Pedal deceptions old and new

darcym

The recent Andertons / Vertex discussions raised me interest in previous pedal scams, there was some hints in the vertex thread to ones I sort of new the rumour of and some I had no idea there was even a rumour.

I have an interest in knowing the rumours and where possible understanding the fact.

Educate me on stories old and new - but please try not to make it personal to the brands, more so if they are existing and working today, but I am curious.

lewism

The Freekish Blues pedal was a Joyo Ultimate Drive repainted, with colorful knobs and a resistor change. Was the darling of TGP until found out. The Joyo Ultimate Drive is just a clone of the Fulltone OCD. The full onion of pedal deception!

TimmyO

Wampler used to pass off ideas, mods, and even circuit diagrams from around the (then much harder to search) internet as his own and flog them in a PDF for profit 

Fulltone used to misrepresent what the Fulldrive was 

Back then the really clever folks (like Jack Orman, Beavis Audio etc) used to casually call them out - but ultimately people like being marketed to and the technically smart/original guys  are still in their bedrooms and the bulshitters got businesses out of it and became reformed characters.

<slight tongue in cheek, but basically the thrust of it> 

KKJale

The following is a story that's been shared many times. I can't find the original, it's buried on the web somewhere. It's long... make tea. But it's quite revealing as to how one little piece of the boo£ique pedal hype started in the early 2000s.

It's written with pseudonyms: Gomer Pyle, The Goose etc. It's generally held that Gomer is Clay Jones, The Goose is Jon Landgraff, The Idolmaker is a guy called Bob Burt and The Middleman is a store in Pensacola called Blue Angel.

Enjoy...

http://churchoftone.com/

darcym

I have some Bob Burt pedals that are excellent. 

ICBM

Slightly tweaked Tube Screamers without the buffering, or Electra Distortions with a few added components claimed to sound like amps, or Timmy copies, with fancy/obscure names and paint jobs... there's a whole world of pedal bullshit, circuit theft, dishonest marketing and gullible reviewers out there.

Three-ColourSunburst

lewism said:

The Freekish Blues pedal was a Joyo Ultimate Drive repainted, with colorful knobs and a resistor change. Was the darling of TGP until found out. The Joyo Ultimate Drive is just a clone of the Fulltone OCD. The full onion of pedal deception!

Even better was the was many TGP's swore that once the additional pot-response modifying resistor was taken out, the Freekish Blues 'Alpha Drive' was the best they had ever heard.

From what I can make out, Ken Abate was as much much driven by a desire to set up the world's pedal-tone cork-sniffers as to make money. There is even a comic book of the story. Look at some of these videos and then tell me he wasn't just taking the wee.

Three-ColourSunburst

Freekish Blues pedals were exclusively distributed in the UK by Mason Marangella's buddy, Lee Anderton.

Edit. Just to make things clear, I am not trying to suggest that Lee Anderon is any more crooked than anyone else in the guitar business, this sort of thing just goes with the territory.

The never ending stream of 'must have' pedals, vintage mojo, 'boutique' this and that, point to point wiring, Germanium diodes and 'bumblebee' capacitors,  'tone wood' fundamentalism (look at the nonsense in the link below), 'nitro' finishes, hide glue, 'molecular correct plastic': the whole industry relies on selling voodoo and cork sniffery. Same with product demos, 'This is a great sounding guitar'. Yes, when plugged into a three-grand amp and a select choice of pedals, and played by 'Danish Pete', or whoever. It will sound nothing like that when you play it!

https://blog.andertons.co.uk/learn/electric-guitar-tonewood-guide

dindude

I remember the outcry when the Danelectro Transparent Drive was found as a Timmy clone, now you have major companies activity marketing that something is Timmy or Klon based. It’s changed a lot in recent years.

tekbow

Vemuram Jan Ray was Timmy with some minor component value changes wasn't it?

Three-ColourSunburst

KKJale said:

The following is a story that's been shared many times. I can't find the original, it's buried on the web somewhere. It's long... make tea. But it's quite revealing as to how one little piece of the boo£ique pedal hype started in the early 2000s.

It's written with pseudonyms: Gomer Pyle, The Goose etc. It's generally held that Gomer is Clay Jones, The Goose is Jon Landgraff, The Idolmaker is a guy called Bob Burt and The Middleman is a store in Pensacola called Blue Angel.

Enjoy...

http://churchoftone.com/

Thanks a lot. That was brilliant!

It was all steeped in mystery. This stock Tweed Deluxe was the Goose's Masterpiece. It was magic to these men. And they sold it as such. Unfathomable magic.

His ear was king. He had that typical self-serving, rarely-proved-and-so-often-blown-out-of-the-water-with-proper-testing-techniques "I can hear the screws changed out of my speaker cabinet" approach to electronics.

The company I was keeping was with liars and scammers. They of course did not see it that way in the slightest. They were Businessmen. They had a vision. They were going to be players. They were going to have clout. They were providing a service people needed. They were Professionals. All that crap. All that total, pure, salesman crap. Didn't know what they were selling. Did care in the slightest. They just saw sheep and they wanted to be the shearers.

pintspiller

It's been said that a lot of Beringer output is a copy. But I am not experienced to agree or not.

Danny1969

To be fair when it comes to overdrive pedals there's pretty much only 2 or 3 ways to build something that clips ... it's always gonna be diodes clipping in the neg feedback loop of an opamp or diodes on the output clipping to ground. The Klon circuit was a bit different and sounds much better for it in my opinion. The EHX Soulfood circuit is very close to a Klon so I use one of those

Three-ColourSunburst

Talking of voodoo and BS, that 'church of tone' article reminded me of this. A classic! 

Best bit is that Dumble licenced the 'Sonic Fusion Crystal Lattice Dumble Overdrive' which supposedly gave the true 'Dumble sound', using solid state components!

tekbow

Three-ColourSunburst said:

Talking of voodoo and BS, that 'church of tone' article reminded me of this. A classic! 

Best bit is that Dumble licenced the 'Sonic Fusion Crystal Lattice Dumble Overdrive' which supposedly gave the true 'Dumble sound', using solid state components!

I remember that video, the funniest part is it sounds absolutely appalling.

Although granted, I believe the player is known as somewhat experimental.

prlgmnr

pintspiller said:

It's been said that a lot of Beringer output is a copy. But I am not experienced to agree or not.

I think this one is safe to say.

Who was it who visited the Behringer factory and noticed through an open door there was just a room full of other companies' gear being ripped apart?

Roland

In the 80s I visited General Motors in Detroit. They bought two of a competitors cars. One they strip down to see how it’s made. The other they keep for comparison. I wouldn’t be surprised if Behringer were doing the same.

Sassafras

Yes, but at least Behringer don't charge 4 times the price.

Anacharsis

Here is sort of a spectrum of deception, from worst to best, all IMO. Examples listed are not intended to be exhaustive, although I believe group 1 stands out.

There's plain old fraud, IMO:

1) Took not merely someone else's design, but someone else's finished product (pedal, cable, etc), put their name and branding on it, and gooped the insides to hide what they'd done. Lied and lied and lied when called out on it. Threatened legal action against those who told the truth. - Vertex Wah and cables
1a) Same as 1) above, but only a pedal, and no legal threats of which I am aware. - Freekish Blues

Then there's lying about what you designed:

2) Took some other builder's circuit design and used it as their own, making extremely minor adjustments (if any) and charging a sky high price. Claimed they'd developed it all by themselves over the course of years of R&D. Still lie to this day about it. - Vemuram Jan Ray, Vertex Steel String, Vertex Dynamic Distortion, maybe some early JHS pedals.

Or lying about what it does:

3) Claimed the pedal has capabilities it absolutely does not have. - Vertex Boost

Then there's plain old shadiness:

4) Took some other builder's circuit designs and used them as their own, making extremely minor adjustments, manufacturing them in China and cutting the price more than in half. Lied at first about it, then admitted it and release a revised version. - Danelectro Cool Cat CTO-1, CO-1, and CF-1

Then way on down the line we find pretty common pedal voodoo nonsense, but not openly dishonest so much as marketing:

5) Treated a classic design (Tube Screamer, Big Muff, Fuzz Face, etc) as their own thing. Maybe they modded it, and maybe not. They usually never exactly claimed it was their own unique design, but weren't open about it, either. - Many - but no, not everyone.

And then common, perfectly legal (in most cases) opportunism. Anybody who is fooled isn't paying attention. They come right out and admit it:

6) Straight up, open, not-even-attempting-to-be-coy-about-it cloning of anything. - Mooer, etc.

I'm sure there are others.

TimmyO

I remember when the Clay Jones Moss were all the range, ditto Boiling Point - they were all just minuscule tweaks on screamers 

Even the venerable Zendrive is a tubesceamer with some different clipping and a control that  just trades gain for low end - but that’s one that shows some deliberate thought at least 

JimmyWings

What's kind of hilarious about all of this...

1. Buy DSP chip.
2. Comission DSP circuit.
3. Sexy videos done by Fluff, Rabea, Ola, and others.
4. Profit.

It really doesn't take that much these days to launch a pedal brand. Just get some Youtube influencers on side and you're winning.