What a great time to be a stompbox connoisseur

Between the Danelectro CoolCat stuff, the MXR Badass line, all the cool Wampler and Fuller and Z Vex stuff, the line6 boards and the Devi Ever offerings, and so much more...

wouldn't you agree?

Yep it is.

I just received my GearMannDude Luther drive today too; I can't wait to give it a go tonight.

And then you have companies like Barber, Machine Head Pedals
and Voodoo Labs who offer consistently interesting items at
prices most of can afford.

Same can be said for Fulltone. I'd include Danelectro, but
I think everything they offer is a copy of something done
by others.

I think it's cool, although can be a little intimidating - just looking for a new OD can seem neverending! Without the internet, i'd be up a creek without a paddle - forums are so useful when looking for new stuff.

Personally, whether or not they really sound like what they're aiming for, I like the amp-in-a-box idea. Trying to get a 5e3 tone out of... say a Blues Devillie 10 years ago was if not impossible, then pretty difficult. Now, your cup overfloweth! I have noticed that when I see cover bands now, they all seem to have their tone pretty much nailed song by song, which I always find quite cool from a nerdy perspective.


Ultimately, I spend too much time looking at pedals rather than playing...

And how!

Unfortunately its also a great time to be broke from buying gear.

It's hard to resist the lure of wait lists and V1, V2, V3, NOS color-coded germanium transistors - and "high $ = great pedal.

All the hooey to get us to buy.

And there I am - actually seriously contemplating a $300 Strymon Flint...:shock:

Hook, line, and sinker...

Well, at least it's not named after a little boy or have ties to mythology ("snake oil y'all" said Steve Earle)

I like E-H

I got a little bit of everything, from a $10 Dano French Toast to a $379 EAR Gristleizer. It used to be you had whatever was available at the local guitar store and pawn shops, and if in doubt you got a BOSS or DOD. Now if you think it, it's already been built, is being built, or can be built. You can get kits and build em yourself. Pretty awesome.

Well, at least it's not named after a little boy or have ties to mythology ("snake oil y'all" said Steve Earle)

http://www.mauricebroaddus.com/uploaded_images/timmypost4-786308.gif

It can be overwhelming, which is probably why I haven't bought anything new in a while. I really want a Wampler or two, but dang! $200 a pop, I gotta make sure I REEEEEEALLY need it ...

Between the Danelectro CoolCat stuff, the MXR Badass line, all the cool Wampler and Fuller and Z Vex stuff, the line6 boards and the Devi Ever offerings, and so much more...

wouldn't you agree?

Of course I agree with you 100%, its just that my wife doesnt:roll:

But yeah, I've always loved Boss pedals, but lately I've really started liking the MXR lineup...Can't wait to dwell into the grasps of Wampler...Someday soon

Check out VFE pedals. He (Peter) makes a full line of great effects at a reasonable price, they are built well - and he stands behind his products with excellent customer service.

http://www.vfepedals.com/products.html



Just got a Death By Audio Apocalypse fuzz today..... torturing the neighborhood with this thing! :twisted:

I built a Bluesbreaker V1,2 OCD's[in the same enclosure],Eternity,D'Lay,EA tremolo,MXR envelope filter,Crunch box at about $25 a pop!
And thanks to .011 Guage turned my SD-1 into a fulldrive sound-a-like.
Not to mention the great sounding Joyo clones out there..
I'd say its a great time indeed!:cool:

I built a Bluesbreaker V1,2 OCD's[in the same enclosure],Eternity,D'Lay,EA tremolo,MXR envelope filter,Crunch box at about $25 a pop!
And thanks to .011 Guage turned my SD-1 into a fulldrive sound-a-like.
Not to mention the great sounding Joyo clones out there..
I'd say its a great time indeed!:cool:

It's easy to forget that many of these "boutique" pedals that are draining our bank accounts can oftentimes be based on something mass produced, so you will absolutely save money by taking the mass produced one and tweaking it to match (as closely as possible) the boutique one!

All of the drive boxes you listed have super simple circuits, so they are quick and easy scratchbuilds, or you can turn a SD-1 or something similar into one.

You can turn a Dano Daddy-O into a Crunch Box with a little ingenuity, too. But I've noticed that it's much easier to find a used CB for a fairly low price. Since there are so many of them, the CB is kind of like a mass produced pedal at this point.

That is the other cool thing - there are now so many OCD/Crunch Box/FDII pedals available that the used price is really low. If a brand new OCD from MF/AMS is ~$135, it simply isn't worth more than $90 used IMO, and less than that is probably more fair.

Someone "here" just remarked that they got a FDII for $100. That's cheaper than some "true" mass produced drive pedals.

Just got a Death By Audio Apocalypse fuzz today..... torturing the neighborhood with this thing! :twisted:

dang, I am jealous!

It is for those who can afford it... :mrgreen:

Seriously tho, both new and old manufacturers have a lot of good stuff out there! Would love to get my hands on some Wampler & Xotic gear.

-Jagg

It is for those who can afford it... :mrgreen:

See, that's the thing, any kid can afford to get a Danelectro pedal that sounds awesome

See, that's the thing, any kid can afford to get a Danelectro pedal that sounds awesome

Some kids can't even afford that. I'm thinking specifically of the kids that are married and their spouses say, "NO MORE!!!"


I know this from personal experience.

Some kids can't even afford that. I'm thinking specifically of the kids that are married and their spouses say, "NO MORE!!!"


I know this from personal experience.

that would be those kids' own fault, I think

Some kids can't even afford that.

Actually, I know of more and more "kids" by whatever definition you choose, that are the primary purchasers of many of these new pedals. Why?

- They live with mom and/or dad

- They don't have kids

- They don't have a mortgage

- They can throw a lot of their wages towards pedals instead of things like bills, insurance, the cost to get the house's heating/AC repaired, etc.

- They are the primary market for the "amp in a box thing" - they will spend a little money on a Blues Jr or something, and then put the rest towards all the ____ in a box stuff.

- If it is just bedroom playing, they aren't going to be as picky with tools that have to work for the stage (in many instances), so they are less likely to flip something that would need to work in a live situation. IOW, they can collect this stuff.

- Many of them have never played a "real" plexi, Dual Recto, AC30, let alone Dumble or whatever, so "sounds like the real thing" is typically easier to satisfy with them.

- These are the primary target for all of the "splash" pedals that typically don't make it onto a gigging pedalboard - fuzzes that oscillate, things that make Nintendo sound effects, things that are cool for home recording for albums that they will share with friends, etc.

And - if they are never playing out, many of them may not even use an amp at all. It's just D.I. into software.

The youngsters are the iPod generation. They have no problem spending hundreds of bucks on a singular electronic gizmo. They are already doing that with Smartphones, iPods, tablets, video games, and things that we aren't even aware of.

Is it all kids? No. But there are a lot more of them than we may be aware of. I'd say it is typically folks that are a minimum of 15 years of age younger than myself that are grabbing all this stuff (and no - I'm not that old). Folks my age and older *generally* don't binge out on pedals like the "kids" in question do.

FTR, I'm using the term "kids" very loosely. There are a LOT of nesters that are not minors, and they fit into this category. I used to work with a guy - married w/3 kids, in his 30's, and he was a kid in this category, IMO. Living at home with Mom & Dad, making the same salary as me, but spending most of it on a newer car, and top dollar computer stuff (that was "his thing"). I have a younger "kid" brother who is 41, and he just "left the nest" a little over a year ago. He has $5000 mountain bikes, one of those huge flat screen TV's, a Ford Explorer with all the options, a riding lawnmower, etc.

"They are already doing that with Smartphones, iPods, tablets, video games, and things that we aren't even aware of."

That is intriguing to me

I'm considering taking my kid's Spin Art set and making fancy assed boxes, using some glitter & totally stupid name ( a bottle of JD for inspiration of course) and decorating a bunch of "one of kind" finishes, then rehousing some Joyo pedal, charge $300 or more, making folks wait for 8 months, not return emails and such...I'd probably triple my yearly income from thegearpage alone !

Would love to get my hands on some Wampler & Xotic gear.

-Jagg[/QUOTE]

If you want great tone you will! Simply the best out!!

...and the Devi Ever offerings...

If you're interested in Devi, it looks like she's finally making the Console project happen, and quite a few other pedal builders are on board to manufacture cartridges...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deviever/console-ii-cartridge-based-multi-fx-guitar-pedal

It is for those who can afford it

But it isn't. And that's what's great. A short list
of affordable, or at least reasonably priced pedals
might include:

Boss
Danelectro
Digitech Hardwire series
Barber
Voodoo Labs

And then there are pedal kits.
I've built a V1 Blues Breaker for
under 100.00.

And then there are mods. You can take something you
and improve it (sometimes dramatically in the case of the
MHP Galaxie Mod).

So between pedals, kits and mods, it's really the Golden Age
of guitar. You don't have to be a certain age, or (worse)
a cork sniffing snob. All you need is the willingness to jump
in.

Definitely the golden era for stomp boxes... I'm a traditionalist when it comes to guitars (Gibson, Fender, PRS) and amps (Fender Blackface and Tweed) for the most part but I love the new boutique and high quality mass produced pedals. Everything from MXR/Dunlop/Way Huge to the guy building pedals in his home. It really is a great time to be a pedal geek and I am always looking forward to seeing what's coming out. I in particular am a dirt pedal guy so those are the pedals I look for most. I have my simple modulation/delay/compression/tuner but I'm always looking for and buying boosts, overdrives, distortions, and now fuzzes. I think there are so many guys nailing those classic rock tones that I love from the old days and nailing vintage tone without the reliability or noise or other issues of vintage gear (and I do love vintage stuff!!!!). Take Brian Wampler for instance. The guy is a master at taking an amp and putting it into pedal form and having it sound just as good as the real thing. He copies not only the sound, but more importantly the feel, response, and character of the amp he's emulating. His AIAB pedals are the best IMO. He's my favorite modern circuit designer/pedal builder. For a guy making old school reproductions and cool yet old school pedals, Mike Piera from Analogman is my favorite. I love his fuzzes and overdrives and he is always coming out with killer stuff (currently GASing for a Sun Bender!). But as far as modern design goes, Wampler gets my vote. The guy is a genius IMO.

But I'm not a boutique snob. I use everything from Dunlop (and it's other parts) to one man shop stuff like my Klon Centaur clone. And everything in between. Even BOSS! I will say though that Dunlop is my favorite mass produced pedal company. Ever since Jeorge Tripps started there their pedals have been so awesome and I am always looking forward to the next Tripps design.

"They are already doing that with Smartphones, iPods, tablets, video games, and things that we aren't even aware of."

That is intriguing to me

I have a daughter who constantly exposes me to the things I'm not aware of. I've also been around quite a few nieces and nephews as of late, who have revealed some things, too.

My wife works with a lot of twentysomething and thirtysomething nesters, and occasionally we will all go to dinner somewhere, and the nesters start breaking out their gizmos, or talking about other stuff they have. These "kids" tend to get a new Smartphone about every 6 months as a new one is released. One guy showed me the Google thing that lets you put your entire digital library of music in one place, and share/access it with all your devices. I admit that it was cool (I spent some time a few years back putting all of my CD music onto audio DVD's to consolidate physical space, so I felt like an idiot), but his battery went dead just in the time we were hanging out in the restaurant!

"Kids" don't really embrace email, for example. They are moving on to what they consider to be better things. The guys who made Napster are about to release a technology that is supposed to make the web "fun again" for "kids." Since those two guys are no longer truly kids, again this is a loose/generic grouping.

The guys who made Napster are about to release a technology that is supposed to make the web "fun again" for "kids."

I've heard about this. I think it's some kind of video chatting platform centered around themed discussions and works through facebook.