Pedals that're good but not really pricey

[jabe]

I don't mean to pile on Zvex, who makes great pedals. Certainly the overhead and development costs of smaller companies translate fairly into higher prices in many, if not most, instances, and I normally hate to judge whether a pedal is "worth it" or not.
But holy crap, the SHO is one transistor, with just enough circuitry to get your signal in and out (and a pot tossed in for good measure). $230? Really?

I had a Danelectro Tuna Melt pedal that sounded pretty good for a couple of months until it broke. Are all of their pedals that fragile?

Boss pedals are ubiquitous and easy to find used. They rarely have unique character, but do pretty much what their labels say they'll do. Nobels is like the German version of Boss but gets little love for some reason.

[chris harris]

I had a Danelectro Tuna Melt pedal that sounded pretty good for a couple of months until it broke. Are all of their pedals that fragile?

Nah... I've had a Daddy-O overdrive pedal for years and years. It's been gigged hard and taken a beating. And, it's still rock solid.

[getreel]

+1 for the TS7 Tubescreamer! That thing cost me $29 and sounds really good. Hot mode isn't bad either.

Fulltone Fulldrives are cheap now for how great they sound. Last time I checked, you could get a new one for $150.

[RefD]

I don't mean to pile on Zvex, who makes great pedals. Certainly the overhead and development costs of smaller companies translate fairly into higher prices in many, if not most, instances, and I normally hate to judge whether a pedal is "worth it" or not.
But holy crap, the SHO is one transistor, with just enough circuitry to get your signal in and out (and a pot tossed in for good measure). $230? Really?

dude, you think paint pens and Hammond boxes grow on trees??

[vvv]

I have had the Ibanez TS-5 Tubescreamer on my board for over 10 years.

I think cheap auto-wah/filters and chorus pedals can be fun; I have a cuppla each (Boss CE-3 and DOD FX-60 are pretty different sounding).

I have this double DOD PDS 20-20 digital delay/reverb/flange/chorus/looper thing that goes terrific with a bottle of vodka.

DOD FX-90 delay is fun also for stupid feedback stuff.

I never realized I had so much DOD ...

The Dano Surf and Turf is a fun little 'pressor, and the FAB tone is a subtle little thing.

My Rat2 and I are inseparable.

[leefordwatford]

I have had the Ibanez TS-5 Tubescreamer on my board for over 10 years.

I think cheap auto-wah/filters and chorus pedals can be fun; I have a cuppla each (Boss CE-3 and DOD FX-60 are pretty different sounding).

I have this double DOD PDS 20-20 digital delay/reverb/flange/chorus/looper thing that goes terrific with a bottle of vodka.

DOD FX-90 delay is fun also for stupid feedback stuff.

I never realized I had so much DOD ...

The Dano Surf and Turf is a fun little 'pressor, and the FAB tone is a subtle little thing.

My Rat2 and I are inseparable.

The PDS2020 is great, and it can be tweaked for extra delay time. Gets dirty sounding, but very cool. The whole PDS series of delays seems really nice (the 8000 has a big price tag now though).

The First Act delay they sold at Toy's 'r Us could be modded into a really cool sounding delay too. I had one and did the delay time mod, buffer mod, and a switchable filter for the repeats. Very nice murky delay sound.

[casey campbell]

I don't mean to pile on Zvex, who makes great pedals. Certainly the overhead and development costs of smaller companies translate fairly into higher prices in many, if not most, instances, and I normally hate to judge whether a pedal is "worth it" or not.
But holy crap, the SHO is one transistor, with just enough circuitry to get your signal in and out (and a pot tossed in for good measure). $230? Really?

dude, you think paint pens and Hammond boxes grow on trees??

well, as a fellow boutique builder, i must say that most people don't know all of the labor, part costs, marketing, website maintenance, etc that goes into something like that. they think pedal makers are getting rich really easy. my best selling pedal i made by hand typically took me around 6-7 hours to make per pedal. the parts for everything was around 30 dollars per pedal. then you have to ship to them... paying for the gas to get there and back and the cost for the tools i had to have just to construct it. you end up not making much money if you are a small company.... mine were point to point hand wired and the boxes are hand machined. i would tin each side of about 25 wires before i soldered them in. very tedious. you do it for the love of it and not for the money that's for sure!!!!

[Judas Jetski]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Charlie Stringer vari-tone pedal. I think they call it the "Very-Tone Dog" or something like that (just different enough from "vari-tone" so as not to get sued). Amazing pedal, real tone-in-a-box kinda thing. If you're like me and you want your amp's distortion to do the heavy lifting, put it in "bypass overdrive" mode, crank up the gain and it'll break things up beautifully. If you're like most other people and you want to have a bunch of different tones at hand, use the vari-tone feature. It's an amazing stomp-box. I should probably buy a spare, because I really couldn't go on stage without mine. I use it all the time when I'm recording, too.

Also, I'd be willing to bet that their wah pedals are going to become future classics as well. There's a bunch of them. I'm in love with my "Fire Bawls" wah (s/n 0050!), even if it's not the kind of thing you'd use on an everyday basis.

They're all very interactive with your signal path in my experience. I'm not too sure how well they play with other pedals. But they're really snarling beasts in my experience.

[RefD]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Charlie Stringer vari-tone pedal. I think they call it the "Very-Tone Dog" or something like that (just different enough from "vari-tone" so as not to get sued). Amazing pedal, real tone-in-a-box kinda thing. If you're like me and you want your amp's distortion to do the heavy lifting, put it in "bypass overdrive" mode, crank up the gain and it'll break things up beautifully. If you're like most other people and you want to have a bunch of different tones at hand, use the vari-tone feature. It's an amazing stomp-box. I should probably buy a spare, because I really couldn't go on stage without mine. I use it all the time when I'm recording, too.

oh yeah, i bought one of those new around 2001 and i will never let it go.

the half coil/full coil switch is great and the boost with the tone circuit bypassed is a really good and low noise.

can be great on bass, too.

[Judas Jetski]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Charlie Stringer vari-tone pedal. I think they call it the "Very-Tone Dog" or something like that (just different enough from "vari-tone" so as not to get sued). Amazing pedal, real tone-in-a-box kinda thing. If you're like me and you want your amp's distortion to do the heavy lifting, put it in "bypass overdrive" mode, crank up the gain and it'll break things up beautifully. If you're like most other people and you want to have a bunch of different tones at hand, use the vari-tone feature. It's an amazing stomp-box. I should probably buy a spare, because I really couldn't go on stage without mine. I use it all the time when I'm recording, too.

oh yeah, i bought one of those new around 2001 and i will never let it go.

the half coil/full coil switch is great and the boost with the tone circuit bypassed is a really good and low noise.

can be great on bass, too.

Yeah, I'm really regretting mentioning this before buying a spare. D'oh!

[RefD]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Charlie Stringer vari-tone pedal. I think they call it the "Very-Tone Dog" or something like that (just different enough from "vari-tone" so as not to get sued). Amazing pedal, real tone-in-a-box kinda thing. If you're like me and you want your amp's distortion to do the heavy lifting, put it in "bypass overdrive" mode, crank up the gain and it'll break things up beautifully. If you're like most other people and you want to have a bunch of different tones at hand, use the vari-tone feature. It's an amazing stomp-box. I should probably buy a spare, because I really couldn't go on stage without mine. I use it all the time when I'm recording, too.

oh yeah, i bought one of those new around 2001 and i will never let it go.

the half coil/full coil switch is great and the boost with the tone circuit bypassed is a really good and low noise.

can be great on bass, too.

Yeah, I'm really regretting mentioning this before buying a spare. D'oh!

i meant to say it sucks balls and everyone should avoid it!

*buys five more for self and JJ*

[Rodgre]

Here's my background: Been collecting pedals since I was 9 (too long ago to mention) and I currently have 200+ pedals, cheap to boutique, not to mention that I've been DIYing/modding pedals since 1985. I've also been a staunch analog snob.

Now for the part where I lose all my cool cred.

BEHRINGER.

I know. I know. Please hear me out. You want to know about inexpensive pedals that actually sound really good. I hate to promote this company, but I also hate the fact that I can't afford many of the pedals I want right now, and they have swooped right in and filled the void that others can't afford to fill.

1) Behringer VD400 Vintage Delay. Yes. DM-3 style analog delay that sounds awesome. Less than $30.

2) Behringer EM600 Echo Machine. Spot-on clone of a Line 6 Echo Park. Completely wrong in a business-ethics sense. Completely great sounding in use. Stereo. Sounds really great. Tap tempo.

3) Behringer RV600 Reverb Machine. Clone of a Line 6 Verbzilla. Wow. Sounds fantastic. Cons-bypass sucks and the mix control is in effect when it's bypassed, meaning that if you set it to 100% wet, you will have NO signal when you bypass it.

4) Behringer vintage Boss clones. Boss VB2 Vibrato, Slow Gear, PN2 Tremolo/Pan.

5) Behringer Ultra Metal. Boss Metal Zone clone. I'm not a metal player and i think this pedal has some huge sounds for guitar and bass.

- That said, other Behringer pedals sound like crap. The Big Muff and Small Stone clones are weak. The Distortion Modeler is thin and lifeless.

Other cheap treats:

6) I second the Danelectro Tunamelt. One of my favorite tremolos ever.

7) Zoom PD-1 Power Drive. A poorly kept secret is that this Tube Screamer-sounding overdrive has one of the best clean boost effects with the gain turned totally off. Fantastic for $50.

8) Boss DS-1. Especially if you swap out the clipping diodes in a new model with LEDs, it's a hard to kill distortion that can get you through most gigs.

9) Proco Rat. Any version. I think they got it right with this pedal. My favorite version is my reissue Vintage Rat with LEDs in the clipping circuit. Killer overdrive and distortion.

10) Russian Big Muff. No explanation necessary.

11) Nobels ODR-1. My favorite overdrive. My most transparent (as in "it sounds just like my amp, only overdriven") overdrive. Believe the hype.

12) MXR Dynacomp. No explanation necessary.

13) DOD 280 Compressor. I like mine better than the MXR.

14) Marshall Edward Compressor. I like mine as much as the DOD, but in a different way. Great "I don't want to shut it off" boost.

Not one of these pedals should cost more than $50.

Roger

[Brett Siler]

Interesting about the Behringer pedals. How is the reliability of them? Do they only last a few months then break?

Lots of my favorite cheap pedals have been mentioned except this one. The DOD Juice Box. It is kinda like a Tube Screamer but with bass and treble controls. The Digitech Bad Monkey that they make now is a rip off of the Juice Box. They both sound awesome though.

[Rodgre]

I can't say that I would consider the Behringer pedals reliable as they are made of plastic, have an AWFUL mechanism for changing the battery (a copy of the Digitech concept of two little buttons on the side of the switching plate that press in to lift it open, except you can't use standard guitar cable tips to press these buttons in. You need a pen or something smaller than a 1/4" cable tip) and probably have had no quality control check in the manufacturing process.

That said, for the price, you can't really complain. If you spend $30 for a pedal that sounds like a $120 pedal, you are basically signing a waiver that you don't want the $90 warranty to insure that it won't fall apart in a month.

If it's any indication, however, my plastic Danelectro Tuna Melt has never given me any problems. Hell, neither have my vintage Kay tremolos, fuzz and wah pedal from the early 70's.

I'm definitely not thrilled with the bypass tone of the digital Behringer pedals (with a loud amp, you can hear some digital whining) but a pedalboard setup with a bypass looper will solve that (but do away with the "tails" feature of the delay and reverb tail continuing once it's bypassed).

Roger

[RefD]

btw, before i come off as a ZVEX hater, i should mention that i love their Fuzz Factory and Box Of Rock pedals.

the Vexter versions are very reasonably priced and are identical to the boutique versions in both sound and function.

also, and this is a major selling point for me, if your pedal breaks you can send it in and they will have it fixed right the first time and very quickly, at that (i think the Vexters have a 2 year warranty and the regular ones good for the life of the company).

but i still think the SHO is too damned expensive for what you're getting!