Hot wired pedal??????

I recently saw a Brent Mason hot wired pedal on sale for $275.00 and a Paisley for about the same. My question is how can a pedal be worth this kind of money? Unless by the tap of my foot I can pull off Brent Mason techinque perfectly I can't see the value. What am I missing?

It's about getting a pedal that is responsive, sounds great and won't fall apart after 12 months.

In my experience, mass produced pedals don't sound great, they sound OK but they are missing something. High end pedals are just "better". Better sound, response and feel, in fact,they usually feel like playing the dirt channel of an amp rather than a pedal.

It's like buy a Squier Tele for £200 or a USA Standard for £1000. The USA will not really make you play better - it'll help, but all in it's a better piece of equipment - it feels better, it is better. Same with the boutique pedals.

They won't make you play like anyone other than you, but the range of sounds available to you from them may inspire you to play things you'd not thought of before, which can only be a good thing.

The celebrity endorsement has too much to do with the price. I don't doubt the sound, flexibility, quality at all but the name gets a premium. Look at the Robin Trower pedal from Fulltone. I have to believe it is a few tweeks away from a standard OCD, but it's got a cheap bent metal enclosure held together with thumb screws and Trower's name on it. That's one expensive pedal. You pay for it if you want it bad enough.

Where are you seeing those prices at? The Paisley OD is like $219, roughly the same for the Hot Wire on Wamplers site. They're that high because of being hand made, sound amazing, have great warranties, and Brian Wampler is available to contact easily and responds quickly. He's a really cool dude. I have the Paisley OD, and getting ready to order the AnalogEcho and the Spring Reverberations.

My question is how can a pedal be worth this kind of money?

Just be thankful you aren't into Fuzz.

Take a look at this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Original-1965-Sola-Sound-Mk-1-5-Tonebender-Fuzz-/290503877029?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item43a36161a5

I think the answer comes after you own or play a cool pedal. The whole musical instrument trade is irrational. Once you get it into your head you have to have it, you'll pay anything to do get it.

...Look at the Robin Trower pedal from Fulltone. I have to believe it is a few tweeks away from a standard OCD, but it's got a cheap bent metal enclosure held together with thumb screws and Trower's name on it...

I own a Hot Wired pedal and I can confirm that it is built like a tank. You certainly can't apply the above to Wampler pedals. They are built to last, they come with a 5 year guarantee. Also, (and I don't know anything about their circuits so I can't back this up with technical stuff) but the Hot Wired is not a copy of anything else and certainly sounds like no other pedal. I've not got my Paisley yet but I just know it will be like no other pedal.

A lot of this pedal stuff costs less then $35 in parts (for a single switch 3 knober) and then you can add whatever labor cost you want to that. A lot of these pedal makers are trying to make a business and see how high they can push the price. Kind of like overpriced new guitars that are old school techology and not much improved. Looked at the cost of a Les Paul from Gibson versus Epiphone. Most people could not tell the sound difference in the hands of a good player through a good amp (or maybe a $200 pickup upgrade but still a $2500 price spread). So its what the market will bear. Unfortunately it feels like the commercialization of christmas.There was a time when concert tickets were low because people were doing if for a good time. Now concert tickets are often exhorbitantly high because everyone wants to make mega money. But yeah... typically theres only about $35 of parts in most pedals. Of course pedals with two footswitches are going to be more.

"You certainly can't apply the above to Wampler pedals."

To be fair, I also said, "I don't doubt the sound, flexibility, quality at all..."
And the Fulltone is built with heavy grade metal, I'm just saying it doesn't cost anything to bend metal compared to using a nicer looking, tough, die cast enclosure. He took the cost out and put it in his pocket.

There was a thread recently about Keeley laying off most of his operation, and a lot of people suggested the old supply-and-demand argument - lower the prices. They have painted themselves in a corner. That's like saying, "I've been gouging you all this time. Here's what I can really afford to sell for." Face it - the engineering is done on those simple pedals and they are in harvest mode. What would justify raising the price in the future when the economy is back up? High prices are here to stay. If you want it, you will find a way.

I'm sure the Hot Wired is amazing I have no doubt....and maybe I'm just cheap (I prefer thrifty). But it seems to me that someone would go the route of pricing their pedals where thrifty folks like myself will partake ($150.00 sounds reasonable). On a side note I noticed that on bit torrent sites they have a lot of guitar effect schematics to download. Maybe I should take a electronics class and develop my own:)

Hybrid- I was looking for someone that actually had one for sale and the only one I came across was a music store listed on E-bay as a buy it now for $275.00.

It's all subjective really, for me, I've never found pedal that I've liked and I've tried a lot (having said that, I did have a Tokai distortion pedal in the '80's that was wonderful) but all the major name pedals always seemed to be fizzy and noisey, this pedals is the first one that offers me the quality of sound, build and flexability that I require. That makes it worth the price tag.

On a side note I noticed that on bit torrent sites they have a lot of guitar effect schematics to download. Maybe I should take a electronics class and develop my own:)

An excellent idea! There is a wealth of knowledge on effects and effects building at the click of a mouse button. As a "thrifty" guy myself, I have saved a ton of money and gotten a lot of top notch effects going the DIY route. Of course it took the dollars "saved" over buying maybe 4 or 5 pedals at retail just to recoup the cost of the tools I needed.

But besides just having a bunch of really great sounding pedals, I also now have a much better understanding in how to craft guitar tones...and an appreciation for the effort required to build a pedal that sounds good, is aesthetically pleasing, and durable enough to sell...and why I think it would be nearly impossible to start and sustain a pedal business charging a "reasonable" $150...not that it can't be done. :smile:

Just be thankful you aren't into Fuzz.

Take a look at this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Original-1965-Sola-Sound-Mk-1-5-Tonebender-Fuzz-/290503877029?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item43a36161a5

I think the answer comes after you own or play a cool pedal. The whole musical instrument trade is irrational. Once you get it into your head you have to have it, you'll pay anything to do get it.

Good Lord! The really sad thing about such a price is that the buyer probably has no intention of actually using it. Much the same for old guitars, their price excludes people who would actually play them. Cool to look at though. :wink: