How much longer?

[Masta' C]

Until the pedal market becomes unsustainably saturated and finally implodes?

We have to be close!

[Top-L]

It has already happened. Amazon Basics are copying pedals now.

[NegativeEase]

Yeah, Id say pedal companies are already starting to disappear and resolving into a smaller circle of key vendors starting about 2-3 years ago. But this was always going to happen -as there 1000 pedal companies launched in the last 25 years and literally 40 who are actually innovating.

[Masta' C]

The recent trends toward cool graphics and clever naming are great, but there is SO much overlap among products now and SO many people/builders entering the space only to offer the same products that I mentally burn out after about 5 minutes of "pedal shopping"!

The pedal world has become the new Country music...flashier than ever, but missing its soul and originality!

Here's the modern buyer's guide to purchasing "new" pedals today:

• Original pedals
• Brand name clones
• Boutique shop clones
• Kit-builder/DIY clones
• Cheap Chinese clones
• Cheap Chinese clones of Cheap Chinese clones

We all know that 90% of the pedals on the market today are just copies or tweaks of about 40-50 "original" designs borrowed from the past 50 years or so. I know I'm not the first to mention this, but it really gets old seeing manufacturers and builders doing their best to resell "old" product. Reminds me of DiMarzio with their 20 iterations of the "PAF" pickup, LOL!

And let's talk about "features"...

--> Look! We took the classic Tube Screamer and gave it a selectable clipping option so it can sound just like that other famous overdrive you already own!

--> Look! We took our top-selling transparent boost and put it in a transparent enclosure...now it's our most "transparent" boost ever!

--> Look! We took the same pedal you already know and love and painted it purple instead of blue...this special edition can be yours for only twice the price of the original!

There's no way the market can sustain this trend! There are more pedal builders than players, it seems!

I do appreciate the handful of makers like JPTR FX, Death by Audio, etc. who experiment heavily and intentionally keep off the beaten path as much as possible, but the usefulness of their "noise maker" creations is somewhat limited in the broader context of guitar music.

In the end, the classics are "classic" for a reason and the originals are often the only pedals most of us really need!

[PFDarkside]

I seriously considered going into the pedal business and starting a company at the end of 2012. I know that my pedals would not have been innovative enough to have broken through due to function but I was aware that everyone wants a beautiful pedal
for their Instagram board. Still, I am confident I would have lost money due to the unreal number of other guitarists that thought the same thing.

[Chistopher]

The recent trends toward cool graphics and clever naming are great, but there is SO much overlap among products now and SO many people/builders entering the space only to offer the same products that I mentally burn out after about 5 minutes of "pedal shopping"!

The pedal world has become the new Country music...flashier than ever, but missing its soul and originality!

Here's the modern buyer's guide to purchasing "new" pedals today:

• Original pedals
• Brand name clones
• Boutique shop clones
• Kit-builder/DIY clones
• Cheap Chinese clones
• Cheap Chinese clones of Cheap Chinese clones

We all know that 90% of the pedals on the market today are just copies or tweaks of about 40-50 "original" designs borrowed from the past 50 years or so. I know I'm not the first to mention this, but it really gets old seeing manufacturers and builders doing their best to resell "old" product. Reminds me of DiMarzio with their 20 iterations of the "PAF" pickup, LOL!

And let's talk about "features"...

--> Look! We took the classic Tube Screamer and gave it a selectable clipping option so it can sound just like that other famous overdrive you already own!

--> Look! We took our top-selling transparent boost and put it in a transparent enclosure...now it's our most "transparent" boost ever!

--> Look! We took the same pedal you already know and love and painted it purple instead of blue...this special edition can be yours for only twice the price of the original!

There's no way the market can sustain this trend! There are more pedal builders than players, it seems!

I do appreciate the handful of makers like JPTR FX, Death by Audio, etc. who experiment heavily and intentionally keep off the beaten path as much as possible, but the usefulness of their "noise maker" creations is somewhat limited in the broader context of guitar music.

In the end, the classics are "classic" for a reason and the originals are often the only pedals most of us really need!

Don't forget cheap German clones of cheap Japanese pedals.

[Mincer]

It is like clothes. Not a ton of new ideas, and companies hope a trend catches on. And there a million companies making them. If you make a great fuzz pedal, how do you get people to notice you? Does anyone remember the 3rd or 4th person to come up with a new analog chorus? How much are these things actually selling?

[Top-L]

The recent trends toward cool graphics and clever naming are great, but there is SO much overlap among products now and SO many people/builders entering the space only to offer the same products that I mentally burn out after about 5 minutes of "pedal shopping"!

The pedal world has become the new Country music...flashier than ever, but missing its soul and originality!

Here's the modern buyer's guide to purchasing "new" pedals today:

• Original pedals
• Brand name clones
• Boutique shop clones
• Kit-builder/DIY clones
• Cheap Chinese clones
• Cheap Chinese clones of Cheap Chinese clones

We all know that 90% of the pedals on the market today are just copies or tweaks of about 40-50 "original" designs borrowed from the past 50 years or so. I know I'm not the first to mention this, but it really gets old seeing manufacturers and builders doing their best to resell "old" product. Reminds me of DiMarzio with their 20 iterations of the "PAF" pickup, LOL!

And let's talk about "features"...

--> Look! We took the classic Tube Screamer and gave it a selectable clipping option so it can sound just like that other famous overdrive you already own!

--> Look! We took our top-selling transparent boost and put it in a transparent enclosure...now it's our most "transparent" boost ever!

--> Look! We took the same pedal you already know and love and painted it purple instead of blue...this special edition can be yours for only twice the price of the original!

There's no way the market can sustain this trend! There are more pedal builders than players, it seems!

I do appreciate the handful of makers like JPTR FX, Death by Audio, etc. who experiment heavily and intentionally keep off the beaten path as much as possible, but the usefulness of their "noise maker" creations is somewhat limited in the broader context of guitar music.

In the end, the classics are "classic" for a reason and the originals are often the only pedals most of us really need!

Its kinda like baking. Find an old family recipe for apple pie and start baking. Come up with a cool name. Sell pies.

I think some pedal builders have the same mentality. Sometimes being stupid leads to being audacious.

[GuitarStv]

If I don't see at least 5 tubescreamer circuits in new pedals in any given month I'm going to assume that the end times are here.

[Masta' C]

Following the pedal world business model...

I'm going to start a business where I swap out the exhaust on stock Ford Mustangs and re-brand them as the Masta' C "Clydesdale" model!

Once those start to sell well, I'm going to offer a vinyl-wrapped "limited edition" of the same vehicle in a different color for around 50% more money.

Once those are gone and sales on the original offering start to slow, I'll offer another version where you can choose between the new OR the original exhaust sound at the flick of a switch, charge a small premium, and call it the "Clydesdale V.2"

At some point, I'll offer another one with the ability to change exhaust sounds AND air intake sounds and call it the "Clydesdale Deluxe"!

Finally, once the market is fully saturated with all these other versions, I'll offer an overpriced "reissue" of the original, much simpler Clydesdale model...because who really needs all those extra features anyway?

[Securb]

There is a solution for those of you looking for something new and original

[Mincer]

Besides Eventide, Strymon (Chase Bliss, too) was able to find their place in the expensive reverb/delay pedal domain. I think processing got cheap enough (and small enough) so it could be pedal-sized.

[GuitarStv]

I think that this candle powered phaser is pretty innovative . . .

[NegativeEase]

I have a couple of old friends who own large pedal companies -top 25 brands on Sweetwater

2 of those making ALL of their stuff in USA and both indicate how near impossible it is to make money in the pedal market doing so.

It's what they would call a "Red Ocean" in business terms..

1000s of companies making knock offs, most of the market price points are where quality or being made in USA isnt valued, and no decent path for protecting intellectual property if you could even prove you did innovate anything in the first place etc etc....

[Chistopher]

There are two ways to make it in the pedal market:

Have a cool looking pedal with a lot of goofy features, a cool idea behind it, and charge an arm and a leg for it so people think it's premium.

or

Sell decent pedals for so cheap on foreign machines that have been paid off centuries ago that no other competitor could dare compete pricewise.