Pedals that have outlived the hype

[Hyphen Nation]

Now That I understand the thread, not sure I have a specific pedal in mind, but I do think of a few builders. I actually think Analogman makes some nice stuff. He's way more hyped on blues lawyer forums than here, but I really like a lot of what he's doing. Wish he still made the dark peppermint fuzz. I think EQD is pretty fucking bad ass. They blew up and seem to be capable of holding onto the vision of what makes them special to begin with. I think the stuff Brian at ss/BS is putting out always exceeds the hype that surrounds his stuff. I think every fuzz should have a clean and a fuzz volume…TAFM sets the standard for all other fuzz box versatility, imho

A couple of good companies that couldn't survive the hype are Schumann and Lovetone

And Ross, Addrock, Frostwave

Really bummed about Frostwave.

[univalve]

The TAFM was being hyped by board members back when these were devi ever forums (2009ish?) and that pedal is still kicking ass.

jupp, i got my first TAFM because of the "hype on ilf".

[zRobertez]

EQD still has the hype I would say. And they deserve it too. Crazy, different effects and most are sub $200. Seems like a lot times, hype comes with a price

[cheesecats]

[retinal orbita]

Ahahahahaha... well played cheesecats.....

[stanimal]

I meant like those hot on the scene pedals that usually fade away... But have lasted. Pharaoh is a great example.

sorry my man, think I may have sent your thread into the wrong direction with my negativity.... your idea is better....

[Ro_S]

EQD is probably my favourite maker. They make great stuff. I'd happily have a pedal board of just their stuff; if I was starting from scratch, I easily could. As expressed above by another poster, their prices are fairly inexpensive relative to the boutique price range - even in the UK. Are they hyped though?

[Gigahearts_FX]

true bypass is more consistent compared to buffered bypass. There is only 2 ways I can think of doing true bypass (relay bypass and regular 3PDT bypass) where as there is many ways to do buffered bypass

Theres at least 5 ways to do true bypass if you get picky

1 - 3PDT
2 - 2PDT with no LED
3 - Millennium
4 - Relay latching or relay unlatching
5 - Optical (like Voodoo Labs and some others) - admittedly not quite 100% true bypass.

All have pros and cons of course

[Gigahearts_FX]

The Polytune really did put a stranglehold on the tuner market. I have the mini and don't even use the Polytune feature. I just like the small footprint, nice display, low price, and accuracy. Hard to beat.

I'm surprised at how well the Polytune mini is still doing, considering it's quality issues. Though I guess that's the case DL4 as well, as pointed out.

I'm pretty impressed that the DL4 has stayed popular for this long.

I mainly see it used as a looper by pros at least, and in that regard it's still hard to beat, what with the ability to quickly loop, reverse, and double speed for weird reverse sitar sounds. I don't think that it's still as relevant for its delay sounds.

The DL-4 is a great looping pedal, sure.
I think for delays its been easily superceded on pro boards these days, mainly by things like the strymon timeline

Its a shame the QC of the footswitches. If you have $15 and a soldering iron you can readily switch (pun intended) them out for high quality SPST momentaries and never worry again about it.
DOnt tell too many people though, if they know how to permanently fix them the cheap "broken" used market might dry up

[goroth]

true bypass is more consistent compared to buffered bypass. There is only 2 ways I can think of doing true bypass (relay bypass and regular 3PDT bypass) where as there is many ways to do buffered bypass

Theres at least 5 ways to do true bypass if you get picky

1 - 3PDT
2 - 2PDT with no LED
3 - Millennium
4 - Relay latching or relay unlatching
5 - Optical (like Voodoo Labs and some others) - admittedly not quite 100% true bypass.

All have pros and cons of course

Not sure what you mean by consistent, but electronic switching is hard to beat - Boss switches should last over 100 000 stomps, which is an awful lot more than an average 3pdt. The number of mechanical components in a 3pdt introduces more points for failure. If it's well designed it's guaranteed silent - which is as good as impossible with a 3pdt. Fine, drop down resistors will help, but depending on the circuit you're not going to get rid of audible mechanical noise.

Don't get me wrong, 90% of my pedals are true bypass, and the majority of them are 3pdt, but that's partly because I don't have a choice, and partly because I've got my own input and output buffers on the board and I don't need any more buffered circuits in the chain. So if I could choose I'd buy TB over buffered bypass because it suits my rig, but unless I've misunderstood things (not impossible!) I find it hard to see how it can be more consistent in terms of mechanical reliability and consistent behaviour in terms of noise than a well designed electronic switching system like Boss's (or anything with an electronic switching system and a mechanically simple actuator).

Demo Tape Fuzz is another one with a lot of staying power beyond its initial buzz.

[new05002]

Theres at least 5 ways to do true bypass if you get picky

1 - 3PDT
2 - 2PDT with no LED
3 - Millennium
4 - Relay latching or relay unlatching
5 - Optical (like Voodoo Labs and some others) - admittedly not quite 100% true bypass.

All have pros and cons of course

I feel 1-3 are all the same thing, just various changes to the LED on/off while 5 it dont think is exactly buffered bypass or true bypass. Sort of somewhere in its own category.

Not sure what you mean by consistent, but electronic switching is hard to beat - Boss switches should last over 100 000 stomps, which is an awful lot more than an average 3pdt. The number of mechanical components in a 3pdt introduces more points for failure. If it's well designed it's guaranteed silent - which is as good as impossible with a 3pdt. Fine, drop down resistors will help, but depending on the circuit you're not going to get rid of audible mechanical noise.

Don't get me wrong, 90% of my pedals are true bypass, and the majority of them are 3pdt, but that's partly because I don't have a choice, and partly because I've got my own input and output buffers on the board and I don't need any more buffered circuits in the chain. So if I could choose I'd buy TB over buffered bypass because it suits my rig, but unless I've misunderstood things (not impossible!) I find it hard to see how it can be more consistent in terms of mechanical reliability and consistent behaviour in terms of noise than a well designed electronic switching system like Boss's (or anything with an electronic switching system and a mechanically simple actuator).

I mean consistent from pedal maker to pedal maker. If Dunwich says its true bypass and BAT says its true bypass they both mean 3PDT mechanical bypass where as if I say I have buffered bypass and BAT has buffered bypass there is no way to know which buffer circuit we are using. There is not an industrial standard for a buffered bypass. It could be a shit buffer, it could be a nice buffer, no way to know that without knowing the schematic.

Now yea electronic switching definitely has less chance for failure, agreed however I don't find the millisecond of switch noise (with mechanical switching) to be consequential to my playing. Its basically unheard minutia amongst the overall sound. Pull down resistors should be standard for any circuit to prevent charging up on capacitors ect so I am already assuming those are in the circuit and hence DC popping noise is negligible.

[goroth]

Pull down resistors should be standard for any circuit to prevent charging up on capacitors ect so I am already assuming those are in the circuit and hence DC popping noise is negligible.

That would be assuming most boutique builders understand the circuits they are building...

[new05002]

Pull down resistors should be standard for any circuit to prevent charging up on capacitors ect so I am already assuming those are in the circuit and hence DC popping noise is negligible.

That would be assuming most boutique builders understand the circuits they are building...

yea, im making too many ASSumptions there.

[darthbatman]

...the Alesis Akira which I loved but made your signal sound like a goblin jizzed porridge all over it.

imagine having worked on this pedal and happening upon this description lmao

[darthbatman]

...the Alesis Akira which I loved but made your signal sound like a goblin jizzed porridge all over it.

imagine having worked on this pedal and happening upon this description lmao[/quote]