Unimpressed with the Unbuffer and Morningstar

[DrewJD82]

At this point I wish I never even played a Fuzz Face into a Marshall, I’d rather not know how fucking awesome it is so I wouldn’t be as bummed as I am now.

Putting either of my Fuzz Faces in the loop of the Morningstar ML5R turned them into glitch-effect boxes, completely unusable. The entire reason I wanted to build a whole ass pedalboard was so I could put a fucking Fuzz Face on it, so when I saw Axxess made the Unbuffer- specifically this bit about it-

I got STOKED!!! There’s no way Axxess is going to put out junk! Ugh…..I just saw the price again, I thought I spent half that on it.

I get it plugged into the Fuzz Face/Loop switcher-

And the result? It removes the hard start/stop glitching effect but reduces the fuzz by about 50%. I stacked it with the NOTAKLON and BE-OD and still couldn’t get that thing sounding like an actual Fuzz Face. I thought the battery might be dead so I yank it off and put it before the wah pedal, plenty of fuzz but was so fucking loud with RF it was completely unusable, already been there, done that with these. Plug it directly into the front of the amp and there’s all that amazingly perfect Fuzz Face glory.

If I can’t use this thing with the loop switcher, it’s useless to me outside of the studio. And if I have to wait until whatever the hell is causing the ridiculous RF to stop anytime I want to record with it, it’s useless.

This is a night where I put that pedalboard inside the road case and forget it exists for a bit because it’s been such a frustrating experience I’m completely ready to rip everything off it and liquidate it just to be rid of the whole fucking mess.

 

[Blix]

A FF just have to be first in the chain outside of loops, that is the LAW! :)

 

[DrewJD82]

Same thing with the Fulltone ‘70, same thing with the Dover Drive GE.

I would love to know what switcher this supposedly works with, because it’s definitely not a Morningstar.

 

[metropolis_4]

Have you tried putting it in loop A and adjusting the impedance trim pot? I’ve been curious if those work for FF.

If you need a loop switcher and don’t need to re-order pedals I wonder if the ML5 would work any better. I don’t believe any of its loops are buffered like the ML5R

 

[DrewJD82]

Have you tried putting it in loop A and adjusting the impedance trim pot? I’ve been curious if those work for FF.

If you need a loop switcher and don’t need to re-order pedals I wonder if the ML5 would work any better. I don’t believe any of its loops are buffered like the ML5R

I’m about the yank the switcher off to try it because I’m too stubborn to just not touch the stuff while I’m already stopping myself from throwing pedals through my TV.

 

[Mongillo19]

This is a night where I put that pedalboard inside the road case and forget it exists for a bit because it’s been such a frustrating experience I’m completely ready to rip everything off it and liquidate it just to be rid of the whole fucking mess.

Do you need the midi and switching? I know it prevents "tap dancing" but is it more an ease of use thing or is it a necessity?

 

[DrewJD82]

You have to be fucking kidding me.

There is no way I am not involved in some kind of prank show, not after today’s endless effort to force me to deal with mediocrity every fucking step of the way.

Before sticking a screwdriver into the back of the Morningstar I wanted to ensure it was a standard Trim pot I could use a small screwdriver for, I yank it up and try looking through the hole but I can’t see anything but some kind of circle inside, but nothing looking like it’s going to turn or is even protruding from the circuit board. So I pull all the velcro off and start unplugged half the cables so I don’t stress the cables and remove the bottom of the ML5.

What the fuck is this bullshit? I see two variable impedance areas with two different surfaces. Since there’s nothing to even turn on VR1 I lightly poked around VR2 with a tiny screwdriver just to see how it’s supposed to turn and that thing is so damn flimsy I’m not willing to touch it further or even attempt to move it.

This is garbage.

 

[DrewJD82]

Do you need the midi and switching? I know it prevents "tap dancing" but is it more an ease of use thing or is it a necessity?

None of this stuff is necessity, but there’s no logical way to tap dance even if I wanted to without it turning into amateur hour, it’s hard enough to see one footswitch you’re hitting out of the corner of your eye while you’re singing, never mind navigating your foot around a cramped board to hit a true bypass switch before/after hitting an entirely different pedal to switch everything else in the rig.

I know there are fuzzes out there that’ll work in a loop, it just sucks that the entire origin of building a pedalboard was to be able to use a Fuzz Face and not some other pedal that sounds like a Fuzz Face but isn’t an actual Fuzz Face. I likely wouldn’t even be the gear nerd I am had it not been for that pedal. Now, I could understand if I didn’t read up on any of this before I purchased everything, specifically Fuzz Faces and Morningstar ML5R’s. There’s not a lot of info out there, the switcher is newer, but there’s an insinuation you could make fuzzes work with it due to that variable impedance, if it even presented an issue to begin with, and we see how that worked out.

 

[Blix]

None of this stuff is necessity, but there’s no logical way to tap dance even if I wanted to without it turning into amateur hour, it’s hard enough to see one footswitch you’re hitting out of the corner of your eye while you’re singing, never mind navigating your foot around a cramped board to hit a true bypass switch before/after hitting an entirely different pedal to switch everything else in the rig.

I know there are fuzzes out there that’ll work in a loop, it just sucks that the entire origin of building a pedalboard was to be able to use a Fuzz Face and not some other pedal that sounds like a Fuzz Face but isn’t an actual Fuzz Face. I likely wouldn’t even be the gear nerd I am had it not been for that pedal. Now, I could understand if I didn’t read up on any of this before I purchased everything, specifically Fuzz Faces and Morningstar ML5R’s. There’s not a lot of info out there, the switcher is newer, but there’s an insinuation you could make fuzzes work with it due to that variable impedance, if it even presented an issue to begin with, and we see how that worked out.

That's why a real pro company like RJM has a per preset switchable buffer, so you can place a Fuzz Face in a loop... :)

 

[DrewJD82]

That's why a real pro company like RJM has a per preset switchable buffer, so you can place a Fuzz Face in a loop... :)

View attachment 58801

Yeah, I think I’m going to shelve the Fuzz Face until I have something that I can open up and not find what I found above.

 

[metropolis_4]

You have to be fucking kidding me.

There is no way I am not involved in some kind of prank show, not after today’s endless effort to force me to deal with mediocrity every fucking step of the way.

Before sticking a screwdriver into the back of the Morningstar I wanted to ensure it was a standard Trim pot I could use a small screwdriver for, I yank it up and try looking through the hole but I can’t see anything but some kind of circle inside, but nothing looking like it’s going to turn or is even protruding from the circuit board. So I pull all the velcro off and start unplugged half the cables so I don’t stress the cables and remove the bottom of the ML5.

View attachment 58800

What the fuck is this bullshit? I see two variable impedance areas with two different surfaces. Since there’s nothing to even turn on VR1 I lightly poked around VR2 with a tiny screwdriver just to see how it’s supposed to turn and that thing is so damn flimsy I’m not willing to touch it further or even attempt to move it.

This is garbage.

That’s crazy, it’s been a few weeks since I saw the bottom of mine but I don’t remember it looking like that.

 

[metropolis_4]

That's why a real pro company like RJM has a per preset switchable buffer, so you can place a Fuzz Face in a loop... :)

View attachment 58801

My Fender Switchboard made by RJM lasted about a month before it stopped working and even when it did work it was a huge PITA to deal with, so I don’t have the highest opinion of RJM right now

 

[Blix]

My Fender Switchboard made by RJM lasted about a month before it stopped working and even when it did work it was a huge PITA to deal with, so I don’t have the highest opinion of RJM right now

The Fender isn't made by RJM, you can't blame them for that.... :)

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

You have to be fucking kidding me.

There is no way I am not involved in some kind of prank show, not after today’s endless effort to force me to deal with mediocrity every fucking step of the way.

Before sticking a screwdriver into the back of the Morningstar I wanted to ensure it was a standard Trim pot I could use a small screwdriver for, I yank it up and try looking through the hole but I can’t see anything but some kind of circle inside, but nothing looking like it’s going to turn or is even protruding from the circuit board. So I pull all the velcro off and start unplugged half the cables so I don’t stress the cables and remove the bottom of the ML5.

View attachment 58800

What the fuck is this bullshit? I see two variable impedance areas with two different surfaces. Since there’s nothing to even turn on VR1 I lightly poked around VR2 with a tiny screwdriver just to see how it’s supposed to turn and that thing is so damn flimsy I’m not willing to touch it further or even attempt to move it.

This is garbage.

Have you reached out to Morningstar? The VR2 looks...fine? Most trimmer pots I've seen inside pedals are all plastic. It's not like you're trying to drive a wood screw into maple or anything, just turning a pot. VR1 does look problematic.

 

[DrewJD82]

That’s crazy, it’s been a few weeks since I saw the bottom of mine but I don’t remember it looking like that.

That put an end to my Morningstar experience. I kept looking at it trying to figure out what was up, it’s a screw on VR2 but looks like it wasn’t machined right or something, it’s so small I can barely see it but it looks like it’s missing material under one side of the head, or it’s so small I just can’t make out what it actually is. It wobbled when I touched it with the screwdriver, but I figured ‘screw it, if it breaks off it’ll just work like it already does.’

I can barely turn the thing with an eyeglass screwdriver and I have nothing smaller than that, I got it turned all the way down, I think, and it sounded like the Unbuffer with half the fuzz. There might be a happy medium but it would require me removing the switcher from the board entirely so I can keep it upside down and under a magnifying glass so I could see if and how much the screw is moving and if that still didn’t deliver what I wanted, knowing I’d have to plug all that crap back in (didn’t think to label the cable ends either)……I’m going to move on before I invite more frustration with a product I’m already unsatisfied with.

Outside of the first day of hellish programming, I lost all my settings on the cloud the other day and occasionally when I hit the MC6, it’ll switch my VP4 (which is after the ML5 in the MIDI chain) but won’t switch the loop. It’s rare, but it’s happened enough that I’d note it as something ‘that happens’. I don’t know if I just got a bunk ML5R or what, but this has been less than satisfying.

 

[DrewJD82]

Have you reached out to Morningstar? The VR2 looks...fine? Most trimmer pots I've seen inside pedals are all plastic. It's not like you're trying to drive a wood screw into maple or anything, just turning a pot. VR1 does look problematic.

I’m going to. I was expecting the white plastic trim pots, I would certainly prefer them after this. I wrote it while you were writing this, but I got VR2 to turn and it actually does feel a bit like driving a wood screw into maple, it definitely didn’t turn like a regular trim pot. I’ll take my money back on this but I’m all set with a replacement.

 

[DrewJD82]

Now I’m going to plug into my AxeFX, where I have not dealt with any of this bullshit for 7 years.

Of course, I also haven’t gotten a Fuzz Face into a Marshall experience, either.

 

[metropolis_4]

The Fender isn't made by RJM, you can't blame them for that.... :)

About the Fender Switchboard | RJM Music Technology, Inc.

www.rjmmusic.com

 

[metropolis_4]

That put an end to my Morningstar experience. I kept looking at it trying to figure out what was up, it’s a screw on VR2 but looks like it wasn’t machined right or something, it’s so small I can barely see it but it looks like it’s missing material under one side of the head, or it’s so small I just can’t make out what it actually is. It wobbled when I touched it with the screwdriver, but I figured ‘screw it, if it breaks off it’ll just work like it already does.’

I can barely turn the thing with an eyeglass screwdriver and I have nothing smaller than that, I got it turned all the way down, I think, and it sounded like the Unbuffer with half the fuzz. There might be a happy medium but it would require me removing the switcher from the board entirely so I can keep it upside down and under a magnifying glass so I could see if and how much the screw is moving and if that still didn’t deliver what I wanted, knowing I’d have to plug all that crap back in (didn’t think to label the cable ends either)……I’m going to move on before I invite more frustration with a product I’m already unsatisfied with.

Outside of the first day of hellish programming, I lost all my settings on the cloud the other day and occasionally when I hit the MC6, it’ll switch my VP4 (which is after the ML5 in the MIDI chain) but won’t switch the loop. It’s rare, but it’s happened enough that I’d note it as something ‘that happens’. I don’t know if I just got a bunk ML5R or what, but this has been less than satisfying.

That’s so weird, and frustrating. Sorry to hear it’s been such a bad experience for you. I’d be moving on and not looking back too if I was in your position.

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Morningstar products, but I know that doesn’t mean anything when you’re dealing with the BS you’re going through with yours

 

[Blix]

About the Fender Switchboard | RJM Music Technology, Inc.

www.rjmmusic.com

Yes, which says they're not making it. They were part in designing it.

The Fender is made in China to a price point, their made in USA equivalent cost almost double, and have quite a few more features.