Effector 13 Never Drive

Yes, I think this pedal is underrated, and the main reason is its difficult to use. Unless you get really very inspired by noisy sitar-like fuss (yes, not just fuzz), it's almost unusable pedal alone, so you can tweak it as much as you want, you won't get really that far from the sound samples you can hear around. To understand the true potential of this pedal you have to try it in combination with other pedals.
Anyway, it's got two pots, Volume and Texture. The latter is, well, kinda operates something in the inner gate/gain/compression, it's a little bit complicated to explain. And there is a binary switch, that ingages a noisy auto-oscillation.

Yes, I gave it a 8. I don't know how much this is different to any other fuzzy ring modulator, but that's what I was looking for - a source of interesting and usable sounds, not just crazy farts. As I've already said, this pedal on its own is very weird, and you really have to look for THAT kind of sound to love it. This pedal was originally bought for the bassist, but it didn't react well with very low sounds, so I tried it in my chain. Its right place should be between two distorsions, that's where I find it special. I play

Feder Strat USA 2002
Koch Multitone 50W (Head+cabinet) and in its loop
Ibanez WD7 > Luca Carelli Viking > Effector13 NeverDrive > Keeley's 3 way Rat > Boss Bf-2 > Indyguitarist/BigLloyd Deelayer Delay (!!!) > Catalinbread Semaphore

When I activate the Carelli before the ND, it powers up it's octave tones, be careful you have to raise the distorsion's volume or drive a bit to get the good effect. That's the way to get a wondeful ring mod, with an incredible sustain and a nice growl as you use bass notes. Still a bit uneasy to use it with chords, but very nice anyway - cripsy sounding. When I activate the Rat, I find the ND to add a wonderful touch to the attack, mainly on bass notes, but it depends on the settings of the ND.
I usually use it with Volume just before 9 and Texture almost at maximum (like at 4 o'clock). But all those nitty gritty tweakers out there can have great fun with this, indeed.

Unfortunately I haven't found a way to use the self-oscillation you get with the switch. I'm not such a noise fanatic at the moment, but you'd never know. The fact is that you cannot change its pitch in any way, and it picks up only a few notes in all the guitar (perhaps a question of frequency).

I don't like giving top marks, but what can I say? the plugs are very high grade ones (really), the PCBoard is covered with isolating tape to prevent any kind of problem, the switch is top quality. Oh, and the red LED is soooo powerful...

I've got histories with this pedal. I won an auction on ebay for one of those limited runs of custom pedals that Devi @Effector13 sometimes did, called the Aenima. My bassist and I got almost fell in love with the sound samples (oh, well, and with its name, that reminded us of the great Tool's album), so after 6 attempts, we finally placed the right bid and paid a hundred dollars (with shipment) a few days later. After a couple of weeks (that's about the time it usually takes for a parcel to arrive from the US to Italy, where I live) we e-mailed him for news - he said he was very busy, and the pedal would have arrived very soon. Two more weeks and e-mails, and we finally got to know that the Aenima project had come to a premature end, and he would have given us one of his standard pedals plus total refund. One more week to explain that I wanted two new pedals instead of the refund (I would have used the money for that anyway!), the ND and the Soda Meiser (see review soon). 3 months and a half between the purchase and the arrival of the pedals. I know he must have been busy, he had an automated response system when I e-mailed him, and answered every weekend. I've just been a bit unlucky. I mean, only a few people in this world would offer full refund plus a new pedal.

It's not a easy pedal, and it's not a pedal for everyone. If you like to experiment, this might be a nice way to get YOUR sound, as I'm trying to do now. You will need other pedals, this is only a sauce, not the full dish of pasta, so it can improve an already good setup, not turn normal effects into boutique pedals. Forget about using it with your Danelectros or Dods! I use it with the Carelli Viking (what-a-magic) and a Keeley Rat (the name is more than enough), very high grade distorsions, that can afford to interact with other devices.
In the end: give it a try, it will catch you up - and don't ever let Trent Reznor know about it.

Yes, I think this pedal is underrated, and the main reason is its difficult to use. Unless you get really very inspired by noisy sitar-like fuss (yes, not just fuzz), it's almost unusable pedal alone, so you can tweak it as much as you want, you won't get really that far from the sound samples you can hear around. To understand the true potential of this pedal you have to try it in combination with other pedals.
Anyway, it's got two pots, Volume and Texture. The latter is, well, kinda operates something in the inner gate/gain/compression, it's a little bit complicated to explain. And there is a binary switch, that ingages a noisy auto-oscillation.

Yes, I gave it a 8. I don't know how much this is different to any other fuzzy ring modulator, but that's what I was looking for - a source of interesting and usable sounds, not just crazy farts. As I've already said, this pedal on its own is very weird, and you really have to look for THAT kind of sound to love it. This pedal was originally bought for the bassist, but it didn't react well with very low sounds, so I tried it in my chain. Its right place should be between two distorsions, that's where I find it special. I play

Feder Strat USA 2002
Koch Multitone 50W (Head+cabinet) and in its loop
Ibanez WD7 > Luca Carelli Viking > Effector13 NeverDrive > Keeley's 3 way Rat > Boss Bf-2 > Indyguitarist/BigLloyd Deelayer Delay (!!!) > Catalinbread Semaphore

When I activate the Carelli before the ND, it powers up it's octave tones, be careful you have to raise the distorsion's volume or drive a bit to get the good effect. That's the way to get a wondeful ring mod, with an incredible sustain and a nice growl as you use bass notes. Still a bit uneasy to use it with chords, but very nice anyway - cripsy sounding. When I activate the Rat, I find the ND to add a wonderful touch to the attack, mainly on bass notes, but it depends on the settings of the ND.
I usually use it with Volume just before 9 and Texture almost at maximum (like at 4 o'clock). But all those nitty gritty tweakers out there can have great fun with this, indeed.

Unfortunately I haven't found a way to use the self-oscillation you get with the switch. I'm not such a noise fanatic at the moment, but you'd never know. The fact is that you cannot change its pitch in any way, and it picks up only a few notes in all the guitar (perhaps a question of frequency).

I don't like giving top marks, but what can I say? the plugs are very high grade ones (really), the PCBoard is covered with isolating tape to prevent any kind of problem, the switch is top quality. Oh, and the red LED is soooo powerful...

I've got histories with this pedal. I won an auction on ebay for one of those limited runs of custom pedals that Devi @Effector13 sometimes did, called the Aenima. My bassist and I got almost fell in love with the sound samples (oh, well, and with its name, that reminded us of the great Tool's album), so after 6 attempts, we finally placed the right bid and paid a hundred dollars (with shipment) a few days later. After a couple of weeks (that's about the time it usually takes for a parcel to arrive from the US to Italy, where I live) we e-mailed him for news - he said he was very busy, and the pedal would have arrived very soon. Two more weeks and e-mails, and we finally got to know that the Aenima project had come to a premature end, and he would have given us one of his standard pedals plus total refund. One more week to explain that I wanted two new pedals instead of the refund (I would have used the money for that anyway!), the ND and the Soda Meiser (see review soon). 3 months and a half between the purchase and the arrival of the pedals. I know he must have been busy, he had an automated response system when I e-mailed him, and answered every weekend. I've just been a bit unlucky. I mean, only a few people in this world would offer full refund plus a new pedal.

It's not a easy pedal, and it's not a pedal for everyone. If you like to experiment, this might be a nice way to get YOUR sound, as I'm trying to do now. You will need other pedals, this is only a sauce, not the full dish of pasta, so it can improve an already good setup, not turn normal effects into boutique pedals. Forget about using it with your Danelectros or Dods! I use it with the Carelli Viking (what-a-magic) and a Keeley Rat (the name is more than enough), very high grade distorsions, that can afford to interact with other devices.
In the end: give it a try, it will catch you up - and don't ever let Trent Reznor know about it.

Easy to use. two knobs, Level and Texture. The level knob controls volume, and there is a 20db boost to tune in if you wish to crank the front end of your amp. There are basically two sounds in this pedal, with lots of in-between settings, controlled by the Texture knob.

I am using this pedal with a warmoth frankenstrat into a Traynor YCV40WR. This pedal is said to be noisy in SOME settings, and it is certainly noisy in mine. With the Texture knob set to either extreme right or left, it picks up a radio station (oldies 1090). in between it oscillates at a low-medium volume. There is one setting when the Texture knob is turned up to about 9 where the pedal is totally quiet. I always dial in this quiet setting when I want high gain, and when I want low gain (this pedal sounds very different between low and high gain, having a totally different character, rather than just one sound with a different amount of gain), there is a setting at around 1 that is pretty quiet, right around where the radio station kicks out and the oscillation kicks in. Apparently this pedal is not noisy in all setups, but it is in mine. The noise is not audible when you're playing, only after the notes die out.

It has a sort of noise gate effect too, like as your note is dying out its not a smooth fade out, but sorta jumps a few times, and it also sizzles and fizzes as the note dies out. This is something I don't think any other pedal does. Adds tons of character and eccentricity and weirdness and insanity to the sound.

With the texture knob turned low, you get a neat sitar-like effect. It is not an accurate sitar effect, but more like a lo-fi synthy sitar effect. Again, tons of character.

With the texturew knob cranked, it is a wall of lofi fuzz, with tons and tons of overtones. When you play above the 12th fret using the neck pickup with the tone turned down, you get a great upper-octave effect. And the most amazing and unique thing about this pedal is that when you play 2 or 3 or more notes together, you get overtones, undertones, and even in-between tones. this is a really incredible effect. I'd say its not so good for playing music where you play complex chords and want to hear the actual chords the way they're meant to sound, but if you want to have insane scrambled chords with extra notes added in, this pedal does it like no other. When you play a C and an E, you hear a D added in. When you play a C and a G, you hear a low G added in. When you play seventh chords and diminished 5ths you get other crazy mocrotonal notes added in. So its fantastic for adding crazy textures to experimental music/ noise rock/ space rock/ that sorta thing.

Its enclosed in a metal box with a heavy duty stomp switch, so I'm pretty sure it'll last a long time and take a good beating.

Devi Ever of Effector 13 is very helpful, and very busy lately with his growing company, but still gets around to answering emails and updating the site.

This pedal is not a normal distortion pedal. It would not suit most styles of music, but it just might spawn it's own style of music, since there has never been anything like this before, and so it is sure to inspire some new ideas by those who use it. It is noisy in some setups, it is disharmonic and wild, lo-fi, but if you're looking for something different, this is really something special. Ooodles of character, all analog, organic, and totally unique. I look forward to buying more crazy unique pedal from this one-of-a-kind company. I'd give it a 10 for sounds, but due to the noise I'll give it an 8.