First of the Holiday posts- two Donner Pedals

So, my family knows what I do, and sometimes, they even support it. They got me stuff for Christmas. Good stuff, mind you. But, it does give me a quandary- can I be respectful to my friends and family, and still give a fair assessment of the stuff? That's why I'm starting out easy-
my son bought a Donner Jet Convolution and a Donner Harmony Tri Chorus.
Now, I have already gone on record for how much I like their Yellow Fallout delay pedal. The Jet Convolution is, essentially to flanger pedals as the Yellow Fallout is to delay pedals. You've got your Mooer/Eno/TWA/ TC Electronics mini-pedal form- which is awesome, and possibly my favorite form factor for effect pedals. At about 32 bucks, it's definitely on the low end of the price spectrum, so the sacrifice you make is that two of the dials are plastic, and... that's about it. I'd put this up with Boss, EHX, Ibanez and MXR in terms of build quality. The small form factor  eliminates some areas of error- primarily, the power source must be via an external DC adaptor. But, that's not what makes this an equivalent to one of my favorites- it's the range of sounds. I've had a vintage Ross Flanger for 25 years, that I modified quite extensively, and this little pedal reminds me of what that Ross sounded like. There is a subtle, and slight delay on the effect to simulate a "stereo" sound, the sweep and range deep and full, and the noise is minimal. It does everything a vintage analog effect does, but, because it's digital, it's far more reliable and convenient than any analog pedal ever will be. Basically, I can get first album Chameleons on it, no problem.
The Harmony pedal, on the other hand... Well, let's get the negatives out of the way-
- Build quality is nowhere near up to snuff. The footswitch is weak, the knobs are loose, and the selector switch is nearly unusably tiny.
- For all the switches and dials, there are few effects that are both musical and forceful.
- Several of the dials have no purpose at all.
- In one of the settings, the volume cut is enough to make it nearly a kill switch.
Significant problems, yes, but, even this has two really good uses- when coupled with a volume boosting distortion pedal- I can dial up some "Geordie" tones. As in- that watery "Eighties/ Come As You Are" tone and "The Beautiful Dead/ Black Moon" heavy Gothic tone. Those are some useful sounds to have in the arsenal. Unfortunately, there are cheaper, and more direct routes to that sound. So, while I appreciate the gift, this will be a back up pedal for me.