DOD FX32 Meat Box

I inherited this from a friend of a friend, tried it, was like, "wtf?", Googled it, figured out what the knobs did... yep. This forum helped a bunch.


: )

I've gotten some great results with this using a guitar tuned to an open C through a Fender hot Rod Deluxe. I put it behind a ZVEX Fuzz Factory which is an AWESOME pedal, but it (like many distortion pedals) cuts the low end from your guitar, and... holy ******** ****, man!!

It sounds like what I would imagine a frigging T-Rex growl sounds like. I worry about my amp a bit with the depths this thing produces, but it is an amazing, earth-rattling, phlegm-loosening thing of pure beauty.

Well... I got this free so I can't complain, but the switch is totally bunk. I just leave it "on" and unplug it when I'm not using it, because it takes me stomping the living **** out of it to switch from on to off.

DEFINITELY for recording and not gigging.

I play experimental Indie Rock (with this pedal anyway) a la Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, Neutral Milk Hotel, Pavement, but I imagine it would be great for blues and metal too. I've been playing and recording for about two decades now. I own a lot of second-hand, bootleg, ******* up instruments (too many to name) and a couple fancy-ish ones too.

I will probably replace this if (when) it dies, but I wouldn't pay more than like... 30 bucks or so. Well, it does sound pretty badass... maybe I'd go as high as 40.

Very Easy to use. The knobs are named in a quirky way, which adds to the character of the pedal - but may make it confusing to use if you do not have the manual (which explains the pedal's functions very clearly).

The Controls are:

MEAT: Blend between regular sound and sub sound
RUMP: SUB Frequency cut/boost (30Hz)
FLANK: Bass cut/Boost (60Hz)
LBS: Overall Level

I have just got this pedal so have not been able to try it out fully. I have only played it through my 15w practice amp in my house. I will use it at band practice and update my reveiw at a later date.

I beleive this is intended for bass guitar but I use it with my guitar tuned down to B. I tend to play heavy, groovy riffs and bluesy leads.(stuff like Electric Wizard, Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, Sleep).

The pedal can be used for a few different sounds. The way I set it is a more subtle setting (Meat knob at 11 o' clock) which just really thickens up my guitar sound. It kinda smoothes out the high end and adds heaps of bass. It almost sounds as if the guitar is doubled or something. Great for super heavy Doomy riffs and really fattens up the sound when playing on the higher strings.

With the 'Meat' knob turned past 12 o' clock you can get more of an octaver type sound. When the Meat knob is near max you can get some 'bass synth' type sounds.

When the meat knob is turned up the gain of the original signal is reduced so you would have to compensate for that on the amp or with and OD pedal.

DOD pedals seem to be really solidly built (They are much heavier than Boss pedals). I have heard bad things about the reliabilty of the switches and battery covers but havn't had any problems with any of mine yet.

As said before I have not fully tested this pedal at high volumes in a band situation. It will probably sound totally different when going through big speakers at high volume (hopefully just more of the same!). At the moment this would seem to be perfect if you wanna thicken up your sound and round it out.

I dont know if it will be an esential part of my setup yet or if it is irreplacable. It seems like it would be a pretty usefull tool to have if you were recording and wanted to thicken something up a bit.

FYI, there is alot of confusion on what this pedal is. I have seen several people call it a distortion box or a bass boost pedal. To set the record straight, this is NOT a distortion box or just a bass boost!!! It is a Sub-harmonic generator, period! The confusion comes from the fact that most of the used pedals have no manual included with them, and DOD's website does not have the manual. I have the manual, and it clearly states it is a Sub-harmonic effect made specially for Bass guitar.
The controls:
Meat = blend knob between dry signal and sub-harmonic. 12 oclock setting is 50/50 mix.
Rump = 30Hz boost. You can't really hear this, you really just feel it. Its what this pedal is all about, adding chest thumping meat to your tone.
Flank = 60Hz boost. Adds a bunch of bass to your tone, but use sparingly, it can muddy things up too much.
LBS = Volume

First off, you really have to have a semi decent bass amp to actually get this thing to work. It generates very low subharmonics, but on a cheap 20watt amp it may sound like a buzz, it needs big speakers and power to come across. On a bass amp of at least 100 watts with the MEAT control at 12 oclock it will definitly add thumpage and ultra low end to your tone. I normally have RUMP (30Hz) maxed out and FLANK at 2 oclock for a perfect boost in low end. For a really subtle sub harmonic enhancment I put MEAT at 10-11 oclock. If you push MEAT past 12 oclock your dry signal starts to drop off quite fast and all you are left with is the sub harmonic signal which does not sound that great by itself on the E and A strings becuase it is not perfectly defined, but works OK as a Synth type bass on the higher strings.
This box really shines in live situations through a really powerful amp (300w+) or through a powerful PA with a SUB. With MEAT at 12 oclock and RUMP boosted you will just shake the entire building. It does not seem to work as well with direct recording. The box really seems to need to go through a big speaker to reach its potential. It will make even the cheasiest cheap ass bass sound enormous and fat. Well worth it if you can find one.

This is a follow-up to my previous posting. I spent more quality time with the Meat Box and found that it indeed generates subharmonics (doh).

The problem is connected to the Meat knob. Turning it up reduces direct level, but until 12:00 o'clock, adds no subharmonics. So to have some subharmonics, you have to turn it up to 1:00 o'clock and at that point, the direct level is severely reduced. You can compensate a bit by turning up Rump and Flank, but then the noise level increases a lot.

This effect is hard to understand. You might think "it's got four knobs, is this guy retarded?" No, I'm not - it's hard to understand because most of the knobs (Meat, Rump, Flank and LBS) are interactive. Changing one changes the effect of the other ones, too.

I did some signal analysis and will dispel some of the myths surrounding the Meat Box. Enjoy.

Here we go with the myths:

Myth 1: The Meat Box is a subharmonic synthesizer or octaver. Wrong. It doesn't generate subharmonics.

Myth 2: Meat is the mix of wet and dry signals. Wrong. Meat sets the level of the effected signal, but even when turned to 5 o'clock (which ironically removes the effected signal), a small part of the original signal can be added using the LBS knob. On the other hand, turning the LBS knob down (to 7 o'clock) removes all of the signal. Maybe LBS is the "real" output knob, who knows.

Myth 3: The Meat Box can only boost frequencies. Wrong. Both Rump and Flank are neutral when set to 12 o'clock. When turned to the left, lower parts of the signal are cut.

Myth 4: Rump is a 30 Hz EQ, Flank is a 60 Hz EQ. Wrong. Rump affects signals up to ~200 Hz, Flank affects signals up to 400-500 Hz.

Myth 5: The Meat Box is a distortion. Wrong. Only when you turn Rump and/or Flank past the 3 o'clock position, the unit will distort - depending on the signal levels. Flank distorts at lower levels than Rump.

So, after all, as it is only a highly interactive EQ, what is the sound quality? It's very silent, not noisy at all. The switch is a bit noisy. That's it.

I have read the reviews of people thinking it's an octaver. It's not.

DOD switches stink. They are unreliable. The battery door is, well, poorly engineered, but works if present. The casing and the pots are solid.

Here are two settings that I developed:

Bypass: This thing always sucks a bit of trebles when on, but the best "bypass" setting I found is Meat: 7 o'clock Rump: 12 o'clock Flank: 12 o'clock (both neutral) LBS: 3 o'clock.

Low-end-boost: Meat: 7 o'clock Rump: 3 o'clock Flank 9 o'clock LBS: 3 o'clock.

As always, if you steal this review, please mention where you got it from, thanks.

Turning knobs in different combinations is not hard. How some people have trouble with this...

Its just so weird. This thing is from another planet, it sounds like your equipment is broken in a very cool way. I'm not sure exactly what DOD was going for here, but this thing is definitely fun to play with. It may not be very practical, but who cares? I've played it with guitar, and heard bass through it. It sounds crazy with guitar, and like a kind of overdrive or gain boost on the bass. It would probably sound more bad-ass with the bass if I hadn't been using a trebly guitar amp...

Seems very solid.

??? I've heard DOD are easy to deal with, but never have myself...

I think this thing is awesome! I can understand that some people might get it and then be all like "what the fuck??". I like weird noises though, and this thing makes primo weird noises.

It really comes in handy having a manual. Without one, it may take you quite a while to dial it in. The Pedal uses goofy labels just like most DOD pedals of the mid 90's -Poop, Fart, Spurt, Push, Oops wrong pedal :-P. Anyway the knobs are; Meat -Blend, Rump -30Hz EQ, Flank 60Hz EQ, and Lbs -Volume. This pedal pedal sounds quite good even with the Meat/Blend knob at 0 because of the great lowend eq boost it can give to 30Hz and 60Hz. Quick and dirty low end booster pedal for bass. But if you add a bit of the Sub harmonic content by upping the Meat/Blend towards 50/50 or 12 oclock, you get a big low end boost of "feel" to the bass.

I really like this pedal cause I can get a real fat meaty sound fairly easy. I usually use the Meat/Blend knob at 12 because on the lower strings A and E, and even B on a 5 string it can have some small tracking issues, not bad just a bit. Having the blend about 50/50 keeps the sub tracking errors hidden. This effect is more felt than heard so this is really not a problem. This is where this effect really shines, with an amp/PA that can handle it, it can really rumble a room. I also use this pedal alot when I am doing short staccatto funky lines on the E and A string. I turn the Meat knob up a bit more to 1 oclock and boost the Lbs/volume. The bass then almost sounds like it is doubled with a low tuned bass drum, lots of kick. However I have to keep the notes fairly short or the tracking issues are heard. So if I need to play some sustaining notes I just kick it off for those. One the higher notes it really sounds much like other Octave pedals, great dubbling effect, when playing the D string it sounds like you are also playing the E string, really full sounding. This pedal really shines on the lower strings though, other octave pedals can't track at all on the notes this one can. The use of a compression pedal really works well with this pedal. The pedal also has 2 outputs; dry and effected. These are nice because I like to run Distortion on the dry signal, since distortion can get a bit crazy with the sub harmonic signal. But there are uses for that too, it can do some cool noisy buzzbox crazyness when combined with Distortion on the effected output.
As a couple of the other reviewers stated this pedal works well also on regular guitar. I love it on my drop C tuned Tele. I turn the Meat knob to 3 oclock and boost Lbs and it is great for rumbly note runs.

DOD

DOD

Probably my favorite Bass pedal. Really makes my pedal stand out of the mix, and does exactly what the pedal says; Adds Meat to your sound.

This was really meant for bassists, but I use it for my 7-string guitar. It's pretty simple once you get past the stupid names for each parameter.

In conjunction with the Ibanez SM-7, it creates some deadly low frequencies, so be careful not to damage your amp. It really fattens up the low end on my 7. It really takes some tweaking to get this effect mixed properly.

I haven't used it live yet. But it's in a metal casing, so it should take somewhat of a beating.

Haven't dealt with them directly. Although I WON'T pay $5 for a manual (I won this off of Ebay.)

Overall, I wouldn't buy this thing again, as it is quite subtle for a guitars range (it cuts out past open G). Nonetheless, it's fun to have just to kick around. I'M A STOMPBOX JUNKIE, so take my advice for what it's worth.
Peace.

Very Easy. Preset Suggestions don't work for my setup.

Using Strat W/ SD Hot Rails & Lil 59. 64 Fender Bassman. Marshal 25th 2x12. Little noisy. Kind of choppy. Doesn't deal with decaying notes well. This is no harmonizer. Haven't tried to get any particular artist's tone. I found best results running the meatbox into one half of the amp at 2, running the dry out through a distortion then into the other half of the amp at 7. Really does add a lot of punch, fatten and widen out the tone. But, sounds better undistorted and when the main guitar sound is masking it a bit. Very nice that the octave effect really fades out above the G string.

Very Reliable.

Haven't dealt with co.

This pedal does exactly what you'd expect for a product in its price range. Not a harmonizer. Not a synth. Used the right way, can really fatten up your tone and give it some BAM. Maybe would buy again. Wish it could perfectly octave the guitar. Chips these days should be able to handle decaying notes without chopping around. -Playing for a couple years, own distortion, delay, compressor, noise gate. Helps the sound. Chose it b/c it was what they had, and it was in my price range.

Well, it's a stompbox, so it's not really that hard, but getting a good sounds will take you a while. The "Meat" control will give you the hardest time (that's the amount of sub-harmonic signal vs. dry), the "Rump" and "Flank" are just extended low-range EQ, and "Lbs." is the output. The suggested setups in the manual are crap, but they usually are. Speaking of the manual, there is a typo, in the Operation section, it calls the "Meat" knob the "More" knob, which isn't that big of a deal, but goes with what I've been saying all along; their knob names are stupid and should just say what they do.

The sounds is pretty good, once you get what you want. I was a little confused when I bought it, because I didn't exactly know what it did, but it was cheap and I had the receipt in case I wanted to return it. It does really give a low end boost with a good amount of distortion, but I've never liked distortion on bass anyway. You can cut out the distortion, and just give your low frequencies a punch, which is pretty cool. I usually just put it on when I want to be especially heard, like for a solo or a bass lead song. It sounds great on Fire by Hendrix. I'm using a fretless Fender Jazz through a Peavy TNT 130, and the noise is pretty unnoticeable, but there is a little thump when you switch (which you can't hear when everyone else in the band is playing).

I love stomp boxes, (multis usually feel so.. dinky) and this is a sturdy box. It's made of solid metal, with a plastic switch which can take a surprising amount of abuse. It's my first DOD and it's holding up well.

I've never had to call them.

I play a lot of rock, metal and blues, and this pedal goes well with a couple of the songs I play. I think I would only buy it again if I could get it for the same price or less, I wouldn't pay any more than I did. (I got it for 30 bucks which is pretty good for a new stomp box, I guess they were having a big close out on DODs.) It's a good effect, but somewhat limited.