The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

[Aceman]

We have all came across some amazing dirt cheap pedals. A lot of us have tried Joyo, Modtone, Biyang, Behringer, and dare I say Rogue? And we have found pedals full of win, awesome, or at least amazing price performance ratio's.

So let';s hear it. Where have you went slumming for an effect and turned up a gem, if slightly flawed in perhaps features or construction?

I'll kick it off: If you need a Tube Screamer for whatever reason, try the Ibanez Tonelok TS7. It's a tube screamer to my ears for every practical reason, plus it has a "hot" mode for that little extra gain push.

 

[trevorus]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I got a Maxon built TS9DX for $40, and I got one of the first run Danelectro OCD clones for $25. Love em both. The other ones are a TU2 for 25, and a rocktron short timer for a pittance (can't remember what) that needed a jack repair. Twas easy, oh, anda Digitech Digidelay for another pittance.

 

[Matt42]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I have several Joyos and Mooers. I have the Mooer Hustle Drive (OCD Clone) and Trelicopter, the Joyo Sweet Baby and Roll Boost (also their isolated power supply).

The Sweet Baby is by far my favorite. It responds incredibly well to everything; guitar swaps, different pickups, picking attack, volume knob and boost pedals. It works equally well on dirty amps and clean amps. I have mine before the Hustle Drive, and if I want to add something to the Hustle Drive, I'll use them both. I almost never turn it off, no matter if I'm playing through the Mesa DC-5 or my g/f's '68 Bassman.

I really dig the Mooer Trelicopter as well. I've been listening to a lot of Buddy Miller's guitar work lately, and this thing gets that tone perfectly.

 

[trevorus]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I'm going to have to check out the joyo stuff! They sound right up my alley!

 

[symptom]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I like some of the pedals of the Danelectro mini line. I own a chicken salad, which I use to add some mojo and sauce to the tone. I also really like the little yellow tremolo, from the same series (I don't recall its name).

 

[Aceman]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

The Dano little Yellow trem is pretty cool. Dano mini's - great examples of stuff in this category!

 

[ErikH]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

The Ibanez DE7 Delay/Echo is really nice. I've been using it in the loop of my Marshall for a few years. It does the job with low noise and good sounding echo. Those ToneLock series pedals are a great value.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

Mooer PitchBox: is awesome...much nicer (richer/less digital) sounding than the Boss HR-2 Harmonizer I used to have...true bypass too.
Mooer Ana-echo: Another great, warm, sweet sounding little analog delay pedal
Biyang Tri-Reverb: Amazing sounding 'verb pedal. Very transparent & versatile...sounds really classy, like a big bucks boutique pedal.
Biyang Mad Driver: Very nice Tubescreamer clone..transparent, sweet, thick & full-sounding with a reduced upper mid-hump & almost no loss of bass..
Nux Drive Core: Another great sounding Clean boost/overdrive pedal. Separate circuits for boost & overdrive...use one or the the other or combine the two. Sweet, fat, Low noise, very tweakable, very responsive/sensitive = excellent sounding Pedal.
Nux Time Core: Very versatile (switch between umpteen modes/types) and awesome sounding analog/digital delay pedal...lush, full, sweet delay tones...right up there with any of the boutique stuff imo...
Moen Distortion Master: Killer sounding distortion pedal. Very versatile & transparent. Will give you killer rock/80's metal tones all day long.
Vitoos Metal Lab: Sort of Metal muff-ish but with some of it's own flavour...very nice warm tube-like tones. Does everything from 70's rock to 80's metal to Swedish death metal. Sort of reminds me of my Digitech Hardwire Metal pedal as well...
Moen Fuzz Moo : Lots of great sounding organic fuzz tones, It get's compared (favourably) to a Russian Big Muff all over the place, but I've never tried one of those... so I really can't say lol.

But the one that really blows me away is the NXGEN VISA distortion pedal I just bought from a guy in Thailand. It's the most classy, amazing sounding distortion pedal I've ever played/heard. Unbelievably transparent, open, versatile, sensitive, warm, sweet and downright mind-boggling tones at any setting all the time. From warm fat blues, to thick, open, raunchy rock, to rich, harmonic-laden 80's rock/metal & beyond. Just TONS of gain on offer, but it never seems noisy, unmusical or excessive. Having said that I don't feel the need to go beyond 1:00-2:00 o'clock with the gain knob...

 

[hotdotdog]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I bought a Mod Tone -OD Dyno Drive Overdrive Pedal this week from Musician's friend. It was the "Deal of the Day". I'll report my findings when it comes in.

 

[hydro]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I bought a banged up MXR Distortion III at Guitar Center for $40 and it was worth every penny. That little dude sits at the end of my pedal chain and gives me great chunk and mids when I'm playing at home through my Princeton and don't have my dual rectifier.

 

[jazzems5150]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I picked up a Rogue Analog Delay back when Musician's Friend had all of Rogue's pedals half off. Delay really isn't my thing but it's a sweet pedal for the price. It made a great substitute for the sub-par reverb on my old Peavey Valveking.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

Dano Cool Cat Drive was basically copied from the OCD and without the HP/LP switch. sounded good with a DSL. I had a v1 also.
sold it but it was cool. I'd like to get the real thing though, I think the OCD sounds better.

I have a MXR Distortion III and it's quite warm and pleasing for such a cheap pedal. $40 like someone said. I use it with a DRRI and I feel like the warmth is really tailored to clean fender amps. Found it kinda muddy with the Marshall Haze

I don't like my stock DS-1 (another cheap pedal) much by itself but it sounds great together with the Dist. III.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I'm going to second the Rocktron Short-Timer. Great pedal...very under-appreciated. Other delays I like for cheap are the Dano FAB Echo for 15 bucks...does one thing, but does it pretty well...otherwise a pos, but it has that ONE thing. The Line 6 Echo Park has tremendous power in a very small package...I bought mine for $85. And I am always amazed at the number of top pros who have a basic Boss DD-3 in their kit.

Nearly anything by DOD or Digitech is going to offer a lot of value. I love my Fx-10 preamp and my Fx-65 chorus. The Bad Monkey and Hothead distortion are favored by many over their Boss counterparts. The Hardwire line are like little jewels.

I really like some of the BBE pedals too.

Bill

 

[youngthrasher9]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I'm a big fan of the Bad Monkey as far as TS9 clone variants go. I think they run about $40 new, not 100% sure about that.

 

[hydro]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

Ha Fuse I used to have a stock DS-1 for many years, at one point my bass player said he wanted to take it to the shooting range it had this buzz saw raspy tone and for me, it killed all my low end. But it had its place and I have heard a lot of people like them with the mods.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

Ha Fuse I used to have a stock DS-1 for many years, at one point my bass player said he wanted to take it to the shooting range it had this buzz saw raspy tone and for me, it killed all my low end. But it had its place and I have heard a lot of people like them with the mods.

thinking of modding mine. I dunno I like the ds-1 with the level up and gain back, in front of the dist. III with medium gain, in front of a clean amp. the ds-1 adds a little aggression to the dist III and help it do more of an 80s rock sound

 

[hydro]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

Yeah I think the Distortion III has more of a 70s sound to it and is less scooped. The DS-1 as I recall had a finer grain distortion.

You can get the DS-1 pretty cheap used, so you could keep your stock one and get a modded one too.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

You can find Digitech Hyper Phase pedals really cheap on Craigslist, and they're a lot of bang for the buck.

The Guitar Center MXR Classic OD's proved to be a steal at $30.

Keep your eye out for Marshall pedals on the cheap. The Gov'nor is a great Marshall in a box pedal. Vibratrem and Jackhammer too.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I never got a decent sound out of a cheap pedal.

 

[baritone]

Re: The "Cheap Pedal" Full of WIN! thread

I have a handful of pedals from the Ibanez 7 series, and they are some of my favorites:

CF7 chorus flanger
LF7 lo-fi filter
PM7 phase modulator
SH7 seventh heaven fuzz

I don't have the TS7, but I already had the TS9DX, and I couldn't tell the difference.