DOD FX15 Swell Pedal

Once you understand the paradigm, it's pretty easy to use. The manual/piece of paper is a big help, because there really isn't any other pedal like this one.

Sounds just like whatever amp it's plugged into, pretty transparent.

Reliable.

who knows?

You really need to know what kind of pedal you're dealing with, and if you think about it, that's true of any effect. This is a PROGRAMMABLE VOLUME PEDAL, it's not a Slow Gear, why would anyone think it was? It's about as useless/useful as a volume pedal, so that's not an issue. I've found that I use this a lot more than regular volume pedals, but that's just because it matches my style better. I can get "backwards guitar" sounds much, much more easily out of this than I can out of a volume pedal, but that's just me; with this, it's easy--you really just have to TAP YOUR FOOT in time with your picking action, whereas with a volume pedal you have to rock your foot (personally I tap my foot better than I rock my foot; nobody rocks their foot under a table for chrissakes). The programmability of this is a pretty good idea--you want to have a some timing and some consistency in the sounds you're making, but you also might want to have a few beers and not fall off a volume pedal. Another thing this has over a volume pedal is that you can cut the sound more quickly, and bring it up more steadily (after those few beers). The Boost mode is useful for, say, a solo passage, but that's only if you don't have some other pedal for that. There's nothing indispensible about this, and it sure isn't going to be anybody's favorite pedal, but it's nice to fool around with because it makes you come up with new sounds, and everybody likes that.

With no manual, this thing took a few minutes to figure out that it wasn't broken. Not a very intuitive effect. What it does is automatic volume swells, but very much NOT like a slow gear or other attack delay device. It works sort of like a volume pedal, in that you have to constantly work your foot. It's got Attack, Decay and Cut/Boost controls and a momentary switch. How you work it is that you step on the pedal and hold it, then pick your note, letting go of the pedal and the sound swells up.(in "boost" mode, the effect starts from normal volume and swells even louder. Sort of useless in that respect. Once you get the hang of it, I'm sure it's easier, but nowhere near a Slow Gear.

The sound is alright, maybe a tad noisy. The volume sweep of the swell isn't as abrupt for my tastes. It doesn't do the "backward guitar" thing very well. It's more gradual and well-suited for pedal steel type volume swells.

It's a DOD and their stuff is made pretty well. They're sort of the Hot Wheels to Boss's Matchbox.

I've never had to deal with DOD, but I bet they're easy to get in touch with.

I'm into odd effects, and I'd never seen this pedal before. I was kind of dissapointed, as I expected something else. I'm not sure what DOD was thinking (I'm really not sure what they're thinking now with all the cheesy pedals they have...Milk Box, screw you, it's a compressor. Say it's a bloody compressor, idiot! Can you tell that I feel my intelligence being insulted by DOD?) I wished it was more of an automatic Slow Gear sort of effect, but it's not. If you're too incompetent to either use a volume pedal or even better, your pinky on your volume know, then maybe you shouldn't be trying to do volume swells in the first place. This pedal seems rare, and I bet I know why...