Donner Mod Square Guitar Effect Pedal Review

Donner Mod Square Guitar Effect Pedal, 7 Modulation Modes Chorus Phaser Tremolo Flanger Rotary Vibrato True Bypass

Modulation effects may offer a wide range of textures to your tone, from subtle chorus to wild tremolo sounds. There are numerous alternatives for separate mod pedals, but having so many devices can quickly clutter a pedal board and introduce undesirable noise sources. To circumvent this, consider using a multi-mode pedal, such as the Donner Mod Square, a stomp box with seven different modulation styles. We took a close look at Mod Square to determine if it’s worth adding to your board.

specification

Brand	Donner
Style	Chorus, Modulation
Color	Blue Modulation
Item Dimensions LxWxH	1.89 x 1.77 x 3.74 inches
Item Weight	250 Grams

The Donner Mod Square is a low-cost micro pedal that provides a good introduction to FX units for beginners while also being sturdy enough for a working musician to use on their pedal board. It has a lot of capabilities, however more expert players and those who rely heavily on numerous modulation FX in their chains or need more fine control should go elsewhere.

Donner Company has released a new modulation pedal called Mod Square, which is a digital circuit pedal. The entire Aluminium-alloy stomp box has 7-Mode Modulation effects. With just one pedal, you may modulate seven various effects: Chorus A, Chorus B, Phaser, Tremolo, Rotary, Vibrato, and Flanger. This is an excellent pedal. Modulation effects offer melodic colour to your tone. E.LEVEL, DEPTH, and RATE are the three function knobs. The effect level is controlled by E.LEVEL. DEPTH is used to specify the depth of the effect. RATE is used to control the speed of the effect. When the effect is turned off, the signal from your instrument is routed through a non-electronic bypass line, supplying your amp with a direct.

Appearance and controls

This pedal, which is somewhat smaller than half the size of the Donner Vivid Series pedals we’ve previously evaluated, is a mini pedal, as we briefly said above. It’s still a hefty pedal despite its diminutive size. It is entirely made of metal, and even the bottom is rubberized and non-slip. This pedal’s control structure was clear-cut and easy to understand. Three adjustment dials were present: one for depth, one for rate, and one for effect level.

The effect level slider serves as a blender and determines how much of the effect is applied to the signal. The depth control alters the height difference on the signal between the peaks and troughs. By putting each wave closer together, the rate knob can speed up or slow down modulation. The modulation effect that the pedal emits can be changed using the biggest dial. There are 7 options available, including a phaser, tremolo, vibrato, flanger, two distinct chorus kinds, and rotary amp effects.

The unit is switched between on and true bypass using a strong footswitch, allowing the signal to travel through the pedal without being impacted by the electronics. True bypass switch lets your instrument’s signal pass through a non-electronic bypass line when the effect is disengaged, feeding your amp with direct, unaltered signal from your instrument. High quality Electronic components and circuit design keep your tone clear and pure.

performance and sound

The Mod Square is a well-made pedal in terms of design and technology, in our opinion. When turned off, the true bypass worked as intended with no tone alteration. We also noticed that it was silent, with no discernible extra noise coming from utilising this machine.

Starting with the chorus settings, we progressed through the different pedal settings. We had a great deal of fun experimenting with the tones we obtained by varying the rate depth and level for both Chorus A and Chorus B. Both settings were quite practical. We saw no tone or volume loss in this configuration, and we believe the Mod Square provides excellent value for the chorus alone.

Another one of our favourites was the Phaser setting. Even with the pots fully loaded, the sweep remained gentle and subtle, and there was no strange feedback or unexpected sonic changes. One of the settings we didn’t particularly like was tremolo. Even at low rates and depth levels, the effect overwhelmed the signal since it was exceedingly difficult to achieve a modest effect. Will the Rotary effect be enough to persuade anyone that you have a Leslie, though? No. However, it gets you relatively close while costing much less and taking up much less room.

Vibrato was our least favourite setting out of all of them. Similar to the Tremolo setting, the signal was severely overwhelmed. No matter what the rate and depth dials were set to, the vibrato was too “in your face” and difficult to utilise genuinely as soon as the effect level dial was high enough to hear the effect.

Finally, we tried out the Flanger mode. Although it wasn’t as good as an MXR Flanger, this was a great alternative if you wanted to obtain some Van Halen-inspired tones on a small budget. Along with the Chorus settings, we considered the controls to be one of the most beneficial elements because they allowed us to customise some fantastic sounds.

conclusion

Donner has always brought out the best products in the market. Even though the Donner Mod Square is far from flawless, we still believe it to be a nice pedal. It’s durable enough to withstand gigging and inexpensive enough to grab and play around with on the spur of the moment; if you do, we predict you’ll make it a permanent fixture on your board.

We didn’t particularly like all of the settings, but the ones we did more than made up for the Mod Square’s (low) price, so we have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone seeking for a cheap modulation FX pedal.