DOD FX96 Echo FX

Just bought this on Ebay, very easy to set up sounds from "cool rockabilly surf" to "Police" type echos and "solo" repeats.
No manual supplied or required-its a breeze DUH !.

Sounds fantastic, i have an Ibanez AD-9 and Boss DM-2, this sounds a little different but holds up very well against both of these "boutique expensive" delay pedals.
Setup is as follows: 1-Maxon CP101 compressor 2-Dod FX96 3-Jacques tubeblower 4-Marshall JMP-1-to-poweramp or mixing desk.
Quiet and doesnt "suck tone" from my Strat!!.

Dont know as its too new, built like a tank though, so i imagine there will be no problems.

Dont know yet!

This is a great bargain analog delay, the "big two" are getting way too expensive and this one is a sleeper, go buy one now!.
I've had almost every pedal out there, during 22 years as a "muso" this is my second dod, the other is the vintage 490 phasor, which is also fantastic.
Great for ambient dub to rock solo's.
It eats batteries, so use an adaptor instead, thats my only negative and is true of most analog delay pedals, so no biggie.
This will inspire you to make great "trippy" music, you can throw your digital delays in the trash, now !!.

I love this pedal.I bought it used still in the box but it was returned to Guitar Center and never used by anyone. it is very easy to use. I have the older model with the tape reel printed on it and the screwy names. regular names: (dry/tape, delay, regen, tape quality).
the screwy names:(dry/tape/echo/slap/tape quality) I have the manual and it gives a good decsription on how to use it and some user settings to get started.

I use a Hamer SP cherry flametop with seymour duncan humbuckers
into a 1965 Fender Vibro Champ. My chain is as follows: Dunlop Wah >
Reissue Big Muff PI or a ProCo Rat > Rotovibe or EH Q-Tron+ > A/DA Flanger(vintage 70's) > DOD FX 96 delay > EH Holy Grail Reverb into the amp. It is not a noisy pedal and has a great sound. I can get slapback echo or a nice warm delay to a long crazy delay. Also if you play with the tape quality knob while playing you can get some wacked out sounds. It also sounds good with all my other effects.

I definatley could depend on it any time, it is housed in a solid casing and I have dropped it a few times and it always works great. I would gig without a backup,no prob.

never used DOD customer support

Overall this pedal was everything I wanted in a delay. Sure I could spend a boat load of money on something a little better with more delay time but I don't think the boutique delays or some of the vintage holy grail delay's everyone creams about are that much better. If it were stolen I would be pissed, I love it too much to try and find another although I think I could find one and definately would get another maybe 2 more.

The controls are fairly easy once you get sued to them. Others have listed what tehy are and what they do. I love how it is possible to set this little purple box for self oscilation. Really interesting pedal.

You can not beat this for the price. It is a very nice analog delay with a very warm texture to it. Great for slapback, shorter to medium delay times, and fattening up your tone. It also does a very nice tape echo immitation that I love for different occasions when a grittier low fi echo is needed.

No problems just yet, but the footswitch could turn shoddy with extreme use. Otherwise than that, its built pretty well and the wireing is nicely done and neat too.

Never dealt with dod, but their associates over at digitech sent me free replacement knobs for my digidelay.

Just incredible for the price. You can not find a better analog delay sound for going rates of these things in the used market. Its not the best analog delay in teh world, but its very useful and nice when compared to digital delays. Also, this is not a digital delay, if you need 1+ secs of delay, don't buy this and then complain about its lack of delay time.

It took about a year and a half to get a delay that I really liked, but the layout is pretty basic

It's NOT digital, so if you want a digital delay, this is not the pedal for you, however if you want analog, this delay has a very warm sounding delay but it is no Echoplex, so the sound is a bit different and can take some time to get use to. It also sounds best when you use an AC adapter, simply because this pedal eats batteries.

Metal casing, and no problems after a year and a half or so

haven't dealt with them

even through I wish that I could get a Korg SDD-3000, this pedal is definitely a keeper, and I would replace immedately if destoryed or stolen

Here's the deal, folks. There were 2 versions of this pedal made... the orignal purple version with the tape reels painted, plus silly names for the knobs, and the later more blueish colored version with no tape reels painted around the knobs. Both versions are based around the legendary MN3005 bbd chip. This is the same chip used in the over-hyped Ibanez & Boss analog delay pedals. The maximum usable delay time with this chip is about 300-330ms before it starts sounding like POO!!! The DOD FX96 Echo FX sounds every bit as good as those over-hyped pedals in my opinion.

The original version does not have any internal trim pots to adjust the max delay time. Rather, there is a fixed 100k ohm resistor across the delay time pot. The maximum delay you are going to get out of this with the stock 100k ohm fixed resistor is about 200ms. To increase this time to the usable limit of about 300-330ms, increase the resistor value here to about 115k-117k, but no more. I personally modded mine with a 110k ohm & 5.6k ohm resistors in series here. Icreasing it more will make the max delay time go beyond the usable 300-330ms, and sound like POO!!!

The later version of the pedal has the internal trim pot I believe. With this you can adjust the max delay time beyond 300-330ms, but that is not recommended. It will sound like POO if you do.

This is the first series of the DOD FX-96 Echo FX Pedal with spooled tape paint job.

Four knobs to tweak, Dry/Tape, Echo, Slap, Tape Quality. Knobs have smooth travel with no scratchy pots. Unit is quiet when engaged (no real noticeable click.

I managed to get some cool old school echo sounds out of it right away.

Setup is Boss GT-6 Guitar Effects Processor with DOD FX-96 in the external effects loop. I play a Fender american standard telecaster. This is then stereo out into PC (home studio).

No noise with everything clean (no preamps or effects engaged).
No noise noticeable with VOX AC-30 preamp engaged.

I can get that runaway feedback sound by turning the slap and tape quality all the way up (this is why I bought it in the first place). I also own a DOD FX-90 and I noticed that the delay time is much longer on that unit. One drawback of the FX-96 is there is no potentiometrs to tweak on the inside (to increase delay and runaway feedback)like the older FX-90. I can get some far out stuff by using them together in the FX loop (AKA Radiohed, Bauhaus, Pink Floyd).

Built like a tank.
Got the FX-90 to back me up.

No thing is forever.

I emailed DOD to verify if this was a TRUE analog delay (with the Motorola chips that are not manufactured anymore). They responded promptly to verify YES and that this was the last series of their true analog delays.

There is a .pdf manual avalible for download on their site.

I've been playing for 16 years and always liked the creative uses of the analog delay. The tape quality adjustment makes this one a keeper though. I still prefer the old FX-90 due to the tweak factor and longer delay time. I will make them co-exist together! (example: FX-90 before FX-96 in loop. I would suggest grabbing one of these underated (and currently cheap) analog delays before they are impossible (and expensive) to get.

Like anything else, it takes a little time. Goof with it and learn its nuances. Hey, this ain't statistical analysis. It's a floor pedal.

It sounds as close to an old nasty Echoplex as anything you'll find for under $200. That's the point, right? If you want long delay times buy a Boss or some other digital garage door opener. This is a pedal for adults with good basic gear who fully understand its applications and limitations.

You could shoot this thing out of a cannon. However, I don't suggest washing it in the sink. You'll be fine, booby. Use a little common sense and it will out live you.

Doesn't apply.

I wanted a simple, inexpensive analog box that would do Sun Records slap-back. I've been in this for 20 years and I've learned that "less is more". P90s, tweed amps and a very few analog gizmos are sufficient. I used to be into the digital garbage, but then I learned how to play guitar. Would you slather a $40 Delmonico with ketchup? A little cracked analog pepper and you're home free...(For all of you teenage digital afficianados, a Delmonico is a steak).

You know the basic controls...see other reviews.

Here's my bone to pick. I read all these reviews looking for another delay pedal to complement my EH Deluxe Memory Man to go for the U2-ish stereo delay type thing. The effects forum people also recommended it, so I laid down the money. When I got it, I plugged it in and it sounded like crap. I love analog grit, and get a good bit from my memory man, but this was just plain awful. Whenever the delay setting was anywhere about about 400ms the echoes just turned into these caughing sounds. The pedal was decent for slapback and stuff...but gosh. FYI I run a Les Paul with Duncan pickups ('59 in neck, Alnico II Pro in bridge) into a Mesa Boogie Maverick 4x10 (all-tube, el84 class A with Jensen P10R alnico speakers) so I have a great base sound...the memory man sounds great with this setup. The FX96 confirmed my opinion that DOD pedals suck. All of 'em. Funny how no one ever sees any on professional pedalboards.

By the way, I'm a tweaker by nature...I set this pedal down 4-5 times to take a break and come back with a fresh perspective before I finally gave in and sold it for a loss. Live and learn.

seemed sturdy, boss-like construction.

Don't buy it. Heck, even the sterile Boss digital delays sound better. Buy a used DM-2 if you can't get a Memory Man.

Labeling on the "Quality" knob was a little confusing at first, but other than that, all the knobs are pretty intuitive.
It gets a "7" because turning the "MIX" knob hardly effects the sound between about 8:30 and 3:30, and it get really sensitive between minimum and 8:30 as well as between 3:30 and maximum. They could have chosen a better taper for this knob.

I use this effect downstream from a mixer which is combining signals from several vintage keyboards, including a wurly, am old korg cx-3, a clavinet, and a moog. after that the siganl goes into a fender bassman 1x14 50-W frankenstein combo from around 1968.
I had some trouble with this effect initially because it likes the less-hot guitar-level input signals. If i sent the keyboard signals full-strength, the echoes would really start to break up and distort in a harsh way, even with the "quality" knob at max. Now that i've taken care of that problem though, i think it makes some great warm sounds when the inputs are at the right level. It's got most digital delays beat because a lot of them can't seem to figure out what to do with a wacked-out moog signal and you end up with a really obviously-digital sounding echo.
It's not noticibly noisy in a live setting, haven't used it in a studio much.
I've found a use for almost every possible setting on this thing. I never thought I would use a "slap-back" sound but now i'm a believer.
Sounds a hell of a lot a Roland Space-Echo.
I'll give it an 8 though because it lacks the ability to do the "infinite repeat" thing.

Hasn't shown any problems yet. Then again, I've only had it for about half a year.

Never dealt with them.

This is a great effect if you are into warm organic analog sounds like 1970's herbie. Plus it's way cheaper than the vintage-priced DM-2's and such, and more compact than the MXR analog delay and the E-H Memory Man. Probably not the thing for you if you're into a lot of digital stuff.
I like it's overall analog character, such as being able to twist the knobs while playing into it to get that time-warp effect. Also the warm, pleasing sound it puts out.
Bad points would be awkward taper of the "MIX" knob, and it's inability to handle hotter signals.
If it were lost or stolen, i might check out a few other units but there's a good chance I'd buy the same thing again.

Quite easy to adjust, doesn't take a lot of effort to see what the controls do. The manual is adequate, but is really not needed. Just hook it up and fool with it a bit.

With a 9V battery, not very good. With a 9V power supply, not very good. BUT....
When I boosted the voltage to 13 volts using the switch on my Voodoo Labs pedal power, this unit came alive. My guess is that the design is marginal for 9 volts, some probably sound pretty good there but this one doesn't. Could be the tolerances of the components. But at 13 volts, this thing does everything any analog delay can do, and does it well. So I'm gonna rate it lower because I had to figure out how to make it sound good. C'mon DOD, you guys are missing the boat!

I use it all the time without a backup. It keeps working, even at the higher voltage, but since I'm running it on a higher voltage, maybe it will fail sooner, although I don't expect it to. But if I catch another one at the great price I got this for ($40 in box) I'll buy it and put it on the shelf for a rainy day. Check out the prices it's competitor pedals are fetching now days!

Pitiful. Got an airhead email response to a straightforward email question asking how much current it draws in mA.

I play any/every style from the '60s to the present. I've been playing 35 years. Yes I would get it again. Love the price and the way it sounds. It is very musical. Don't buy one so I can by the rest real cheap!