FX Doctor Scalpel II

I never write reviews but seeing as this seems to be a one man operation and he gives great customer service and great product I figure I'll let people know about this. The other reviewer explained what this volume pedal is for and I just have to say that it does its job well. My only gripe is w/ myself: I should have ordered one w/ the LED cause Im in two VERY loud bands and sometimes I'll kick the pedal off and not realize it. The other thing is that I've got clumsy feet and sometimes when I switch the pedal on or off I'll move the volume knob, I should have asked him to put it in a bigger box. But I doubt that this is a problem for the majority of people. When I get some more money I'll probably buy another one and ask him to put it in a bigger enclosure w/ the LED, and I'll use this one for slightly dirtier sounds. My own fault for not thinking this through and being cheap on the LED part.

No coloration, noise, or tone loss at all, I got one w/ the treble loss circut and it works real well. I use a Gibson LP and an Early Sunn Model T. I use this to get cleans cause its a single channel amp.
Sounds great.

Looks well built inside and out. I can't see it ever dying on me. I'll probably have it as long as I use single channel amps. But keep in mind I've only had it a few weeks.

I ordered it on a Friday and had a show the next Wednesday. He sent it out the same day and it was in my mailbox by Monday. Total long shot and total life-saver. I'd do busisness with this guy again in a heartbeat.

What else can i say, great product and great service. I hope this guy keeps on designing new products cause I'll gladly try anything he puts out that i have a use for.

Very easy to use.

The pedal has 1 knob (volume), 1 switch (to turn it on / off) and a LED to let you know when the pedal is on / off.

No manual included (but not really needed).

This pedal is used to cut your volume signal (with the
pedal's volume knob) :
To either clean up your single channel amp;
To clean up a boost pedal;
And to use it somewhat like a volume pedal or your
guitar's volume knob (without the guesswork).

Myself I use the pedal like this ...
I keep my guitar's volume around 9-10 and keep the amp's volume low (2-3, depends on the gig).
While playing rhythm I'll keep the Scalpel pedal on (to cut the signal down some) then to play a solo turn the pedal off (to play at the full volume set by the guitar's volume knob).

I have lots of gear (14+ guitars, 5+ amps, 22+ effects pedals).
I don't use the same pedal setup for every gig so I won't go through the whole signal chain ... BUT I use this pedal either last in the signal chain OR right before my Holy Grail reverb pedal (which usually is last in the chain).

I tested this pedal out with an American Standard Stratocaster through an Ampeg Superjet SJ-12T tube amp.

The pedal wasn't noisy at all, with it on or off (thanks to the true bypass switch).

One thing that surprised me about this pedal was the fact that it kept the sound of the guitar the same with the pedal on and off. My tube amp does not have a presence knob on it so the guitar's volume knob works alot like a presence knob. The more signal the guitar gives the amp the clearer the sound is (if you turn the guitar volume down it starts to get a little muddy sounding to me), but keeping the guitar volume on 9-10 and cutting the signal through the Scalpel the main guitar sound was the same (clear instead of muddy).

I found the best place to put this pedal is last in the signal chain, if you put it first it will boost your overdrive pedals and any other effects that comes after it.

The pedal looks well built.

I use a power supply to power the pedal's LED (the pedal doesn't need power to work, it will work with or without power).

I don't bring extra pedals for backup, if a pedal goes out I just don't use it.

Josh was very friendly in his emails.

He makes the pedals in his spare time so it might take a little longer on some pedal than others but the wait is worth it (some people might not like to wait, so I'll take 1 point off for having to wait some).

Overall a great person to deal with that makes some cool pedals.

I've been playing the guitar for over 10 years and play all sorts of sytles (Gospel, blues, country, classic rock, etc.)

I would get another one if anything happened to this pedal.

Some people might think it looks too "homemade" looking but I think it's kind of cool looking the more I played around with it.

The main thing I like about this pedal is it's very easy to use and was pretty simple to get a good volume setting (to use as a volume pedal).