Death By Audio Total Sonic Annihilation

no manual.
one knob. but i think its hard to use this effect.
the hard parts is to plug your cables. must have more cables because TSA is a looping effect.

i use:
guitar - TSA - amp

looping in TSA:
boss metal zone > bifmuff russia > mini danelectro tremolo > danelectro echo > boss enchancer.

it hard to get spesific sound as you wantted. even tough you use the same guitar effects. slight change on your setting in other effects can make lots of difference.

but this TSA is very noisy. full feedback if you turn on your distortion pedal.

your guitar volume can be adjust to make different sound.

a small tank.

dont know.

i played alternative sound.
i love feedback. and this TSA gives it to me.

but its expensive.

if TSA stolen, i buy TSA back.

One knob, pretty easy. the hard part is getting patch cables long enough to reach the effect loop and have your pedals in the order you want them in.

its a noise pedal, and it does its job. i have a Digitech Whammy, a MXR Carbon Copy, and a Seymor Duncan Tweak Fuzz. my amp is a Peavey vk 112 and i play with a Eastwood Highflyer. i can get some cool sounds with all that. it makes my delay go into feedback frenzies, my fuzz takes on a little bit different tone, more trebley and harsh. i dont run the TSA through the Whammy though, it sounds weird enough as it is. but it can get kind of over bearing if you set it up to high.

its built like a tank!

the shipping was as slow as molasses in January! and surprisingly, i could barely get a response out of them!

A good pedal for what is does. it wont make you sound like the sonic youth as soon as you plug it in but you can really find some awesome sounds if you are brave enough to explore!

Sorry for my broken english. This is experimental pedal, not easy to use (and it has only one knob!).

It depends. Personally, I love mine. Somebody could hate it. It is for experimentators. You can get very very strange sharp analog sounds from it, it is definitely not only for guitar, input tone can be anything. You cannot use it standalone, you must have some other effects to plug it into. It can also make input sound very lofi, I love it!

BUILD LIKE A TANK, BEAUTIFUL knob, BEAUTIFUL design. Awesome.

Author is extremely friendly. Superb customer support.

I love it. It can sound like ultrasharp analog synth, or like ultralofi anything. Great for experimental music and for all open-minded musicians. Very rare and interesting toy. For somebody this can be useless, for somebody this can be holy grail!

I found some interesting sounds early on with the TSA but had a lot of trouble recreating them a day later. Then it took a decent amount of time to really get a handle on the TSA. 2 lessons I learned that made it usable and actually allowed me to really like this pedal a lot are: 1) Be sure you are playing something- strumming chords, playing leads, anything BEFORE you hit the footswitch- this will help you avoid the ear piercing feedback that happens if you have effects on but aren't playing when you kick it on. 2) Use your guitar volume and tone knobs to control the TSA- this was a huge revelation to me and it multiplies the number of cool things you can do with this pedal.

The TSA helps create some real interesting sounds- just don't think of this pedal in terms of tone- it doesn't really have any particular "tone" per se. The TSA just enables you to create blips, scratches, static, fuzz, feedback, and general mayhem. It does not seem to degrade your signal at all- it is apparently true bypass, which is great.

There is very little to this thing- the casing is sturdy and the footswitch seems very solid. I don't anticipate problems.

This is tricky- DBA is a very small shop. The advantage is that Oliver is willing to communicate with you directly and give you advice. The flip side is he gets real busy sometimes so don't expect a response on the same day. All in all though, when he gets the time, he really does seem to demonstrate a sincere concern about your experience with his products.

The 6 looks harsh- I actually like this pedal. The reason I give it a 6 is simply that for 99.9% of guitarists, this is, at best, a non-essential pedal so spending $150 seems a bit crazy.I love making sounds so this pedal is fun to play with. I have yet to use it live but plan on doing so in a few weeks. If you are happy with your current set up and are looking to add some extreme dimension to your sound, this is a cool pedal to have. In a recording setting, this could end up being extremely handy. I could definitely live without my TSA, but I'm happy I have it.

Easy to use, if you understand that it is very dependent on the pedals running through it...no manual needed really.

As above, sound quality is dependent on other pedals...sounds good with a chorus, phase, flange, etc.

My real problem is that it is stinking expensive!!!! I've heard of another pedal that is similar, called the Krk or something, but found that it was discontinued. After a bit of searching, I found something with even more features -- http://www.indyguitarist.com/epidemic.htm I wish i woulda saw that before. half the price...ouch

Totally mechanical, so nothing electronic to mess up

don't know.

Good for feedback, and fun, but not at this price. check elsewhere, as mentioned above.

This depends on what else you're using with it. If you have a line selector pedal, which also has an in/out, send/return, you'll have to think about where you're gonna place it. You need a bit of patience & willingness to experiment.

It's made to be noisy & sound quality as pertaining to tone doesn't apply here. The more fx you loop into it the better. You need at least one distortion/overdrive unit to really get it going. I'm also looping through it with a chorus, flanger, phaser, delay, reverse delay, EHX Tube Zipper, & ring modulator. So far I've found that having a long delay/echo on severely limits the control I get with the other fx.

If you're just trying to achieve weird sounds/noises you don't even need to plug in an instrument. Conventional players may not have much use for the TSA, but if gtr-playing to you means more than songwriting, riffs, & solos, you'll have fun with it. If your favorite Floyd album is Ummagumma then you're of the ideal disposition to play with this thing.

It's solid & there's not much to it.

It's quite overpriced for what it is, but is a fairly unique pedal that most players don't have. Been playing since 1981; I play progressive rock, metal & free jazz/jamming. Needed to get away from conventional songwriting for awhile & seek other sounds & textures.

Very simple.. if you know how to operate a stove, u know this man!!!

Wow.. i was blown away by the amazing feedback mayhem it can create.. i run my GIbson LP >> Fulltone Clyde Deluxe >> DBA TSA >> Visual Sound H2O >> Fulltone Choralflange >> cheapo washburn amp (need to invest in this..) The TSA totally made my sound very big n very interesating indeed!!

yeah for sure!! no need for backup.. i will never get another pedal i already have n not for this as well..

Oliver's very nice.. he replies mails the very next day..

try it out.. it's a must get for all those who loovvvees noise... haven't seen anything quite like it before.. n it's not expensive for what it does..

I found this box easy to use. It works better with some pedals than others.

This pedal actually warms up the Flanger, and Phaser I put through it. It dosen't do much for my chorus. I agree that $150 is way too much for this box, but when I bought it a year ago, there was nothing else like it. As far as the weiner in the review below, he simply has too much time on his hands, and is unfortunately like many musicians out there, opinionated, and dumb. I also like a LED, but that's because I sing, and play lead and rhytmn guitar, and need to know what's on at a glance.

1 year, no problems at all!

Never needed it.

I really dig this pedal, I get some crazy sounds from it. Sometimes it can be out of control live, but it is great in the studio.

This pedal does not DO anything by itself; it simply allows you to induce feedback in an effects loop, and it controls how much of the signal is allowed to feed back.
How easy/hard to control this thing depends primarily on the gain and time- settings of the effects that are feeding back on themselves in the loop.
at mild settings, this can allow you simply make pedals sound "a little hot," which can be fabulous.
at wilder settings, the pedals will start to play themselves, to control of the sound is no longer in the player's hands.
somewhere in between, miracles can happen.
...at maximum settings, this pedal is useless; emitting only signal-shunt noise that is bad for amps and pedals.

again this thing does not make any sound on it's own;
the sound and behavior of the pedals in the loop determine the feedback system.
if you bought this thing as a "freak out at the touch of a button," then you likley already have some rather unstable pedals to put into this thing.
...if playing with feedback makes you think "man I need to go get more pedals to see what they do in the loop," then you are disqualified. While you're out getting more pedals, why don't you pick up more sample refills for your pirated copy of Reason 2.5 ?
if you believe that having more "variables" with which to make sound to work with makes you more creative, then you, as a "black box" musican, are not creative, but are mererly a slave to your boxes.
if you play guitar badly, having more pedals to create more combinations versions of sound will make you neither better sounding nor more creative; it will simply give you more ways to sound bad.

...in turn, if you want to "play feedback," then having more crap in the loop may offer you more combinations of "mayhem" that emerge at the push of a button...that can be good, if you know how to use feedback in an appropriate and tasteful way.

By the way, people should stop referring to this pedal as
"true bypass," because bypass has nothing to do with it.
There are no Active electronics in this pedal, hence there is no input buffer that would need to be True Bypassed.
this circuit only needs a single-pole/single-throw switch to allow/refuse the feedback loop, and the other pole on the metal switch simply turns the indicator light on/off.

I'll bet half the guitarists out there would think that is the presence of a metal pushbutton that makes a pedal true bypass.

...c'mon people, if you want to be "experimental," then you should learn the basics of the science/mechanics that we're working with.

...

at a glance, it seems reliable.
...hard metal pushbutton, aluminum case, sturdy jacks, and a circuit that's so simple you could cound the number of components involved on ONE HAND.



however (as mentioned below), given the simpliciy, there is hardly anything IN this pedal, so there is hardly anything that could go wrong IN this pedal.
...the only thing that beats this pedal in the "touch/simple" game is the old ibanez A/B/Y box (that thing is just3 jacks and a DPDT in a case...no light or battery or NOTHIN...)

by the way; why does anyone get an AC adaptor mod just to power an indicator light?... isn't that all that the power is doing?
if I'm wrong, then Oliver should speak up for himself and clarify otherwise.
...more to the point; why do people need indicator lights on a pedal that induces such extreme changes? can't people take just a moment to LISTEN to tell whether it's on or not?

some reviews suggest that Oliver is a good guy, other reviews say he's not so good.
as far as the records below, he gets a five.
on sheer principle (and the fact that you're better off building your own feedback device), Customer support does not apply.

...(as mentioned below), nobody should be selling a pedal made of less-than-$20-worth-of-pots-and-jacks as a $100+ pedal.

if you want to get ripped off that badly, just vote to re-elect Bush.

I didn't actually buy one of these... instead, I simply built my own.
I don't to give people the wrong idea; I think Oliver is a very creative/innovative person (I was really impresed with the ring mod and the sound saw), and that he makes great product, ESPECIALLY in terms of sturdy stuff that looks good.
However, a lot of the reviews (such as the one on guitargeek.com) and the reviews here seem to be selling this pedal as something that it's not.
let's just call a spade a spade, people; it's a loop feedback circuit in a box. Oliver has put it in a very stury and cute-looking box.
if that's what people want; great.
the TSA (and the effector 13 eye-of-god) should still sell for less than $50.

if people have a problem with me using this reviewing a pedal that I didn't buy (but instead made one for myself based on clues of other reviews and on my own personal know-how and experimentation), then consider this;

This is definitely not a plug and play type of pedal. It works great with some pedals, not so great with others.

I liked this pedal until I bought an Effector 13 Eye of God(EOG) pedal. The EOG is much more versatile, and is the same loop-oscillator type of pedal. The EOG is less that half the money, has more available sounds, and comes with a standard Boss style adapter plug. The Total Sonic Annhilation(TSA) pedal has 1-Potentiometer, and 1-resistor, that's all! I felt pretty ripped off to pay $150.00 (+ $35.00 for an OPTIONAL AC adapter mod from Oliver)for this pedal. The EOG has tons more sounds on tap, also, the EOG has a light-sensitive eye which will max out the oscillation, it's way cooler for less than 1/2 the $$$$.

Oliver uses good parts, and with only 1-pot, and 1-resistor, there's not much to go wrong.

Sorry Oliver, but I have to tell the truth here. I sent my TSA pedal back to it's maker, Oliver to have an AC jack installed, and to convert it to stereo. I paid I think $35.00 for the mod. I recieved the pedal a month and a half later, with only the AC jack mod done. I emailed Oliver and asked why there was no Stereo loop as I asked for, and I recieved no response. I decided to try the Effector 13 EOG, and I loved it. I sold the Death By Audio pedal on Ebay.

As far as bang for the buck, forget this one. There's no way $4.50 in parts should cost $150.00. Try rhe Effector 13 EOG for $70.00.