliable.

Lets face it people don't exactly "take care" of dod pedals. You throw it in a box w/ 10 other crap pedals and let it bang around in you trunk, drop it down the stairs, step on knobs. Somehow they just keep working.

I found one new in music store about a year ago and had to pay original list price or something which was still a good deal since in the time it sat there it had become collectable. Look around some mom and pop stores U might find 1 NOS. I've seen these sell 4 over $200, which would not be a fantastic value, but U could spend even more and get something not as cool, so why not.

The pedal is not very hard to use per se, with only four knobs, but it is somewhat hard (but rewarding) to control, and to use musically.

Gibson SG Special into it and a lot of other effects, but usually I use the Gonkulator by itself, maybe with some compression before, or delay or vibrato after. Pedal seems a bit noisier than other DOD pedals by itself. Obviously the distortion (the Grunge circuit, I believe), is noisy, especially with the gain set high.

Here's the thing about this pedal, the inimitable thing about it: it's a PARALLEL distortion and ringmod. Just like the DOD buzz box is a parallel sub-octave and distortion. When you play into it, it processes your tone through two different effects then let's you blend both new tones together. What else does this with a ring mod? Perhaps there's something out there but I don't know what it is. As I see it, your closest other option is to get a ring mod and a distortion pedal and get either distorted ring mod sounds, or ring modded distortions, both of which have their places, but aren't as interesting as the Gonkulator imho.

Yes, the ring mod in this thing is fixed at one "pitch" (not sure if thart's the correct term, but you know what I mean), and while I'd like to have more control there, but as I said, it's not like there are a lot of other options, and you've got to take the good with the bad.

Bottom line, if you are at all into abrasive guitar music like Helmet, Unwound, Dillinger Escape Plan, Mr. Bungle, or any of that wacky weird sh1t, I just can't see you not grinning the first time you hear the right blend between the distorted (tonal) dry guitar signal, and the (atonal) ring mod. It's like the ultimate distortion in a way, because the ring part is just so psychotic and unpredictable. With the right blend (this is what the effect is all about), it's just so deep, with all the frequencies bleating about together.

Hard to say. I found a second one recently, "brand new" in a store (it had just sat there all these years), paid 50 bucks for it (thought i was getting a great deal), got it home and it was broken. These things are obviously all about the same age. So far no problems with my primary unit though I must say, nor with my Buzz Box.

Everyone knows the battery covers are crap, of course, but you can make it work.

Who knows.

I am trying to craft pop music ultimately out of disparate influences, in the philosophical tradition of say mr. bungle, king crimson, or radiohead. For this, the pedal will have its uses.
I have been playing music for ten years next month (my how time flies), when I turn 24. Mostly music for me is FOR FUN. (It's interesting people say, "serious about music"; heck I almost typed that about myself; it's weird, there's a duality there. I suppose this is the conflict with this pedal; if every purchase "matters" towards building something, this is an inessential piece assuming limited resources--if on the other hand we want to have fun creating different sounds for ourselves, you could do a lot worse than this pedal).

That said, if this were lost or stolen, I'd probably not buy another one as I've been on a pragmatic kick and there is too much stuff I still "need" to buy. It would be a loss though.

There are four knobs - one for distortion amount, one for ring modulation wet dry signal, one for distortion gain and one for overall volume level. The pedal does not really sound weird unless you turn the second knob up. this controls the ring modulation amount. It can be difficult to work out this pedal without the manual.

A Ring Modulator is very rarely used in guitar music because it is an atonal effect. It takes two signals, mixes them together and adds two new signals based on the sums and differences of the original signals, one higher and one lower. This makes a bell like chiming sound. Bells contain very strong non harmonic elements. With a guitar you only have one signal so the second signal is generated by an internal ossilator.
This is a very simple fixed frequency ring modulator in a pedal. There is also a distortion. This is the same as a DOD grunge pedal with the grunge knob on zero and all knobs at 12 O'clock.
The ring modulator and distortion are in parallel to each other (not in series) so you can blend them together.
This pedal makes all kinds of atonal noises and to the inexperienced it sounds totally "out there" and unique. However please remember that Ring Modulation is not unique to this pedal. There are other pedals that will give you the same sound.

Here is the deal with this pedal: This is yet another so called "vintage" pedal that was good value for $30 when it came out. It was discontinued and suddenly became worth a great deal of money because some famous artist used it. We've all seen Jonny Greenwood and his Shredmaster. A very mediocre pedal and it's suddenly worth a great of money just because you can't get it anymore. In this case it was the guy from Incubus. I've seen these pedals go for $200 on ebay. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! This pedal is so not worth it.
This is a bog standard fixed frequency ring modulator. You can't even tune it and it is completely useless for anything except playing "Glass". It is very limited and very noisey and any other ring modulator will get you the sound that this pedal does and much much more too. Come on people - an Electro Harmonix Frequency Analyser does all that this pedal does and much more besides for over half the price. It makes me feel sick that people spend all that money on a used Gonkulator only because they are ignorent at what a ring modualator does and how to use one. I guarentee that anyone who has any experience in using any other type of ring modulator will agree that this pedal is a waste of time.

This is not a bad pedal if you see it for less than $30. If you see one get it and sell it to make yourself some money.
This is a very simple cheap basic and extremely limited ring modulator pedal. If you use it to make occasional silly noises - great you'll have fun with it. I hope you enjoy it. If you want to use ring modulation in a serious way please consider that there are other ring mods available. Every single one is better (and often cheaper) than this extremely rare and funny little pedal. I'd even go as far to say that the ring mod in my zoom multieffect is better than this one.

PLEASE don't waste your money. You can do so much better than this.

Like everyone else has said.. you cant get a 'good' sound so to speak.. because the whole point of this pedal is to unbelieveably mess up your sound, but you can get some cool noise from it.. combines really really well with a good phaser or flange.
Its basically a run of the mill distortion with a ring modulator attatched, the distortion sounds like a DOD Grunge pedal.. and its actually quiet good if you want to back off the ring mod and use it as a dirt pedal.
No editing patches... stomp box ;)
The manual for this thing was ... basically useless whoever wrote it was definatly using some sort of mind altering drug, best to play around with the thing and figure it our for yourself.. not real hard.. give it an hour maybe.
For those that cant be bothered figuring out the weirdly named knobs....SUCK is Distortion level... SMEAR is the ring mod level ... GUNK is the distorion gain... and HEAVE is like a master volume.

I run an Epiphone LP Standard Plus -> BOSS PH-2 Super Phaser -> DOD Gonkulator -> Marshall VS100.
This pedal is ALWAYS noisy... i found it puts out a noticable hum when plugged into your signal... and thats when its not even turned on! Turn the pedal on and the fun really starts... as others have said.. the 500Mhz signal that drives the thing is horribly loud.. less noticable when youre playing.. but horrendous during silence.. i recommend a good noise gate if you plan on using this pedal.
The effect does get real loud when you engage it, and distortion has a large effect on what kind of sound you get, i dont recommend mixing the pedals in-built distortion with the ring mod... it just sounds crap, put it through the distortion of a good valve amp and it sounds quite nice.
The only artist ive ever heard use this is Mike Einziger from incubus.. he plays it in the song glass.. and fucks around with it a whole lot when he plays live, i believe some other artists have used it too .. i found it easy to mimic mikes sound after messing around for a bit.
Effects that mix nicely with this pedal would be any good phaser or a flange, or a distortion pedal to drive it. I use a BOSS PH-2 and the clanky metallic sounds blend nicely with a washy phase to make some crazy sounds.

DODs are build very solid... despite what everyone says about the plastic cover on the foot switch and battery i dont think theyd break unless you jumped on it a whole bunch of times.
Id gig without backup.

Havent had to deal with DOD.

I give it a 9... i only bought it cause it had been discontinued and i wanted to get one before it became near impossible... good for messin about and experimenting. I Play pretty much anything that interests me.. so its good to have it available. IF it were lost or stolen id definately get another one.. theres NOTHING else like it out there, i know a lot of people think its crap.. but hey sounds good to me :D.... try before you buy. you will either love or hate it.
The only thing i wish it had were some bloody proper labels on the knobs so you could understand what the thing does.
Thats about all... if youre looking to buy one of these theyre slowly becoming harder and harder to find.. if youre american i feel sorry for you because people selling them on ebay are charging to much, check out small music shops and second hand stores.

First of all - it's impossible to get a good sound out of this pedal. However, it's easy to make it sound like shit - which is of course great if you like that.

It's a stomp box - no presets.

The manual is fun, with totally freaked-out pictures and stuff. Really, there is little need for a manual, because words can't describe what this thing does.

I use this with a 12-string Chapman Stick (melody side) -> DOD FX10 BiFet Preamp -> Gonkulator -> Line 6 POD 2.0.

There's always a constant 500Hz tone present, louder when distorsion is dialed up. The pedal makes everything sound f*cked-up, so I don't think it matters that much.

Have to give it a one (1), because frankly, it doesn't sound "good". But it sounds cool.

Seems to be very sturdy, except for the worthless battery cover.

Haven't dealt with them. However, they suck for discontinuing this effect (and other great pedals, FX10 for example).

I play almost all sorts of music, but this thing is good mainly for improvised stuff, freaked-out sounds and stuff.

I got this thing brand new for about $35, because the store didn't know what to do with it. No one had ever liked it so they were just glad to get rid of it.

I won't let this out of my sight, since it's discontinued. I love it for strange sounds.

This pedal is pretty easy to use. As soon as i got it out of the box and plugged it in it sounded great. I fooled around with it for a little while eventually got the hang of it.

I use a fender stratocaster and a fender front man amp. It is a bit noisey with the gain on it the whole way up (the first nob). I like the kind of metallic sound i cna get out of it. I tought myself how to play the incubus song glass pretty easily by watching the morning view sessions dvd.

This pedal is very well built and it is very solid i dont think it will break for a long time.

I got this pedal from a place called www.sonicflux.com this place has so many old pedals for a reasonable price the guy was really heplful and stuff.

I play alot of incubus and this pedal is great. I have been playing for aout two years. I have a boss ds-1 and an old ibanez flanger. If i lost it i would defenitly by another one. And if you a guitar player and you like incubus you defenitly need to get this pedal. But the only problem is is that it is discontinued. I think DOD shouldn't of discontinued this pedal.

This pedal is difficult to get the hang of without a manual. the bloke i bought it off screwed me by not giving me the manual, so it was a steep learning curve

it hums alot, but you need a noise gate or noise suppressor (i use a boss). i use a '52 tele and orange amp with jim dunlop wah, proco rat, big muff pi, boss flanger, boss chorus, boss DD3 and the noise gate. words cannot decribe the kickass sounds made by this setup

its top notch for reliability. does eat up battery's though.

never had to deal with them for this pedal. they were very helpful for another dod pedal i used to own

I play lofi alternative stuff (like blur, pavement sebadoh etc) and thi pedal is the pinnacle of my setup.
If this muddaphucka was nicked, i'd be very pissed as they are very rare and hard to find (id probably go nick my mates!)
When i play a gig, i just cant wait till the end so i can piss about with all my pedals for about 5 mins... this is the ultimate adventurers pedal. if you play all this wank twiddely text book shit, dont even go there.

it is east to get a very good type of bell chippyness type sound if u really want to here this pedals true potential listen to incubus song glass at the beginning

i do love this pedal it does make some very space age sounds the efect is very great i only use it when im jamming alone i braught to band practice the other day and the reest of the band says it to whacked for our style i do have lots of fun with it but one thing i dont like it got a high noize ratio i use a boss noise gate it helps i also use a electro harminix silecer on it it works better at cuttin out the noise on this pedal than the boss cause thias is one noisy pedal i use it with a mesa boogie subway rocket i have used it with a solid state fender and it alsdo was noisy on that as well i seem to notice that when you keep the 3rd knob down it keeps the noise down as well i have used it with a boss metal zone it sound good wit distortion

i own over 50 dod pedals and so far the only one i had to have had fix is the digital delay these pedal are notoroius for thier batter covers gettin lost do started havein them contected to the pedal it self

they have a very use full customer service ill called them ionce and got all the parts i needed

i love this pedal and clad i baught one when i did i just saw 2 of these go for 110 a piece on ebay the other day

For me,it was pretty easy to find a couple of neat sounds while in the shop(impulse buy).The cat who sold it to me was pretty helpful in explaining what those silly fuckin knobs actually did.I had no idea Beavis and Butthead worked fer DOD.

Epiphone SG thru peavey amp.There is this septic,fuzzy hum that is omni-present.Can enhance or hinder.It doesn't interfere,in my use of it anyway.For guitar and melodious things,I use light ring mod(smear at about the halfway mark),the SUCK switch(no it doesnt make you automatically play bad)at slightly below the halfway mark,no gunk(distortion)and halfway up on the HEAVE.This setting produces a "plethora of bells" type sound when playing arpeggiated chords.Good shit.Another neat thing you can do is hook it up to a phaser at max quasi-ring mod rate(a small stone works perfectly for this;color switch down)to achieve a steel drum sound.Throw an envelope filter into the equation and you have a full-blown percussion synth.Play with mallets while muting,strum percussively(as with porn-style wah), or simply tap your pickups in time.It also works pretty well with a good fuzz pedal,toned down a bit.It is not the most advanced effect in its class,but it was named by Beavis and Butthead.Were you actually thinking it was gonna sound like that schnazzy moogerfooger?

not actively gigging at this time but shouldn't need backup if I was.People wouldn't stage dive to my shit anyhow and I drank my beer before the show back in the day

Never dealt with Beavis

I'm playing some spacey,melodic,guitar-oriented breakbeat tunes these days and have been exploring musical possibilities fer 15 years and this thing suits my needs fine for now.It helps add really pretty church bell tones to my chords and I can turn my guitar into a drum which is pretty cool.It's not the moogerfooger so foog yr own mooger,but if it were lost er stolen,I'd save up some cash for the BigBriar.However noone in my town would use a ring mod cuz Ted Nuggets doesn't play one.Ok here's a list of all my pedals:EH smallstone,Big Muff,Bassballs Boss pitchshifter/delay,DOD envelope filter and Gonkulator,Danelectro french toast,Pepperoni,Tuna melt,Hashbrowns,Danecho,modified Ibanez soundtank phaser(see my review).I don't use all these at once.I'll be reviewing each of these and including the combinations I use to help my brethren on a budget.

The names of the knobs have strange names and so you need to look into the manual. I normally play with a new pedal for a bit without looking at the manual but when I did this just got distortion sounds. For anyone without a maunual the knobs are from left to right: Distortion level, Ring modulation level, Distortion gain and master volume.
There is no tuning for this pedal unlike most Ring Modulators so it's quite easy.

I use a Telecaster with a Laney Amp and the following effects:
DOD volume pedal, Lonax Analogue delay, Pro Co Rat, DOD Gonkulator, EH frequency Analyser, Marshall Shredmaster, DOD flanger, DOD grunge, Boss DD3, Boss overdrive.
The first thing to say is that it is not a ring modulator with Grunge distortion mixed in like the press sometimes says. I have the DOD grunge and it sounds nothing like this (just as well because the Grunge is too heavy and noisy for most uses, I only use it for "wall of noise" parts). This sounds closer to the Boss DS1 distortion or an overdrive. It's very Lo Fi sounding.
Many people don't understand how to use a ring modulator or what one does. They take two signals and make two new ones related to the diferences in the two. If there is only one signal (from the guitar) then the second signal is generated by an internal ossillator. Yes, if it is untuned then you can make all kinds of atonal clanking & ringing noises. But the key to using them is to tune the ossillator to the key in which you are playing and it sounds like a kind of harminiser, but not in a bad synthetic cheesy way like most octavers (see Boss) or digital and sterile like a pitchshifter. It sounds metallic and industial sounding, kind of difficult to describe. It also adds a note ABOVE yours, not just below.
This pedal has no way to tune the ossillator so you can only play in one key (Bflat, or even slightly lower than Bflat). Another part of the fun of ring modulators is turning the controls while you are playing making shortwave radio and moogish sounds (see Devo). You can't do this with this pedal.
The ossillator is clearly audible all the time this pedal is on, kind of like a drone in the background, So you may want to get a noise gate if you want to use this a lot. I think it's quite cool, like another feedback channel.
The actual ringmodulation is quite soft sounding compared to most, one guy on here said it sounded like an envelope filter, which it can sometimes. I like that you can mix the distortion in, you can't do that with any other ring mod pedal as far as I know. I sometimes use this with very subtle ring mod and distortion to add a few harmonics in the background.
It doesn't have true bypass but I wasn't expecting it to. It doesn't suck tone too much unless you use like 10 similar pedals at once. Using just one won't make much difference. If you worry about it too much then use a line selector.

DOD pedals allways feel more reliable than Boss because they are chunkier despite plastic parts. The footswitch is plastic and my DOD flanger's switch sticks a bit, but all my other DOD pedals are fine including this one. I guess it depends.
The battery cover often gets lost, I've never seen a second hand DOD pedal with a battery cover.

Never delt with them.

I play Noise rock/shoegazing/Lofi. This pedal was my holy grail for a while because I decided I wanted a Ring Modulator a few years ago. This seemed to be the only one I could find that I could afford, but it was discontinued. I looked everywhere. There are very few Ring Modulators on the market that arn't #200 like the moogerfooger or Lovetone.
I eventually saved up and got a EH frequency analyser. I saw this on Ebay a few months ago and got it because my younger self would have been annoyed otherwise after all that time I spent looking for it.
It is kind of disappointing in the end because you can't alter the pitch of the carrier wave at all. This means it is only designed to make silly noises, not to have any serious use (hence the name). This may be for the best because my EH frequency Analyser is VERY hard to tune and beginners may find it daunting. This is for beginners only, but most DOD pedals are aimed at beginners. I do like DOD pedals as they all sound unique compared to Boss et al.
I WISH SO MUCH that the distortion gain knob (3rd one) altered the ring Modulation pitch. It would make this pedal a 9 or 10. It's such a shame.
This pedal is fast becoming a collectors item because it is very unique and discontinued. This means that it will become very expensive soon. I suggest getting an EH frequency analyser because you can get all the anarchic noises that this box does, but lots more for the same price as this "vintage" pedal. The EH one has a different analouge sound as well (but different to this. This has it's charm too. This is softer sounding and would be wonderful if you could tune it).
For sure if you see this cheap it's fun to play with, you may even find a use in a noisy break in a song or two. It may even be worth getting for an investment. But there's less and less chance of it happening as it gets rarer. This pedal is not worth "vintage" prices.
I do sometimes use this, but it is by no means an essential part of my sound.
The 3rd knob, distortion gain is never used and I just wish you could use it to alter the pitch and tune the ring modulator. It would have made a fairly good pedal into a great one.

hard to use, well thats because i dont exactly know how to get an awesome effect out of a ring md, and it doesnt have a manual either. i know heave is a master volume and gunk is drive, thats all i know for sure lol. (ps. i know ring mods are nasty boxes that are supposed to give you a wacked out creepy disguisting tone, im just not sure what im looking for yet.

i use a fender american standard telecaster, american fat strat texas special, fender hot rod deluxe, digitech whammy, dunlop crybaby wah, proco rat, boss metal zone, boss overdrive, boss phaser boss flanger and boss dd5 delay and then this. this thing sounds awesome, but it is a select effect most definately, not something you should use too often like a wah.

dude, i dont know too much about dod, looks pretty sturdy, but the on/off cover looks a bit ???? i dont stomp on my effects anyways

???

id definately buy it again...its awesome. im into rock (tool, radiohead) so it suits it pretty well. im not an effects junky like those dorks from korn, so i mainly use the clean sound on my guitar, overdrive or distortion and wah. but it works for when i want it very well

OK morons.....all you dumbasses saying that this pedal sounds like shit....your right...it does sound like shit....IT IS SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE SHIT!!!! If you like stuff like that, thats great. But if you don't like stuff like that, don't whine that it has no tone and that you can't get get certain peoples tones out of it!!! This pedal is for the adventurous only!!!! Not for tone purists!!! Trying to get a tone purist to like this is like trying to tell a 14 year old boy that his Metal Zone going into a Crate practice amp sounds shitty!!!! He won't listen!!!! So, please...take this warning!!!

Very simple but of course, DOD had to go and put those stupid fucking names for each of the knobs on it. I had to look them up but probably could have done without it. This is one of those super creative boxes

Weird, I would say Sonic-Youthy sounding even though neither Thurston or Lee uses one but this is definately for those who like spacey sounds. This with an MXR Blue Box is just a badass combination. The damned oscillator tone for the ring mod is kinda a pain but sometimes I never notice it. What I run is (depending on how much shit I want inline): guitar(Yamaha Pacifica Lefty or Univox Hi Flyer righty turned Lefty)-crybaby wah-Proco Rat-Boss DS-1-Small Clone Chorus-Old Pearl Flanger-MXR Blue Box-DOD Gonkulator. Any of these going into the Gonkulator is cool, all of them at once is fucking crazy!

Nice metal case, knobs and pots feel pretty strong. I really don't like the stomp switch though.....

Don't need to deal with DOD, probably won't have to.

This thing is cool. If I had all the other shit I wanted it would make a nice round out to my package. If it were stolen, I would be pretty pissed and would rape with a blowtorch the person who took it. I supposedly got mine cheap off of eBay. But, DOD NEEDS TO STOP WITH THE STUPID NAMES OF THE CONTROLS!!!!! That has to be one of the dumbest gimicks I have ever seen. Mainly I play Nirvana and stuff like that but love to make strange sounds. This pedal is a must for strange noise (that and an MXR Blue Box).

Easy to to use. Not necessairily easy to get a good sound out of.

I use mainly an '80s Gibson XPL Explorer with this through a "69 super reverb with a 2-12 cabinet. A question such as is this noisy must be a joke! This is all about noise. Iwas hoping to get a sound close to the early Devo recordings but this seems to be a little off. I don't know how to describe it. It can sound like ringing bells, phone tones, or early computer noises.

It's very dependable. I'd be confident with no backup.

I've never had to deal with DOD. Don't know how they are. I have soldering skills developed enough to feel confident repairing it myself.

I play about anything except new country or teen pop. It's good for experimenting with new and bizarre styles. it's fun to produce sound effects with. If it were stolen or lost I would probably go for an EH Frequency Analyzer.

"Good Sound" isn't exactly the goal with a Ring Modulator. They are fuzzy, buzzy and downright nasty little bastards designed to deconstruct your tone, which the Gonkulator certainly does. The manual, such as it is, reads more like bad comedy, although it does explain how the thing works and what the control knobs do; without the manual, this box would be even more of a pain to use. There are really two parts to the Gonkulator; a simple Distortion circuit, and the Ring Modulator. The "SUCK" knob and the "GUNK" knob work together to control the Distortion effect. Think of the "SUCK" knob as a Level knob and the "GUNK" as Gain or Drive, and you have the basic idea. Neither of these controls do anything to the Ring Modulator sound. The "SMEAR" knob is basically a Mix control for the Ring Modulator; at the lowest setting you hear no Ring Modulator sound at all, at the highest setting, you bring on the noise. The "HEAVE" knob is sort of a Master Gain control for the whole box. I give the box a 6 for ease of use, because even though it does exactly what it was made to do, some players will have a hard time learning to control it. If you don't have the Manual, and don't know what the controls do, you're really screwed.

I don't feel like printing out my whole equipment list, but I've tried this box with pretty much every standard-issue guitar, from Strats to Jazz boxes, all with the same result; weird noises. This box was made for weirdness, and if you want some kind of pure, clean tone, don't even think about buying the Gonkulator. This thing can make Eric Johnson sound like King Buzzo. The 500k tone bleeds through, and unless you've got a Noise Gate in your system, get used to that whine. You could try using a Parametric EQ, notched out at 500k, but again, if you don't like the noise, don't buy the box. The Distortion is decent, if not impressive, but no one is going to buy this thing just for the Distortion. If you want a smoother, more managable Ring Modulator, buy the EH Frequecy Analyzer, or the Big Briar Moogerfooger Ring Modulator. I give the Gonkulator a 7 for sound quality because of the 500k tone; Ring Modulators are supposed to be weird-sounding, but that whine will drive some players (and most recording engineers) nuts.

It's metal, it's pretty solid-feeling, and it tries to deal with the two biggest complaints about DOD pedals; the switch seems to be somewhat better than on older DOD boxes, and the battery cover shouldn't fall off and get lost. As far as using it without a backup pedal, nothing else sounds quite like it; if you wanted a backup pedal, you'd have to own two of these things. If you like the Gonkulator, you may want to buy a spare. Even though I still see them in some music stores, DOD has discontinued the Gonkulator, which means that at some point, you're going to wind up paying "vintage gear" prices for it. (My opinion on the inflated prices of 20-year-old pedals is too rude to print here; imagine a long string of your favorite obscenities, in English, Spanish and Turkish, or make up some new ones.) Anyhow, I give the box an 8 for reliability, just because nothing has gone wrong with it yet.

Not a clue. I only own a couple of DOD boxes, and they all work just fine.

I'm a long-time player who loves weird stuff, from Spike Jones to Zappa, Devo, Elliot Sharp, even Moog Cookbook. When I bought the Gonkulator, it was the only Ring Modulator I could find, besides the Digitech Space Station, which I also have. (The Space Station has a couple of Ring Modulator effects built in, but it works, and sounds somewhat different than the Gonkulator.) Now, of course, Electro-Harmonix has reissued the Frequency Analyzer (I bought one), Big Briar has issued the Moogerfooger Ring Modulator (nice but $$$), and Lovetone has issued the Ring Stinger, a combination Fuzz-Octave-Ring Modulator for the truly fried. There's also the Charlie Stringer Mold Spore, a combination Wah-Ring Modulator. The Gonkulator gives me a sick, ugly tone when I want it, which is why I got the thing. If it were lost, stolen or broken, I'd probably get another, in part because it was cheaper than any of the other Ring Modulator devices out there. The 500k whine is a pain, but the box does what I bought it for. If I couldn't find another Gonkulator, I'd love to check out the Lovetone Ring Stinger, but it's way expensive, and you have to order the damned thing from England; not exactly an impulse item. For me, the Gonkulator gets an 8, but remember, I love weird noise. If you like anarchist effects, things like the MXR Blue Box, or the Digitech Space Station, you'll probably enjoy the Gonkulator. If you want a cleaner, pseudo-synth tone, look elsewhere.

Lets face it, look at the damn names for the knobs - you should win a prize if you guess what they mean. Having said that, this isn't a conventional pedal, and these names are as useful as any. You just fiddle, and good sounds come out. The manual does explain, but its better to make it up as you go along

I play a Fender Fat Tele through a Drivemaster, Fab-Tone, Boss Tremolo, this then Small Stone. This pedal fits in really well with the set up, its got a wide tinny sound that I can't get with the Marshall or Danelectro.I found it really good for stuff like the intro to Get Myself Arrested by Gomez. Its true, its a really noisy pedal, but I intend getting a noise gate, but anyway, thats part of its appeal. the range of weird noises it makes more than coompensates.
It can go from a beautiful lo-fi overdrive to something that sounds like R2-D2 puking into a skip. When its all turned up full, it makes any bass-string riff you know unrecognisable, but I love effects that make you do different things. It so unique that you'd have to use it sparingly, but I love this pedal. I want to be buried with it when it finally cracks open my skull and kills me.

Its seems pretty solid, but I've never got round to gigging with it - the only quibble i'd have is that old chestnut about DOD and their plastic switch - you just know one day that bad boy's gonna go in and not come out again. Til then, it has to get full marks.

Never had a problem with it. Maybe I should take this opportunity to praise Crocodile Rock for making my dreams come true!

I play mainly Blur, Pavement, lo-fi stuff, and this pedal is perfect for kicking a song into life, or throwing it sideways. I've had it 6 months, and pedals like this are a great weapon for getting out of a song-writing rut.If it were stolen, i'd buy it again, but any chance of getting it again for #35 when its been discontinued? Not fucking likely! I couldn't believe when I found it, and new as well! I'm a big fan of Graham Coxon, and bought this pedal just to simulate that briiiing at the start of On Your Own. I short - don't buy this if you're a wanky-widdler, but if you love experimenting, and have a strong stomach, try to find one beofre they become collectors items - but no-ones getting mine!

4 knobs....wierd ass names.....but cool....this is a fucked up pedal......:):):):):):):)easy to use.......the manual was a big help though

i use this with a bunch of effects thru a marshall valvestate 100 watt head and cab......this fucker is noisy......cuz it's a ring mod.......no prob....i have a noise supressor.....this pedal is truly the most fucked up pedal i have ever played......distortion and ring mod in one???? how fucked up is that, man??? i use just the ring mod cuz the distortion settings suck.....if you crave "fucked up" this pedal is seriously for you......the only prob......it's discontiuned......i bought mine off ebay for $152....kinda high, but i wanted thiis pupppy baddddddddd........i loved the sound mike enziger (incubus) got on the track "glass" (track 5, SCIENCE).......it was truly fucked up.....sounds great with delay and volume swells.....high notes sound more fucked up than low ones.......it's all good though...

hell yes i'd gig without backup......

n/a

i play the hiphip/metal crossover thing in my band dysrhythm.......i drive the guys in the band nuts with this pedal......you have to be creative to find good uses for it, but it's a fun challenge......there is no other pedal like it......totally FUCKED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty easy to use. (It's a stompbox after all). Knobs are labelled with DOD's usual meaningless "cool" names- Suck", "Smear", "Gunk" and "Heave" (sheesh). I played with this pedal for 15 min. or so without getting anything decent except pretty-straightforward distortion, so the manual is a big help (luckily mine came with one). Once you get the basic positions down for ring mod effects and distortion-sounding effects, it's pretty simple.

I use this pedal on my Ibanez bass running to a Trace Elliot 100-watt Commando combo, along with a dozen or so other boxes (yeah, I know, I'm a freak). A word of caution - this pedal is NOISY!!!!!! Adds constant hum and line noise to your signal path. If you plan to use this pedal often, a noise gate is an absolute MUST. However, this pedal does not lend itself to being used often - it is great for experimenting with noise, and you might be able to use it for some industrial/hardcore tracks, but overall it is more of a curiosity than a practical effect. That being said, I was able to get a distortion quality out of it that I actually liked better than my Washburn distortion pedal or my (crappy) Yamaha overdrive. Put this on ring mod with a flange and your neighbors will think the Martians have landed. My roommate borrowed it and ran his Thinline Telecaster through it along with an MXR Blue Box and the idescrible sounds that came out made me want to vomit. In short: Really, really weird - I guess if that's good or bad is up to you to decide.

I have few complaints about DOD boxes - I have 6 of 'em, and they all seem pretty sturdy to me, second only to BOSS as far as construction goes. Lots of people complain about the switch being plastic, but unless you actually jump up and down on it I don't think it'll give you any problems. This particular pedal actually seems sturdier than my other DOD pedals - the knobs are "rubberized" where as on my other pedals they are just plain plastic, and the switch on this pedal is covered by a thicker, "spongier" material than my other DOD boxes. My only beef is that DOD doesn't use standard negative-tip barrel connectors like 90% of other manufacters, so my pedal power supply is worthless unless I make my own custom cables (someday I'll get around to it). I would use it without a backup, but like I said I doubt most people would ever actually gigwith this pedal, so that's a non-issue.

Never had to deal with them. Hear that they are accomodating, though.

I was looking for a ring modulator for a while, mostly at the Big Briar Moogerfooger and Electro Harmonix pedals. However, those models retail for well over $200. I had seen used Gonkulators once in a great while in the $75 price range, so I kept them in mind in case I saw one cheap. I happened to be at my local shop and they had a brand new one for $49, so I jumped on it. They had never heard of it - probably why it was priced so low (I have seen some shops selling their old stock of these for $100 or more). Overall, if you're looking for something purely to experiment with and can find one cheap, I would recommend picking it up. If your looking for a more useable, practical effect for hardcore/industrial, you might be better served by an Blue Box or another octave/fuzz type pedal. But if you want some truly weird noise and don't want to drop a ton of cash, this is it.

Like most pedals, you step on it and it switches on, step on it again, it switches off. There's also some knobs to turn.

I'm running an 86 Gibson SG through a Sovtek MIG 50 with a Marshall cabinet, but that's neither here nor there. It's noisy and irritating. It buzzes and feeds back at random for no apparent reason other than the fact that it's turned on. But this is what makes this pedal so damn wonderful. You can make your guitar sound like a telephone, a police car, or a mating whale. The only place I've heard this effect used is the track "Glass" by Incubus. I sat for months mesmerized (okay I'm exagerating a bit) by that weird verse riff, wondering how in the world someone got their guitar to sound like that and now I know. Terrible in a wonderful sort of way.

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY WISH DOD WOULD REDESIGN THEIR PEDALS TO MAKE THE FOOTSWITCH ITSELF OUT OF METAL. Now that I've got that off my chest, let's just say that I can depend on it and I would use it at a gig without a backup...Just in my experience people who take the expression "stomp box" literally don't have much luck with DOD pedals. As long as you're like me and merely step upon your pedals you will be making hideous noises for years to come.

Never had to deal with them.

The only major problem with the Gonkulator is that it sadly is no longer in production. As someone mentioned in a previous review, this pedal justifies DOD's existence. After plaguing the guitar world with 2nd rate generic sounding effects, they finally accepted their lot in the industry, and made several pedals whose sole purpose is to sound crappy, and they are wonderful. I remember seeing them all over the place in music stores for about $25-30 right before they went out of production and now they are impossible to find. Good luck. (try eBay)

Four knobs, a few basic sounds. Most settings you find, it is possible to replicate the exact same sound with a different setting, with less noise, funny thing.

This is of course, not an easy device to review. It has two basic sounds, a unalterable ring-modulator-esque sound and a stereotypical "The Distorted Guitar" sound, which is very uninteresting. The ring modulator sound is pretty neat, and I like the fact that you can mix the two, because unless they are combined they dont sound that good seperately. The worst thing about this pedal is its range. It seperates the guitar into Trebel and Bass when you use the ringmod-effect, you cannot transition from one side to another. You either play the low E and A and D strings, or the high G and B and E(betcha i am the only person to buy this pedal who knows the names of the strings).

lalala

lalala

i am writing this because I read reviews previous to buying it, and hope that I can do justice to this marvelous pedal, because i am glad i bought it.
the $30-$60 dollar price range for stompboxes has furnished nothing but a great mass of useless, cheap, similar-sounding fuzz/dist./OD effects, and even more terrible and frustrating Phaser/Flanger/Chorus effects. Finally, DOD is taking advantage of the potential market for cheap, two-bit, ridiculous and insane effects boxes that seem to sound as though they are constantly breaking down and malfunctioning even though they are "working properly". This unit and the Buzz Box and the ridiculous Octaving devices that DOD has produced are examples of this. This is the most usefull of the aforementioned, I should mention, the buzz box is said to make your guitar sound like a vacuum cleaner.
certain setups make this pedal shine: run a wah into it and run that into a tube amp- you now have a budget guitarsynth! this pedal justifies DOD's existence. I put a 7 in this category because anybody can make it sound like a 7, after two days I made it sound like a 10 by altering my setup and other effects, if you have the time, you can too.

This is a simple pedal to use (most pedals are) after barely glancing through the manual I had the functions down: Suck (Distortion), Smear (Ring Modulation), Gunk (Gain), and Heave (Output Level). Still even if you don't know what they are you can twist away to your liking.

This pedal is dope as fuck!!! At first I was all doubting getting it cuz I remember the bad experiences with my MXR Blue Box which was like some slap happy circus fuzz/synth. People kept saying it was a freaky effect and I heard Wes Borland used it and it was a let down. It's not `freaky` in a good way, it was pretty damn gay sounding. People have claimed this to be an `oddball` and it is but it's actually cool. On the higher strings it sounds almost like some detuned bells or something. I love it. I like the synth-y ring modulation sound and I use mild distortion with it for some pretty cool stuff; however I don't like to use too much distortion because it sounds crappy and drowns out the effect of it.

As long as no fat obese Barney off the Simpsons flops down directly on the footswitch, I'll be straight.

I don't know DOD but the manuals for their pedals make for good child-ish reading when you're up at 2 AM in the morning with nothing else to do.

This thing rules the world, I'm never gonna let it go. I'm into hardcore and crossover/rapcore type music (KoRN, deftones, LB, (hed)p.e., Kid Rock, One Minute Silence, Incubus, etc). I like to use this to throw a touch of dissonance into things. Don't get this if you want a straight Ring Modulator though (you'll hate it as the others have in below reviews). I like to get pedals that are supposed to be for certain things and use them for other things if you can catch my drift. You can end up with some pretty cool sounds that way...

IT IS EASY TO USE SINCE IT HAS THE NAMES ABOVE IT.

THIS PEDAL I CAN'T GET MANY SOUNDS OUT OF BUT I MY SETTING IS PRETTY SWEET. IT'S A ENVELOPE FILTER TYPE SOUND WITH A BIT OF DISTORTION SO I USE IT FOR WEIRD SYNTHY SOUNDS AND MY SETTING IS GREAT FOR TAPPING HERE IS THE SETTING : SUCK 1 O'CLOCK, RING MAX, GAIN MAX, LEVEL MAX. I USE IT WITH A IBANEZ RG7620 AND A FRETLESS RG7620 WITH A MARSHALL PRACTICE AMP FOR HOME AND A MARSHALL 4X12 CAB FOR SHOWS. WHEN I FIRST GOT THIS THE VOLUME WAS WEAK SO I HAD TO TURN THE VOLUME UP ON MY AMP AND TURN DOWN THE VOLUME ON MY OTHER PEDALS WHICH DIDN'T TAKE LONG SO IT WASN'T A REAL BAD PROBLEM.

STURDY STEEL BUT LIKE ALL DOD'S THE ON/OFF PAD IT'S MADE OF PLASTIC

THIS IS A COOL PEDAL BUT I WISH IT HAD A WIDER RANGE OF SOUND BUT I ONLY USE 1 SETTING MOSTLY FOR ALL MY PEDALS BUT IT'S NOT A BAD PEDAL FOR MIXING THE SUCKY ASS GRUNGE WITH A RING MODULATOR.

Its pretty easy to use. Its a pedal, not rocket science or bumpkinology. I have no idea what the knobs do, just mess around with them to get a good sound. The knobs are: Suck, Smear, Gunk, and Heave.

This pedal is a real odd-ball. it takes for signal and fucks it up with dissonent and octave synth crap, its awesome. However it is noisey, there is a constant squeel in the back ground. But do you think I care? I dont really think you need to know all of my pedals. i use this with EQ just to beef it up a little. try it with a fast rate flanger, yeah butts! I heard Mike from Incubus playes the Gonk and Ryan from Orgy does. Listen to the cd, you can hear it. IF YOU LIKE MR. BUNGLE, GET THIS PEDAL!

Yeah sure, pedals are practically my backbone. With out my pedals i'd only be a small fraction of the pimp I am.

I play hardcore, rapcore, funk, punk, experimental stuff and it is a great match. This pedal is for cool people who don't care about how "dumb" pedals are or people who what to sound like nobody else and thats me. its like don't worry about it, drink some beer, plug in and play. I love this pedal, it sounds so fucked up, like my guitar is broken or something. I wish DOD would reissue all of its discontinued pedals because all the new ones suck. There isn't a pedal I can compare this to, but I would say the DOD Buzz Box because its so fucked up! Once again, don't care what anyone else is doing, make a sound of your own. be a a Leaky Borgan, you might like it. SB99

The sounds are: metallic, and less than that metallic. I don't have the manual. DOD should have online manuals. Zoom does. But Zoom is the bomb anyway.

I use it with distortion from an effects board. The only bad thing is, the knob at the right you gotta keep low, cause it hums like mad bees. What was DOD thinking. This pedal sounds like the whee-uu whee-uu when a spaceship lands in a movie. Most couldn't use this, its for the honestly creative only.

Its fine. I got a power supply for it, and you have to buy a special DOD one otherwise its REAL LOUD!! And aren't batteries for toys? Unless you make batteries in your workshop it would get expensive. Find a more fullfilling habit to take up.

They need online manuals. They say they're getting them, but who thinks about the Gonkulator? I'm going there after I finish this. I'm going to play that thing on Letterman one day and say, "why didn't you make an online manual???!"

With a good distortion its fun. Jam out in different ways. Good for rock or metal. Not for the creatively stunted.

Strange names for controls, but easy to use once you play with it for a few minutes. The manual is clear.

The 500hz tone that drives this device is usually audible in the background. This can be annoying sometimes.

For a guitarist, this is good. It gives useful distortion as well as bell-like overtones. However, it lacks variable pitch and cannot handle keyboard input. (DOD plans to release a variable-pitch model in the future.) As the most famous users of ring modulators have been keyboardists, these are glaring oversights.

Constant fiddling has yet gotten me something useable out of it - 4 knobs labeled "Suck", "Smear", "Gunk" and "Heave" don't really tell you what they do, so you gotta fool around or god forbid read the manual, but it has a constant noise level nonetheless. Very limited usefulness, in my opinion. Supposed to be a "ring modulator", and that's what it does - rings and modulates non-stop - it's almost annoying, and the only way it sounded halfway decent was thru my FX55-B (distortion).

Not so good - see above... It's very touchy as well - gotta set it just right on all 4 knobs to get something halfway un-irritating outta it.

I spose it's dependable, but I wouldn't use it anyway... I don't even know why I bought the damn thing...

I would not buy it again.