NPD: The 90s Called…

[greatmutah]

Got this guy in the mail today. You know, growing up and learning to play guitar in the 90s you’d have thought I’d have had a DOD pedal. Never did. My first pedal was a Morley Wah and then eventually some Boss things. Pretty sure I got my Crybaby then too. But a friend and I were talking about these after having watched some YouTube vids so I got this one:



I’m sure these things sounded awful through every kids shitty crate or peavey practice amp. But through a good amp and speakers? Not bad at all to me. It’s definitely got a unique sound and it’s easy to get bad sounds out of it but on the whole it’s fun. There’s folks who swear Kurt Cobain used one, others who said he only had it on his board and never touched it, etc. I played some Nirvana riffs on it and it did well. It fit that kind of vibe. Add in my Small Clone and I could cover most of their catalog. Drop the treble and turn up the bass and it gets nice and doomy. I like that the pedal doesn’t really clean up either. Even at the lowest setting on the Grunge knob, it’s still distorting pretty good. You can just increase the saturation. Considering I paid $80 for this second version, I’m happy. Would have loved to have one with “Butt” and “Face” controls but this was much less and still came with everything. Box, manual, etc. DOD made cool stuff. Wasn’t for everyone but it was definitely different.

 

[SonVolt]

I was a kid learning play in the '90s and Guitar World always said Kurt played a "Roland" distortion pedal but there was no internet back then and I had no idea where on EARTH anyone bought Roland pedals. I never knew Roland and Boss were synonymous because again there was no internet gear was a mystery and the sperm perm sales guys at the local guitar stores wouldn't take us grunge kids seriously because we were broke.

That said, even back then I felt like DOD was junk and that Kurt never touched one. Or if he did it he was being ironic.

 

[greatmutah]

His tech confirmed he had one on his board. Never used it but it was there. I think he had it on there to fuck with people. For what this thing is, it’s pretty fun. There’s a couple other DOD pedals from that era I wanted to try that I may grab. If nothing else, apparently PastFX does modern clones of the Punkifier and FX65 Chorus.

 

[dronerstone]

His tech confirmed he had one on his board. Never used it but it was there. I think he had it on there to fuck with people. For what this thing is, it’s pretty fun. There’s a couple other DOD pedals from that era I wanted to try that I may grab. If nothing else, apparently PastFX does modern clones of the Punkifier and FX65 Chorus.

Thing is, Kurt didn't have a "board". He had the DOD Grunge with him at one particular show and reportedly threw it into the audience at some point.

He thought it was gimmick-y/pathetic and didn't like it at all.

His main drive pedals were a DS-1 (earlier stuff, up until after "Nevermind"), followed by a DS-2, which he later on used in turns with an OG SansAmp (starting in 1993).

Besides these, during studio sessions he's said to have used a Rat, FY-6, and (showing up without gear in January 1994) a Metal Zone, among probably a few other "curiosity" pedals, e.g. Albini's "Pedal X" during their 1993 sessions.

Thing is, the original SansAmp is very probably the closest I've come to his "In Utero" era sounds without completely disappearing in the rabbit hole.

Anyhow, the DOD Grunge is a fun thing to keep around, a strange piece of pedal history, imho.

 

[SonVolt]

I think Nevermind was a DS-1 into his Mesa preamp + Marshall 4x12. Then I think I remember reading that In Utero was a DS-2 (and maybe other stuff) into a blown out Fender combo. I remember Grohl commenting in a GW article on how nasty/bad (not in a good way) it sounded in the room while tracking. Any Grunge pedal Kurt had was probably a joke b/c it was thought to be lame at the time unless you were a kid. It may sound fine, but the marketing was antithetical to everything Kurt stood for.

 

[Frodebro]

I remember when those were released. I managed a music store at the time and had a couple of them along with the rest of the DOD line.

 

[greatmutah]

The DS-1/DS-2 and SansAmp I was aware of. I heard Lithium was also a Muff into a Bassman. I think aside from the pedals, part of the In Utero sound was Albini’s Twin with whatever it had in it for speakers and Kurt’s dirt pedals. And who knows how well kept up that Twin was. Probably wasn’t.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I was a kid learning play in the '90s and Guitar World always said Kurt played a "Roland" distortion pedal but there was no internet back then and I had no idea where on EARTH anyone bought Roland pedals. I never knew Roland and Boss were synonymous because again there was no internet gear was a mystery and the sperm perm sales guys at the local guitar stores wouldn't take us grunge kids seriously because we were broke.

This hits me right in the nostalgia, but I lost it at "sperm perm"

 

[slip]

I was at the '93 San Diego show where he threw it into the audience

 

[EOengineer]

I had been playing for a couple years and was maybe just going into high school when the Grunge pedal came out. Most of us laughed at it.

Oddly, though I never liked either piece on their own, a friends Grunge pedal through his Marshall 4100 dual reverb actually sounded very cool. It was like those two pieces formed Voltron or something.

 

[KingsXJJ]

I don’t give a crap what Kurt played or thought.

Never had a Grunge pedal but I did enjoy the Grunge voice on my GSP-2101.

 

[EOengineer]

I don’t give a crap what Kurt played or thought.

If the rest of us had to endure pages of boomers fighting over what voltage EVH ran his Marshalls at every time someone mentioned his name for the last 30 years, you can withstand a page of bickering about which pedal Kurt played before he tried to catch that bullet with his teeth.

 

[Devin]

I bought one of these in the late 90's and used it for years

It's certainly got a unique sound lol

ALL THE GAINS

 

[KingsXJJ]

If the rest of us had to endure pages of boomers fighting over what voltage EVH ran his Marshalls at every time someone mentioned his name for the last 30 years, you can withstand a page of bickering about which pedal Kurt played before he tried to catch that bullet with his teeth.

Sorry man but you lost me when you put EVH and Kurt in the same category!

But I get your point. I’m not stopping any discussion really though. Just adding that my opinion of the Grunge pedal doesn’t involve whether or not Kurt played it or what he thought of it. EVH is a different matter as he wasn’t just a player but a self-taught (from what I know) engineer. I think you might appreciate that distinction @EOengineer especially!

 

[dronerstone]

Btw, Van Halen seems to have been a fan of Nirvana, not so much of their second guitarist tho. Make of that what you think: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/when-eddie-van-halen-was-racist-to-nirvana-pat-smear/

 

[EOengineer]

Sorry man but you lost me when you put EVH and Kurt in the same category!

But I get your point. I’m not stopping any discussion really though. Just adding that my opinion of the Grunge pedal doesn’t involve whether or not Kurt played it or what he thought of it. EVH is a different matter as he wasn’t just a player but a self-taught (from what I know) engineer. I think you might appreciate that distinction @EOengineer especially!

FWIW I didn’t think you were trying to stop any conversation from happening. I was more or less just finding an awkward spot to park a dumb joke.

Unfortunately people always associate the Grunge pedal with Cobain because of the name.

 

[greatmutah]

Yeah that was the MTV label they got that they never asked for.

 

[SonVolt]

Sorry man but you lost me when you put EVH and Kurt in the same category!

You're right. Definitely not in the same category. To kids/teens that came of age during the early/mid '90s Kurt was vastly superior to EVH. Eddie was pure cornball cheese from an even cheesier party band that my racist uncle liked.

 

[duzie]

You're right. Definitely not in the same category. To kids/teens that came of age during the early/mid '90s Kurt was vastly superior to EVH. Eddie was pure cornball cheese from an even cheesier party band that my racist uncle

I really don’t understand why you included the racist uncle part here

 

[AutomationBias]

I was a kid learning play in the '90s and Guitar World always said Kurt played a "Roland" distortion pedal but there was no internet back then and I had no idea where on EARTH anyone bought Roland pedals. I never knew Roland and Boss were synonymous because again there was no internet gear was a mystery and the sperm perm sales guys at the local guitar stores wouldn't take us grunge kids seriously because we were broke.

That said, even back then I felt like DOD was junk and that Kurt never touched one. Or if he did it he was being ironic.

That brings back memories. The flip side of there being no internet (or internet being very hard to come by) is that you could still find deals. I used to keep a copy of the Vintage Guitar Magazine Price Guide in the car, and I'd go around to flea markets and pawn shops all over the area looking for obscure gear. Everybody knew that Fender and Gibson were worth something (often more than they were asking), but less well-known stuff was often extremely cheap.