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what are the advatages of buying expensive pedals?


mbengs1

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cuz the cheaper ones are good enough for me... about 100-150 dollars. pedals like boss and mxr. are what I like. but brands like strymon, wampler and red witch are much more pricey. I don't think they sound any better. why buy expensive when the more affordable ones sound just as good. :cool:

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why buy expensive when the more affordable ones sound just as good. :cool:

 

 

To your ears maybe they sound just as good. Just like some people play Squiers and First Acts. Other people want something with a bit of quality built into it. Like better components, hand soldered, unique tones that off the shelf pedals don't give. Maybe one day, you will decide to stop buying toys, and buy some quality.

 

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If you like cheaper ones and they hold up for you, there is no point in paying more. In some cases cheaper mean built poorly, or with horribly bad parts. Sometimes it just means you don't know their name. I have had cheap ones that sound fine, and cheap ones they hold up to abuse. However, USUALLY, more expensive means more flexible or better quality/parts, or built to survive the road. Nothing says you need to spend more than what makes you happy. I use a Source Audio Nemesis reverb pedal which is par on cost and quality of Strymon, a Diamond comp which is not cheap, two Eventide H9s, ZVEX, and other more expensive pedals. I also have some cheaper Voodoo Lab, Boss, and EH pedals that also work for me. Buy what you like.

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I tend to agree with you about more esoteric stuff, but I also remember that folks from Eddie on down have used lots of Boss pedals and they can afford anything they like. Maybe they just work him and he doesn't need more. Maybe he just can't afford more. Not my place to judge. He gets what he likes, and we get what we like.

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Part of it is features. I have a couple of Strymon pedals in my rig. The Big Sky reverb is very hard to match with a cheaper pedal, and I've had a few. I don't use even a tiny fraction of what the Timeline delay can do, but it does have one critical feature: midi sync. My delays are synced to the tempo of the drum machine. I have yet to see a cheaper delay pedal that can do that. Same with my vocal processor. I buy the gear I need for the sound I want, and reliability also plays a huge factor. In the end, like Axisplayer says, the right gear for you is the stuff that gets you the result you want.

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Problem is, this is the same "person" for lack of a more banning term, who asks stupid questions every other day, like a post count is a badge of honor. One of his was, "can I use a delay on a clean guitar?"

Yes, I agree you get what you can afford, but also, you get what you pay for.

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Good sounding stuff usually costs more. It's not a static thing either like the BOSS prerecorded sheen they somehow build in to those things. Pedals have to have a propensity to go where your playing tastes wish; why people will choose one TS clone over another. Otherwise they're all fy bucks of parts with value pricing.

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features and destinct sound

 

there is no other delay which can do, what my korg sdd3000 pedal can do

when zvex fuzz factory was new, there was no other fuzz pedal which sounded like it

nothing sounds like a ehx deluxe memory man,

most of the keeley, subdecay earthquaker device, catalinbread etc pedals are unique in their sound and features

 

if their price is justified, you need to decide for each pedal on your own, but no matter if massproduced or hand made, with expensive pedals you can get something completely different, what you can't get from the cheap pedals. if you need it, you need to find out on yourself

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cuz the cheaper ones are good enough for me... about 100-150 dollars. pedals like boss and mxr. are what I like. but brands like strymon, wampler and red witch are much more pricey. I don't think they sound any better. why buy expensive when the more affordable ones sound just as good. :cool:

 

In my opinion you are asking the wrong question.

I choose gear based on what inspires me. If it only costs me $45, bonus! If it costs me $1000, then hopefully it brings me more joy, more music, and more good memories than a weekend at Disney World.

But I'd rather spend $1000 on gear that feels great every time I engage it than spend $45 on gear that never gets used because I'm bored of it.

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For most people, results is the only goal and buying gear at higher costs then necessary is more a status symbol, keeping up with the Jones's. As an electronic tech, I view a gears worth from the inside out as well as the outside in.

 

I know price has absolutely nothing to do with sound quality. So many cloned pedals use the exact same components, circuits, and have the same build quality but someone who doesn't know it will convince themselves they sound different based purely on cost.

 

I'm not against making a profit either. If someone can dupe others in spending hundreds of dollars on something that contains $2 in parts, that's making someone in my profession rich off other peoples ignorance. That's what trade is all about after all. One guy is expert at doing one thing and another is good at something else. You simply trade your skills for someone else's using money as an indirect trade medium.

 

I'd also mention it doesn't cost more then a few pennies to make many pedals sound completely different. You can easily take a popular design tweak it's voicing and remarket it as being something new and it may in fact become very popular because of those tiny changes.

 

There are pedals that cost more due to the complexity and numbers of SS devices needed to perform certain tasks. Many of the fully digital units can be in this class. They are not only complex but the cost of unique parts can cost allot more. So many are so simple and inexpensive to build however. I'd have a hard time keeping a straight face selling some of them to customers.

 

I have bought a few pedals that are not only complex, but are loaded with SS component that wind up sounding like garbage. I bought one of those Nux pedals on a whim that wound up being that way. I cant see how they turned a profit using that many chips to simply produce an over driven sound. I suspect the pedal my not be completely operational. I suspect it should have some digital cabinet emulation but would up being a dud. I cant imagine someone designing something with that many components producing such garbage tones.

 

I also own some units that use the highest quality components made. The old Maestro units in the aluminum boxes for example have the highest quality components including glass and ceramic caps. The circuit boards are emasculate. Solder joints perfect, not one weak part in them and the quality of the sound is right up there.

 

Of course those pedals sold at a time when you'd expect to get your money's worth and actually did most of the time.

Today I wouldn't trust a piece of gear based on cost if my life depended on it, especially when it comes to pedals.

There are a few builders who attempt to give you your moneys worth of course but they are much fewer then you think there are.

 

Cant blame the rest too much. With the numbers of low cost imports running profitability down to cheap as dirt levels the kind of exaggerations used boost profitability is understandable. I'm simply glad I took up electronics as a profession. One of the perks is knowing what you're buying and avoiding being ripped off when buying electronic gear. Unfortunately that only lasts as long as you may be in the market buying.

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I also own some units that use the highest quality components made. The old Maestro units in the aluminum boxes for example have the highest quality components including glass and ceramic caps. The circuit boards are emasculate. Solder joints perfect, not one weak part in them and the quality of the sound is right up there.

 

Certainly can't have those boards spraying and raising hell.

 

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cuz the cheaper ones are good enough for me... about 100-150 dollars. pedals like boss and mxr. are what I like. but brands like strymon, wampler and red witch are much more pricey. I don't think they sound any better. why buy expensive when the more affordable ones sound just as good. :cool:

 

I own pedals at all points on the price spectrum. While I love what my old Boss PH-1r can do, there's a lot of things my Lovetone Doppelganger can do that the Boss could never do. The same applies to products Strymon and Red Witch make - you're getting a higher-end, better sounding (subjective, but generally accepted as true) product with more features. Sure, you can get a solid, no-nonsense phaser for $100 - $150, but it's probably not going to offer the same level of sound quality or all of the capabilities that you'd get with a higher-end model.

 

You can get a $150 Ibanez guitar, or a $1,500 Ibanez guitar. While there's a place in the world for both (in my opinion), why would anyone want to pay ten times more for one if there wasn't a difference? :confused2:

 

If the less expensive product meets your needs, then that's what you should use. :)

 

 

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I buy the pricier pedals when the very specific thing they do is the same specific thing I want.

It seems like, as the price goes up, the generality of the effect goes down.

Strymon isn't guilty of this, but most fuzz and modulation pedals on the boutique market seem to be covered by my previous statements.

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cuz the cheaper ones are good enough for me...

 

I don't think they sound any better. why buy expensive when the more affordable ones sound just as good. :cool:

 

Because they aren't good enough and don't sound as good to me.

 

Why eat a nice meal when McDonald's will fill your stomach as well.

 

I don't mean to come off as pretentious or like an a**.

 

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On pretentious food drains, I think musicians are like that and have to edit themselves to present a friendly demeanor. Which, is flirting with phony but when a person's life quest is toward excellence, little else seems to have relevance.

When it comes to pedal tone, the people that actually use the stuff have burned in (hopefully "in" and not "out") perceptions and the pretension is exactly the tone/build quality/endorsement deal etc...

I used to buy drive pedals because they are way practical compared to collecting amps and inasmuch as amps are by and large one trick (ok maybe two or three) ponies, so are the pedals. If what you have doesn't feel like a cage, then lucky you.

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I was thinking of starting my 'high priced' pedalboard. just the ones I normally use... delay, overdrive, wah, phase, flange, chorus, a distortion will also be good too but I intend to use the amp for the distortion... pitch shift. I need to pick and choose the brand and type of effects.

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There are expensive pedals that sound like crap and cheap pedals that sound great. That being said, there are some things I look for when buying a pedal no matter what the price:

 

1. Sound quality (of course) does it make the sound that you want it to and have a decent range of sounds

2. Build quality

3. Signal to noise ratio

4. True bypass

5. Digital or not? Some digital is o.k...usually more reverb and delay in my experience.

 

Some cheap pedals I really have found that I like:

 

-DIgitech Bad Monkey and Screamin' Blues

-Danelectro Fish and Chips

-Boss Delay pedals

 

Expensive pedals I didn't think were worth half what I paid for them

 

Keeley compressor

Every Moog pedal I bought except for the phaser which was killer

 

 

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I was thinking of starting my 'high priced' pedalboard. just the ones I normally use... delay, overdrive, wah, phase, flange, chorus, a distortion will also be good too but I intend to use the amp for the distortion... pitch shift. I need to pick and choose the brand and type of effects.

 

"The brand"? Are you suggesting sticking with only a single brand? While that's possible to do, many players feel that would be unnecessarily limiting.

 

The best sounding pedal in a particular category (distortion, chorus, delay, etc.), or the one with the best combination of sound quality and desired features may not always come from the same brand as the best or most desirable pedal in another category. That's why you'll see a wide variety of pedal brands on the typical pedalboard.

 

 

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