Viscount EFX2

The Viscount EFX2 is a budget preset multi-effects unit from the Italian maker Viscount, reviewed by Sound On Sound in November 1993 alongside its larger sibling, the EFX1. It is a rack-style processor aimed at players who want a set of ready-made effects without menus or memory banks: seven basic effects or combinations, each with seven variations, for 49 effects in all, and one user adjustable parameter per variation¹.

What it does

The EFX2 sits at the simple end of Viscount's range. Sound On Sound's reviewers, Derek Johnson and Paul White, described it as "much simpler than the EFX1, offering seven basic effects or combinations"¹. Where the EFX1 offered deeper editing, the EFX2 is a pick-a-preset design: you choose an effect category, choose one of its seven variations, and adjust a single parameter with a knob. There is no programmability, no MIDI, and no power switch¹.

The reverb settings show how the one-parameter approach works in practice. Three of the reverb variations offer variable reverb time, set from the parameter knob, while the remaining four have a fixed decay and vary something else instead: gate hold time, HF damping, or early reflections delay¹.

Controls

The front panel is all knobs, which keeps operation quick:

What reviewers said

Sound On Sound's verdict was favourable on the sounds that matter most to a guitarist. On reverb, reviewer Derek Johnson said: "I thought the reverb settings very usable; the Plate was particularly suited to drums."¹

On the overdrive side, the reviewers noted that "the overdrive effects sound pretty good DI'd, so speaker simulation is obviously included in the processing"¹. That matters if you want to run the unit direct into a mixer or recording interface without an amplifier, since the built-in speaker simulation stands in for a cab.

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