Got the Golden Horse today and ran it through my blues jnr. I was utterly shocked how much gain it had in it and how loud it was. Bought it as a laugh but now I’m genuinely loving the tones it was pulling. Very surprising for $35.
Thing about the inexpensive copies is you can find the circuit or circuits that work for you and then buy the more expensive version. It’s a great time to be a pedal junkie. Good vid and comparison!!!!
In some cases you will only spent more $ and get worse product. For example this Moskey pedals are honestly better then some ''boutique'' ones. i'm saying this as el engineer, moreover joyo classic are also good as any popular ''boutique'' classic pedals and often Joyo is better. Demon Fx is making better ''copies'' then originals are, they use better parts so demon fx king of T is better. Moskey ala ''wampler copy'' is better due to a better parts. Biyang is a sort of legend and their pedals once had 5 years guarantee no matter what. They are like 30-50$ Us max. just to be clear so called ''originals'' are also copies of old pedals. In the best case you get extra switches and knobs or they put 2 classic pedals into one pedal. KoT is direct copy of blues driver a 2 of them in the one box so you can get 2 marshall pedals a newer one and for sure you will get better sound and option, or you can grab mosky BD 2. Analogmen used Daphon 20$ pedals and switched 2 parts and sold them for over 200$US! 😀So paying more is not always guaranteed you'll get better, actually it's is extremely rare case. You are paying for the name and hype in more then 50% of cases.
I bought the Mosky "Plexi-M" (Carl Martin Plexitone clone) on a lark, and was blown away, by how Great is sounded, cost be damned! It was $20 dollars, at that time. I have since purchased a bunch of Mosky pedals, including both the "Silver Horse" and "Golden Horse," and they are All excellent pedals, especially for the low cost! I have "expensive" pedals, also, that I have purchased over the years, and I (sometimes) wonder "why", now?! LOL I do have the Archer, among many others, as well, and love it/them, also! So, no regrets, at all, and it IS a "win win" situation. I'm sure the Pro pedals would be the obvious choice, for steadily working, touring musicians, etc.! But, for us "Dive bar" players, and home warriors, the "knock offs" are really quite good, and more than adequate, given half a chance! As many know, Joyo and Caline make excellent, affordable pedals, as well.
Moskey beats so called ''originals'' with quality. Their Tw ds is better then so called ''wampler originals '' which is also btw copy of one 80's pedal with extra knob. Moskey KoT use better parts , post are dust proof , they use better capacitors and soldering is a bit better. Joyo classics are superb as well. Caline is OK they are imho a bit behind Moskey and joyo when it comes to quality but some of their pedals like EQ are great. I didn't had a chance to chek out new Caline double pedals but i hope i will soon have a chance to pen a few of them. In the past Fender was selling Caline pedals under their name, hofner did the same 😀 so they are great pedals no doubt in that.
Great review! Still if you want to make such comparison video more "professional" you need to adjust the pedals first "unity to each other" then switch from one to the other, and don't forget to max the settings to hear the ranges.
Something that often surprises me is the fact that most tests and shootouts of pedals are done without trying how different pedals respond to the volumepot. Some pedals in very different priceranges can sound very much alike on "10", but sound completely different once the volumepot is used. That can be caused by the value of the pot or by the pedal, so that's trial and error. I've done a lot of tests and shootout in my studio, both with cheap and more expensive pedals and that really "caught my ear". Still, there are a lot of cheap pedals that sound surprisingly good. I have the Mosky Silver Horse on one of my "affordaboards" as a booster and I think it's a good pedal. As is the Golden Horse, yet I prefer the Silver Horse. I payed only $17 for it. Crazy!!! Nice video, btw!
As a general rule, to have the most similar sound to the Archer you should use a bit more treble and a tad less gain in the Mosky and match he volumes.
I finally found out your name. Thanks for the video, Jason. I was wondering about a cheap Horsie for my board, but it’s not my thing. I’m looking for an edge of break up tone. Thanks mate. Max 👍
I've been using one of the golden horse pedals and having good tones with it. It does low to med gain quite well. It can do something like Blackmores tone which is loud and clear and not really distorted. I would think it does something like a dumble overdrive too. This is not a high gain pedal although it does stack well with other low gain pedals and then get more gainy. I'm broke so the mosky was a good choice for me. Wow , imagine a klon into a dumble. I wonder what that would sound like. money I guess. Rock on! Thanks mr junkie. Nice demo and review. I like it.
Connected in series you're always hearing the buffer in the Archer whether its on or off. So it's boosting HF in the Mosky. Dont know if the Mosky has the Klon buffer, most sub budget klones don't. If it does you're hearing 2 buffers when the Mosky is 1st in series. A/B'ing Klons is best on a switcher, necessary really if you want to hear the actual differences between them.
I bought the Silver Horse (even though the Golden is much prettier haha) because of the switch it has (which supposedly switches between silver and golden models sounds), but I THINK i have it in the "Golden" mode always anyway.
Hell I just bought two Moskys so I could compare and see which one I liked best and hell if the one on the board I like best craps out I've got a solid backup.. 2 of them for less than 50 bucks..??? What a freakin' deal! Most cheap pedals suck tone.. I'm surprised how little these Moskys do for the price :)
Ok, with that light-ish gain setting for both... I feel like they are the same right at pick attack, but the Golden Horse seems to then have a little fizz remnant as notes ring. However, Archer remains clear and warm. Just me? Probably not enough to really matter....
Hey Jason 👋 As you said at the end Chris & Jay worked with Bill Finnegan on the ktr and were likely one of the first builders with the Archer to produce a fairly faithful reproduction. With that comes the price!! For some minor tweaks in overall sound I prefer the Ikon (meant to be close in sound to the gold klon?). Although as you said at low gain settings the Archer is very transparent & much the same as the Ikon & that's largely the point of this circuit. So, no doubt either are great options for this type of pedal. Fast forward the circuit isn't so much unique anymore and just about every pedal company makes a klon style pedal with a large range of prices as you've shown here. Whether they are exact matches, it's really neither here nor there. It's really about the sound a person likes and suits their playing & rig. Much of the sound differences are small and likely make little difference in a mix. The headroom as you've spoken about here is something that can be valued and perhaps worth the cost. I've not personally heard the Wanpler Tumnus, but the newer deluxe version is meant to replicate both klons with further tweaking possibilities with the 3 eq knobs & a hot/cold switch. By all accounts it's a great pedal and a strong alternative to an Archer/Ikon. Another excellent review here - very useful. And with that thought I don't get why you don't have way more subscribers? Perhaps your videos aren't frequent enough like those with much higher subscriptions & get buried deep within the RU-vid algorithm system. Cheers 🎸🎸🎸
The klon circuit has become the new TS in that every manufacturer makes their own variant. I prefer the Blues Breaker most of the time, but sometimes the Archer hits the spot.
@@JasonAyalaSpare Definitely the new green pedal. 😆 Yup, of course, if only there was space/$$$ to have one of everything. Suppose that's why some go down the path of multi effects units. Cheers.
Can someone please tell me the song played at 7:30? It sounds really familiar. What a beautiful progression. Great video! I just bought the Silver Horse.
I liked this video very much, thanks! btw, could you do a comparison between the marshall bluesbreaker and the snouse black-box? I think that comparison would be very interesting, considering that the black-box 2 is not that expensive or overpriced in my opinion. Cheers!
Very little difference. I imagine a blind test would clearly show that. Often confirmation bias plays big in how we perceive the quality of any given pedals sound.