It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 4:59 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 22 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Go to page 1, 2  Next
Author Message
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 8:48 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:12 pm
Posts: 327
Location: Canada
My favourite overdrive pedal: http://www.blackouteffectors.com/?page_id=319


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 9:12 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2013 7:02 pm
Posts: 1978
Location: Manchester
All gear seems to be getting made from lighter and cheaper materials. Personally, I blame the rise of the bedroom guitarist who never feels the need for road-toughened gear.

That aside, I'd have a look at the new Boss Adaptive Distortion. Any distortion pedal that sounds this good on full chords has to be worth further investigation ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO8ZkGoljII

_________________
Image
Image my stuff on soundcloud


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 9:43 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 24, 2011 8:25 pm
Posts: 1099
Location: A cloud of eider down
I have quite a collection of pedals, depending on what I'm doing they switch up a lot. I have an MXR '78 baddas distortion, an mXR Phase 90, and An MXR carbon copy delay. I have had no issues with these pedals. I have used a few Boss, Electro-Harmonix, and many others along the way, Really have no issues with any, so all I can add is the MXR pedals have held up just as well as any of my other pedals. Also I take good care of my gear, everything is in a custom made pedal board, and if not they are stored in totes in a closet when not being used. If your real hard on gear i could see a problem, but i have gigged a lot with many pedals, and those MXR's have held up just fine.

_________________
"Where would rock and roll be without feedback?"
Image


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 9:49 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2009 1:45 pm
Posts: 852
Location: SoCal323
kingofesquire wrote:
I was looking into an overdrive pedal. I was checking out the Boss SD1 and the MXR Badass Custom Overdrive. Back in the day, pedals were made from substantial materials and were indestructable. Today, the effects pedals are featherlight material, especialy the MXR. I really liked the sound of the MXR, but it felt cheaply made and poor quality. I'm leaning towards buying the Boss Overdrive. The Boss chassis is lighter, but not as cheaply made as the MXR. I was watching some videos of the boutique overdrives by Gearmanndude, and I'm on the fence whether or not they are worth the extra $100-$150 dollars. I welcome any recommendations you may have.


My recommendation, if you have the means and knowledge to build your own then do it. There are plenty of great sites out there that sell kits of the most sought after overdrives. Or you can build your own from scratch. I just put together a lovepedal eternity burst clone and it sounds great.

That's my 2c.

_________________
Its a lifestyle.....

Image


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 10:03 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:50 pm
Posts: 7998
Location: ʎɹʇunoɔ ǝsoɹ pןıʍ
Fulltone.
They are not immune to the trend to lighter/cheaper but still better than most.
For now, at least.

Fulltone


_________________
Image
Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 3:55 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:18 am
Posts: 1530
Location: The Frozen Tundra of MN
+1 on the Fulltone. Love my Fulltone OCD. Very well built.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 7:03 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star

Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:37 am
Posts: 4099
Location: New York
Boss pedals in general have a reputation for being pretty bulletproof. I've seen Boss pedals that look like they've been to hell and back, knobs missing and all scratched up, but they still work. I'd be surprised if their quality has gone down, the most recent Boss pedals I have look and feel just like the old ones.

As far as every other pedal maker out there though, I wouldn't be surprised if there was more plastic going in these days.

_________________
Please subscribe to my Image Channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/b7567


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 7:03 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:38 pm
Posts: 1744
I sold a lot of pedals that i wish i hadn't when i got a multi FX unit which i'm now ditching so going back to stomps. But this whole boutique craze has gotten nutty. I actually watched a gearmandude review on the GFS brownie and it was pretty impressive for 40 friggin bucks. And its one resistor away from a pretty close Rat clone. So i've decided to take a chance and go down the Bou-nese path. If they suck, i can keep the project boxes and get a PCB and source components for fun, if they are sound good to me, I've gotten two pedals for less than the cost of one.

_________________
YMMV

Chont's Mustang Presets


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 8:31 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star

Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:37 am
Posts: 4099
Location: New York
Here's a Boss DS-1 for $20 on CL:

http://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/msg/3822004550.html

_________________
Please subscribe to my Image Channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/b7567


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 8:39 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:39 am
Posts: 13
+1 Fulltone OCD


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 8:53 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:44 am
Posts: 604
Location: Richmond, VA
socal323 wrote:
My recommendation, if you have the means and knowledge to build your own then do it. There are plenty of great sites out there that sell kits of the most sought after overdrives. Or you can build your own from scratch. I just put together a lovepedal eternity burst clone and it sounds great.

That's my 2c.

+1

BYOC is a great company that has pedal kits, and the most easiest, most amazing step-by-step instructions, anyone can build a pedal from scratch!

http://www.buildyourownclone.com

I bought their Tube Screamer (TS-808) Overdrive kit (they call it "Classic Overdrive"), and it is pretty much an exact duplicate of the legendary Ibanez Tube Screamer, and sounds incredible!

Seriously... Go hit up Radio Shack or somewhere, and buy a small soldering iron and some solder. Play around with it a little at first to practice your soldering skills. Then go to BYOC and buy one of their kits. It's simple! Just follow along and put the tiny resistors, capacitors, etc... into the circuit board and carefully solder them in place. Keep going and wire in the input/output jacks, etc... and before you know it, you've built your very own pedal! I know some people who have gone a step or two further and modified the circuit and changed this or that, and/or added a switch to change it even further. Amazing...

Lastly, once you build your own pedal, and really really understand the circuitry, the electrical schematic, and most importantly, the rugged metal housing, you can then see how cheaply made some genuine OEM pedals are made, compared to others.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 9:16 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
ButchA wrote:
socal323 wrote:
My recommendation, if you have the means and knowledge to build your own then do it. There are plenty of great sites out there that sell kits of the most sought after overdrives. Or you can build your own from scratch. I just put together a lovepedal eternity burst clone and it sounds great.

That's my 2c.

+1

BYOC is a great company that has pedal kits, and the most easiest, most amazing step-by-step instructions, anyone can build a pedal from scratch!

http://www.buildyourownclone.com

I bought their Tube Screamer (TS-808) Overdrive kit (they call it "Classic Overdrive"), and it is pretty much an exact duplicate of the legendary Ibanez Tube Screamer, and sounds incredible!

+1 Butch, I've built a bunch of their stuff. I have two British Blues Overdrive Pedals one modded for my Strat and one stock, A Digital Reverb pedal, the Confidence Boost that I've built into a pedal and an Amp Switcher. They all work and sound great! I'm thinking about building their Royal Tweed amp next. I've built some pedals fro Tom Anderton's book I think it's title is Electronic Projects for Musicians. I even etched my own boards for those and they still work 20 years later! :lol: Building your own amps and effects is a great learning experience and I highly recommend it.

Seriously... Go hit up Radio Shack or somewhere, and buy a small soldering iron and some solder. Play around with it a little at first to practice your soldering skills. Then go to BYOC and buy one of their kits. It's simple! Just follow along and put the tiny resistors, capacitors, etc... into the circuit board and carefully solder them in place. Keep going and wire in the input/output jacks, etc... and before you know it, you've built your very own pedal! I know some people who have gone a step or two further and modified the circuit and changed this or that, and/or added a switch to change it even further. Amazing...

Lastly, once you build your own pedal, and really really understand the circuitry, the electrical schematic, and most importantly, the rugged metal housing, you can then see how cheaply made some genuine OEM pedals are made, compared to others.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 10:26 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2012 12:58 pm
Posts: 739
TC Ditto won the vote for looper pedals.

That got me looking at other TC pedals. They "sound" awesome (description). Anyone have any experience with them?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifie ... ects-pedal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 10:45 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:05 pm
Posts: 2333
King, if you are looking at the SD-1, get the MIJ version for ~$120 on ebay. They're indestructible physically and transparent sonically (ie. no mid hump - the reason I generally dislike Tube Screamers). I have A/B'd my MIJ with an MIT and the MIT just sounded cheap by comparison. I keep mine on set to low gain and use the volume knob on the guitar to add the desired amount of distortion. It's the only pedal I use anymore.

It's also buffered, meaning:

10ft cable > True Bypass Box > 10ft cable = 20ft cable going into the amp :oops:
10ft cable > buffer > 10ft cable = 10ft post-buffer cable going into the amp


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: What's going on with the quality of stomp boxes today?
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 6:50 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2012 4:53 pm
Posts: 1642
Location: Space Station #5
kingofesquire wrote:
Back in the day, pedals were made from substantial materials and were indestructable.


I have a Dunlup Jimi Hendrix Fuzzface Reissue. They are built to the original specs for the Dallas Aribter Fuzzfaces, and the case feels like it's made out of armored plate.

_________________
"Today Atlantis, tomorrow the world!"


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 22 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Go to page 1, 2  Next

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: