This is the thread to post vain douchebag Harmony Central reviews

(there's some classics on the review page for the line6 pod, I'll have a trawl through later on)

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/stompbox/pd01body.gif

This is so exquisite in its self-loving conceit, I had to look at it again. Can you imagine having to listen someone like this, even for a minute?

"I really enjoyed our conversation," said the reviewer of his time on the phone with God.

===========
This is truly the "Holy Grail" of overdrive pedals. I couldn't believe how amazing this pedal sounded. I got goose bumps after hitting the first chord. Then I played some blues licks and I almost cried(I kid you not). This is the sound I had been looking for so many years! I heard in my head and I finally found it. After wipping the tears from my eyes. I had to call Mr.Landgraff and thank him for doing a fantastic job. I will soon be the owner of two Landgraff pedals. I just had to order another one. They are that good!! I played it through a (2)Gibson Nightawk Customs three p/u models,(2) Fender Strats(Van Zant and Rio Grande p/u)and a ErnieBall Axis sport into a Fender twin, Marshall(2555) or Trace Elliot(twin). All the amps are tube

Reliability: 10
All Landgraff pedals use the finest parts available, Switchcraft jacks, Tantalum caps, carbon composite resistors, sip sockets, silver mica and polyester caps. And feature true bypass, 2% silver solder, with or without led, 9volt adaptor jack, custom paint(several options) and an optional tone kit(custmize your sound even more). All are hand built by John and tested by John. I don't see how this pedal could fail.

Customer Support: 10
I called John directly and we spoke over half an hour. He took the time to explaine the features and told me how I could customize the pedal, by changing components inside the unit with the bag of goodies you get with the optional tone kit. John answered all my questions in a polite and professional manner. I really enjoyed our conversation.
==============
And here's a guy who didn't actually have a Dumble Overdrive Special to review, so he made his own piece of junk and reviewed it in the Dumble section. Perhaps hoping to cadge some business from idiots.
Does it come with a Dumble badge, spelled "Dumbel" to avoid lawsuit?

Dumble Overdrive Special

$350 (for parts)
Features: 10
First off, its not a real Dumble. I could never hope to own a real one. I built this one myself. I've built 18 amps before this one...from 1/2 watt screamers to 120 bass amps...and everything in between. Most of what I've built has been in the Bassman/Plexi vein. Features: Clean Volume, T,M,B, bright sw., mid boost, clean master, drive, drive level, and presence. There are also treble, mid and bass controls for the overdrive channel, but are inside the amp on trimmers. My amp runs 2 6l6's at around 35 watts. It took weeks of changing components to get THE sound, but I did get what I wanted out of the amp.

There is some funny Harmony Central action on this thread from ILM, including many comments from some IMM regulars.

but give me any of those over the 'kid with the strat pack' versions.

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/Keeley/

This one is from a review of those Esteban guitars, not vain or douchebaggy but great nonetheless:

Price Paid: US $200
Features: 10
2005
Where was it made?

Features? This is a ten. It came with a HARD SHELL CASE! I couldn’t believe it, a hard shell case. Now that was different. A guitar with a hard shell case? I just wanted to leave a good review after reading all of these bad ones. This guitar is the best guitar! It comes with a hard-shell case. My other guitars didn’t. I could have guitars like Martin, Taylor, Guild, Honda, or Ford, but I don’t. This baby even came with the DVDs, a chord book AND a hard shell case.

Sound: 10
The sound quality is awesome. Have you ever hear the sound of a tree falling in a forest?

Action, Fit, & Finish: 10
Reliability/Durability? I would give this a ten.
like the other player have testified, this guitar is extremely durable with a double E.
I don’t have anything to compare it to. Maybe a car?
If I got on a bus with fourteen other people and left the station at seven. How long would it take to build this guitar?

Reliability/Durability: 9
Durability? This guitar is like a tank...a big old hairy turtle of a tank. I could surf on this thing. If I had this the day my foot was bitten off by that shark, I believe I could have gotten it back with no strings attached.
Just ROCK SOLID!

Customer Support: 9
I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to use the 'coustomer support' button that came with this guitar. I can’t play it because of that eel. After it removed the skin on my back my hands I knew I would never play the guitar again. This guitar will last for ever in that HARD SHELL CASE

Overall Rating: 10
This guitar is the best guitar! It comes with a hard-shell case. My other guitars didn’t. I could have guitars like Martin, Taylor, Guild, Honda, or Ford, but I don’t. This baby even came with the DVDs, a chord book AND a hard shell case. Soon I’ll be jamming with other satisfied customers like Cornholio to ALL the Korn tunes….maybe some Lep-lin?
A fantastic value. A lot of guitar for.....well, not a lot of money.

Submitted by Roberto Ucantwo at 03/29/2006 11:09

i like this guy on the richie blackmore signature strat:

Features: 10
got a good thin neck an white is the best showy color for strats playin on stage almost muddy, but gotta adjust controls on your stuff ,nobodt can ever reach ritchie,s playin never has been an equal ,no not even hendrix,but should have left the middle pickup in . just silly .its a dark guitar thick,sounding.like it one minute ,it aggravates me the next ,it sure aint trebly ,an i play it i church.nothin looks better than big headstock white. ill keep it a while ,i got stevie ray also mighty fine and more clear ,i play it more ,but of corse ritchie blows him an all other players away .scalloped frets are good but should have been jumbo like ritchie an everybody likes ,is light an still plays fair, frets are raspy gotta develop yourself to this one ,not for everybody ,light touch folks only ,like deep purple ,an rainbow music ,not for everybody,just love it like a good ballgame and enjoy ,then get back to puttin god ,jesus first an be thankful for everything good..

Roberto Ucantwo is my new god

And then the church got some milchtoasts to play the music of the service on guitar. And that's about when I swore off going to the church permanently.

like, wait, you play a boutique handwired class a 50 watt amp in your CHURCH BAND?

Now, after half a lifetime of wayward idiocy, the only place left for the "repentant" losers to go is.....CHURCH! Moreover, the Jesus Temple provides the balding burnouts with the one venue at which they'll get anything close to resembling a "gig". (It also provides them with their one opportunity to acquire a girlfriend/wife, which is invariably some neurotic fat cow.)

Hence the large proportion of church-going guitar-reviewing gawks at Harmony Central.

I swear that this is the correct hypothesis.

1) Gun totin', jack daniels swillin' southern rocker : "Hell, I wunt buy no fuckin gee-tar assembled by chinkies, no sirree-bob"

2) Wife fearin' bedroom player : "She let me have 40 minutes in the local Guitar Centre, while she had her nails done"

3) Church band guy - see previous post

4) Black Flag guy - favourite guitar is a 25 year old Tele that looks as if it has been run over by an express train and is held together by stickers. Has been on tour since 1981.

5) The tinkerer - spends all of his time worrying himself sick about minute variations in tone between the Acme chodbucker and the artist signature split-coil KK Downing-bucker. All of his 47 guitars are in pieces in his basement, but that's OK cos he can barely play anyway.

Church Band Guy is rocking for Jesus; Jesus demands the cream of the crop.

I trawled through some reviews, looking for howlers, but the bad ones were just depressing.

Expand on yr "kult of keeley" thing plz, mr smith! I looked at keeley's website and, uh... I don't really know what to make of it, tbh.

and his cousin..

8) Ebay vigilante : "Look - there's a fucking decal been replaced on there! There's no way that's a made in the USA, no fuckin' way on God's earth! That guy should have his pancreas ripped out and shat on. I might just do it myself. But first...I'm gonna report him to ebay."

Q: Hi, I'm a beginner, I'm looking for an electric bass, I scrimped for the last six months, and have $550. What do you guys recommend?

Answers one, two and maybe three have useful & relevant information

The next 8-10 answers suggest custom handbuilt bass guitars costing two thousand dollars and upwards.

From here on, it's just ppl posting pictures of their ridiculously expensive bass rigs.

For example, he mods Rats and I have an old Eighties Rat and it does what a Rat's supposed to do. And why would you modify it? If you don't like it, you don't like the Rat sound. Just sell it and get a not-Rat. Or keep it, until your zest for the Rat returns.

No, these guys were sending their Rats in to be turned into not-Rats. Now it sounds better than a Rat!!! "Oh-Kay!" as Alvin of the Chipmunks would say.

Ease of Use: N/A
Its easy to use.
3 knobs.

Sound Quality: N/A
Its killing my tone on my tube amp.
Using a Fender Deville 2X12 60 watt tube.
The oscallating woosh is gross.

Reliability: 6
one knob fell off, it looks very much plastic and not able to stand up to the riggors of violence that one occurs during a show, puke, boots and the "OOPS spilt beer"

Id gig with out a back up because Id just throw it in the trash if it broke.

Overall Rating: 6
Its harsh, even at low volumes its sucking my tone.

Try this, have no volume on your guitar, turn it off then turn it on then just let it stand there you can hear a wooshing sound even at low setting if the unit.

I have a digital flanger also and I dont use that.

Well its not getting along with my Tube amp and its amplifing my tube humm.

Its going back in the closit or perhapse Ill use it with my 12 string guitar.

The sound was "Cool" but even at lowest settings the "WOOSHING" was enough to make me unplug it and go back to tone.

*Kind of fattened up my sound but I think ill get a Keeley Mod $200 pedal*

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I played on it and shit my pants. Tubes. Solid State. 6 band EQ. THE HEAVIEST DISTORION EVER ACHIEVED.

Submitted by RANDALLVMAX!!! at 06/20/2006 09:26

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!~!!!!!!1!!

"Did Jimmy Page play without a backup guitar? Of course not!

Because you really like the basic sound of the pedal you have, but are aware that it's not perfect.
Keeley's not selling moonshine. The improvements he promises are clearly audible, but the pedals' core tone isn't lost (and since you haven't actually tried his modified pedals, your opinions on their merits is - to be polite - moot).
I bought a modified Blues Driver from him, and the original's two weaknesses - a certain shrillness in the upper register when used with a Fender guitar/amp combo, and fizziness at high gain settings - are gone.

> Now it sounds better than a Rat!!! "Oh-Kay!"

Yes, it does sound better than the original. Why do you find this concept so problematic?

These terms (and others like them) are what makes people devoted to Keeley amusing to me. And I like the stuff...I just get amazed by the blind acceptance of the people who preach his gospel.

Because tone is subjective. So you're a member of the Kult of Keeley. And you've been offended. Welcome!

In the case of a Rat, you don't buy a rat to have some holy grail sound, it's a damn Rat, dude. It's a little different in the case of a tube screamer, or to a lesser extent, a Big Muff, where there is classic examples of a (subjectively) idealized model AND somewhere down the line the parts or manufacturing process has changed.

But assuming every pedal should, or is inferior having not been, modded, is kinda silly. Especially when you get into say, Boss chorus mods.

there was one called the 'Penguin Love Game' that guitar player actually thought was a real product and wrote it up in a feature about weird retro pedals. it had hello kitty-esque whimsical japanese stickers and the stomp switch was a computer key.

there's several reviews for Kuciel pedals that imply that they are a combination of water tanks (!?) and low fi digital circuitry to provide echo/delay.

the conclusion of this one reads like a bit from "The Third Man" or something:

Overall Rating: 10
A great match for some of the music I play. But first, here is the story on how I bought this wierd effect. I am from and live in Rome, Italy.
I wasa walking back from a nightclub at about three in the morning,
and this wierd American came up to me and asked my for a cigarette.
Luckily I speak English so I gave him one. This guy was in his early
20's, cleanshaven and dressed all in a black cotton suit. Even his shirt was black. Anyways, he said he was on vacation here and he bought this effects pedal in Romainia. He said he brought it as a gift
for a girlfriend who plays guitar, but she didn't want it.

I looked at the pedal as he took it out of his duffel bag and I offered him the equinilant of 14 American. He said O.K.. I asked
him who made this pedal. He pointed to the lettering in the top and said an old friend made it a long time ago. We parted and that was that.

I took it apart just recently and the inside looks like a big mess if wires,
plastic tubes and 2 small plastic containers of blueish green water. I assume that is where the reverb and swooshing sounds come in to play. I am pretty talented with electronics but I still don't understand
what the tubes do.

Graet value for what I paid.

these get mentioned on AH occasionally. At first I figured it was a variation on the archaic method of constructing an echo/reverb chamber, involving a tank filled with some kind of toxic pcb-laden oil, but no. Given some of the weird shit pedals made, eg last gasp arts lab's range, I'd believe that there's someone out there who will market anything imaginable, no matter how weird/illogical to jaded tone freakz.

http://kucielelectronics.tripod.com/kuciel/id8.html

Price Paid: US $200
Ease of Use: 10
A very basic unit with just one very simple effect=REVERB. The is one on/off switch and one blue dial to control the amount of reverb. I got a very basic manual with the Swimming-17 which had great diagrams, but were written in Polish and Russian. No English sort of sucked, but the unit is easy to use anyways.

Sound Quality: 7
I don't really know what I can say about this or how I can describe this piece of equipment. Here it goes: There is only one sound which is made REVERB and it sounds really great. There are 3 Russsian 12AX7's on the top and a wierd glass cannister of greenish water on the bottom of this reverb unit. I use the Swimming-17 with my Fender Twin(older version) and I have the twitch on and the blue dial turned on full "Swam." The sound is super but limited to watery styles of music.

Reliability: N/A
I wouldn't bring this on a gig because it is way too heavy and I am worried that the water cannister will break and spill all over my fender amp. It is really only good for home use or if you have roadies to lug it around. I have no opinion for gig worthiness.

Customer Support: 5
Company support: I heard from a friend that they set-up shop in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada a few years back. That is really far away from where I live:Los Angeles, U.S.A.. I never tried to get it repaired, but if I did I would just have my friend's father repair it. I am giving it a 5 only because the Swimming-17 is super easy to repair. I took it apart once or twice to see how it ticked.

Overall Rating: 7
Great for surf music, music with reverb, and vocals. I'll describe the Swimming-17 to you: Three 12 AX7s one 1 liter-pop bottle sized clear glass container filled with greenish water. A Fender '63 Reverb style body but the tubs are on the top of the reverb unit. Point to point wiring. Simple construction and basic controls. I bought the Kuciel Swimming-17 because it was on sale and I wanted something far-out and unique to make music with. If any of you musicians want something wild and wierd then buy this unit.

Nola –邯‚΂͎g—p‚µ”ñ?í‚ɈՂ¢?B —e?Ï‚Æ—˜‰v‚Ì‚½‚ß‚Ì2 ‚‚̃_ƒCƒ„ƒ‹‚Í?ã‚É‚ ‚é?B ŒÅ‘Ì?d‹à‘®ƒ{ƒfƒB?B ‚±‚ê‚Í”ñ?í‚É‘å‚«‚¢ƒyƒ_ƒ‹‚Å‚ ‚é?B ‚»‚ê‚̓Jƒiƒ_?»?B Ž„‚Í‚±‚ÌNola –邯‚΂ðŽ?‚Á‚Ä”ñ?í‚É?K‚¹, –¼—_‚ð—^‚¦‚ç‚ê‚é?B

http://kucielelectronics.tripod.com

Sound Quality: 9
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Reliability: 10
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Customer Support: N/A
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Overall Rating: 9
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Please excuse. Review write in Japanese. I hope this O.K.

Ha ha ha ha ha

There aren't any reviews of these units up at harsh noise even. I wonder if it is a spoof.

Keeley's not selling moonshine. The improvements he promises are clearly audible... I bought a modified Blues Driver from him, and the original's two weaknesses - a certain shrillness in the upper register when used with a Fender guitar/amp combo, and fizziness at high gain settings - are gone.

I don't think Keeley's selling moonshine, I think he (and a lot of other pro modders) is selling a few easy cap value changes that do change a pedal's output. Now, whether that change is for the better or not is in the ear of the behearer, n'est-ce pas?

What's aggravating is the notion that the stock pedal was "imperfect" and has now been "improved" by having its "weaknesses" removed. The pedal was fine, and now it's been changed, and it's still fine. And also has e.g. a cool blue LED.

Okay, I'm biting my tongue real hard now. Like I said, I A-B'd the modified BD-2 with the original, I could clearly hear the change in tone that Keeley's spiel promised, and I liked it. It's not impossible that I'm wrong, but still, where do you get off on condescendingly assuring everybody else that I'm only imagining it all?

> The pedal was fine, and now it's been changed, and it's still fine

Well, I think that it was quite good, but that it's doubleplusgood now because it's smoother and more versatile. To suggest that "It's not the same pedal any more! DON'T YOU SEE?" is just semantics, as far as I'm concerned.

I agree that upgrading a Rat is a dopey idea. They're supposed to sound nasty.

whether that change is for the better or not is in the ear of the behearer

I agree, but to claim that a change is for the better is apparently not allowed around here.

Sure it is. But your lack of a sense of humor is making more sport for us than for you.

I think folks are just a bit skeptical, given that what most of the modders do is pretty simple and comes down to taste. When you say you could hear the change and you liked it, you're expressing a personal preference and no one's going to disagree. When you make a judgement beyond which one's better for your ear, fingers, rig, style etc. is where you dip your toe into the piranha-infested waters.

> your lack of a sense of humor is making more sport for us

"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

Let's start a traveling debate!

fuckin newb.

http://www.vhaudio.com/wire.html#vhspeaker
http://www.vhaudio.com/powercables.html

This is person is not only vain and deluded, but also probably saddled with a raging pill habit.

US $1,699.00

For Hendrix and Trower stuff, I dial the Lift up to 12 o'clock, volume to 12 o'clock and tone at 3:15-3:30 o'clock with my guitar's volume at 7 or 9 depending on the song and the Textosterone kicked in depending on song or whenever a solo comes up. I use this amp at home because I am woodshedding until I get good enough to jam with my brother. Years ago, these customers of mine had me over for dinner one night and they took me to the listening portion of their pent/warehouse to hear these $3,000(?!) Klipsch La Scala speakers driven by a 5 Watt Creek Amp! What I'm saying is this 17 Watt amp is loud. I bought a sound level meter and realized that I play at 115dB but I've got these earplugs that take it down by 33dB. Ted Nugent's guy is finding out what earplugs Ted uses for me. Needless to say the amp has plenty of power, and when you hook it up to the 4X12 Cabinet built for me by Fulton-Webb equipped with Tone Tubbys in "the bomb" formation, I've got the poorman's version of the Creek/La Scala going on in my house. All the neighbors remark how my playing has improved their lives with each passing day. The people across the street sometimes hang out in the drive way to hear my progress...heh,heh. This amp arrived Fedex Ground one year ago. I use an Evidence 1 foot Siren speaker cable to connect the head to the hand wired cab. It is a 10 for me.

I have a tuner>octave>fuzz>wah>overdrive univibe>delay from vendors like Peterson, Dave Fox, Diaz, Teese, Bill Webb, Bob Sweet and Mike at Analog Man on the pedalboard. I've got another cable from Two Rock that will run the signal from the pedalboard to the amp. Put it all together and it is a smokin' little rig from Texas is what it is. I don't think it is noisy, and niether do my neighbors for I have brought music into their boring & tedious lives!

I am an eccentric beginner that has been playing every day for the last 18 months or 1,000 hours based on two hours avg. per day. My brother's been playing for nine years and he tells me I already know more than I even realize. Spanish Atavism at its best-the guitar is arguably aSpanish invention

Best vain douchebaggery ever.

for fucks sake

I didn't know Ted was gay.

what is 'spanish atavism'?

Guitar in TEH BLOOD.

Not reviews, but HC church-rock madness. Just insane.

Just out of curiousity, is it a Baptist church? I've never gone to a church where something like that would be permissible, and Baptist is one of the churches I've never gone to.

(Ignore the pentagram for my avatar, I've defended Christianity in the SSS Political forum before.)

__________________
Gear:
Gibson SG Standard
Fender MIM Strat w/ DiMarzio PAF Pro
Peavey ValveKing 2x12 Combo
Peavey XXL 2x12 Combo
Dunlop Crybaby Wah
Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer
Boss MT-2 Metal Zone

Emperor - I Am the Black Wizards
Bathory - Mother Earth Father Thunder
Mayhem - Freezing Moon
Burzum - Dunkelheit
Satyricon - Fuel for Hatred
Darkthrone - Too Old Too Cold

==========

I keep coming back to Hank Hill: "Can't you see that you're not making Christianity better? You're just making rock and roll worse."

My denomination is Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA)

Some Pastors are against the use of electric guitars, but I think they are changing little by little due to a changing generation and the style of praise music that's been coming out.

Adult services electrics would never be used, bass guitar isn't even being used.

English Ministry and Youth Group services have electric guitar (this is recent. I switch to acoustic when we have no drums for english ministry.)

There has been a recent trend in Christian music where there are alot of electric parts, and we have people who want to praise God and know how to play the electric guitar.
=============

Fixed-lens video and hushed/respectful narration plz!

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/wildkingdom/wildkingdomIMAGE/wildkingdom.jpg

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/product/Agile/ST-1000/10/1

"If not for the tuning instability, and lack of tone, this guitar would be very nice"

"I am retarded in that I always buy the cheap brands."

Their AL and Tele models get really good reviews.
They have their own Lite Ash model, more or less.

Keeley BD-2 Fat Mod

It sounds good!
However my modded DOD YJM308 blows it out of the water.
The Phat switch is subutle & I do like it.
This is not a good pedal to run in front of an amp.
It is Killer when used as a Stombox for solo's.
Keeley does a good job on pedals. I wish it had less gain
& didn't squeal as much as it does.