Ode To The Yamaha UD Stomp
By Paul Marossy
Created 11/20/23
I wanted to dedicate a page to the Yamaha UD Stomp which has as all of the info for it in one place. I have been an Allan Holdsworth "fan" for quite a few years.
Ever since I picked up Metal Fatigue CD in a pawn shop for a couple of bucks around 1995 I have been hooked on his unique spacious sounding chordal
work and those lead sounds - neither of which have I been able to replicate in all the things I have made or bought.
I was vaguely aware of the Yamaha MagicStomp but the UD Stomp came in completely under the radar for me. These were being manufactured from 2002-2004,
around the time I had a toddler and a newborn, deep in the middle of absolute DIY guitar effect madness.
I am not a believer that the source of a player's "tone" is all to do with their equipment, and the fact that Holdsworth had a pretty consistent sound for
most of his career in spite of greatly varying amps and other equipment points to the magic being in his fingers and NOT his equipment. Obviously you can't create
complex delays with your fingers. However, approximating his sound is not easy to do. Until I recently discovered the UD Stomp, I never figured out what the secret
sauce was - the EIGHT delay lines! Some of those delay lines also have a degree of modulation on them. That is what gives his chordal work such depth and those lead sounds
that slippery quality that's hard to put into words. There is a lot of complexity in the sound but it's not obvious (to me) by just hearing it what exactly
it consisted of.
What I like about the UD Stomp is that Allan Holdsworth himself programmed the first 27 patches, and while I can't play like Allan I can instantly get some of
his sounds. The UD Stomp was actually Allan's idea. Yamaha's Ryuichiro "Rick" Kuroki had been working with Allan on some chorus patches for the AG Stomp and that was the genesis
of the UD Stomp project. Allan wanted to replace his huge rack mount setup with something that could fit into a little box. There's not a lot on the internet about
the UD Stomp, but I have found some things in forums where people were whining about the user interface and/or wanting to get that sound without having to buy one.
I am content having a real one and not something that doesn't really get you there. It won't really ever leave my studio/sound laboratory and I don't have a problem
consulting the manual if I have to. There is a learning curve involved with using it but once you get it, things get much easier from there. I have also programmed a few really great user patches I found into mine.
The UD Stomp was still shown on Yamaha's website until about 2008. The original list price was around $600. Apparently they were sold for around $200 towards the end
of production. I'm not sure what the story is behind all of that. I have taken mine apart to check the internal battery, clean it thoroughly, etc. I am impressed with
the engineering that went into it and the support that was available with a detailed patch list, user manual and excellent service manual (all three are linked below).
Shown below is the original packaging these came in. They weren't exaggerating when they state "world class modulation/delay effects processor". I have never achieved such
lush sounds until now!
Below we can see a page from Yamaha Japan highlighting the UD Stomp, along with the very cool custom guitar made by Yamaha for Allan. Not sure what the
exact story is behind that guitar but I like it. Allan used the UD Stomp for a few years, and was dismayed when Yamaha discontinued them. By 2008 he was using six MagicStomps in lieu of the
UD Stomps. Below we can see his arrangement for the dual UD Stomps at the time when he was using them. Certainly looks a lot simpler than his arrangement with the
six MagicStomps.
One thing I like about the UD Stomp is the Assignable Control. You can use this to control any number of things, and if you have it in a studio
environment that can be a pretty handy feature. You can also use the Yamaha FC7 foot controller to accomplish the same thing, or have control over two different
parameters in combination with the Assignable Control. Since the FC7 is readily available for a reasonable price, I would suggest buying one. No need to DIY that one,
you won't really save any money in doing that. It is also possible to use other brand pedals with the UD Stomp.
CLICK HERE
for a foot controller compatibilty chart.
Here is the "main" PCB removed. There are a lot of IC chips, microprocessors, etc. on this board. At upper left you can see the CR2450 battery which is supposed to
last three years but the one in my example appears to possibly be the original one furnished with the unit. It says "made in Japan" on it and still measures slightly
over 3 volts. I originally took this apart, well out of curiousity, but also because I thought maybe the Assignable Control pot was possibly broken but it turned out that
my unit just needed a factory reset to make that knob functional again.
I hope you found the information here useful. I suppose these are considered something of a collector item today but I have no problem actually
using my UD Stomp on a regular basis. It's a shame that these weren't a success but they are something of a niche product. I am happy to have been able to
pick one up for myself!