Product: ToadWorks Barracuda
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
06/28/2009
at
09:13am
by
Damaged Pilgrim
Ease of Use
:
8
Easy enough.
Sound Quality
:
6
Very nice sounds, and quiet too. Probably sounds fantastic with lower-output pickups, but I play a Gibson R9 Les Paul ('59 Reissue) with Burstbucker 1 & 2 pickups. I have, and love, my 70's Ross Red Flanger, but was hoping to replace it on my pedal board with something smaller and quieter. No such luck here. The Barracuda does not sweep as deeply. But its fatal flaw is it distorts too easily with humbuckers unless you back off the Depth and Regen controls, resulting in less effect. This is even acknowledged in the product manual. Since I want the maximum effect, this was a deal breaker, so I had to send it back. The Ross may hum a little, but it has tons of headroom and always sounds clean. FWIW, I was testing the Barracuda powered by a Godlyke Power-All regulated supply.
Reliability
:
10
ToadWorks pedals strike me as exceptionally well built with top quality components and a great value. For the right application, the Barracuda should be no exception. It's a beautiful package.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I suppose I could have contacted them, but the manual sort of confirmed my experience, so I didn't. Even if the distortion could be resolved, I knew it still wasn't going to replace the sound of the Ross.
Overall Rating
:
7
I've been playing for 30 years. I'm into indie rock, which runs the gamut of guitar sounds. Like I said, this seems to be a great sounding and well-built flanger, but its tendency to distort with humbuckers killed it for me. That, and it just doesn't have quite the depth of my Ross Red Flanger. I might try the MXR gray flanger, which I believe is very similar to the Ross, but I'd have to put the MXR in a larger box to keep from stomping on those knobs.
