Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

[tc]

I'm thinking OD, fuzz, delay, reverb, and money permitting, a wildcard pedal. Could be a Whammy, something ethereal sounding, a synthy thing, a pure noise device, whatever. Hell, maybe a second delay.

For ODs, I've always liked the original Bluesbreaker from Marshall. Sold mine for a good profit after everyone found out John Mayer had one. Tube screamers are fine too. Never tried a "transparent" OD, but I'd also be down to try one. I've always liked germanium Fuzz Faces, but I don't need a recreation of one with transistors found in a warehouse (not that the budget would likely allow). In fact, I don't even need it to be a Fuzz Face clone—I'd be open to try other fuzzes or fuzz-like pedals. Not a huge Big Muff fan, though. Delays and reverbs I'm not super up to speed on what's out there these days, so feel free to suggest anything. Go crazy.

If impossible, I miiiight be ok with stretching that budget a little. But I'd like to see what I could get with $500 first. Thanks!

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

What guitars and amps and what musical styles?


I’d buy everything used...
The TC Flashback and Hall of Fame are great for delay and reverb.
The Snouse is an awesome Bluesbreaker pedal.
My favorite overdrive is still the Fulldrive 2, available used at a great price.
Germanium Fuzz Face is a little tough. Even cheaper good ones are a bit expensive, and still rig dependent. Look at the Fulltone 69 mk ii. If you’ll consider silicon, the Jimi one (teal) is awesome. The mini version is Pedalboard friendly. You could try the Dunlop mini germanium, but it’s too woofy for most people.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

Check out the Xotic BB Preamp. They can be found for $80-90 used. I don't know if "BB" is intended to imply "Bluesbreaker" but it's a great OD, better than any TS, SD, or MIAB I've ever tried. I'm no fuzz connoisseur, but I think the blue silicon mini Fuzz Face sounds great for the right price. For delay and reverb, look at the new pedals from EHX, the Canyon and the Oceans 11. They do the basic delay and reverb stuff, plus a bunch of wildcard functions as well.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

The BB is not a Bluesbreaker based pedal. Highly modified TS I think? But still a great pedal.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

Yeah, all the goop-scraping pedal-analyzing geeks say the BB is a highly modded TS, but I don’t hear it. It’s really dynamic and chunky. After going back and forth for years between the BB and all sorts of stock and modded SD-1s, I’ve decided the BB just kicks the crap out of all of them. When I recently tried to recreate “my” OD sound with a Boss GT-1, the thing that sounded closest as a starting point was their Bluesbreaker model.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

In fairness, most overdrives are highly modified tube screamers. The BB’s Baxandall EQ can provide some really effective tone changes.

In general, take a TS, change the filtering to add bass, dip the midrange, add a switch for clipping diode options, maybe add a pre-bass or “contour” control in the feedback section and you’ve got any number of overdrives. The circuit is kind of like the Harley, a blank canvas for modifiers to go nuts with.

 

[Nightburst]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

Harley Benton FXL8 Pro (Joyo) $180
Line 6 M5 $100

If you get these and connect them with a midi cable you can program your own preset FX and assign them to any button on the Joyo. You can only use one fx at the same time but this combi will have your delay, reverb and ethereal stuff covered in spades.
You can even choose to use the FX in the front end or loop of your amp. You will still have money left for a good OD pedal and something else like an expression pedal for even more control of your FX..

 

[chadd]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

Fuzz - Fulltone '69 (less muffy, but sound great)
OD - OCD (Pretty versatile, not sure what you play)
Delay - Danelectro Dan-echo (dirt cheap used, but worth more)
Reverb - no idea, I've never used any reverb pedal

 

[Coma]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

I'm fairly new to the pedal game myself, and things are usually a bit pricier on this side of the pond, but:



1: Go used. Unless youäre buying from a complete muppet, pedals don't break that easily so there's plenty of money to be saved.

2: Tone City makes really cheap pedals that have gotten good reviews on the tube. Theire Tape Machine Delay is supposedly a clone of the Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay. If your reverb needs are limited to classic spring, they also make one of those. And a number of ddrives ranging from clean boost to full on distortion. Look around online and you should easily be able to find a list of what each pedal is a clone of. Most of them are copies of fairly desirable stuff, so you can save tons of cash, provided they sound good enough to your ears.

3: If you want something with a bit more diversity you can look for a TC Electronic Flashback Mk I. There's ton's of them used and they're very versatile. The only complaint i have about mine is that it doesn't have traditional tap tempo (it has a strum-sensing function instead) and my band plays a lot of songs back-to-back. But it sounds very good, very clean, imitates analog sound decent enough. Their Hall of Fame is also very common on the used market and you can probably get one fairly cheaply. Their overdrives (Mojomojo and Dark Matter) are both under $50 new and even cheaper used.

3: EHX pedals are quite cheap new and even cheaper used, provided you're going with their nano series. They have clones of both the Tube Screamer (Green River Drive), OCD (OD Glove)and (supposedly, according to someone, but unverified) Timmy (Crayon). Its too bad you're not a fan of the muff, because any version of the muff still in production can be found cheap even for a brand new one. Maybe look elsewhere for that, then.

4: Boss pedals are often poo-poo'd so prices aren't through the roof. A used RV-5 will probably cover a bit of ground (plate, hall, spring etc). I just bought the next gen of that series (RV6) and it sounds good enough for me. The only drawback so far is I can't find any settings that work both for clean sounds and under heavy distortion.

5: MXR pedals are supposedly very good (haven't tried too many myself, though, so basing this on what I've heard) and made in America as well (if that sort of thing is important to you). There's also TONS of them around, so you should be able to find them for good prices.

6: You're gonna want a board and a PSU as well. Look into Palmer/Harley Benton, Gator or T-Rex pedal boards, or look for a used one online, I'm sure you can find something. Mooer, Harley Benton and Palmer all make pretty cheap power supplies, though prices do increase quite steeply once you start looking for something that has more than 5 outputs and is fully isolated.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

I recently bought Joyo Voodoo Octave and found it's just plain awesome sounding Fuzz. Wouldn't believe for the price, 30 € a new.

Then again, I don't have that much experience with fuzzes. But I don't see why that wouldn't be a keeper.

Octave effect sounds pretty meh. But I don't have that much interest for it anyway.

 

[mwalluk]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

Od: friedmann be od, xotic sl, catalina dirty lil secret, mi audio crunchbox

Fuzz: muff

Delay: carbon copy, dd 3 or 5, cusack tme, flashback

Reverb: hall of fame

5th wildcard: mxt flanger (4 knob) or tc dresmscape

All minus muff (which usually can find $50-70), will be right around or under $100.

For the wildcard, i listed 2 modulation pedals that are multipurpose. You can get a decent chorus sound out of mxr flanger as well as typical flange sounds. Where as dreamscape has chorus flange vibrato options.

Tried thinking of quality pedals that wont break the bank. Sure you can splurge on one really nice pedal say neunaber, strymon or eventide h9, but thats going leave you with 100-200 left in the budget to get
The remaining 3-4 pedals.
Reverb

 

[Hurricane]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

Musicians Friend has ( maybe still ) T.C. Helicon Voice Live 3 for $399.00
This will give you more than you are asking for . I have a VL3X it's really
quite compact system and sounds incredible too .

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/open-box-tc-helicon-voicelive-3

EZ :


HR

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

I don't use ODs since I started using the knobs on my guitar. I've always used amp reverb.

My vote goes to a muff as your fuzz. They're just really fun pedals. I'm a big fan of the simple boss DD series digital delays too.

You're missing a wah from your list (595Q would get my vote) and a vibe pedal (lots are great, but I've enjoyed the MXR uni-vibe).

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Help me build a pedalboard for ~$500

I combined my needs for reverb, delay, and "something ethereal" with a EQD Dispatch Master. Perhaps not the most versatile thing ever, there are times were I wish I could keep the reverb on and switch the delay in and out, and sometimes I use it for only reverb or only delay, it has clear but slightly warm repeats, and it's generally very musical and enjoyable. Perhaps it would be a little limiting if it was your only reverb, but low settings give a nice "room" sound. It just doesn't sound like spring or plate, doesn't surf.
It's a very fun pedal, I was gonna get a used tc flashback mini and HOF mini, but went with this cuz I wanted something kinda ethereal for sure, and this does a good job. I leave it on a lot.