Effector 13 Soda Meiser Caffienated Fuzz

2 knobs and a switch for self oscillation. pretty simple, you'd have to be my mom not to be able to figure it out.

my setup is as follows:

1967 Harmony H-15 Bobkat / Fender Mexican Strat -> Boss DD-7 -> Modded Tube Screamer -> Soda Meiser -> Russian Big Muff -> Modded Boss GE-7 -> Fender Hotrod Deville 4x10.

On it's own you get a rich, low end fuzz. it's not particularly good with most chords but if you are playing a lot of bar chords it sounds great. the higher you crank the gain knob, the more you get a textural fizzy crackling sound (in the best way!). Whats really fun is setting the gain knob all the way up and playing pull-offs while riding the volume knob on your guitar. it produces a really cool voicing sort of like a subtle wah. What is also great is the built in gate the pedal has. aside from cutting out any noise running through your other pedals (DD-7, im lookin at you!!) I love the way the sound cuts out, it creates a rippling, velcro like sound. Furthermore, running this pedal through an EQ pedal brings out alot of subtle textures depending on what frequencies you boost/cut. it really changes the whole character of the pedal. I highly suggest trying this out. I would also experiment with place other distortion boxes before and after.

As far as the self-oscillation mode, it's a bit too unmanageable for me. I play in a weird/noisy punk/sludge band (what a horrible description!) and I still find this mode to be almost useless. There is just too much of a severe volume cut and everything that comes out is muddy and over-distorted. I'll admit, the first time I plugged this pedal in, it was on this mode and I nearly **** my pants and fell in love with it. It just sounded ugly in the most beautiful way. But after playing with the pedal sometime, I found the other mode much more, um.. playable.

After having and using this pedal for over a half-year now, i'v really come to love it. It's a really different sound. People who listen to my band's recordings ask if I play synth. If you want a really ****ed up, unique fuzz you should seek this out.

It's pretty sturdy. I dropped my strat on it once though and smashed the switch for the 2 modes, but it's okay, I just took it out soldered it so it's permanently on the "normal" fuzz mode since I didnt use the self-oscillation anyways. Haven't had any issues since.

never had to

As I mentioned, I play pretty noisy, weird, depressed punk music. Think Swans meets early Butthole Surfers. It fits my style great. Even if you are playing something more conventional you might find this pedal useful and intriguing though. You can definitely get a really great fuzz sound out of it, very much akin to cranking the gain allll the way up on a Big Muff Pi, but without all the background noise when your not playing. My roommate from last semester, who plays and writes almost nothing but pop music even loved it. I'd suggest anyone try it, really, even Tim Mcgraw. It would make him not excruciating to listen to.

Not hard but take 's some learning curve.have to tweak it a little.

Very different sound, I like it though it's not my go to sound. It has a very HEAVY loaded sound. LOT OF FUN!!!!ENJOY THIS PEDAL LIFE IS SHORT.THAT'S WHY WE BUY THIS STUFF.IT'S NOT THE HOLY GRAIL OF SOUND'S BUT POINT'S THE WAY.TOWARD NEW HORIZON'S.

I CAN'T DEPEND ON BAND MEMBER'S AS A BACK UP I'M SURE IT WILL BE THERE WHEN THERE NOT. //LOL.LOOKED AT INSIDE,S WIRED JUST FINE!!!

I HATE SUPPORT MAKES ME FEEL WEAK. LOL. I,M SURE YOU COULD COUNT ON IT.FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND, STAND'S BEHIND PRODUCT.CAN'T ASK FOR MORE.

Use it learn from it. It's up to you to make the most of this pedal, it's very creative.Enjoy the chaos. It's fun.!!!

It is very easy to use. Only two knobs, how hard could it be? My only complaint would be that the crazier fuzz mode might be a little hard to get a usable sound from. A switch goes between the two modes. Easy.

The first mode is a pretty standard sounding fuzz. Aggressive, in you face, what a fuzz should be but unfortunatly doesn't have a whole lot of flexibility. One Big Muffish sound, not subtle at all. The other mode is a freakish buzz that starts off sounding like a bunch of bees at the far end of a cave that then blooms as you hold the note. The problem is that the second mode tends to be quieter than the first. Then again it may not be a problem as you can't footswitch between the modes. One kinda usable sound, the other not usable at all. Interesting sounds but not my style, a top shelf to come down only seldom type pedal.

Don't look inside this thing and expect to see a neat layout. It's put together well enough but tape covers eveything that could short out. The board isn't fixed to anything just wrapped in tape. Probably wouldn't be too much of a problem but be carreful changing the battery. Then again isn't this what DOD did with the first issues of their OD250 back in the 70's doesn't affect tone.

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i got the White Noise mod with mine. so there is an additional switch next to the power jack. two knobs and two switches. volume and intensity are the knobs. the first switch switches between the vintage fuzz sound and the no-fi sound. the first is a high gain fuzz. the second is no-fi which is crazy. then there is the switch in the back which turns on the white noise which is insane. the vintage fuzz mode is silent as long as you keep the intensity at 3pm or lower. when you switch on the other switches, watch out, a lot of noise. but i keep it on the vintage fuzz mode.

sound quality is awesome. i have the volume at 9am and the intensity at 3pm on the vintage fuzz mode. if you take a metal zone and turn the gain all the way down, you can combine it with the SM and get a really cool distortion.

built tough. just make sure you place the pedal where the white noise switch cannot be easily switched. but you should be ok, most people don't have the white noise mod.

emailed devi tonight thanking him for making good pedals. hasn't gotten back to me yet, must be busy.

good for experimenting with sounds and if you're on the artsy side like me. prepare to get fuzzed out.

It has 2 modes to play around with. It takes maybe... an hour or a little more to get some good sounds out of both modes, but mainly it takes more time with the no-fi mode. Also, actual placement in your pedal chain affects the sound greatly (explained in sound quality).

Placement is essential: I like having the regular fuzz mode right after the guitar, meaning no buffers in between it and the guitar. Bringing the intensity to zero will make it sound very close to vintage fuzz tones, go higher and you get a lot more sensitivity with how hard you dig into the strings. The no-fi mode sounds best imo after a buffer (the notes come out much better, and it's a little less messy). The fuzz mode also sounds great with a distortion after it, making it sound smoother. Having a distortion after the no-fi mode will bring out your notes much better. It's very easy to get synth like tones, with a combo of other pedals around it.

Very small and very sturdy.

Haven't had problems, so no need for that yet.

Great for music that needs a fuzz. I play a mix of indie, ambient, psychedelic, noise pop, and post-rock. This is great for psychedelic and noise pop, and anything related to it. Fantastic for lead and alright for rhythm. AWESOME for the basis of synth tones. I would definitely buy this again, especially since it's so cheap for a boutique pedal. I hope it stays that low!

Two Knobs and a toggle switch, pretty easy right? It has controls for volume and intensity. Both of these knobs are useful when sculpting your sound. True Bypass.

I am only going to give my thoughts on the vintage fuzz maker mode because I find the NOFI Chaos mode to be an abrasive, unstable self oscillating monster, I thought I was going to like it being an experimentalist, but it is just not for me. Anyway the fuzz maker is very low end oriented unless the intensity is cranked and then it turns into a very unpredictable upper-octave beast. I like the sound of it with my numerous guitars and my bass. I would recomeend keeping an overdrive pedal behind so that the SM can be contained. And yes this pedal is noisy when it is engaged, but it is a high gain fuzz unit, when on bypass it is silent though.

This thing is a well built machine, it will last the lifetime I plan on using it.

Devi is awesome and always responds to questions quickly, I am sure if I had a problem with my SM he would be able to help me immediately.

This pedal is a lot of fun. It is not my primary distortion unit, but I use it a lot nonetheless. I play in a doom-ish type Electric Wizard-meets-CKY band and it is perfect for the de-tuned sound. If it wer lost or stolen, I would suffer through as many 1 day ebay auctions as it took to win another, being that is the only way to obtain one.

"How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?" Damned near impossible, but it's not supposed to sound good, 'zackly. The controls are straightforward, though they start really making a difference at the extremes. Both volume and intensity have a lot of middle ground where not much changes.

I wish Devi would make a version with a footswitch for selecting between the regular fuzz and the destruction fuzz. There are intances when I might want to use first the fuzz, then the destructon fuzz to really decontruct part of a song and it's a little awkward to drop down and flip a little toggle.

The more normal of the two settings is a darned good fuzz, not a Big Muff or Rat sound but a smooth, tight, intense fuzz. Billy Corgan would love it: you can get a few Smashing Pumpkins fuzz tones. The other setting is very cool in a Wilco-Radiohead-Flaming Lips way. A notchly, oscillating, rather unpredictible whiny chaotic thing. The guita and amp make a big difference. I use a Yamaha DG Stomp in front of a Yamaha 2-12 100-watt combo. If you use the Soda Meiser in front of a clean signal, you get more of a 60s AM-radio fuzz or (in destruction mode) complete insanity. Put it before a digitally modeled overdrive and things smooth out a lot. Get either a huge, fat, Melvins sound, or a beefier, slightly more complex chaos fuzz. My hollowbody with humbuckers sounds cool with this... single coils can get a little shrill to my ears. It's a ten if you want what it delivers, but it delivers only two things, though they are cool things indeed.

It seems simple and sturdy.

Devi ansers emails promptly.

Great "art" pedal. If you're going to buy just one effects pedal, this is not the one. If you are a pretentious, ambitious, art-band player, it's loads of fun. And it is actually pretty useful as a normal fuzz if you can get past the limited adjustability. The more extreme setting is a handful, but can give you the inspiration to try some nutty things. I've been playing for a long time, and play in a sort of noise-pop band with melodic songs overlaid with nasty, odd bits of sound now and then. It's ideal for me.

Very easy. Like any pedal, you need to play with it to find what you like/want/need. My pedal has not been upgraded/downgraded.

The Soda Meiser is a one-of-a-kind. Which is saying something when it comes to pedals. Everything fuzz tries to sound like a Big Muff or a Rat. The Meiser is strictly for lead, if you played more than two notes on this thing it might blow some shit up in the studio. It can create anarchy. It is spaceage distortion. I've yet to hear another pedal that stands out like this one.

It's a tank. Yes, I would gig without a backup. There not that common anyway.

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I love it. It's not the kind of pedal that you establish 'your' sound with. It's great for stand-out solos, or adding something absolutely nutso to a song (or subtle).

Get one, while you still can.

This is not a complicated device, though it is a 2-in-1 with a toggle between the 2 fuzz settings. Both effects are wild fuzz, scrambled fuzz on some settings, yet capable of more traditional fuzziness depending on your guitar dials. I found it reacts differently to guitars, no doubt about it, and I think Effector-13 has even mentioned this about their pedals somewhere before. I sometimes use a lipstick p.u. guitar and it was just crazy chaotic with that. But my main guitar is a semi hollow humbucker piece, which, when you play with the guitar settings, has tons of variation with the Soda Meiser. Every rig may vary, of course, but there's just a little learning curve with certain gear, like all things.

Easy but deeper than most fuzz pedals. Could be hard to lasso for some, maybe. But that's good, it's part of the fun. No complaints here.

I usually use other effects before fuzz, but like so many others, Soda Meiser shines first in the chain. I currently have it in the middle, with several effects before and after, and other stompers do make it just that much more unpredictable, FYI, but I can certainly deal. I's facinating how differently it blends with other pedals. Plays well, but differently, with others, so place in chain to taste.

It's still unearthly cool. Again, I rate this well when I'm laying down noise.

That said, the VFM side of the toggle can get nice and straight-forward, no real added noise, quite clean but plenty aggressive.

The no-fi chaos side is squarey schreeeech, harder to control but music to my ears. The filtering clamps down really hard, but I may need more time to find my sweet spots. I've already found a few nice settings for low riffs, not to mention 12th-fret double-stops. Just gotta experiment.

While both settings easily get pretty nutty pretty fast, that's what's great about it. I love "over the top" and the Soda Meiser is a real beauty.

I also love that it's 2-in-1. Studios and facilities get crowded too fast, so the more sonic ground 1 module or pedal can cover, the better!

Yes.

Effector-13 and Devi is easily reached and, as I know it to be, has an outstanding rep online.

My only fear is his retirement!

I love pedals and modules like this. I just got [yet, another] ring mod recently too, so this fuzz was bought a little reluctantly but once I fired it up I had no regrets at all. It's just so extreme and unique. Reminds me of some of the terribly cool Metasonix stuff that's just beyond my price range at the moment, as a musician's luck may have it these days. Glad I got the chance to snag this though. That analog chaos, there's nothing like it. Insane grind and squelch birthing sonic bliss. All it takes is your creaive input.

Thanks Effector-13.

straightforward...can't go wrong...although interesting things happen by accident...


volume. intensity (mixes low and high end.from 7 oclock to 5 oclock respectively. scrambles as it increases, and then some).

comes with a toggle to switch between, nofi chaos and VFM smooth Yellow.

oh yeah, try say, plugging the jack (from amp) to the input as an example, weird and wonderful.

used so far, by itself. I do own ehx clone stone, tech 21 xxl, mid-fi glitch computer, echo park, just to name a few.

mean, and extremely gorgeous at the same time...its lovely considering Devi tends to make harsh, semi noise pedals (which isn't a bad thing...its a turn on! aural baby). its a lovely organic texture fuzz machine, I'd wanna use it wisely and not all the time.

anyhow, the Smooth Yellow sounds as wonderful as the soundclips. bluesy influenced, well rounded at say 8~9 o'clock, with a lovely subtle hint of fury just waiting to explode so I love already playing at that level. FAT Synth bass and little scramble already start kicking in at those two points. man, it's like premature *ugh*...with that in your face, kickin low end...nice and thick.


about 5~6 its so so (this pedal is meant to be play with intensity, duh!):

from 10 til 1 o'clock, another interesting character kicks in...which I call "THE SSSSSSNAKE"~ you lose a bit of that bass synth to your guitar but you get a wonderful scrambled blend of high end high hiss...oh man, I just get this mean hissing sound or just plaing VENOM to your sound...just mean I tell you, ahahah, very artsy for a pedal.

just beyond it just textured scramble...not used nor not too sure on how to approach it but I personally just turn down the volume a bit so
the high end; "no louder than beautiful", it just shines here.
think Wish by Nine Inch Nails. yes. that scramble. pretty sure the harsh orange can go more in depth in that one. but overall, its to describe the sounds you get out of this so far for a SM n00b.

oh wait, there's a switch...and voila, the pedals secret weapon, as the VFM is my fav fuzz du jour, the Nofi Chaos is just another thing.

talk about wow...I didn't know how wonderful this can be useful.
from hearing the original sound clips...I thought...hm, it was meant "to destroy your tone"...I didn't think it could be used to creatively and beautifully. I think this is the beauty and the other the beast out of the two. I just play chords, and its like just sadness (Devi "No Love"), but its like a tragic fuzz pedal making this beautiful plea as if it was something else back then...now its sad. hahahaha...

latter is more texture, relaxed playing, the former is raunchy, in your face, all out go fudge apeshit on your guitar.

solo wise, again, you can get raw organice screeth on double bends and likes, at my fav setting, you get some decent ballsy blues tone to it, strangely enough, and some good harmonics at the end of sustain.

very dynamic pedal. even w/palm muting at high vfm intensities, you can really express some interesting low/end dynamics.

anyhow, get one, you see I spend a lot of time with mines just to able to say such things. support Devi's passion.

I think if I can only make one suggestion...perhaps a little more volume can do...just need to scare the crap out people, I want from soft clean...to scary requiem loud fuzz with a single stomp...because I want more of that big fuzz wall bass synth coming out.

so far so good. I hesitate for the slight small lack in volume [can get loud by itself but its a personal thing], bah I'll give a ten. this isn't your cheap ass, mainstream anyone can get pedal. so enjoy.

looks solid to me, knobs and stomp swith...hm...about that VFM/nofi switch...just scared that if I go hulky greenish on this, I'm afraid that I kick it and maybe it's gonna be stuck...I'll cry by then. so sofar, it hasn't happenned. oh yeah, sometimes, I switch the vfm/nofi by accident as I stomp on the fuzz/clean switch...hm...

yeah, definitely, Devi is always pleasant to deal with, and its not a business thing, more like a common liason from a fuzzlover with a fuzzlover/maker. thankslut. ah ah ah ah.

again. I still have to try it live as right now, I'm busy with school.
but you get sometimes interesting textures with the nofi chaos mode,
expressive...emotes melancholy in a very lively way...my echopark and other effects can make ethereal ambience but this just right on the other side of the barred gates sadness lol.very expressive and emotive.

oh yes, with this mode, it can buzz like a bee!!! Guitar world actually wrote that in some article, and its true. theremin effect and picks up radio signals. you can alway play and imitate a broken radio speaker host. very artsy and creative and expressive...ugh, this is fudge great.

if that was your knife, the VFM smooth yellow mode is your sniper riffle. Just upon hearing this fat end low fuzz with high scramble, you just wanna go out there and karate chop and flying kick the first guy you see. its all apeshit bass synth fuzz with snake hiss and industriable scramble, and just randomly break in with a blues smooth solo. Fudge this was fun reviewing. Thanks Devi.