DOD FX75c Flanger
Price Paid: US $25 (new off ebay, retails at $50!)
Ease of Use: 9
Four knobs. Level, Speed, Depth, and Regen. Regen is short for Regeneration. It's the knob that controls the wierdness of the effect. It comes with a detailed manual if you don't know what you're doing. God, I hope that isn't the case, since this is an easy to use item. It could've gotten a perfect score, but I don't like the way it's constructed. I just prefer the shape of Boss pedals. That's all.
Sound Quality: 9
The flanger creates warbly, wooshing, watery noises. It's kinda hard to explain, but listen to the intro to Nirvana - Come as You Are and Incubus - The Warmth, and that'll give you a pretty good analysis of what a flanger can do. This particular flanger is a damn good one. Especially for the price that I bought it for. It has silent switching and a myriad of settings for just about any desired flanging.
Reliability: 5
Although this is pedal is enclosed in a heavier, thicker, stronger shell, there are two reliability issues with this pedal. The first and foremost is its plastic footswitch. I don't know why they didn't just use a piece of metal for the footswitch, but they went with plastic instead. Now, people who hop around on stage stomping on their pedals won't expect this thing to last long at all. I, however, am not a stage monkey, therefore this plastic shouldn't break on me. It is a concern however... The next is the battery cover. Now this is where DOD really got lazy. It is a weak, thin, platic cover that is weakly hinged on and has a really crappy locking mechanism. So bad, when it's closed, the damn plastic cover is rattling. I don't think the crappy hinges will last if you plan on changing its batteries often. Thank god I use a 9v power supply instead.
Customer Support: N/A
Have not contacted them, although I may need to later.
Overall Rating: 8
When you want to see quality, you don't want to see plastic. Too bad, because this is an awesome pedal at a great price.
~Dan~