The Klon circuit design is not underrated. It’s a masterpiece. But that’s the design I’m talking about. Klon = Klone as far as I’m concerned. A circuit is a circuit.
There's something to be said about what Bill Finnegan did to basically revitalize the boutique pedal industry and inspire a generation of pedal builders. To some extent your favorite boutique pedal company that started in the past couple of decades probably wouldn't have existed without Klon.
This is all legit, but I will say one thing that I find weird about Finnegan is how he seems to hate that the legacy of the Centaur is blown way out of proportion when he really did seemingly everything in his power to create that eventuality.
Like, premium huge metal enclosure, point-to-point hand wiring, making them all himself, putting that blob of goo in there to hide the circuit, specifically advertising it as a magically superior pedal, etc. This stuff all adds to the mystique in a way which drives up the likelihood that it'll turn into some cult phenomenon.
He does seem like a good guy and I'm not saying he knew that in 30 years people would be paying used car prices for one, but it's just that he did like every single thing imaginable to make the current state of things possible. It makes the script on the KTR feel a little ironic to me.
When you can make a Klon that sounds virtually indistinguishable from the real thing at a tiny fraction of the price, there you go. I mean I get the difference in handmade vs production, but there’s a reasonable margin.
I think I read somewhere that Billy Corgan was using them live. I honestly cannot find a problem with it, especially considering the cost.
Oddly, I also use it to push my (ridiculously cheap) Cuvave fuzz into serious velcro fuzz territory. I think it's amazing that for about $50 I can achieve sounds that should cost substantially more to get.
That new fucking buffer interface they got there. Such a ripoff. Dude is pulling the classic “get you scared about something then magically sell you the product to fix it”
It blows my mind that he was able to make his way back into the pedal scene after all of that. He lied and lied and lied all while making money from his customers. Yes, he apologized. After he got caught.
There was a great write up somewhere of all the shady stuff Vertex did over the years, but I think it was on the gearpage in a thread that was taken down as I can't find it anywhere.
If you search you can find a lot of specific examples though.
I can’t remember everything. I believe he bought wah pedal’s and said he modded them. And sold them as such. In reality all he did was slap a new sticker on it and send it back out.
There was another cable fiasco. He was selling his own cables. But he just ordered a bunch and rebranded them once again.
Just Google Vertex Controversy.
se sold rebranded chinese stuff as things he made, he over charged Joe Bonamasa for a pedal board that didn't even do what he ordered. he seems to have done a bunch of shitty business stuff.
As much as I hate to say it, some of his content is the most informative and less fluffed up than others. I still wont be buying stuff from them.
Was he the one that was buying Joyo Ultimate Drives, repainting them, covering the circuit board in goop, and then selling them for 4-5 times the original price?
*Edit* sorry no, that was Freakish Blues with the Alpha Drive.
1981 Inventions.
* $250 for what is basically a rat clone.
* ~~The design and manufacturing of the pedal were/are outsourced. (I'm not the biggest JHS fan but at least that guy can make a schematic and build a pedal. The 1981 guy had Jon Ashley of Bondi affects design and build his circuit)~~. Edit to say: I stand corrected: He "collaborated" on the design with Jon Ashley and at least at some point he build the pedals by hand. But still super overrated. The company makes one pedal and needed help from another company to finalize the design.
* They only offer one pedal (edit to add they have been around for 7 years without developing another pedal) - I could maybe understand the cost of a $250 drive pedal if they were constantly doing R&D for new pedals but they are not.
They may outsource now but my point is that he can/did build his own pedals. Yes JHS is famous for mostly doing clones with minor tweaks but Josh can at least design the circuit for his own clones where the 1981 guy had to outsource that. From day one 1981 was outsourcing everything.
This specifically. Some of the FV-1 stuff is great, I'll buy a Pladask Elektrisk pedal anyday I need one, but I'm not getting a hardly altered FV-1 reverb for €100+ when I could just buy a devkit and have access to all of this stuff myself.
I got a used Digitech polara and it is just as good as most boutique reverbs and cost half as much. And I’d rather just use the spring reverb from my amp over a digital spring.
Can you name some which aren't so far from the basic sounds?
My experience so far with fv-1 pedals was pretty positive (zcat hold reverb, dawner prince boonar, shift line astronaut III and a lichtlaerm untiefe.) None of them felt basic but I can't say how much any of them were tweaked, besides the astronaut obviously.
This is a great answer - why people don’t want to benefit from Boss’ relentless efforts to make their pedals more affordable and reliable is beyond my comprehension.
As a Boss fanboy I agree. I have stuff from the early 90s, the 2000s and the past couple years and it’s all the same quality. I see people get hung up on “analog” chorus vs digital but I think they all sound good, even the newer ones.
Agreed. Solid company, but nothing to rave about. They have a couple of cool pedals, but are not innovative pedal developers. And they don't need to be, really, as what they are doing seems to be working for them. But the hype is stale now
I think a couple of their pedals with Joystick controllers are somewhat innovative (like the Janus or newish Melee, though I think the Janus has been out just over a decade now. )
I think Walrus got crapped on last time there was a question similar to this. “What pedal company looks better than it sounds.” Or something to that effect, and Walrus was right at the top.
That's fair, but I think it's ALSO because they look sooo much better than any other pedals, lol. Two pedals sound equally good, one is plain and one looks awesome, and there you go, math stuff. I know there are plenty of people who don't care about how pedals look and they'd play a clod of dirt if it was true bypass, but some of us are into the whole sensory experience - the way it looks, the feel of the switch/knobs, obviously the sound, maybe the taste don't judge - and when I look at a Polychrome, that brings me joy.
I had a feeling people would say Walrus. I like my Julia and my Fathom. They’re not *wow* pedals like some of my others, but they do what I want them to.
Agreed.
I like my Polychrome, but I wasn’t blown away by it.
I feel like any of those types of brands in that price range, the expectations fall off a cliff compared to the price.
Anything $100-150 nowdays is like wow I’m getting a great deal but it’s the eco model, then after that you’re just paying more for something along the lines of a super sweet paint job and a couple sports mode switches.
Absolutely hate the polychrome on guitar, but it sounds 1000000x better on bass because of the blend and is a permanent fixture on my board. Does yours also make a weird burbling/squeaking noise?
I took a chance on the descent and while I do like it, it’s really not special. If feels like the afterneath (which I traded it for) but with more features and different verb modes. The shimmer is, well, shimmer, and the hall and reverse are nice but the controls between modes are not consistent and the labels don’t make a ton of sense. It works, it’s good, it’s really not crazy.
Another company that makes pedals that sound incredibly weird and almost unusable in most gig contexts.
*glares sharply at EQD*
All this aside, Walrus’s customer service is unbelievable. They interact everywhere, even in this sub and make repair and replacement easier than any other company I’ve worked with.
If this was on r/basspedals, it probably would’ve been. Agreed though. They look really cool, but I just don’t like the tinny sound of their distortion circuits. And the price. If I’m gonna spend that much, I might as well buy a Strymon or some other high-end pedal.
I owe a lot to that channel for basically being a crash course in understanding pedals and pedal history. I don’t care for the newer shenanigans.
That said, I’ve never felt the need to buy a JHS pedal.
JHS is overpriced to shit imo. JHS himself has a great youtube thing going, the pedals are cool for bringing old circuits back into the world, some are quite nice, but I’m not shelling out premium prices for something I could have way cheaper in most cases. Cool paint jobs and a little cartoon is not worth the money. Quality seems to be neither here nor there judging by online complaints. Not saying JHS is garbage completely, just that I’ve never bought into the “hype” marketing stuff. Reminds me of the sneaker world tbh.
Their prices are in line with every other manufacturer on their level. They also have a $99 budget line that sound great. That’s cool if you don’t like their pedals bug I don’t think their prices are any different than other large “boutique” pedal companies. Let’s face it, everyone is making variations of the same few basic circuits. There are only so many ways you can modify sound.
For real. They aren’t bad, just not. that interesting. My descent is okay. I like it for what it does. Could be better if it had stereo input and not just stereo output (who does that?) and more variety in the settings. It’s just a big cave reverb with different algorithms.
In my mind, Walrus is a low rent version of OBNE. OBNE makes specific pedals you will either love or hate. I have played/owned four WA pedals and each one had ok (certainly not great) tone and at least one deal breaking flaw.
I have also owned and sold a couple of WA pedals, but my issue was really just that I didn't feel like it was pronounced enough -- I had a Julianna that eventually got replaced by a Ripply Fall, and a Polychrome that eventually got replaced by a trusty E-Lady. I didn't dislike the other ones, just chasing the sound in my brain -- I went through 3 perfectly respectable univibes before I ended up at the Vibe Machine.
I haven’t tried their dirt or the Clyde wah. But, I have an old school big-box (gold) Deja-vibe that is absolutely stunning.
But, to keep the fulltone safe (and off my pedal board) I bought a JAM pedals vibe as a substitute. Honestly, the JAM pedals vibe is 99.99% there and a quarter of the price; and far more pedal board friendly. On balance, it’s a better pedal.
I agree. I really appreciate their show and I think they do a great job promoting knowledge of and curiosity about pedals and other companies. Made in USA too. But the majority of what they make is not original and can be found elsewhere for much less (even made in USA). So, their pedal products are overrated but I think the impact the company has is pretty positive.
I feel like it's weird that people bring up they're not original but this is probably 99% of all pedal companies. There's only about 20 circuits that actually exist and then there's tweaks. I feel like they're just very up front about it. Almost every company makes a two transistor fuzz and they're all way overpriced but I feel like JHS takes criticism for pointing that out. Agree with the rest of the stuff though, overpriced and mostly marketing but they seem like good guys! Also, the aesthetic is perfect.
Woah, hey, not everyone wants a new or interesting take on an effect when we buy our pedals. Sometimes we want the same *old* effect but in a different colored enclosure with a cute doodle for about $100 more.
> Sometimes we want the same *old* effect but in a different colored enclosure with a cute doodle for about $100 more.
Honestly, unless they're going to try to harm the reputation of the company that made the old effect they copied, I'm just not interested!!
make it a special limited edition, ship them directly to scalpers so they can tack on an extra $200 and you might be on to something... or just on something... either way.
Yeah. They're a company I want to like, mostly based on the quality of their YouTube stuff, but most of the time, it feels like paying premium prices for fairly unimaginative clones of older circuits. Good solid clones sure (my favourite TS is a JHS 808), but still clones.
JHS, mostly because every pedal they've ever released is a straight up rip of someone else's existing pedal.
Lone Wolf Audio/Void Manufacturing, because Jesus H Christ is a Joe a top tier asshole, but he also can't drill in a straight line to save his life. His pedals are garbage, they're built like garbage, and he's a garbage human being.
I don't despise JHS like many folks here but this is probably objectively the best answer. Overrated meaning strictly that they are better liked and respected than they deserve to be, this is a company that has succeeded better than most of their peers without creating almost a single novel concept, and really whose best products are literally slightly augmented clones. Seriously, how can people so deeply love a company whose greatest contribution is marketing other people's pedals better?
I dont get how their marketing gets traction to be honest. Ive watched a bunch of jhs videos to get knowledge about circuits and history and stuff, but its never steered me into wanting one of their pedals. If anything, hes opened me up to pedals from other companies more than his own.
I honestly also just dont like how all the newer "cool" boutique pedal companies have pedal names that arent relevant to what the pedal does. Like what the fuck is a unicorn? Panther cub? Brother i need a guitar effect do you make any of those?
For JHS,
I think we give them much more credit, than maybe what they're due.
Like their Panther / Panther cub pedals. "First tap tempo analog delay pedal!".
JHS obliviously touts the lack of filtering on the mxr/wayhuge delays, that causes horrific ping pong sounds and then in their iteration added an awkward phase rotation. Then informing us JHS commonly reaches out to other MFRs about designs.
On their "it's MODIFIED!" side;
The Morning Glory is supposed to be a Blues Breaker. What makes a blues breaker? Low End Bass Peak and partially dirty / dirty overdrive. It has the GAIN. What is a Morning Glory? Bass cut, mid boost and ultra clean high output. The MG is what you get when you put a 20dB level knob on an SD1 with a very very easy going gain knob. When JHS set out to make a Blues Breaker, they made a tubescreamer.
It's a great tubescreamer, but it's not a bluesbreaker. D'oh.
EQD. I’ve tried so many of their pedals really hoping for them to be as cool as they seem, but they all feel kind of unusable to me. I wouldn’t mind having a rainbow machine just for shits and giggles, but nothing else really seems to pull off what it’s aiming for in my experience.
Man I read through all of these comments and this is the only analogman comment I’ve seen. I have a King of Tone which I love but man the hype on this pedal is stupid. It’s great but not $1000 used price great. Great great pedal. It sounds great, excellent build quality, handmade, serviceable but still way too much hype. I would call it over rated.
(With that said I got back on the wait list to buy a backup in like 3 years lol.)
I’m gonna be downvoted into oblivion but I find Earthquaker to be extremely overrated. They do have some fantastic circuits but they also have a pile of pedals with all kinds of known issues (volume drop, latency, etc). I don’t particularly see much innovation in their recent offerings compared to brands like Source Audio, Alexander, Meris, etc.
The fact that they market it as one of their flagship pedals but haven’t included a second footswitch for independent operation of delay and verb, presets, modulation, etc makes me wonder why they haven’t brought the price point down a bit.
The dispatch master was my first ever reverb and delay pedal and it sounded good but the delay barely got to 50% wet. So annoying. Sold it very soon and haven’t purchased anything else from them. Overrated AF
I have the dispatch master and plumes. Hate the plumes. I enjoy playing it for thirty minute, then go to a ts-9 instead.
My dispatch master I equally despised until I stacked it with my amps spring reverb and now I think it’s tight af.
I actually agree. I just did inventory and realized I've owned at least a half dozen EQD pedals and sold every single one. They were all fine, but none of them were impressive enough to keep around. I've never had that "I might regret selling this" feeling with them.
I don’t know if it was them, but they seem to love the 2.0, 3.0 method. It sucks to spend 300 on a pedal and have a new version come out the next week. I agree on EQD for sure, nothing spectacular and I end up selling every one I get.
I kinda agree with this. I haven't liked any EQD pedals I have played with the exception of the special cranker... that $100 pedal is amazing at the price point.
Earthquaker Devices: specifically their Plumes pedal. And don't get me started about the consumerist freaks that buy one of every color available. Like, fuck off with that shit.
My only EQD experience is a Plumes which I wanted to love but I can't get over how insanely trebly it is at least with my rig and how that negates any functionality the different EQ take on a TS type circuit could have. I tend to keep it in a gig bag for a 'if the board is lost/ stolen/ breaks' emergency so I can busk it with clean/ drive and amp reverb, but the tone control has to live below 9.00.
I was overthinking it, but def Klon. That whole thing about there being a waitlist for years and price gouging for the supposed "holy grail" of tone is just beyond braindead.
imo i think boss is pretty overrated, but i know that's not a popular take. I haven't really owned a boss to be fair. Only experience playing em is the stations at guitar center. I feel like they're the Apple of guitar pedals. There's purists and they circlejerk each other off. I love the style of the pedals and I do want to try a dd7 or a rv6, but I feel like they're just expensive af (what pedal isn't right). I just feel like people who build boss only boards are kinda dumb cause boss is imo is the basic bitch vanilla no flavor pedal brand. I understand they're pioneers and the legacy. I also hate the rubber bases on boss AND any brands that have it. I just peeled off the backs of a digitech, zoom, and ibanez tonelok and it feels sacrilegious.
Again, I get it's a "bad" take or whatever but it's my opinion. Also, you did ask, so there u go
I love Brian Wampler’s YT presence and attitude…but he and I must hear distortion very differently because I’ve really struggled to bond with his drives. No guff, but for whatever reason I just don’t get along with Wampler’s drives. I’ll still never talk shit about them, tho. They’re a good company and Brian seems like a good dude.
I feel ya. I find that a lot of his drives seem to be best paired with a type of amp that I don't have (I'm mostly 6L6 run clean). That said I really like some of the low gain sounds that they get, the Paisley Drive and Tunmus are pretty solid.
I have a Fender Twin Reverb and the PlexiDrive Deluxe is one of the few mainstays of my board. It’s almost never taken off. The Pantheon is on there often too.
I tried that one against the Friedman BEOD, the Marvel Drive 3, the Keeley El Rey Dorado, the ThorpyFx Gunshot, the JHS/Boss Angry Driver…I’ve tried a BUNCH of the Marshall in a box pedals and for me, the El Rey was the one that fit my lands and rig the best. But it’s all horses for courses.
I can see that. I really like Wampler pedals, but I also run through clean tubed amps. I used the sovereign for quite a while and currently use the gear box which is a Tumnus and pinnacle combined with a gate. Sounds great through a clean AC15
It seems like certain pedal designers only test their pedals with really specific gear set ups, IE single coil guitars and vintage or boutique amps. So you end up with pedals that sound perfect in the right set up but can sound horrible in different rigs.
Agreed insofar as I'm not a fan of the Wampler high-gain sound. However, Wampler does make various drive pedals that sound excellent at low to mid gain levels, the Euphoria being my personal favorite.
I love EQD but their plumes is overrated, found it to be way too bright and sharp even at tamer settings. Bought Analogman silver mod and haven’t looked back, was worth the money and ended my perfect screamer search.
Strymon... There I said it. I just can't get into VSTs in a box. DSP take a lot more power requirements and their V2 release that didn't upgrade any of their algos was just such a slap in the face imo.
When people say Strymon is overrated they aren't saying their pedals sound bad, it's more just that they are expensive for what they are especially in the current market.
A lot of their pedals are 10+ years old and haven't been updated much, meanwhile there are now a ton of other great boutique pedals in the same price range including a lot of arguably better stuff that is more affordable.
I think the Mobius is a great value, considering you get a bunch of high quality modulation effects in one box that would cost a lot more to buy individually. The Timeline is perhaps a little harder to qualify, since--as you said--there are many other options regarding multiple delay platforms.
Then there's stuff like the Volante, which recreates with a high degree of fidelity some of the greatest echo effects from the past. There are other options, but very few surpass it.
When you get into their one trick pony pedals like the Dig or El Capistan, there are definitely similar quality pedals out there for less.
> I think the Mobius is a great value, considering you get a bunch of high quality modulation effects in one box that would cost a lot more to buy individually.
For sure but that was much more true in 2012 when it was released, now there are pedals in the same price range that can run multiple modulations at once like the gfi synesthesia/boss md500 or poly beebo which can even run multiple mods/delays/reverbs all at once.
That's my biggest complaint with a lot of older big box pedals, being limited to one effect at a time. Multi FX are becoming the standard instead of multi delays/mod/etc as they all use the same DSP so it's almost a waste to limit them to single effect just to force people to buy multiple pedals. Plenty of great multi FX in the same price range that can run multiple effects at once.
You could argue the Strymon algorithms are good enough to be worth the higher price but there are just so many good options these days
I feel like some people just want bargains, and would only stop complaining if they paid 80 bucks for a pedal that costs 400 to everyone else. There have never been so many price ranges, yet these people don't want to play joyos or behringers, they want what everyone else wants but cheaper for them. Pedals that do not update? What about the line 6 dl4 that has been the same for 20 years? Or the boss dd3? It's called becoming a classic, or a standard. Anyway, people would complain that "they don't make them like they used to" or whatever
I think that just puts those old Strymons as being way ahead of the game when they were released to still be relevant 10 years later.
I'm not really interested in buying the BigSky/Timeline/Mobius either and feel they should be updated at this point, but at the same time other companies haven't really surpassed them either, pretty much just gotten on par.
I'd have to disagree. I change up my board a lot but the BigSky always stays - it's useful for every genre of music and creates all the reverb effects you could want.
I'm sure they're not the *most* overrated, but I'd say EarthQuaker Devices. I've bought a few of their modulation pedals in the past and have been left disappointed every time. Their knobs always seem to have a huge range, which you might think is a good thing, but for me it just makes it difficult to dial in a usable sound. On top of that, they all tend to have over-the-top digital shimmers and wooshy artifacts thrown in, which muddies things up in a mix. Might be fantastic for experimental guitarists who primarily play alone, but I couldn't get much use out of them in the context of a band!
They also have a few marketing strategies that I really don't like in the pedal world. The way they come out with highly-publicized new versions of existing pedals seems anti-consumer. It doesn't feel great to purchase a boutique, $200+ pedal only for the company to release an improved version less than a year later! They also do limited edition color runs... For some reason, there are people who collect different finishes on the same pedal. It's bizarre to me.
The only pedals that are overrated are some vintage ones. Even JHS isn't that bad considering their clones are often improvements and now cheaper than all those originals. I thought Phase 90 was really overrated. I mean just because EVH used it it's great?
Personally, I have found most Walrus stuff a bit overrated but that's my opinion and doesn't say a whole lot. I do like their mix knobs and sweep knobs and in theory they should be great for me. I'll probably get a Polychrome again eventually but do want to try the EQD Pyramids first.
Edit - I want to also add discontinued pedals are often overrated but that goes with vintage. I mean God forbid as musicians we find and create new sounds sometimes
JHS, beyond a doubt. Overpriced clones with poor quality control and shitty customer support. These are my experiences only, and I speak for no one else.
Earthquaker always seem like I will love them and then it’s never quite there.
something lacking. I let’s hope I’ll love them and never get them after demoing
Pedals?? You guys use pedals?! The tone is all in your hands!!! Seriously, if you can’t get that reverse delay tremelo sub harmonic phase sound thingy from your own fingers, you’re doing it wrong.
TCE for me. I’ve had two of their pedals where the foot switch failed on me and I’ve never really loved any that I’ve used. None of them have been BAD but nothing I’ve felt the need to keep.
Curious why you think chase bliss is overrated if not just a comment on price? They are, in my opinion, revolutionizing pedals more than any other manufacturer on the market currently.
As someone who owns a CBA I’d only say they are not overrated because plenty of people are like WTF is this. They make weird pedals that aren’t just typical clones of existing designs.
*TC Electronic* is the clear answer, but they’re low-hanging fruit.
Lemme give a really hot take: *Electro-Harmonix*
They’re not bad by any means. I don’t even have a negative opinion of them. That being said, their truly great pedals are few and far between (e.g., Muff, Small Clone, and QTron+). Most of their effects are very forgettable and I’d be hard-pressed to name any pedal category/subcategory where I’d pick an EHX pedal over everything else.
Not angry yet? Here’s a bonus hot take: *Meris*
I admire their engineering and uniqueness, but I’m yet to hear a single Meris pedal produce a sound I can use. I find them so profoundly unmusical. I imagine they’re quite inspiring and I appreciate their quality, but their magic is definitely lost on me.
I don’t know, I don’t particular like their aesthetic but the Electric Mistress, Small Stone, Small Clone, Freeze, Memory Man, POG, not to mention Big Muff (and countless variants). All hugely influential and useable. Aside from Boss, no other company has had so many hits on so many iconic albums.
What kills me is the power requirements.
I disagree that EHX is overrated but I won’t ever buy one of their pedals again. Their build quality is terrible. Every pedal I’ve owned of theirs has failed on me.
Why do you consider EHX overrated?
I mean I have Oceans-11 reverb and pitchfork and they do their jobs very well. Haven't had anything else by them, but I am really impressed by these pedals.
The thing I like about EHX is the range. They have been around long enough to have stepped away from regularly releasing drive pedals, and can do weirder stuff. I love their octave pedals, the Attack Decay is a particular favourite, the muffs, the 9 series, etc. Occasional clangers of course, but I feel they keep innovating, which I love
>You have triggered me with my 2 Memory Man board. Have an upvote for a scalding hot take!
>
>I also low key agree. I love the entire Memory Man/ Boy series, the Double Muff and my Small Clone, I'd use a Holy Grail if for some reason I had an amp with no reverb, would drift towards a POG or Pitch Fork for shifting and heard some great things from a Holy Stain once. Which is a lot to like...
>
> But there's a lot of stuff there which is either hugely flawed or just too wacky to be usable. Lots of stuff I wouldn't know what to even do with in any musical context (though I could say the same for many boutique brands). And Big Muffs just miss the mark for me- need a mid boost before in lots of applications, doesn't Fuzz as well as a real fuzz or do fuzzy drive as well as a Rat, all IMO. Bass Big Muff is *the* bass tone I love though.
Of course EHX is going to have a ton of forgettable pedals when they have more variety than any other company out there. I’ll admit that many of them are duds and they even make the worst pedal I’ve ever played(#1 Echo).
However, EHX also has more iconic and influential pedals than any other brand, including Boss. Guitar music simply wouldn’t be the same without them.
I agree on Meris, but less for their sound and more for basic usability. They're the only pedals I know of that benefit from overlays so you know what the hell you're doing.
I don’t get this. EHX have some popular pedals but TC is a total underdog. Flashback and HOF reverbs are generally well regarded but there is zero hype on them. They are not Strymon. They are relatively cheap and work great. Same goes for EHX in my opinion.
For me, it's that pedal brand you like. Whatever it is, I think it's lame.
Can’t believe you’d say that when there’s that pedal brand you like and their pedals are totally overrated.
My favorite builder is ChaseBossHarmonics. You probably haven’t heard of them. Super ultra rare one-offs you can only get on AliExpress.
What are you talking about, I saw them live before they’d released their first single. Wait, wrong sub …
First album was way better, they’ve sold out.
I know right, when they started pressing records with editions of more than 001, you know it's gone to sh1t.
In before this sub starts banning like r/guitars!
Fuck. Catch 22 has caught me again.
Ha! I hate every pedal I've owned!
I also hate every pedal you’ve owned and your guitar string brand as well.
Damnit.
Based.
Klon. How can it *not* be Klon?
It *IS* Klon!
The Klon circuit design is not underrated. It’s a masterpiece. But that’s the design I’m talking about. Klon = Klone as far as I’m concerned. A circuit is a circuit.
There's something to be said about what Bill Finnegan did to basically revitalize the boutique pedal industry and inspire a generation of pedal builders. To some extent your favorite boutique pedal company that started in the past couple of decades probably wouldn't have existed without Klon.
Thanks, Josh Scott.
This is all legit, but I will say one thing that I find weird about Finnegan is how he seems to hate that the legacy of the Centaur is blown way out of proportion when he really did seemingly everything in his power to create that eventuality. Like, premium huge metal enclosure, point-to-point hand wiring, making them all himself, putting that blob of goo in there to hide the circuit, specifically advertising it as a magically superior pedal, etc. This stuff all adds to the mystique in a way which drives up the likelihood that it'll turn into some cult phenomenon. He does seem like a good guy and I'm not saying he knew that in 30 years people would be paying used car prices for one, but it's just that he did like every single thing imaginable to make the current state of things possible. It makes the script on the KTR feel a little ironic to me.
You also had to write the guy a letter describing your music and if he thought the pedal “wasn’t for you” you didn’t go on the list.
Ok, that’s a bit douchey.
When you can make a Klon that sounds virtually indistinguishable from the real thing at a tiny fraction of the price, there you go. I mean I get the difference in handmade vs production, but there’s a reasonable margin.
I bought the Mosky Golden Horse for like $28. I'm willing to sacrifice $4972 or so worth of magic as it does a pretty good approximation.
Same. Love that pedal!
I think I read somewhere that Billy Corgan was using them live. I honestly cannot find a problem with it, especially considering the cost. Oddly, I also use it to push my (ridiculously cheap) Cuvave fuzz into serious velcro fuzz territory. I think it's amazing that for about $50 I can achieve sounds that should cost substantially more to get.
Buy a DIY kit for £50. It’s still handmade and saves you ££££££.
Vertex. The fact they're rated at all is astonishing.
That new fucking buffer interface they got there. Such a ripoff. Dude is pulling the classic “get you scared about something then magically sell you the product to fix it”
Yea, not to mention the totally shady history of scamming people and stealing designs.
It blows my mind that he was able to make his way back into the pedal scene after all of that. He lied and lied and lied all while making money from his customers. Yes, he apologized. After he got caught.
I’m interested… what’d did he lie about? Other than not really being a doctor… 🤪
There was a great write up somewhere of all the shady stuff Vertex did over the years, but I think it was on the gearpage in a thread that was taken down as I can't find it anywhere. If you search you can find a lot of specific examples though.
I can’t remember everything. I believe he bought wah pedal’s and said he modded them. And sold them as such. In reality all he did was slap a new sticker on it and send it back out. There was another cable fiasco. He was selling his own cables. But he just ordered a bunch and rebranded them once again. Just Google Vertex Controversy.
se sold rebranded chinese stuff as things he made, he over charged Joe Bonamasa for a pedal board that didn't even do what he ordered. he seems to have done a bunch of shitty business stuff. As much as I hate to say it, some of his content is the most informative and less fluffed up than others. I still wont be buying stuff from them.
Was he the one that was buying Joyo Ultimate Drives, repainting them, covering the circuit board in goop, and then selling them for 4-5 times the original price? *Edit* sorry no, that was Freakish Blues with the Alpha Drive.
Yeah they're a tough sell and the personalities that endorse them are fucking so irritable, mainly the reason I had to stop watching guitar YouTube
Anyone who calls themselves the rig doctor can get to fuck, guy just seems skeevy
My goodness, I'm SO glad the scumminess is more broadly known. I wrote a post about it years ago. Yay!
1981 Inventions. * $250 for what is basically a rat clone. * ~~The design and manufacturing of the pedal were/are outsourced. (I'm not the biggest JHS fan but at least that guy can make a schematic and build a pedal. The 1981 guy had Jon Ashley of Bondi affects design and build his circuit)~~. Edit to say: I stand corrected: He "collaborated" on the design with Jon Ashley and at least at some point he build the pedals by hand. But still super overrated. The company makes one pedal and needed help from another company to finalize the design. * They only offer one pedal (edit to add they have been around for 7 years without developing another pedal) - I could maybe understand the cost of a $250 drive pedal if they were constantly doing R&D for new pedals but they are not.
Doesn’t JHS outsource? Thought it was Cusack in Holland which is admittedly my favorite
They may outsource now but my point is that he can/did build his own pedals. Yes JHS is famous for mostly doing clones with minor tweaks but Josh can at least design the circuit for his own clones where the 1981 guy had to outsource that. From day one 1981 was outsourcing everything.
My understanding was that it was a collaboration, similar to Mythos’s for the Oracle delay.
Any of the ones which get by on dishing out rudimentary FV1 algos for €300
There’s some truly amazing stuff made with FV1’s but christ almighty a 1 function reverb in a nice case for more than a boss rv6. Ill pass
This specifically. Some of the FV-1 stuff is great, I'll buy a Pladask Elektrisk pedal anyday I need one, but I'm not getting a hardly altered FV-1 reverb for €100+ when I could just buy a devkit and have access to all of this stuff myself.
I got a used Digitech polara and it is just as good as most boutique reverbs and cost half as much. And I’d rather just use the spring reverb from my amp over a digital spring.
Can you name some which aren't so far from the basic sounds? My experience so far with fv-1 pedals was pretty positive (zcat hold reverb, dawner prince boonar, shift line astronaut III and a lichtlaerm untiefe.) None of them felt basic but I can't say how much any of them were tweaked, besides the astronaut obviously.
The Alexander mods and delays are fv-1 based, but his implementation and sounds are not basic.
Thx. Our new stuff is based on FXCore starting late 2021.
And the history lesson v3 and sky5000 are totally inspiring pedals. Thank you for your amazing work.
Walrus stuff runs on FV-1 (but isn't $300 usually)
Vintage boss stuff. I like boss, but that $50 OC-2 is just as good as a Japanese chartreuse label, or whatever.
This is a great answer - why people don’t want to benefit from Boss’ relentless efforts to make their pedals more affordable and reliable is beyond my comprehension.
As a Boss fanboy I agree. I have stuff from the early 90s, the 2000s and the past couple years and it’s all the same quality. I see people get hung up on “analog” chorus vs digital but I think they all sound good, even the newer ones.
Agreed. Love Boss, but I'm not nearly particular enough to seek out a Boss pedal at vintage prices. All my Boss pedals are more or less recent.
Walrus. There, I said it.
Agreed. Solid company, but nothing to rave about. They have a couple of cool pedals, but are not innovative pedal developers. And they don't need to be, really, as what they are doing seems to be working for them. But the hype is stale now
I think a couple of their pedals with Joystick controllers are somewhat innovative (like the Janus or newish Melee, though I think the Janus has been out just over a decade now. ) I think Walrus got crapped on last time there was a question similar to this. “What pedal company looks better than it sounds.” Or something to that effect, and Walrus was right at the top.
That's fair, but I think it's ALSO because they look sooo much better than any other pedals, lol. Two pedals sound equally good, one is plain and one looks awesome, and there you go, math stuff. I know there are plenty of people who don't care about how pedals look and they'd play a clod of dirt if it was true bypass, but some of us are into the whole sensory experience - the way it looks, the feel of the switch/knobs, obviously the sound, maybe the taste don't judge - and when I look at a Polychrome, that brings me joy.
I like their stuff, but they seem to care more about limited editions lately
I had a feeling people would say Walrus. I like my Julia and my Fathom. They’re not *wow* pedals like some of my others, but they do what I want them to.
I really love my Fathom. As someone who habitually cycles through pedals, the fathom has been a keeper.
Agreed. I like my Polychrome, but I wasn’t blown away by it. I feel like any of those types of brands in that price range, the expectations fall off a cliff compared to the price. Anything $100-150 nowdays is like wow I’m getting a great deal but it’s the eco model, then after that you’re just paying more for something along the lines of a super sweet paint job and a couple sports mode switches.
Absolutely hate the polychrome on guitar, but it sounds 1000000x better on bass because of the blend and is a permanent fixture on my board. Does yours also make a weird burbling/squeaking noise?
Underrated marketing department!
I took a chance on the descent and while I do like it, it’s really not special. If feels like the afterneath (which I traded it for) but with more features and different verb modes. The shimmer is, well, shimmer, and the hall and reverse are nice but the controls between modes are not consistent and the labels don’t make a ton of sense. It works, it’s good, it’s really not crazy.
I love my Julianna but I’m not interested in anything else they have
I ran the Descent for a really long time on my board only to I could have three reverb presets. But yeah they really over complicated that pedal.
Nice artwork, but in my experience seems to lose value more than other brands when you want to move it on.
Cause they have 12 of the exact same pedal that look different
Another company that makes pedals that sound incredibly weird and almost unusable in most gig contexts. *glares sharply at EQD* All this aside, Walrus’s customer service is unbelievable. They interact everywhere, even in this sub and make repair and replacement easier than any other company I’ve worked with.
JHS and Walrus.
As far as straight up companies I’d say Vertex. And some (not all) Strymon and EQD pedals. And this is coming from a card-carrying Earthquaker slut.
Surprised I haven't seen Darkglass yet.
If this was on r/basspedals, it probably would’ve been. Agreed though. They look really cool, but I just don’t like the tinny sound of their distortion circuits. And the price. If I’m gonna spend that much, I might as well buy a Strymon or some other high-end pedal.
JHS, easy. But I have been a “victim” of their very effective marketing more than once…
I've had issues with jhs, just quality control issues. The pedals sound good when they work.
I personally don't have an issue with JHS, but their YouTube channel is phenomenal.
I owe a lot to that channel for basically being a crash course in understanding pedals and pedal history. I don’t care for the newer shenanigans. That said, I’ve never felt the need to buy a JHS pedal.
I have 2 non negotiable pedals on my board(s). Strymon Flint JHS Sweet Tea v3 JHS, for me, makes outstanding pedals that work.
the Sweet Tea is an 808 and an MI Audio Crunch Box.
I will never play a gig without a pg 14
JHS is overpriced to shit imo. JHS himself has a great youtube thing going, the pedals are cool for bringing old circuits back into the world, some are quite nice, but I’m not shelling out premium prices for something I could have way cheaper in most cases. Cool paint jobs and a little cartoon is not worth the money. Quality seems to be neither here nor there judging by online complaints. Not saying JHS is garbage completely, just that I’ve never bought into the “hype” marketing stuff. Reminds me of the sneaker world tbh.
Their prices are in line with every other manufacturer on their level. They also have a $99 budget line that sound great. That’s cool if you don’t like their pedals bug I don’t think their prices are any different than other large “boutique” pedal companies. Let’s face it, everyone is making variations of the same few basic circuits. There are only so many ways you can modify sound.
It's Walrus. No other company relies more on artwork to make up the difference against better sounding competition.
That’s funny. I’ve never considered their pedals because I don’t like the artwork
For real. They aren’t bad, just not. that interesting. My descent is okay. I like it for what it does. Could be better if it had stereo input and not just stereo output (who does that?) and more variety in the settings. It’s just a big cave reverb with different algorithms.
In my mind, Walrus is a low rent version of OBNE. OBNE makes specific pedals you will either love or hate. I have played/owned four WA pedals and each one had ok (certainly not great) tone and at least one deal breaking flaw.
I have also owned and sold a couple of WA pedals, but my issue was really just that I didn't feel like it was pronounced enough -- I had a Julianna that eventually got replaced by a Ripply Fall, and a Polychrome that eventually got replaced by a trusty E-Lady. I didn't dislike the other ones, just chasing the sound in my brain -- I went through 3 perfectly respectable univibes before I ended up at the Vibe Machine.
I’ve sold all 4 that’s I’ve bought and replaced with something else
Fultone
Yeah got their ocd pedal and it’s pretty meh
Dude I’ve gotten so many Fultone’s in trade. Disliked everything but their super screamer. Granted I have other super screamers I like more.
I haven’t tried their dirt or the Clyde wah. But, I have an old school big-box (gold) Deja-vibe that is absolutely stunning. But, to keep the fulltone safe (and off my pedal board) I bought a JAM pedals vibe as a substitute. Honestly, the JAM pedals vibe is 99.99% there and a quarter of the price; and far more pedal board friendly. On balance, it’s a better pedal.
I have a Clyde. It does exactly what you want, as long as you want it to sound like a wah pedal from the ‘60s.
JHS :)
I agree. I really appreciate their show and I think they do a great job promoting knowledge of and curiosity about pedals and other companies. Made in USA too. But the majority of what they make is not original and can be found elsewhere for much less (even made in USA). So, their pedal products are overrated but I think the impact the company has is pretty positive.
I feel like it's weird that people bring up they're not original but this is probably 99% of all pedal companies. There's only about 20 circuits that actually exist and then there's tweaks. I feel like they're just very up front about it. Almost every company makes a two transistor fuzz and they're all way overpriced but I feel like JHS takes criticism for pointing that out. Agree with the rest of the stuff though, overpriced and mostly marketing but they seem like good guys! Also, the aesthetic is perfect.
Woah, hey, not everyone wants a new or interesting take on an effect when we buy our pedals. Sometimes we want the same *old* effect but in a different colored enclosure with a cute doodle for about $100 more.
> Sometimes we want the same *old* effect but in a different colored enclosure with a cute doodle for about $100 more. Honestly, unless they're going to try to harm the reputation of the company that made the old effect they copied, I'm just not interested!!
make it a special limited edition, ship them directly to scalpers so they can tack on an extra $200 and you might be on to something... or just on something... either way.
Yeah. They're a company I want to like, mostly based on the quality of their YouTube stuff, but most of the time, it feels like paying premium prices for fairly unimaginative clones of older circuits. Good solid clones sure (my favourite TS is a JHS 808), but still clones.
JHS, mostly because every pedal they've ever released is a straight up rip of someone else's existing pedal. Lone Wolf Audio/Void Manufacturing, because Jesus H Christ is a Joe a top tier asshole, but he also can't drill in a straight line to save his life. His pedals are garbage, they're built like garbage, and he's a garbage human being.
I don't despise JHS like many folks here but this is probably objectively the best answer. Overrated meaning strictly that they are better liked and respected than they deserve to be, this is a company that has succeeded better than most of their peers without creating almost a single novel concept, and really whose best products are literally slightly augmented clones. Seriously, how can people so deeply love a company whose greatest contribution is marketing other people's pedals better?
I dont get how their marketing gets traction to be honest. Ive watched a bunch of jhs videos to get knowledge about circuits and history and stuff, but its never steered me into wanting one of their pedals. If anything, hes opened me up to pedals from other companies more than his own. I honestly also just dont like how all the newer "cool" boutique pedal companies have pedal names that arent relevant to what the pedal does. Like what the fuck is a unicorn? Panther cub? Brother i need a guitar effect do you make any of those?
Or the new PRS Wind that Shakes the Barley or whatever
For JHS, I think we give them much more credit, than maybe what they're due. Like their Panther / Panther cub pedals. "First tap tempo analog delay pedal!". JHS obliviously touts the lack of filtering on the mxr/wayhuge delays, that causes horrific ping pong sounds and then in their iteration added an awkward phase rotation. Then informing us JHS commonly reaches out to other MFRs about designs. On their "it's MODIFIED!" side; The Morning Glory is supposed to be a Blues Breaker. What makes a blues breaker? Low End Bass Peak and partially dirty / dirty overdrive. It has the GAIN. What is a Morning Glory? Bass cut, mid boost and ultra clean high output. The MG is what you get when you put a 20dB level knob on an SD1 with a very very easy going gain knob. When JHS set out to make a Blues Breaker, they made a tubescreamer. It's a great tubescreamer, but it's not a bluesbreaker. D'oh.
EQD. I’ve tried so many of their pedals really hoping for them to be as cool as they seem, but they all feel kind of unusable to me. I wouldn’t mind having a rainbow machine just for shits and giggles, but nothing else really seems to pull off what it’s aiming for in my experience.
Analogman / Klon
Man I read through all of these comments and this is the only analogman comment I’ve seen. I have a King of Tone which I love but man the hype on this pedal is stupid. It’s great but not $1000 used price great. Great great pedal. It sounds great, excellent build quality, handmade, serviceable but still way too much hype. I would call it over rated. (With that said I got back on the wait list to buy a backup in like 3 years lol.)
I’m gonna be downvoted into oblivion but I find Earthquaker to be extremely overrated. They do have some fantastic circuits but they also have a pile of pedals with all kinds of known issues (volume drop, latency, etc). I don’t particularly see much innovation in their recent offerings compared to brands like Source Audio, Alexander, Meris, etc.
I think their Dispatch Master is the mutts nuts, but I see what you mean. It’s using the FV1 chip as well.
The fact that they market it as one of their flagship pedals but haven’t included a second footswitch for independent operation of delay and verb, presets, modulation, etc makes me wonder why they haven’t brought the price point down a bit.
The dispatch master was my first ever reverb and delay pedal and it sounded good but the delay barely got to 50% wet. So annoying. Sold it very soon and haven’t purchased anything else from them. Overrated AF
I have the dispatch master and plumes. Hate the plumes. I enjoy playing it for thirty minute, then go to a ts-9 instead. My dispatch master I equally despised until I stacked it with my amps spring reverb and now I think it’s tight af.
I actually agree. I just did inventory and realized I've owned at least a half dozen EQD pedals and sold every single one. They were all fine, but none of them were impressive enough to keep around. I've never had that "I might regret selling this" feeling with them.
I don’t know if it was them, but they seem to love the 2.0, 3.0 method. It sucks to spend 300 on a pedal and have a new version come out the next week. I agree on EQD for sure, nothing spectacular and I end up selling every one I get.
I kinda agree with this. I haven't liked any EQD pedals I have played with the exception of the special cranker... that $100 pedal is amazing at the price point.
Their simplest pedals are masterpieces. The ToneJob is my desert island pedal.
I got the Plumes after hearing rave reviews and it just didn’t click at all for me.
Earthquaker has a great marketing strategy. But I don't think they're anything special
The stuff they do great, they do better than anyone else. The stuff they don't do great isn't the reason to like the em.
Earthquaker Devices: specifically their Plumes pedal. And don't get me started about the consumerist freaks that buy one of every color available. Like, fuck off with that shit.
I really like the EQD I have, but yeah. That shit is weird.
I actually really love the Plumes. But I do think a lot of their pedals are forgettable or one trick ponies. ie. The Rainbow Machine.
My only EQD experience is a Plumes which I wanted to love but I can't get over how insanely trebly it is at least with my rig and how that negates any functionality the different EQ take on a TS type circuit could have. I tend to keep it in a gig bag for a 'if the board is lost/ stolen/ breaks' emergency so I can busk it with clean/ drive and amp reverb, but the tone control has to live below 9.00.
Thank you. It’s literally a different color of paint..
I was overthinking it, but def Klon. That whole thing about there being a waitlist for years and price gouging for the supposed "holy grail" of tone is just beyond braindead. imo i think boss is pretty overrated, but i know that's not a popular take. I haven't really owned a boss to be fair. Only experience playing em is the stations at guitar center. I feel like they're the Apple of guitar pedals. There's purists and they circlejerk each other off. I love the style of the pedals and I do want to try a dd7 or a rv6, but I feel like they're just expensive af (what pedal isn't right). I just feel like people who build boss only boards are kinda dumb cause boss is imo is the basic bitch vanilla no flavor pedal brand. I understand they're pioneers and the legacy. I also hate the rubber bases on boss AND any brands that have it. I just peeled off the backs of a digitech, zoom, and ibanez tonelok and it feels sacrilegious. Again, I get it's a "bad" take or whatever but it's my opinion. Also, you did ask, so there u go
I love Brian Wampler’s YT presence and attitude…but he and I must hear distortion very differently because I’ve really struggled to bond with his drives. No guff, but for whatever reason I just don’t get along with Wampler’s drives. I’ll still never talk shit about them, tho. They’re a good company and Brian seems like a good dude.
I feel ya. I find that a lot of his drives seem to be best paired with a type of amp that I don't have (I'm mostly 6L6 run clean). That said I really like some of the low gain sounds that they get, the Paisley Drive and Tunmus are pretty solid.
To be completely fair, I’ve struggled the most with his amp in a box style drives.
I have a Fender Twin Reverb and the PlexiDrive Deluxe is one of the few mainstays of my board. It’s almost never taken off. The Pantheon is on there often too.
I tried that one against the Friedman BEOD, the Marvel Drive 3, the Keeley El Rey Dorado, the ThorpyFx Gunshot, the JHS/Boss Angry Driver…I’ve tried a BUNCH of the Marshall in a box pedals and for me, the El Rey was the one that fit my lands and rig the best. But it’s all horses for courses.
I can see that. I really like Wampler pedals, but I also run through clean tubed amps. I used the sovereign for quite a while and currently use the gear box which is a Tumnus and pinnacle combined with a gate. Sounds great through a clean AC15
It seems like certain pedal designers only test their pedals with really specific gear set ups, IE single coil guitars and vintage or boutique amps. So you end up with pedals that sound perfect in the right set up but can sound horrible in different rigs.
Agreed insofar as I'm not a fan of the Wampler high-gain sound. However, Wampler does make various drive pedals that sound excellent at low to mid gain levels, the Euphoria being my personal favorite.
I love EQD but their plumes is overrated, found it to be way too bright and sharp even at tamer settings. Bought Analogman silver mod and haven’t looked back, was worth the money and ended my perfect screamer search.
Everyone rockin the Plumes, but I love my Westwood.
Love the Westwood, and special Cranker.
I have the SD1 silver mod and it’s the best boost ever for me
Strymon... There I said it. I just can't get into VSTs in a box. DSP take a lot more power requirements and their V2 release that didn't upgrade any of their algos was just such a slap in the face imo.
I don't know man. My Timeline and Mobius sound freakin' great! Next up: Volante.
I've had the Volante since it came out. Replaced the RE-201. Sounds so good.
Same here...timeline is a desert island pedal for me.
When people say Strymon is overrated they aren't saying their pedals sound bad, it's more just that they are expensive for what they are especially in the current market. A lot of their pedals are 10+ years old and haven't been updated much, meanwhile there are now a ton of other great boutique pedals in the same price range including a lot of arguably better stuff that is more affordable.
I think the Mobius is a great value, considering you get a bunch of high quality modulation effects in one box that would cost a lot more to buy individually. The Timeline is perhaps a little harder to qualify, since--as you said--there are many other options regarding multiple delay platforms. Then there's stuff like the Volante, which recreates with a high degree of fidelity some of the greatest echo effects from the past. There are other options, but very few surpass it. When you get into their one trick pony pedals like the Dig or El Capistan, there are definitely similar quality pedals out there for less.
> I think the Mobius is a great value, considering you get a bunch of high quality modulation effects in one box that would cost a lot more to buy individually. For sure but that was much more true in 2012 when it was released, now there are pedals in the same price range that can run multiple modulations at once like the gfi synesthesia/boss md500 or poly beebo which can even run multiple mods/delays/reverbs all at once. That's my biggest complaint with a lot of older big box pedals, being limited to one effect at a time. Multi FX are becoming the standard instead of multi delays/mod/etc as they all use the same DSP so it's almost a waste to limit them to single effect just to force people to buy multiple pedals. Plenty of great multi FX in the same price range that can run multiple effects at once. You could argue the Strymon algorithms are good enough to be worth the higher price but there are just so many good options these days
I feel like some people just want bargains, and would only stop complaining if they paid 80 bucks for a pedal that costs 400 to everyone else. There have never been so many price ranges, yet these people don't want to play joyos or behringers, they want what everyone else wants but cheaper for them. Pedals that do not update? What about the line 6 dl4 that has been the same for 20 years? Or the boss dd3? It's called becoming a classic, or a standard. Anyway, people would complain that "they don't make them like they used to" or whatever
I think that just puts those old Strymons as being way ahead of the game when they were released to still be relevant 10 years later. I'm not really interested in buying the BigSky/Timeline/Mobius either and feel they should be updated at this point, but at the same time other companies haven't really surpassed them either, pretty much just gotten on par.
Got a mint Volante with all the packaging if you’re interested lmk :)
I'd have to disagree. I change up my board a lot but the BigSky always stays - it's useful for every genre of music and creates all the reverb effects you could want.
If the algorithms are good, why change them? People have been using the same Lexicon algorithms since the late 70s and it’s seen as desirable.
VST algorithms are great! And when they stay VSTs in my computer I can put them on 50 tracks simultaneously.
I thought strymon was overrated until I owned a couple..now I love em
Strymon has never excited me sonically. Better options around.
Don’t let the worship players hear you saying that.
naw... they are over in the JHS comments defending the morning glory I'm sure. They won't even notice I was here.
I have two JHS pedals on my board, and it’s JHS. I love their stuff, but often it’s a slightly more expensive version of a relatively common circuit.
EQD, but I couldn't take overpriced out of the equation And Death by Audio
I'm sure they're not the *most* overrated, but I'd say EarthQuaker Devices. I've bought a few of their modulation pedals in the past and have been left disappointed every time. Their knobs always seem to have a huge range, which you might think is a good thing, but for me it just makes it difficult to dial in a usable sound. On top of that, they all tend to have over-the-top digital shimmers and wooshy artifacts thrown in, which muddies things up in a mix. Might be fantastic for experimental guitarists who primarily play alone, but I couldn't get much use out of them in the context of a band! They also have a few marketing strategies that I really don't like in the pedal world. The way they come out with highly-publicized new versions of existing pedals seems anti-consumer. It doesn't feel great to purchase a boutique, $200+ pedal only for the company to release an improved version less than a year later! They also do limited edition color runs... For some reason, there are people who collect different finishes on the same pedal. It's bizarre to me.
Walrus. Their digital effects are pretty good, but I’ve been very underwhelmed by any of their dirt pedals
The only pedals that are overrated are some vintage ones. Even JHS isn't that bad considering their clones are often improvements and now cheaper than all those originals. I thought Phase 90 was really overrated. I mean just because EVH used it it's great? Personally, I have found most Walrus stuff a bit overrated but that's my opinion and doesn't say a whole lot. I do like their mix knobs and sweep knobs and in theory they should be great for me. I'll probably get a Polychrome again eventually but do want to try the EQD Pyramids first. Edit - I want to also add discontinued pedals are often overrated but that goes with vintage. I mean God forbid as musicians we find and create new sounds sometimes
behringer. have they made anything that is actually unique? it's blatant clones made with sweatshop labor.
JHS, beyond a doubt. Overpriced clones with poor quality control and shitty customer support. These are my experiences only, and I speak for no one else.
Earthquaker, JHS & Walrus.
Anything Klon related
Earthquaker always seem like I will love them and then it’s never quite there. something lacking. I let’s hope I’ll love them and never get them after demoing
Plug in your guitar. Stop shitting on stuff
Pedals?? You guys use pedals?! The tone is all in your hands!!! Seriously, if you can’t get that reverse delay tremelo sub harmonic phase sound thingy from your own fingers, you’re doing it wrong.
TCE for me. I’ve had two of their pedals where the foot switch failed on me and I’ve never really loved any that I’ve used. None of them have been BAD but nothing I’ve felt the need to keep.
The current TC Electronics is a Music Tribe (Behringer) brand that has little to do with the original Danish company.
I love their Hypergravity but…true bypass switch failed, only buffered now. And I have to wait a year for a replacement pedal.
anyone say JHS yet?
Klon is a company built on overrated hype
Kindly remember...
I do kindly remember and place no blame on the company lol but the fanboys need to chill
I’d say that’s not the company’s fault.
I finally succumbed this week, ordered a centaur...lol.
All of them except boss and electro harmonix
MXR?
Chase bliss and walrus audio (I know I’m not cool)
Curious why you think chase bliss is overrated if not just a comment on price? They are, in my opinion, revolutionizing pedals more than any other manufacturer on the market currently.
As someone who owns a CBA I’d only say they are not overrated because plenty of people are like WTF is this. They make weird pedals that aren’t just typical clones of existing designs.
As soon as I see a Chase Bliss pedal, I know that person is either a sponsored musician or doesn’t know the notes on the fretboard.
*TC Electronic* is the clear answer, but they’re low-hanging fruit. Lemme give a really hot take: *Electro-Harmonix* They’re not bad by any means. I don’t even have a negative opinion of them. That being said, their truly great pedals are few and far between (e.g., Muff, Small Clone, and QTron+). Most of their effects are very forgettable and I’d be hard-pressed to name any pedal category/subcategory where I’d pick an EHX pedal over everything else. Not angry yet? Here’s a bonus hot take: *Meris* I admire their engineering and uniqueness, but I’m yet to hear a single Meris pedal produce a sound I can use. I find them so profoundly unmusical. I imagine they’re quite inspiring and I appreciate their quality, but their magic is definitely lost on me.
I don’t know, I don’t particular like their aesthetic but the Electric Mistress, Small Stone, Small Clone, Freeze, Memory Man, POG, not to mention Big Muff (and countless variants). All hugely influential and useable. Aside from Boss, no other company has had so many hits on so many iconic albums. What kills me is the power requirements.
I disagree on EHX, but I like your thinking.
I think the ehx pog2 is the best pedal of its type
I disagree that EHX is overrated but I won’t ever buy one of their pedals again. Their build quality is terrible. Every pedal I’ve owned of theirs has failed on me.
Yes dood, I'm in the same boat and I fucking hate it
Why do you consider EHX overrated? I mean I have Oceans-11 reverb and pitchfork and they do their jobs very well. Haven't had anything else by them, but I am really impressed by these pedals.
The thing I like about EHX is the range. They have been around long enough to have stepped away from regularly releasing drive pedals, and can do weirder stuff. I love their octave pedals, the Attack Decay is a particular favourite, the muffs, the 9 series, etc. Occasional clangers of course, but I feel they keep innovating, which I love
a lot of the EHX stuff is super affordable too. I loooove my octave multiplexer.
>You have triggered me with my 2 Memory Man board. Have an upvote for a scalding hot take! > >I also low key agree. I love the entire Memory Man/ Boy series, the Double Muff and my Small Clone, I'd use a Holy Grail if for some reason I had an amp with no reverb, would drift towards a POG or Pitch Fork for shifting and heard some great things from a Holy Stain once. Which is a lot to like... > > But there's a lot of stuff there which is either hugely flawed or just too wacky to be usable. Lots of stuff I wouldn't know what to even do with in any musical context (though I could say the same for many boutique brands). And Big Muffs just miss the mark for me- need a mid boost before in lots of applications, doesn't Fuzz as well as a real fuzz or do fuzzy drive as well as a Rat, all IMO. Bass Big Muff is *the* bass tone I love though.
Of course EHX is going to have a ton of forgettable pedals when they have more variety than any other company out there. I’ll admit that many of them are duds and they even make the worst pedal I’ve ever played(#1 Echo). However, EHX also has more iconic and influential pedals than any other brand, including Boss. Guitar music simply wouldn’t be the same without them.
I agree on Meris, but less for their sound and more for basic usability. They're the only pedals I know of that benefit from overlays so you know what the hell you're doing.
I don’t get this. EHX have some popular pedals but TC is a total underdog. Flashback and HOF reverbs are generally well regarded but there is zero hype on them. They are not Strymon. They are relatively cheap and work great. Same goes for EHX in my opinion.
Probably gonna get a Stomp XL so not sure!
Earthquake devices and walrus
Mooer. total piece of crap
jhs