Would you consider a "best of cheap overdrives/distortions" episode? Since many guitarists start building their pedal collection with "distortion/overdrive" this seems like a great place to have a top 5 list. Love your "lower budget" view on gear. We must learn to live within our limits, yet we still "wanna rock"!!!
I have a pedal called Holy War... aquired from Amazon...it is really nice... I think I am going to aquire a few more of these mini pedal... I have had it a little over year and not disappointed this thing Rock's and then some...
I dont mean to be so offtopic but does any of you know of a tool to get back into an Instagram account? I was stupid lost my login password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me
@Johnny Ricardo Thanks for your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff atm. I see it takes quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
I like the review of the guitar pedals! But one thing that sometimes I want to correct people on because I in all honesty didn’t know about until my Audio Processing and Ear Training class, the so-called “tremolo” control on guitars are actually named incorrectly. They should be called VIBRATO control. Tremolo effects the pulse and acts more like a quick delay, but the feedback does not diminish. Vibrato effects the pitch, like when you push or pull the guitar string on the neck. This same feature is labeled incorrectly on the Fender amps as well! 😱 this blew my mind too when I found this out but it helps when truly understanding what tremolo vs vibrato are, since they are somewhat similar and are easy to confuse 😊 I love your videos by the way!
I bought the reverb pedal off Amazon. It lasted about 6 month’s. Shorted out in the middle of worship practice one night. I really loved it while it worked.
I snagged one used and it honestly has a really tin like sound to it. So far in my searches the EHX Holy Grail is the cheapest reverb I've found to do the job well
Hey bud, good video. I think you should know that the "tremelo" bar on your guitar provides a vibrato effect, not actual tremelo so don't worry about using it at the same time with a tremelo pedal. Those are two different types of effects. One modulates pitch while the other modulates amplitude or volume.
You kinda missed one of the main uses of an eq pedal. You ever wonder how to get that tight 'scooped' metal guitar tone? Or how to get that Boston sound? Put it in your amps effects loop or after a distortion pedal. It changes the tone waaay more drastically.
Like the new view. Also, Monster’s warranty isn’t applicable in store any more. You have to contact them to get your lifetime warranty. Just don’t want anyone to be as depressed as I was walking into guitar center and right back out again with my broken cable.
The line 6 hx effects is a great value for what it does. It can replace a $3000 board all in one unit. I looked into the mini pedal route before and it is a solid option but if you get into more complex switching and looping you can’t beat something like an hx. But if you just run a couple of pedal into the front of an amp probably not for you.
Assacaster? When I play my Assacaster, people usually leave the room. As a beginning guitar player on a dental floss budget (as opposed to a shoestring), I have been a bit wary of pedals. They always seemed too expensive and I didn't know how they would effect the sound. Now that I know that these less expensive pedals are available, I may have to invest in a couple and experiment a bit. Thank you very much for posting up this review and for part 1. I really appreciate it.
I appreciate all the work that has gone into the video, you are a good man. It was also very nice of TomTop to send them to you, their prices certainly are better than Amazon. It’s hard to make everything sound good. With all due respect though, every one of these sound like they are worth almost what you pay for them. They all sound very thin no matter what adjustments you tried to make. Each one also had the “cheap pedal super loud POP” when you pressed the button. On the other hand, pedals are like guitars somewhat, you really have to learn how to use them, there is a learning curve. Why spend the big bucks on the name brand pedals, just to find out that you don’t really like the sound and now you can’t afford any more pedals and now that big buck pedal is going to sit on a shelf or in a drawer for the next ten years. Grab a cheap pedal and learn how to use it, learn what pedals work together and which ones don’t. It will make you a much more rounded guitar player. Enjoyed the video, see ya next time! Regards, Buddy
Or you could walk into a music shop and ask to try out the type of pedal you are looking for from several different manufacturer. Lets face it, you'd test drive a car before buying, and you'd test play a guitar before buying too wouldn't you? and it's really about what YOU think it's done for your tone anyway.
Getting "your" tone as a reference is tricky at the local music store, especially if an amp similar to what you use isn't available. I do agree with learning how to use what you have. It's real easy to dismiss a pedal or guitar because of what is sounds like at the shop. Even worse when you get it home and it's terrible on your setup.
A vox wah is cheaper and in my opinion sounds better than that wah and most crybaby pedals. I can't remember how much cheaper and I know it's not a mini pedal, but as far as wahs go that's more my thing. The donner/caline wah seems similar to the mooer, but no surprise there. You should try out some caline pedals they are honestly super awesome for the money. I have had some expensive boutique stuff, and some custom made pedals for me to my specs. I had a noise maker hipster pedal which is handmade in America and is a rad company who makes those pedals affordable, and still ended up using a caline pure sky over that hipster. For as much as your on tomtop, and Amazon these pedals would be easy for you to get.
The studio desk is much more personal and, as weird as it may sound, adds some "warmth" to your presentation. I think you'll be getting a lot of votes for keeping it.
EQ pedals: Step 1: put one before your gain stage, and one after your gain stage. Or if you're really patient, buy just one and keep moving it back and forth. Step 2: be amazed at how different things are when you change one vs the other. A common thing to do is boost mids before your gain stage, and then either boost high/low or cut mids (slightly) after your gain stage, for a nice full sound. YMMV when in a band setting and not practicing in your basement. ;-)
Thats kinda what Dimebag did. He had a 6 band eq boost the mids in front of the amp and had a parametric eq (and possibly another graphic eq) in the effects loop cutting/changing the mids.
Yeah Mooer isn’t really “affordable”. You can get Boss, Dunlop and TC Electronic stuff for close to the same price. Donner has a mini wah for about $50
If you find a budget friendly alternative to the Boss SY-300 (ie sub $200USD) I will buy that thing faster than lightning! I know it wont happen because of the complexity and the fact that no other synth pedal has ever gotten this as right as the SY-300 but whatever.
Hey Dan, the only thing that sucks with Tomtop is shipping takes FOREVER!! I ordered 2 pedals from your previous video and they took around 3 months to ship to me, not exaggerating. I live in Canada, so that may have something to do with it? Love the vids man, keep em coming.
Shipping time from the China warehouse to the US is about 4 weeks. I’ve gotten stuff from the the US warehouse within 2 days. I know they the US gets tons of stuff from China so I’m sure they’ve streamlined the process a little
Since I got into the comments early, I wanted to say what a great channel this is. Great premise, unpretentious and doesn't make things hard for people.
I use eq, low gain drive, tremolo, delay, reverb for an acoustic looping slide rig. The problem I have with some of these cheapy pedals is they are noisy as shit. You really notice it in a rig like mine, because it will start to feed back. String a few of these pedals together and even on an electric, the noise is hard to take. One of my favorite brands is JHS. Very little noise. Now if you can find us some cheap, *quiet* pedals, you really will have done something.
mooer wahter has another feature that if stepped on twice will stay on without your foot being there. set the range where you like if going for a half cocked wah sound - brian may tones, etc
One that I have and am fairly impressed with is the mooer e-lady or elec lady, which is a mini clone of an EHX Electric Mistress. It is NOT quite the same as my Deluxe Electric Mistress, but it comes surprisingly close, and (a) it doesn't need AC, and (b) it's less than one quarter the size. BTW, another cheap vendor for these is Aliexpress. I found the Ammoon EQ, for example, for the same price as Tomtom, but with free shipping, on AE.
Eq can also be used as a clean boost. All those pedals are gig worthy. The only drawback on the wah is if you want a cocked wah setting for a solo, you’re constrained to the pedalboard. The chorus is really a sweet deal.
I would love to see more and more of these cheap pedal reviews!! I eat this shit up - I would love to see reviews of crappy ones too!! (I would love to know which ones to avoid too)
I’ve now bought 2 of the EX Reverb pedals. The first died after 4 months. The second lasted long enough for me to leave positive feedback. I’m obviously never going to buy one again.
Well, I just took a flyer and ordered a Joyo version of the MXR Carbon Copy. (I have two digital delays, but really want the low fi vibe of analog) So we'll see if it is a screaming deal, or just wasted $40.I'm actually quite happy w/ my Danelectro Digi Delay. Goofy control layout, but 600ms, doesn't add color to sound and was like $30 new, so I'm hopeful. Rock on brother.
It's a fact that relative to classics to go in progression. And i discovered fast that it is ro combine new effect pedals with some classics. Virtual analogue combines well with vintage analogue. It's also certainly at order to take cheaper classics to combine with. I have 2 DOD phasers and several Chinese effect pedals between 20 and 150 Euro and Behringer 25 Euro. All those together in my collection has parallel the same quality and huge cheaper than for example an expensive classic as Mu Tron BI Phase. While also huge more functions. I only have the Mu Tron phasor already big 15 years ago. I also have other classics, an Amdek phaser, Ibanez Phaser modulation, Boss Bass flanger and Maxon Phaser. Also the Chinese effect pedals have different characters of effects. I remember well in the terrible 90s for example that good quality effect processors like Lexicon and Alesis, but the kind effects sound relative the same. If you have now for example a Cuvave delay, sounds like a clean delay, and the Kmise delay more longer delay with feedback relative to FM (Frequency Modulation). And for example a Rowin Lef shaper with programmed shape effects, and for example Xvive eq shaper, I have 2 of it to modify the part of the setting as an audio morphing. By this fact, it's a function edited to make your own music sound mpre unique besides your own authenticity. But as i said, to combine is best. To the final part of this comment, i also have the Korg Volca FM. It may was a kind of a cheap and less functional idea, but in the begin stage of the Roland TB303, goes the same. The sound of the Volca FM is - relative platform to the Crumar Bit One - And by the less polyphony together to combine with more polyphonic instruments produces automatically unpredictable. So it all means if to combine classics with new virtual makes the same progression relative 1, as we knpw to breath in universal relative. Meanwhile thanks for your attention.
You can get a 9 volt battery clip with a 2.1mm dc jack and plug it into any of these pedals. The battery won't be in the pedal, but it will run on battery power.
I was wondering just yesterday if you were going to dive into pedals again. We’re psychically linked, I guess. Also, I dig the studio desk setting. It feels like another “lab” view, much like your work bench setting does.
Your channel is awesome. Everything is so well presented, informative, and witty. Great review on these pedals. The reverb and wah sound surprisingly good, especially for the price point.
11:19 Well, actually not using your tremolo arm on the guitar is not so obvious, because that has a whole different effect than the Trelicopter. With your tremolo arm you change the pitch (and therefore it's a wrong name, but we're so used to this) , the Trelicopter works on volumechanges in different ways, but changes no pitch. That's why nowadays the tremolo arm is often called whammybar. But hey, I'm old school, so I keep saying tremolo arm... 😉 Still, it's good that you do these clips on cheaper pedals, because many (young and/or starting guitarplayers and maybe even more experienced ) can afford them and sometimes it's hard to find out if a cheap pedal is usable.
*TREMULENT* is both *_Vibrato_* (FM, frequency modulation) *&* *_Tremolo_* (AM, amplitude modulation) [FM,pitch and AM,volume] So what _'tremulents'_ ? A *Leslie Speaker* , the speaker Don Leslie invented in 1940 was his attempt to duplicate the *_trumulent_* function in a Theater Pipe Organ. The tremulent air regulator is a mechanical oscillating air regulator box patched between the organs air blower supply and the organs rank of FLUTE PIPES. The air oscillates between normal pressure and lower pressure and quivers this combination into the pipes. The result is AM & FM! The _lower_ air pressure = quieter sound, and lower air pressure in the pipe also= lower pitch. So Don Leslie utilized spinning a directional speaker baffle around the room and accomplished both AM & FM AM from directing the sound closer then further from your ears, and FM because of the DOPPLER EFFECT (pitch lowers as sound source passes further from you. In practice the Leslie Speaker's AM/FM is hardly noticed on recordings and in venues where the Leslie speaker is mic'ed. However the Hammond organ is equipped standard with a mechanical 'VIBRATO SCANNER'. ---- *VERY COOL PICTORIAL ANIMATED HOW IT WORKS, VIRTUAL SERVICE MANUAL ARTICLES* ----- GO TO THE NORTH SUBURBAN HAMMOND ORGAN SOCIETY website, Google > *NSHOS HAMMOND TONE WHEEL ORGAN B3* (go to 'VIBRATO SCANNER' And to see the cool WURLITZER ELECTROSTATIC REED ORGAN , including it's pure electronic vacuum tube 'phase vibrato' google > *NSHOS WURLI 4600*
Very cool. Only thing is even though they are cheap, i'm always iffy with buying cheap pedals. IF I get a pedal I end up spending 200 bucks on Boss or MXR's
Just gotta mix in the live ambient sound with the amp sound, don't ya? I love p90's , but I want to hear them, not just them ambien room sound of you plucking the guitar.
I'm sorry..........but I didn't really like it. The first pedal you was giving us your personal touch on stroking the volume. That's fine. But a simple stroke of the strings......with the pedal engaged would have been better. I don't care about your playing style. This is a review. And as such.....take your unique playing style down the road.
Awesome video. Awesome guitar. Only suggestion would be about the balance of sound. The mics were picking up the raw guitar sound In the room (coming straight from the strings) and sometimes it was hard to hear the pedals over the dry sound.
Well, electronic components got a lot cheaper than they were back is the 70s and 80s, but the "classic" pedals just got more and more expensive. That's why today we can find those very cheap pedals, they're just honest, unlike big brands and boutique pedals. Price isn't always quality.
Great video, Dan, as always. Just as idea for next video - how about your suggestions about one chain of affordable effect pedals that will work with guitar and bass both? Or, maybe, just show these pedals that you already have with any of your basses.
I wish it had the word GUITAR in title somewhere. You may have gotten paid for me to click your vague title. It also got you a thumbs down. If you catch me again with a bad title... there is another level.. "don't suggest this guys content" I would prefer you have better titles, than to blacklist you to avoid the trickery. With that said, I will thank you on behalf of all the guitar player.
Great vid bro. Don't forget @16 minutes. If buying a daisy chain power supply check the amp (current) ratings on your pedals. They may all be 9 volt but the amps may be different. If you connect a 1000 mA psu to a 500 mA pedal you'll blow the pedal.
I like the name Guns and Guitars, that`s what I have hanging on my walls too. Guitars in the studio, Guns next to the front door, ready to grab just incase. I`d love to find a pedal at $20 but when I search they`re more like $40 to $50. where are the real cheap and nasty ones.
