I bought all of the basic Boss overdrives- OD-3, SD-1, BD-2, DS-1, and GE-7. I’ve owned several boutique pedals overtime but these basic Boss overdrives are all you really need and they are half the price. They cover every ground in any style and they’re built like a tank. I think for many beginners it’s understanding how to dial things in and how to dial in the sweet spot on each unit. A proper understanding of gain staging helps too. That’s really true of any pedal you may own but you can save yourself a ton of money if you understand these things.
I’m just wondering what you’re trying to get across. If it’s that pedals are getting too expensive, I’ve seen the uptick in that conversation, and I’m inclined to agree a bit. But also the “What is boutique?” question is different, and more nuanced. Is it size of the company? Is it number of pedals produced? MXR and EHX were just as boutique back in the day. But they were also just as “mainstream” as JHS, and Keeley are today. Also, surface mount doesn’t mean mass produced. I can be a one man shop, and buy a surface mount reflow soldering machine and still do it all myself. Mass produced means mass produced. Tens of thousands at a clip. I could get through hole boards mass produced for me too. Don’t confuse the soldering process, or circuit board design with the production process.
I don’t know why people turn their nose up at Boss pedals. They sound great, they have a distinct aesthetic (which maybe isnt for everyone), and theyre built like friggin tanks!
A lot of the former boutique brands who are now just mainstream brands (JHS, Keeley, Wampler etc) got there buy looking at these classic circuits & saying "That's 95% of the way there, how do I get that last 5%?" However the newer boutique brands to my mind aren't interested in the 5% improvement of something old but the entire reinvention of sound. Game Changer, Stone Deaf, Chase Bliss, Old Blood Noise, Poly, Hologram, stuff like that. Stuff that's so out there that it could conceivably be referred to as "bespoke" that's what boutique is in my mind now.
I went deep down the boutique pedal rabbit hole years ago only to find the problem with my tone was not my pedals, but it was me. That was an expensive lesson to learn, haha.
Everything happens for a reason I went through so many fuzz pedals to find myself using Death By Audio pedals which I originally wanted when I first started my fuzz journey but I wanted the “ VINTAGE BOUTIQUE” fuzzes lol which didn’t work for my musical aspiration( except my Sunface)
Honestly, I feel like when the Boutique boom happened, a lot of pedal brands were fairly complacent and willing to sit on their hands, and needed a good shot in the arm in the form of competition. Through that competition, some brands became mainstream, some mainstream brands basically died, and there's a whole bunch of folks somewhere in the middle who tried and either have smaller shops or closed down for whatever reason. That's basically what capitalism is, you adapt to the needs of consumers, and they either buy your product or find it somewhere else that's either better for their needs whether it be quality or price. At the moment, I think there is something to be said about pricing. We just went through a period where food, water, shelter and energy massively inflated in price in various parts of the world, and price is a pretty huge factor in buying any product. Take guitars, how many people are going to buy a PRS Core Model right now with limited expendable income when the PRS SE is about 90-95% there? I think pedals are the same. Why buy a boutique $300 Tube Screamer when we have multiple great options starting below $100? That said, I have a feeling this will come and go. I'm sure most of us weren't buying high end guitars and amps in 2009 after that massive recession, much like a lot of us have pulled back after all the post-pandemic inflation. It'll be interesting to see what happens maybe 5-10 years from now.
david gilmour used to play RAT pedals during 90s era. The pedal is so dynamic, has amazing gain and filter knob is really great. plus it works well with amp sim like neural product :)
In terms of overdrives/ distortion we are definitely beyond saturation, but there are still nuggets in the boutique world that mass manufacturers don’t do. EG Hudson Broadcast. In terms of modulation and time effects I think there is plenty of scope for continued development and boutique has a place in that as we have seen from Meris, Chase Bliss, Empress and Poly Effects.
"In terms of overdrives/ distortion we are definitely beyond saturation". Pun intended? :p And don't sleep on Pladask Elektrisk. Their "Draume" is my favorite reverb by FAR.
I bought a Lumpy's Germanium Tone Bender and it is incredible... It took the sound of my Stock 08 Les Paul Standard and turned it into Page's 59 thru my Blues Junior... Instant transmogrification...
To me, boutique just means the pedal was made by a musician or someone who can appreciate what they’re creating and sharing. A lot of “bigger” companies with lots of employees are still boutique to me because you can ask anyone in the business about their pedals or music and they’ll be happy to talk your ear off. I don’t care if you have a thousand employees as long as all of them understand, appreciate, and love what they’re making. To me, boutique ends with hiring the general public to manufacture your product. Just my opinion.
long waiting lists and limited production eventually cause apathy and make people choose other avenues. SMT parts allow for consistency all around the board, and they are quicker to produce. Many prefer a steady production line to having to make select batches for orders that were placed several months or years ago. Josh Scott has especially been critical of this portion regarding "boutique" brands.
The Analog man King of Tone wait list made me think about how much boutique builder BS I was willing to tolerate . There are so many good pedals available now at fair prices . Boutique pedals aren't necessary to get a great tone .
Nice vid John, as usual, though to be fair, you could have adjusted the tone on the Royal Overdrive in that comparison. Anyway I loved all the tones you pulled.
If you're a 'boutique builder' making TS/Rat/Klon/BB variants at premium prices, I just don't see the point anymore. FWIW, I'm not impressed by fancy graphics either... I'm just going to step on it.
Re-inventing the wheel you can only do so many times (with getting away with it). Some boutique pedals are special but the most afaik are expensive iterations of what is already done for less. Yet sometimes it is the look or the feel (knobs/switches) that may justify some extra spending and not sound or features. Just buy what makes you happy and can afford of course 😊
Maybe qualifications for boutique could be lesser known brand, and not available for sale at a major dealer/retailer. Available Online site and mom and pop shops only?
I think boutique pedals are better and stronger than ever. I'm also not a fan, though of multi effect units. Nothing beats the real deal amp and pedal.
I bought a Germanium Tumnus recently, and I have found that the Germanium adds a layer of warmth and dimension. I run it into my HX Stomp which has a Timmy before the amp. I tried the 808 but I found that it rolls off too much low frequencies, although the 808 adds a satisfying "cluck" to each pick attack...
I went thru multiple Origin Effects pedals, gobs of Strymon pedals, and multiple other boutique pedals. I was quite snobby about it. Now have dialed back to a Greer Lightspeed>Boss Sd-1>Boss BD-2>Xotic EP Booster which I stack in various ways, and that all goes into a Strymon El Cap and Flint. Best sound I've ever had now, not that the old stuff wasn't good. Expensive lesson.
Eq and boost sections, really that and variations in diode types , this distinguishes I reckon the classics from today’s boutique drives . That and instant access. Could be you go for a Kernom, or a Strymon, or a jet pedals or a Matthews or whatever, easy access I reckon is the key, midi, or relay switches to change functionality vs bending over constantly. If you look at those muse drive vids AT is leaning over continually in the demo, lot of control from his volume pot, as you do but I really think presets and added value are what distinguish between boutique and non boutique.
I have a Tim V3 from Paul Cochrane which I love. I spent a long time trying to get one sent to me in Ireland from Humbucker Music in the US (they'd email to say they'd got another shipment of pedals from Paul, but the email would arrive in the middle of rhe night and by the time I'd wake up they'd be sold out! And with Irish customs fees etc it wound up costing me over €300!) That said, it's pretty much an 'always on' pedal for me. I really do love the aound of it. But I also know that the effort I went to and the cost to me are a big factor in my perception of it. A Blues Driver and a Rat side-by-aide on my board as always-on and boost? Id probably be just as happy. Though they'd take up much more space! "What's the point, Dave?" I hear you ask. I dont know. Im not sure I have one. Guitar pedals are great, arent they?
With the exception of my MXR and EHX pedals all my pedals are what used to be considered boutique; Keeley, JHS, Eventide, Wampler, Bogner, Walrus Audio, Strymon. I have over 35, had over 50, pedals and don’t have a single boss pedal. A lot of it is the buy to try market and chasing youtube tones. Also I just got a Tonex and really it covers so many bases so well that I’m considering slimming down even more and combining it with my Helix or HX effects to create a rig. I’m getting ready to go to grad school and need to slim down on both amps and pedals. Once I get out of school I can circle back around and get my new dream rig.
I was thinking back to the mid '70s when I had a Les Paul Recording model, an EHX line driver boost pedal, into a Marshall 2x12 50w combo turned up loud. That rig covered a lot of bases through many gigs. Now I use a Tele through a Tech21 Fly Rig 2, into a Vox AC15.
Lets face it, Chinese pedals (NUX) threaten to pull the rug out from under the market for any Boutique Pedal Shop... But also any non - Chinese Pedal Maker... They reverse engineer any pedal for 1/25th the price... Who can compete with that???
Half of the equation for me is the buffers, dynamics, top end when rolling back the volume and interactivity with other pedals etc. I’m a huge Boss, Maxon, ProCo fanboy (part tone, part price, part nostalgia) but will end up using whatever brings the best out of my instrument and amp in the end. Thanks for your insights!
After buying and selling alot of boutique pedals the only one that has never left my pedalboard is a zen drive. Recently put a Boss bp1w and a Boss dm2w on. Honestly the Bp1w has been the boost pedal Ive always searched for after buying Timmys and Rc boosters etc...the dm2 has the best slapback sound for me. Both almost always on. Keep up the great work John, your legato and Mancuso videos really lit a fire on me!
I think the boutique brands are definitely here and getting more expensive! If you watch That Pedal Show, so many things sound amazing but the cost to start adding them on a board is crazy.
What about Jam Pedals? I'd say they're still a boutique builder. How about Greer or Browne or Hudson or King Tone or Earthquaker Devices or Deep Trip or Wren & Cuff or Vemuram etc? I think the boutique market is extremely healthy.
One of my favourite tones was my Fryette amp with a RAT as a boost. It was a RAT clone from a small one-man shop about 15 years old now. I don't think he sells pedals any more. But I don't consider Eventide or JHS to be boutique. I think there are many small pedal companies starting up all the time, but most of them don't fit the boutique bill. I think Vemuram are boutique or AnalogMan. They're expensive clones of old pedals and have small shipments, often times only selling direct. Toneczar are similar. Some of the old school boutique companies like D*A*M are gone now. Spaceman Effects, Bondi, 29 Pedals, Kingtone, 1981, all these guys are boutique in my eyes. They're expensive, made in limited numbers, and are often just specialised and precise sounding tweaks on old circuits using specific components and aesthetics.
JC…that playing today was especially saucy. A few of those runs were some of your best stuff I’ve heard in a long time. Surgically precise and mega inspiring. Brilliant stuff, mate. Have you considered for some of these intros to try demonstrating some different tones to see what alternative voicing that this style can get? Maybe try your hand at a few lower drive setting fuzzes, etc? Would be awesome to see what your level of playing can do with different sounds. If not, keep ripping as you always help inspire me to be a better player.
The same thing happened to amplifiers as well. Some of mythic qualities attributed to rare models either vintage or boutique are fading in folks minds. The lower end models also got better. Makers also are in competition with the used market and there is a lot of gear out there.
There are very few "boutique" builders anymore. The biggest of them are now mass producing and are more like High End production pedals, kind of like MXR. Boutique to me are high quality, hand built, and either clones of something no longer available by the original maker, or heavily modified versions of classic circuits, OR offer something nobody else is doing entirely.
Actually recently did a similar thing with my main drive pedal, I’ve had a KOT and a Wampler pantheon amongst other bluesbreaker style pedals, decided to go back to the Marshall Bluesbreaker reissue, it has its quirks sure, but it does the thing.
I have bought a few new pedals lately. Free the tone overdriveland custom. Chroma console. Benson delay. Muse driver. There’s still new stuff coming out all the time. Love pedal is another brand that is still boutique. He does quarterly small batch one of sales at a really great price.
John you should absolutely get to the next Whitney Pedal Party in May at Fat Lil’s which is run by my buddy Doug Tolley. It is chock full of small builders including Bleak District Electric, Reeves and Thorpey as well as Blind Panic Devices and others you may not have heard of.
I went on a compressor pedal journey and went through some high end “boutique” pedals. I bought a used dyna comp from guitar center for 50 bucks and like it better than all of them.
I feel like a boutique thing is bought at the boutique. If you can buy it from multiple major online retailers it’s not boutique anymore Boutique doesn’t mean good inherently. It means it’s made by hand, with high end components, and intended to do something specific to please the creator, and not to conform to something mainstream. If it becomes well known it will be polarizing, for some reason
There are still amazing boutique builders in the traditional sense such as Bigfoot Engineering in the uk . Built to order and open to discussion for mods etc.. I think this does all prove though that boutique doesn’t always mean better but it’s great that small builders are still trying stuff out. It’s a crowded market out there though
Boutique Pedal and Valve Amps are over rated, yeah they are good, but at what cost? The future belongs to Plug-in's and High end processors which will have massively large touch screen displays. There will still be people who will forever praise a costly Valve Amp and a costly Pedal, but this number will keep going down with time and eventually disappear somewhere in the future.
Boutique is a marketing term just like "Artisan". The notion of any company staying "true" to their pre-growth "ideals"(not ideas) of inhouse expertise, locally sourced workforce and components with a low-carbon footprint dies the day you get your first large order or as soon as you decide that you want to sell to anyone, anywhere.
My 'main' boutique is Paul Crowther's Hot Cake - onto my 3rd now, the Double version . . . I used to see a lot of Paul back in the 70s when he was in Split Enz, pretty well every guitarist in NZ had a Hot Cake. For me my Effectrode Blackbird is an 'always on' - I probably rate Effectrode at top of my 'boutique' list - and I have some Strymons and a couple of nice TC Electronic delays, Cali 76 etc. But also still using MXR Analog Chorus, Distortion +. There are so many out there but I'm not planning on adding new ones at this point.
Different strokes for different folks. I like what Gamechanger Audio is doing with their "Mod" Series to expand the potential of classic effect pedal designs. There's a fascinating video from Andertons called "Gamechanger Audio | NAMM 2024" that is in the direction I'd like to see Modelers go in their implementation of Effect emulations. It gives the users more opportunities to create something unique.
Gamekeeper are just rehashing ideas from the 70's with the AR2600 and Korg MS20, as well as Lovetone in the 90's and Moog in the early 00's with the Moogerfoogers. Plenty of auto-wah/filter pedals as well as "synth" pedals utilise the same technology. Plenty of Eventide's algorithms on their Factor, H9 & H90 feature modulation of parameters as well as expression input to control anything you want. I don't use much other digital devices with guitar, so not 100% on where other modellers are, but with software this has been possible since forever. Its already out there, just nobody was looking for it...
There still are. I won’t share my current favorite with you lot, though. I can’t have you all move in, gentrify the place and ruin the availability and prices for me. 😅
If you’ve got a roadie shluping your giant pedal board, boutiques are great. But if you’re a small club gigging bloke like me (and you) who packs the PA gear too, a small fly rig does the trick.
The pedal market was oversaturated 6 years ago - now it's just silly. Guitarists as a group do a lot of hearing with our eyes. We talk about MASSIVE differences in TONE, but it's usually like everything else - the cheap stuff gets you 85-90% of the way there, and that last 10% that most people won't notice is going to cost you. That said, I've been playing guitar since 1981 and today's pedals are pretty damn amazing. Lotta great sounding options. When there are 50 Klon-type pedals, how do you choose one?
8 месяцев назад
I have two cheap pedals that I love: the Caline Pure Sky and the DOD Gunslinger, you should try them
I got a mix of stuff. Most are sub $100 range or less with my JHS 3 Series Oil Can Delay being my favorite purchase. I only have two $199 pedals (Boss IR-2 and Pelican NoiseWorks 50/50, both are always on pedals). I splurged on only one out of my normal range: Aclam Dr Robert overdrive. That pedal was on my wish list. Am I getting my others? Nope. I find that many of the really high end stuff is feature packed on many, but some are so complex. I can't justify $500 on a single pedal when I can get a multi effects for the same money used.
Too many snake oil salesmen ruined it. People got hip to their game. These guys are selling these glorified clones with fancy graphics are trying to convince you the classics are AWFUL but don't worry they fixed it! Meanwhile people figured out the classics are still great.
All the major players have all that you need but man there are some REALLY cool pedals out there. KME Devices make some awesome stuff (Tyler Deluxe, Endgame) Lichtlaerm Audio brings additional EQ sculpting and features to their OD pedals. The Duophony by GFI Systems allow you to craft super unique sounds.
Well, I think you maybe by accident showed the core problem of boutique: Those one you mentioned are those ones well known. But boutique pedals for me have this kind of what craft beer was in the beginning. I am looking at my pedalboard at the okko, orion effekte, ground fx (who now is kodex audio), Vahlbruch. Im saving on a Genks by Weehbo. Some are well known, some less. These are just a few pedal builders around where I live and I just do not have the money to give more of these small builders a try. To me it never was about boutique pedals being superior in sound, it was about knowing there are folks doing what they like to do. So maybe the hype around the boutique is cooling down. Maybe the youtube gear review cosmos is in a phase of re-orientation. All that is is evolution, it is not "have we been wrong?" It is not "ya see, ya could get a good tone spending much less" We already know that, we always knew. So I am happy to see content creators like you finding new ways of taking us with you on your quest for tone your thoughts about making music. Thank you for sharing all your thoughts, thank you for the questions you raise, for always giving me new food for thought. I think, that is, what I am looking for. And of course, thanks for your outstanding playing.
I think it became unsustainable at some point in the last decade for small startup companies to get going with easier access to info on pedals via the internet, and sooo many more digital options. I feel like the era of screwing around in your basement with some diodes and a soldering iron and spray painting enclosures died a while ago.
Boutique is often their take on a classic mass produced pedal. Diamond was quite 'boutique' early 2000's like their big analog delay Memory Lane, innovative that time but extremely expensive and difficult to make. They ran out of business for a reason, while Boss after 35 years...
A few of the bigger pedal companies have definitely just become mainstays of the music market now (JHS, Keeley, et al), but I think its more the market naturally re-adjusting following the covid period which was a bit of a blip with everyone suddenly at home a lot more, which buoyed the market (and demand) for a number of music products. There's also a steady DIY scene which has only grown in recent years, plus a number of pcb/kit makers who've built up over the last 10/15 years - BYOC, FuzzDog, Musikdings, etc - so its never been easier to make your own too (or mod something!).
Much to the turned up noses at our Jam I bought a Joyo US Dream (instead of the Suhr Riot it copies) and for a portable lead channel into a clean armp it is great. Will I buy a Suhr one day ? Probably not. It replaces a Keeley TS9 mod I still own btw .
John Scofield at least used to use a Rat. I saw him with one in a small club in Berkeley, CA during the mid 90s - his board was about 5' in front of me from where I was sitting (and, btw, Andy Garcia was at the table next to our's and he seemed like a BIG fan of Scofield's). I read some time later where he said the Rat was one of his favorite pedals. That is a wide variety of users and genres. God Bless!
I totally concur. If a person can't produce great tones from these modest/affordable pedals that have been around for 30+ years with a decent affordable used tube amp and used LP or strat, then $1000's on "boutique " pedals isn't going to help . They should stop blowing $1000's on boutique pedals and invest their money in guitar lessons and spending several hours per day/night practicing/playing guitar instead of playing the expensive gear chasing oracle game. I recall as a kid hanging at the local guitar shop decades ago and the owner, an older gentleman said to a kid my age. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but that pedal isn't going to help you improve as a player. You will just end up disappointed, and out 75 bucks. That 75 bucks can buy you a lot of guitar lessons here at the shop. Just saying. haha So true.
Maybe it's the way you set them, or the order of which goes into which, but when you did the side by side, I thought the Rat sounded marginally better than the Royal drive. The Rat sounded bigger, rounder, and fuller in the upper mids with a clear crisp top end, whereas the Royal seemed less detailed, more muddy and a bit more flimsy next to the bold fulsome Rat. But I must say it sounded quite different from one or two Rats I've tried. I suppose it may depend on what amp or model you were playing them into, but the few times I've tried Rats from various bandmates they haven't sounded that good to me; but this one sounded good whatever it was going into, really dynamic as if through an enhancer.
I enjoy these videos as they satisfy the pedal mania that is mostly inside my head. The reality is that I make do with a 50 quid Joyo American Sound 😂. It manages to tidy up a 20 year old Yamaha class D power cab, and when I added a Blue Sky, the sound is quite respectable. Ha! But I do believe that 95% of all pedals will sound good with a brilliant amp and of course if you can really play well.
Try some Electronic Audio Experiments stuff. Awesome company. I personally don't care if something is small batch or mass produced. If it sounds good, it is good. If it's cheap, even better
I’ve been a willing participant for many years in the snake oil industry that is the boutique pedal market. What I’ve come to learn is that it’s a rabbit hole that ultimately makes you stray far off the beaten path of your original intended tone. I’ve found myself at times becoming so frustrated with my sound that I would strip everything back and just go with my original set up, which was usually a MXR dynacomp > Boss blues driver> Boss SD1 > MXR phaser> Boss DD3 as way of a palette cleanse. Of course I will inevitably wander back into putting those stupidly priced pedals back onto the board as way of justifying to myself owning them. Guitarist are like moths around a bulb. We know we’re gonna get burnt, but still….🙄🤔🎸🤟
Rat has been around for ~45 years, and every week some youtuber "discovers" the rat and all the commentors "I had no idea about the rat". Come on, its legendary, everyone's used it and every company has copied it
I'm not sure. If anything, I think boutique pedals are still peaking. Two new pedals spring to mind, the Meris LVX and Mercury X which are fairly a leap forward in sound, power, but also price. Then there's some great mk.II iterations of previous great designs that really massively improve on the originals, Chase Bliss Mood mk.II and Walrus Sloer. There's even what I'd think of as new 'Boutique' Pedal designs by Boss themselves, like the DM-101. Then all the interesting boutique amp in a pedal things coming through like the Friedman IR-X is another area. Even MXR getting in on the act a bit with pedals like the Poly Blue Octave, which is a bit of a powerhouse / swiss army knife and more like something Meris would make.
I stopped buying boutique when I realized that all my favourite guitarists barely use any pedals - and when they do, its always a Boss, MXR, etc. Im a lot happier buying less pedals.
The latest trend of “boutique” pedals doing their Tesco Value range takes it even further, most of these are pure DSP based, no analog or even analog dry through etc, same control layout, so just “goosed” to give you the algorithm of your choice, chorus, delay, reverb etc.
Boutique to me, is more small scale production methods and an ability to chat to the builder/manufacturer for customizations. As soon as the design is fixed and the manufacturing starts to scale… That pedal is not boutique. But the company could still be boutique with other pedals….
Yeah man, and it’s more than just overdrives. Delay, reverb and such are easily found for a reasonable price from Boss, TC or MXR and such for less than you’ll pay for some hipster named “boutique” companies. I think we romanticize small builders, quirky names and being the one who has what others do not. That’s what creates a lot of the gear market. Nit that we should all play a squier, boss katana and whatever, it I use this knowledge to check myself when it comes to gear hype and GAS.
The nearest thing to boutique I own is the SSS (SRV) by vertex effects. I think it was about £250 and I have it last on my board and always on. It acts like a subtle EQ for me. But my favourite pedals are my Boss BD-2 and my BB Comp (£100 in a sale). Just can’t see the fuss over a lot of the expensive pedals. £350 for an OD pedal? Not for me I’m afraid.
The 'boutique' pedal makers are now the 'boutique' plugin manufacturers. You get 90% of the sound from the basic tools (guitar, amp, EQ, etc - or in the case of a DAW, from it's internal plugins which do all of that and more) and pay the rest for the extra 10%. Can't say I really have an issue with that though.
Bleak District Electric. You should check Phil’s pedals out. They are superb. He’s still a one man show. Of course Marcus Reeves is absolutely boutique.
Truth is…Boss probably makes a better version tonality wise, than any other pedal from any other pedal manufacturer. Only pricy pedal I own is a strymon cloudburst and I’d still not consider strymon boutique really.
