Roland AD-50 Double Beat

this is a fuzz/wah combination from the early 70's. the wah's on/off, so it's simple enough. what's different about the double beat is that instead of a tone knob, the fuzz controls consist of level, sustain (distortion/compression), and a 3-band click knob which adjusts distortion EQ; sine wave, like a fuzzface, square wave, like a big muff, and pulse/ramp wave, like an old vox tone bender. the pulse tone is thin and nasal, almost reminiscent of early neil young leads, and it's only good for single notes, but the sine and square tones are quite useful, and the wah acts as a strange sort of tone sweep- with susatin up to 7, the wah tone actually seemed to click cleanly from one harmonic to the next as i slowly moved the pedal. whooooooa.

noisy? you betcha, and like i said, the pulse wave EQ is pretty limited (not everybody likes "mr. soul"), and as a stand-alone fuzz, it's so-so. where it all shines is the fuzz/wah combination, which makes for more of a "red"- era king crimson tone than the usual fake hendrix that the crybaby fuzz provides. i've had both, and this is hands down the better box. not the usual sweep by any means. however, i just got an old Foxxtone/octave/wah, and once i get it restored, it should make for an interesting evening of a/b comparisons. in the meantime, only the Electro-Harmonix fuzz/wahs top this puppy, and not by much.

it's in the same type of housing as the CE-1 chorus ensemble and the AF10/BeeGee Fuzz. in short, it's a tank. as long as you like the fuzz, no need for a backup.

roland = good service that seems to take forever.

at $45, you bet i'd buy it again. i've seen it on the web for over $300 (good lord), and of course it's not worth it. neither are tube screamers or foxxtones, but that doesn't seem to affect the market. my BeeGee is a much better fuzz, but the wah and the fuzz/wah combo are quite lovely and musical. i've used both pedals together (double beat first, then the beegee) and WOW, what a tone. sometimes i get uncontrollable feedback, but all of it is usable in a belew/reeves gabriels sort of way. i got this a few summers ago in phoenix. the store wanted $60 plus tax, but all i had was $46. the salesman left me a buck so i could get a soda (it was well over 110 degrees, but it was a dry he......oh, nevermind). nice man. even then i knew i was getting a killer deal, and that was back when it was just used, not vintage, as if there's a difference (apparently there is a difference-say, about $255).