i have a vox ac4tv with a lot of treble and i need to keep the gain turned fairly low or else it just starts to hurt; if you’re playing through an amp with a rich low-end you can turn the gain up further before it gets too harsh. it gets WAY fuzzier than the NYC Big Muff, and it doesn’t sound very much like the NYC box at all, so you’re not going to have any trouble justifying owning both.

(when i said it was noticeably lower-gain, what i meant was it gets CRAZY pretty early; i generally keep the distortion side’s gain knob pretty low because past noon it starts to feedback viciously, which is just no good when you’re palm-muting chords but great when you’re playing sloppy leads)

the ring thing is simply awe-inspiring. the ghost of sim tut basically covered everything i have to say, but i will add a minor complaint: i sort of hate that this pedal does so much. i sat down this afternoon for an hour, just going through the manual and tweaking knobs, and i came to the conclusion that this pedal could have contained HALF the features and i would still feel overwhelmed. and i would still feel like i paid too little for all that i got.

what this replaced on my board:
-HOG. although i will miss the stacked octaves and the freeze+gliss mode, there were only two songs when i used those features. the rest of the time, it was either octave up or octave down, which this does better. presets 4 and 5 are my whammy settings, with the suboctave blended 70/30 against the unaffected signal for maximum big muff stoner-sludge lead lines. preset 9 is 100% suboctave, a luxury the HOG’s scant six presets never afforded me.
-clone theory. the chorus on the ring thing is just phenomenal. sonically, it walks the line between the whammy’s digital detune and the more traditional modulated delay chorus. very lush. preset 1.
-wiggler. i didn’t usually bring this one along because it was so big and because the power supply made it difficult to keep my setup relatively compact, but i loved having the vibrato and the tremolo in one box and it just sounds SO GOOD. presets 2 and 3.

what i gained:
this pedal gets as noisy as you want it to. coupled with an expression pedal and the fuzz factory, there is no stopping the train. also, you can actually duplicate your settings, which means no more midsong ringmod freakouts that absolutely suck live because you could not find the right settings. like others have said, musical ring mod applications!!! the effect that i loved but never used because it was just TOO finnicky is finally at my feet and ready to use.

everything sounds great, although this is right up there with the flanger hoax as far as complexity goes. the settings in the manual are fantastic places to start, but it is probably going to be a few solid hours of tweaking before i can figure out how the knobs react to one another. by monday, i should have it down – but if you’re the sort who found the hazarai intimidating, you really haven’t seen anything yet.

my only semi-legitimate complaint is that the shear breadth of sound you can get from this thing makes it difficult to find a decent place for it in the chain. i like running the octave and ringmod effects into distortion, whereas the tremolo and chorus sound better after distortion. i could solve this issue by rearranging the order of my pedals, but i use a rather tight briefcase setup for my tuner and distortions, with my volume pedal, hazarai, and ring thing sitting on the floor. if i got a proper pedalboard, this would be easy to solve. so basically, i am complaining because there are too many options in a single box and i am stubborn about my pedalboard materials. also, this complaint is stupid because i play clean at least half the time ANYWAYS. so forget i said anything.

HIGHLY recommended.

i don’t think mine plays back more than a second, but i have the delay time set super super short – maybe that has something to do with it? try increasing the echo length, see if you can get more time in reverse.

man, it seems like the REST of the band are at the wrong gig

by noise, do you mean hiss and the occasional chirp? that is from the BBD chips. it shouldn’t be TOO loud, but that noise is part of the reason why they recommend you run it as close to the end of your chain as possible – after all of your distortion.

if it is really bothering you, try taming the treble on your amp (and flip off the bright switch, if you’re using it). if you are running it into a compressor to battle the volume drop, try using a clean boost instead. also, the hiss is FAR louder on some settings – try turning the delay knobs a bit, see if you can find something else you like where there is less noise.

the hoax is a tad noisy, but it shouldn’t be bothersome, and i’ve never been able to hear any hiss while i am playing. if it really comes down to it, just try clicking it off when you are not playing.

something similar to the mxr doubleshot, with far better tone – i would be totally down. have the first channel sound something akin to an english muff’n, the second walk the line between the metal muff and the big muff… this is basically what the doubleshot had, but at the end of the day it just didn’t sound all that great.

put a two-position switch at the top that decides whether you switch between channels or cascade them into one another, it would be so lovely

it’s been my go-to delay since early 2008 – i love it, and i don’t think that i will replace it when its successor rolls around. just last week, i was at band practice and i suddenly remembered all the rad stuff that happens when you turn the knobs in certain ways… don’t let yourself get caught up on the presets! there is so much more there than what meets the eye.