Electro-Harmonix Doctor Q

The pedal sounds good when properly adjusted. There's a blue pod that can be adjusted INSIDE the pedal so be sure to adjust it if yours doesn't do anything or doesn't sound "funky". Here's how to do it: First you'll need to open the pedal. Take a look on the PC board (green board) and you will see a blue pod control (mine has CTS written on it) with a hole in it to fit a flat head screwdriver. Now plug your pedal and use a flat head screwdriver in the hole on the blue pod to adjust it to the sound you like. That seems like the problem with those pedals, not a lot of people knows about adjusting the internal pod. Once you know about it and set it up, it sounds awesome!

The pedal sounds good when properly adjusted. There's a blue pod that can be adjusted INSIDE the pedal so be sure to adjust it if yours doesn't do anything or doesn't sound "funky". Here's how to do it: First you'll need to open the pedal. Take a look on the PC board (green board) and you will see a blue pod control (mine has CTS written on it) with a hole in it to fit a flat head screwdriver. Now plug your pedal and use a flat head screwdriver in the hole on the blue pod to adjust it to the sound you like. That seems like the problem with those pedals, not a lot of people knows about adjusting the internal pod. Once you know about it and set it up, it sounds awesome!

Well it gets a bit tricky to prevent your useful low frequencies from getting wiped out when you play with Bass mode Off, but after 2-3 days of experiments I found some very interesting sounding settings.
Things are very easier when Bass mode is On...simple but rich sounding dynamic wah & band-pass filtering, it hardly affects the real tone of your guitar.
It's not a plug'n'play box...it takes sometime to find out it great capabilities.

For me this little box it's the perfect thing...
I don't use wah in the traditional way...I mostly use it as a filter with lots of overdrive and delay for lead effects and fast riffs. With Doctor Q I got what I wanted.
I play with a Fender Telecaster or an Ibanez RG-70 with a Marshall JCM 900 head and a 2x12'' cabinet and I can do from crystal slear funk stuff to experimental noisy filtered sounds and I never lose the nice tones of my guitar.
Playing with the guitar's tone knobs can give you an even bigger variety of sounds and Doctor Q will never affect your pitch like many wahs and filters do!

I have used it and I will continue using it without any back-up. EHX pedals are tanks.
It's all covered with a metal plate and the knobs and switches are made from hard plastic and are very well connected on the body of the stompbox.

I have never dealt with EXH for support or troubleshooting. I have several american and russian EHX units and they never had any kind of functioning problems.

The only thing this unit could have as an extra feature is a tone knob. It isn't something vital for the ease of use but it could give the player more freedom and flexibility.
I won't let it get stolen by any means...just beacuse it is a really valuable element of my guitar rig. Go out there and get yourself a Doctor Q, even if you are not playing funk or groovy stuff...it even helps to get weird heavy distorted sounds!

This pedal is simple to use, one knob, a bass/guitar switch, and uh, well thats it.

I still have my Doctor Q that I bought in 1977. I got interested in the envelope follower sound when listening to guitar heroes Robin Trower and Jorma Kaukonen, who both used this sound a lot in those days as well as loads of other effects. When I brought this home it put a big grin on my face. It is raw and nasty sounding with distortion, and clean it has a meaty, thick ,quacking funk sound. I appreciated all the more how good this pedal sounds when later in the 80s I tried out the DOD and Boss versions. These wimpy electronic turds were then and still are pathetic, tone-murdering crap. Do yourself (and your listeners) a big favor if you want to get a quackbox and get a Doctor Q. If you want/need more features then try out the E-H Q-tron(s) or the Mu-tron reissue. Only if you are seeking a soul-less,sterile effect to kill your tone with, should you go anywhere near Dod or Boss envelope pedals (Auto-wahs to Boss fans)

I bought a new reissue Doctor Q which sounds very close to my old one, which developed switch-glitch in its old age. New or old its just a sheet metal box so treat it with care. I used my old one for many gigs without backup. Its not a pedal to step on for every song you know!

It's very simple - footswitch to turn on and off, one knob to dial in how much of the effect you want and a bass switch to add a bit of balls. No manual needed, really.

This is a great pedal for subtle wah-like effects. Really good for funk rhythm guitar. Just seems to make your guitar sound that bit funkier. Not an over obvious filter (try the q-tron mini if you want silly soloing effects for similar price). Great sound but limited in that it does one thing and that one thing is quite subtle. However, i should add that i love this pedal cos you can add it to anything to funk it up. (by the way i play mainly funk guitar incase you hadn't noticed.)

Built like a brick shit house (that means it's not likely to break)
Deffinitely gig without backup

N/A

I like this pedal alot. It is cheap small and sounds very funky. It only has one feature but luckily that feature is a very good one. I wish there was a master volume on it cos there is a considerable volume difference between the sound with the bass switch on and the sound with the bass switch off. If you want a good funk sound for choppy funky rhythm this is it. If you want krazee filter effects get a q tron

ok , here is the scoop . it is an un-buffered envelope follower with its output tied to a voltage controled bandpass filter , the switch allows the entire effect to run parralel/series with your original signal, panel knob controls start point off filter sweep( sweeps up upon attack , then decays back to star point) , internal trimpot adjusts ammount of voltage sent to filter , this is the precurser to the bassballs , a bassballs is basicly two of theese in parralel , with the rectified follower signal availible as a "fuzz" sound

despite being un-buffered , it sounds great. with just a simple adj. of the switch -panel pot- trimpot , it easy to get very jerry like sound , with the help of a schematic , soliering iron and a handful of resistors you could even make it sing !

rock solid , just about all the parts can be replaced after a quick trip to radio shack , except the jrc 4558D , but i would install a socket and buy a handfull of 1458s or TLO82s do a listening test. circuit board is small enough to fit into the back of a guitar , hhmmm , zappa anyone .

yeah right! , , , if you need a schematic send me an e-mail i'll give you my address , so you can send me a self addressed and stamped envolpe and i'll send you a copie off the original from E-H .
after you have the schematic you can e-mail me with questions on how to improve the sound/flexabilty of your Dr. Q , , hows that for support!

hey , it is what it is , and only you can change that , at funkfoot , all i do is rdp engineering , ( reverse-diverse-perverse), every one who works here is a musician , and we all love this pedal , i have one , only one , if it were stolen i would build another and let karma take care of the theif. happy playing all , enjoy

Simple and versatile enough for any kind of live applications. I bought this jewel in 1977. Mostly it's a phase shifter until I found out it's adjustable inside.

I can get flanging, phase shifting, and even chorus effects by adjusting the pot inside as desired.
One of the best sound is that I can swell a note or chord like using a wah by sudden turning of my strat's volume(1M pot) from 9.5 to 10. When below 9 it's a warmer tone with less treble like a Hendex sound. By hiting the strings hard, it's a light touch wah at the guitar volume 9 while a stronger touch wah when at 10. It's extremely useful because there's no need for any wah peddles making the floor too crowded and I can get both touch wah effects and manual wah by adjusting my guitars' volume. If I want a wah effect by foot, I simply place a volume peddle before it.....

Usually, I put it before a Zoom 503 with a channel set at strong flanging and delays for stronger swelling effects and a Boss overdrive in between to obtain big fat swelling distortions.Noise level is low even with other effect boxes ........ it's a great product and it's vintage.

The metal box is very strong with unbeatable electronics. What else can I say after 26 years' abuse of this ......?

Never though about it.

The design of the Dr. Q is simple and straight forward. A superb machine to gig with and it sounds great and durable. I give it a full 10.

Really simple to use. Only a knob that must be rotated from left to right to mix the envelope sound with the follower one.
Than a switch to increase the input...
No prob.

I use it with my Strato into a Fender De Ville 4x10; as effects i use a E.H. Big Muff Crying Tone (wah/volume), a Prescription Germ, a Fulltone Distortion Pro, a Pro Co Rat (built in 1979), an Ibanez AD-9, a E.H. Memory Man and a E.H. Clone Theory.
This effects is simple fantastic... a really 'new' sound u can use on your funky rithm (different from the common wah sound) or anything you want.
But i don't like it very much with a really distorted sound.

It's not a so important, but it's really funny and can give you a different 'note' from the others...
Really peculiary!!!

It's vintage... built like a stone, but no support at all by anyone :-)

I like it really much, now i use it a lot in funky-discos tracks...
Any guy who listened at it told ?Cool, great, it seems like a wah but it does anything by itself!!!'
Simply a graet effect!!!!

The unit is easy to connect and with minimal effort easy to dial in the sounds.

I am playing an Alembic Spoiler and a Fender Jazz (72). I normally play through an Ampeg amp with 8, ten inch speakers. The sound quality is clear with no loss. I like to hit harmonics and this helps hold the sustain.

Well, I have had this unit for over 22 years and it is still going strong.

I have never had to call customer support. Besides, they did not exist when I started playing!

I have played jazz, Funk, Slap, Rock, Religious and Fusion and the unit has performed well. while on tour, The audience actually thought I was a better player than I am. It worked better live than in the studio.

This has got to be the easiest effect to use ever, just find the right position on the range knob, use the bass switch if you're using a bass and you're set. There is also a pot on the inside to adjust if you're really into tweaking. With only a few minutes of adjusting I found a great sound without having to touch the pot inside. There wasn't much of a manual with it, but believe me you don't need much of a manual to learn how to use it.

If you really know how to work an envelope follower right you can get some great sounds of it. I use the Dr. Q with a Kustom combo with one 15 inch speaker in it and it works great. It's got a nice round bassy kind of thump to it which is really helped by the 15 inch speaker. It's not really a sound that you're going to find yourself using for everything you play but when you need that funky sort of wah sound this will do the trick. I picked this pedal up because I get really heavily into players like Boosty Collins and Les Claypool who have got some great sounds with envelope filters (although I know Bootsy uses the Q-tron, I'm not sure about Les) but couldn't afford the Q-tron, although now they make a Mini Q-tron which I hear isn't to bad. I plan on keeping the Dr. Q for now though.

Like most, if not all, Electro Harmonix pedals it is a huge metal box. It feels sturdy enough, if I dropped on something like concrete it the casing would probably dent and be fine but I'd be really concerned about how it held up inside, it doesn't feel like it could take a beating like some other brands do. I would definately gig without a back up, I don't see there being a problem with it unless I did something to it like drop it or damage it somehow.

I haven't had any dealings with the company but their website doesn't really tell you much of anything, the samples of the effects are nice to listen to but really I wouldn't look to them for anything unless I had to.

I love the Doctor Q. I play mostly classic rock so I don't use it in gigs right now but I use it constantly when I practice at home just for kicks. I've also recently began playing more funk with a few friends so the Dr. Q finally gets it's chance to shine. I love the sound of an envelope follower and for what I paid I couldn't be happier. If it were lost or stolen I'd go out and buy another one, it's too much fun to be without.

How much easier do you need it? Playing guitar, put it on high. Playing bass, put it on bass. Move the knob for how easy you want it to be to get it to squeel.

Running an Ibanez 6 string bass into a 105q > TS9 > FL99 > EBS octabass > midiverb > DBX 166 > BBE sonic maximizer > Ampeg SS combo (lots of effects). The sound is great for slapping. When used with octave pedals, you loose alot. I keep the setting low or else it squeels. Make sure you keep your treb down, or you can blow your ears out. Nice easy clean indistinct envelope filtering sound.

It looks damn flimsy, but I haven't had a problem yet

I play mostly funk/jammy/jazzy rock stuff. Decent pedal, not the best in the world, but pretty inexpensive. Though I would still love to find a lovetone meatball (good luck), I'd still keep it around. Can never have too many pedals.

Yep very easy to work this one. 1 big knob for range and a switch that fattens up the bass end of the signal. Also take into account that there is a pot inside the pedal that you can tweak (this is infact the most usefull thing when it comes to adjusting the Doctor Q - pity its on the inside of the pedal). The pot is easy to tweak and once you've found a sound you like just pop the thing back together and your away. I don't have the manual but I have the box - this unit is 23 years old and in good condition.

I love EH pedals and especially the older ones. I've tweaked my Doctor Q to get a nice low down Hendrixy wah sound and if I pick a little harder it gives out a lovely bassballs effect on the bottom 3 strings - vocal and not like your average modern wah filter. The effect isn't as prominent in the higher ranges the way I've set it but thats a choice you have to make really with this pedal - high end bite or a low funky chewing wah?
The effects are fat and chunky and undeniably vintage. If you use a clean setting on your amp you can even get a hint of flanging if you pick lightly enough. I've not used this pedal on my synth yet but I'm told it sounds top. I'm using the Doctor Q with a load of pedals and a Fenix Telecaster - pedals at the moment include a Boss Digital Delay DD3,Digital Metalizer MZ2,Turbo RAT,Green Big Muff,DOD Buzzbox and a MoogerFooger Ring Modulator. I'm getting my hands on a ShinEi/Companion Fuzz next week aswell as a RAT so I'm looking forward to using those two with the Doctor Q. There isn't any noise with my pedal - it wouldn't be that much of a problem if there was but its behaving very well at the minute.
This pedal has impressed me since I got it and has earned a place in my starting line up.

So far so good.

I'm very pleased with my new purchase and look forward to using it for a few years yet. As with all EH pedals now this one is getting expensive in the guitar shops - usually about #120. This is too much for what it does really. I got mine at an online auction (loot.com) and paid the lowest reserve price of #45 - well worth it...a bargain infact. If I see another at #45 I'll get it for trading or as back up. Its my favourite envelope filter at the moment - better than a Boss T-wah and DOD FX25. Its fatter than my MicroSynth too - Top stuff.

PS - Don't pay a kings ransom for one of these though - they're still about going cheap so look out for one.

Bought it used-- no manual. Don't need one. There are actually three adjustment points- 1) the Bass switch that seems to strengthen the effect (at least in the lower registers), 2) the Range knob that allows you to adjust the sensitivity, and 3) a pot that is inside the unit and is adjustable with a screwdriver. Once you know about the inner pot, the unit gets more adjustable. It gets an 8 because the inner pot is hidden.

I use a stock 80s American Standard Strat; an effects chain that includes Dr. Q---> Boss SD-2 dual overdrive---> Ibanez CS-9 Stereo Chorus; and a 1966 BF Princeton Reverb. I have also used this effect with a 66 Precision into a Lab Series amp. The main effect this gives is a very Shafty 70s funk wah. The harder you strum, the more wah you get, with a fair amount of latitude to the wah sound. If you push it too far, the unit makes a spaceage "pop" followed by a spacey sweep sound which isn't very useful. Today, I found that if I roll the "Range" knob almost all the way off and turn the "Bass" switch off and get some reverb on my amp, I get a poor man's ES-175 jazz box sound. I suspect this wouldn't work as well with a solid state amp, though. The unit is pretty quiet and sounds good driving the overdrive and chorus pedals. Overall, I'm happy with the sounds I get with it.

The reason that I discovered the poor man's ES-175 sound is that the switch is broken and I was trying to turn the unit off as much as I could. These things are pretty junky, but easy to work on. I've done a good amount of soldering on mine

Never dealt with them.

I picked this up in the late 70s when I played bass because it was cheap. Its kinda neat, but I doubt I'd look for another. I play old school jazz, R&B, and funk and this is a great pedal for those styles. The price people are charging for these things is silly in the extreme-- if you want the sound this gives you, get a good wah-wah for a fraction of the price. It gets a 10 because I paid $25 for it.

know and a switch. the pain is that I can never get the sensitivity know in the right place. if i have it right for higher frequencies, the low ones blow the filter out of the water, if i set it for low, the high ones dont open up at all.

i could sound ok if i could get the sensitivity right

just crapped out on me at the last show. i think one of the batter wires came un soldered.

nada

we are a technical jam band. i got this cuz i love envelope effects, i had a bass balls and a q tron, neither of which was an envelope follower, so i got this. it was ok, till I found the mooger fooger low pass filter. woah that thing blows this so far away its past where i take the sound of my bass ususally. i think i may try to hot rod this as a follower at the other end of the signal chain

There's one big knob on it, plus a switch for bassguitars, to let some of the signal through unprocessed.
The knob is for the sensitivity.

I use an Ibanez guitar and a fender bassman amp.I also use the effect when recording synths, drums, you name it. It is not a silent pedal, but it is not too bad. It's called an envelope follower, it's basically a lowpass filter that opens up more when a louder signal is put through. Sort of like an automatic wahwah. The effect it gives is a bit cheap-sounding, especially when a note fades and the filter closes, there's a "ripple". It's great for funk and percussive sounds. I've heard this sound, or similar pedals, on dozens of blaxploitation movie soundtracks. Nice!

It's E-H. The pedal is built like s*it.I 've taken it everywhere, and fixed it a thousand times. Luckily there is no chip to be found inside.
But is has never broken down during a gig.

I wouldn't know

If I lost it, I'm sure I would never find another one.
It's a gimmick sound, not really a "quality" issue.
If you can pick one up cheap, you'll never be sorry.

Pretty easy to use just a knob for depth and a switch for bass or treble. It responds to your playing output.Mine has a inner pot that controls the input volume.I drilled a hole on the bottom so i could get a screw driver in there to set it for different guitars.

I had always heard how noisy older Electro-Harmonix pedals were, but this is a very quiet pedal.I play through a MESA-BOOGIE mark2c+ and use distortion from the amp.When i play clean i keep the switch up and down for distotion.The sound is kinda harsh for most people but it is perfect for real nasty funky grooves.Its the only pedal that i ever heard that sounds like that.

I really like the fact that it is totally hand wired.I dont think anything is gonna go wrong anytime soon but if it did i could just fix it my self.Kinda lik a old car.I would gig with out a back up.

I think there back but i havent needed to call.

I would buy ten if i could afford it. I love this pedal and also the Small-Stone phaser.I really dig those fat analog effect from the seventies. I also use a tape echo, Vox wah, Dunlop Roto-vibe and i hope to get my hands on a Small-Clone!!!

What the?

Weak effect

I'd rather notThis is a bassballs wannabe

This is a bassballs ripoff that went bad. I have hardly gotten a sound out of it. Long live the Bassballs.

It sounds better connected with a original ts9.With other distortion units the isn't so musical