Has any one thought of setting up an effects database for reviewing stompboxes (that you build and buy), similar to the harmony central data base?

Apart from having reviews for D.I.Y effects. It might be helpful having reviews from people in this community as they are generally pretty fussy about their effects. (Often on harmony central you can get over enthusiastic 15 year olds who have just bought their first super cheap pedal give it an overly high rating)

Just a thought...

It could be a good idea, the only problem with HC, and many other databases, is that thers noone who writes anything about something they don't like. So if thos who write reviews could be as natural as possible, it would be a perfect idea.

Hmm yeah it is a good idea. For now you could just type report or the name of the pedal in the search engine, should come up with alot of people's opinions about a certain pedal, at least the DIY ones.

Ciao.

Quote from: GnomeSo if thos who write reviews could be as natural as possible, it would be a perfect idea.

We'd be dealing with very subjective criteria.  All our setups and tastes differ, so a review that focuses purely on sound (price, construction quality, and customer support really aren't applicable) may not mean much to some.  Could a review communicate more than "I didn't like it, but you might" (or vice-versa) to the reader?

Also, a big difference between the H-C commercial gear reviews and reviews of DIY-FX would be the presence of the circuit designer(s).  For example, would someone feel comfortable posting a scathingly negative review of a runoffgroove.com project at a forum that Gary or I visit?  

Posting questions like "How do I get more bass in the Thunderchief?" here at the forum is better than writing a review that says "The Thunderchief doesn't have enough bass!"

This forum can easily serve as a review database if people continue to post build reports.  Plus, you get the bonus of advice regarding the circuit from other builders or the designer.

Quote from: Chris S
Apart from having reviews for D.I.Y effects. It might be helpful having reviews from people in this community as they are generally pretty fussy about their effects.

I think it would be better to have just the DIY effects.  All of us could review our various builds-like at tonepad.com except with every project.  We could organize it by site.

-Colin

Maybe it could be a database of DIY pedals only where people can post details about how the build went.  Stuff like which schematic they used, any problems they had, which tweaks they used, advice for people thinking of building the pedal too, oh...and how the pedal ended up sounding.

...yup...and keep it organized.  There are so many questions that are answered here so many times, becusae the searching isn't effective enough...

Aron has a DIY review page at the Stompbox Forum home:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/cgi-bin/webbbs_scripts/reviews_config.pl .  Not used very often, though.

Alex

Re: Saying something bad about a fellow posters pedal...

I don't think this will necesarily be a problem if we treat the pedals that people design as artworks (which I think they are). A picture of the Mona Lisa may look awful in my kitch 60's retro lounge room, but doesn't make it a bad picture.

So what might be important is saying what your set up is and what kind of sound you are going for and why the particular pedal did or didn't help.

For example I love my Brian May treble booster, but it doesn't even get close to getting a Queen sound (probably because I didn't use a germanium transistor)

The way the harmony central is organised is kind of helpful, and perhaps with a DIY community we are more likely to build pedals that don't suit our set ups.

Hi,

there is one Site in Germany, where the Webmaster is setting up such a Database...

www.dietside.de (look at "Eigenbauten") there is my XtraDrive tested from the Owner of the Side.
There is a huge Test of much pedals ...

bye
Oliver