@@kellykent131 ya there’s buzz and excitement which is nice and feeds the experience but when it turns into exclusivity and frankly stupid prohibitive prices then I’m out haha especially when it’s based on a difference you can’t even hear between a bad monkey and a klon which amounts to a price difference of $8950 or whatever it is. God I would feel dopey in a few years if I’d bought a klon 😂 I already feel dopey enough as it is for getting swept up in hype to the degree that I did.
@@chesneytube1 Friend, don’t be too hard on yourself. I’ve bought pedals on their looks. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn’t. Josh’s video about pedal myths is one of the best videos from him that I’ve ever seen. It helped me realize that lots of new pedals are based on old circuits like the tube screamer for example. So I don’t lose my mind because I don’t own the latest ear candy. I know what sounds I’m looking for, and I try to base my purchases on that.
Best ways to over-inflate a pedal: 1. It's seen on John Mayer's board 2. Josh Scott name drops John Mayer as an influence of the pedal 3. Josh does a review on an obscure pedal 4. Rhett Shull demos an obscure pedal given to him by Josh Scott
@PC LOAD LETTER I like the bad monkey ! I tested it against many tube screamer pedals and other many Marshall in the box pedals and I choose the bad money every time !
I predicted this happening a while back and collected 27 Bad Monkeys for £25-40 over the last few years. I've sold them all since his video for £90-130 each and bought myself a new guitar. It's hilarious. Thanks Josh!
no like this is unironically absolutely the truth. if we lived in a fair and sane world Josh's efforts would actually lead to these insane pedal prices going down. the whole point was to say "why are you spending thousands on a klon when it sounds the same as this 'shit' pedal that you all hate." and everyone responds like "whoa it sounds like a klon??? IT MUST BE MADE OF PURE UNOBTAINIUM!"
Josh Scott has a self-depreciating sense of dry irony in his humour that you rarely see with Americans. And I think that's why a lot of his fellow countrymen often misunderstand where he's coming from.
I bought a Bad Monkey a number of years ago because Phil X used one and it sounded so good in his videos. What I discovered was that the pedal was ok nothing exceptional and it was a combination of the effect and Phil’s talent that made it sound so good. So I sold it and moved on, no regrets. This is what I learned, there are guitarists that can made one note sound incredible. Record yourself playing, listen to it, analysis your technique and spend more time working out how to make yourself sound better that way than wasting your time down that rabbit hole of effects pedals. Practice with a purely clean sound, when it sounds good clean then your ready to enhance that sound with an effect pedal.
I came here to say the exact same thing! Fretted Americana back in the day was incredible, and that alone should have enshrined the Bad Monkey in gear history
This is so true. When I was JUST getting into learning/playing guitar, my brother gave me my grandfather's guitar that'd been left to him when grandpa passed away. My brother was not a guitar player, and had no interest, but he knew I was learning, so thought it would be better that I have it and enjoy it. To this day, I love that guitar for both emotional and sentimental reasons (obviously), but I also genuinely like the unique look and sound of it as well. It's one of those 1960s Sears style, lawsuit era clone guitars, that looks like some sort of Fender Mustang/Jaguar hybrid. The only name on it anywhere is the cursive word "Tempest" in some type of gold foil rectangular sticker on the headstock (alongside the Chiquita Banana stickers that grandpa stuck on the headstock. lol He would eat Bananas sometimes when playing guitar on his porch.) Anyway, when I first got it, and was plunking around on it, I thought there was something wrong with it, because it didn't "sound so great," and thought it probably needed a setup (which it did, to be fair). So, I took it to the local music shop of a friend, and asked them to take a look at it. Told them I thought it had something wrong with it. They listened to my concerns, and then this guy who worked at the shop (who was a very good, semi-professional guitar player) offers his hand out curiously and says, "ok, let's have a look at it." I hand it to him, he plugs it into one of their tester amps behind the counter, and proceeds to just *RIP* on the thing... huge sounding chords, then to Vai-like shredding, then slowed up to some blues bars and licks, then to beautiful harmonics and ringing bends with knob volume swells that made the guitar sound like it was singing. I know my mouth was hanging open when he stopped playing, turned the volume knob down, looked back at me and said, "yeah, it could probably use a setup and action adjustment to make it easier to play, but honestly, it sounds pretty good. It's a nice guitar; not many are made like this anymore. It's in really good shape for it's age too." I was still pretty floored by his playing, and said, "how on earth did you... what... I can't get it to sound anything like that." To which he responded, and I've never forgotten this lesson, and it changed my playing and approach to gear... he said... "Good gear matters, but your ultimate tone is found right here," (and held up his fingers). "Get the best gear that you can, always, but never forget that how you play, your technique and precision, and the melodies and notes that you choose to play are more important than any piece of equipment." As I said, I never lost that lesson, and grandpa's guitar ended up on a couple recorded albums a few years later, where I then had friends (with far better gear than I) asking me, how I "got that unique guitar sound" on the record, how much they liked it, and wanted to dial in something similar on their rigs. So, that's a long-winded way of saying, "you are so right." lol
Believe it or not that already happened. People figured out you can use it as a preamp by running it through the fx loop and it sounds super good. Ola showed that off and so did other channels
Exactly why I stick with Boss pedals :) !!! And Josh is right, most pedals ARE the same! Any idiot willing to pay $200+ for a $35-$50 pedal deserve to lose their money!
I bought my Bad Monkey years and years ago. I didn't know a whole lot about pedals then. I went to a local shop and compared it to a Tube Screamer and a Blues Driver. The Bad Monkey sounded just as good, if not better. I was MUCH cheaper. I still have it.
Same here. It's been probably at least 15 years since I picked mine up. After the JHS video, I went to check my gear drawer and there it sat with the $20 sticker still on the box.
I have always wanted one, for years and years but never pulled the trigger. They were $60-$70. Lol. That being said, there are some other great cheap overdrives.
Exactly! The klon should be £50 because it’s no better than a £50 pedal but of course, the idiot guitar community decides the Bad Monkey is now worth £1000 🙄
It’s gotten so bad that even other non boutique companies are trying to sell for boutique prices. Why is a waza pedal $250 and the standard version $75? That kind of thing.
You guys should maybe take two seconds and understand supply/demand. Bad Monkey is cheap because there are lots of them. Why do you care if a Klon is $5000 when a bunch of other pedals are 99.99% kook for .0001% of that price? You make no sense.
@@marbar1844 I totally understand supply and demand, the issue here isn’t about supply, it’s the fact there should be no demand for the Klon when it’s no better than the Bad Monkey, or many other OD’s for that matter.
This pedal shoot out happened 13 years ago, then it happened a dozen or so more times and no one listened. Josh just has a wider audience than the other folks who already unraveled this mystery…
Never change what you do, Josh!!! Let people be morons and overpay for basic circuits!!! Yes, I listed my crusty Bad Monkey pedal for $175 and sold within two hours, all I did was offer an item if someone wanted it for a semi reasonable price, no way I could accept $300 and feel decent about it, sign of the times!!! Great channel here, always the total package 😎👏🔥🎶
Don’t apologize for the sale. I sold one also. If someone is willing to pay it’s on them. Mine was listed for three weeks before it sold this week. All I did differently was raise the price this week.
The “Josh Scott Effect” on BadMonkey pricing is a perfect example of the kind/type of power a Social Influencer has….even if he didn’t set out to be one initially. ✌🏻
I wanted a DF-7 because of the JHS comparison video, they are finally just now coming down in price. Probably because of that Bad Monkey overshadowing everything else.
I have a Bad Monkey (with box) that I got at a local guitar and gear show about 6 years ago for $50 (plus also got a Nobels ODR-1 there for about $55). The BM can sound good and I more or less like it but I’m not a huge fan of the Tube Screamer style “mid hump”. I do like the BM because it has a good bottom end that is missing on the Tube Screamer. My TS-10 Tube Screamer when compared with the BM is surprisingly somewhat smoother in the mids plus more full sounding than I thought, so I do like it too. My Fulltone Robin Trower Overdrive seems to be a really big sounding TS derivative which I like a-lot.
I first heard about the Bad Monkey when I was watching Fretted Americana videos and Phil X was using one to drive his old Magnatone Tonemaster. I think he did that to show how the guitar would sound, and running the guitar through a Bad Monkey kinda gave you a look at what guitar to sound like through an overdrive pedal.
I like that the Bad Monkey has bass & treble controls. To me, that adds a lot of versatility compared to the single tone control. That said, I did grab one of the reissue Bluesbreakers, which is a darn good pedal, but there really was no need to wait for the reissue as it's one of the most copied circuits. Thanks.
I bought a JHS Bonsai and enjoyed it, amazing pedal but I found I actually preferred the boosted sound of the 20$ amazon "Tube overdrive" pedal I had bought previously...
I'm so happy I don't get caught up in the pedal dream. When I decided to build a board my idea was Boss pedals. Older used modded Boss pedals. Ended up with about 10 of them. Didn't like what I heard. Got a couple other used modded pedals. A older Butler Tube driver that's been modded with a bias knob. A MXR 10 band E Q that's silent modded. And 1 of the 1st pedals I bought as a keeper ,a Dime wah. The EQ is the KFK signature. Didn't spend big money on parts that didn't need more than they are. $20 used mini tuner. I did get a Meat and 3 modded Soul food used $83. But in the end used some cheaper brand replacement pedals for a better sound and space. Now my board has been done for over 2 yrs and ain't looking for any "magic" noisy thing to improve this board. It's good enough now so I got to be a better player to make spending the money I did on guitars amps and pboard worth it. At this point equipment is above average and I need to get myself to the same level.
I got an EQD Grey Channel for $140 brand new (discounted) because it wasn’t terribly popular and then was discontinued. Used prices stayed right around there for years. JHS casually mentioned it and the fact that it was discontinued and people were asking $400-$600 the same day. It maybe lasted 2 weeks then mellowed out to somewhere near the original pricing again. The only difference here is people are expecting it now and I think more sellers are trying to get in on the action.
What's true though is Josh, as full of knowledge and passionate that he is, shows us/reminds us of a lot of afordable and classical pedals, like boss pedals per example, that we often overlook because of "boutique" and more hyped products being issued in a constant and endless swarm all the time.
Brett Kingman did a shootout of these two pedals back in 2009. While you may be able to get a similar sound out of both pedals, the Klon does something unique with the signal, splitting the clean part off and mixing that in at the end. The Bad Monkey is basically a tube screamer clone. It could be any tubescreamer clone pedal, not JUST a Bad Monkey pedal. What the video does highlight is there's not as much variation in a distorted signal as we may perceive. Same goes for pickups, amps too. Don't believe all the hype and use your ears.
The Klon circuit is my favorite OD pedal sound, but I have a Caline Medusa, Joyo Tauren, and Tone City Bad Horse, that all cost $50 or less, and that's all I need. I've tried a LOT of Klon klones, and those are my three favorite, and some of the ones I tried cost a lot more, and I didn't like them as much as those three.
It didn’t cause as much of a price hike, or a frenzy, but Ola Englund did a fantastic video on the Metal Zone, that kinda showed that pedal (when used properly) actually sounded decent as a Metal Distortion.
I own a Bad Monkey since 2007, never leaved my pedalboard, it is still my pedal of choice in front of tube amps cranked at the edge of overdrive. Just for compliance, I own Ibanez Tube Screamer as well, Mad Professor pedals, MXRs (love the Distorsion III) and so on.
Not only have I been able to escape the hype, but I've been able to avoid the pedal in the 90's. So much so that I've learned about it for the first time through the JHS video!
Going to repeat my original reaction to the video. The video showed how much the pedals sound the same but it would be interesting to make a video comparing these pedals and showing where they don't sound the same because that could be the sound people are chasing and the reason they are buying these pedals in the first place.
I had one and loved it, did not see a big difference between that and other od pedals, but I have always thought the digitech pedals were way underrated, Grunge, Metal Master, and I love all the x series. still don't see the hype with any OD pedal, e.g. klon, dumble, timmy, I just don't see it. I mostly play my SD-1 with my Marshalls.
I rebought my bad monkey about 5 years ago for £30 for nostalgic reasons. It was my first overdrive and missed it after selling. It's a killer pedal because it's a tubescreamer with a bass knob. What's not to like?
Damn I have one but I can't find it .....!!!!! Just found the original box but not the pedal ........; need to find it and put it on Reverb ..........!!!!!😄
Josh, I want you to pick a pedal every week and continue the madness with these old forgotten pedals!! Come on man, send the pedal nerds down the black hole of all black holes!!! Keep it goin!!
If Josh releases a bad monkey clone in the next 6 months to a year at an “affordable” price just remember that he’s a salesman, and a good one at that. Drive demand provide supply
I loved Josh's take down on the (original) POD haters. Yeah, the POD has a bunch of really bad tones. But it does have some great usable tones too. Obviously, the Kempers, AXE FXes, and Neurals are far better but the POD is not trash. The Bad Monkey video proves it all over again.
Josh has been invaluable at teaching us about the origins and subclasses of pedals. As for his effect on rising prices, he is right to recommend waiting out the hype spikes. Some people sell products for very, very, very ridiculous prices because there are people out there who believe they would not sell it for that price if it were not worth it. Josh never said he would pay 12,000 for a bad monkey. He merely said the pedal has merit, and went under the radar. I appreciate a good effect, but I am a firm believer that if you want to sound better...practice, practice, practice. I am certain the bad monkey is far less important than practicing.
Not going to lie, I sold mine on reverb the moment I finished watching the video. I think I paid $39.99 on sale, over a decade ago in the mid 2000s. Still had the original box and paperwork, and it was basically pristine in condition. It sold within 2 or 3 hours for a SILLY price. At the time, a lot of the other listings didn't have the original box and manual shown with it. Now the reverb market is flooded with people asking similar and even higher prices than what mine sold for. No regrets here. If people are going to be dumb and overpay for a basic circuit overdrive pedal, a pedal that Digitech made BOAT LOADS of, let them. It's a very underrated and often falsely maligned pedal, but there's no way in hell it's worth what I sold it for lol.
I think between 35-55 year old guitarist saw the pedal and tried it, it didnt suck then but wasnt cool either so everyone disregarded it, I think people dont like that it did that and that energy was the catalyst
I think Josh mentionned a friend of him saying guitar players are "SUPERSTITIOUS" when it comes to gear in general, I think this is very accurate - this craze is such a good illustration of that :)
I literally looked up a Bad Monkey pedal a few months ago to try and buy one. I sold mine five years ago, and have always regretted it. A few months ago, I found a bunch for $40-$70. Please, please, please, please let this hype go the fuck away. I want one again.
My 90s blue collar Menatone is still the best OD I've ever heard. Klon killer and they had a silver klon for 575 dollars when I bought it at Blues Angel is how I know.
The number of people who have massive pedal boards and loads of guitars chasing "different sounds" but don't have an EQ pedal, that actually makes any rig super versatile, is crazy to me. The MXR 10 band has been on my board for years and is always on every preset I make on modellers.
That’s very hipster if you sir! My other favorites are tone is in your fingers, and you gotta learn everything by ear, tabs are the devil! It’s all about expressing yourself through the instrument!
@@kane6529 "Hipster". I remember that term from about 10 years ago. Anyway, get an eq and a compressor and you will not believe how good it sounds. OR, buy the newest oldest tubes creamer, I don't care.
Cool 808 tinge to the tone in the closing bit . And you didn't pay vintage 808 prices to get it. Hmm? Btw, is that a Korean Squier top loader Tele ? The offset saddles look like old Korean or that short lived US version from the early 80's (Dan Smith) ? The Strat counterpart had the trem springs under the pick guard if my memory is not too faulty.
I do prefer Boss overdrives but I took a look in my attic and found TWO Bad Monkeys, so I must have liked them at some point. Josh knows tons about pedals and also knows that it is the Song itself that matters.
Yeah- it bothers them! They spent 5k on a Klon & realized that a (formerly) $60 pedal can act the exact same, give you the exact same response & tone for a decimal of price
The Bad Monkey bubble is a complex example of this economic phenomenon, and probably worthy of inclusion in business studies courses. Rather than the value of the BM rising, however, people should realise that the _Klon_ is just over-valued. That's the bubble that really should burst.
IMO he did no wrong if he highlighted an underrated pedal. Price increases are from opportunistic sellers. If he hyped up a garbage pedal and somehow personally profited THEN he would be in the wrong.
Brilliant interview. See, I never buy pedals based upon popularity; I buy them based on a combo of quality for cost and whether they will serve my sound (harder to determine than one might imagine, because I play heavily modded Gretsch guitars, and everyone who shoots demo videos always plays Strats, Teles, or the occasional ‘rebel’ with a Les Paul or a PRS. I never see Filter’Trons and I never see P90s…which are all I play for now and for the foreseeable future. I play them because I love their tones-I particularly like when the semi-hollow w/P90s covers the rhythm parts and the super-upgraded 2019 Jet with ‘Trons covers lead-or vice versa. I was about to buy a quality Squier or Eart Telecaster (Earts have STAINLESS STEEL FRETS and roasted maple necks for under $400!), until my amp died and I had to replace THAT for $500.
The Bad Monkey has been on the budget market for almost 20 years. I've owned one before and it's no different than any other OD out there.... But it people want to buy hype, I guess thats there business. But the idea that a Bad Monkey OD is some sort of 'PICK OF DESTINY' is hilarious. 😂
I remember in a Sweetwater interview Josh said something like no matter what drive he uses, he makes them all sound the same. I sort of realized I do the same thing.
I absolutely love Josh's Midwestern ultra-dry humor! Let the haters hate. He's a pedal freak like all of us. And I love seeing the controversy his video created. He made a very valid(and super funny) point. Some people didn't get it. I just sit here with my popcorn watching. I did notice your Bad Monkey on reverb for $12k+. Good one! 😂
I don’t understand why this became a big deal. He did the same thing last year with the Mosky Golden Horse. His associate guessed that the Mosky was the actual Klon in a blind test.
When I was a kid, I saw Mike Einzinger used a DOD Gonkulator. Probably $30 when it came out. I scoured the internet for and they were selling for like $250-300. I went on a search and bought like 4 different ring mods over the years and never liked any of them. It kicked off a whole career of tone searching and collecting pedals. Then they got reissued and I got one on Black Friday for $40. It’s now a paperweight 😂
I’ve got two of these I bought for around $20 to $25 each and I’ve liked them for years. I saw one yesterday in a pawn shop in the Tacoma area for $50, and I resisted the urge to either pick it up or say anything to the staff about the price spike. I’m not selling mine, either. I like them.
Anyone that got genuinely upset over this is acting extremely naive and childish. But just remember that some people can’t recognize humor, and can’t recognize the ACTUAL point of the video The bad monkey was just the example of the point he was making. You can make incredible music with literally ANY gear that you happen to have. If you’re chasing after gear to make you sound better you never will. Go play guitar and practice and improve and your tone will improve naturally
That klon comparison is actually 13 years old. At least the one I could find. The funny thing is that they are making more bad monkeys, and everyone is going to sit around saying "the new ones don't have the same warmth!"
They will come down after people try the Kernom Ridge, it does nails the klon sound plus you get 128 presets i paid 450 for it and combined to a fuzz, you can leave your fuzz at the same setting but still get some tweekability over its sounds via the RIDGE knobs. Normaly i put fuzz in front of my overdrives but in that case i prefer the other way around! If you are a fuzz lover, it's like having multiple fuzz'S with only one! Oh yeah 4 more then 2 presets you also need a midi switcher.
Josh just proved he's right. Amongst old guys we often comment the moment when 'old' became 'vintage'. Second, Digitech did made great pedals back in the days and third, yed Metal Zone is a great pedal! I've been touring for years with just a Boss Chorus and a Metal Zone. The sound I want comes from the guitar+amp+fingers. Pedals used to add something to your sound, not make it!
I remember the first time I was sort of done with pedal hype. Andertons did a video with a tone city golden plexi and a Venuram Jan Ray. And I vastly preferred the Tone city. That being said, I own nearly 50 pedals :)
AHA! I suspected that Josh's video was to hype the new version that's coming out. The coolest thing about this series and the Hardwire series is the great sounding direct output with a cab filter. I got great sounding recordings with my Bad Monkey, going directly into my little Tascam digital recorder. I should have kept it for that reason alone.
What really makes this laughable is that the Klon is considered THE best sounding OD pedal ever. Maybe it sounds great with some guitars, amps and playing styles, but in many cases it will sound harsh. I had a Bad Monkey pedal a few years ago, and it was an ok overdrive pedal, but I got rid of it because it wasn’t as good sounding as my other pedals. Use pedals that are reasonably priced and sound great… there are so many out there. Avoid the obsession for the overly priced and unattainable gear.
The thing no one seems to get is that the buyer has all of the power in the setting of prices. If you don't pay a thousand dollars for a cheap pedal, sellers will stop listing them for ridiculous prices. Wait to buy, and the hype, and the price will both go down.
I feel the same about cheap guitars...If you know how to make a cheap $300 guitar play like a $1500 one , and you are NOT touring, and you are just a bedroom player like myself then , the 'Gibson/American Fender' snobbery goes out the window ..granted tuners and pickups need replacing most times . I own a fender Squire that sounds /feels amazing ...better then my American made ones .What Josh shows is how gullible we All are.. I remember the marketing campaign in the 80's by 'Bose Speakers' Everyone ( including myself ) had to have them in their house . If anything that a life time has taught me is How prone we are to follow a 'Voice of Authority ' !!! PEACE EVERYONE !!!!
