Rocktron Tsunami: fix it, please.

2/10

As amazing as my Rocktron Short Timer delay is, I had high hopes for the Tsunami chorus. I tested it out with an ash body Tele and a Fender tube... I want to say a Hot Rod, but you know the amp. Fender through Fender, clean tone, a sound I know very well. I wanted to be able to zero in on everything this pedal does.

If you've read its descriptions, it's implied that it's a chorus + delay. A short delay function exists for what Rocktron calls "ambience," and the prospect of a chorus with a built-in, selectable delay is almost too good to be true.

Ok, it is too good to be true.

It's an attractive pedal, so first impressions tend to be good. Rocktron makes slick and stylish oversized pedals. I mean, these things are designed with a boutique look that's going to make gearheads look twice. The Tsunami is an eye-catching electric purple with two buttons and three LEDs, a visually striking pedal that screams potential.

I plugged it in and hit the "effect on" button and nothing happened. The delay was turned all the way down and it turns out that the left button doesn't add delay to the chorus, it's a selector! So I maxxed the delay, setting both relevant knobs to 10 (what delay only has two controls?), and was greeted with a slapback so light I could barely hear it. I mean, a reverb tank set to 1 gives me more ambience than this! Allen and I experimented with the controls a little, but the only way we could actually tell this effect was active was if Allen turned the knobs while I was playing. The speed shift also shifts the pitch, resulting in a light tonal warbling, but it's nothing to write Mono about.

I expected more from the makers of the Short Timer and the Austin Gold.

The chorus effect isn't any better. It's as heavy-handed as the delay function is weak, but what do you expect from a chorus controlled by (get this) only two knobs? It sounds like the plastic choruses that were a dime a dozen in the '90s, when all the 16-year-olds got Strats and solid state Princetons and learned "Come as You Are."

See, the biggest design flaw of this pedal is its raison d'etre! They had a great idea, a pedal marrying delay and chorus, but Rocktron's poor execution ruins both effects. They crammed two pedals into one and both effects suffered. Each effect is controlled by completely separate controls and there is absolutely no blend option!

This thing reminds me of DOD's bad years. No wonder I can no longer find it on Rocktron's site, or Musician's Friend.

It pains me to burn a company that's been so good to me, but I'm giving the Rocktron Tsunami 2 PBRs (of a possible 10).

c.hill