In Praise Of Cheap (Good) Pedals

AntonHunter

joetele said:

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. 

Maybe you and I need to find or start a Danelectro club...

LastMantra

The behringer vintage range are very good. 
Big metal boxes...probably the same switches and stuff. Seem to last a long time if you don't abuse them though tbf.

joetele

AntonHunter said:

joetele said:

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. 

Maybe you and I need to find or start a Danelectro club...

Ok, we'll need passwords and secret handshakes. 

Greatape

Another vote for Mosky's XP

Mooer Black Secret
Kokko Overdrive and Timer
Kokko Compressor

I gig with all of these. 

stickyfiddle

Ninevolt Pedals (now Animal Pedals). Not Thorpy levels of build quality, but every one sounds brilliant. I can't find anyone selling online anymore though, so they may have gone bust, which would be a shame. 

AntonHunter

joetele said:

AntonHunter said:

joetele said:

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. 

Maybe you and I need to find or start a Danelectro club...

Ok, we'll need passwords and secret handshakes. 

Cool, I'll order us some stickers or baseball caps or something. 

Greatape

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

I bought one used for £30 about ten years ago and I've used the shit out of it. 

LuttiS

The Ironman Joyo range are generally fantastic.. particularly the Quattro delay. 

I have a few tone city pedals too - the Orange Phaser is good and the Golden plexi has a monster sound, not particularly flexible but it you want that sound it s a good one.. i have yet to find a better pedal i prefer to replace it. 
Also the Bad Horsey (the klone) is also a lot of good. 

I did buy a Rowin tuner once, but we had a disagreement on what "in tune" meant. Stay away...

randella

ICBM said:

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.

If the Guv'nor Plus is the second-issue one in the smaller, champagne-coloured case then I agree - it's a very good drive pedal.  I've heard worse, or at least no better, from pedals costing a lot more.

If not, then ignore me as I clearly have cloth ears

I tend to go for amp drive nowadays and have done for a long time.  To that end, all I've ever used in terms of pedal drive is that other bargain that no-one's mentioned yet, the SD-1 Super Overdrive.  39 quid from Anderton's, there's a reason it's been around since the 70's.  I've never managed to figure out why a new TS-808 is so much more expensive, are the op-amps harder to come by?

EricTheWeary

LuttiS said:

The Ironman Joyo range are generally fantastic.. particularly the Quattro delay. 

I have a few tone city pedals too - the Orange Phaser is good and the Golden plexi has a monster sound, not particularly flexible but it you want that sound it s a good one.. i have yet to find a better pedal i prefer to replace it. 
Also the Bad Horsey (the klone) is also a lot of good. 

I did buy a Rowin tuner once, but we had a disagreement on what "in tune" meant. Stay away...

I am stupidly tempted by a Quattro purely for the filter delay which is something that's not particularly common. Then I could have three delays on a pedalboard that I rarely ever use. Hmmm...    

Flanging_Fred

I’ve got quite a range of pedals from nice boutique things like Hudson & ThorpyFX but I do have a soft spot for greeting decent sounds out of cheap gear. My standout cheapys have been

Caline Orange Burst - as mentioned before, a nice BB preamp clone. Lots of range and volume on tap. 

Danelectro fish n chips. Great sounding EQ without the hiss. I’ve had mine for years now so seems more robust than it looks. In fact I’ve liked a lot of the Dano food series, some really interesting sounds in that range. I keep thinking to get one of those purple pedal cases, and fill it up with some cheap oddball fx.

Belcat 503 Analog delay - actually an analog voiced digital delay but I really like the tone. A little noisy at higher volumes but for home playing it’s decent. I use this a lot (and I have a Boss DM2w sitting in a box next to it...)

Behringer Super Fuzz - Also previously mentioned. I got mine for 17 quid new shortly after the JHS Behringer video. Since then I’ve seen people paying over 50quid for a s/h one on eBay. So it you find one cheap, get it, it’s super fun.

Arion SOD1 - Nice overdrive. I sold my Bad Monkey when I got this. It made the BM sound rather congested in comparison.

Marshall Regenerator - not all the modes are great but I think it’s worth the money just for the chorus2/rotary speaker mode on its own. 

ICBM

randella said:

If the Guv'nor Plus is the second-issue one in the smaller, champagne-coloured case then I agree - it's a very good drive pedal.  I've heard worse, or at least no better, from pedals costing a lot more.

If not, then ignore me as I clearly have cloth ears

Yes, that one . And you don't...

randella said:

I tend to go for amp drive nowadays and have done for a long time.  To that end, all I've ever used in terms of pedal drive is that other bargain that no-one's mentioned yet, the SD-1 Super Overdrive.  39 quid from Anderton's, there's a reason it's been around since the 70's.  I've never managed to figure out why a new TS-808 is so much more expensive, are the op-amps harder to come by?

What people will pay based on the price of an original. That's all.

There is no significant difference in the construction cost of a SD-1 vs. a TS-808 or a TS-9 - which is also cheaper than an 808, although still overpriced.

ennspek

I do have a couple on offer but ignoring that the Blackstar LT pedals are generally excellent for the money. They get no love though from what I can see. 

earwighoney

ICBM said:

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.

Considering the recent HM-2 revival (distortion of choice for quite a few metal bands around now, eg Nails etc) I'm really surprised Boss haven't reissued it. 

Unless they are unable to get the necessary chips required. 

***
For cheap pedals, I like the Mosky Spring Reverb.  I think I spent less than £20 on mine, and it's a very good spring reverb.  

ICBM

earwighoney said:

Considering the recent HM-2 revival (distortion of choice for quite a few metal bands around now, eg Nails etc) I'm really surprised Boss haven't reissued it. 

Unless they are unable to get the necessary chips required.

Boss don't generally do 'reissues' as such, but I'm surprised they haven't done a Waza one. The chips won't make much or any difference - if there are old parts they can't get it will be diodes, but I can't remember what types it uses and it's not listed on the schematic.

BobTheSalmon

Behringer Vintage Delay VD400

Dead on copy of Boss DM3, sounds phenomenal. Obviously the looks, construction and brand name puts people off, but at under £20 on Amazon, this should probably be on everyone's checklist!

lysander

I got a bunch of cheap pedals recently.
The one I liked the least was the donner morpher ( Suhr Riot clone ) - maybe I'm not using it right, demos of similar clones seemed to sound awesome but I found it sounded boxy and cheap.

However, the Caline orange burst ( BB clone (?)) is great, and the Caline Blue Sky ( Timmy clone ) into orange burst is absolutely sick.
The blue sky is quite meh into a clean amp, but really comes alive stacked with the orange burst, with the gains of both half way through it sounds like a marshall about to explode, in a good way.

ThePrettyDamned

Dod pedals can often be awful, but have a few good ones. I love the fx65 chorus, which I harp on about all the time.

I got a fantastic mxr dist+ once, which I sold. Not a distortion in the sense of gain, but in terms of being an overdrive that behaves like an amp. Fantastic pedal. 

Blues driver is decent. I prefer the OD-3.

I now practice with a zoom g5n. Not cheap as such, but my fucking god, this thing is so close to being able to replace my pedal board for the rare occasion I plug in. 

Teyeplayer

The Caline Blue sky is a decent Timmy by my reckoning, I’m also using the Ammooon phaser which has replaced a very old EHX and a newer Dod, sound quality on this is excellent and I can’t believe it’s from a sub-£20 pedal. The Biyang baby boom time machine is a  good ‘deep blue delay’ and the Mosky spring Reverb does a great 50s slap back verb-delay. 

I’ve just realised how down-market my pedal board is and am really quite impressed considering how good it sounds.

AlexC

@Teyeplayer Ammon Vintage Phaser - big orange pedal with one knob? I’ve got one of those. Sounds great. I use it all the time.