Brand snobbery . . .

ICBM

I'm a bit of a brand snob now.

I won't use anything other than Boss if I can avoid it.

lovebuzz

Sassafras said:

Coopersonic do some good stuff but I could never buy something that was labelled like this:

they do a newer version that doesnt look or is called that

Sassafras

lovebuzz said:

Sassafras said:

Coopersonic do some good stuff but I could never buy something that was labelled like this:

they do a newer version that doesnt look or is called that

Just as well, I can't imagine many 12 year olds buy Coopersonic pedals.

guitarfishbay

My guitar pedals are almost all Boss/Dunlop except my noise gate which is an ISP. I have AMT preamps but that’s only for backup use and they were the cheapest way to get what I wanted. I’m not massively interested in expensive guitar pedals if I’m honest.

Bass... I’ve tried a load of stuff and I honestly think Darkglass do something special with their pedals you can’t currently get elsewhere for less. The Vintage Ultra is a fantastic Swiss Army Knife pedal.

meltedbuzzbox

ICBM said:

I'm a bit of a brand snob now.

I won't use anything other than Boss if I can avoid it.

Do you eat anything other than pie and mash?

ICBM

meltedbuzzbox said:

Do you eat anything other than pie and mash?

Yes, but I don't really like 'posh' food so that probably does fit .

The funny thing is that thirty years ago Boss were generally considered the 'best' pedals, and it was definitely thought to be a bit snobbish to refuse to use anything else.

Fast forward to now, and Boss pedals are still as good as they always were but for some reason people now prefer to use shitty mechanical switching, pedals where you can easily stand on the knobs, need isolated power supplies and all the other crap that Boss did away with .

It genuinely baffles me...

tampaxboo

'missionary position pedalboard syndrome' is definitely something i don't suffer from.

meltedbuzzbox

ICBM said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Do you eat anything other than pie and mash?

Yes, but I don't really like 'posh' food so that probably does fit .

The funny thing is that thirty years ago Boss were generally considered the 'best' pedals, and it was definitely thought to be a bit snobbish to refuse to use anything else.

Fast forward to now, and Boss pedals are still as good as they always were but for some reason people now prefer to use shitty mechanical switching, pedals where you can easily stand on the knobs, need isolated power supplies and all the other crap that Boss did away with .

It genuinely baffles me...

Because everything Boss does (with the odd exception) has been bettered by someone else, sonically speaking. Even analogman and Keeley became businesses making boss pedals sound better (ymmv and all that)

I don't long for a beige Volvo, I want a fucking Ferrari. 

Strangefan

Boss at the way for me, they never fail, sound good, and do the job, a pedal for me is to complement my tone not be the reason for it, and boss do that perfectly. 

ICBM

meltedbuzzbox said:

Because everything Boss does (with the odd exception) has been bettered by someone else, sonically speaking.

I don't agree.

If you actually compare stuff properly rather than just assuming that more expensive pedals sound better, most Boss pedals still sound at least as good as anything on the market.

Johnnyseven

I'm a big Boss fan. I've had my fair share of boutique dirt pedals, I used to use different amps on a weekly basis for rehearals and most boutique dirts would sound good on an amp one week but the next week they wouldn't sound good on another amp - but the Boss dirts I have since used generally sound good whatever I put them through.

meltedbuzzbox

ICBM said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Because everything Boss does (with the odd exception) has been bettered by someone else, sonically speaking.

I don't agree.

If you actually compare stuff properly rather than just assuming that more expensive pedals sound better, most Boss pedals still sound at least as good as anything on the market.

And I don't agree with you. That's the fun of it all.

But I think you will struggle to defend the boss flanger. They are awful.

ICBM

meltedbuzzbox said:

But I think you will struggle to defend the boss flanger. They are awful.

No, they're brilliant - the BF-2 anyway, the BF-3 isn't. And used on a lot of classic recordings I think.

Johnnyseven

The HF2 is excellent too.

siraxeman

I agree that 'generally' you can't go too far wrong with Boss...or Digitech. Industry standards really. So apart from volume(ie flooding the market), they must be doing something right...they just sound good.

ThePrettyDamned

meltedbuzzbox said:

ICBM said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Because everything Boss does (with the odd exception) has been bettered by someone else, sonically speaking.

I don't agree.

If you actually compare stuff properly rather than just assuming that more expensive pedals sound better, most Boss pedals still sound at least as good as anything on the market.

And I don't agree with you. That's the fun of it all.

But I think you will struggle to defend the boss flanger. They are awful.

The bf2 and hf2 are ace. 

I think the internal trim pots sometimes need a tweak on the bf2 as it's an old pedal and values may have drifted, but the one I had sounded great as it was, never touched a trim knob. 

No, boss are not the Kings of the weird and wonderful effects, but if you want a great sounding digital delay, analogue delay, tight overdrive, loose overdrive, distortion, fuzz, chorus, phase and flanger boss have you covered with some pretty top end effects. 

Danny1969

Most drive pedals, be a Boss OD or some exotic brand contain less than £10 of electronic components, then you have the box jacks and switch. I made a little vid showing how cheap you can make a typical Tubescreamer but with some slight changes to the diode arrangement you could also make a Boss OD1 \ Timmy etc 




I'm in agreement with ICBM about Boss pedals, they sound great are very reliable and quiet . People get bored and want to try other things though so there will actually always be a market for pedals which are dearer and not as well made

The_Ethical

Actually, it’s worth remembering that any pedal (with the possible exception of really heavy fuzz/metal devices) is only as good as the guitar feeding it and the amplifier following it.

It really is a waste of time spending a fortune on pedals if you haven’t got the basic tools in place. A good guitar and ampl are the most important parts of the signal chain, if you don’t get those right then you’re forever going to be chasing an unattainable goal.  So do yourselves a favour and get the amp and guitar right first.

JezWynd

ICBM said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Because everything Boss does (with the odd exception) has been bettered by someone else, sonically speaking.

I don't agree.

If you actually compare stuff properly rather than just assuming that more expensive pedals sound better, most Boss pedals still sound at least as good as anything on the market.

Agree, although I do think that Boss have a fixed idea of what guitar distortion should sound like; something even more apparent now that they’re moving ever more into digital. That said, some of their sounds like the HM-2 have come define genres.

After trying lots of different makes I find all the core sounds I need in Boss and Maxon plus a couple of EHX for more ‘out there’ effects.

Sassafras

With Boss you know you're getting a great sounding, good build quality and very reliable pedal.
With boutique, it's more of a crap-shoot and price is no indication.