Super budget pedals

[fcknoise]

I could probably be happy with a ratclone, fz-2, de7 and a digiverb. And a behringer multifx-thing for the weirdness. And only because I'm realizing thing I have an urge to try..

[psychic vampire.]

An urge to try...???

[fcknoise]

selling everything and playing with just said pedals

[psychic vampire.]

Ah. But the Digiverb would never come close to covering your beloved Timebender and Pitchfactor, no? I'm committing myself to ditching a bunch of pedals, and was really considering dropping the Timebender+Particle Combo for a MIDI-able delay pedal, but i don't know what MIDI delay would even come close to doing what those two do. Certainly nothing "budget." And then i think maybe i should just ditch them both anyway, get two digiverbs/DD-whatevers and just use delays for slapbacks and quick repeats like a normal person.

I think i just talked myself into agreeing with you?

[fcknoise]

Well, I wouldn't sell anything I suppose. But I could try by just buying everything (since it's all budget stuff) just to try having a setup like that? And don't sell the tb+particle combo!! Don't be a normal person!! I didn't mean to start these insane thoughts!

[rustywire]

Trying new things
Keeping fav things
Having money

All 3: Lucky af
Choose 2: Countable blessings
Pick 1: Fortunate
None: You have my sympathy

[goosekevin]

My little bear rat sounds 95% as good as any boutique rat I have. Seriously, its freaking great! Best 30$ I've spent on a distortion.

i just grabbed one of these off ebay! keen to try it out, been wanting a simpler dirt pedal and have been meaning to try a rat for forever

[moid]

I have quite a collection of budget pedals; some are excellent and some are terrible - note that I don't have much experience with expensive pedals, so feel free to disagree with my experiences of the following. Some of these might have cost more when they were first sold; I bought a lot of these used and never paid more than £40 for each (got most for £20 or less)

Terrible:
Biyang Compressor - adds a lot of noise, hiss and volume and even some of your instrument if you ask nicely but does not seem to work as a compressor. Then it died after not much use. Nice metal enclosure though, I'm re-purposing it for a noise pedal soon.

Joyo Classic Chorus - The feeblest most pathetic chorus pedal I've ever owned. Stupid box art. Why did I buy this? It lowered the guitar volume and sucked horribly. Never go there. It died not long after being purchased. Very solid enclosure, also re purposed

Behringer Bass Synth - first pedal I ever bought thinking I could get some cool synth sounds out of it. It has two sounds as far as I can see, but eleven different ways to make those two sounds. And it died after fairly light use. I resolved never to buy Behringer again (also bought a terrible Behringer microphone; those were the days before I found decent gear reviews and ILF!)

Line 6 Otto Filter - found this and the Liquaflange on a bargain chuck out sale at a music store. Paid pennies for it. Still haven't been able to get it to do anything useful. Very temperamental switch that sometimes turns on and sometimes doesn't. Weighs a ton.




Bearable: (meaning you can get some reasonable sounds out of them)

Caline Snakebite Reverb - not a bad reverb, just lacking in character and no actual preset reverb types - it is just a convolution type reverb and a bit bland. Very cheap, and if you stick in in front of a fuzz it can generate a nice wall of fuzz well.

Caline Tantrum - Apparently this is a clone of an EHX Metal Muff. It's very tinny / fizzy / hissy and loud, but it is cheap and if you need 'metal' on a budget I guess it will do. I really have no idea why I bought this except it was so cheap I felt I had to I don't play anything like metal, I think some teenage hormones somehow resurrected themselves and I went back to the mid 80s and hair metal. Yuk. My son liked to play his ukelele through this; it makes that sounds pretty mental!

Digitech TurboFlange - The step flanger is good on this, as are some of the rising / falling flangers but it's a bit clean and digital for my obviously rarefied tastes

Biyang Time Machine - My first delay pedal Does perfectly normal fake analogue delay repeats well, but the repeats are a bit quiet and tasteful and murky. Can self oscillate though, if you like that thing.

Digitech Bass Synth - Way better than the Behringer. This has some interesting sounds, but works best when it's mashed between other pedals as a weirdness generator. I'm not keen on many of the sounds on their own. Good for adding extra bits of weird though.

Ibanez PM7 - I thought this would be amazing after hearing people rave about it, but the clock noise drives me nuts. You can't hear it when the pedal is on subtle settings, but who wants subtlety? As soon as you get some weird sounds out of the pedal it starts clicking as loud as your guitar. If you bury it between other pedals it can be good for some weirdness. Meh.

Mooer Pitchbox - Never seems to quite be in tune (all the settings seem to be about 0.25 semitones off?) but it's fun to stick in between other things on the Harmony setting for craziness.

Digitech Grunge - I can't get anything good out of this, but my son comes up with loads of good riffs with it.

DOD FX86B Death Metal Distortion - same as above, with the exception that this can be a good feedback generator that you can push into flangers and delays for some wonderful weirdness.

Line 6 Liqua Flange - more flanger settings than any pedal has any right to have; this should be awesome, but most of them are a bit meh. Step Flanger is good, the Liquid mode is fun, it can do through zero flanging if you want it too, but a lot of the sounds get mangled into unmusical noise, it weighs a ton and the switch has a life of its own and turns on and off when it feels like it.



Excellent:
Biyang Tri Reverb - has three settings, ignore two of them (Spring and room - room is boring and spring sounds nothing like a spring reverb) and use the Hall setting. Lovely reverb, really long trailing sound. Worth owning. It's true stereo in and out as well, total bargain.

Digitech Digiverb - Until I owned this I did not realise how important reverse reverb was to my life. Also the Plate setting is lovely. BUY!

Digitech Digidelay - One of my favourite delays - I love the modulated and Tape delay, the Reverse is superb for weirdness and I've come up with some many strange sounds with this pedal. Essential.

Caline Orange Burst - Fantastic boost /EQ pedal with a gain that takes it into Overdrive territory. I use it all the time when I need to calm one pedal down or boost another in a chain where the volumes of them go haywire. really cheap and totally worth owning.

Moen Fuzz Moo - Apparently a Green Russian Muff clone; I don't know about that, but it does make excellent high sustain smooth fuzz.

Digitech Dan Donegan The Weapon - Most of the digital distortion modes are horrid, but the pitch shifter is great - I think it's monophonic but it handles simple chords well. The Sitar mode is great fun - doesn't sound like a sitar but is fantastic for mixing between other pedals for weirdness.

DOD - FX75B Stereo Flanger - Never entirely controllable, but what a wonderful thing this pedal is. Way more fun than my Boss BF2. I use it on the slowest settings to add some movement to long delays. Yum.

DOD - FX20C Stereo Phaser - Often squeals for non obvious noises; this is also something I mix with delays. I like it.

Ibanez - Bi Mode Chorus - What's better than one chorus? Two of them! Lovely slow choruses, both running at different rates both are extremely unsubtle and this is wonderful.

Danelectro Daddy-O - Does nothing for me on guitar, but is fantastic on bass. And pairs well with a noisy fuzz pedal. Shame about the company who suck, but I got it third hand for almost nothing from a chap who claimed it weighed too much (it is rather heavy, but who cares!) so they never got a penny from me

[JonnyAngle]

My little bear rat sounds 95% as good as any boutique rat I have. Seriously, its freaking great! Best 30$ I've spent on a distortion.

i just grabbed one of these off ebay! keen to try it out, been wanting a simpler dirt pedal and have been meaning to try a rat for forever

I tried their woolly mammoth one. I wouldn't say that it was an exact replica, but close enough for most. Not enough for me.

Rats are prob not so transistor dependent, so I hope it works out

[Gone Fission]

DigiDelay is indeed pretty great.

Starcaster Chorus isn't as huge as it looks, just a bit bigger than a Boss pedal, and is a very decent clone of the old BBD version of the CE-5.

While not wanting to throw money at Danelectro, the red plastic FAB Distortion is really damn good for really low dough. The best sounding dirt pedal in that series by a large margin.

[plaidbeer]

Positive:
Behringer VD400, VP-1 (Small Stone clone), CC300 (can't find these anymore and they're expensive secondhand).
Boss OD-3--you can nearly always find one used for $50.
And yes, the Ibanez DE7 is great. I'm on my second one.
Mooer Ensemble King & Elec Lady
Starcaster Chorus

Negative:
Danelectro French Toast--I know these get a lot of love, but just wasn't fond of it.

[friendship]

If we're including Ibanez 7 series pedals in this discussion, the Danelectro food series minis are also worth mentioning.

I have the trem and the EQ, they both do an awesome job. I've always wanted to try the flanger, rotating speaker, and the octave metal distortion one to see if it's the right kind of terrible.

[psychic vampire.]

Of all the budget pedals mentioned in here, does anyone know of a budget chorus/flanger (could be either or both) that has stereo-ins?

[friendship]

Of all the budget pedals mentioned in here, does anyone know of a budget chorus/flanger (could be either or both) that has stereo-ins?

Cheap and stereo ins is a tough order. Sometimes the Digitech CR-7 goes for around $50.

[hbombgraphics]

I have the rowin dual looper now and it is really good,
waiting on the dual delay to come in this week

have owned most of the behringer single pedals and they are all decent for what they do
the super fuzz they make is outstanding
reverb was great

most of the mooer stuff I have tried was OK but not great