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Pedals - Neverendingrabbitthole


Sugartune

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Hi! I know there are some spendy tastes here, guitar and ampwise. On the pedal front, anyone else feel dumb like me and need to try everything (Or as much as humanly possible), regardless of how it fits with what you need or even the practical cost? 

A settlement payment from VW (TDI) was burning a hole in my pocket, so I bought a PettyJohn PettyDrive 2, which is very awesome, but kind of relatively expensive. I guess when you look at it as two expensive pedals in one for less than the cost of the two and the added functionality, it feels better.

Next up, a Chase Bliss Brothers. I just bought that one yesterday, so no review yet, but I'm starting to feel like a chump here with all these things. I tried a Strymon Riverside (Which is VERY NICE all around. Sold it when I bought the PettyDrive), and I should have kept it to go along with the PettyDrive, but it felt like too much on the board. Then I order this Brothers pedal.....WTF!!! I never would have bought either otherwise, but the "free" money from VW seemed like an opportunity.

I guess it's good in a way to have options, but how many options does one need for pre-drive, boost, fuzz, distortion and OD?

I've also acquired an Empress Echosytem, which is amazing (the best thing I've ever played with!), but again, it's very high powered and priced so it makes me nervous, first about owning it in the first place (Seems excessive), then about losing it or having it ripped off. Starting to feel like I should handcuff my board to myself when I transport ;) 

So, anyone else in a similar boat? 

 

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My big problem over the years has been acquiring a particular pedal, selling it either chasing or having acquired a "better" version of it, eventually selling the "better" version, and then buying what I started with. I am not exaggerating when I tell you half the stuff in my pedal collection is a replacement of itself from some point so to speak. I couldn't count how many variations of the MXR Phase 90 I have bought over the years between true vintage scripts, true blocks, modern script reissues, block reissues. I currently use an EVH Phase 90 and it's the second I've owned in recent years. The Phase 90s typically were booted in favor of MIJ Boss PH-2s, and I know the back and forth included buying, selling and re-buying those too. I think I've had three over the years. And yep, you guessed it - I was just thinking a week ago I will probably buy yet another MIJ PH-2 in the near future so I have two phasers at one time I can bounce back and forth between depending on what month it is and stop this sick madness. And that's just phasers haha.

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I have spent way too much money over the years attempting to retire my old ADA Flanger with so called clones of. Nada.

Not even another ADA Flanger sounds like mine since 1980. Maybe it is the drift in components or the setup clock settings.

so, I keep nursing it along, new pots and switch when needed.

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I don't really like spending big money on pedals, yet somehow have managed to accumulate quite a few nice ones over the years.  I kind of have a price cutoff, but every now and then, there's something that just trips my trigger (or will free up extra space on my board/boards), so I bite the bullet and just buy it.  Honestly, I'd probably be fine with regular TC Electronics, MXR and BOSS fare, but sometimes something a little more exotic out there reels me in...  

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I have no pedal fetish. The amount of hair splittery over pedals (hell, most gear in general) is not warranted by my skill level.

 

My mantra is largely...

tumblr_n36tstQKDB1rfd0pgo1_400.gif


 

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I am far more n amp whore, but I have been on a bit of a tear lately buying dirt pedals, just to have some different flavors when recording......

A used $40 MXR Badass 78 Distortion arrived yesterday and I FN  love it! It is so me!  Does a dirty boost to fuzz and 

I love how transparent it is. This, through a JMP just might become MY rock tone.  It works great with all my guitars so far...still need to test it with the Newport and Tele-type tomorrow,

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I thought I was done too until I got the newest OCD. That led to a Timmy and probably a Pork Loin or Snucy Box (I swear it says 'Snucy'). And that doesn't include the Catalinbread Zero Point flanger or the Keeley Double Tracker that just came. It's good that winter is coming so I can weed thru this stuff before the big spring sell-off (I just sold off a big box of stuff last spring). Jeezus it's ridiculous.

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There are those pedals that have tonal characteristcs that get in a sonic zone that is fun to play in.  Sampling several pedals sometimes really does lead to a conclusion of the difference is not much to worry about.  

Then there are the differences that can be heard, and that is what messes things up.  Some years I had to have as many different types of fuzz pedals as different types of guitars.  Few people would ever notice a difference.  

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No I'm completely done with buying/selling pedals.  Can't find any better dirt than my ProCo Rats for my needs, same for the EH Deluxe Memory Man for delay/modulation.  Have a couple of other pedals I rarely use (wah, fuzz, treble boost), but the Rat and DMM are all I need/use for any gig.

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I just bought a Xotic SL drive, really loving it. 

I've bought/sold/bought again a few pedals. 

Lately I'm thinking of trading away a Fulltone Distortion Pro, I love it with single coils, but not with humbuckers which I'm mostly playing now. 

I don't want to end up having to buy it for a third time though if I change my mind again later! 😋😂

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I've gone through a few but only because several years ago decided to go digital and sold my half-dozen pedals to get a Boss GT-10. three months later wasn't able to bond with digital, and went back. Then a year ago I tried again with a Line 6 Firehawk. Better, but then once again missed the on-the-fly adjustability of pedals and the feel of a tube amp. Started from scratch and have a wee pedalboard now of Mad Professor and TC Electronic stuff into a single-channel, non-MV amp. Perfectly happy and never think about pedals or amps.

I'm a pure guitar slut. Amps and pedals don't excite me.

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Interesting thread. I’m having only a few pedals if which most of them are trebble boosters, actually three. Two of them are original RangeMaster circuit replicas and one an actual Brian May TB replica. All are BSM brand TBs and weren’t cheap.

Another two are actually amps. One is a DoxxyWorld Deacy amp replica in a pedal. The other one a hand made Plexy in a pedal case from a guy named Ed from the Netherlands that even has a tube in there. Both are individually made and not from the discount board either.

Then there a cheap fuzz and compressor from Mooer and a Boss DD-7 as an extension to those specialists.

Over the years I have ended up with a huge amount of really different sounds that it doesn’t really need more physical pedals. For a while I headed over to the DAW and Kontakt world throwing the pocket money into sampled instruments on mostly 50% discount opportunities. Just bought a nutwood piano and two choirs from Soundiron.

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On 10/28/2017 at 5:22 PM, Sugartune said:

Is the Double Tracker the 30ms? I love that one. Great for vocals! 

Yep that's the one. I haven't used it enough yet, but I see it staying in the pile.

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I get that.   A few years back I went through a bunch of delays and drives and the Eventide PitchFactor.  Because I got into checking out a lot of variations on a theme, I ended up selling most of it and sticking with the built-in effects on my 11R.  For me the convenience and the spin-the-dial-to-shop-at-home experience was the winning factor.

My next upgrade is probably the Helix or the AxeFx II but I still occasionally feel a pang about individual pedals (some glitchy stuff like the Hologram Infinite Jets comes to mind).

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I can't be the only one that interprets that thread title to read "Never in da grab it hole," can I? I see it every time I look at it. Ewww.

And of course my opinion of pedals is legendary. I love 'em, but the song is more important. If you can't play the song without the pedal, why bother? heh.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Happened again ... just bought at least my third, maybe fourth, replacement in my Fulltone DejaVibe history. During a local pawn shop run yesterday, came across a minty clean white MDV (small box w/oversized toe-friendly speed control knob). I've been wanting to "get back" a Fulltone DV for a while now. My previous versions were DV2s with the wah-like treadle for speed control, which I probably prefer, but the small box's asking price was too insanely cheap to pass up and supposedly they're all pretty much the same inside.

While they're not on my board at all times (because it's doubtful a signal would make it to my amp), I now have a nice pedal tuner, wah, auto-wah/envelope filter, octaver/detuner, compressor, OD/preamp, two true dirt boxes, phaser, flanger, chorus and delay. Can't think of anything else I could find a use for, much less need. Now we focus on ENDING THIS SICK CYCLE lol

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The 'pedal' that cured me, for the time being, is the Fractal FX8. Not only do you have multiple versions of the same type of effect to choose from, you can tweak the effect internally via a PC interface. The available variety satisfies my periodic desires to try something different but what really puts it over the top is the connectivity for a w/d stereo amp setup or a 4CM hookup for a single amp.

Still, there is enjoyment to be found in buying something new. :P

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My first setup was early 70s with a big muff into a traynor yba-1 with a les paul jr. thats the only pedal i ever used. Then i quit and sold everything to pay the divorce lawyer in 1986.  Started up again around 2000 and just used amps straight in. Finally after couple years i got the pedal bug and went over to that other site and read everything out there got into d*a*m pedals from england talked to the captain and for my matamp he suggested s red rooster treble booster and a meathead fuzz.they were perfect. Tried a couple other treble boosters and even an orginal 70’s. Big muff. Not as good. Sold off everthing again when mom got sick but the red rooster wish i would have kept the meathead. I need a good matamp flavored stooner pedal so again did a bunch of research and the dunwich da 120 looks like the one, ordered s custom ones dince they sold out. Only other thing i want is a delay/reverb and thats it, minimal pedals. The amount if pedal manufacturer is unbelievable 

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I rarely if ever use pedals  The last pedal I bought was a used A/B switch box, to give my 18-watt VHT head quasi-channel-switching capability.  If I feel the need for sonic mayhem, I pull out my old DOD Classic Fuzz pedal and MXR Blue Box RI pedal; and if I want variety, I just have them trade places in the signal chain.  But generally speaking, if I find that an amp is lacking, then I ditch the amp instead of stacking pedals in front of it.  :rolleyes:

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The quest continues. The Chase Bliss Brothers didn’t have enough gain to it to avoid redundancy with the PettyDrive. It was cool to have the presets and the blend features and stacking/parallel options, but I need something with more gain. A pure distortion pedal. 

Just don’t know what flavour. It’s so hard to choose ;)

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With a shitload of amps a bunch of judiciously selected pedals gives a lot of flavors for recording.....so zI am digging it. But if I was gigging right now? Way, dirt, Boost, delay, done....we’ll, maybe a fuzz and a treble booster.....shit it doesn’t end. From 2005 to 2015 I gigged straight in to an amp and controlled dirt from the Fingers. It worked really well, for that time.....but now I want more flavors.

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