1980s-90s Arion SAD-3, SFL-1 & SOD-1 Effects Pedals

Vintage stomp boxes, one classic Japanese make and two reissues made in Sri Lanka 

These pedals are widely available and they don't really get much respect, but they definitely get the job done, especially for the price. The delay is the most expensive, as is normally the case, but the reissue OD pedal can be found for as little as $25 in some cases.

The positives of these cheap little guys by far outweigh the negatives, mainly the plastic casings and battery covers that can easily pop off and go missing. But on the positive side, these are all stereo pedals. I've found that the delay works better for vocals, but can also produce some freak out noise for guitars. The four-knob flanger (the vintage Japanese pedal) has a little more flexibility than many of it's competitors and while the Overdrive pedal isn't anything special, one thing it has going for it is that the noise level is very low.

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1980s Yamaha CH-10MII & FL-10MII Effects Pedals

Vintage Japanese stompboxes, lesser-known, but very high-quality units

This could be the last pedal post or any post, for a little while, SCGM goes on vacation starting this morning. With that disclaimer, let's get to the gear... These pedals are both real nice and the price tag is about half that of their Boss counterparts and slightly lower than the vintage DOD pedals.

The only catch is that the Yamaha MII line doesn't come along nearly as often as those or even some of the boutique pedals from the 70s and 80s. The delays still run for around $100, but these two were scored for a much lower price than that. The chorus pedal is real clean and the fact that it's stereo is also a bonus. When paired with a DOD DFX94 digital delay pedal, it replicated that Andy Summers "Walking on the Moon" sound to a tee.

The flanger is also very nice, I chose this over another good vintage, 4-button flanger made by Arion. This one was a little more quiet and didn't seem to change the volume or tone very much. When looking for vintage pedals, keep these in mind. You can save a ton of cash and still get killer vintage tone.

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1980s-90s Boss DS-1 OD-2 & SD-1 Effects Pedals

Vintage black label effects, industry standards, made in Japan and Taiwan

As promised, there are no shortage of effects posts. A month-long search for deals on vintage stompboxes yielded over a dozen candidates and the ones that made the cut will be featured. After the MXR Distortion +, I was able to score great deals on three Boss pedals, the DS-1 & SD-1 probably being the OD/Distortion pedals on most players' boards and the OS-2 was said to have a different feel, so one of those was swept up as well.

First thoughts are that the DS-1 is very noisy and the distortion a little muddy. I was hoping to get more of an 80s thrash metal sound with it, but maybe that's why they made the Metal Distortion pedal? The SD-1 has that classic Guns N Roses sound just nailed, but it's also noisy. At first I a bit worried that these pedals were bunk because of the noise, but I've read that the problem is common and many modifications are available to fix it.

The OS-2 is the only one of the three pedals that was made in Japan and the date ties to 1986. The DS-1 is 1990 and the SD-1 dates to 1981, but these pedals began coming out of Taiwan in 1989-90, so I'm guessing 1991 with some serial number referencing getting lost in the conversion. The OS-2 was putting out a sound close to that MXR pedal mentioned above, so I'll probably pair it with the DS-1 and put the SD-1 on a board with the MXR.

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1980s DOD FX20 & FX60 Effects Pedals

Vintage American-made stomp boxes, still held in high regard to this day

The pedal parade continues, after researching countless online forums for information on what to look for and what to stay away from, around 15 pedals were recently acquired to put together a couple of boards for rhythm and lead guitar rigs and of course, most of the pedals will be featured here.

These DOD pedals always had good reviews and the prices were consistently lower than more-popular brands like Boss and Ibanez. In fact, the FX60 was chosen over a reissue Ibanez CS-9, considered a top rival to the Boss CE-2, arguably the most-famous chorus pedal of all-time. 

The Phasor actually hasn't been able to be used yet, as one of the eyes on the battery pad is busted and I don't have the correct adapter yet, so I'll either have to fix it or get a power supply. I paired the FX60 with an overdrive pedal and was dialing in on some classic Def Leppard sounds, stuff like Photograph and Armageddon It. That's usually the first thing that I do when I get these babies in the mail, just plug them in to make sure they work and try to replicate the sounds of bands or songs that I love.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here. 

1981 MXR Distortion + Effects Pedal

Vintage top-quality stomp box, made in the USA and used by Guitar Gods Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I hadn't really played with many effects in 20+ years of strumming guitars, but much has changed since then. This was the first piece that was acquired after that beautiful Cry Baby Wah and it's another classic boutique-type pedal.

MXR pedals were among the best in the business back in the late-70s, Eddie Van Halen changed the face of rock guitar with help from the Phase 90 pedal on the first two VH albums and Randy Rhoads gave it another makeover while using this model Distortion + unit with Ozzy Osbourne a few years later in the early 80's.

Like most distortion pedals, it's a little noisy and on it's own, it's a little dirty for my taste and doesn't quite have the amount of gain that I like. Another weird thing is that the distortion seems to have a small amount of flange built-in to it, not sure how to tone that down yet. I've paired it with a vintage overdrive pedal, which will also be featured soon, and that got closer to the tone that I like.

This is vintage, the old ones don't have LED lights or AC adapter jacks. They are very expensive too. The Phase pedals generally go for $150+ and these D+ units usually can't be had for anything less than $100. Like old guitars, these vintage pedals contain higher-quality parts and generally give off better tone.

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1974 Thomas Int'l Corp. Cry-Baby Wah Pedal

Vintage pedal, loaded with organ parts and made in Chicago, IL

This is the first effects piece that we've featured at SCGM, but it will be first of many to come here in the near future. This one is a very worn Cry-Baby Wah, pushing 40 years old and made before Dunlop purchased the rights and dominated the market.

I've never really played with many effects in my near 25 years as a player, but seeing all of the things that are flying around this area at a good price, no harm in picking up a few and seeing how it goes. Serious players love these older versions, because they're loaded with higher-quality parts and that usually makes for a warmer sound.

So far, I've been messing around with this pedal going through that Hohner Telecaster below, plugged directly into the recording deck and have mimicked everything from old school country western to euphoric Jimi-type sounds. Definitely money well-spent, if you're in the market for one, go older...

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.