This is a pedal insider rant. I can't tell you how many customers write saying their pedals are not working or acting weird. But it turns out that it's an issue with their 9V battery not working well with their pedal. I would say 50% of customer complaints are due to batteries!
Please for the love of God people. Let's stop using 9V batteries in pedals. Manufacturers stop making them an option, and customers stop using them.
9V Batteries Are Not Needed. It's 2016. Not 1916. There are a plethora of cheap reliable and better pedal power options. You have inexpensive wall adapter, isolated dedicated power, even portable rechargeable ones that can power your whole board remotely.
9V Batteries Are Unreliable and Dangerous. Ever leave a battery in some device for a few months then come back and voila the acid has leaked out and started to corrode possibly damaging your expensive gizmo?
Different Pedals Will Behave Differently With The Same Battery. Did you know different pedals behave differently with the same battery? Overdrive pedals generally are ok with voltage drops due to an older battery. But delays are not. Delays are very sensitive and huge power vampires that will start making ghastly noises or no noises at all if they are not getting enough juice.
Some Pedals Drain Power When Off. So don't be surprised if your "new" battery suddenly isn't new.
Rechargeable Batteries Lose Charge Over Time. Rechargebles become less and less reliable with age. Bad for musicians who need reliable power on stage.
9V Batteries Are Expensive. Does it make any sense to buy a $3-4 battery every few hours of playing? Save your money and time.
9V Batteries are Bad for the Environment: Batteries contain acid and heavy metals that go in landfills and into our water and soil. You owe it to the earth to stop using them.
NAMM 2016 was...loud. To those of you who haven't been, imagine a Guitar Center on Saturday at 4pm x 1 million.
Anyhow here's the CP report:
Lots of the usual suspects. Guitar wankery galore, heavy metal burnouts and their busty girlfriends.
Moog had the coolest booth where you could chill with cactus
And of course a lot of companies were rehashing all sorts of pricey overdrives, boosts, and delays in mini form as is the rage now.
But also there were a lot of weird handheld device integration with pedals, allowing you to tweak settings from your iPhone or what not. This seems weird and counter intuitive. I thought the whole point was simplicity with pedals? Anyhow the pedal business seems to be pulling in two directions: 1) toward the analog "vintage" stone ages or 2) interconnected device utopia. I'm not a fan of either.
Met with the Electro Faustus guys. Super cool guys with a good work ethic and they're coming out with a really unique pedal called the Guitardammerung that's some sort of matching phase, distortion thing that sounded really different. Stay tuned for it!
Met a young gentleman from New Zealand named Lee who's pedals were the sexiest things I've ever seen! They had knobs that glowed and changed colors and a slider instead of typical knobs. (Sorry for the bad photos) Not cheap, but sounded great, looked like sex, and Lee was working hard on his little business. Kudos!
And finally yes, we're going to start carrying Hotone pedals. A lot of customers have been asking about them and we checked them out and they seemed to be doing good stuff so we'll start carrying them. Going to be working on putting them up on the site. Their best selling pedal is a volume/wah pedal in one!
Amazing new pedal that we love called the Mooer Tender Octave that is a mini clone of the EHX Micro Pog. Truly polyphonic tone generator for + and - octave. EHX sells for $200+, and we're selling for $88. Can't tell the difference!
Sounds amazing with chords, like a baritone guitar, and can do Jack White type octave whammy sounds.
Because we're in LA, we attended NAMM 2015 and it was crazy. Tons of new pedal companies and a lot of old rehashes of the same tired OD, Dist, Delay, Chorus lineup everyone seems to have. However we're excited to tell you guys we're going to start carrying Earthquaker Devices!
Yes, the best pedal company in the world in our opinion! Yes they're not cheaper price wise, BUT they are creating some of the most innovative awesome sounding pedals around. Not just the same tired old reissues, but really mindbending stuff that is hand made in the USA. We're always proud to work with companies that create value, whether it's a $35 pedal or a $150 one. Bang for the buck, and Earthquaker is shaking things up.
Bonus: We also discovered a new Chinese brand that knocked us out creating boutique stuff that sounds and looks amazing, with an amazing owner who loves tone above all else. Stay tuned!
Just in, the new Joyo Ironman series of mini pedals! Joyo is stepping up to the mini pedal trend by introducing an entire new series of pedals that covers new Amp ground and effects. Just some highlights are the smooth blues "Blue Rain" pedal and the Orange amp sim "Orange Juice." There are 16 new pedals in all, and more coming soon later in the year. Be the first to try what's getting rave reviews across the web.
I'll come out and say it: it is hard being a pedal pusher. The pedal market is soooooo saturated now with every conceivable pedal that it is hard to keep up. Every week there are new pedal lines being cranked out by everyone from obscure factories in China to hipster joints starting boutique pedal brands with a soidering iron and some stickers.
For Cheaperpedals all this variation means the competition is stiff. A lot of Chinese trading companies who know nothing about pedals are setting up shops on Amazon and Ebay to drive prices into the ground for Chinese made pedals. They don't pay import custom taxes nor shipping freight to America. They're just shipping boat loads to Amazon and having them do fulfillment and trying to make a buck or two while doing as little as possible. They think: are customers really going to go to the hassle and cost to send a pedal back to China? Hopefully not.
But ya know, that's cool. We welcome the challenge here at Cheaperpedals. Eventually everything evens out. If we work our asses off to bring you the best pedal advice, selection, delivery time, and service then we get customers who appreciate that and support us. Our first year has been kicking ass and taking names. Otherwise we suck and die. But we aren't about sucking. Year two is going to be even better and cheaper. We're about bringing you some insanely good gear for under a $100. We're also planning on upgrading some of our site, and new discounts for loyal customers.
This pedal is a personal favorite of mine because it's so damn simple do one has bothered to put one out. Ever want your guitar to stutter? I do. Some guitarists use their toggle switch to use as a kill switch, but that's bad for the guitar, and hard to coordinate. This pedal just kills your guitar signal instantly you step on it and once you let go, your signal goes back through. Awesome with huge raging mountains of distortion behind it and then to have it suddenly pulsate on/off at the control of your feet. Damn cheap too.
Red Witch pedals are some of my personal favorite for a cost/value point. Not big sellers because they are pricier than some of our pedals, but they are really top notch studio quality gear. The Violetta is an amazing delay pedal whose "Mod" control gives a beautiful analog flutter to your delay sound. It's kind of hard to describe. You just have to hear it, but being a delay freak, I really recommend those looking for an analog sound when color and texture are important.
Big, no, huge fans of Noisemaker Effects. American made pedals by hand, that straight up kill boutique pedals costing $200. Of all their pedals I love the Donner Party best. Ridiculously awesome fuzz for $66 bucks. Biting, nasty (but still controllable non-splaty fuzz). I've spent more money on gas. Or dog food. Or on a bad date. Seriously, give it a try.
Ok nuff pushing. Love you guys. Please write us at input@cheaperpedals.com if you have any comments or suggestions! Follow us on FB. We promise not to stalk you......much.
Excited to tell you guys about a new US based manufacturer that has been added to the site. Noisemaker Effects is a boutique maker that makes hand made, unique sounding pedals at an unbelievable price. Matt, the founder, and I have the same philosophy: players should be able to get some original sounding effects at a rock bottom price. He designs and builds all the pedals himself, and they look and sound like stuff worth three times as much.
Noisemaker pedals cheapest offering comes in at $46 which is pretty much the cheapest hand made pedal I've ever seen. Most other fuzz and overdrive pedals are in the $66 range. Wow. And wonderful to support a US based company. Will be doing a reorder soon as some of his pedals have already sold out!
Recently a customer wrote me an email asking whether companies like Joyo were paying royalties to the companies their pedals seem to be copying Here's the original email:
I have a question for you. I was discussing the Joyo pedals and someone brought up the point that if they are ripping off someone's design without paying that there is an ethical problem here. Do you know if Joyo has an arrangement with MXR or the others they are cloning? If they are simply a subsidiary that is good but if they are stealing design then I will not likely buy another pedal from them.
I think this is a very valid question for a lot of customers and want to finally address my take on this issue.
Most Pedals are Clones
The big secret in the pedal business that most manufacturers never want you to know is that most pedal companies are cloning existing designs. Ever notice how each company has at least one of each kind of pedal? Do you really think these companies are starting with a blank slate each time they produce a new pedal? No. Most of them use some existing design or schematic freely available on the internet. I would hedge that at least 50% of the overdrive pedals on the market are some sort of classic Tube Screamer copy. Most standard pedal effects have been figured out. There's only so many ways to make an analog delay repeat your original guitar signal. So many of the companies who are making a big fuss about cloning, if you open up their pedals and truly look at the circuitry, you'll find it remarkably similar to someone else's before them.
The Line Between Cloning and Modding
There is a very fine hazy line between cloning and modding pedals. For example, the Fulltone OCD pedal is simply a hot rodded Tube Screamer with more gain and different EQ. Does Fulltone or any other company pay Ibanez? No. Keely Mods are another example. They take an existing classic pedal and make a small modification to it, which they claim to improve it. Good business model, and perfectly valid. So what if a company like Biyang does the same thing? Their OD-10 overdrive takes a Tube Screamer, adds a toggle switch to give three modes of overdrive, and changes the EQ bit. Is this a mod or a copy? Why are people so clear to distinguish what Robert Keeley does as "good" versus Chinese pedal company? Because it is Chinese or because it is inexpensive? In fact many boutique manufacturers do the exact same thing and charge you $200 for that privilege.
Only with Pedals is Copying Even an Issue
With most consumer goods, cloning isn't even an issue. For example, look at guitars; there are a million Fender Stratocaster copies out on the market. Same body shape, same single coil pickups, 5 way toggle switch. But do people ever make an ethical fuss about this? No. Because Fender is still the original and makes a lot of money because they still make great guitars, and the resale value of the original is better. Likewise, in the pedal world Ibanez still makes a ton of money from their "reissues" of the Tube Screamer. Each year there are more and more of these reissues, and collectors and enthusiasts continue to throw money at them. And how can you even claim exclusive rights to something like an EQ pedal?
Where Does Your Money Go?
So what mostly what one is paying for with originals is the brand name and resale value. With boutique pedals you pay for the added cool factor, fancy pedal case, and possibly point to point wiring. You may be paying for some added value such as smaller sized pedals like Mooer pedals or some component upgrade. You are paying for many things, but very little of it is for use in designing the pedal. With some exceptions such as Devi Ever who creates some unique pedals and gives away her designs freely, most pedal manufacturers do little R&D.
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Understandably, my opinions can be claimed as biased or at least a conflict of interest. But just consider my points. If you still disagree that's fine. It's a free country. It's a free market. You spend your money where you want. I think it's important for all of us to vote with our pocketbooks.
Just in! We know a lot of our customers are looking for new pedals, new sounds. We also know you don't want the best possible deal. Joyo delivers again to help you get the most out of your dollar. Fresh off the boat, here's two pedals to get excited about.
We have a limited supply of the new Joyo D-Seed Digital Delay, a really amazing digital pedal that has 4 different delays, tap tempo, and memory presets. This is the kind of pedal other companies would charge you $200 for. Get it at CheaperPedals for less than half the price.
We also have the Joyo JF-31 Noise Gate, which lots of customers have asked about. Joyo recently redesigned these to be quieter, so they were out of stock for a long time. If you suffer from audible loud hum from all the all those pedals blasting away in your signal chain, this pedal will put a kabosh on that so that when the song stops, so does your hum.
Great pedals, great prices. That's what we're all about.
This pedal is a personal favorite of mine because it's so damn simple do one has bothered to put one out. Ever want your guitar to stutter? I do. Some guitarists use their toggle switch to use as a kill switch, but that's bad for the guitar, and hard to coordinate. This pedal just kills your guitar signal instantly you step on it and once you let go, your signal goes back through. Awesome with huge raging mountains of distortion behind it and then to have it suddenly pulsate on/off at the control of your feet. Damn cheap too.
Red Witch pedals are some of my personal favorite for a cost/value point. Not big sellers because they are pricier than some of our pedals, but they are really top notch studio quality gear. The Violetta is an amazing delay pedal whose "Mod" control gives a beautiful analog flutter to your delay sound. It's kind of hard to describe. You just have to hear it, but being a delay freak, I really recommend those looking for an analog sound when color and texture are important.
Big, no, huge fans of Noisemaker Effects. American made pedals by hand, that straight up kill boutique pedals costing $200. Of all their pedals I love the Donner Party best. Ridiculously awesome fuzz for $66 bucks. Biting, nasty (but still controllable non-splaty fuzz). I've spent more money on gas. Or dog food. Or on a bad date. Seriously, give it a try.
