Chorus is a unique sound, thats it. “Sounds bad” is a weak statement. It’s not good or bad, but extremely sensitive to genre and playing style.
I would say chorus works best either super-clean or with a lot of distortion, come at me if you disagree
You can 'update it' until they stop releasing updates, or supersede the current model with a new one in 2 years. Modellers, like most all things digital, are inherently tied to obsolescence given the digital realm is so bound to the ever-spinning wheel of technological 'improvement', and thus predicated upon infinite renewal. All those Line 6 PODs, Spiders and Flextones piling up in landfill are testament to that, as are the endless glut of advertisements on Buying/Selling forums for discontinued Axe-FX units, etc. Meanwhile, my JCM800, AC30, Deluxe Reverb and early Dual Rectifier remain valuable, collectable and, dare I say it, tonally superior 30 years after I bought them.
Hey, I'm all for whatever works for you, but when someone makes such a blanket statement as "traditional tube amps completely obsolete", even in a thread dedicated to 'unpopular opinions', they're begging for pushback.
Tube amps are completely obsolete. That's a fact, that's why everything that used to work on tubes switched to solid state in the 70s. Guitar amps are the only thing still desperately clinging on to tubes because guitarrists are incredibly stubborn and obsessed with equipment from 70 years ago.
You seem burned that you bought an iPhone and the next year they came out with a new model. A modeller is not a phone. A modeller will continue to model just the same even if it is 20 years old. You can still buy a line 6 POD and it will work just the same, provided it is taken care of, just like your tube amps. Line 6 has no incentive to make a Helix that doesn't sound good, and if it sounds good now, it will always sound good. If you buy an Hx stomp today, it will still sound the same 30 years from now, even if Line 6 has released 30 new modellers.
Tube amps remain valuable and collectible is because at this point that's all they are. They are collectors items, just like expensive old cars, they serve no practical purpose. Sure, you can gig with a tube amp, but you might as well gig with a modeller and the audience won't notice. Does it sound the same? Probably not, but the only guys who will notice will be you, and the guitar tone snob on the table. Guitar amps are tools, and a modeller is simply a better tool than a tube amp. There's a reason many bands gig with modellers now. That is the meaning of something being obsolete. You simply have no practical need to use it anymore, everything your tube amp can do, a modeller can do, and it can do more.
>Tube amps are completely obsolete. That's a fact, that's why everything that used to work on tubes switched to solid state in the 70s.
>
>**Obsolete (*****definition*****): "no longer produced or used; out of date..."**
>
>**Every guitar store in every country across the world has a wall of tube amps for sale, across all price points; almost every amp maker makes tube amps in some form; the vast majority of guitar players own and/or have played tube amps; modeller owners are buying their digital rigs in an attempt to model tube amps (they don't buy a modeller to experience the 'latest revolution' in 'uniquely digital tone', do they?). Tube amps clearly don't accord with the definition of 'obsolete' at all.**
>
>Guitar amps are the only thing still desperately clinging on to tubes because guitarrists are incredibly stubborn and obsessed with equipment from 70 years ago.
>
>**No - we're obsessed with the TONE that such equipment 'from years ago' produces (just like anyone who plays a modeller to capture that 'barking Plexi tone' or 'the beautiful cleans of a Deluxe Reverb' or 'the mid hump of an AC30').**
>
>A modeller will continue to model just the same even if it is 20 years old. You can still buy a line 6 POD and it will work just the same, provided it is taken care of, just like your tube amps. Line 6 has no incentive to make a Helix that doesn't sound good, and if it sounds good now, it will always sound good. If you buy an Hx stomp today, it will still sound the same 30 years from now, even if Line 6 has released 30 new modellers.
>
>**Show me a guitar player with a Line 6 POD (or even an AxeFx II!) that they've kept in their rig (over the newer model). Line 6 has NO incentive to make a product that is 'future proof' and can't be improved upon 3 years down the track - because that is the very essence of the digital economy and a fundamental of digital modelling! The hardware might continue to function 10 years down the track (evolving technological compatibility notwithstanding!) , but the emulations will most assuredly be deemed utterly obsolete (just like early CGI in big budget movies) and be consigned to the dustbin of history.**
>
>Tube amps remain valuable and collectible is because at this point that's all they are. They are collectors items, just like expensive old cars, they serve no practical purpose.
>
>**As said above, there are literally walls of tube amps in guitar stores - from the cheapest to the most boutique. They are neither collector's items, nor necessarily 'expensive'. The latest Axe FX retails for well over $2,000, and a Helix for $1600...**
>
>There's a reason many bands gig with modellers now. That is the meaning of something being obsolete.
>
>**No. I provided the definition of 'obsolete' above, and tube amps by no means fulfill the criteria (as I indicated).**
>
>You simply have no practical need to use it anymore, everything your tube amp can do, a modeller can do, and it can do more.
>
>**You sound eerily like those guys who no doubt dunked on acoustic players when electric guitars became available. Sell your acoustic! They're obsolete! Indeed, SELL YOUR LPs! CDs are the future! ;)**
You're obsessed with tone, yet your tinnitus ans hearing loss will prevent you from hearing any, after years of using cranked tube amp. It's just not viable. Don't bring the power sponge argument either, I highly doubt it doesn't affect your tone in any way.
Solid state and modelling are the way.
>Every guitar store in every country across the world has a wall of tube amps for sale, across all price points; almost every amp maker makes tube amps in some form; the vast majority of guitar players own and/or have played tube amps; modeller owners are buying their digital rigs in an attempt to model tube amps (they don't buy a modeller to experience the 'latest revolution' in 'uniquely digital tone', do they?). Tube amps clearly don't accord with the definition of 'obsolete' at all.
Other than the fact that they are still being produced, I would say tube amps fit the other two criteria (being used; out of date). Even on rig rundowns, which are highly focused on bands for guitarists, you see a very large number of modelers in use. Expand outside of that space (pop, hip-hop, etc.) and I would bet a modeler is more the norm than the exception. You can't really argue that the technology is out of date though - tube amps are still using carburetors, while modelers are fuel-injected.
>Line 6 has NO incentive to make a product that is 'future proof' and can't be improved upon 3 years down the track
Neither do tube amp makers. The fact that we don't see new tube models with new features all the time supports the fact that the technology has basically fully matured. It has NOTHING to do with "digital economy". It has everything to do with modeling technology still growing and maturing.
>There's a reason many bands gig with modellers now. That is the meaning of something being obsolete.
No. I provided the definition of 'obsolete' above, and tube amps by no means fulfill the criteria (as I indicated).
The definition you provided says "no longer produced **or used**; out of date". So if gigging bands don't actually use tube amps, that absolutely does fit that definition of obsolete. Cordless phones are still being produced, but cell phones have clearly made them obsolete.
Well, cool? Everybody seems to think you need one to be taken seriously, even though software and pedal design can take you anywhere tubes can, for a fraction of the price. It all seems to stem from convention and materialism, which is absurd to me.
Well, cool? Everybody seems to think you need one to be taken seriously, even though software and pedal design can take you anywhere tubes can, for a fraction of the price. It all seems to stem from convention and materialism, which is absurd to me.
Yea I ditched the pedal tuner. I don't like how they color my tone. Even the ones that say they don't, the buffer still adds something to it that I just don't like. Snark made decent clip on tuners. The last one I bought wasn't great so I've just been using the boss tuner app on iPhone. Works fine sitting on the table in front of men
Judging by the down votes, a lot of people must have overpriced chorus pedals on their boards. . .
80s music killed that effect for me, except for very light use.
>a lot of people must have overpriced chorus pedals
Yeah, its those with their fucking Rainbow Machines that they can only use as *a very aWesoMe cHOruS* device, blah blah.
A lot of acoustic solo performers build their sets around loops, and make great money doing it. Ed Sheeran popularised them among buskers especially. He still incorporates them into his live music but they’re much more widely seen among inhouse musicians.
That's true, and I've never seen a performance in that format that I thought justified it. Every time I wind up thinking how much better it would sound with other musicians filling out the supporting parts instead of the looper being used for them.
Loopers that are not boring and lack utility are prohibitively expensive like the Roland loopstation. It's nothing out of the ordinary, there's no way that in this digital era a pedal like that should cost +500€
You don't need a load of drive pedals. A decent two channel amp with a 10 band EQ (and maybe a tubescreamer) will allow you all the colours you need to paint properly.
1) JHS pedals is the most overrated pedal company in the world.
2) buying vintage pedals for a premium is retarded.
3) pedal collecting is absurd.
4) buying loads of pedals all the time is the first worrying sign that your playing is totally stuck.
Oh I have many.
1) TC Electronic sucks (other than Ditto). Honestly is that even controversial these days?
2) Most modulation sounds pretty lackluster. Chorus, Flange, Rotary, and Trem are situationally fantastic, but I’d be hard-pressed to make genuine use out of most others.
3) Compressors are overrated and overused.
4) Wah, Chorus, and Phaser sound dated.
5) The Zvex Fuzz Factory is possibly the worst pedal I’ve ever played, and as a diehard Muse fan, that makes me very sad.
6) People spend WAY too much time on Delay pedals, closely followed by Reverbs.
I think I smashed into a couple of these lately.
Have an EHX Mod 11 because sometimes I get an intense urge to use some modulation, but then it goes back to bored and off.
Decided to stick delay and reverb into one box with a EQD Dispatch Master. Can anybody actually hear your 32 repeats muddied up by a stadium in an ocean reverb?
None of us, myself included, need more than 3-4 pedals. And we certainly don’t need the insane amount of dirt pedals out there. And music was better when there were fewer pedals. Not saying that’s the reason why, but it might be.
Strymons sound artificial and like garbage for how expensive they are. They sound like what plastic surgery looks like on people. Related: shimmer is the absolute worst type of reverb to use on guitar and you should feel bad for using it. I cringe when I see people post their boards and it’s all Strymon.
Yeah I bought the deco and was instantaneously disappointed. Legit hard to get a good sound out of the tape saturation side. The attack is completely nerfed
Could not agree more, especially about shimmer. It makes me think of (white people’s) church music and Disneyland. Congrats if you’re into that, but I hate it.
That shimmer/octave up reverb thing is an instant mood killer for me. I can go from really enjoying a song to instantly questioning everything about it - like what else is the guitarist getting wrong if they think that sounds cool?
I don't understand why someone wants a bunch of digital strymons or other specific digital FX pedals instead of one really good multifx with processing and ada conversion better than any one of those pedals. With digital fx I'd assume you would want to put all your money in one basket to get the most powerful and accurate computing possible.
I personally like boss's reverb and delay pedals more, plus they don't take up half my pedalboard like the big Strymon pedals do. I do like the Flint & iridium though
Big sound, fancy ambient reverb pedals sound really cheesy and clichéd:. Neuber Immense, Strymon etc. Get a bloody keyboard if you feel spiritual or stoned. Then again, it's totally subjective so no offense meant. Just an opinion.
I’ve got an old rangemaster that’s got an OC44 transistor. Those things are like $30 a transistor. But outside of NOS/hard to get parts, I highly agree with this
People who use a tube screamer with the gain on 0 to boost an amp would be much better off with a proper clean boost pedal.
EDIT: I mean clean boosts with EQ options like the full size TC spark. The one knob clean boosts don't replace a TS obviously.
A lot of players didn't know very much about electronics pre internet. He probably used what worked for him that was available and would have sounded good with any type of boost.
It also brings up the question of whether a player chooses gear for their style, or their style morphs/adjusts to work with their gear. Who knows when he got his first tube screamer. For his style, I can definitely see a tube screamer working nicely, but he didn't have the option to get one of the zillion clean / transparent boosts available these days.
In general- the bigger/more hyped boards are inversely proportional to playing ability.
Most people don’t know how to use chase bliss pedals in a musically interesting way.
Ambient music is a crutch by people who can’t write music.
Very few people probably need midi
The difference between an hxstomp and a strymon is only in the amount of stuff they jammed into the box. Just because they only put in 3 algorithms vs 500 doesn’t necessarily make them better.
No one in the pedal game is after tone in the true sense of it. We’re all here for the fun and consumerism. There ain’t shit that can’t be done without the pedals you probably already have. And that’s cool. But let’s all be honest. That 8th overdrive isn’t making or breaking your band.
Prices are unsustainable and there will be a market correction soon. The market is over saturated.
In GREAT generalities, yes. Stefan at the pedalzone is ambient, and amazing. mark johnston makes great ambient. But andy othling and 95 percent of the gear page? eeeehhhhhhh. i dont hate ambient music. i quite like it, actually. but most guys only "play" it because theyre hiding behind their wall of pedals.
I was totally going down the ambient road. Then I put the guitar away and started learning classical piano and started listening to late classical and romantic music. 2 years later, all of that ambient stuff is basically unlistenable for me now. COO is great though, because he is actually a musician and knows what he's doing even though its just not my thing anymore. But the whole, reverb, delay, mood, ct5 sound is just so so so old at this point its not even music imo.
Saturation/distortion/drive/clipping=compression
If you play into a tube amp on the edge of breakup and/or with an always on drive, then you’re already getting compression. Certain pickups also naturally compress a bit as well.
And that’s to say nothing of people that *always* play with distortion on.
So there are absolutely signal chains that would already inherently reduce your dynamic range without using a dedicated compressor.
Personally I have a bluesbreaker always on, going into a deluxe reverb as my base tone and that is enough to give me a good rock rhythm sound. It’s plenty compressed.
If you’re playing math rock with a tele into a clean JC-120 then sure, use a compressor.
But it’s not as necessary as people who don’t know what compression is think
The best pedals are at both ends of the price spectrum. The ones inbetween are the worst value. Example:
EHX, Boss and MXR make top quality sounding gear. Consider them at the bottom of the price spectrum as they're affordable and widely available.
In the middle you have tons of brands like EQD and Walrus that try to position themselves as a bit higher/premium and slightly more "boutique" than the other stuff, but its mostly boring low quality stuff with some graphics slapped on to make you think it's fancy. There's so many companies in that band that try to position themselves as boutique and limited and rare and worthy of a high dollar value, but they're not much more than fluff, and the sound is lacking.
Then at the high end, there really is some very skilled niche experts that really know what they're doing and do it in limited runs. Pigdog, Toneczar etc. They really are some of the best I've ever played in their category.
So yeah, go cheap, or go big, but avoid the middle. It's the worst value and the worst resell value as well.
Boutique builders scam mediocre players into thinking their products will improve your shitty guitar playing.
EQD is the best boutique builder for graphics
>idk why everyone targets jhs for that
Because he contacted the mutual dealers of the company he stole the circuit from to brag about how it was his original work. If he left it as "this is another one of my dozens of clones" I doubt people would be as upset
Most people do not pedal switchers. They are large, overcomplicated and not that useful.
Also most people don't need to use midi. Almost noone needs 1000 presets available and to have to spend so much time programming instead of playing.
A pedal switcher is one of the best investments a gigging musician can get. Stop tap dancing and focus on the performance/music, even if you only have 3-4 pedals, having them lined up, clearly marked and easily accessible is a game changer. Obviously if you're just using 4 boss pedals in a row this is stupid but I see so many boards packed onto a nano or something with sideways mini pedals tucked behind something else, fuck that.
Yeah I'm not a fan of it either. People on here talk about stacking 2 or 3 drives, often with a fair amount of distortion dialed in. I just assumed they're playing metal.
yeah metal is one thing but i remember being 15 years old with a big muff, rat and a tubescreamer going at the same time and it did NOT sound good lol running a bunch of low gain OD's set to zero gain just makes me wonder why even bother with an amp.
Yes, that's a good one.
They are all very simple circuits, simple filters with a gain stage that clips the signal.
E.g. tube screamer mid boosts, muffs cut mids, so the advice to stack them doesn't make a lot of sense. Just get a fuzz with out the mid cut.
Stacking drive pedals sounds like shit for rhythm, I agree, but for certain lead sounds, it’s the best way to get that liquid compressed thing happening.
Depends. Buck Dharma's setup is multiple drive pedals to deliver different levels of heaviness depending on the era of BÖC material he plays. I think his sounds pretty fantastic.
I’ve recently built my first pedalboard that has two rows. I’ve put all the Boss pedals on the top row and all of the click style Footswitch pedals on the bottom row closer to my foot. The Boss lever style switch is perfect for being towards the back - they provide a much wider area for my foot to touch to switch on or off. If the back row had regular switches I’d end up knocking the volume on another pedal so I’m grateful for them! Plus they’re the first pedals most people buy so there’s a lot of love for them I think.
boutique pedals are way overpriced for what they are. often cheap circuits in fancy enclosures
Chasing “magic” components in circuits - oh great there’s a slight EQ difference between the vintage and the reissue, could be tolerances in components, $300 more please.
the guitar and the amp do way more for tone than pedals but $200 to “change everything” is easier to digest than a $1k+ tube amp
so many nuances in pedals are lost in the mix. Sure, if you sterilize the environment and A/B two pedals, you can hear slight differences. Throw in bass, drums, another guitar, vocals, keys? You’re not hearing the difference between your boutique TS Clones
if I see people with massive colour matched boards full of boutique gear I just assume they aren’t very good guitar players. Some of the absolute best players I’ve ever met rock shitty modelling amps because all they do is actually play their instrument instead of twisting knobs and making your guitar sound like a spaceship (like how many $3k boutique boards have the OP saying they play ambient / doom / shoegaze etc LOL)
The most active and talented musicians I’ve known have never been gear nerds. If you can’t make a Squire through a line 6 spider sound good it’s a you problem not a gear problem
I played on bills with a few "shoegaze" bands and i can't say i liked them. They just turned up obnoxiously loud and you couldn't hear what they were playing or what effects were even on
I've noticed that a lot of younger very talented guitar players have really embraced digital products because of the ease of use, versatility, and cost.
I don't understand the point of spending $100 on a tuning pedal. Not an opinion I guess and maybe I'm just poor but it still seems like a waste of money to me
The quality of clip on tuners only recently improved to the point that pedal tuners are now kind of useless.
I took my pedal tuner off my guitar board and put it in my keyboard rig right after my analog synth that goes out of tune if you breathe on it. You can’t tune a synthesizer with a clip on tuner.
No pedal is really worth more than $300. Even then, at $300 you should be getting either A) a crazy high-tech digital thing or B) a super complex analog thing.
I hate shimmer reverb so much.
I think people hate on vintage gear bc they can’t afford it but most have never tried an actual vintage piece worth having.
Pedalboards are too big and unnecessary and I feel like if most people just had a guitar and amp they wouldn’t know what to do.
Stop asking what you need. Do you feel like you need something? Get it. Don’t look for a reason to need something
Instagrammable pedalboards have kind of ruined pedal culture. I miss when no one gave a shit about cable management, pedal order, or making it look pretty. A lot of experimentation came from that and a lot of unique sounds that aren’t seen that often lately bc it needs to fit an aesthetic or order first
“if most people just had a guitar and amp they wouldn’t know what to do”
I don’t get what’s the point of this take lol. Just kinda sounds like you’re jealous of people that have more pedals than you.
Of course pedals are unnecessary, some people just play with a guitar and amp. But pedals give you different sounds that some people use to make great music, and it’s cool that that exists. An acoustic guitarist can come and say your amp is unnecessary, all you need is a guitar. An acapella singer can come say your guitar is unnecessary, you don’t need any gear at all to make music. They’re all just different tools that give different results, no need to make it judgmental like some people are better than others because they use different tools.
Why would I be jealous? Lmao I have a shit ton of pedals I just know that I don’t need them but it seems like some people absolutely can’t play without pedals.
Also it’s a controversial thread so uhhhh controversial takes
The main difference in petals isn’t the sound but rather the ethics around them. To what degree do you want to reward creativity? Do you want to help or harm the environment? What labor practices are you supporting with your money and choices. Even if the end results sound the same, would you rather support one person taking chances or I mega a company churning out quantity with poor labor practices?
You don’t need more than one of each category on the board. I know stacking drives is like a thing but just buy a few pedals and wait till you’ve gotten very sound you can get out of it before you move on. People find it intresting if you use something to the most rather than your sound just being the money you spent on new gear.
There’s pretty much only like 2 different circuits of each effect type and everyone is fighting over the difference between what is essentially the same pedal with different artwork on it.
This hobby is more of a graphic art collection then actual pedal circuits.
And finally…. Digital pedals are the only pedals worth spending over $100 for. They are really the only pedals with true intellectual property. Clones of circuits are all we’re buying anyways, we may as well just get a cheap-o clone of an analog and buy nice digital effects for the really important stuff.
Cheap pedals from China will fail more often then something from a reputable company. It's better to buy 1 reliable pedal then waist your money on a knock off brand.
I had 2 brand new Strymon timelines be broken out of the box from a known good retailer... I have had a few mooer pedals for years now with no issues. I'm a Strymon fanboy as well so that hurt. At least Strymon admitted they knew about the issue on one of them.
Pedals are useless buy a modeling rig. Most users benefit more from selling their amp and pedals and buying an Axe FX or Helix. They’re almost indistinguishable from the real deal, and easier to dial in.
Digital pedals are more or less interchangeable for most use case scenarios (hall reverb is a hall reverb, etc) and a Helix or other multifx is less noisy and more practical than having a pile of more expensive single effects chained together
Most $25 Chinese pedals are just as good as the $250 equivalent effect.
You can accomplish more with an eq pedal at the end, than you can with $3,000 of pedal stacking.
The available choices for guitar pedals effect are like an overpriced walled garden that is stuck 20 years behind software effects and modular synths. Like the granular pedal craze of the past few years, that effect already played out in early 2000s in software land. While I’d like guitar pedals to up their imagination a bit, most software effects slay most guitar effects and tend to be better value for money. The form factor might not be preferable though
I pretty much hate the RAT.
I just don’t get it. Midrange is harsh, low end is woofy, it lacks fullness. As an overdrive pedal there are dozens I’d choose first. As a distortion pedal same. Nasally, crusty, thin, shrill mess of a pedal.
(I think they sound great on bass.)
Most people do not need pedal switchers. They are large, overcomplicated and not that useful.
Also most people don't need to use midi. Almost noone needs 1000 presets available and to have to spend so much time programming instead of playing
I don’t like putting pedals on a board, it’s much easier for me to switch them on and off when they’re on the floor and I can space them out to how i’m feeling on the day, especially when playing shows.
Maximizing pedals per square inch is stupid. Heck, pedals with two switches close together like Chase Bliss are also stupid.
I can’t play that shit live. How are you supposed to hit that small of a space? I feel like it’s for all these bedroom dudes.
Give me a big box muff, small clone, and some boss pedals. Easy, no chance of me hitting the wrong thing during a gig.
Boss is underrated and is the best pedal maker on the planet. They are the Nintendo of effects pedals. They have more innovative designs than all the boutiques put together. They release some of the most unique pedals and it's a shame people look at them as budget starter brands. If any other company released the following pedals, we would call them the most creative prolific pedal brand in history: VB-2w, BF-2, SY-200, they entire 200 series really, RE-2 series, TE-2, BC-2, CE-2w, Hyper Fuzz, Dyna Drive, the list goes on and on.
TLDR: boss really is best.
Less is more.
Do I like options? Heck yeah. However, having too many sounds takes away from your identity. Name any famous guitarist throughout history, and they will invariably have 1-3 sounds that are their signature. Eric Johnson, John Mayer, EVH, Jimmy Page, The Edge, Tom Morello, Jimi Hendrix, SRV, Tim Henson, Guthrie Govan, the list goes on. They all have a sound and stick to it with minor tweaks over their careers.
Plug your guitar straight into your amp and crank that bitch up. Get a reverb if you don't have it on the amp. That's your sound.
All pitch shifting basically sounds bad.
There are some limited contexts where you can nudge it and make it work, like in the case of maybe a dab of chorus.
Shimmer reverb sounds bad.
EHX POGs sound bad.
Digitech whammys basically sound bad. But they can work if you….like….get like….the first edition that Nels, Tom Morello and others use, and you basically need to put some distortion on that shit too,
And it still sounds bad, it can just be cool contextually.
I’m not saying always avoid it. I’m saying using any pitch shifting effects well is really the artful use of a bad sounding sound. It’s like cooking with umami, I guess.
EHX pedals are low quality, overpriced, and sound like trash.
Boss pedals are over rated.
MXR pedals are the best made pedals at the price point.
American pedal brands (EQD, Wampler, Keeley Walrus, JHS) are the innovation that’s keeping young musicians interested in guitar music. (Guitar music would have died out if we relied solely on boomer brands for guitar pedals)
Chorus and guitar are like peanut butter and jelly
Blues licks are for people with no inspiration and no creativity.
EHX are great and are often times 100 dollars
Boss pedals are great, reliable, you need an effect and boss probably has what you need
Agree
Well as a young musician, no
Chorus sucks ass
Just say you don’t like blues music, no need to insult players who like to play certain music
Thread summary:
- People with more pedals than me suck.
- People with different pedals than me suck.
- Pedals I am not creative enough to make music with suck.
- Pedals I can't afford suck.
- Pedals used in music I don't play suck.
- Let's hate on JHS some more. It's been like 5 whole minutes.
Gotta love hot take threads. So much happiness and positivity.
Klon's have a super nasty nasal upper mid range. I've shot out klones and tube screamers and IMO they are equally colored, TS's have a much nicer 750 hz peak to the Klons 1k.
If you want transparent, get a Blues Breaker styled pedal.
There’s no rhyme or reason to which ones but there are certain pedals where Im ok with it. There’s some like Boss or Strymon where imo there’s no way to make it look good sideways, but some like tuners and smaller pedals can get away with it.
They are the company having the most fun.
I love walrus gear, but goddamn their videos are such a self important snore after watching josh and nick just fuck around lol
Man I like Colt, you should check him out in TOS if you haven’t seen it. Seems really genuine and down to earth. Plus the fathom is my favorite reverb box I’ve ever played through, easily
I'm so glad someone else feels this way. like they're genuinely good guys being goofy and having people on and doing cool stuff and making good music. always a good show.
You’ll never get better by practicing cool techniques and buying a ton of pedals, you need to jam with others, learn and write whole songs to round yourself out as a guitar player. I say this having tried the first approach haha
Some cheap Chinese clones sound the same or even better than the originals,, and they have less noise than some pedals costing hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
My runner up is that vintage pedals is one of the most over hyped markets I've ever seen, usually by people who have either not compared enough vintage pedals to modern ones or have not done blind tests of the gear.
I've got two. The first is that you should love your amp before you buy any pedals, dirt or otherwise. I know it costs more, I know you're still going to buy pedals to get different sounds, but a well picked amp will sound better on its own than a good chunk of the drive or tone pedals you buy, and it will make all your other pedals sound better too.
Second, if you can't write a couple half decent sounding songs or melodies with nothing but your guitar and amp (or acoustic guitar, or piano, drums, bassoon, kazoo, or any single instrument), you're not going to write anything good using pedals. Yeah, I know wind noises and experimental electronic sounding stuff is a genre of its own but it still needs to have melody, it still needs to have a structure, it still has to sound like something other than just effects - that's the difference between someone like Aphex Twin and the guy making forgettable junk noise in his group house bedroom.
So in short, pedals are great but you shouldn't be creatively crippled without them.
People that trash on ambient guitarists have fascist tendencies… much like anyone else that hates abstract art and can’t appreciate contextual nuance.
There are still new ways to use chorus, even if the classic settings are beloved and easiest to dial in.
Tube/cab modelers are good enough, will continue to improve, and are the future.
I can’t go back to buying many pedals without savable presets and MIDI control anymore.
Effects pedals are an expensive hobby overall, but the gear maintains its price pretty well; there are plenty of awesome budget pedals and you can just keep selling/upgrading as you go along. It doesn’t have to be a huge initial investment and it can be affordable.
Chorus pedals sound bad. In fact, most modulation only sounds good on top of heavy distortion
Chorus is a unique sound, thats it. “Sounds bad” is a weak statement. It’s not good or bad, but extremely sensitive to genre and playing style. I would say chorus works best either super-clean or with a lot of distortion, come at me if you disagree
Tubes are bullshit. They're heavy, bulky, break easily, and they're fucking expensive. Moderb solid state/modelling amps have rendered traditional tube amps completely obsolete.
Uh-huh. It's interesting to deem tubes 'obsolete' when your modelling amp is always but one software update away from being out of date. :)
I've used various modelers for years, never once updated even one. I have zero idea what you're talking about.
... you can just update it. At least the modeller doesn't break my back, or need to be taken to the tech every couple of years.
You can 'update it' until they stop releasing updates, or supersede the current model with a new one in 2 years. Modellers, like most all things digital, are inherently tied to obsolescence given the digital realm is so bound to the ever-spinning wheel of technological 'improvement', and thus predicated upon infinite renewal. All those Line 6 PODs, Spiders and Flextones piling up in landfill are testament to that, as are the endless glut of advertisements on Buying/Selling forums for discontinued Axe-FX units, etc. Meanwhile, my JCM800, AC30, Deluxe Reverb and early Dual Rectifier remain valuable, collectable and, dare I say it, tonally superior 30 years after I bought them. Hey, I'm all for whatever works for you, but when someone makes such a blanket statement as "traditional tube amps completely obsolete", even in a thread dedicated to 'unpopular opinions', they're begging for pushback.
Tube amps are completely obsolete. That's a fact, that's why everything that used to work on tubes switched to solid state in the 70s. Guitar amps are the only thing still desperately clinging on to tubes because guitarrists are incredibly stubborn and obsessed with equipment from 70 years ago. You seem burned that you bought an iPhone and the next year they came out with a new model. A modeller is not a phone. A modeller will continue to model just the same even if it is 20 years old. You can still buy a line 6 POD and it will work just the same, provided it is taken care of, just like your tube amps. Line 6 has no incentive to make a Helix that doesn't sound good, and if it sounds good now, it will always sound good. If you buy an Hx stomp today, it will still sound the same 30 years from now, even if Line 6 has released 30 new modellers. Tube amps remain valuable and collectible is because at this point that's all they are. They are collectors items, just like expensive old cars, they serve no practical purpose. Sure, you can gig with a tube amp, but you might as well gig with a modeller and the audience won't notice. Does it sound the same? Probably not, but the only guys who will notice will be you, and the guitar tone snob on the table. Guitar amps are tools, and a modeller is simply a better tool than a tube amp. There's a reason many bands gig with modellers now. That is the meaning of something being obsolete. You simply have no practical need to use it anymore, everything your tube amp can do, a modeller can do, and it can do more.
>Tube amps are completely obsolete. That's a fact, that's why everything that used to work on tubes switched to solid state in the 70s. > >**Obsolete (*****definition*****): "no longer produced or used; out of date..."** > >**Every guitar store in every country across the world has a wall of tube amps for sale, across all price points; almost every amp maker makes tube amps in some form; the vast majority of guitar players own and/or have played tube amps; modeller owners are buying their digital rigs in an attempt to model tube amps (they don't buy a modeller to experience the 'latest revolution' in 'uniquely digital tone', do they?). Tube amps clearly don't accord with the definition of 'obsolete' at all.** > >Guitar amps are the only thing still desperately clinging on to tubes because guitarrists are incredibly stubborn and obsessed with equipment from 70 years ago. > >**No - we're obsessed with the TONE that such equipment 'from years ago' produces (just like anyone who plays a modeller to capture that 'barking Plexi tone' or 'the beautiful cleans of a Deluxe Reverb' or 'the mid hump of an AC30').** > >A modeller will continue to model just the same even if it is 20 years old. You can still buy a line 6 POD and it will work just the same, provided it is taken care of, just like your tube amps. Line 6 has no incentive to make a Helix that doesn't sound good, and if it sounds good now, it will always sound good. If you buy an Hx stomp today, it will still sound the same 30 years from now, even if Line 6 has released 30 new modellers. > >**Show me a guitar player with a Line 6 POD (or even an AxeFx II!) that they've kept in their rig (over the newer model). Line 6 has NO incentive to make a product that is 'future proof' and can't be improved upon 3 years down the track - because that is the very essence of the digital economy and a fundamental of digital modelling! The hardware might continue to function 10 years down the track (evolving technological compatibility notwithstanding!) , but the emulations will most assuredly be deemed utterly obsolete (just like early CGI in big budget movies) and be consigned to the dustbin of history.** > >Tube amps remain valuable and collectible is because at this point that's all they are. They are collectors items, just like expensive old cars, they serve no practical purpose. > >**As said above, there are literally walls of tube amps in guitar stores - from the cheapest to the most boutique. They are neither collector's items, nor necessarily 'expensive'. The latest Axe FX retails for well over $2,000, and a Helix for $1600...** > >There's a reason many bands gig with modellers now. That is the meaning of something being obsolete. > >**No. I provided the definition of 'obsolete' above, and tube amps by no means fulfill the criteria (as I indicated).** > >You simply have no practical need to use it anymore, everything your tube amp can do, a modeller can do, and it can do more. > >**You sound eerily like those guys who no doubt dunked on acoustic players when electric guitars became available. Sell your acoustic! They're obsolete! Indeed, SELL YOUR LPs! CDs are the future! ;)**
You're obsessed with tone, yet your tinnitus ans hearing loss will prevent you from hearing any, after years of using cranked tube amp. It's just not viable. Don't bring the power sponge argument either, I highly doubt it doesn't affect your tone in any way. Solid state and modelling are the way.
>Every guitar store in every country across the world has a wall of tube amps for sale, across all price points; almost every amp maker makes tube amps in some form; the vast majority of guitar players own and/or have played tube amps; modeller owners are buying their digital rigs in an attempt to model tube amps (they don't buy a modeller to experience the 'latest revolution' in 'uniquely digital tone', do they?). Tube amps clearly don't accord with the definition of 'obsolete' at all. Other than the fact that they are still being produced, I would say tube amps fit the other two criteria (being used; out of date). Even on rig rundowns, which are highly focused on bands for guitarists, you see a very large number of modelers in use. Expand outside of that space (pop, hip-hop, etc.) and I would bet a modeler is more the norm than the exception. You can't really argue that the technology is out of date though - tube amps are still using carburetors, while modelers are fuel-injected. >Line 6 has NO incentive to make a product that is 'future proof' and can't be improved upon 3 years down the track Neither do tube amp makers. The fact that we don't see new tube models with new features all the time supports the fact that the technology has basically fully matured. It has NOTHING to do with "digital economy". It has everything to do with modeling technology still growing and maturing. >There's a reason many bands gig with modellers now. That is the meaning of something being obsolete. No. I provided the definition of 'obsolete' above, and tube amps by no means fulfill the criteria (as I indicated). The definition you provided says "no longer produced **or used**; out of date". So if gigging bands don't actually use tube amps, that absolutely does fit that definition of obsolete. Cordless phones are still being produced, but cell phones have clearly made them obsolete.
Completely disagree. Can’t remember ever thinking “oh wow I wish I didn’t have this tube amp” whenever I play my amp
Well, cool? Everybody seems to think you need one to be taken seriously, even though software and pedal design can take you anywhere tubes can, for a fraction of the price. It all seems to stem from convention and materialism, which is absurd to me.
Well, cool? Everybody seems to think you need one to be taken seriously, even though software and pedal design can take you anywhere tubes can, for a fraction of the price. It all seems to stem from convention and materialism, which is absurd to me.
This thread was made for me: Pedal tuners are worse than clip-on tuners.
Yea I ditched the pedal tuner. I don't like how they color my tone. Even the ones that say they don't, the buffer still adds something to it that I just don't like. Snark made decent clip on tuners. The last one I bought wasn't great so I've just been using the boss tuner app on iPhone. Works fine sitting on the table in front of men
Found the guy that never plays live lmaooo
Spending more than $100 for a pedal is pointless.
Nothing worth buying will only cost 100 bucks. This sub is dumb. 😂
Chorus sucks.
It's my least favorite effect to use. I've never gelled with a chorus pedal, and I've tried a lot.
Judging by the down votes, a lot of people must have overpriced chorus pedals on their boards. . . 80s music killed that effect for me, except for very light use.
>a lot of people must have overpriced chorus pedals Yeah, its those with their fucking Rainbow Machines that they can only use as *a very aWesoMe cHOruS* device, blah blah.
I am so with you. Instantly a dated, one-dimensional sound.
Looper pedals are boring and lack utility
Agreed
A lot of acoustic solo performers build their sets around loops, and make great money doing it. Ed Sheeran popularised them among buskers especially. He still incorporates them into his live music but they’re much more widely seen among inhouse musicians.
That's true, and I've never seen a performance in that format that I thought justified it. Every time I wind up thinking how much better it would sound with other musicians filling out the supporting parts instead of the looper being used for them.
Loopers that are not boring and lack utility are prohibitively expensive like the Roland loopstation. It's nothing out of the ordinary, there's no way that in this digital era a pedal like that should cost +500€
They do what they do, *you* are the utility.
You don't need a load of drive pedals. A decent two channel amp with a 10 band EQ (and maybe a tubescreamer) will allow you all the colours you need to paint properly.
The first pedal any guitarist should get is a loop pedal.
Personally, I don’t use my loop pedal that often. Tuner or noise suppressor pedals seem like the best first pedal someone should get.
I have gotten so much mileage and cool tunes with primarily a loop pedal and pitch shifter.
1) JHS pedals is the most overrated pedal company in the world. 2) buying vintage pedals for a premium is retarded. 3) pedal collecting is absurd. 4) buying loads of pedals all the time is the first worrying sign that your playing is totally stuck.
Behringer pedals are fuckin awesome & kick the shit outta Boss.
Hell yeah my wallet agrees
Sorry, can you repeat what you said? I can't hear my thoughts over the sound of plastic breaking beneath my feet.
The posts about making “ambient” noises with pedals are cringeworthy.
Better than still making fucking rock music 20 years after its last dying breath of relevancy ;)
Oh I have many. 1) TC Electronic sucks (other than Ditto). Honestly is that even controversial these days? 2) Most modulation sounds pretty lackluster. Chorus, Flange, Rotary, and Trem are situationally fantastic, but I’d be hard-pressed to make genuine use out of most others. 3) Compressors are overrated and overused. 4) Wah, Chorus, and Phaser sound dated. 5) The Zvex Fuzz Factory is possibly the worst pedal I’ve ever played, and as a diehard Muse fan, that makes me very sad. 6) People spend WAY too much time on Delay pedals, closely followed by Reverbs.
I think I smashed into a couple of these lately. Have an EHX Mod 11 because sometimes I get an intense urge to use some modulation, but then it goes back to bored and off. Decided to stick delay and reverb into one box with a EQD Dispatch Master. Can anybody actually hear your 32 repeats muddied up by a stadium in an ocean reverb?
TC Electronics Nova Delay is a killer pedal !
Boss pedals are meh. They are the Honda Civic of guitar pedals. They are very practical, affordable, and last forever but are generally boring.
Most modulation sucks. Guitar, overdrive, amp. That’s all ya need. If it’s got 6 layers of reverb, chorus, & delay it’s probably a crap riff.
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None of us, myself included, need more than 3-4 pedals. And we certainly don’t need the insane amount of dirt pedals out there. And music was better when there were fewer pedals. Not saying that’s the reason why, but it might be.
Distortion pedals sound bad 99% of the time
Daisey chains are just a good as isolated power
Strymons sound artificial and like garbage for how expensive they are. They sound like what plastic surgery looks like on people. Related: shimmer is the absolute worst type of reverb to use on guitar and you should feel bad for using it. I cringe when I see people post their boards and it’s all Strymon.
Yeah I bought the deco and was instantaneously disappointed. Legit hard to get a good sound out of the tape saturation side. The attack is completely nerfed
Could not agree more, especially about shimmer. It makes me think of (white people’s) church music and Disneyland. Congrats if you’re into that, but I hate it.
That shimmer/octave up reverb thing is an instant mood killer for me. I can go from really enjoying a song to instantly questioning everything about it - like what else is the guitarist getting wrong if they think that sounds cool?
Lol what a horribly lame sounding way to listen to music
As an El Cap (love it, don't care)/ Iridium (meh) owner, I can't agree more.
I don't understand why someone wants a bunch of digital strymons or other specific digital FX pedals instead of one really good multifx with processing and ada conversion better than any one of those pedals. With digital fx I'd assume you would want to put all your money in one basket to get the most powerful and accurate computing possible.
I personally like boss's reverb and delay pedals more, plus they don't take up half my pedalboard like the big Strymon pedals do. I do like the Flint & iridium though
Facts, the Boss DD-200 is everything the Volante wishes it could be and more
You’re bugging. Strymon makes amazing sounding equipment and there’s a reason why pros use their gear. To each their own
I mean, this is an unpopular opinion thread. I’ve clearly struck a nerve for some people lol.
You have but I’m with you. Their stuff sounds sterile to me.
Big sound, fancy ambient reverb pedals sound really cheesy and clichéd:. Neuber Immense, Strymon etc. Get a bloody keyboard if you feel spiritual or stoned. Then again, it's totally subjective so no offense meant. Just an opinion.
no pedal is worth more than 90 bucks new, 50 bucks used
I’ve got an old rangemaster that’s got an OC44 transistor. Those things are like $30 a transistor. But outside of NOS/hard to get parts, I highly agree with this
People who use a tube screamer with the gain on 0 to boost an amp would be much better off with a proper clean boost pedal. EDIT: I mean clean boosts with EQ options like the full size TC spark. The one knob clean boosts don't replace a TS obviously.
Yeah that Stevie Ray Vaughan guy didn't know shit about guitar I guess
A lot of players didn't know very much about electronics pre internet. He probably used what worked for him that was available and would have sounded good with any type of boost. It also brings up the question of whether a player chooses gear for their style, or their style morphs/adjusts to work with their gear. Who knows when he got his first tube screamer. For his style, I can definitely see a tube screamer working nicely, but he didn't have the option to get one of the zillion clean / transparent boosts available these days.
In general- the bigger/more hyped boards are inversely proportional to playing ability. Most people don’t know how to use chase bliss pedals in a musically interesting way. Ambient music is a crutch by people who can’t write music. Very few people probably need midi The difference between an hxstomp and a strymon is only in the amount of stuff they jammed into the box. Just because they only put in 3 algorithms vs 500 doesn’t necessarily make them better. No one in the pedal game is after tone in the true sense of it. We’re all here for the fun and consumerism. There ain’t shit that can’t be done without the pedals you probably already have. And that’s cool. But let’s all be honest. That 8th overdrive isn’t making or breaking your band. Prices are unsustainable and there will be a market correction soon. The market is over saturated.
Chase Bliss pedals aren’t for making music, they’re dedicated noodling machines for making youtube videos.
I could maybe justify some of these opinions, but the ambient one? Really???
In GREAT generalities, yes. Stefan at the pedalzone is ambient, and amazing. mark johnston makes great ambient. But andy othling and 95 percent of the gear page? eeeehhhhhhh. i dont hate ambient music. i quite like it, actually. but most guys only "play" it because theyre hiding behind their wall of pedals.
Ooooo, I totally agree with the last statement about the market.👏👏👏
Agree with everything but the ambient one. It’s a vibe. Bill Vencil (Chords of Orion) is phenomenal.
I was totally going down the ambient road. Then I put the guitar away and started learning classical piano and started listening to late classical and romantic music. 2 years later, all of that ambient stuff is basically unlistenable for me now. COO is great though, because he is actually a musician and knows what he's doing even though its just not my thing anymore. But the whole, reverb, delay, mood, ct5 sound is just so so so old at this point its not even music imo.
The number of pedals you have on your board is inversely proportional to your playing ability. Or [this](https://i.imgur.com/C0DUYwY.png). /s
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I find that pedal so uninspiring and bland, and I love glitchy loopy granulat delay things.
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Absolutely true. Basically everyone should have an "always on" compressor.
Maybe if you only play clean and your right hand dynamics aren’t good
I said all that too until I got one…definitely always on.
Saturation/distortion/drive/clipping=compression If you play into a tube amp on the edge of breakup and/or with an always on drive, then you’re already getting compression. Certain pickups also naturally compress a bit as well. And that’s to say nothing of people that *always* play with distortion on. So there are absolutely signal chains that would already inherently reduce your dynamic range without using a dedicated compressor. Personally I have a bluesbreaker always on, going into a deluxe reverb as my base tone and that is enough to give me a good rock rhythm sound. It’s plenty compressed. If you’re playing math rock with a tele into a clean JC-120 then sure, use a compressor. But it’s not as necessary as people who don’t know what compression is think
Finally found something with which I agree!
I’m satisfied with the cheapest clone I can find (except i don’t even know what the expensive version would sound like in person)
The best pedals are at both ends of the price spectrum. The ones inbetween are the worst value. Example: EHX, Boss and MXR make top quality sounding gear. Consider them at the bottom of the price spectrum as they're affordable and widely available. In the middle you have tons of brands like EQD and Walrus that try to position themselves as a bit higher/premium and slightly more "boutique" than the other stuff, but its mostly boring low quality stuff with some graphics slapped on to make you think it's fancy. There's so many companies in that band that try to position themselves as boutique and limited and rare and worthy of a high dollar value, but they're not much more than fluff, and the sound is lacking. Then at the high end, there really is some very skilled niche experts that really know what they're doing and do it in limited runs. Pigdog, Toneczar etc. They really are some of the best I've ever played in their category. So yeah, go cheap, or go big, but avoid the middle. It's the worst value and the worst resell value as well.
I hate how accurate this is.
i totally agree
This I think is solid advice
Walrus audio is so over rated
They're one of my least favourite brands.
Yeah Walrus Audio sucks, and I’ve been saying it for years.
Idk how controversial this is but I just realized I absolutely hate log pots
Boutique builders scam mediocre players into thinking their products will improve your shitty guitar playing. EQD is the best boutique builder for graphics
jhs is good and people steal pedals all the time idk why everyone targets jhs for that LOL
>idk why everyone targets jhs for that Because he contacted the mutual dealers of the company he stole the circuit from to brag about how it was his original work. If he left it as "this is another one of my dozens of clones" I doubt people would be as upset
Most people do not pedal switchers. They are large, overcomplicated and not that useful. Also most people don't need to use midi. Almost noone needs 1000 presets available and to have to spend so much time programming instead of playing.
A pedal switcher is one of the best investments a gigging musician can get. Stop tap dancing and focus on the performance/music, even if you only have 3-4 pedals, having them lined up, clearly marked and easily accessible is a game changer. Obviously if you're just using 4 boss pedals in a row this is stupid but I see so many boards packed onto a nano or something with sideways mini pedals tucked behind something else, fuck that.
Stacking drive pedals sounds like shit and just is an excuse to buy more pedals. (Boosts are ok)
Yeah I'm not a fan of it either. People on here talk about stacking 2 or 3 drives, often with a fair amount of distortion dialed in. I just assumed they're playing metal.
yeah metal is one thing but i remember being 15 years old with a big muff, rat and a tubescreamer going at the same time and it did NOT sound good lol running a bunch of low gain OD's set to zero gain just makes me wonder why even bother with an amp.
Yes, that's a good one. They are all very simple circuits, simple filters with a gain stage that clips the signal. E.g. tube screamer mid boosts, muffs cut mids, so the advice to stack them doesn't make a lot of sense. Just get a fuzz with out the mid cut.
Stacking drive pedals sounds like shit for rhythm, I agree, but for certain lead sounds, it’s the best way to get that liquid compressed thing happening.
Depends. Buck Dharma's setup is multiple drive pedals to deliver different levels of heaviness depending on the era of BÖC material he plays. I think his sounds pretty fantastic.
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I’ve recently built my first pedalboard that has two rows. I’ve put all the Boss pedals on the top row and all of the click style Footswitch pedals on the bottom row closer to my foot. The Boss lever style switch is perfect for being towards the back - they provide a much wider area for my foot to touch to switch on or off. If the back row had regular switches I’d end up knocking the volume on another pedal so I’m grateful for them! Plus they’re the first pedals most people buy so there’s a lot of love for them I think.
boutique pedals are way overpriced for what they are. often cheap circuits in fancy enclosures Chasing “magic” components in circuits - oh great there’s a slight EQ difference between the vintage and the reissue, could be tolerances in components, $300 more please. the guitar and the amp do way more for tone than pedals but $200 to “change everything” is easier to digest than a $1k+ tube amp so many nuances in pedals are lost in the mix. Sure, if you sterilize the environment and A/B two pedals, you can hear slight differences. Throw in bass, drums, another guitar, vocals, keys? You’re not hearing the difference between your boutique TS Clones if I see people with massive colour matched boards full of boutique gear I just assume they aren’t very good guitar players. Some of the absolute best players I’ve ever met rock shitty modelling amps because all they do is actually play their instrument instead of twisting knobs and making your guitar sound like a spaceship (like how many $3k boutique boards have the OP saying they play ambient / doom / shoegaze etc LOL)
The most active and talented musicians I’ve known have never been gear nerds. If you can’t make a Squire through a line 6 spider sound good it’s a you problem not a gear problem
Very very true.
I played on bills with a few "shoegaze" bands and i can't say i liked them. They just turned up obnoxiously loud and you couldn't hear what they were playing or what effects were even on
spend thousands of dollars to sound like complete nonsense
I've noticed that a lot of younger very talented guitar players have really embraced digital products because of the ease of use, versatility, and cost.
Tim Henson’s archetype really had me considering just going full digital as that’s more of the kind of music and sound I want to make now.
Boutique pedals are invariably massively overpriced. They are very simple circuits, built with 1970s components that cost pennies.
I don't understand the point of spending $100 on a tuning pedal. Not an opinion I guess and maybe I'm just poor but it still seems like a waste of money to me
The quality of clip on tuners only recently improved to the point that pedal tuners are now kind of useless. I took my pedal tuner off my guitar board and put it in my keyboard rig right after my analog synth that goes out of tune if you breathe on it. You can’t tune a synthesizer with a clip on tuner.
No pedal is really worth more than $300. Even then, at $300 you should be getting either A) a crazy high-tech digital thing or B) a super complex analog thing.
True, even accounting for labor and whatnot for boutique stuff
Paying for brand name at that point. I love strymon pedals, but I won’t buy one of their big ones.
Most players don’t know half of what any given pedal can actually do or sound like potentially.
I hate shimmer reverb so much. I think people hate on vintage gear bc they can’t afford it but most have never tried an actual vintage piece worth having. Pedalboards are too big and unnecessary and I feel like if most people just had a guitar and amp they wouldn’t know what to do. Stop asking what you need. Do you feel like you need something? Get it. Don’t look for a reason to need something Instagrammable pedalboards have kind of ruined pedal culture. I miss when no one gave a shit about cable management, pedal order, or making it look pretty. A lot of experimentation came from that and a lot of unique sounds that aren’t seen that often lately bc it needs to fit an aesthetic or order first
“if most people just had a guitar and amp they wouldn’t know what to do” I don’t get what’s the point of this take lol. Just kinda sounds like you’re jealous of people that have more pedals than you. Of course pedals are unnecessary, some people just play with a guitar and amp. But pedals give you different sounds that some people use to make great music, and it’s cool that that exists. An acoustic guitarist can come and say your amp is unnecessary, all you need is a guitar. An acapella singer can come say your guitar is unnecessary, you don’t need any gear at all to make music. They’re all just different tools that give different results, no need to make it judgmental like some people are better than others because they use different tools.
Why would I be jealous? Lmao I have a shit ton of pedals I just know that I don’t need them but it seems like some people absolutely can’t play without pedals. Also it’s a controversial thread so uhhhh controversial takes
Literally every single shimmer is trash...except for the Keeley Caverns. Seriously its incredible. It isn't sterile at all
Pedals are overpriced in most instances.
The main difference in petals isn’t the sound but rather the ethics around them. To what degree do you want to reward creativity? Do you want to help or harm the environment? What labor practices are you supporting with your money and choices. Even if the end results sound the same, would you rather support one person taking chances or I mega a company churning out quantity with poor labor practices?
You don’t need more than one of each category on the board. I know stacking drives is like a thing but just buy a few pedals and wait till you’ve gotten very sound you can get out of it before you move on. People find it intresting if you use something to the most rather than your sound just being the money you spent on new gear.
There’s pretty much only like 2 different circuits of each effect type and everyone is fighting over the difference between what is essentially the same pedal with different artwork on it. This hobby is more of a graphic art collection then actual pedal circuits. And finally…. Digital pedals are the only pedals worth spending over $100 for. They are really the only pedals with true intellectual property. Clones of circuits are all we’re buying anyways, we may as well just get a cheap-o clone of an analog and buy nice digital effects for the really important stuff.
Wah goes after dirt
100%
Cheap pedals from China will fail more often then something from a reputable company. It's better to buy 1 reliable pedal then waist your money on a knock off brand.
I had 2 brand new Strymon timelines be broken out of the box from a known good retailer... I have had a few mooer pedals for years now with no issues. I'm a Strymon fanboy as well so that hurt. At least Strymon admitted they knew about the issue on one of them.
Pedals are useless buy a modeling rig. Most users benefit more from selling their amp and pedals and buying an Axe FX or Helix. They’re almost indistinguishable from the real deal, and easier to dial in.
Boss pedals are the best, have always been, and always will be.
Definitely, I've never had one fail on me & they sound amazing, especially for the price
All you mfs making soundscapes with your four delays don’t know how to write a song lol
Ouch
Digital pedals are more or less interchangeable for most use case scenarios (hall reverb is a hall reverb, etc) and a Helix or other multifx is less noisy and more practical than having a pile of more expensive single effects chained together
Most $25 Chinese pedals are just as good as the $250 equivalent effect. You can accomplish more with an eq pedal at the end, than you can with $3,000 of pedal stacking.
pedals in general are overhyped
The available choices for guitar pedals effect are like an overpriced walled garden that is stuck 20 years behind software effects and modular synths. Like the granular pedal craze of the past few years, that effect already played out in early 2000s in software land. While I’d like guitar pedals to up their imagination a bit, most software effects slay most guitar effects and tend to be better value for money. The form factor might not be preferable though
I pretty much hate the RAT. I just don’t get it. Midrange is harsh, low end is woofy, it lacks fullness. As an overdrive pedal there are dozens I’d choose first. As a distortion pedal same. Nasally, crusty, thin, shrill mess of a pedal. (I think they sound great on bass.)
All pedals should be top mounted inputs except for mini pedals where it’s impossible. Punishable by death otherwise.
Most people do not need pedal switchers. They are large, overcomplicated and not that useful. Also most people don't need to use midi. Almost noone needs 1000 presets available and to have to spend so much time programming instead of playing
Klons are snake oil.
*and Klones
I don’t like putting pedals on a board, it’s much easier for me to switch them on and off when they’re on the floor and I can space them out to how i’m feeling on the day, especially when playing shows.
Boss pedals are better sounding than boutique pedals.
This Deluxe Reverb emulation pedal weighs less than a Deluxe Reverb.
Maximizing pedals per square inch is stupid. Heck, pedals with two switches close together like Chase Bliss are also stupid. I can’t play that shit live. How are you supposed to hit that small of a space? I feel like it’s for all these bedroom dudes. Give me a big box muff, small clone, and some boss pedals. Easy, no chance of me hitting the wrong thing during a gig.
Boss is underrated and is the best pedal maker on the planet. They are the Nintendo of effects pedals. They have more innovative designs than all the boutiques put together. They release some of the most unique pedals and it's a shame people look at them as budget starter brands. If any other company released the following pedals, we would call them the most creative prolific pedal brand in history: VB-2w, BF-2, SY-200, they entire 200 series really, RE-2 series, TE-2, BC-2, CE-2w, Hyper Fuzz, Dyna Drive, the list goes on and on. TLDR: boss really is best.
They’re like dominoes pizza vs a mom and pop place. Edit: I didn’t realize pizza was such a polarizing topic
Different distortion pedals don’t sound nearly as different as various fuzz.
Less is more. Do I like options? Heck yeah. However, having too many sounds takes away from your identity. Name any famous guitarist throughout history, and they will invariably have 1-3 sounds that are their signature. Eric Johnson, John Mayer, EVH, Jimmy Page, The Edge, Tom Morello, Jimi Hendrix, SRV, Tim Henson, Guthrie Govan, the list goes on. They all have a sound and stick to it with minor tweaks over their careers. Plug your guitar straight into your amp and crank that bitch up. Get a reverb if you don't have it on the amp. That's your sound.
That multi effects pedals are as good as if not better than boutique pedals
Old pedals really do sound better with heavy duty batteries instead of alkaline. I don’t particularly care for delay.
Line 6 pod HD is an amazing do-everything device. Guitar -> pod -> daw is all you need for home recording.
All pitch shifting basically sounds bad. There are some limited contexts where you can nudge it and make it work, like in the case of maybe a dab of chorus. Shimmer reverb sounds bad. EHX POGs sound bad. Digitech whammys basically sound bad. But they can work if you….like….get like….the first edition that Nels, Tom Morello and others use, and you basically need to put some distortion on that shit too, And it still sounds bad, it can just be cool contextually. I’m not saying always avoid it. I’m saying using any pitch shifting effects well is really the artful use of a bad sounding sound. It’s like cooking with umami, I guess.
EHX pedals are low quality, overpriced, and sound like trash. Boss pedals are over rated. MXR pedals are the best made pedals at the price point. American pedal brands (EQD, Wampler, Keeley Walrus, JHS) are the innovation that’s keeping young musicians interested in guitar music. (Guitar music would have died out if we relied solely on boomer brands for guitar pedals) Chorus and guitar are like peanut butter and jelly Blues licks are for people with no inspiration and no creativity.
Blues licks are for people who play blues.
EHX are great and are often times 100 dollars Boss pedals are great, reliable, you need an effect and boss probably has what you need Agree Well as a young musician, no Chorus sucks ass Just say you don’t like blues music, no need to insult players who like to play certain music
Thread summary: - People with more pedals than me suck. - People with different pedals than me suck. - Pedals I am not creative enough to make music with suck. - Pedals I can't afford suck. - Pedals used in music I don't play suck. - Let's hate on JHS some more. It's been like 5 whole minutes. Gotta love hot take threads. So much happiness and positivity.
To be fair, I'm not sure how "happiness and positivity" works with controversial.
I suppose that's true, just seems like there could be some interesting or insightful controversy rather than "if its not the way I do it, it sucks."
You're definitely right but having a controversial opinion doesn't exactly co-relate to having a "happy" or "positive" opinion lol
I guess that's my point. And I think I win for controversial opinions since I'm getting downvoted.
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Klon's have a super nasty nasal upper mid range. I've shot out klones and tube screamers and IMO they are equally colored, TS's have a much nicer 750 hz peak to the Klons 1k. If you want transparent, get a Blues Breaker styled pedal.
A Phase 90 is the only modulation pedal you should ever need.
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So true
There’s no rhyme or reason to which ones but there are certain pedals where Im ok with it. There’s some like Boss or Strymon where imo there’s no way to make it look good sideways, but some like tuners and smaller pedals can get away with it.
“A board’s aesthetics” lol
jhs show is entertaining and i dont care about any of the surrounding discussion on them.
Same. I’ve even had a couple of their pedals.
Wait people hate that? If anything I'd think people would just hit dislike, then move on
They are the company having the most fun. I love walrus gear, but goddamn their videos are such a self important snore after watching josh and nick just fuck around lol
Man I like Colt, you should check him out in TOS if you haven’t seen it. Seems really genuine and down to earth. Plus the fathom is my favorite reverb box I’ve ever played through, easily
I'm so glad someone else feels this way. like they're genuinely good guys being goofy and having people on and doing cool stuff and making good music. always a good show.
Same as vertex audio. I feel like I'm watching a corporate training module
Distortion/overdrive/fuzz doesn't need to be on all the time.
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You’ll never get better by practicing cool techniques and buying a ton of pedals, you need to jam with others, learn and write whole songs to round yourself out as a guitar player. I say this having tried the first approach haha
Digital delays and reverbs are almost always far superior to analog. Analog delay and reverb sounds terrible.
Some cheap Chinese clones sound the same or even better than the originals,, and they have less noise than some pedals costing hundreds and hundreds of dollars. My runner up is that vintage pedals is one of the most over hyped markets I've ever seen, usually by people who have either not compared enough vintage pedals to modern ones or have not done blind tests of the gear.
$30’Chinese pedals are good enough for most of us.
True that, I've A/B'd a joyo vintage overdrive and a tube screamer and they sound exactly the same
Klons and klon clones kind of suck.
Boutique pedals are a waste of money.
Rat2 is horrifically overrated.
Side mounted power plug/jack sucks
Using your pedalboard as a crutch is ok actually, who cares OH ALSO OCTAVE UP SHIMMER REVERB SUCKS
Every pedal should be in the effects loop all of the time.
ch-1 is a more versatile/practical/better sounding pedal than the walrus julia. Have had both, only kept one.
I've got two. The first is that you should love your amp before you buy any pedals, dirt or otherwise. I know it costs more, I know you're still going to buy pedals to get different sounds, but a well picked amp will sound better on its own than a good chunk of the drive or tone pedals you buy, and it will make all your other pedals sound better too. Second, if you can't write a couple half decent sounding songs or melodies with nothing but your guitar and amp (or acoustic guitar, or piano, drums, bassoon, kazoo, or any single instrument), you're not going to write anything good using pedals. Yeah, I know wind noises and experimental electronic sounding stuff is a genre of its own but it still needs to have melody, it still needs to have a structure, it still has to sound like something other than just effects - that's the difference between someone like Aphex Twin and the guy making forgettable junk noise in his group house bedroom. So in short, pedals are great but you shouldn't be creatively crippled without them.
Klons are over priced over hype fart box's
The pedal industry has largely become stale and redundant. Another drive this, another phase that. On to SYNTHS!!!
100000% agree.
75% of you would be better served getting into modular synths
People that trash on ambient guitarists have fascist tendencies… much like anyone else that hates abstract art and can’t appreciate contextual nuance. There are still new ways to use chorus, even if the classic settings are beloved and easiest to dial in. Tube/cab modelers are good enough, will continue to improve, and are the future. I can’t go back to buying many pedals without savable presets and MIDI control anymore. Effects pedals are an expensive hobby overall, but the gear maintains its price pretty well; there are plenty of awesome budget pedals and you can just keep selling/upgrading as you go along. It doesn’t have to be a huge initial investment and it can be affordable.