FLAMMA FC05 Modulation Guitar Pedal Review

★★★★★★★★★★

“*updated review!! Flamma reached out to me after seeing my initial review. They immediately addressed my concerns and shipped out a new pedal for me. The pedal works great and as I’ve already said, it sounds amazing and is super versatile. Great bang for the buck. So five stars for the pedal and five stars for Flamma customer service!!!! There aren’t a lot of companies out there that take that kind of initiative to make sure that their customer is happy! Based on the quality of the replacement and the customer service, I will definitely be buying more from this company!Original review:First the positive. The sounds this pedal makes for the price are great. There is a lot you can get out of this little box. Its compact and easily fits in your pedal board. The negatives. You cant leave it plugged in on the pedal board for some reason. You have to unplug it, and then replug it in order for it to power back on. There is also quite a bit of latency when you are switching between on and off for the effect. If these few minor problems could be fixed, this would be five stars. Because it really does have great sound options. I probably would have returned it, but I went a few days past the window.”

★★★★★★★★★★

“OVERALL:a fun little pedal with 6 of the 11 effects being quite decent. 3 effects are just meh, while 2 are unusable. the 6 useable effects are not best-of-class, but for that price i don't know of any other device that offers so many (decent!) options.PROs:- effects #1 chorus, #2 flanger, #3 tremolo, #4 phaser, #6 rotary, and #8 auto-wah are quite usable. none are the best version of the effect, but they're entirely decent.- the depth (AKA mix) knob is a great addition. the ability to blend in just enough effect is what makes this pedal useful. for example, 100% wet on chorus doesn't work for me, but roll it back to around 60% and it's quite nice.- solid construction (as described in the instruction booklet, "Full mental shell" :-)MEHs:- i'm not sure how i'd use effects #5 vibrato and #7 liquid (?). they don't sound terrible, they're just... not useful, IMHO. might work for others, YMMV.- effect #9 stutter is very similar to #3 tremolo. by playing with the knobs i could get them to sound almost the same.- although it offers 11 effects, quickly switching between effects on the fly isn't really an option: the knob settings for one effect are likely unusable for another, meaning that switching effects = fiddling with the knobs = not something you want to do in the middle of a jam session or a gig. so if you wanted, say, both chorus and a flanger in a live setting, i'd recommend getting two of these pedals.- tone knob isn't particularly useful. better than nothing, i guess.CONs:- power supply not included, and does not accept batteries - AKA bring your own wall-wart.- effects #10 ring(mod) and #11 low bit(crusher) are unusable (except for alien fx, maybe). very noisy too.- included instructions lack any info on the CTRL knob's function (see attached screenshot from the online version).”

★★★★★★★★★★

“This thing deserves 100 stars let alone 5. Any reviews you see with less than 5 are simply pure prejudice because they're stuck in the mindset that appeared somewhere in the early "00s that you had to spend tons of money for quality effects pedals. Those of us that do sound engineering for live production love old skool do it all analog wonders like this. I play in a very well known metal band and I recently purchased this after hearing the audio clipa mainly because I needed a quick and quality sounding chorus pedal. My guitar tech loves this as much as I do because with the rotation of one dial he can turn it to different effects for each song that requires the effect. I keep my chorus on as it's part of my tone with my Peavey 6505 1992. the REAL 5150 and Zakk Wylde overdrive pedal. When I solo my tech just turns it from chorus to wah and brings my volume up a bit. No need to buy multiple modulation pedals when companies this intelligent make truly unique and classic designed effects like this that aren't digital for an insane price point. How they made this pedal this inexpensive is beyond me and I'm insulted by all those big brands begging me to sign endorsement deals. If you play live shows and go on tour frequently this is a MUST for you and your guitar tech. Your tech will love you for having something small and simple for them to manipulate.”

★★★★★★★★★★

“Not enough comments about how awesome the color and finish is on these pedals. The Flamma is what I bought. It is a perfect way to get cheap access to tons of guitar effects - and super easy to use.Would be a great one-pedal pony for someone to start out with. Pair it with a mini amp and you have your own rock show. The Liquid and Stutt settings are my favorite.”

★★★★★★★★★★

“Many useful sounds in this little thing (FC-05 modulation pedal), and its small footprint is a plus.Importantly, it doesn't mess with your guitar tone when bypassed like some of the really cheap pedals.Most of the effects are decent. Use mine mostly for ring mod, occasionally for stutter or tremolo.Auto wah and flanger are pretty good but the vibe and 'liquid' (sample & hold filter) algorithms don't do those effects as well as a real pedal. Still, at this price it's good to have even low quality versions included.The box does prefer isolated power; I gave it an individual outlet on my Power2plus and that works fine.There's a bit of hiss even when it's bypassed; noticeable with an amp turned up to band volume.As long as there's a noisegate somewhere downstream, IMO it's good enough for live use.The casing is solid but I suspect the components inside are not so robust.Mine worked fine for eight months and then just died.Don't know for sure if it was defective or simply fragile.But at this price I just ordered another of the same pedal.”