Survey of what pedals people buy

Pedal manufacturers in here...

Moderators: Slowy, Capt. Black

What sort of analog pedal would you buy

Overdrive
16
53%
Boost
7
23%
Fuzz
6
20%
Original spec fuzz/boost (no DC power etc)
1
3%
 
Total votes: 30

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Reg18
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Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by Reg18 »

My pedal building hobby (which started as a project to help my mental health actually) has been a lot of fun however I am wondering what the future of pedals might be, is it worth getting a run made of Tone Bender mk1 pedal cases made is my motivation for this post.
Given the fact a lot of guitarists are using digital rigs not really requiring any external pedals, I assume that the market for analog drives/boosts is going to diminish somewhat but there could still be a niche market for old school builds are my predictions.
However this is just my opinion, hence a survey of what people use or think they would use in the future.
Do people see themselves buying analog drive pedals in future?
Would you be more likely to buy an old ToneBender clone to just have because it’s an I interesting piece not necessarily a practical purchase for your gigging board?

I love having analog drives personally but my HX Stomp could cover them all if I was honest, so my position is I’d probably buy a pedal if it was a really interesting unique thing, certainly would never buy a TS or other Drive the HX Stomp fairly accurately replicates already.

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by NippleWrestler »

I'm with you. I don't see the point buying clones of popular pedals (something like a klone is different since the originals are hard to find and/or insanely overpriced) and I'm more inclined to support new designs that look cool and are built well.

You probably know I build them too and my best selling unit is a 2 channel drive pedal in a 1590bb of all things. I thought it'd be a fuzz but nope.

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by JHorner »

First 3 options but not the 4th.

Edit:
Oh, what would I buy in future, not what have I bought.

Then none. I hope. Went through the pedal gas cycle and ended up with pedals I'm happy with and don't intend to repeat the cycle.

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by vyfster »

I selected fuzz because that's the pedal that I'm kinda looking for - but am in no rush to get.

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by Reg18 »

Interesting comments so far.
it will cost me quite a lot to get Mk1 Bender enclosures made (like 5-10 times the cost of buying an off the shelf enclosure) but obviously it will
Look vintage correct etc. I follow a bunch of builders of old Benders/fuzz pedals/ range masters on
Insta and although they usually have original NOS germanium transistors and NOS mustard caps etc they don’t have DC power or even an LED indicator. They charge $300-$1000 for each pedal, and every batch seem to sell out! so begs the question, are people buying pedals these days not really as gig ready tools but for other reasons?

Edit: also I don’t want to over commit on buy in as I’ve only been building for 6 months ish and still am very much in the figuring this out stage.

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by Reg18 »

NippleWrestler wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 12:49 pm I'm with you. I don't see the point buying clones of popular pedals (something like a klone is different since the originals are hard to find and/or insanely overpriced) and I'm more inclined to support new designs that look cool and are built well.

You probably know I build them too and my best selling unit is a 2 channel drive pedal in a 1590bb of all things. I thought it'd be a fuzz but nope.
Which model is the overdrive out interest?

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by jeremyb »

It’s taken me a lot of trying but a clean boost, muff based fuzz, and decent overdrive are essentials for me... unfortunately my bases are covered now, but always keen to try some other flavours!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by NippleWrestler »

Reg18 wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 2:06 pm
NippleWrestler wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 12:49 pm I'm with you. I don't see the point buying clones of popular pedals (something like a klone is different since the originals are hard to find and/or insanely overpriced) and I'm more inclined to support new designs that look cool and are built well.

You probably know I build them too and my best selling unit is a 2 channel drive pedal in a 1590bb of all things. I thought it'd be a fuzz but nope.
Which model is the overdrive out interest?
It's the Sundog. It's an original drive circuit with some interesting electronics I'd never seen before. It's a rather interesting circuit with a massively tunable EQ section from insane scooped mids to classic rock to fuzz to jazz to whatever you like. Plus the second volume pot basically makes it a set list in a box, as was the intention.

Image

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by Reg18 »

NippleWrestler wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 3:02 pm
Reg18 wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 2:06 pm
NippleWrestler wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 12:49 pm I'm with you. I don't see the point buying clones of popular pedals (something like a klone is different since the originals are hard to find and/or insanely overpriced) and I'm more inclined to support new designs that look cool and are built well.

You probably know I build them too and my best selling unit is a 2 channel drive pedal in a 1590bb of all things. I thought it'd be a fuzz but nope.
Which model is the overdrive out interest?
It's the Sundog. It's an original drive circuit with some interesting electronics I'd never seen before. It's a rather interesting circuit with a massively tunable EQ section from insane scooped mids to classic rock to fuzz to jazz to whatever you like. Plus the second volume pot basically makes it a set list in a box, as was the intention.

Image
I was just reading up about it, that’s a pretty clever idea about the dual gang pot altering different parts of each opamp, I imagine that was a few hours of bread boarding to figure out?

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by Reg18 »

Side note, when I was looking for your pedals for sale I had a look at the preowned section on tonelounge and what a great range he has there!
Good prices and a great range of pedals!
https://tonelounge.co.nz/pre-owned-pedals/

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by NippleWrestler »

Reg18 wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 3:12 pm

I was just reading up about it, that’s a pretty clever idea about the dual gang pot altering different parts of each opamp, I imagine that was a few hours of bread boarding to figure out?
Thanks man. Yes and no honestly about the breadboarding (which I don't do since I prefer to fabricate test PCBs and work on them but that's just me). The gain stages are reasonably straight forward as, generally speaking, making gain is making gain. It was just fine tuning where the bass response lies with the amount of gain for each stage, as too much bass (low frequencies that aren't cut off) and gain and it saturates the opamp and causes it to fuzz which can be a nice thing and something I've used in the Sasquatch, whereas too much treble causes hiss, squeal and all kinds of bad things, and the more gain the more it's accentuated. So in a pedal with a gain of 25 and a cutoff at say 15.9khz is fine, have the same cutoff in a pedal with a gain of 175 and it doesn't really work so well.

The main chore in the Sundog was the EQ since I think a design lives or dies based on its tonestack and how that's situated/implemented. The SD uses a 3 band Baxendall which I wanted to really dial in for maximum versatility/coverage which of course takes time in playtesting etc, but that's the job I guess.

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by NZTone.e »

I’ll always buy more overdrives…just because I can!

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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by Dharmajester »

I'm the other guy who voted for fuzz. I tend not to use overdrive preferring to hit the front of my amps with a boost but fuzz is something else.
The main issue I have with them though is that they die with tiresome regularity ( so i would hesitate to buy a fancy NOS component model).
I always run them from batteries to ensure they don't get a power overload but the cans eventually drift into unusable territory ( five so far )...
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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by robthemac »

I like boost pedals most of the time. All but two of my pedals I use as different flavours of clean boost. There's more than enough variety with that alone for me. And while they're usually used with tube amps, the Iridium takes clean boosts really well!
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Re: Survey of what pedals people buy

Post by murky »

Don’t really use pedals any more, unless.... I’m wanting to try a very particular tone. For example: a Cornish TB83 for a bit of Brian May, a Korg SDD3000 preamp for Edge, or Echoplex Preamp for some EVH..... in which case I look for the best version available, which often means $$$. Buy once, cry once, so to speak, but expectations are high.

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