Just wondering how you folks feel about this. Your internal dialogues and such. I've been looking for a decent tap tremolo for a while, but I'm not wanting to spend the money right now. I've been debating getting a cheapo pedal (used Line 6 Tremolo) to hold me over for a while until I've got the money saved for what I want (Semaphore, Stutterbox, et al) but I also think that if I spend the money now instead of putting it towards the nicer pedal I'll forever convince myself that I'm getting by and never end up actually getting something of quality.
Do you ever buy cheapy pedals "for now" or do you hold off for the gold? How do you handle the situation? Do you buy the Squier/Epiphone now to get you by until you can afford the vintage Fender/Gibson later, or do you just put the money toward the one you really want? I know I'm bad about just saying what I've got is good enough even if it causes me headaches the higher quality version might not.
You can find a used line 6 m5 pretty cheap ($120 ish?). It has tap tempo a ba bunch of good Trems pluse a lot more. It would give you your tremelo fix and when you can afford the one you realy want you can still use the M5 for all of it's other awesome stuff.
aen wrote:Or I'll just use fuzz. Then Ill sound cool regardless.
Achtane wrote:Well, volcanoes are pretty fuckin' cool. Like I guess lava flows are doomy. Slow and still able to to melt your eardrums.
EvilCatBucky wrote:Just wondering how you folks feel about this. Your internal dialogues and such. I've been looking for a decent tap tremolo for a while, but I'm not wanting to spend the money right now. I've been debating getting a cheapo pedal (used Line 6 Tremolo) to hold me over for a while until I've got the money saved for what I want (Semaphore, Stutterbox, et al) but I also think that if I spend the money now instead of putting it towards the nicer pedal I'll forever convince myself that I'm getting by and never end up actually getting something of quality.
Do you ever buy cheapy pedals "for now" or do you hold off for the gold? How do you handle the situation? Do you buy the Squier/Epiphone now to get you by until you can afford the vintage Fender/Gibson later, or do you just put the money toward the one you really want? I know I'm bad about just saying what I've got is good enough even if it causes me headaches the higher quality version might not.
Generally speaking, I'll usually either save up for the expensive one if I really want something, or sell something else to pay for it. There have been a couple times where I went with the cheapy, and ended up really liking it, so you never know. There was even one time where I eventually got the expensive one, then A/B'd it against the cheapy, and liked the cheapy more.
My advice is to try and hold on to stuff if you even kind of like it rather than sell to get new stuff. When I look back and think of all the cool rare weird shit I've sold to get stuff I didn't even end up liking, it makes me sad. When I think about how much money has been eaten up by shipping it's even worse. Everything I have currently on my board I've had and sold once or even twice before (3rd demo tape fuzz, 4th singing tree, 3rd super hard on, 2nd ad4096, 2nd Spring Chicken, 3rd Jamman) I went the expensive pedals route by selling off all your old stuff, I do not recommend this.
I think save up for what you want. But don't do it by selling the stuff you have. It's not as if you need the new pedal immediately because you're about to record an album or something right? So there's no real rush to get it, the rushing for new things and acceptance of cheaper lower quality is why local manufacturing has taken such a hit in electronics and furniture and cars and everything.
The thing is though you never break even selling cheap stuff back so you end up worse off but if you have something desirable then you won't want to sell it because it was hard to get a hold of, you had to work for it so it has value for you. There isn't really all that much difference between effects to the layperson or audience. It all comes down to your attraction to it. So get what you want and what you'll be most happy with.
I like to think of it this way, I can have 2 60 dollar pairs of pants or a 120 dollar pair. The 120 dollar pair will probably last twice as long as long if it's well made (and that's important to check with pedals as well) and it will fit better and feel better the whole time. So I'd be stupid to get the 60 pair now and then fork out 60 later when they break because I'm not saving anything then, I just bought two shitty pairs of pants...
tommasters wrote:My advice is to try and hold on to stuff if you even kind of like it rather than sell to get new stuff. When I look back and think of all the cool rare weird shit I've sold to get stuff I didn't even end up liking, it makes me sad. When I think about how much money has been eaten up by shipping it's even worse. Everything I have currently on my board I've had and sold once or even twice before (3rd demo tape fuzz, 4th singing tree, 3rd super hard on, 2nd ad4096, 2nd Spring Chicken, 3rd Jamman) I went the expensive pedals route by selling off all your old stuff, I do not recommend this.
I think save up for what you want. But don't do it by selling the stuff you have. It's not as if you need the new pedal immediately because you're about to record an album or something right? So there's no real rush to get it, the rushing for new things and acceptance of cheaper lower quality is why local manufacturing has taken such a hit in electronics and furniture and cars and everything.
The thing is though you never break even selling cheap stuff back so you end up worse off but if you have something desirable then you won't want to sell it because it was hard to get a hold of, you had to work for it so it has value for you. There isn't really all that much difference between effects to the layperson or audience. It all comes down to your attraction to it. So get what you want and what you'll be most happy with.
I like to think of it this way, I can have 2 60 dollar pairs of pants or a 120 dollar pair. The 120 dollar pair will probably last twice as long as long if it's well made (and that's important to check with pedals as well) and it will fit better and feel better the whole time. So I'd be stupid to get the 60 pair now and then fork out 60 later when they break because I'm not saving anything then, I just bought two shitty pairs of pants...
This is sound advice. I'm trying my best to do this.
You never know when something will be useful to you. That shit I'm not using right now might someday find use in a studio or whatever when we're trying to find a particular tone.
tommasters wrote:I think save up for what you want.
If you totally want a specific pedal, I'd get that cause I doubt a facsimile would please you. But if you just want a tap tempo trem which is common in a bunch of trems? Try whatever out I think.
Basically, I try not to buy something to tide me over, if I want a specific thing I tend to just get that thing, I think it's worth a bit of a wait.
i usually wait to get what i want
but what i usually want aint too expensive
i stopped wishing for expensive shit long ago
but sometimes you gotta drop coin
ive thought about gettin that behringer phaser
till i got a real small stone
but what would it save
id still want the real deal
same thing with the us600/ps6
sometimes the cheapos dont cut it mentally
guitars are different
ive always wanted an sg
i bought the samick to tide me over
but now im really happy with it
and trying out gibsons i find i like it better
so sometimes ya get lucky
tools for work i always get the real thing
if im 40 foot up on a ladder
i want my screwgun to do its fuckin job
i dont trust harbor freight up there
Oddly enough I find I tend to buy/try the expensive version of something before the cheaper one. Then if I really like it, I'll try to find stuff that gets close in case I decide to flip the first or want a backup. Especially when it comes to guitars and amps. Pedals can vary because sometimes it isn't just the sound that is affected (pun intended) by the price. A Behringer generally doesn't hold up as well as a Boss. But you never know. YMMV.
In the long term it seems to be better off just to get the 'spensive shit. And rarely does the cheaper thing totally kill all your GAS.
tommasters wrote:My advice is to try and hold on to stuff if you even kind of like it rather than sell to get new stuff. When I look back and think of all the cool rare weird shit I've sold to get stuff I didn't even end up liking, it makes me sad. When I think about how much money has been eaten up by shipping it's even worse. Everything I have currently on my board I've had and sold once or even twice before (3rd demo tape fuzz, 4th singing tree, 3rd super hard on, 2nd ad4096, 2nd Spring Chicken, 3rd Jamman) I went the expensive pedals route by selling off all your old stuff, I do not recommend this.
I think save up for what you want. But don't do it by selling the stuff you have. It's not as if you need the new pedal immediately because you're about to record an album or something right? So there's no real rush to get it, the rushing for new things and acceptance of cheaper lower quality is why local manufacturing has taken such a hit in electronics and furniture and cars and everything.
The thing is though you never break even selling cheap stuff back so you end up worse off but if you have something desirable then you won't want to sell it because it was hard to get a hold of, you had to work for it so it has value for you. There isn't really all that much difference between effects to the layperson or audience. It all comes down to your attraction to it. So get what you want and what you'll be most happy with.
I like to think of it this way, I can have 2 60 dollar pairs of pants or a 120 dollar pair. The 120 dollar pair will probably last twice as long as long if it's well made (and that's important to check with pedals as well) and it will fit better and feel better the whole time. So I'd be stupid to get the 60 pair now and then fork out 60 later when they break because I'm not saving anything then, I just bought two shitty pairs of pants...
Great advice.
Unless you do have a specific need for something straight away and can't afford more, that is probably the best way to go.
I was gonna buy a Boss DD-5 for stutters and ended waiting and spending 4x more on a Hexe revolver. Haven't looked back once, the high quality stuff like that never leaves the board.
tommasters wrote:My advice is to try and hold on to stuff if you even kind of like it rather than sell to get new stuff. When I look back and think of all the cool rare weird shit I've sold to get stuff I didn't even end up liking, it makes me sad. When I think about how much money has been eaten up by shipping it's even worse. Everything I have currently on my board I've had and sold once or even twice before (3rd demo tape fuzz, 4th singing tree, 3rd super hard on, 2nd ad4096, 2nd Spring Chicken, 3rd Jamman) I went the expensive pedals route by selling off all your old stuff, I do not recommend this.
I think save up for what you want. But don't do it by selling the stuff you have. It's not as if you need the new pedal immediately because you're about to record an album or something right? So there's no real rush to get it, the rushing for new things and acceptance of cheaper lower quality is why local manufacturing has taken such a hit in electronics and furniture and cars and everything.
The thing is though you never break even selling cheap stuff back so you end up worse off but if you have something desirable then you won't want to sell it because it was hard to get a hold of, you had to work for it so it has value for you. There isn't really all that much difference between effects to the layperson or audience. It all comes down to your attraction to it. So get what you want and what you'll be most happy with.
I like to think of it this way, I can have 2 60 dollar pairs of pants or a 120 dollar pair. The 120 dollar pair will probably last twice as long as long if it's well made (and that's important to check with pedals as well) and it will fit better and feel better the whole time. So I'd be stupid to get the 60 pair now and then fork out 60 later when they break because I'm not saving anything then, I just bought two shitty pairs of pants...
Alas, you're right, but when your wife starts bitching that we have no money and sees that you have $3k worth of pedals, it makes it a whole lot smoother to tell her that you sold a pedal to buy this new thing.
A lot of good advice in here. For me, I've tried the expensive stuff, done the exact thing tommasters talked about and almost always regretted it. Constantly swapping out shit is exhausting, alienating, and a waste of time. Cheap is a good way to go, if that's what works. You may end up becoming attached to something and not want the expensive thing anymore. I *could* replace my Boss PH-2 (in fact I looovooved the Empress Phaser I had), but over the decade-plus I've had it, I feel like it has become MY phaser sound. Unfortunately I haven't had that experience with any other kind of pedal, so the search continues for dirt, delay, etc. But right now most of my pedals cost me under a hundred each, and they all sound good to me!
Depends on what you want and the realistic ability to get it as well.
I frankly won't pay (even if I could) the price on vintage gear that you couldn't give away 20 years ago or so. I'm looking at you el cheapo offsets, not counting the $50 Teisco and offbrand stuff that still isn't worth more than that to me.
It's also a case of the vintage/expensive stuff hasn't gotten better with age generally - but the cheap stuff sure as hell has. I have a tendency to look around until I find what I want then see if it jives with me personally. Example is the recent Bass VI addition - I've been kicking myself for not getting one 15 or so years ago when I had the chance when the first MIJ reissues hit, and the CS ones are just insanely priced, the Pawn Shops weren't what I wanted (but what I was going to settle on as the best game in town and mod from there), and then the Squiers appeared.
I needed *a* Bass VI. Didn't matter what or where it was from, it's the bass I've wanted all these years and never got. GAS satisfied. Same with my Jaguars (and I have a medium-grade one and a cheapie Squier - I play the Squier more, as it just 'that' thing I wanted out of a few of them I tried).
But it's a case of having played the old stuff, knowing what it is, and what to expect - and to take that comparison to what I needed for my sound today and tomorrow.
My delay GAS wasn't killed until I got a real Space Echo again, there's something magical about those boxes and their preamps as well as the echo itself - something that made enough of a difference to pay for the real deal.
So it works both ways.
But if you're talking a $20 pedal to hold you over until you can afford the $100+ one, go for it IMO. The songs you miss out on, the sounds you don't have at your disposal are worth having that pedal as a backup in the future and may cover your needs - or it may expose you to the cold hard reality that nothing but the "one" you wanted will do.
Do what makes you happy. Life is short.
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My pedalboard costs approximately 191 Metal Zones.
Anyone out there have "expensive" gear but use "cheaper" for gigging to prevent any unforseen incidents? For example, I have a tall font Sovtek Big Muff, but I've used my cheapo EHX Bass Big Muff more.
Good deals with / big ups to: RainbowsAreFree, blindrabbit (x2), K2000, LOCOPELAND & space6oy.
