In Praise Of Cheap (Good) Pedals

p90fool

I bought a Sonicake Twiggy Blues as a backup to my Flyrig for £56 and it's great, especially the compressor, and I prefer the speaker sim to Tech 21's too. 

fretmeister

Joyo Vintage Overdrive.
Superb TS. No need to spend more.

Ibanez Tone Lock phaser. It’s brilliant. 

TheMarlin

Joyo Sweet Baby is a tremendous low gain overdrive. Favours Fender amps. 

Mosky Golden Horsey is every bit as good as the Tumnus. I had both, kept the Mosky!

JMP220478

https://www.tonestart.com/ultimate-mooer-guitar-pedal-clone-list/

have  mooer phaser ;flex boost ; cruncher ; ultra drive  and all do a fine job ..

The mosky xp booster is recommended too ..

The digitech screaming blues is the BD that Boss should have made first time round - better tone management imho 


anyone used the mooer grey or blue faze or other fuzz pedal clones  and compared to original fuzz faces ?

menamestom

fretmeister said:

Ibanez Tone Lock phaser. It’s brilliant. 

Those Hardwire pedals were a sweet spot for me, they sounded great but had a robust case and switch.  I’m always a bit more reluctant to go too cheap not because of the sound, but cheap pcb mounted switches, plastic cases etc.

WiresDreamDisasters

Most of the Marshall pedals are pretty damn good. Especially their compressor and delay.

ICBM

english_bob said:

It was Josh from JHS. 

That might explain why the SF300 is out of stock...

The really funny one there is the TS808 - the Behringer sounds identical.

The worst is the HM-2 copy - it sounds nothing like the real one. I also thought that about the OC-2 copy I tried, which he unfortunately didn’t demo.

If I could add anything useful it’s that there is a minor problem with all the ones I’ve tried - the jacks don’t grip the plugs very positively, and they can easily get pulled out accidentally. Not a problem on a pedalboard really, but it is with a single pedal on stage.

But apart from that I’ve not found any problem with them being fragile or unreliable in any way.

TTBZ

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Most of the Marshall pedals are pretty damn good. Especially their compressor and delay.

The Guvnor Plus is one of the best MIAB pedals I've tried as well. Full EQ plus the deep knob mean it can work with any setup. If it was in a normal box and priced 2-3x higher I think it'd be a forum favourite.

ICBM

TTBZ said:

The Guvnor Plus is one of the best MIAB pedals I've tried as well. Full EQ plus the deep knob mean it can work with any setup. If it was in a normal box and priced 2-3x higher I think it'd be a forum favourite.

I genuinely think that if it was rehoused in a typical boutique casing with six separate knobs and a $300 price tag, it would be the ‘must have’ MIAB pedal.

The old Guv’nor and the Drivemaster are excellent too - although a bit more of a ‘drive channel in a box’ for an already Marshall-voiced amp - but a bit too expensive for this thread now.

WiresDreamDisasters

I've got a Guvnor kicking around somewhere. The MK1 version. It has no baseplate, so rehousing it is probably my only option!!

Grocer_Jack

I didn’t like the Guvnor Plus - there was a ‘sizzle’ on the fade of notes/chords that sounded odd - couldn’t dial it out. Maybe it was an interaction thing, anyway....

i agree that the Bad Monkey is ace - I’ve had one on my board for approx 12 years and I can’t remember gigging without one in that time. Great eq and sounds good around the gain range. I have bass and treble on full and gain low - takes out the mid hump and sounds nothing like a tube screamer.

Grocer_Jack

Joyo American sound - yep agree that this is terrific too. I also have the AC-Tone kicking around somewhere - Best Vox pedal I’ve tried. 

I must try a Golden Horsey - never really got the Klon thing although I’ve only tried a Soul Food and hated it. I did hear a KTR into a boutique tweed amp at CCGX though and it sounded amazing

57Deluxe

Mosky Golden Tumnus
Kokko Booster
Ammoon (Rowin) delay (analogue echo)

- all absolute must-haves

The Kokko Overdrive is also worth having as offers a different TS option if you fancy a change

Total spend for ALL of these - £47.60  !!

thomasw88

Boss od3..  admittedly it’s only cheap 2nd hand but It really is a superb drive pedal and stands up to many far more expensive drive pedals

jonnyburgo

I have the Ammoon American sound, lovely pedal, adds Fender sparkle and fat low end to any amp and overdrives nicely.
I also have the Little Bear woolly mammoth clone, it sounds absolutely massive with guitar.

joetele

thomasw88 said:

Boss od3..  admittedly it’s only cheap 2nd hand but It really is a superb drive pedal and stands up to many far more expensive drive pedals

Yup. Love this thing - smashing boost and drive pedal. Great paired with a Blues Driver. 

A lot of the Digitech X Series can be found for £50 or less these days - really like their Turbo Flange and Multi Chorus, and the Digidelay is a seriously useful, underrated pedal. 

I found the Danelectro FAB series Chorus surprisingly good for the price too. And the Diner series PB&J delay is fantastic. 

The Behringer RV300 Reverb Machine was pretty good but mine stopped working after a few years. Could have been to do with the storage environment though. 

I did really like the TC Electronic Dark Matter distortion because it never got fizzy and maintained the guitar's tone, but I'm not sure it's got a sound that would appeal to everyone. 

blobb

Has anyone mentioned the SF300 yet, ah yes, appears they have :-)

Instant Hugh Hopper

AntonHunter

The Danelectro Chilli Dog octave is really good too. Pleasing OC2 sounds.

joetele

AntonHunter said:

The Danelectro Chilli Dog octave is really good too. Pleasing OC2 sounds.

I used to love this little pedal - same colour as the purple on the buttons on this site - and the Pepperoni Phaser was really good too. Great little pedals. 

lasermonkey

A few more Behringer clones of Boss pedals- the CC300 Space Chorus (DC-2), UV300 Ultra Vibrato (VB-2) and RV600 Reverb Machine (Verbzilla, but without the inherent distortion problem). All near as dammit, for peanuts.