DOD FX25 envelope filter interesting discovery

[Legion <legion@helpwantedproductions.com>]

A few weeks ago I posted asking for ideas on what part I needed to fix the
contact button on an old DOD stompbox. I eventually called Harman music
(who owns DOD) and the were super friendly and just mailed me the part
free. I soldered it in and all is well on this 20+ year old little green
box.

In the meantime I bought another one from someone. They confirmed it was
the "green older two knob version" so I figured I'd use one as a
spare. Well it arrived and indeed was an older version but it also a
metalic green type paint. Different color than my real old one.

No big deal I told myself but when I plugged it in I noticed it seemed a
little different. I dug out my other original flat green pedals and A/B'd
them for about half and hour last night.  

I often hear the "old two knob fx25 *sounds*  better than the current
FX25B three knob one). What I discovered is there is pretty obvious
difference in the two different "two knob" versions in an of themselves.

The flat green one looks like this:  
http://guitargeek.com/gear/img/dod_fx25.gif

This unit sounds amazing with guitar. It is incredibly expressive and
sensitive to picking and volume changes. Very juicy and wet. I woudl say
this is more "delicate" in it's sound as it picks up almost everything and
can be a soft warble or a louder sweep. 

The metallic green one looks like this:
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/754/

This unit has more rumbling and low end and is not as sensitive and 
expressive. It is a bit more "dark" and direct. You have to pick harder to
get a similar effect and it sweeps more readily than the older one. It
also seems to have a point on the range at about 2-3 o'clock where is
opens up dramatically where the other one is a smooth tranistion all
around. It does sound very wet as well but is more "raw" if that makes
sense. The metallic unit I have is "rev G" on the mother board.

I don't know how these compare to the current FX25B which adds a third
"blend" knob to the mix. I would guess however that that model has more in
common with the metallic later rev than the original flat green unit.

Both are nice autowahs certainly and if you're not picky both would
probably suit all applications. I'm thinking the older one is perfect for
guitar and bass and instruments with more dynamics. The later rev might be
more interesting for drum machines or processing samples and such. 

They are certainly cheap enough used (usually around $25-30 or so) and
even new the FX25B is only $40 so they're interesting enough to experiment
with. 

I guess my conclusion is when people say "the newer one isn't as good as
the older one" I don't know if that is true or not. Or more accurately
*which* older one are they comparing it to. IMO the original all green
unit is the "best" sounding and the most playable. It could be the
metallic one is the later rev that mutated into the current model and is
very similar to it. 

Well regardless they are all fun and for the $$ can't be beat. I ran both
of them together in my mini marshall of course and had waaay more warble
than is healthy :)

Hope that geeky info helps someone. 

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