Emma DB-1 Discumbobulator
December, 2006
The Discumbobulator comes from Denmark, where days are long and pedals are funky. It’s honey-mustard color and gentle amber LED look niftier than you’d expect from such a simple design and rugged build. The full-bottom rubber pad and ultra-sturdy knobs portend a long life of stage use. EMMA’s aim was a pedal that could track very quickly, which it accomplishes both in the slurp-o-licious up mode and deep-diving down mode.
The knobs behave predictably, but it’s hard to get a broad range of sounds with bass. In particular, the width control has little effect unless you turn it up pretty far. In up mode, the sens knob has a wide-ranging impact on how long the filter is open; with a medium-output active bass, I found a 3 to 6 o’clock sweet spot for funky bass quacks. With all three knobs full up, the down effect has a nice, sharp falling sound that’s not too dark. Overall, the DiscumBOBulator has an open, trebly sound.
Details
List $260
Street $195
Power 9V batt. or ac adapter
True bypass Yes
Weight 1 lb
Warranty Three years limited
Made in Denmark
Contact Dist. in the U.S. by Godlyke; (973) 777-7477; www.godlyke.com
