DOD FX22 Vibro-Thang

I have the earlier version of this pedal with the knobs labeled, "RMS","DROP","INTENSITY", and "IMAGE". The later version is labeled, "SPEED", "DEPTH", "DOPPLER", and "IMAGE". Both sets of names make this pedal difficult for me to use, because they do not immediately remind me of their actual purpose. So, I have taken a DYMO LetraTag electonic labelmaker, set it to its smallest font size and using white plastic tape, I have made my own control label. This reads: "SPEED", "TREM", "PHASER", "TONE" (with exactly eleven spaces between words).
This pedal is easy to get good sounds out of! However, you will probably need to spend an hour or two fiddling with it to get the exact sound you are looking for.
The manual for this pedal is fairly useless. This pedal is a LESLIE SIMULATOR (no matter what, other idiots, may say to the contrary) and there are no settings given in the manual for a proper LESLIE SIMULATION! I use "4 'o clock", "1 'o clock", "4 'o clock", and "2 'o clock" in that order. However, these pedals seem to vary a lot, so, your best "LESLIE" may be with somewhat different settings.

I use this pedal primarily with a Les Paul Classic and an '80s Ibanez Artist semi-hollow (both with humbuckers). I use it with a plethora of other pedals including a modded TS-9, Bad Monkey, modded Tube Driver, Boss Dimension-C, old YAMAHA chorus, Dunlop Uni-Vibe Stereo Chorus, Digitech Digidelay, et al. I like the sound this pedal creates, although, there is a slight loss of highs when it is turned on (not horrific).
NOISE: I have never had any noise problems with this pedal, but I never use it for high-volume hard rock or heavy metal. This pedal was never designed with this kind of "music" in mind. It is a "Vintage Sound" type of pedal. It works great for old rock like the Beatles, Beach Boys, Zombies, Moody Blues, Bread etc. It should also work fine for traditional country and traditional jazz (probably not fusion).
A FURTHER WORD ABOUT NOISY PEDALS: I am an electronics tech and have been for many years. Most of the companies I have worked for, have been audio electronics manufacturers. If you have a ton of pedals and they all work fine in your setup - then you get a new pedal and it produces absolutely ridiculous levels of noise... GUESS WHAT? You, yes, You, Dufus, have a DEFECTIVE PEDAL! Take it back, IMMEDIATELY, and get another one or send it to the manufacturer and have it repaired! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT ASSUME that every pedal of this model sounds like yours does. As the old saying goes, "When you ASSUME, you make an *** out of U and ME!"

I bought this DOD pedal quite well used and it has always worked well. I have an old, well-used, original, DOD FX25 (two knobs, dark metallic green) and it works fine. I have a much older DOD PHASOR/201 pedal (bright yellow, MXR type case, metal-button switch) and it works fine. The only trouble any of these pedals usually have is with the switch. If you have technical ability, open up the pedal and spray WD-40 or pot/tuner cleaner on the actual switch (NOT the UP-DOWN PEDAL you put your foot on) and work the switch in and out. If you are not a tech - find one! Have him do this or replace the switch! It's as simple as that!
Yes, I would gig with this without a backup!

I have never dealt with DOD. I have sent e-mails to Digitech (same parent company, Harmon Products) and they have, promptly, replied! I, usually, repair and mod my own pedals.

I, usually, play '60s and early '70s rock, some blues, Clapton, Robben Ford, Santana (It's hard to classify Santana) and I also like to play old hymns and other worship music. This pedal works well for these types of music. I've been playing guitar for about 30 years, now and, although, I'm not a great guitar player - I have learned a thing or two over the years. Besides the afore-mentioned equipment, I own several old tube amps (which I love): I have an ancient Magnatone 280 (with built-in pitch-shifting vibrato). I have a '60s VOX Berkley Super Reverb (with volume-shifting tremolo). Then there's the '70s Fender Princeton Reverb with volume-shifting trem (my favorite amp: loud, soulful and extremely portable). I also have a very old VALCO Chicago amp (small, white, gold control panel, uses 6973 output tubes). And last, and probably least, (my first amp) an amp I built myself by taking an old tube-powered Magnavox stereo amp and slightly modifying the circuitry and making my own, PAINTED BLACK, cabinet for it.
Now that I have utterly bored you with a recitation of my equipment........ This is not, by any means, the best Leslie simulator available. It is, however, a fantastic deal for the price! My favorite LESLIE simulator is my Dunlop Uni-Vibe Stereo Chorus (3 Tele style knobs, grey crackle finish, one metal-button switch). You can get a fat, very soulful, burbly, Leslie out of this, but it will cost you at least twice as much! There are probably, even better sounding boutique Leslies Sims out there, but you don't even want to think about those prices!
P.S. If you want to know a lot more about the CONCEPT of this pedal and those CRAZY KNOB NAMES see the review by "jimmy" dated 09/10/1999. He explains it all, incredibly well, and strangely enough, HE IS ABSOLUTELY, SPOT-ON, CORRECT!

Quite easy, it took me 5 minutes to figure it all out. Speed needs no explanation, Depth controls the amount of volume modulation, Doppler is the phasing (between 3 and 5 o'clock the biggest changes happen) and image is a very subtle high frequency control.

First of all, it's as noisy as any phaser when set to a fast rate. don't expect it to be noiseless, a univibe or a small stone aren't either.Concerning the sound itself: With doppler down you get a nice tremolo (which sounds quite fenderish to me, but I'm no expert. still, it really breathes nicely) and with doppler on full (try left to right 9, 12, 5, 5 o'clock) the sound is quite leslie-ish. But: don't expect black hole sun to creep out of your speakers, it's more a phasy, beatlesque rotary thing (as someone said before, listen to "if" by bread). In case you like it, great. by the way: with doppler at zero or on full there is no highfreq loss, only in the middle positions.

It's built like a tank, I really don't think I'll have to worry about this. Even though the switch is made of plastic...

No idea.

I usually play quite heavy music (not black metal though, more a doors/soad/tool/mucc/pink floyd mixture), but this one is for the more vintage-y moments. I'm after the real cool leslie sounds of, say, David Gilmour - and I'm afraid to say, this probably isn't it; there is no pitch modulation involved and no swirling hi-hi end, either. But still - I bought this for really cheap and I guess I'll keep it anyway in case I need a tremolo...

I find it rather easy to use but some people may have trouble with it.

First it is important to understand what this is. It is a rotating speaker simulation. It is not a phasor nor is it a tremolo or a univibe. If you using it trying to get a phase sound or tremolo sound you may be disapointed. Use it as a leslie speaker simulator, let that guide your settings, and you will be happy.

It uses a sine wave not a triangle which is what most tremolos use. The phase is meant to help give the doppler effect. It sounds much more convincing than the rocktron vertigo vibe for what that is worth. It could sound even more realistic if it included a bit of pitch shift.

Some people say it cuts volume. I use strats and jazzmasters and i find the opposite it gives i little volume boost, but maybe with high output pups it would cut volume?

It would be a 10 but there is a light hiss. It's not significant in my set up. Depending on you gain structure it could be too noisy. Most phasors do have some hiss.

It has worked for many years just like all my dod pedals.

DOD is digitech they are part of harmon which is also AKG and bunch of other stuff.

awesome rotary emulation which gives the illusion of 3 dimensional movement. Honestly it is the coolest effect DOD ever made and should get more respect than it does, but most people don't get it, DOD didn't help the matter by how they named and labeled it.

This pedal was not easy to figure out at first. It took some heavy experimenting to dial in the sound that I was looking for, but it was well worth the effort.

For my purposes the sound quality of this pedal is excellent. It does a very good rotating speaker effect (with RPM at MAX, Drop at 12:00, Intensity at MAX, Image at 2:00). Some people report that this pedal is noisy - mine is not. This pedal when adjusted properly creates a very warm, fluid sound reminiscent of the Leslie-ish vibrato on the BREAD song IF. I would say that if you are an all-out hard-rocker or heavy metal player you will not like this pedal, but if you are into bands like the Beatles, Beach Boys, CCR, Byrds, Bread etc. you will probably love it.
I play a Gibson Les Paul or Ibanez Artist Semi-Hollow into either a
VOX Berkley or a Magnatone Custom 280. Classic Rock all the way!

I bought this pedal used (well used). It works great even though it is several years old and fairly beat-up. I would say it is reliable!

I have never dealt with the people at DOD.

If this were lost or stolen, I would look for another one. I really like what this pedal does to my sound. I use it primarily for finger-picking soft ballads. But, HEY, all of the really good bands played soft ballads (like Yesterday) as well as the real rockers (like Helter Skelter)! SO THERE!

very easy. speed controls both Speed of vibrato AND speed of phaser. Depth controls the depth of vibrato. Doppler controls amount of phaser. Image controls regeneration of phaser(Fback).

This isn't a tremelo. It's a Leslie similator + phaser, one or the other , or both.
fretless Jazz bass->DOD FX22->SWR Workingman's amp.

Absolutely. Take care of your gear folks, and your gear will take care of you...Except for Arion! That stuff is 100% solid plastic.

...haven't dealt with them before.

Overall great pedal for modulation. It's not expensive, you get two pedals for the price of one, its well built...
The added phaser in this pedal is really what I like. It really colors the Leslie sim. nicely...almost like an auto wah.

Others I would consider in this category would be the Boss TR-2, Guyatone VT-3, or the EHX small stone.

Pretty easy to use. I originally bought this pedal for the tremelo feature, and if you zero the doppler and image knobs it will do a decent/straight tremelo with just a hint of tone loss.

That's why you've got to tweak the doppler setting until you hear those higher frequencies come back. I found that with the speed at about 12:00 and the depth at 2:00, and make sure the doppler is at 10:00, you will get a smooth trem with just a hint of phasing and very little tone-suck issues. Anyway, it's not your average stomp box, this thang needs some attention to make it shine.

Reliability wise, I have some DOD stuff from the 80s and it's held up. Sure, the weaky squeaky switch is plastic, but I take it easy on my gear so I expect no problems.

Considering that you can pay twice as much and get a EH Pulsar which is made in the good ol USA, and sounds a hell of lot more hi-fi, you might consider taking that route. However the Vibro-Thang is a different animal. I play mostly folk-alt-indie rock and every band I've ever been a member of has been compared to Camper Van Beethoven. I guess that means we couldn't play our instruments. Anyway, I'm thinkin a few effects will shake em up. We'll see..

Speed and Depth knobs are self evident. Doppler and Image required a trip to the manual. Once these were understood, it was easy to use the pedal. The pedal is versatile. You can get trem (0 Doppler and Image) and vibe (3:00 Doppler and Image as needed) as well as light phasing.

There is a loss of airiness when the pedal is kicked in. Sounds like a hi freq loss really. But I use it for bass so it doesn't bother me. It also pulses (whop, whop, whop) softly even when you are not playing. It's not bad with my dual amp set up (1 clean, 1 effect).

It sits in my music room. It will last forever.

No idea.

If you need a trem/vibe pedal that can stand up to the mid level units like Boss and Guyatone then give the Vibrothang a spin.

Not extremely easy to use at first but with some time a nice leslie effect can be achieved

The single most important thing about using the vibrothang (IMO) is you MUST run two amps. At some point you have to split the signal and let the VThang run through one amp while the other amp has no tremelo. The two signal together give you the cold-shot-band of gypsys-ish thang.

My set-up is this:

>Vibrothang>'49 Gibson GA-20 amp
strat>TS9>Stereo delay
>reverb>'59 tweed pro amp

It is not terribly noisy but can have a pop-pop-pop sound depending on how intense the signal is. But as usual, you won't hear it over your drummer!

so far-so good.
Yeah, I'd gig without a backup

not yet

I think the leslie effect is nice for almost any style of music though I play mainly R&B Funky rock and roll
If it were stolen, I'd probably replace it because it is relatively cheap and does what I need it to.
Haven't compared it to other rotorary effects other than a rototvibe (which I liked a alot)
No more than one would normally use this relatively dramatic effect, I probably wouldn't shuck out the $ for the more expensive similar effects. Tho I'm sure they sound fantastic.

I had to write a review after seeing some of the nutty reports here. Yeah, I guess it is hard to use!!

I'm glad someone wrote that it's not a vibrato or a tremolo, cause it's not really. It's not a leslie sim either. I think the name borrows from the the Fender Vibratone, which is somewhat infamously NOT the same as a Leslie cabinet either. But, it doesn't really sound like a Vibratone necessarily, SO...

What it is, actually, is an FX PEDAL. HMMM. MYSTERY SOLVED. And it's a unique one at that.

With "image" and "doppler" at zero, it does a fairly straight tremolo. It doesn't sound as creamy a nice dedicated tremolo but does go a LOT faster AND slower than others I've tried. I don't use it for this all the time, but it's an awesome asset, and beats the multi-effect trems, which settings may go from 0 to a million, but can sound like ass.

With "doppler" added it does a nice vibe, not like univbes but more color in the waves than trem alone. It's definitely more phase-like and very watery, but without that obnoxious chorusing tone that SO many similar units do.

With "image" it gets pretty ugly for my tastes. Maybe this is where others are getting so turned off. It's like a EQ filter sweep that's really tough to set with any usuable results. It does do a synth-like phasing impression with some settings, which is fine and fun but not all that great being that it's 25% of your effect control. the only time it's useful is that it can offset the hi-cut factor, which only seems to be a problem with extreme settings, which are not recommended for good results anyway.

so don't flood the effect, and won't need any added image.

It's a DOD. I've seen them last, I've seem them trashed. It's only rock and roll...

I think DOD might be heading the way of the DODo before it...

all right.

first, it's NOT noisy, but REMEMBER what we're talking about here and what you paid for it: not a lot, so any little improper powering or grounding or dusty cables or dirty environments... any number of things can hamper bargain-priced equipment... that said, i use this mostly in a clean recording space but have had it out several times to gigs and few sessions, and i have had zero noise issues with the vibrthang.

it's a great effect box. it couldn't replace my tremolo, but it gives a better tuned movement to my guitar playing than my old phaser, which it replaced. what's interesting is wondering what might actually replace it. i do i wish it had stereo and wet/dry options...

bottom line, you can get great sounding FX from this box no problem. expect amazing trills and spills with every setting and you're kidding yourself. but then again, you're always welcome to pay more for the boutique boxes that only do that one generic sound, if that's what you want.

as for the complaining, for what it costs, it's a steal. try firing up something that costs 12 times as much and getting hum, artifacts, and other assorted shittinesss, and then see how you feel.

Good sound? Read below. Ease of use? What? Cannot use it.

I read the reviews on this on these pages and bought one sight unseen or heard. My mistake. I am not a pedal guy, just wanted a "leslie" style soft whoosh or such, just a touch as I have no tremlo in my amp and missed that part. Using in my S/S practice (home) amp it was not that bad. It's a 10 watt small rig. The only thing I noticed was some tone loss, slight hiss. Take it to band rehersal with my 100 watt Duoverb.....oh boy. Sounds like single coils under florescents right over head. Now the noise on top of the tone drain....no way. I only use a modded ts9 and gain on my settings, even clean this thing was useless to me. Turn down my volume on my axe and it still makes noise thru the amp, and it is not a noisy amp at all. I can dial in about a hundred different settings, I use about 8/12 with the floorboard. I use a Strat Powerhouse (very quiet) and a Tex-Mex MIM (I cannot get over how well it plays). Even with my other players American Strat (with noiseless pups) it was like tinitis. Changed cords to no avail.I just wanted to be one of the folks who will tell you that if you do not use a lot of effects and count on tone as the idea, this might as well be a brick. I just wanted a slight imaging, a small verb.....my mistake. Next time I TRY IT OUT IN HAND. Live and learn

Just in the short time it lost paint, no primer under it. The pedal goes on when you plug in, and it is useless. I would gig with a brick with Boss painted on it before this would see the light of live playing.

I would upgrade to a Fire Engine Red brick with a glow stick on front of it.

Cover band. Rock and Roll. Blues. Soft to very loud. 4 piece standard 2 git/bass/drums. Simple. Scream and shout and make the girls pout.

Overall. If you are one of the players who actually don't process the bejeebers out of your sound, stay away from this. In a chain with eq and noise gate with 10 others in line how would you know? Not me. Save your money.

Just a little more tweaking with the knob cause it's not a simple effect, but nothing impossible..the name are correct

First of all this is not a tremolo or a vibrato pedal...This is the incorrect name DOD gave to this pedal...vibrothang...Spending more time with this pedal infact i notice that the rate isn't so fast as usual in many tremolo pedals and that's why this pedal is a leslie simulator, alias rotary speaker simulator...In fact....have you ever seen a real leslie running so fast as the rate of a tremolo pedal!!!Maybe with a Ferrari engine inside...The simulation is beautiful, and of course you can use this pedal also as a good vibrato, but his first aim is to simulate at best rotary speaker...10 cause it's cheap (in front of pedals such as the rotosphere and univibe) and cause the simulation is really good!Your guitar will sound like a real '70 organ

Good...the only weak point seems to be the footswitch...but it works perfectly

I bought my old boss tremolo cause i was tired of the enormous drop of volume of that pedal, and i want to experiment new sound with this...i'm very happy now...i have a rotary speaker simulator and also a vibrato, depend on the setting you use it.

no problem here. some very interesting sounds with the doppler and image.

i'm using fender strats and tele's and an occasional les paul with 57 humbuckers thru either two fender deluxe reverbs or a 100 watt marshall. the problem with the vibrothang i got new, right out of the box is that there is a huge hiss level that is intolerable. i feel i got ripped off with this POS.

who cares i can not use this thing because of the noise and wish i would have checked harmony central before i purchased it. other DOD products i have work great.

i've been gigging for more than 30 years and have a closet frull of effects. here's another one i'll stash--since i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. i can't believe DOD sells this thing with so much noise!!

It took me awhile to figure what does what and how to place in my chain of effects [even though the manual explains all this].

I'm using with a 2000 American Series Stratocaster and a 2000 Fender Princeton amplifier [1x12 combo amp].

I did manage to pull in a radio station using this and the DOD FX52 FUZZ pedal in combination. Creepy Christian station to boot!

It does suck some treble from the signal and will boost line distortion...still....not enough to cry home about.

I managed the Led Zepplin, No Quarter sound by setting the speed to 9 oclock, depth to 11 oclock and cranking the Doppler and Image all the way up. One might reduce the Doppler a hair but close enough.

There are at least 10 different sounds from this pedal. It really inspires me to write new songs. It would be great to use in a classic rock band. Hendrix, Zepplin, Creedence Clearwater, Creme, Lou Reed, Rolling Stones, etc all come to mind.

Has Vibrato, Phasing and Wha Wha sounds. I can see using this pedal for disco as it does sound a lot like a envelope filter at times. Just crank the Image up and the Speed up.

I have no idea how reliable this thing is but the plastic foot switch is just so even frikkin retarded. What the hell is wrong with DOD to keep using this seriosly flawed design?

I play blues, rock, grunge, heavy metal and anything like these.
I've been playing electric guitar since 1975.
If it was lost or stolen I'd buy another one.
I love the versatility of the pedal and the vintage and spacey sounds it produces. I love the sadness it brings to my tone.

I can compare the vibrato to the vibrato on my 1968 VibroChamp Fender amp. They sound identical.

Very easy. I bought it without a manual. After about 5 minutes of playing with the knobs, I had the sound I wanted. Later I downloaded the manual from DOD's website, but I didn't really need to. The manual just confirmed what I had figured out.

For an in-depth description of the controls, see the review from "jimmy" posted on 09/10/1999.

For rehearsals and gigs I play a Fender Strat through a Lab Series L7 amp (100w, 4x10). At home I use a silverface Fender Champ. This pedal sounds good with both setups. It's not noisy, except for a slight "thump" when I turn it off.

So far, I've managed to get 2 great sounds out of it. The first is a fast Leslie imitation (with the Speed just over 3/4, the Depth a little over 1/2, the Doppler on full, and the Image almost on full). This sounds full and thick. The mids get boosted a little, but that's okay with me. If I keep the Image down slightly, there's enough treble. I don't find it "muffled" as other people have, unless the Image knob is cranked. "Dark" is a better word to describe it. The other setting I like is with the Speed at 1/2, the Depth at 3/4 and the other 2 knobs all the way down. This provides a nice smooth tremolo. But since I already have a trem pedal, I don't use this setting much.

Some others have pointed out that this effect doesn't sound good with distortion. I think that depends on which distortion you use. I tried my Tube Works OD with this pedal, and it sounded muddy. But when I put my raspy Ibanez fuzz in front of it, I was very happy. I got some great 60's psychedelic sounds.

As I said above, it's a little darker than most rotary speaker sims. It won't make you sound like Stevie Ray Vaughn. But I like it a lot more than the rotary effect that was in my Digitech RP-100. The manual lists "No Quarter" by Led Zeppelin as an example of the Leslie effect, and I really think that's what this pedal was designed to sound like. It makes a guitar sound sort of like John Paul Jones' keyboard on that song.

I've had it for about a month now with no problems. It's survived band practice 3 times now (which is harder on my equipment than gigs). Sure, it's a DOD. So, the switch might break someday... But I'm planning to gig without a backup (plugging straight into the amp is my backup for everything).

N/A - Never dealt with them.

With my band, I play a mixture of Surf, Garage, and Punk. At home, I play everything from blues to progressive. I've been playing about 20 years. This pedal won't work for every style, but it's a good match for me. If it were lost or stolen, I'd immediately search Ebay and a few local music stores for another one. It seems you can find them at pretty low prices. For the $30 I paid, it's an excellent value. It will do until I win the lottery and can afford an H&K Tube Rotosphere.

This is very easy to get sounds out of, but there are only a couple of sounds in this pedal. For a single pedal it gets more then 1 sound, but has a personality of it's own as well.

I'm not using this in my setup currently, I'll get to why below.

This is a combo Tremolo/Phaser. Very thick sounding at all times (pumps out a lot of lows and low mids, very little highs). It seems that the best settings are with everything clocked, or backing a single control to anywhere between 12 o clock and 5 o clock, depending the texture you're going for. This is capable of mimicing a Jonny Greenwood-like sound (Lucky, Bones). Speed can go extremely slow to fast, but not the fastest trem by any standard.

This pedal has angered me quite a bit. Like other DODs I've had in the past (Supra Dist.)the footswitch has acted up a lot. It will work, and just as you remember what you liked about it's sound, it's sounds not working again. It has cut all sound when off, cut all sound when on, and started only working when you hold the speed control down with your foot. Very odd.
Another guitarist in my area, from the band The Beat Officers, had the footswitch replaced and he told me his works great now. He also had chaos with the original switch.

Never dealt with "DOD", but I've contacted "Digitech" before, and they answered the email by the NEXT DAY, with info that worked (a factory reset on the RP10).

I hope this will work with the mod once I get it fixed. I will write here again after I get the mod

RPMs and Drop are noticeable but image and intensity don't seem to do much, i find these two controls hard to play with!!! I didn't get a manual with this maybe that would have made it easier but it's still and awkward pedal in my books!!!

I play Strats through a Laney VC-30. My pedal board is Vox wah into TS-7, into TS-9 into Vibro-thang into Danelectro tuner.
I find this pedal decreases my volume and really effects your tone. When it's off it's OK but when on it's just really muffles your sound which i hate as i play blues/funk and tone is pretty much everything to me. I really don't like the sound it gets, it's a poor excuse for a rotating speaker effect!!!

It's never stuffed up on me, i use it at gigs and don't have a backup. It is strongish casing but the actual control pedal feels very flimsy but it's been good to me for about 8-10 months now so i'll give it a 7

Never used them sorry

DOn't buy it if you want a GOOD rotating speaker simulator. If you want that go for the Dunlop Uni Vibes (there are two models) They are more expensive but hey just save a little longer and be much more content!!! This pedal is very un versatile and sounds pretty terrible, i only bought it cos i wanted a cheap fix and CHEAP it is!!!! Spend more money and be satisfied!!!!!

4 knobs, rpm, and drop do what youd expect, (controlling speed and depth of the vibrato), although intesity and image dont seem to have that much effect on the sound, and are hard to use, althogu the manual give some example settings for this, which are decent, and i guess help you make your own sound, definetely not plug in and play

This is a very quiet effect box, not noisy at all. However, this efect sounds like shit when combined with almost any other effect, with distortion it will change the character of your distorted tone, (strong increse in lower mids yuk). The only way to use this pedal is through a clean amp, and it does a very good rotating speaker simulation. However, this is a very subtle effect, the phasing on it is extremely weak, and the only usable sound (to me), is with the rpm and drop all the way up, (really intense throbbing sound), otherwise, the only way to really tell that the effect is working is to hold a chord, and listen to the slow swirly sound. Wow. I guess this pedal, would be good for fans of the rotating speaker sound, who dont play with distortion, its a really mellow sound. If your looking for an extreme new sound that will make lots of cool noises, this isn't it. It is a very subtle effect.

Made out of metal seems reliable. My first pedal, was a dod classic fuzz, as a tennager, and it survived many a party that my band played at. This has the same metal housing.

Overall, i was dissapointed in this pedal, because i thoght you could get a really extreme trippy sound, but thats not the case. It is a very subtle effect. Good, for that rotating speaker stuff, but not what i was looking for.

This thing is fairly easy to use. It has got four buttons. The only thing on it that is hard to use is the speed control. The speed control is really hard to adjust from slow to fast and there is like no in between.

The sound quality is awesome. It gives a very nice sound once you get it set up. It is a very quiet pedal. It works great.

It seems reliable. Has a metal casing and all, but that plastic switch has got to go.

This is an awesome pedal for clean and dirty sounds. It really has a strong vibrato that you can also adjust for almost no vibrato. My only complaint with it is the plastic switch which makes noise when switching, and which is very cheap.
If it were lost or stolen I'd would try out something more along the lines of a Boss.
I would reccomend trying some other pedal to make sure that this is the one you really want before you buy it. It does have a good sound, but DOD does need to work out some of the glitches in their products. Although I guess DOD makes them the way they like them, and as long as they are selling they must be good in some peoples eyes

There are 4 knobs, cant be easier.

I usualy dont go for DOD, but I won this pedal and tried it out. I love the sound it gives out. Not noisy, but there is a slight volume increase which can be a little annoying.

Would not gig without backup. I had a DOD Death Metal and the stomp pad does not always work. Sometimes I have to press down 15 times to get it to go on or off!!!!!!!!!!! I hope this one doesent to that!!!

Dont know.

Everything is good except the fact the stomp pad might go bad at some point. That is all I am worried about realy.

As mentioned, this unit is quite easy and straight forward.

At first, I was quick to dismiss DOD pedals as being too noisy and clicking when they switch. However, ever since adding the recommended 9 volt adaptor all sound problems have been alleviated. Switching is silent, and there is no fuzz present. I use a standard American Strat with a Fender princeton chorus solid state amp--no problems. This effect does give a slight drop in volume, but that is expected from a vibrato effect. Interestingly enough, this effect does not give a bad phaser effect either.

All metal. Durable plastic stomp area.

Never dealt with.

I have played semi-professional for a number of years, as well as worked as a guitar tech. for a number of professional bands. I enjoy jazz and hard rock, and that's mostly what I play. This unit is capable of some rather neat Floydish vibrato effects. I, however, prefer to use the effect as more of a phaser--when I want vibrato all I have to do is turn up the doppler. The true key to getting the perfect sound from a DOD pedal is buying and using the 9 volt adaptor. You'll be surprised how much it cleans up the sound.

The VIbrothang is quite easy to use,4 knobs:speed,depth,doppler and image.When I first started playing with it I just spent ten minutes figuring out the setting and the thing is done...
However,I think that the "doppler"knob is useless.Well,on my amp.Does anyone know what's that?I bought it used so I don't know if there was a manual or a booklet.

It's the last pedal I've bought,worth because of the low price.
I'm using it with:Gibson SG-Big Muff-DS2 boss-SD1 boss-Phase 100mxr-
BF2 boss-Small Clone-Danecho/delay-Noise supp.boss-Valvestate Marshall.
It's not very noise,I owned pedals with more noise,but I don't care too much about it because I play noise rock so....Seriously,having a noise suppressor that's not a big problem,you'd better use a battery instead of the adaptor.The vibrothang is a little weak,when you kick it treble disappear...I always have to regulate treble knob on my amp,but since I use C-tuning,that doesn't bother me.
My favorite bands are Smashing Pumpkins,SOnic Youth,Nirvana,Pearl Jam,Led Zeppelin,Hendrix,Marlene Kuntz and many other alt-rock bands.
Useful for some Pumpkins stuff and for some strange noise a la Sonic Youth.

Sometimes I take it with me for the gigs,but I use with only with clean sounds and in noiseful ends....playing with the knobs can make some of the weirdest sounds I've ever heard

As I said,I play grunge-noise-psychedelic rock and vibrato is one of my favorite effects.I tried once a VB2 boss,the best vibrato of the world,but the price was too high(300 $!!!).This one is nothing compaired to it,but the price was reasonable and the conditions were good so I bought it and I find it helpful in some way.
I hate the annoying hiss it does without a noise supp.,but the rotary speak. effect is interesting.I wish it had more gain,it could be more useful for a live show...however,if I lost it(it's very impossible that one person can STEAL it...)I'd buy another one only with a low price.

It took a few minutes to get a feel for the Doppler and Image controls. I found that if you play a sustained chord and ran the Doppler and Image knobs through their full range you could "tune in" the tone you want.

I was very pleased at the tone. I had read about this pedal in the catalogs and was intrigued by the description. The vibrato effect alone is worth the price of this effect. The phasing is very subtle but makes it FUN and INTERESTING. I didn't notice any of the noise mentioned in some other reviews. If you want this pedal's sound to really expand put a chorus in front of it(ie:Ibanez CS5). (for my experimenting I used an old MXR Distortion plus (distortion set very low) into an Ibanez CS5 Chorus, into the Vibrothang, then into a DOD FX 96 Echo, then into a Boss Tremolo/Pan, and finally into two amps, then tweek the knobs for a good sound). I'm always searching for that leslie sound I guess.

I have never had a problem with a DOD pedal. I don't "play out" or gig but I feel they are reliable. I like the update of the hinged battery door.

I bought an old American Metal at a pawn shop and the battery cover was missing. I wrote to DOD and they sent me 3 spares immediately even though they knew I got it used. Most cool!

I play classic rock, alternative, retro, and any style with a lot of tone and texture variation. I love pedals and experimenting with various tones. I have been playing for 31 years. I have a black and white Japanese Fender hardtail strat ('84?) which is great for altered tunings, a Peavey Classic 30 with 112 cabinet, and Bandit 112. I play a Peavey Dynabass as well.
I would definitely buy this pedal again. It's fun!

Very easy to use (like any other pedal). Manual is OK.

I use a strat into a whah, into an overdrive, into this pedal, into a phaser and then into a chorus, into a Fender Blues Jr amp. It is not noisy. The effect is pretty strong. It drops in volume a tad, but that is due to the vibrato swell. I can manage to get a cool Trower sound with it, which I'm quite happy about.

It's a DOD. If you treat it right. It will treat you right. I always keep the original boxes for my pedals and always keep them there.
DOD has a good waranty plan.

never dealt with DOD. never had to (see above).

I play classic rock (robin trower, SRV, Hendrix..etc) This pedal creates some cool Vibrato. I don't have tremelo on my amp so this pedal works out good. I've been playing too long, since the 70's.
I used to use a Fender Princeton Reverb that had tremelo on it, but my new amp didn't so I bought this DOD. It sounds pretty good. I only use it on a few songs and it works fine.

This was a great idea for a pedal, and I could have had many long years of getting a range of mostly relatively subtle sounds from it. However, its faults rendered it fairly much unusable for me. Fortunately I had the option of returning it, which I did promptly, with great regret that such a great idea could fall so short. I know, I've already said that. You'll soon learn to tweak it, and I've given it an extra point for the picture of the man in the concrete mixer in the manual.

Oh, dear, here we go. Firstly, this thing hisses like a bag of snakes. I know things like this usually are a bit noisy, but I use an old Ibanez flanger which I considered to be fairly noisy until I plugged in the Vibro Thang. The thing is though, it hisses all the time, even with everything turned down. True, you might not notice this when you switch it on for the middle 8 of a song down at the pub with your drummer belting away, but I wouldn't be able to use this for recording or quiet trio stuff as I was hoping. Beef number 2 - when switched on, (again, irrespective of settings) this thing gives an enormous boost in low mids, which you percieve as a volume boost. Maybe it was an attempt to make it sound warmer. You could easily get someone to reduce its volume, I imagine (as it would be to change the range of its speed control) but then it would sound weak and undefined in comparison to a dry signal. I like to run my (valve) Fender Champ 12 just around its breakup point, so if I were to switch this on - hey bingo, overdrive! Not what I'd always want. Plus if I were using it as a tremolo, the amp would be pushed into overdrive only as the volume increased each cycle - could this be the new sound for the new millenium or does it just sound crap? Don't ignore this pedal on the strength of what I say of course, but be sure to play it through your own gear (always do this if possible when trying stuff out) and see if you can put up with its shortcomings to have access to a really nice range of sounds.

I don't even kick Boss pedals.

The unwanted noise is not unavoidable - I'll go back to using a trem pedal I built for $20, which despite other limitations, delivers pure unadulterated guitar tone with volume modulation. Maybe I'll try out a Marshall Vibratrem at some stage. Maybe I just got a dud one - it sounds like it's diferent to what other people have reviewed.

This pedal is really easy to get the hang of if you are using it as a straight ahead tremelo pedal, but it takes a few more minutes to get to grips with the phase controls. At first they don't seem to do anything, and it takes a few minutes to find the sweet spot.

Using it as a simple tremolo pedal this is amazing! I love it and there are no bad sounds in it when it's being used like this, when you turn up the image and doppler controls though, you can get it to sound really dump at first, and like I said before-it takes a while to find the sweet spots with these control.

But once you do, the phasor makes it sound ten times better (even though it's a subtle change)by making the sound more 3 dimensional.
The only problem is if used with a distortion box, you notice a slight drop in volume and a cut in high end eq.
Not a problem fro me cos I only use it with clean or mildly overdriven sounds (which it sounds great with).

I've had it 3 months without a problem. It's made of chunky metal and i don't mistreat my pedals (they're my babies!). I don't see the point in using a backup cos it shouldn't really break if you look aftre it.

they're supposed to be helpful but I've never had to deal with them.

I play mainly rock music (along the lines of Smashing Pumpkins) and using it on heavy parts doesn't work for me, however, that isn't what i bought it for.
I use it on clean or nearly clean sounds to play chords or single notes, and for me it does the job perfectly. I'd definately buy it again if I lost it, broke it or had it nicked.

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.