EMMA RF-1 ReezaFRATzitz

I got this with a huge lot of 15 pedals I recently bought - and I was amazed at the quality of the sound. This is a heck of a pedal.m 4 knobs - the Biascan't possibly do what it say sit does (I mean Class A or AB is in the amp not in the pedal) but I have tube amps that switch between Classs A and AB and guess what - it sounds just like it says it does. How do they do that?

I have a half dozen overdrives, Fuzz pedals and Distortions, Ibanez Tube Screamers, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Boss SD-1, Sabine FuzzStortions (love it) Big Muff and an Octave Fuzz and this one really impresses me. It hasa ton of gain but really hangs onto the individual notes - like cranky the bejeesus out of a VOX AC-30. I am a bigfan of Indie Hard Rock like the Foo Fighters and this pedal provides major crunch without devolving into that overcompressed type of distrtin I hate (sorry Steve Vai and Eric Johnson fans). I used an Expolorer with Gibson Sonex pickups and my Wayne's World Strat - it handled both of those guitars well running into my little dual 6V6 Fender tube combo. It sounds like it is pushing the output tubes without overrgaining the 12AX7 - though I don't know how. And like a good Overdrive, when you roll off the guitar volume it keeps the tonal clarity and upper frequencies but just backs off on the gain (ala Jim Hendrix playing Little Wing live). Bravo to Emma.

Seems well made. It's a metal box with a good solid feel.

Can't say.I just picked it up. But Emma is probably a small operation.

I like deistortions and ovedrives that maintain the sound of the guitar - ths pedal does that - and still provides hair raising amounts of gain. I can't wait to try it with my Les Paul. For my style and taste it is a very good option.

The Emma ReezaFRATzitz is easy to use. Four knobs. Level, Tone, Bias and Gain. The Bias turns clockwise from an Class AB (say more modern sound) to class A (little more vintage-style, like an AC30 on steroids). You can fatten up your sound with the Bias-knob turned to 1 o'clock and up. Lots of gain, you can go from crunch tot enormous amounts of gain.

First, my setup: emma discumbobulator, toadworks meat dual boost, vox wah, emma reezafratzitz, original ibanez ts-9, original ibanez pt-9 phaser, old boss ce3 chorus, boss bf2 flanger,original ibanez ad9 delay, carl martin trem-o-vibe. into: Orange Rockerverb 50 (6v6's) head , 2x12 cab or Hughes & Kettner Statesman quad combo (el84's.) Main guitars: Fender american series telecaster with john suhr-pickups and MXG superstrat with bareknuckles-hss-set.

Anyone saying The Reezafratzitz is a bad or mediocre pedal is either deaf or has a cheap guitar/amp. This is by far out the best distortion pedal i've ever played and i played a lot of boutiquegear, like fulltone, t-rex, radial tonebone, keeley etc. This pedals delivers gobs of gain and sustain, but keeps note separation. It's a very clear pedal. The lowgain-settings are happening as well and this pedal works great with the guitarvolumeknob. You can go from crunch to blistering plexichords or fluid/searing leadtones. In combination with a wah it is awesome. Very musical pedal with a lot of headroom. This one fattens up your single-coil axes. With my tele i have a serious leadtone. This pedals has so much gain, more then you'll ever need. I keep mine round 11 or 12 o'clock. This pedal delivers the goodies in front of your cleanchannel as well.

Friends of mine, all guitarplayers, who heard the massive brown sound of the reeza, ordered immediately this pedal and sold their old pedals. It's that convincing tonal quality. So is say: spread the word!

Handbuild in Denmark. Like a tank. No problems.

Didn't need any support so far.

Outstanding nontube distortionpedal. Lots of quality tones, very dynamic and versatile. Soloing makes more fun with the Reezafratzitz. Never gonna sell this red baby. If you're still searching for an exquite distortion/overdrive-pedal, check out this one!

Even a guitarist can figure this out!

The guy below me rated this pedal poorly. Obviously he knows nothing about sound. I have tons of overdrive/distortion boxes(a lot of good tube one's)but I keep coming back to this one because of the sound. If you want a sound like Warren Martini from Ratt gets with his Marshall this pedal will do it! It also goes into VOX territory. The bias knob is unique in that you can really fatten the sound by turning it clockwise. And I have a Bad Monkey which sounds dead compared to the Reeza! They also have a heavy metal pedal in the works that I may have to pick up. You can buy this through Musicians Friend and you can return it if you don't like it but I'll bet you won't! Check out the sound clips on Musicians Friend. There's some good ones on Youtube too.

I've had mine 3 years and not a problem yet.

I'm not sure but if it's half the quality of this pedal no problem!

I'd like to give this pedal a 10 but I'm guessing there's something better out there although it can't be much better-this pedal is close to perfect!

4 knobs.. even a 4 year old kid could figure it out quickly. The only gripe was, accessing the battery. (which i don't use, since i use a power supply for my pedals)

Using it with an RG321 & RG470 ibanez, equipped with Dimarzio pickups & marshall 8040 amp. First of all, i find it really quite for a high gain pedal. BUT..The sound-quality is very solidstate-ish no matter how you tweak the knobs, very boomy bass & mids sounded artifical -> so the price = sound quality isn't equal & fair at all to begin with. I even tried placing an OD pedal in front of it but it still didn't sound right.

If you already heared or owned quality pedals such as barber small fry (which costs approx. half the price of this pedal) or maxon rod881.. you will be disappointed with this pedal.

The build quality is great, neat & looks durable.

Never dealt with Emma Electronics yet.

This is an overrated & overpriced pedal. I'm really disappointed, sold it after 2 days of thorough testing on my rig. Even a cheap OD-3 boosted by a tubescreamer or bad monkey could beat this anytime.

Pretty easy to use. It may require a bit of tweaking, but only because it's very versatile. The Bias knob is subtle, but very cool.

This is about as good as it gets for distortion pedals... easily one of my favorites. The RF-1 produces very amp-like distortion at all gain settings. The amount of gain available in the RF-1 is pretty amazing. I've managed to find settings that provide tight and heavy tones, without being mushy or buzzy. There's also a healthy amount of bass produced by the pedal as well... enough that it required me to turn down the bass on my amp. Turning the gain knob up past 3 o'clock produces a bit of hiss/noise, but certainly not a displeasing amount.

I've tried it with a Mesa Boogie Single Recto, a SansAmp Trademark 10, a Carvin Legacy, and A Marshall JCM 2000. It sounds great through every amp EXCEPT the Marshall... don't get me wrong, it sounded good with the Marshall. However, with each of the other three amps, I was able to dial in a variety of awesome tones. Since I don't own a Marshall, this really isn't a big deal for me.

The pedal seems very well constructed. I've used it on many gigs and in many rehearsals without a backup, and it's been great every time.

I play mostly rock and metal, and the RF-1 is a great fit for me. I've owned it for about 6 months, and it's been used every day since I got it. It's one of two distortion pedals on my board, and I'm sure it'll stay there for a long time. It's a fairly expensive distortion pedal, but you get what you pay for, and then some. So yes, I'd buy it again if I had to.

Very easy to use pedal and difficult to get a bad sound - reacts well with other pedals

Excellent sound quality, voicing a touch on the bright side but that could be a reflection of the tone settings on my Mesa DC5 - either way it's easy to tame by rolling off some of the top end. Lots of level boost available and a wide range of overdrive. The bias pot is the killer taking the sound from a cranked Marshall to fat AC30esque sound at the twist of a knob. Defintiely one of the best "valve" sounding overdrives I've come across. Gets a touch noisy at higher gain settings but what doesn't

Very solid build, lovely "damped" feel to the pots, nice understated build but.....

Mine developed a modulating background noise when the bias pot was turned fully clockwise, backing off this pot reduced the modulating sound with hiss...the problem seems to be a bit intermittent but at the minute, despite really liking the pedal it just isn't going to stay on my board...see below.

I suspect what's happening is a rarity so I'm still giving a reasonable score for reliability

This is where the biggest problem lies - I've emailed Emma twice about this issue and received zilch response which is really disappointing, so much so that it puts me off buying any of thier other pedals, or even replacing the Reeza

I play rock / fusion / proggy type things and have been at it for 30 years. I would think twice about replacing as I don't believe the customer support is there, which is a great shame as I love the pedal.
Unfortunately due to this problem I am on the way to replacing the pedal with an Xotic BBPre

Easy to use. good sound. still not a tube overdrive though. The difference between the class A and AB sounds is modest. The manual is unnecessary to get the sound you want--just get to know your pedal.

i am using a 60's Supro Model 24 with a US Masters guitar. This pedal worked okay with them, but i ended up trading the pedal for a Bad Cat 2-tone. Not that the pedal was noisy--just a little weak in the areas that i needed a real strong tone. I traded it in because i was low on cash, and the store i bought it from gave me a great resale price. despite all this, when i have the cash i will purchase a new one--i have confidence in the pedal, and will use it for color later.

well made. i dont have to say anything more.

play hard rock/metal/fusion and this pedal is good for coloring a sound. not as strong sounding as some people say, but solid. I had to sell my old one and still plan on buying another when i can, just to have as part of my lineup. and, they are known as good pedals. they hold their resale value. this may not be important to you, but it is noteworthy.

This is basically an overdrive-distorion pedal. So it is very easy to use and get the best out of it. If you are familiar with the effects pedals, you won't have any difficulties using RF-1.the manual is a one page of paper with some sound ideas. But it is better to create your own sounds.

EMMA RF-1 ReezaFRATzitz is by far the best distorion pedal I've ever used and heard. I've used Japanese DS1s, Tonebones, Marshalls, T-Rexes but none of them even come close to Reeza while creating both hi gain and crunch tones. I am playing behind an indie rock artist and the clarity of Reeza is extraordinary. It is possible to get drive sounds like modern day bands such as Editors, Mute Math etc; also high gain solo stuff such as Andy Timmons and Guthrie Govan. So this pedal is versatile. I am using a '94 Les Paul and a '72 Fender Mustang with a 14 year old Peavey Classic 30. DD3 is for the delays and an old OD3 is for boosting.

I really think i can depend on it. As long as you respect your equipment, it will last longer. Reeza is a hand made pedal so it is made of high quality products. It has a steel body, 4 retro knobs and a high quality switch. I use it without a back up on tours.

I bought mine directly from the pedal's builder himself. I have his own mail and I believe he will be helpful with my problems.

I play mostly indie and alternative music. Also funk and main stream rock or blues is the kind I'm in. Reeza is a good match for these styles. I've been playing for 17 years now. If it were stolen or lost I would definitely buy it again. Mine is the 109th copy of all Reezas built. It has the builders's hand writing in the box. I love the clarity, versatility and boutique factor of Reeza.

This is an update to my review after about six months of use and a number of gigs. Easy to use. Bias knob is really cool and perfect for what I wanted the pedal to do. Knobs are easy if you know what you want to do with them. I set the level on this pedal to match the amp level, tone around 11 or 12 o clock, Bias all the way clockwise to the Class A setting and gain hovers around 9 -10 o'clock for me.

You can read below for my setup. I wanted this pedal to add pleasing overdrive grit and crunch to my amps clean channel. It nailed it!! Very crunchy with an SG and really pleasing with my tele. I play in a cover band and I needed a good AC30 type clarity OD. I don't use it as a high gain pedal. I have tried some high gain stuff like a Ramones song with it and I did not care for the tone. This may also be an effect of the clean channel EQ setting I use so I will give the pedal a break on that one.

I will give you another example. The song by the Romantics "What I like about you". The guitar intro kind of clean with a little grit. I increase the level on this pedal and drop the gain setting slightly from the above settings and reduce my guitar volume and bingo there is the cranked Fender or VOX gritty clean tone.

No problems. I don't bring backup pedals. Not noisy unless you max the gain.

No contact with EMMA.

I love the pedal. I have only experience with the Boss DS-1 which is terrible compared to this. I have a TS9DX which I use as a solo and gain boost. I prefer this pedal over the tube screamer for adding light to medium distortion. Indie and pop rockers would love this pedal in front of a clean tube amp.

Gotta love the name. Made in Denmark. It's fairly straight forward if you've ever used a distortion pedal The manual is one page and provides some sample settings but i never rely on them anyway. Everyone's setup is always different and changing one of the slightest things will make it differ. ie, change your string type on a guitar and you will obtain different tones so i tend not to look at sample settings. The neat part about this pedal is the bias control. It allows you to obtain a number of different sounds (amp characteristics) . It's like 10 distortion boxes in one.

I don't find the pedal noisy at all. I have played an artillery of distortion/OD pedals in my 16 years of playing and have to say this is one of my fav's to date that i'd never heard of. It is a great high gain distortion without sounding too compressed or tinny in comparison to crap BOSS pedals. Don't get me wrong, BOSS make some wonderful little pedals but should truly give up making OD and Distortion boxes. Why do you think everyone mods them. I firmly believe you could cover a wide variety of genre's with this pedal. I play mainly indie rock, post rock and works flawlessly. You can dial back the gain and have a very wonderful OD or push it up to around 2-3 o'clock and she just sings as a high gain pedal. It meshes well with other pedals also.
Currently my setup is: Gibson 61 reissue SG>Octave>Fulldrive2>Reeza>Boss DD-6>Ernie ball volume>59 Bassman

I find this pedal truly amazing with the Fulltone FD-2 driving the input. I use the FD-2 as my overdrive then kick in the Reeza for some sweet high gain.

You can gig this without a backup for sure. Does anyone really bring extra pedals to a gig? I thought that was only true of guitars and if your back can handle it, an extra amp.

So far i haven't had to deal with them.

I believe this is one of the best boutique, handwired pedals i've come across. People often stray away from Boutique pedals due to their price tag but if it's going to improve your sound and tone, what's an extra $100 to make you sound great and keep you wanting to plug in!
I've been playing and gigging for around 16 years. I would buy another if it were stolen which would suck because it's on my pedal board which means they would probably steal it all!
Here are some of the other Distortions/OD's i've used over the years:

Boss DS-1 = crap unless you have it modded
Boss Metal Zone= the most trebly piece of crap you'll ever come across
Boss Blues Driver = one of Boss's better OD's
Marshall JCM 2000 distortion = pretty decent
Maxon OD-9 = Very nice indeed, better than the reissue TS-9's
Big Muff= a great pedal but too fuzzy for me
Coron Distorion 15= awesome, wish i could find this relic. It's similar to a MXR distortion +
Fulltone FD-2= the best OD ever made in my opinion