DOD FX22 Vibro-Thang

The FX22 is very easy to use and I can always get a good sound out of it. First let me say that I'm a bit scared to write this glowing review of one of the best pedals I've purchased in a long time because there seem to be so many misconceptions of what this pedal is supposed to do.

I went to Guitar Center during the middle of the week when they open their doors and brought my Les Paul with me and plugged in. I had the store to myself and was able to listen without any distractions. I went to demo this pedal as a Leslie simulator and that's exactly what it does (despite DOD's naming it as a vibrato - nothing new here - we all know DOD has a real problem with their nomenclature; however, I must say they point out their stupidity themselves in the manual when they mention 'rotary speaker' sound).

Before I go into my glowing review, let me say that I just can't understand why people buy this box thinking there going to get a phaser then complain that the phasing isn't intense enough - true, this box has some phasing capabilities but they're there to combine with other parameters to yeild a Leslie sound or rich vibrato. If you want a real phaser, then go buy an MXR Phase 90.

I've tried many effects that try to simulate a Leslie rotating speaker and this one is the best in my opinion. What's amazing about this box is how slow it will 'rotate'. I knew someone in the 70's who had a Leslie cabinet and I know what they sound like. The problem with most boxes that try to emulate a rotating speaker is that they don't do the volume swell and drop as the speaker faces away from you and then returns facing you, nor do they do enough pitch variation for the doppler effect (remember your middle school science class? the classic text book example is you're stopped at a railway crossing and as the train approaches the engineer lays on the horn and just before the train passes in front of you, the pitch of the horn rises (goes sharp) and just after it passes, the pitch drops (goes flat)) Well, this box lets you control these parameters. Let me go over them from as they're layed out: SPEED-as I've said, can go incredibly slow and very fast as well; DEPTH-this controls the amount of volume drop-out, from no drop-out at all to almost complete drop-out cycling with the LFO speed you dialed in; DOPPLER-as I've described, this is the amount of pitch variation to immitate the doppler effect of a sound source in motion relative to a fixed point (in phasing, this is referred to as sweep depth); IMAGE-amount of filtered output sent back into the all-pass filter (known as regen., feedback, or resonance) this adds resonance and timber to make the effect more pronounced (with this turned down, the phase effect has warbbled vowel sounds, with it turned up, it sounds more pronounced with a bit of nasal resonance).

With these four parameters, and I should add that for once DOD named them appropriately, they all do as they're labeled (perhaps Image could have been named Res.), I can really do a very acurate job of immitating a Leslie: from EXTREMELY slow panning sounds to moderate speeds of lush swirling sounds to fast whirling trippy sounds. Again, I have to comment on the beautiful and gradual swell and decay of volume modulation that this box can do - it sounds just like a rotating speaker that slowly approaches facing you and then continues on its 360 journey away from you and returns back to facing you -- you combine this very realistic swell and decay with the slight doppler effect and phasing that's associated with a moving sound source, and you have, my friend, a very realistic model of a Leslie cabinet.

(Let me comment on the point that some people have made about this pedal reducing your tone, cutting highs, etc... The highs are actually reduced according to how you have the resonance (Image) set. This is all part of a true rotating speaker folks -- do a little test: go plop down in front of your stereo and pay attention to the highs, now get up and walk over to the speaker cabinents and turn them 180 degrees so they are no longer facing you, play the same song and listen for the highs -- they're not very crisp are they? Sound a little muffled? That's because the very directional highs are no longer aimed at your face, but rather a wall, curtains, other space, etc... so what you're hearing is reflected highs, not direct highs; hence they are going to sound flat and dull, turn the cabinets another 180 and you're back to your crisp highs. So, if you are trying to emulate a rotating speaker, this cycle of dulling/crisping highs should be part of your equation, and this pedal does that.)

Well, I should say I've never had any problems with my DOD pedals nor have I ever lost a battery cover; then again, I don't kick, jump up and down on them, throw them at a brick wall, drop them from a three story terrace, or use them to smack my drummer upside the head! My pedals stay mounted on my custom made pedal board with its own regulated power supply -- by the way, I'm interested in taking a survey to see if people would be interested in buying a pedal board like I built for myself: it is all plywood contruction with a suitcase type cover, has its own built in regulated power supply for up to 14 pedals -- is this something you would be interested in? Perhaps I will in the future market these over the internet -- let me know your thoughts on this - I would price competively with the SKB model but it would be a much sturdier and more powerful board.

I bought this pedal becasue I was looking for a Leslie sound and as I said above, it does this the best I've ever heard from a pedal. I've tried the Dunlop RotoVibe (doesn't go slow enough and basically only produces the phasing part of a swirling sound) It is capable to use this pedal as just a phaser by turning up the Doppler and Image and turning down the Depth, but keep in mind, the phasing parameters of this pedal were designed to enhance the rotating speaker sound, not to be a stand alone phase pedal. Likewise, this pedal is also capable as a straight vibrato pedal by turning up the Depth and decreasing the phasing controls (Doppler & Image) But when you know how to blend all four of the parameters, that's when you can bring the ghost of Leslie into your rig.

If you're looking for that Leslie sound, no matter what pedal you may own now, you owe it to yourself to go demo this pedal, and please, take your own axe with you as you should do when demoing any pedal. Please don't miss out on this pedal because you think DOD makes adolescent pedals -- I know they do stupid things like giving them funky names and in the past they've confused everyone by labeling the parameter controls with vague and stupid names (they've actually stopped doing that), but your decision to buy a pedal shouldn't be based on what people say about them, what they look like, or what they're called, but rather, what do they SOUND like! Do they serve the purpose of the tone or mood your trying to convey in your music? The only thing I fault DOD for is for marketing this pedal as a vibrato pedal, don't get me wrong, it does a wonderful job as a vibrato pedal, just as good as it does the Leslie thing, but I thing they would have had more success had they named it 'Rotothang' Especially since the roto sound is so in again. But that's DOD's curse, they just haven't the faintest idea how to market their own products. They must have college interns majoring in corporate marketing working in their marketing department who have never picked up an instrument in their lives, have no practical application in the music world, and are making their decisions based on demographics and statistics for marketing colors and nomenclature. If you can overlook their assinine stupidity in marketing their products so that they actually DECREASE their own sales -- go check out this mistake of fortune.

Also, the Guitar Center has this pedal displayed with a $79 price tag, but when the cashier rang it up, it popped up in the computer as $64 -- good deal

No probs at all. All the pots are really subtle so you need to turn them lots for a noticeable change. It's really simple.

I use an Ibanez Destroyer II and a Marshall VS65R. The first problem is that the pedal seems to cut a lot of the volume out and the high end eq aswell. This is quite problematic when using distortion or other pedals with the unit. Secondly, it would have been nice to have a decent phasor on it. I know its only supposed to create a leslie type effect to enhance the trem but it would be way more versatile if the phasing was more powerful. The overall sound is really nice though and the phasing used alone with a distorted sound adds some nice dynamics and colour to the tone. On the strength of that I think its a pretty good pedal.

No problems so far.

Never required it.

I play whatever I feel like but broadly speaking I suppose you'd call it grunge. I use the pedal a lot when I just feel like adding something to my sound. I like using it with my guyatone wah rocker- this gives me a really synthesque sound when with a slow wah like a square wave amp LFO on a filter sweeped chunky saw lead. Othertimes I just turn the phase up max and put the rate on min and leave it on all time. If I lost it I don't think I would buy it again. I'd rather make my own trem and buy a decent phasor like a phase 90. All pedals help in a way. They're there if you need them and can only add to your infinite sound making possibilities. This one was a tad disappointing given the price (about $80) but then us Limeys will always have that problem.

DOD uses cutesy names for the knob labels, but on mine, they're labeled "SPEED", "DEPTH", "DOPPLER", and "IMAGE". It's fairly easy to figure out. I bought it in November '98.
The manual is okay. It gives some suggested starting settings (3 of them). I wished they'd have printing settings for various blues styles and rotating speaker simulation. (This pedal can do this.)

I use a Fender Stratocaster w/ humbucker in the bridge. I play through a Crate gfx-65 (solid state, yet there are some good distortions). I also use a Danelectro Delay pedal.
The other day, I figured out how to get a rotating speaker (Speed at 2 o'clock, Depth at 10 o'clock, Doppler at 3 o'clock, Image at noon). It did sound weak. This pedal doesn't do "big" effects. I usually use it for blues and blues based playing. With doppler and image all the way down, the pedal gives a normal vibrato effect. I've noticed that the effect is barely noticeable if the depth is below half-way up.
I've found that great sounds can come out of this pedal with the right settings. With the wrong settings, you can't even tell it's on.
I've noticed some noise, but it's not that bad. You won't notice it while playing. Just turn it off between songs.

I haven't used it for a long time, yet I've had no problems with it. Keep a fresh battery in it though.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing about a year. I'm still experimenting with amps and effects, but my Stratocaster is staying! I bought the pedal for the sounds that I could get from it, plus I wanted a vibrato effect. (My Crate doesn't have built-in vibrato.) BOSS had a tremolo pedal out, but I'm not paying $160 dollars for it.
I'm still looking for "my" sound, but I think this pedal will be a crucial part of it. I'd buy it again. This pedal can fit blues, and surf guitar (the manual tells how to get this), but if you're looking for the Pink Floyd sound, this pedal won't do it all.

this pedal is basically a tremelo, with a phaser. you can combine both to make some truly trippy sounds. there's 4 knobs in all- i've got one of the newer ones, so there's no goofy-ass labels on the knobs.. depth controls how deep the trem goes, doppler controls how obvious the phaser is, image makes the phaser sound more like a wah (?) and speed controls both effects. if you're buying this for a tremelo pedal it's a good buy. however if you buy it for a phaser, don't waste you time with this. the phaser sucks.. it doesn't have enough variety in sounds for my liking. the phaser's there just to enhance the tremelo effect. buy a EH small stone if you wanna great phaser. But i love the eels/rem sounds from this baby's trem section so i think it's a good buy, consider the Boss tremelo costs almost twice as much as this!

as i said before, the phaser sucks for anything apart from wobbly noises, but the trem is great. use a les paul on the middle setting- pure bliss. it sounds really cool thru the sound city valve PA amp head i just got, but still sounds good with a solid state amp.

in my experience with dod pedals (metal maniac, stereo chorus) the footswtich is always the first thing to crap out. but i did buy those pedals secondhand, so someone could've been kicking seven shades of shit out of them, 24/7. so i guess they could be okay.

no experience yet.

i play mainly modern rock, occassionly jazz or whatever. i think this pedals really a one-trick horse, but what a trick!

this is a really easy pedal to use. It has 4 knobs. rate, drop, intensity, image. The image is the only control that took me a couple minuites to figure out. it's just controls how much vibrato, or how much phase you want. it doesn't make much of a difference. I'll give it a 9 because names could be a little more straitforward. rate: rate of vibrato drop: depth intencity: regen image: explained above

i'm using it with a Epiphone SG and a shitty samick 20 watt. it's in line with 5 other pedals which aren't in a loop. it's a really quiet pedal when you're not playing unless it's running with a really overdriven distortion. the depth (drop) could go deeper and the rate could go alot faster. i think all the parameters should be made larger. this pedal isn't a really good tremolo for surf music if thats what you want.

it's broken a few times. just in the switch and the input. i put too much weight on the crappy plastic on/off button. i'm not fat, i'm just stupid. the input was faulty when i bought it so decied for yourself. most DOD pedals are made well, all my others were. I just wish they'd make the switches like the BOSS ones. the caseing is heavy duty metal, so if your drummer sucks, you can beat him/her with it.

whenever it was broken they fixed it free. i think it has a 3 year warentee, which gives you plenty of time to kick your drummers ass with it before it costs you anything (other than drummers hospital fees)

if you're using a distortion box make sure you put it in front of the FX22. otherwise when your fuzz is on at the same time, it'll sound like shit. if i just happened to accidentaly throw it away because it was evedence for a case that involved a drummers death, i'd buy a boss TR-2. the rate is better, and so is the depth. if you set the rate on 3o'clock way with a flange or a phaser, it sounds really cool. no offence to any drummers out there, i'm not going to beat you to death with this pedal. if your looking for a light sounding tremolo, this is good for you.

It is easy enough, and the manual gives some sample settings. I wish DOD would give the controls normal names. The novelty of the names wears off real fast when you are trying to dial in a sound.

The sound quality is good and quiet. However, I think DOD should have just made a tremolo pedal, not this. The vibro thang is a tremolo and phaser combined. The problem with this is that the tremolo doesn't have enough rate variation. You can't get the speed to go fast enough for a shivering vibrato sound, and the rate also doesn't really go as slow as I like either. I don't see much need for the phaser aspects, it would be better to get a dedicated phaser pedal. The pedal could be usable if you only want very subtle sounds.

I think DOD quality is good. I think the new footswitch on their latest pedals seems a little tougher although it also feels less precise. I would still like to see DOD go to a footswitch design like Boss, you really feel like Godzilla could stomp on a Boss and not break it. But, I have never broke a DOD pedal so I shouldn't complain about them.

DOD is a great company to deal with, I have never needed them for repairs but they are helpful for product information.

I sold mine because I decided I wanted a two different pedals for phasing and tremolo. I got a DOD FX20 phaser and the new Boss TR2 tremolo, this was a better way to go. I guess if you are looking for something a little different, then you may find something good in the Vibro Thang. I don't recommend it for simple Phasing or Tremolo sounds, it just isn't versatile enough in those applications.

The FX-22 (Vibro-Thang) is really a tremolo pedal with additional phasing capabilities. The knobs' names are misleading: Drop, Intensity, Image. Drop is just the LEVEL of tremolo, intensity is just the LEVEL of phasing. The directions explain this easily, though, with specific setings for certain styles of sounds.

The neat thing is that you can combine tremolo WITH phasing at the same speed, because it (the speed) is all in sync, as opposed trying match separatea trem and phaser pedals to the same speed.(The practical purpose of this beats me!:) The minus is that the phaser ability only goes so out-of-phase. A real phaser is the way to go. Also note-worthy is the fact that there is limited tremolo ability, as compared to the discontinued Boss Tremolo/Pan. The DOD's speed can't go near as fast, leaving you to turn the speed all the way up for a HALF-descent vibrato. Also, when activated and you're not playing, you hear the irritating hissing at the speed entered, and it picks up radio stations, and they're easy-listening too!! :( Another cut is that there is only one style of trem on the DOD: a sine wave, while Boss gives you the choice of a square wave, in addition :(

I would definitely depend on it (to screw my chord comping). I wouldn't use it without a backup (two sledge-hammers are better than one!). Also, the "trigger" is hard to get familiar with; it doesn't have a solid click when you step on it, unlike another brand of pedals...

I talked with several loco (oops! sorry, I meant local) DOD distributers about the power adapter, but since the FX-22 is so new, they didn't carry them. Another minus. Even the Guitar Center says it may take "anywhere from tomorrow to next month to get them in." I hope you have a good supply of 9V batteries!

I'll have to admit that it has the ideal 50's and 60's tremolo and descent phasing sounds. It's good for the beginner, but that's all. For anything other than putzing in your room, including any performances, leave it at home, at the dump, in the bottom of Lake Michigan, etc.