9 of the Best Dr Scientist Pedals

As with near enough all of the Dr Scientist's Pedals I follow each one from conception through to launch. And right from the start - this looked like it was going to be a phenomenal Reverb pedal. 16 algorithms, 8 controls, dual-footswitches and a smart intuitive display-screen. Pretty much all elements which are dear to my heart. Yielding maximum usability and utility in such a compact form-factor - which really set the standard for this enclosure-size / class of pedal. Only one slight problem for me in having no stereo capability - meaning it is alas not suitable for my rig - people might say 'get a pair then', but at that cost it's not really a sensible or practical proposition. Everything else about this pedal is fantastic - some truly magnificent sounding reverb algorithms which are really intuitively easy to shape and modify. There's also some MIDI-connectivity here. Were this pedal stereo, there is no doubt that it would have been in the collection by now!

At my time of acquisition there were three different versions doing the rounds - a plainer previous version, one with uniform coloured knobs and the other multi-coloured knobs edition in accordance with the layers of graphics - a design touch which another Canadian Steve Demedash has taken to heart for his T-120 pedals - which also look at their best with multi-coloured control knobs(the metallic ones)! For the BitQuest I keep forgetting whether this started off as a fuzz - with the clean channel being and afterthought or vice-versa. While this is both a fantastic quirky 8-mode Multi-Modulation / Multi-Effects pedal, it's also a phenomenal fuzz in its own right. And when you combine the different effects flavours with the fuzz - you get the most superbly unique Fuzz-Modulator. I still don't believe there is any other pedal quite like this one. It had a long innings in my chain at the start when I first acquired it, but so much has happened of late that I keep forgetting to send it in for another rotation. Before the Atmosphere came about - it was probably equal pegging between the Dr Scientist fans as to whether the BitQuest or Frazz Dazzler was the overall favourite. The only issue here is remembering the CTRL 0,1,2 values for each mode / algorithm. I'm hoping that at some stage Ryan and Tanya see fit to give this a small screen of its own - and extend it more in a somewhat Atmosphere-style direction.

This was one of the truly great unsung analog BBD-style choruses - made using MN3007 chips. It was another one of Dr Scientist's stereo pedals, and had distinct Hold, Clock and Phase-Inversion controls. At its height it had scores of dedicated followers, it was a relatively pricey proposition though - while you still get the occasional ones popping up on Reverb.com - but they tend to be the older edition. I've really not seen that many of the last edition going second-hand recently. I feel that once Dr Scientist have done the finishing touches on the forthcoming Tremolessence Tremolo, they could probably do with looking to streamline and modernise this pedal too - as there is always high demand for unique and great sounding analog choruses.

And so to my most recently acquired Dr Scientist - you will likely have read a few of my articles on the subject by now. I was a little torn between the Dr Scientist Dusk and the Flower Pedals Hosta Filter within the larger desicion process. Yet on balance and after all the appropriate due-diligence I came down on the side of the Dusk being the best candidate for a rotation - in place of my well-loved and long-serving Mu-Tron Micro-Tron III. I tend to stick mostly to the envelope filter mode, occasionally the LFO, but really not so much the Cutoff mode. This pedal works like a dream to me - and exactly met my expectations on how it would work and sound. It's really appealing to look at, tweak and deploy. Just a really smart execution of a modern dynamic filter pedal - this is undoubtedly going to be another Dr Scientist long-termer for me - and no doubt has taken up a semi-permanent residence on slot #4!

My preferred editions of this pedal are the Gold Bar version - which I have, and then the Black Symbols Edition - in fact I probably prefer the earliest white edition too over the latest artwork. Of all the recent Dr Scientist pedals I'm not sure The Elements current artwork serves it particularly well. For me this is just a tremendous sounding proper amp-like drive / distortion / preamp pedal with some really clever extended-range tone-shaping, clipping and gain options. Note that in the higher gain mode you get a quite significantly high noise-floor too - meaning that I don't recommend you use this pedal for the higher gain range without having a noise gate. I've seen other players complain that the noise-floor is too high for them to consider using this pedal, but for me it sounds dynamic, vibrant and alive - somewhat visceral even. It does not sound like any specific amp as such - rather just a naturally overdriving fairly neutral yet dynamically textured tube-style amp, and with plenty of body and significant low-end frequency capabilities.

Not just my favourite Dr Scientist pedal, but probably my favourite fuzz of all time - with the Chase Bliss Audio Brothers just nipping at its heels - and probably the Abracdacbra Ayahuasca and Spaceman Sputnik III somewhere in the chasing pack too! The second Gain footswitch toggles between low and high gain modes - while I tend to run the pedal pretty consistently high gain - where the control that gets the most use it the Volts / voltage starve / bias sort of control - which delivers some fantastic textures. This is a high-wired visceral lighting-rod of a fuzz with just amazing texture and harmonics. As I mentioned in the intro - most associate this with a sort of high-gain Muff style pedal, while for me it's like a slightly more aggressive extended range Rat-style fuzz.

A totally new and revolutionary design of overdrive at the time still not repeated - which uses nano-tech molecular junctions in place of traditional clipping diodes. There are three different varieties of gain generation here that you can select via the Gain Stage rotary selector - OpAmp distortion, NPN transistor fuzz and MOSFET booster. You have a level control for each of those flavours, and separate universal controls for Volume, Treble and 3-way Gain Stage. I'm of course a huge fan of all manner of different styles of overdrives and distortions - and I consider this a sort of a missing piece of the puzzle for me to a degree. It's the one remaining Dr Scientist pedal that I really want to get my hands on - there are just very few in second-hand circulation - and they don't always materialise at the right condition and price and the appropriate time. I would actually quite like to see a MKII version of this where you can mix together the different Gain Stages in parallel!

A 500 millisecond analog-voiced warm and dynamic sounding dual-path delay with dual Rate controls, Depth, Repeats and Level. For an analog-sounding delay it also has quite a spacey ambient flavour to it. This is something of an old-fashioned pedal nowadays - especially compared with recent efforts from Keeley and Walrus Audio. Dr Scientist probably need to do something more along the lines of the Atmosphere for their next signature delay. This was the last selected pedal for this roundup - and it doesn't really quite match the innovations of the other pedals listed here. Still sounds great though!

And the good news here is that Ryan has begun teasing the return of the Tremolessence Tremolo. We don't know exactly what format it will take - 99% likely to be a compact enclosure edition - not sure it will retain its stereo ins and outs of this featured version, but I'm hoping it will take on a lot of the aspects of the Dusk - which I really rather like. The last version of the Tremolessence had 6 knobs - Level, Treble, Shape, Depth, Hold and Rate alongside 2 toggle-switches. The upper toggle switches between Triangle and Square Shape - allowing for separate control of each, while the lower toggle allows you to select between Hold - Momentary and Latching modes. The most unique thing about it for sure was its full stereo input and output! I included this in my family recent extensive 28-pedal Tremolo overview.