The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

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The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by Zaulkin »

What are the best 'cheap' pedals you've ever had? Post your experiences in this thread. I'm thinking Eno, Nux, Donner, Mooer, etc

I'm always amazed at what is available these days, especially with the influx of cheap Chinese pedals. Some of the ones I've tried are actually really good or at least adequate - and obviously some are shite. I thought it might be cool to see which ones the forum has tried and liked, and maybe which ones to avoid.

I'm really keen on trying the Donner 'Black Devil', which is basically a Peavey 6505 preamp with optional cab sims and reverb. Would be a fantastic backup solution to keep in the gig bag if it's any good.

What cheap pedal have you tried that surprised you?

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by jeremyb »

Joyo Sweet Baby OD, apart from the click when you switch it on I found this was great for pushing a Marshall plexi into higher gain regions!!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by Zaulkin »

I'm also interested in the Mooer 005 - It sounds good in clips, but doesn't seem as good value as the Black Devil. Might try a $43 looper on Ebay if it's not shite.

Pedals I have tried:

Joyo Gem Box 1 Multi Effects:
It's very average in terms of sound. Reasonable value for students or someone with very limited funds though. Might be tricky to program for an inexperienced user. The tuner sucks.

Joyo American Sound:
Can't really complain, a very cheap clean base. Ideal for a backup clean to go through the PA or something.

Can't remember the brands, but I used to have a tuner and an EP booster clone thing that were dead cheap new from Ebay. The tuner was great - I only used standard tuning with it, but I had no issues.

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by Zaulkin »

This looks kinda interesting:

Image

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by codedog »

Mooer Rumble Drive, amazing dynamics. For some reason it didn't work that well with my Princeton-ish hippie amp though.
Hotone Blues, also amazing dynamics even at full gain. Not a fan of the physical design.
Mooer Tri-buff. Worked well with everything... did the smooth violin thing really well.

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by jeremyb »

I've got a joyo American coming for bass, demos sound really good!!

There's a new pedal selling guy on TradeMe selling a lot of joyo stuff, really nice to deal with too :)
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by NippleWrestler »

I've got a Caline orange burst OD which is a clone of the BB Xotic preamp.

I sold my Xotic BB once I got this. They sound exactly the same but the Caline was $30.

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by kdawg2a »

That one in my profile avatar. $38 delivered.
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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by jeremyb »

Keen to try the mooer radar, not cheap boy cheap though...
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by danmunners »

Joyo American Sound - I love the overdrive on this and the eq is really usable.
Mooer Tender Octave - Version 1. Upper octave wasn't amazing but the lower was great. Regret selling it.

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by KNNZ »

i'll echo codedog, I bought his mooer Tri-buff! insanely good fuzz pedal, can forget about EHX (cough*cough)

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by Single coil »

Behringer preamp booster. Awesome little drive pedal.
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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by Kloppsta »

cool thread!

i have had good luck with "cheap" pedals over the years, but there are certainly some lemons out there!

the standouts for me are:

Behringer SF300 - this is a Boss FZ-2 clone. Its an awesome chewy, biting, velcro ripping fuzz, based on the shin-e Japanese fuzzes iirc. its cool because its an identical copy of the FZ-2 which is highly regarded and sought after making it way too expensive.

Joyo American Sound - this is a Tech 21 Blonde clone. It is apparently an almost identical circuit with a couple of small tweaks for more low end in the Joyo. Its a preamp pedal and has a huge array of tones in it. Everything from Blackface to Tweed. Gain structure is really nice and its just a great sounding pedal at 3 times the price!

Joyo Voodoo Octave - this is a Fulltone Ultimate Octave clone. Again an exact copy and it is stellar. The fuzz alone is super chunky and ripping. When you switch in the upper octave it is wicked for solos, especially in the upper registers. A favorite of Hendrix, Satch etc.

Xvive PT-03 Tuner - just a nice and affordable mini tuner. Nice big and bright screen and as accurate as any Korg, Boss or TC tuner i have owned.

Danelectro Cool Cat Trem - not a clone of anything but just a GREAT sounding trem for cheap! Love the sqaure wave mode. Very cool and unique sound.

Donner Yellow Fall - MXR Carbon Copy clone, without the modulation. Cheap and sounds really good. I do wish it had the modulation switch like the MXR does, but for the price you cannot go wrong! Does really nice oscillation too.

Mooer Orange 90 - MXR Phase 90 clone. Nails the tone. Chewy and sweet. Great phaser at any price.

Mooer tender octaver mkii - literally an exact copy of a EHX Micro Pog. Much cheaper and smaller. Cant go wrong.

Rowin Looper - i am guessing its a TC Ditto clone? - cheap, works perfectly. Not noisy or anything weird. Just does what its supposed to do.

TC 3RD Dimension - this is a Boss Dimension-C clone. Its cheap, sturdy and does an excellent job at like 1/10th the price! Awesome pedal for those lush 80's LA tones.

There are a few more that i have had but cant remember the names of.....one was a Boss BF-2 flanger clone that NAILED that metallic and unique BF-2 tone. I have also had a Boss OC-2 clone that killed for the lower octave riffs
Little by little, by hook or by crook

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by jeremyb »

I tried the joyo voodoo octave my old band mate had and it sounded horrible, maybe it was his rig :(
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: The Best 'Cheap' Pedals

Post by Kloppsta »

jeremyb wrote:I tried the joyo voodoo octave my old band mate had and it sounded horrible, maybe it was his rig :(
yep, they have the potential to sound horrid like any "old skool" fuzz really. gotta make sure there isnt anything crazy happening impedance wise, so first pedal in the chain is a good idea. also, in my experience, sounds best with "low output" single coils and into a cleanish, slightly breaking up amp.

get the recipe right and its tonal bliss :)
Little by little, by hook or by crook

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