DOD FX17 Wah Volume

I use this exclusively as a volume pedal; very easy to make it sound good.

I use the FX17 on a couple of pedalboards, one full sized for gigging, the other a smaller board for jamming or side jobs. I put it in my effects loop before the delay and solo boost pedal on any setup I play with. No noise to speak of.

Very reliable. Keep it dry and it'll last forever. Until I established the second pedalboard, my original made it through 50-75 gigs a year for a decade.

DOD is okay. Never contacted them about this pedal.

I'll play anything, and have been playing since 1972. This pedal is a secret weapon that allows you to get a killing sound and then attenuate it to a useable volume, allowing you to get the tubes really cooking. There may also be a subtle bit of signal attenuation because when the FX17 is not in my signal chain my amps (Mesa, Budda, and Rivera) tend to sound a little harsh. I'm glad some people like the wah side of the pedal; it's an interesting and unique approach to an old guitar effect, but the heel switch was always hard for me to quickly and conveniently engage, and the tone of the wah is a little to eccentric for my taste. I have two of these and will probably pick up a third as an extra, because you simply can't find volume pedals this reliable with the small footprint this one has. It fits easily on the smallest pedal boards and has many uses, whether for swells or for the applications I've outlined above. This and the BiFET FX10 are real underappreciated DOD pedals IMHO. I use FX10s as clean volume boosters to kick my solos out front; at a fraction of the price of a Fat Boost or SHO they're a great deal.

I got mine used so it came with no manual, which u don't need anyway. just two plugs and the pedal.
As a wah pedal it has no additional features, as a volume pedal it just has the minimum volume setting knob (which is normal for a volume pedal, though).
Use it as you like at the flick of a switch.

As a wah pedal it's been a total delusion. The wah effect is too weak and too linear, it sounds more like The "Dynamic Filter" from BOSS (which sounded better anyway) than a wah.
I also hate the on/off system they have developed, it needs too much strength and it looks weak (and it died eventually).

Better buy a Cry Baby, or a Bad Horsie if u can stand the optical engagement system (which I don't).

As a volume pedal it is too expensive and because they implemented a different technology in the pedal (capacitive rather than resistive) your guitar tone is actually being "filtered" by the pedal.

Really the worst of both worlds. It's a waste of money, u better save some and buy a Cry Baby pedal.

I remember that when this pedal was first released the sales guy in the stores pushed alot on the peculiar feature of this pedal, which is actually using a variable cacacitor instead than a potentiometer. This should introduce a far better reliability in the pedal (no scratchy sounds and no need to replace the pot after a while). In a way they were right, the variable capacitor is the only component that is still working on my unit..... The small pad which was engaging the on/off switch detached almost immediately, the jack plugs got usoldered several times, actually I'm no longer able to turn it on because the on/off button itself died.

What a hunk of junk! I wouldn't even use it as a brick to throw against someone cuz I think it'll get more broken than it actually is.

I'll give it a 4 just because it had just (millions of) minor failures.

Dunno, if the R&D department is that crappy I really don't wanna know what they are able to do in the Customer Service

I used to play wah just a very little. This pedal made me refuse to use wah's anymore.

Worth nothing, less than nothing, for the tone it delivers it's not worth the money and if it were a gift it'd still be unusable due to reliability.

If it were stolen I wouldn't be bothered for the money, which is lost anyway because even if I fixed it once more no one but me would be fool enough to buy a non-Cry Baby used wah, but I'd feel sad because I woud have lost a reminder. The only thing to remind me that u always have to try before u buy, and that if a Cry Baby costs twice than a DOD pedal there may be a reason why.

On/off switch is at rear - not intuitive if you're used to dunlops.

I use this with a Maton Mastersound Electric into a Yamaha DG60-112 Digital Amp.
Pedal is clean noisewise.
Volume is weak. Wah is expressive, but needs coaxing. Sucks my tone and gain a bit too. Bypass is okay tho.

A Brick

the trim pots below the two mysterious holes on the front panel are EXTREMELY useful infinding the sound you want. the right one is the range, from crispy broken-crybaby sound to low inside-out trippy psychadelic envolope-filter style sound. the trip pot on the left sets how smoothly it trasitions, weather it flips back and forth between high and low, or if it transitions very smoothly. the bypass is eqilly tempermental as a crybaby, less violence is needed, but no click.

oh my goodness does this thing sound unique. this is a pedal for people who don't like crybabys. real pure but not in the boring way like morleys. like a non-boring crazy magical morley. if you've heard people do really cool trippy stuff with wahs and envelope filters, but could never get anything cool like that to happen with a crybaby, it will hapen with this pedal. it will get all crazy resonant and flip inside out and it's really nice. if you want expression but don't want to sound like anyone else. sound alot like a wah I made out of an old volume pedal that would overdive a little op-amp circuit, but nicer warmer sound, very pure and profesional.
it's volume feature seems like it sucks volume and is worthless.

I got it broken and it took me literaly years before I got it working. I could never figure it out untill I finnally found a bad solder joint on the side sensor board deal. that other guy was right, it does work via veriable capacitence and therefore has no pot to wear out and no pot noise. however, there is a few thigs that can go wrong with the circit on the side. if it won't wah, re-solder all the stuff on the board, some parts can be sushed loose, and don't bolt it in too tight or the nut will make contact with the sensor tracing deal and stop the wah again. the case is sturdy enough that I can't imagine it breaking like it was when I got it, but don't expect it to wah or volume or control with perfect accuracy, you can push it all the way forward and wiggle your foot and it will wah a little that way. this isn't bad, it's a characteristic of the sensitivity of the variable-capacitence method of control, which by all I know about elctronics should be way more noisy and tempermental, I truly think it's almost magical that dod managed to tame this technique and get it to behave at all, let alone as well as it does.

man have I been looking for a wah that has this sound. it's not like any other wah except for a friend of mine's morley that sounds less boring then they usually do, and this beats that piece. nothing like a crybaby, but that's what everyone uses and that's boring too. this thing will really make people's jaws drop at a show, you can make it sound so trippy, you can get sweet resonant warbles like a crazy envelope filter, or get a trebly lo-fi crunch, or, use it like a normal wah and get everyone at the show to go "whoa what the heck kind of pedal is he using?" but in a good way. I had to build a wah to get this sound, but it died, and this is better anyhow. the people that don't like this sound need a good VOX wah, this is for crazy stuff. I don't trust how well I fixed it though, and it is breakable, and it's not perfectly accurate, like it may not stay the same all the time, but you can adjust it to do whatever you want toneally. it's made of magic and I barely get how it works at all, let alone as well as it does.

yes you can plug it in and start playing, but to get a good sound is difficult. trim pots in front help, but no info about these came with the unit. i'd like to know more about them.

the sweep is too wide. i'd rather have a pedal that was tunable for the sweet spot i'm looking for. this pedal does not "talk", but simply sweeps. but like others have said, it's different. too sterile and linear for me, tho.

mine's broken. soft stuff on the inside (felt?) got all ripped up from the action of the pedal. don't know why it doesn't work anymore. should work, but it doesn't. real squeaky too, probably from the messed up soft stuff.

don't know. i just emailed them. we'll see how it turns out.

I played funk, and this pedal was a poor candidate for that style of music. I did get interested in the trim pots in the front of the unit. they could alter the sound and the sweep slightly. i would not buy this unit again, however. i think that anyone who thinks this thing is built to last is more impressed with the weight of the unit than i am. like i said, mine's broken so i'm pretty unhappy with it. other than messing with the trim pots, i did not put it through any excessively rough situations.

Really easy wah, if you use it as a volume pedal it's quite difficult

I don't like the wah sound with the distortion, it's better than the cheap multiFX wah, like Korg ax1g or Zoom gfx 707, but it's much worst than a Crybaby or a Vox

You can trust on this pedal, it's metallic strong heavy pedal

Buy it only if you find it really cheap, if not it's better pay a little more and buy a crybaby

I got mine second hand, no manual. Fairly self explaitory. It changes the volume or it's a wah. Even non guitar players know what a wah and a volume control does.
It takes many people a while to understand how useful a volume pedal is and do all the "tricks" with it like backwards sounds.

This is really two pedals in one, as you can't have them both at once so I'll describe it as such.

The Wah is very unique sounding, it is very subtle compared to a crybaby or any other. However that means that it often gets lost before the distortion pedal, you can't have it after the distortion or you get the "wind" sound. Some people might prefer the sound of this wah (as someone said it's useful to avoid sounding like Hendix) but it's a bit too subtle for me. It's unique but not in a very good way for me.
The switch is under your heel rather than your toe in this pedal and it is very sensative and it is very easy to turn the wah on and off without meaning to. I even broke the switch off so it would allways be on because it annoyed me so much. I use the switch at the side to turn the wah on and off now.
The pedal doesn't have much range either. I don't really use Wah anyway when I play. I never use the wah on this pedal, but that's only because I have no need for one.

A volume pedal is a volume pedal and only requires a few things: Quiet operation (no crackles or anything which mine is quiet) and to stay in the same position when you leave it (ie not to flop down on it's own) This is also fine. The lack of range is a bit annoying but it just means that you have to move it subtly. It's easier than using your guitar volume pedal.

It is the weight of a house brick. It is a second hand DOD so (surprise surprise) it has no battery cover.

Big Company. You don't matter in their eyes. Profit does matter.

I've never used the Wah. That's because I don't like Wah though, you may or may not like it. I wish you could increase the volume of the effect because it is too quiet. You can only adjust where the sweep is using the pots inside.
The volume pedal is very useful and you can do all sorts or reverse sounds and swells with practice. I wish it had more range but it's still pretty good. But how can you mess up a volume pedal? It's not hard, even #5 walkmans have volume controls.
Still it's worth the money I paid for it. This pedal sat there for months until I realise just how useful a volume pedal is.
One this to add is that is has a bizzare AC adapter totally different from the Boss style. You can use this pedal to power other pedals with this style adapter, but I've never seen one. It is also 10 volts instead of 9 so I've never been able to find an adapter for it. Batteries do not last very long, but they still last a few weeks though. It's not too bad.
This pedal is pretty good if you see it in the second hand shop (now discontinued) but don't pay too much for it.

Duh! Just plug it in and play! I just give it a 9 because i need to calibrate it if i want to change the wah sound. And it-s a pain to toggle the wah/volume switch; you can't do it with your feet!

The volume setting sounds good. The WAH setting sounds very fine and "hi-fi", no distortion, no noise. But i got to tune it to sound like i want to. ATTENTION ALL FX17 OWNERS: The pedal has two TRIMMERS (variable resistors, pots) that can adjust the wah squeakiness and the maximum volume (i think), so if you complain about wah sounds with this pedal then GET A SCREWDRIVER and locate the trimmers, they are behind two little holes on the opposite side to the battery. I give it a 8 'cause i wanted Hendrix sounds, and it is not too good in that kind of sounds. But i'ts a good wah.

This pedal is like a ROCK. ATTENTION FX17 OWNERS again: there are NO WAH POTS inside the unit!! So NO SCRATCHY POTS or POT CLEANING: I thought the pedal was electro-optical, but it seems that the steel that rocks with your pedal acts like a variable capacitor. OPEN THE BOX! it's VERY interesting to see inside 'cause you see no damn wah pots! It has two leds inside, a green one and a red one, the green lights as you move the wah. For you people that complain for the bypass switch: open the unit and fix it!! If you pay >$50 for such a small thing, you should work on it!

As it has no wah pots, i expect it to last forever.

Never dealt with them

It's a very good volume pedal and a good wah. And it has no wah pots so it's reliable. I give it a 9 because i miss the fatter tones that you can get with a Jimi Hendrix wah pedal. This pedal has more brilliant tones, and that can be good for some songs and bad for others, but if you calibrate it you can get away with some different sounds from it.

First up, I want to say why I'm bothering to contribute my 2 cents. It seems everyone that has written reviews so far are guitarists. Although I do play guitar -- and in that regard tend to side with the folks who don't like the wah too much -- this pedal is MY SECRET WEAPON as a keyboard player. I'll explain below. As for ease of use, the only concern I have is that the bypass switch can be hard to trigger, and you can't switch from wah to volume easily without bending down--the button on the side is too small for a foot.

The reason I prefer a Crybaby to this for guitar is exactly why I use it for keyboards (my Rhodes elec. piano). I almost traded it immediately after realizing it was "too chorusy" for my guitar. I couldn't get that "classic sound" I was looking for. That was almost 10 years ago, though. And since then it's been a staple for creating my own, unique sound on keys. I can get an effect that is very much like a synth filter sweep. When the battery starts to go, the pedal also starts to emit a nice grittiness that sounds really good to my ear as well. (Too bad it doesn't last forever like that!) I also think the frequency response is better and more flat (if you can say that about a wah pedal!) on this than Crybabys and other wahs I've tried (the Vox, although I liked the warmth of that).

I've never had a problem with it. As others have said, it's built like a tank. I've heard people complain about DOD quality at times, but I've had no trouble. Of course, I also have no other DOD pedals, and there's a reason for that....

I guess musicians aren't supposed to reveal their secrets anymore than magicians, but I think this is a great site and the more info we exchange the better. I hate people who say "this is better than that" as if it were gospel. All I can say is my opinion: that this is the most UNIQUE wah pedal I've heard, and it is has become a staple in helping me get a really cool, unique sound as a keyboard player that inspires both me and my audience. If you want to sound like Hendrix, get a Crybaby no question. But if you're trying to AVOID sounding like you're trying to sound like Hendrix . . . check this one out.

It's ery easy to use. Just Move your foot on the pedal to get the desired wah or volume effect. No messing with knobs and you can easily change the wah while playing. It sticks just a bit (I emphasize a bit, only when you're trying to get exact tones do you notice) and it doesn't let you get the very exact tone you want, but retty close. The manual expalin what needs to be told how to use this product, which isn't much. I found it difficult to find an AC plug to power the pedal up with out batteries, and once I had one, it's hard to get that thing in there. It also gives you the option of switching from wah to clean guitar by pushing the pedal hard enough, but you have to do it fast and hard and it's too hard to go from wah and back for me to use that feature.

Pretty good. There's no fuzz or unwanted distortion I got with this. It has a nice wah sound, not as good as a Crybaby but very good. I usually only use this pedal for it's volume, which is what I love about this. I'm using it with a Champion 30 amp and multiple guitars. I play a lot of grunge and classic rock, and this things let's you move from a low rythym volume to a loud, lead guitar easy as hell. When playing "sliver", I just let that sucker ring and come right in. I don't use Wah that much, so you'll have to talk to someone else to really learn about this pedal's wah capabilities.

This is a tank. When I'm playing in the garaga and tossing this guy on the ground, or when I'm playing at a gig and being stepped on, it holds up. I don't usually play with a backup guitarist on gigs, and this thing works fine.

I haven't any need to talk to the company or get it repaired because it's so dependable.

With my grunge, classic rock, and all of that, this pedal works fine. Even when I play clean guitar, it sound perfect. If it were stolen, I'd steal it back, especially since I got about $50 offf the price of mine, and I wouldn't pay too much for a simple volume/wah pedal like this. Don't get me wrong, if I had enough money, I'd buy one as soon as it was stolen. I haven't had a chance to compare it with other wah pedals besides the crybaby, and the volume sounds the same as every volume pedal I've heard, only with a little less fizz than a couple. I wish the AC was regualr female ended and was somewhere no so close to the input plug, but I've worked around it. It helps me play any type of music I need it with and help elimintae some of the fuzz I get by turning by Champion 30 up too much. If you've got the money and you want a reliable wah/volume pedal, definatly get this.