'Affordanble' mini-pedals: much of a muchness, or definite preferred brands?

Snags

Tone City, Mooer, Donner, JoYo etc. - very similar look, presumably from necessity, but are they all largely the same, or are there definite "ones to get" (in context)?

I'm idly thinking about putting together a tiny board that can pop in a gig bag pocket to use with my acoustic: reverb, delay, tuner, maybe a chorus, if I get totally carried away maybe a flanger or phaser for those Roy Harper moments.

Doesn't need huge flexible, just to do simple things passably well, and be achievable very much on the cheap,

I find myself largely drawn to Tone City for the mini stuff, but purely on the basis of marketing/exposure rather than anything concrete.

soma1975

I think Donner and a couple of the other super cheap brands are clones of the Tone City/Mooer brands but with even cheaper components so less sturdy. Joyo stuff that I've played has sounded great. 

bingefeller

I think the Mooer and Joyo stuff is the best out of all the mini pedals.  I have a Mooer Shimmer Verb clone and it sounds good, but there is some background noise  from it when not playing.  

Cookiemonster

I have a few donner yellow fall is really very good. 

JohnPerry

I've had a fair few Mooers, Donners and Tomslines and they were all much of a muchness, very good clones indistinguishable from the originals except noisier.

If you can put up with that they're great value.

The Tomslines in particular seemed really sturdy 

Matt_McG

I have had one Tone City pedal - Sweet Cream - and rated it. Sounded nearly as good as the original, solidly made. 

paulphoenix

I have gigged using various offerings from Mooer and Tone City. Use super strong Velcro though - as they have a tendency to topple over when stomped on 

Keefy

paulphoenix said:

I have gigged using various offerings from Mooer and Tone City. Use super strong Velcro though - as they have a tendency to topple over when stomped on 

Cut the velcro 10mm wider than the pedal, to allow a 5mm strip to protrude either side of it. Cover the exposed adhesive surface with black electrical tape. This keeps mini pedals much more secure and stops them falling over.

Zoolooter

IMO they're a false economy. Tried 4 or 5 all made too much noise. Joyo and Donner ones fell apart very quickly. Totally underwhelmed by the 'bargain' mini pedal fad.

John_P

Personally I’d spend the extra an get something from the likes of tc or Ibanez. 

A hof mini for reverb and flashback mini for delay or the the Ibanez ADmini and CS mini for chorus would all sound great and should be reliable.    
Nothing against the joyo and Donner etc  pedals but imo they don’t feel quite as sturdy.  

Slimbert

I've had a few and even put a full mini pedal board together with roughly 7 of the little blighters on.

Bar a couple, each pedal one at a time was surprisingly entertaining. All sounded at least good on a setting or two or when dialed in and some of them cost me as little as £10 delivered.

The ones that didn't quite cut it were the ones that tried to do too much. The Mooer Pitch Box was painful to listen to. Just all over the place in harmony mode. Yet a couple of the Donner pedals and a tiny micro Rowin phaser were much better than I expected them to be.

The main problem with pretty much all of them is the noise...and none of the ones I had were gain/dirt pedals. Just some modulation, a harmony/detune, and a couple of delays. The noise with even just two or three on together was an instant no-no.

Practically they are obviously very small, light, and therefore easy to carry but I could imagine they weren't so easy to foot tap unless they were spread out which kinds of defeats a lot of the purpose of saving space.

I never thought at any point that any of them would make it on to my main board. They definitely serve a purpose though. They're cheap, easily hidden under a pedalboard and give people a chance to try a "sound" before commuting the big bucks.

I've never tried the more expensive mini pedals but I'd assume they're the same but sound better and have better QC/build quality. The Xotic boost pedals have loads of fans.

I'll be sticking with my big pedals for now at least. My main pedalboard is back breakingly heavy as a result but I have other people to lift it for me so I couldn't care less!

Snags

Bah, humbug! 

I was desperately trying to avoid the inevitable mission creep on this one, and be good. (c.f. "Hrm, I ought to get a compressor, don't need anything too posh, should be something for £50. Oh, they all seem a bit shit, maybe £80. Hrm, don't like the reviews, but that one at £150 seems quite good. Oh, some people reckon it's a bit pants with humbuckers, never mind. Oops, just bought a Wampler Ego").

I'll add some more things to my Ebay watch lists ...

LuttiS

I've got a miniboard, the Joyo Ironman series are great as are Tone City and Mooer.

The Joyo Quattro delay is amazing.. 

I've tried some of the ebay cheapies.. in particular stay away from Rowin.. shite in a box. 

ICBM

You'll get a second hand Zoom A2 for about £50 that will be smaller, more flexible, more reliable, less noisy and sound better than a pedalboard full of mini-pedals. And runs on batteries.

Snags

@ICBM ooh, there's a thought. There's a thought indeed.