Seymour Duncan SFX-07 Shape Shifter

It's quite easy to get a fantastic sound out of this unit. But it's not as easy as a standard tremolo box with just a rate and depth control. You'll want to spend some time with the excellent manual to find out everything the Shape Shifter can do.

Gretsch 5120 -> Retro-Sonic Compressor -> Eden Analog Nashville -> Tech21 CS Blonde -> DLS Roto-SIM -> Shape Shifter -> Vox Time Machine -> Tech21 Boost RVB -> Tech21 Power Engine 60.

This unit is not noisy at all. It allows you to get standard analog tremolo sounds just like a Fender amp (only quieter), but then gives you the flexibility to explore alternative trem voicings. The ability to vary the ramp and decay times is, I believe, unique to this pedal... and it's a lot of fun. Fast attack with long decay gives a very percussive effect without going to the square-wave mode, and long attack with short decay sounds like some kind of odd reverse-tape effect.

Absolutely indispensable is the tap tempo function. I love that I can set the tempo as it's counted out at the start of the song, and then if the tempo varies (as often happens during the song... we have no drummer), a couple of taps brings the vibrato right back in with the groove.

Can't imagine a tremolo sound that you'd like to get that you can't get with this pedal, except if you're looking for a slight pitch modulation a la an old Fender brown face. There's no pitch mod capability here... but there's so much other stuff you can do, from the very traditional to the utterly freaky, that I don't miss it.

Seems well-built. It's been on my pedal board for about three months and out to several gigs. I take good care of my equipment and never actually "STOMP," so I expect that given its build quality it should last. I don't bring a back-up because I can still play even if I have no tremolo (although I'd rather not!).

I haven't dealt with the folks from Seymour Duncan since the early 80's when I had a question on pickup selection. At that time they were only being distributed in a very few shops and guitar repair places, and when I called I got SD himself! HAHA! Bet that wouldn't happen today!

I perform in an alt-country neo-folk trio in which I play electric and acoustic guitars, dobro, mandolin, harmonium, whatever. My wife plays bass and my best bud plays acoustic guitar. The main focus of our performances is our vocals, because we work VERY HARD to do everything (originals and covers) in really innovative three-part harmonies.

I idolize the production of Daniel Lanois and T-Bone Burnett, and strive to get the sort of guitar tones you hear on Krauss/Plant's "Raising Sand," Emmylou's "Wrecking Ball" or Dylan's "Oh Mercy." So, drenched in tremolo, reverb and echo pretty much describes my very textural approach to electric. This pedal gives me all I need in the tremolo department and then some. I don't typically twiddle a lot of knobs when playing live, so I find one signature trem sound and pretty much leave it there. But for recording, this thing is a real hoot... you can dial up some very subtle, weird and slightly disturbing trem effects. Plus, the signal path is all-analog (the only digital bit is for the tap timing switch). And it's true bypass. All good.

There aren't a lot of choices of trem boxes with a tempo tap switch, and most that do exist are "boo-teak" pedals running in the $350-and-up range. At $160 this thing is a total steal. I'm very surprised there's not more buzz about it, and that there are only five other reviews of it here at HC!

I'm dinging it one point for one single reason: it is hands-down the ugliest pedal on my board. It may be the ugliest pedal I have ever owned. Truly nasty. I mean really... battleship gray metallic with yellow accents? Seymour? REALLY?!?

The learning curve is not too steep, but you do have to understand something about wave shapes and stuff to understand why a certain knob does exactly what it does. Pretty easy, though.

Warm, fluid sound with tons of options (different settings for envelope and wave shape, and perfect true bypass). Also this trem pedal has two tap functions: normal (like any other pedal's tap function where you dial in the rate) and also ratio tap. If you set it for 1:2, it oscillates at twice the rate you tap. The same goes for 3:1 and 4:1, its highest ratio setting.

As the reviews above have said, it's very intuitive, and very easy to figure out. Although there are no patches or presets, it's nice to see that the knobs actually represent what's happening (unlike Line 6 MM4 where once you set a preset, the knobs have no bearing on what you're hearing).

Read on for my amazing customer service experience! (Which compelled me to write this review)

Yay for true bypass. The volume is great when it's on, never a second thought. You have four parameters so there are a lot of sounds you can get out of it: regular trem, choppy sounds, a piano-ish sound, a reverse-ish sound... I use it with a phaser or a delay to get a very rich sound. I A/B'ed it against a Fender Deluxe amp, along with the Boss TR-2, Fulltone SupaTrem, and VooDoo Labs Tremolo, and where the VooDoo labs is probably the closest to the amp tremolo, this one comes darn close and is WAAAAY more flexible and versatile. Who cares if you exactly nail the Fender tremolo if you can get very close, and also get a ton of other cool sounds.

I've had it for a year, never died, but sometimes the rate and depth controls were a little wacky. For example, the rate turned all the way to Slowest would be pretty quick, and it would take some twisting and jiggling the knob before it settled back to its normal function. Same with the depth. It's built solidly, and the footswitches aren't attached to the circuit board so I figured it was just the pots. Unfortunately, this all started happening about a month after the warranty was up. I half-heartedly wrote to Seymour Duncan, figuring I'd have to shell out close to what I paid to have it repaired... READ ON...

Unbelievable. The best service ever! In less than 4 hours after I wrote them, Alex wrote me back and said he was sending me a replacement, gave me an RA number, and told me to send mine back. No hassle, no questions, no charge! I got the replacement yesterday and am putting my old one in the mail today. If all gear companies were this helpful, life would be a lot better. Seymour Duncan definitely earned my loyalty!

I've been playing and teaching professionally for over 10 years. It's a great pedal for the money. I tried a bunch before I settled on this one. The only thing that some people might have against it is its size -- it's larger than a standard Boss pedal. If you really just want a simple tremolo, get the Boss or a Guyatone and be done with it, as they don't take up much space. However, with all the cool sounds on this thing, any guitar player interested in shaping his or her sound would get a lot out of this thing.

Really straight forward as far as im concerned, even if you're not familiar with the wave shapes swinging the pots gives you a clear indication of what they're for.

The pots are really smooth and handy for slight adjustments or quick flicks (especially when playing live)

The two modes are very helpful when it comes to the Tap Tempo function, for whichever you find suits you or the songs. The manual also gives some half decent settings (for once!)

Like its been said before, the true bypass on this pedal is excellent, there is no noticeable volume or gain drop when engaging the pedal.

From this aspect it gets a thumbs up, but what im seriously impressed with is its versatility.
Ive used the boss tremolo and the line 6 tremolos (mm4) in my setup before and as a single unit, the sfx-07 is brilliant even against the others. From a very choppy synthy effect to the more subtle tremolo sounds, this does the job.

ive stomped on it live and in rehearsals and it hasn't failed me, the switches never act up when tapping in the tempo. So far A-OK

-Chicken-head knobs allow for tweaking while playin live. And since the pots aren't scratchy, you can move the controls while you've got signal running through. Try holding a note or chord and play with the depth knob. I will eventually rig up an expression pedal to the depth pot.

-Versatility is key. I wanted a trem with a variety of waveshapes and was on the verge of designing one myself before I found out about this.

-I won't use Trems or Delays that don't have Tap Tempo cause I'm a control freak. Maybe you're not, but it can definitely be handy even if you don't have to absolutely have it.

-Flashing LED is a visual indicator of tremolo rate, in case you can't hear it.

Point off for the what the last dude mentions about not being able to tap in a tempo when the pedal isn't engaged. Stupid mistake, but not too big a deal. It's the sort of thing analogman or keeley will start modding if this becomes a popular enough pedal. Not a big deal

I've reduced pedal usage recently so I'm down to:

Gibson LP studio or Strat or Takamine 12 string --> Compressor (orange) --> Volume --> Shapeshifter --> Wah --> Delay --> George Dennis Vintage Blue amp (check out GD if you're in the market for a new amp, they're not well known, but excellent). I'll throw a phaser or chorus in there every now and then. I've got the amps two channels set on clean and cleaner. Well more like clean and slightly crunchy.

-Pots are clean not scratchy during live adjustment.

-Excellent clarity. People say "great analog tone," which really just means that none of your guitar's tone is lost (or changed at all) with this box (unlike digital).

-No noticeable volume loss (or gain) when engaged

-True bypass is nice. Although I haven't made up my mind if it's better than a buffered signal (consider Pete Cornish's case against true bypass)

-Shape control is cool: at noon, equal time is spend on rise and decay of the control wave. Turn it counterclock and you've got more time on the volume rise, and clockwise gives you a more staccato effect.

-The only riff I've played of another artist with the intent of recreating their sound thru this pedal was the Stones Gimme Shelter. This pedal does that and much more.

I don't believe I have yet fully explored all that this pedal can do.

Rock solid enclosure, no problems

I first one I ordered was DOA, so I sent it back and the guitar shop I got it from sent me another immediately, so I think he was able to deal with SD without problems, but I'm not sure.

The manual is very intuitive and the example settings will get you on track towards makin your own.

Played for 13 years, produce/record for 6 of those. Classic- alt- blues- rock, jazz, reggae and even record some electronic music (breakbeat, house) if I'm bored. This pedal is great in the studio and live (I've been using it for 6 months).

This is all I could ask for from a trem pedal tonally speaking. Has pretty much every feature a tremolo could have (sin, tri, square wave shapes, Tap Tempo/Rate, Depth, shape/emphasis control), short of being able to mix more than one LFO, but thats something for synths not guitars.

Fairly straightforward. Nice amount of controls, but not overly complicated.

Really nice. I wish the tremolo could go just a bit harsher and deeper into the sound.
I like the variable wave forms.

Haven't had it long..
Seems sturdy enough.

This pedal is has very intelligent design. The tap tempo was a must for me for the way i like to use tremolo. Different wave forms are nice.. I usually prefer the harsher square wave. I do wish the square was could be a bit choppier if needed.

Love the True-bypass and nice analog sound.
I do have one very big problem with the pedal though. Whatever dumbass let this one slip, I'd like to have words with.. You have to actually engage the pedal in order to set the tap tempo, unlike most tap delays. This means that you have to turn the pedal on at the wrong tempo and then correct it rather than set your tempo and then engage the tremolo.
To fix this, I bought myself a true-bypass looper and just leave the pedal on so i can set the tempo and not sound like a train wreck mid-song.

If you can I'd check out the lightfoot labs goatkeeper, I plan my SFX for one as soon as i can get my hands on one.

Well, I'm giving this a seven- there are so many different sounds- that you really need to spend time to get the right sound for you. You can flip everything up at 12 o'clock and get a great sound- but spend a little time with it and figure out the nuances.

Great analog sound- true bypass. This pedal sounds just as good as the Fulltone Supa-Trem or Demeter Tremulator in my opinion. There is not a lot of volume drop as seems the case with different trems.

SD provides a year long warranty- which I appreciate. It is built with a sturdy steel chassis- feels durable.

Haven't dealt with them...

I play different styles ranging from alt-country, new wave and straight up rock. I've been playing professionally for 12 years. I have searched an exhausted road to the right tremolo, and I think I have finally found it- at a reasonable price. Tremolo is so subjective (as all pedals are) but, I really know what I wanted: An effect that was true to my tone, a true bypass, at least two different wave shapes and a timing tap for live situations. I really went between several models- two which were mentioned earlier. I contemplated the Empress Tremolo for the tap control and the Cusack too- but I could not justify spending $200+ for tremolo. I had my heart set on the Fulltone- but something sounded a little sterile- and I really wanted to utilize a tap tempo. The Demeter was a consideration- but I found that it was just too one-dimensional- it does a great sine wave- but, I wanted MORE. I think for me- I have found the best of both world in the Shape Shifter- the tap tempo is dead on with the down beat- and is very versatile. There is three wave shape settings- sine, triangle and square. Each of these can have there individual wave "shaped" with the "shape dial"- which either adds emphasis on the beginning of the wave, middle or end- which allows for some really unique and versatile sounds. Also, the LED indicator is really intuitive to the shape of the wave-- it's kinda hard to explain, but it really gives a "visual" of the wave, I've never really seen anything like it. I think for the money- this is the best tremolo on the market- especially for it's versatility and the simple tone.