Effects

[dave_mc]

Cheers Juansolo i'm wanting a really good overdrive. Oh and apoplogies for forgetting about you, you do build pedals?
Ive looked at quite a few on Youtube,I suppose it comes down to try them for myself and see what sounds good,there are so many out there. Maybe my question was a bit misleading also I was thinking of best sites to buy from. Also any recommendations anyone has. I also thought if I looked at the high end side of things then obviously the quality etc should be excellent, im not knocking cheaper pedals but I suppose it comes back to you get what you pay for.

actually with pedals in a lot of cases i would argue that you don't. an awful lot (not all) of the boutique pedals are clones or very slightly tweaked versions of existing cheaper pedals. and if you look at fsb that juan mentioned, an awful lot (again, not all- some are great) aren't even built all that well or designed all that well.

guitars and amps (to a certain extent- there are still diminishing returns, but at least with guitars and amps there are certain objective specific things which cost money and which do lead to better tone/quality) are more important to spend the money on, if you ask me. obviously depends on how much you use pedals. but yeah.

EDIT: just to clarify- I'm not saying there's no correlation between pedal quality and prices. And I'm not saying that all boutiquers are bad. I'm just saying to be careful, and not to assume that because something is dearer it's better. That £300 od pedal could just as easily be a tubescreamer clone as that £50 pedal (actually, maybe even more likely to be a clone if it's dearer :lol: ).

[tekbow]

Must've mellowed... I stopped going on there when a few of the more vocal members pissed me off royally as they went on an ill informed anti-DIY crusade a couple of years back. Admittedly not as bad as TGP have done in the past, but similar enough for me to not bother with the place any more.

Wouldn't have been a guy called sickle would it?

He used to be the mod, but him and the owner had some kinda falling out. he quit.

Sounds weird as a lot of guys came to that from from FSB etc. It may been less anti DIY and more cloning something in current production rather than something that is more or less considered community property (like a TS) . Clone something proprietry and they start to make noises, which is fair enough i guess. I say they, should say we. Ever place has it's Idiots, just remember not everyone feels that way.

Give it another try though, I do think it has mellowed, people still very occasionally sound off, but it calms downvery quickly, without mod intervention. Peeps keep other peeps in line without anyone actually being censored or things getting nasty.

Think i only saw 2 threads locked in the time i've been there and thats because a couple trollers turned up.

I was always suprised i didn't see you over there Juan. thought it would def been your kinda place.

[juansolo]

Can't remember who it was, but it was when the Meathead started turning up cloned. They popped up on ebay and they went a little mental about it. It's not the first time DIYers have been the target of this. Bill Finnegan of Klon tried to get FSB shut down with a bogus fraud claim and has referred to us as terrorists. What amused us was (and Dave Main makes no attempt to hide this), a lot of his effects are clones of old effects. The Meathead being a one knob silicon fuzz face... Indeed he never got involved in the witch hunt. It was just a few arses on the board stirring the rest up into a frenzy.

I have a lot of time for Dave for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he's a shrewd cookie. He bought up a tonne of old germ transistors and cornered the market on very good Tonebender clones (you have no idea how long it took and how much it cost me to get 3 bloody transistors in the right range to make one for me). His marketing is equally good, trickling them out there so that there's always a supply and demand. Finally he is an exceptional builder, his pedals are very well put together.

Most forums are as bad as each other. The in-fighting and general (sometimes justified) angst towards the rest of the pedal world on FSB I find tiring. It's a brilliant resource and there are good people there. But really they can be arses too, so I tend to avoid it's discussion forums.

TGP can be full of some amazing bullshiteeeeee, but I find the place strangely compelling. It's like a rubbernecking a car crash. I do try and help out occasionally. But seeing as I think my first post got an infraction for something or another which it turned out would have been perfectly acceptable had I paid, I really don't know why I bother.

We've even had people leave here in a strop, and this is one of the most mellow boards out there.

I have no idea what point I was trying to make now  :?

[dave_mc]

TGP can be full of some amazing bullshiteeeeeeee, but I find the place strangely compelling. It's like a rubbernecking a car crash. I do try and help out occasionally. But seeing as I think my first post got an infraction for something or another which it turned out would have been perfectly acceptable had I paid, I really don't know why I bother.

yeah that's kinda my feeling about it. it can be hilarious, but the problem is the place is so crazy that the people who get into trouble are the ones who are talking sense. if you're the one rocking the boat (even if the boat deserves to be rocked), you're the one who gets into trouble.

as you say, it does make you wonder why you bother. I was genuinely trying to advise caution/query the hype towards the latest "gamechanger" pedal, and all the fanboys started throwing the usual names etc. Granted I retaliated (nowhere near as bad as what was thrown at me, mind, and also they started it), but still- the mods didn't care who was to blame or who was right, just that the arguing stopped.

I love FSB because of the reverse-engineering- however, although i'm registered there (you have to be to see anything useful), I treat it more as a resource than a forum, so I have no idea about all the infighting and all you're talking about.

[juansolo]

Members area, the big cat-fight. If you've got a few hours of your life to kill. I do warn you though, you won't get them back... That and they can be properly arsey when pedals are disected towards the builder/designer at times.

Moving on to 'you get what you pay for'... Sadly not. Sometimes, yes. There are builders out there who consistently make exceptional effects that are not lazily slapped together Electra Distortions marketed with some of the most unbelievable cr@p you can imagine. Where finishing the pedal consists of buying a cheapo rubber stamp at random and slapping it on the front...

Of the good guys I'm thinking along the lines of Catalinbread, Blackout Effectors, Earthquaker Devices, Subdecay and the like. Who come out with some really cool gear. Then you've got the likes of Neunaber Tech who a sell you a pedal, then allow you to turn it into other completely different pedals for free. How cool is that!

[Kiichi]

Then you've got the likes of Neunaber Tech who a sell you a pedal, then allow you to turn it into other completely different pedals for free. How cool is that!

Just had a look at that and...yeah, that is pretty darn cool. The things that exist...


Now off to finish and box a diy tube OD.

[tekbow]

I have no idea what point I was trying to make now  :?

I dunno,  but it was a good read  :D

Dave's a good guy, met him up in edinburgh when his band gigged here and he was very friendly and cool. And yes, he does himself great justice by not getting involved in disputes. In fact he once said something along the lines of not being to bothered if someone is knocking up a clone and charging 30 or 40 quid for it. Don't want to speak for him, but i get the impression it's when people start knocking up fancy clones and charging lots for them, or, as happened earlier this year, outright counterfeited a pedal, down to his signature on the inside.

Yup, a lot of the earlier stuff where insanely good clones, in fact he's making the macaris RI series now, but the newer stuff, while based off of things, are a lot more original and insanely good sounding. The Greaseboxes are esp good. I love the Dragnfly.

I don't go on TGP and i don't think they do themselves any favours, look at the Freekish blues debacle. That place has a game changer of the month..

[dave_mc]

(a) Members area, the big cat-fight. If you've got a few hours of your life to kill. I do warn you though, you won't get them back... That and they can be properly arsey when pedals are disected towards the builder/designer at times.

(b) Moving on to 'you get what you pay for'... Sadly not. Sometimes, yes. There are builders out there who consistently make exceptional effects that are not lazily slapped together Electra Distortions marketed with some of the most unbelievable cr@p you can imagine. Where finishing the pedal consists of buying a cheapo rubber stamp at random and slapping it on the front...

(c) Of the good guys I'm thinking along the lines of Catalinbread, Blackout Effectors, Earthquaker Devices, Subdecay and the like. Who come out with some really cool gear. (d) Then you've got the likes of Neunaber Tech who a sell you a pedal, then allow you to turn it into other completely different pedals for free. How cool is that!

(a) thanks. yeah i think i've come across that thread before (i think around the time of the freekish thing). Never read the whole thing though :lol:

(b) yeah. i don't mind paying more money for something which is better. I resent paying more money for something which isn't. or where they lie to me about what it is.

(c) oh yeah, of course, there are certainly some good guys. I'm certainly not suggesting every pedal maker is doing it.

(d) i've never heard of them, how does that work exactly? :)

I don't go on TGP and i don't think they do themselves any favours, look at the Freekish blues debacle. That place has a game changer of the month..

yep, exactly. that's the thing that annoyed me. it's happened before. yet i was the paranoid one. :lol:

[juansolo]

His Stereo WET and Stereo Chorus are essentially the same pedal (DSP) and he's a *really* good programmer. You plug it into your computer and you can essentially download different pedals onto it. So you can make the chorus into the reverb and vice-versa, but also he's be doing other things like a reverb with shimmer (really funky) and now a delay (which really does sound excellent). I'm struggling to find a reason not to get one...

[dave_mc]

oh right i see what you mean now, thanks for the info. that's pretty cool. :)