I just started playing the guitar when the pandemic started. I started with an acoustic and a few months later I bought a cheap, electric guitar package. It sounds pretty good (my playing on the other hand doesn’t) but once you get an electric you soon start to wonder how the artists make some of the sounds on the songs that you listen to. The first place to look is usually at pedals. They can get really expensive though and for a beginner who may never be able to really play much of anything I didn’t want to break the bank. That is where the Donner Mod Square Evolution+ Mini Pedal comes in.
Design
This is a mini pedal. It is very small so you have to keep that in mind if you want to be able to quickly turn it on and off with your foot while playing. The entire body is made of an aluminum alloy so it is very strong and well built. The switch has a very nice “click” to it and the knobs all have the right amount of tension when you turn them.
Speaking of the knobs there are four in total. The large one selects which effect you want to apply and there are seven in total. Then there are three small knobs above that which adjust the Effect Level, the Depth of the effect and the Rate of the effect. They all work great but the small knobs are very tiny so a little adjustment goes a long way.
The pedal is powered by a standard 9V pedal power adapter which is not included. I purchased one separately when I bought this pedal and it works great. Besides that there are your standar ¼” guitar cable input and output ports.
Use
Using the Mod Square Evolution Plus is the same as any other guitar pedal. You plug it in, plug your guitar into it and plug another cable out of the pedal and into your amp. Then it is just a matter of switching it on and adjusting the settings how you want them. The big difference with this pedal is that you get seven different effects to choose from where most pedals only have one. This is good and bad. If you are playing by yourself then having a lot of different effects in one pedal is great. If you want to combine effects (like distortion and chorus) then you will still need multiple pedals. The same if you want to quickly switch effects in the middle of a song. You don’t want to have to reach down to turn a knob while playing.
Function
The pedal functions exactly how you would expect it to. Each effect works perfectly when you select it and it definitely gives you a lot of options in your playing. Again I am not even a decent guitar player but even I can get some use out of it once in a while. My go to effect is Chorus B. A lot of songs use the chorus effect and I find that Chorus B generally sounds the best with my playing. I also really like Nirvana and Chorus B sounds more like Come As You Are than Chorus A does.
The seven effects are Chorus A, Chorus B, Phaser, Tremolo, U-Vibe, Jet and Vibrato. Depending on the sound you are trying to create all these effects may come into play but I believe the two Chorus effects and the Vibrato are probably your most common. The two Chorus effects are both nice and clean sounding. Chorus A to me sounds a little more like what you hear in songs from the 80’s where Chorus B is a little more like the sound you hear in Grunge songs from the 90’s. I am by no means an expert but that is what it sounds like to me.
The Phaser effect is also pretty good but not one that I would really use too often. It is an effect that makes me think mostly of Van Halen and I do not have anywhere near the ability required to attempt those songs. It sounds good though. Tremolo sounds awesome and gives a really cool vibrato, echo effect. U-Vibe is a little strange sounding to me. It reminds me of a spaceship for some reason. Jet is a flanger effect. Again it makes me think of Van Halen which I can’t play. It sounds good though. Vibrato is similar to the Tremolo effect but is more subtle. It also sounds pretty awesome.
The other thing that I noticed about this pedal is what I didn’t hear. That is hum. I didn’t hear any noticeable hum when this pedal was on and I know that can sometimes be an issue with a lot of guitar pedals. There is a pretty noticeable “pop” sound when it is switched on but again I think that is normal.
Conclusion
Overall the Donner Mod Square Evolution+ is a great little pedal. It is very well built and does what it says it does. It also is very affordable. I don’t think that you will get a better pedal anywhere near the price point which it comes at. For players like myself who are just starting out or players who just play songs in their bedroom having seven effects on one pedal is great. It saves a lot of money. I would definitely recommend the Donner Mod Square Evolution+ mini pedal to anyone who is looking for a multi effect pedal or just looking to get started with some pedals.
Click the pic on the left to see an unboxing video of the Donner Mod Square Evolution+ Mini Pedal.
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