@@DanFalck haha when I was building my own pedals I spent a bunch of time trying to find out what resistor to use to make the blue as bright as possible. Regret.
I agree the internal pots can be annoying. I like that JHS sometimes adds switches on the sides. I’d happily take an extra switch or knob on the side or top than have to open up the whole pedal just to tweak the presence knob 🤦🏻♂️ My personal peeves are side jacks and super loud/stiff switches. If it’s a killer pedal with side jacks I’ll squeeze it in, but if I ever have to put two side jack pedals next to each other on my board I usually have to kick something else off. And my wife makes fun of me for hearing my loud pedal clicks from across the house when I’m “silently practicing” 😅
i don’t like how almost every pedal that has a tone knob is just a low pass filter… we already have that on our guitars. i like spectrum knob on the nobles odr1, so many more possibilities with so little. just thinking a little harder
@@CerealDust-nStuff tube screamers don't work for me, I have a marshall SV20 and I have the mids at 8, treble at 6 and bass at 7, with the normal usually higher than treble, so I already have tons of mids, so my pedals are all flat eq or mid cut also they're all technically fuzzes which is kind of funny, I have a fuzz face acting as a normal fuzz, then a big muff which is a fuzz pretending to be your normal metal distortion, then a past fx powerbooster which is basically a fuzz pretending to be an overdrive pedal the fuzz face and powerbooster being flat eq and the muff being mid cut I usually use my amp as a foudation for eq, with eq on my distortion morso just acting as a balancer so the distortion sounds right, I also have an eq pedal that's mid cut with the treble boosted a bit so I can sit in the background during rhythm
My biggest pedal pet peeve is “”””boutique”””” companies switching their manufacturing method from through hole and handmade to machine assembled SMT without at least lowering the price.
This is a tough one, I know first hand that costs of manufacturing has increased significantly, and hireable labour for manufacturing at scale is trained for SMT. It may not be a large cost savings any more to move from through hole to SMT - but to your point, some more transparency would be good. Be honest with your customer as to why you make big changes!
SMT manufacturing costs are inflated due to aerospace and military customers. No reason to make luxury consumer goods when you could take a similar contract from Uncle Sam who will pay 100 times as much and not even notice. The machine assembly part also isn't any cheaper unless you have huge volumes, which is just not going to be done domestically.
I had to laugh about point 4, since I just played with a Caroline Guitar Company pedal yesterday that I have not used in quite some time. They use icons instead of words to label the buttons, and I could not really figure out anything quickly. I would add 3 items to the list: - lamps being far too bright (blinding, and making it impossible to read any knob positions in common stage light scenarios) - knobs having no clearly visible indication of their actual position (look at e.g. the new Keeley 4-in-1 pedals, beautiful but unreadable even in good light) - not having clear markings for power requirements on the device (Volts, Amperes, and polarity should not require guesswork or opening a thread on the Gear Page)
Totally agree. Looking at the pedals I have in view nearly half of them have tape over the LEDs because they are so blindingly bright in a dark studio.
I have one of those 10 in 1 modulation pedals that has a LED that's way too bright, the knobs have no visible indications, the LED is the same color as the pedal, and manages to top everything off by making the labels white when the pedal is already a light green color. Even off, it's hard to read but when it's turned on, it may as well be blank.
The pedal trend which cured my addiction to pedals is the pricing - from $60-$80 in my early days of playing to $300-plus. I sold my massive collection of pedals and settled down with a Mooer Red Truck.
strong agree about internal dips and trimmers. most of em are settings I really wish were external controls and wouldn't mind a bigger physical pedal to make it happen.
I feel like I really ragged on Catalinbread here I completely neglected to mention they have a deluxe version of the Dirty Little Secret now and it looks pretty sweet.
Internal dips & trimmers on pedals are stupid! Put the controls that the user will adjust to work with their rig on the outside of the pedal. The fuzz pedal that is currently on my pedalboard as my main dirt sound has just a volume knob on the outside of the pedal but an internal trimmer for the gain. I’ve never adjusted the internal trimmer on that fuzz pedal because when I first used it I liked the way it sounded with my guitar and amp but the manufacturer manual said that the one control knob on the outside was for volume & that the gain control was a internal trimmer.
I'm getting really sick of digital pedals whose knobs have secondary and even tertiary functions. It's annoying having to guess what all of the settings are (just as you showed with the El Capistan). Meris and Alexander pedals come to mind. Manufacturers: Take a cue from the Boss 500 series and add a &?$%ing screen so we can see clearly see all of the settings!
You earned a sub just because you’re one of the the kids who came after us. I was just starting to play shows the year you were born. I’ve been thru many, many types and trends of gear. What I can tell you is gear doesn’t matter, and there is more great gear available now than there ever has been. Old gear ISN’T better. It’s just old. You can makeyour sound with anything. My pedal pet peeves? The whole ‘vintage’ market. It’s a distortion. You can get that EXACT same sound 100 ways if you tried and seriously, no one cares. Why are you wasting money? There is no piece of guitar gear that should cost as much as a custom shop guitar. Aaaaaaaaaand….all the tones that are being recreated were done with the cheapest stuff around. Remember, we’re guitar players. We have no money. I used the same Boss DF-2 since 1989. Going to play a show next week with it. It’s never really about the gear. Your tone is right there, just keep playing and it’ll get better and better.
Yeah, Matt, back in the day, we took our tubes down to the drugstore and ran them through the tube tester. Whichever ones were bad, we threw away and bought whatever the guy had on hand. Didn't look at the brands, didn't look at the plates, didn't look at the bottle, just whatever the guy had there, we bought.
@@mooseymoose interesting! I had never heard of that. I make pedals and I always put LEDs that have the same colors as the knobs. I never knew some people are bothered by led colors!
Biggest pet peeve by far is how many manufacturers put in NO protection for people accidentally plugging in the wrong voltage or polarity. Judging by the number of panicked posts to reddit, this happens way too often. Plenty of ways exist to protect against this that are not expensive. And no, it doesn't count if your protection scheme involves a blown diode that has to be soldered. To the 99% of guitarists who DON'T know electronics repair, that's as much a dead pedal as if the rest of it fried.
Controversial is one thing, but it gets really weird when the TH-camr decides to write a dialogue and talk to himself. 🙃 The thing about digital (like in DSP) pedals is that they're kinda unserviceable, and will be even more with time, since chips will evolve and older models with be off market. Kinda like those old bucket brigade chips. But it will be faster.
When you film all alone, sometimes the intrusive thoughts win. Agreed on DSP, I have a fear of any product that requires a phone app to get the full feature set. It's not a guarantee that phones will even look like phones in a very short amount of time. The UI could change completely in the blink of an eye.
100%. Every analog amp and pedal can be easily repaired. Everything digital is a potential paperweight. I learned this in the 90's when a buddy bought the first line6 amp and it was a door stop in a year. I will buy nothing that requires usb or bluetooth. That's why boss is King. They are bullet proof and the pedal is complete.
Biggest pet peeve is probably not having a 9 volt battery option. There are times where i just want to grab one pedal and a headphone amp for a project and dont want to hunt down power cables or an adapter, or sometimes expand my board to have that 'one extra pedal that I dont have power cables for'
a mini pedal saves basically no space over a standard enclosure with top jacks. A medium enclosure (eg Strymon Bluesky) is effectively the same footprint as a standard enclosure with side jacks. TLDR everything should have top jacks
Totally agree ...with exception being boss style pedals. All pedals should be Boss style (ts9 enclosure is about ideal). But....they became "uncool" for sime reason, and then everyone had to have the steel button boxes, with some rando artsy paintjob / name...for that "boutique" look.. Beats me why... It is far better to stomp on a nice wide rubber padded plate, than to impale your foot on a steel button...,🤷♂️ ⏭️RANT TANGENT COMPLETE! ⏹️◻️◽▫️
They save a lot of space in storage which is nice for niche effects you rarely use but if it's something that's going to be on your pedalboard all the time then there's no space advantage.
@@lueyteledeluxe7457 agreed. i dont wear shoes around my home because im not a psychopath, i want a pedal that actually looks like a pedal in a car, not a spike.
I don't use them on big boards, but your comment isn't accurate. Minis can be very space saving. I made a living room board that's 10"x10" and has 8 pedals on it. My concern with the top jack trend is manufacturers aren't making sure there's enough room for standard pancake jacks, not to mention a power supply cable as well. This should go for all companies. No one is wiring up pedal boards with strait cables. I wish more manufactures would take a cue from mini pedals and off set the input, and output jacks.
Soft-touch switches that aren’t just “on” or “off.” Might not be a current trend but something that came and went, but it was there for a while. I had an OD with one of those and half the time it wouldn’t STAY on because I didn’t step on it the RIGHT way.
Internal dips and trims are a bonus - you can't break them by stepping on them. E.g. a bassist doesn't care about super lead mode. PS no one is fine with digiral pedals that have latency.
I'm pretty sure that most pedalheads dislike those teeny weenie plastic pots and internal switches and pots that could have easily been made accessible on the face or side of the pedal.
Making more of those extra pots and switches accessible on the face of a pedal is not easy. But the extra effort required to do so really goes a long way to help the end user.
Mini pedals are handy for Shoegazers who are constantly turning on and off 5 pedals at a time (and they’re cheaper than a custom programmable true-bypass strip), but I want the old days back again, when EHX were making literal Big Muffs!
Man, I started watching thinking I might agree with maybe one point and wound up agreeing with everything you said! But by FAR, my strongest agreement is over the internal trim pot/DIP switch issue. So you go to adjust and tweak, but unless you have the pedal hooked up and running ala Frankenstein with the case off, you don't get to hear the changes until the thing is put back together again. Pedal makers please take note: STOP PUTTING TRIM POT AND DIP SWITCH CONTROLS MEANT TO BE ADJUSTED BY THE USER INSIDE THE DAMNED CASE!!!!
Unlabeled functions is the big thing for me. Love, love my Meris Polymoon but the secondary modes of the time and multiply nobs are many and sometimes challenging to get the one I want. The two nobs have 16 different modes for each. Fantastic and ridiculous all at the same time.
That's all way too much fiddling for me. I like to find the best setting the pedal has to offer, set it there, and then leave it alone. Use it when you want that effect and shut it off the rest of the time. As for more details than necessary. I feel Aguilar is the worst at that. Their pedals, head, pre amps, all have 15 variables for a simple midrange control. I can't decide. So I'd rather not.
Few observations having owned hundreds over several decades; 1) I've little love for any of the classic drive circuits; I prefer boosts, and the right amp; 2) There's actually only a few Fuzz circuits that are different in any substantial regaurd; 3) Whatever effect is only as useful or limited as the player using it. 4)I haven't kept any complicated pedals with digital menu read outs. 5)Buffers and buffer placement matter 6) Digital and analog are preferable in different contexts. 7) Try not to buy the pedal's appearance over it's function.Some of the prettiest designs are both overpriced and mediocre.It was def a thing a few years back. 8) Don't worry which effect so and so used; they would laugh at you. 9) No pedal sounds good into the wrong amp for your purposes. 10) Power supply does matter. There is a lot of OCD / neurotic/ anal retentative behavior when it comes to gear in general.First and foremost, it's supposed to be fun, not tiresome work and worry.
Hey Danny, first time viewer here. Good stuff, I agree with your points entirely. I haven't been playing my whole life like most, but like most newbs I fiddled a lot with guitar growing up through the 90s and 00s, and then got busy trying to be an adult, and then the panny demmy hit and I thought what a great time to become a guitar Demi-god. I kid(about the Demi-god), but I have fully fallen in love with this form of expression/art, and I really would love to change my life and be involved in the industry one way or the other. Gonna check out more of your vids here shortly. Hope to find some good stuff you've created. Real quick, what's a good Dr. Scientist pedal to get my feet wet with? I was curious about The Elements. At the time I was looking for a dirt/drive and after seeing a bunch of info and demos with the EAE Longsword I picked that up, but I'm told one dirt is never enough and I'm still curious about The Elements. Thanks for your time, and have a great day.
Thanks for the comment, and watching the vid! If you're looking for a versatile drive, the Elements is a great choice. It can basically do a clean boost, to full blown metal distortion. It's a really clever circuit. Definitely can't go wrong there.
Couldn't agree more, if the pedal doesn't offer anything new what's the point? How many overdrive, distortion, fuzz, delay, chorus, reverb, tremolo, flanger or phaser pedals do we need? There's scuds of them out there. I salute companies like JHS incorporating 8 versions of a pedal in the one pedal, all selectable by the turn of a switch for example. With Modelling now being so good are the days of pedals numbered and we'll all just have our preferred floor MIDI controllers with as many switches as desired. Or perhaps the amazing Zoom pedals with up to 80 pedals rolled into one easy to control unit the same size as a single BOSS pedal? ATM it's mainly a market were there is now a pedal manufacturer to suit any budget providing for a no more excuses world.
Counterpoint, pedals with creative labels are cool, “fuzz” is synesthesia, and onomatopoeia : put more weird phrases and words on pedals, adjust the “squick” and the “glomp”
One of my pedal pet peeves is when pedal companies will do ‘limited editions’ of one their popular pedals when it’s the exact same pedal just a different color. They still sale the standard’ edition of the pedal but the ‘limited edition’ cost just a few more bucks for a different paint job.
One big reason to like mini-pedals...they travel easily. I don't formally 'gig' around the country but I have played select events from North Carolina to Michigan to Cleveland to Boston purely for fun, as an amateur, with the 2 bands I belong to. Taking my large multi-effects system is nearly impossible with just a carry-on. However, I can easily disassemble my mini-pedal board and take select pedals by cramming them into my backpack or carry-on suitcase. So - mini-pedals travel more easily and conveniently than full-sized pedals or large multi-effects boards. Pet-peeve - high prices as @v.k.7463 said below.
Who needs mini pedals? 😂 I just switched over my pedal board to using a guitar hard case and I will never go back. It fits so many more pedals that I finally have separate signals chains for left and right. It fits spare pedals and cables, and theres no need to waste time mounting new pedals with velcro because its carpeted. I can swap pedals out or change pedal order quickly, and when it gets all dirty from shoe grime, I can easily vacuum it out. Don't knock it til you try it.
I gotta say, I was ready to be all angry at you, but everything you said is spot on. Even if some of the not boring pedals I love have ambiguous knob labels. Because I also hate having to open my phone and pull up the manual that I've downloaded because I couldn't remember what the X knob does in Program 3.
Hmm.. that "Dirty Little Secret" pedal was so into that "secret". Maybe they put those two secrets inside (for you to find out). If CatalinBread put it outside, it's not a dirty little secret anymore. 😅 Just sayin'.
Mini pedals really aren't really a trend TBH. Totally agree on trim pots and dip switches: If it's worth giving you the option, put it on the outside and if not, just fix the value/option. Secondary functions that you need the manual for are really just found in those fancy expensive digital pedals. Unlabelled controls are sort of OK up to 3 knobs, especially if laid out logically. Witty names for the labels are cool as long as you can identify what it all means (e.g. I can live with stuff like "glass" or "body", but whatever the hell "breaking", "entering" and "the goods" is on the Poison Noises Crook, eff me...), but overall I wouldn't call it a trend as it really appears with a couple of small boutique brands and otherwise was a thing in some 90s/2000s pedals. Boring pedals are in the eyes of the beholder and innovation for the sake of doing something else or new doesn't necessarily birth something amazing. Yes the Chase Bliss pedals are cool, but they are too expensive for the average Joe and realistically speaking mostly usable in ambient or shoegaze applications. When it comes down to what pedals are used extensively across a variety of genres in all kinds of rigs, you'll always see rats, tubescreamers, basic delays and reverbs, etc. This is not to say "dear pedal companies, we need yet another uninspired tubescreamer", but only so many people will ever have a real use for something that makes your guitar sound like the vinyl recording of a ring-modulated didgeridoo in a sewer. Overall good takes with some caveats! If I could give one it's new companies making themselves look premium with custom enclosures or knobs that don't contribute anything to the functionality or tone of the pedals and putting in big cash to do marketing, just to sell things like basic or minimally tweaked fuzzes or Timmy clones 300 or more euros/dollars/pounds. Right now it's very easy to produce professional looking and sounding pedals, but the markup is kinda crazy considering there is little to no hands-on work going into a lot of the boutique pedals anymore. Proprietary tech and actual digital development I totally get (Chase Bliss etc.), but no analog dirt pedal should ever cost more than 200 currencies.
My unpopular opinion is we have overshot the mark on pedals. I don’t want a soundscape generator in a box where you can’t hear what I’m actually playing.
I'm actually really into unlabelled functions. I've got two RATs and I'm still not entirely certain what "Filter" does, it means you have to use your ears rather than rationale and I like that a lot
It's a high pass filter. Turning it down blocks the high frequencies that are allowed to pass. Think of it like a ten band eq, and every time you turn it down you are sliding the sliders down on your graphic eq right to left for every "number" on the filter knob but basically only till half way through the frequency spectrum. it doesn't effect the lower 5 bands. It doesn't boost the high either. So visualizing it on the graphic eq, your sliders would be flat undil the mid range area at which point the slope downwards when the filter is turned down, or flat when the knob is open all the way. But never up. With the filter knob all the way open you are only getting the natural high end and not boosted high end. That's not the actual explanation but the gist. Normal tone pots like DS-1 will cut high and boost low when you turn it one way and boost high and cut low when you turn it the other. So if it were the graphic eq scenario a "normal" tone knob will have a straight angle either sloping from right to left or left to right straight across the eq. That's why the boss DS-1 is only useable between ten and two oclock on the tone knob. Because if it's all the way bass side it's zero treble and all bass, or all treble no bass, so only the middle section of the eq blends.
Point B first : Earthquaker Devices pedal names drive me nuts and for that stupid reason alone I will never buy one. Point B - The nub and thrust if you will : As an old man I miss, in a way, those days in the '70s when I had a Distortion+, a Dyna-Comp and a Micro Amp and they only had 5 knobs between the 3 of 'em. I love my Fat Fuzz Factory and my too many Origin Effects and Thorpy pedals (and all the other stuff I've bought as presents for myself for being a good boy) and I will always return to Stratocasters but sometimes a Distortion+ and a Les Paul Junior is just perfect. Enjoyed the video. Subbed.
Pet peeve is standard pedal sizes with two foot switches. They are so close together, my big hoofs can't hit only one switch. I'm look at you Walrus and JHS - love your gear but two switches require a larger pedal enclosure. Oh, you want examples? OK, Bad = JHS AT+, Emperor, Kodiak etc...; Walrus Slo, Mako series, and the new 385, Jam Pedals Delay llama V3, Harmonius Monk 2. Good dual switchers: Jam Ripply fall, Double Dreamer, JHS Double Barrel and JHS Sweet Tea, Browne Protein, Hudson Broadcast etc...
I dunno, the smaller pedals are absolutely useful sometimes. Often the circuitry is identical to a larger casing version and it opens up more space on the board as well as cut down on the weight. The extra board space doesn't have to be then crammed full of as many pedals as possible...but it allows you to rearrange pedals in different ways, especially always-on pedals, you can fit an extra pedal or two if necessary without causing any problems for your big boots etc.
I got a mini pedal for my tuner which I really appreciated actually because the normal size would not fit. Now everything is comfortably on the board and I haven't upgraded in years. Also new pedals can be hard because it's far easier to end up with a gimmick than a real game changer. Washy ambient tone pedals come and go while the Whammy completely changed guitar music only within a few years after its launch.
1. Top jacks and low-profile cable ends are far better solutions than mini pedals. As far as big pedals. Width doesn’t bother me, but I hate when a pedal is longer than a boss pedal and slips into a third row of a pedal train. 2. Agree. Even with the hi-cut switch on the side of the jHS morning glory. I still have to take it off my pedalboard and get a pen to stick in there and switch it. 3. Agree. To me this is an even bigger issue on DAW plugins. I want to know what it is I’m changing. 4. Disagree. I just want to be able to get the sound I imagine. I’m not looking to spend more time tweaking. I rather experiment with the instrument itself.
I broke one Catalinbread pedal because of those damn trimpots. The delay distortion blend was a trimpot... WTF ? Common Catalinbread, just add a button on the face !!!
Ive busted soany mini pedals, its bonkers. A bad trend: Pedals that try to do 5+ mediocre things, rather than 1-2 things very well. Pedals that look & sound boring/the same. No Boss DS1, a Jim Dunlop Fat Sandwich for me
1. Ditto looper is the only acceptable mini pedal IMO 2. I agree DLS should definitely have had the switch and pot on the outside, or at least have gone the effectrode / drybell route with holes pre-drilled in the chassis sides to adjust the trimmers. 3. To be fair to Strymon, their small box pedals did come with a little card showing the secondary functions if I recall correctly - in some ways it's nicer than littering the front with too many tiny pots. 4. I miss all my moogerfoogers. Those things write songs and riffs on their own! 5. Great video!
I don’t own any mini pedals anymore :) I just found I prefer the normal foot size! Plus you get more options with the bigger stuff :) I like to stick to the standard Boss size
Well Chase Bliss at least puts the dip switches outside the pedal so you don't have to open the enclosure to access them. It is very clear that you're intended to use them and they are easy to access.
I like having a bias control on fuzz pedals, but I hate when its an internal trim pot as im going to adjust it quite often depending on the song. Chase bliss has done dipswitches right with all of them on the outside of the enclosure. I dont adjust them very often on my mood mk2, but when I do its easy.
My list: 1. Top mount jacks (I have a narrow board and a wide foot) 2. All the crappy power supplies I bought before selling a kidney and finally getting Cioks 3. Big, badly placed midi plugs 4. Solderless patch cables 5. Patch cables I soldered myself 6. The alphabet on 7-seg displays (cheers Boss)
Agree with the Mini Pedals. They don't take up a lot of space, but if you are trying to actually step on a pedal while playing, you have to sort of tip-toe on the pedal board. I want to just step on something real quick and not miss.
Some pedals have top jacks but power on the side. Kind of defeats the purpose lol. I think top jacks and mix/blend knobs should be the standard. Don’t mind mini pedals at all. Pedals with too many functions are usually no fun after the novelty wears off. Oh, and I refuse to pay 500$ for a simple effect. Prices are crazy high. A lot of boutique stuff just isn’t worth the hype.
Eh... love trimpots and dipswitches. Disagree on that one. The talking one after... depends on the creator. Need both to make a clear picture. Especially when it comes to what type of circuit something is... or what is coming out... or if someone has a hot take. (Which is really rare, because almost none of the pedal creators speak like normal people. Love to hear a well placed "fuck off" every now and then).
I can't disagree with anything you said. You are spot on. My biggest pet peeve is to do with myself. I tend to buy Strymon pedals that I'm too dumb to figure out. And when I get sick of trying to figure out the last one I bought, I go buy another Strymon that is equally or even more enigmatic. Okay, done.
People complain about menu diving but I think that's always preferable to pedals with a lot of unlabeled secondary functions. I always have to pull up the manual every time I use them because I forget how to use them every time I use them. I would love screen on those types of pedals. I absolutely agree about pedal manufacturers making boring pedals. I rarely buy pedals anymore because everything is just a clone of something else and the only thing setting it apart is some small tweak that can be achieved by messing with the knobs on your guitar or amp.
Knobs came in and made the absolute best pedal demos. Andertons paved the way for podcasty pedal demos, but I don't think people watched Andertons for quality demos, but because of their onscreen chemistry... I think the wrong lessons were learned in both cases. I like having a few minipedals, but agree that if compromises must be made to fit them into small enclosures, then perhaps it shouldn't be in a small enclosure. I haven't the patience to mess about with trim pots, so if I can't access a pedal's ideal sound from the front, I probably won't bother using the pedal and just go with something else
I also agree I should talk less and play more haha. I absolutely love stumbling onto weird and/or awful sounds, like a cocked wah into an octave fuzz self-oscillating, weird ring mod stuff. Zoning out in pads of ambient guitar
I bought an ehx good vibes off reverb, it has an internal trim pot that caps the rate/speed of the chorus/vibe. i didnt know that and first thought it was just a really subtle pedal, then i watched vids of other people playing their good vibes and though mine was broken. i found the pot and set it well, but that never should have been a thing imo. internal settings are kinda bs, agree.
The truth that you seem to be missing about trim pots is this: Not all of them are meant to be adjusted by metal screwdrivers. In fact, you will discover many are immediately affected by anything metal in close proximity. So when you make an adjustment, and then remove the metal screwdriver it will behave differently than when the screwdriver was making the adjustment. There are ceramic screwdrivers that you use to adjust these. Yes, this is a real thing, I’ve repaired radios and built synthesizers myself. I always thought the nano pedals were for synth users.
To challenge your position a bit: when you say you don’t like it when pedals have ambiguous names for controls, but you like the mystery of not knowing how to use a pedal because it inspires creativity, I believe usually the first is done to accomplish the second. However, I’d say for tried and true classic sounds/effects, convention is best. Newer designs/types of pedals fare better with ambiguous names.
Lasik eye surgery LEDs you shouldn't need recycled eclipse glasses to look at your pedal. Aluminum. Folded, bent, rolled. Don't like it, no sir, not one bit.I want cast boxes. Top mounted jacks. If you do this make sure there's enough room for the cables. You can't fit pancake plugs,and power supply in a lot of pedals lookin' @u E.Q.D.
I have too many pedals. I don’t care for secondary functions. I want straight forward easy to use gear. I just got the Boss GT1 it is replacing everything sounds great less filling
Danny's 5-year follow-up video of Worst Effect Pedal Trends includes Chase Bliss for having too many useless options: too many knobs and dipswitches that slow you down.
Jesus, I agreed with everything that you said. Spot on. Great... The revolution always come from someone who was not from the field. Leo Fender and Mike Mathews from EHX
There is something way worse than mini pedals which are pedals with a case the size of a MXR pedal with two footswitches. You just can't use that with your feet at all, unless is the only pedal in the board.
Agreed on all fronts. You Canadian? Guessing by the Frank Brothers AND the Leprechaun FX pedal ;) - both sweet, by the way. FBG is a "grail" guitar for me.
1. Mini pedals: HARD disagree. While I have often noted that human feet have a certain size range, and this limits how closely one can practically place footswitches, mini pedals serve a valuable place in the pedal spectrum, and can often make the difference in fitting that one effect you need, and not being able to fit it on the board. While some might say, "just use a bigger board", there are limits to what you can bring on an airplane, and if you are flying with your instrument, then your pedalboard has to fit in an underseat "personal item". Most airlines limit you to a bag no larger than 18" x 14" x 8", so the most practical size board is about 385 mm x 290 mm (15.15" x 11.41"), which is just large enough to fit four standard pedals across and two deep, leaving just enough room for cable ends not to overhang the board, protecting them in transit. The judicious use of the occasional mini pedal will allow you to fit 5 pedals across, and still leave enough room to step on them cleanly, though it will be admittedly a bit tight. That difference between 8 pedals and 10 pedals can make or break a song. If you want to go bigger than that, you are either going to need to fly your instrument or your pedalboard, or both, as checked baggage, and if you haven't seen what TSA pretty commonly does to pedalboards, you should look into it. The only marginally safe way to transport an instrument or pedalboard as checked baggage involves great expense on bulletproof flight cases and paying for oversize/excess baggage fees, and possibly overweight baggage fees, as well, which is a nightmare. And even packing an instrument or pedalboard carefully in a flight case doesn't guarantee it will arrive in one piece, unmolested and undamaged. These considerations also apply in large part to musicians who are travelling by train or public transit, or who live in a city and cannot transport large pedalboards by car to gigs. The "airline underseat" size is totally unserved by the commercial pedalboard market, for reasons I cannot fathom, but it's a useful constraint for a wide variety of musicians, even ones who aren't flying their gear on passenger airlines. Gigging musicians, especially travelling and urban ones, aren't trying to build the biggest rigs they can imagine, only amateur hobbyists who play primarily at home and/or can depend upon private vehicles to transport their gear do that. Gigging musicians know that every piece of gear is a potential point of failure, and that every piece of gear is a piece of gear that slows us down or weighs us down getting to and from the gig, and getting on and off stage, so we try to reduce our rigs to the least number of pieces possible and the smallest and lightest weight possible, that is consistent with the musical purpose they serve, for ease of transport.
8:50 I'm not even from or in the US, but even I know this means you're a midwesterner because you haven't said or done even one single offensive thing. No one could possibly be offended by anything in this video! I have this fantastic lo-fi reverb pedal from 'Orion Effekte' called 'Kafka' but even with Gaffer's tape on the insane blue LED I can't use my pedalboard in a dark-ish room. The light spills through the sides and makes the whole pedalboard painfully bright!
Right there with you on trimpots and dip-switches. Naming no names, I have a pedal that has diode clipping on two separate internal dip-switches. Super frustrating.
I dont need a 10minute pedal video where the adjustments made on the knobs are so small that the compression of audio youtube uses wouldnt pickup anyway. More short videos on pedals especially when the pedal only really has 2-3 knobs
yes the mini pedals suck sometimes...i like to have big knobs i can really grab onto...uh some people like that....not me but yeah stop with the small pedals already
This is why I waited until this year before buying an Expandora pedal, LOL! I read that ZZ Top had 2 on the board to cover their sounds without having to play with dip switches.
What do you think? What are your pedal pet peeves?
Blue LEDs. They blind me.
@@DanFalck haha when I was building my own pedals I spent a bunch of time trying to find out what resistor to use to make the blue as bright as possible. Regret.
@@DannyUnderwoodI’ve spent too much time with Sharpies and paint trying to tame those without fkn up the pedal.
I agree the internal pots can be annoying. I like that JHS sometimes adds switches on the sides. I’d happily take an extra switch or knob on the side or top than have to open up the whole pedal just to tweak the presence knob 🤦🏻♂️
My personal peeves are side jacks and super loud/stiff switches. If it’s a killer pedal with side jacks I’ll squeeze it in, but if I ever have to put two side jack pedals next to each other on my board I usually have to kick something else off. And my wife makes fun of me for hearing my loud pedal clicks from across the house when I’m “silently practicing” 😅
i don’t like how almost every pedal that has a tone knob is just a low pass filter… we already have that on our guitars. i like spectrum knob on the nobles odr1, so many more possibilities with so little. just thinking a little harder
EVERYONE says that they want the new pedals, but every year, every pedal company sells thousands and thousands of tube screamer clones.
You mean OD-1 clones 😛 th-cam.com/users/shortsCRxm9JHRUiU
I hate Tube Screamers. Lulz!
@@CerealDust-nStuff I like mine! I play an ac15, and it sounds great with a ts pushing it
I use a multi fx unit so no one knows I have a tube screamer running in every single patch
@@CerealDust-nStuff tube screamers don't work for me, I have a marshall SV20 and I have the mids at 8, treble at 6 and bass at 7, with the normal usually higher than treble, so I already have tons of mids, so my pedals are all flat eq or mid cut
also they're all technically fuzzes which is kind of funny, I have a fuzz face acting as a normal fuzz, then a big muff which is a fuzz pretending to be your normal metal distortion, then a past fx powerbooster which is basically a fuzz pretending to be an overdrive pedal
the fuzz face and powerbooster being flat eq and the muff being mid cut
I usually use my amp as a foudation for eq, with eq on my distortion morso just acting as a balancer so the distortion sounds right, I also have an eq pedal that's mid cut with the treble boosted a bit so I can sit in the background during rhythm
"Music is not perfect so neither should the gear" is perfect for this video.
My biggest pedal pet peeve is “”””boutique”””” companies switching their manufacturing method from through hole and handmade to machine assembled SMT without at least lowering the price.
This is a tough one, I know first hand that costs of manufacturing has increased significantly, and hireable labour for manufacturing at scale is trained for SMT. It may not be a large cost savings any more to move from through hole to SMT - but to your point, some more transparency would be good. Be honest with your customer as to why you make big changes!
@@DannyUnderwood precisely!
Preach!
SMT manufacturing costs are inflated due to aerospace and military customers. No reason to make luxury consumer goods when you could take a similar contract from Uncle Sam who will pay 100 times as much and not even notice. The machine assembly part also isn't any cheaper unless you have huge volumes, which is just not going to be done domestically.
@@DannyUnderwoodSMT also has a much better signal to noise ratio due to not being one huge antenna
I had to laugh about point 4, since I just played with a Caroline Guitar Company pedal yesterday that I have not used in quite some time. They use icons instead of words to label the buttons, and I could not really figure out anything quickly.
I would add 3 items to the list:
- lamps being far too bright (blinding, and making it impossible to read any knob positions in common stage light scenarios)
- knobs having no clearly visible indication of their actual position (look at e.g. the new Keeley 4-in-1 pedals, beautiful but unreadable even in good light)
- not having clear markings for power requirements on the device (Volts, Amperes, and polarity should not require guesswork or opening a thread on the Gear Page)
Those new fender pedals have blindingly bright on/off lights!
Totally agree. Looking at the pedals I have in view nearly half of them have tape over the LEDs because they are so blindingly bright in a dark studio.
I have one of those 10 in 1 modulation pedals that has a LED that's way too bright, the knobs have no visible indications, the LED is the same color as the pedal, and manages to top everything off by making the labels white when the pedal is already a light green color. Even off, it's hard to read but when it's turned on, it may as well be blank.
@@fallenshallrise
I remember when people were having their pedals modded, to have those bright LED’s put in their pedals.
Your third point is ON FREAKING POINT!!!
The pedal trend which cured my addiction to pedals is the pricing - from $60-$80 in my early days of playing to $300-plus. I sold my massive collection of pedals and settled down with a Mooer Red Truck.
And none worth more than 10$
On the other hand we now have Aliexpress pedals that are really good for a cheap price too. Demonfx pedals for example are suprisingly good.
strong agree about internal dips and trimmers. most of em are settings I really wish were external controls and wouldn't mind a bigger physical pedal to make it happen.
I feel like I really ragged on Catalinbread here I completely neglected to mention they have a deluxe version of the Dirty Little Secret now and it looks pretty sweet.
Internal dips & trimmers on pedals are stupid! Put the controls that the user will adjust to work with their rig on the outside of the pedal. The fuzz pedal that is currently on my pedalboard as my main dirt sound has just a volume knob on the outside of the pedal but an internal trimmer for the gain. I’ve never adjusted the internal trimmer on that fuzz pedal because when I first used it I liked the way it sounded with my guitar and amp but the manufacturer manual said that the one control knob on the outside was for volume & that the gain control was a internal trimmer.
@@NerdGasimsSome settings shouldnt be open to just everyone.
My number one pet peeve is not knowing what the pedal does by the name of the pedal.
Delay pedal knob names drive me crazy. Mix, Time, Repeats. Can’t we just agree on something.
Regen
Loopers
Delay?
Let me show you Fuzz Factory to drive you even further.
But Mix, Time, and Repeats are all different functions🤷🏻♂️
I'm getting really sick of digital pedals whose knobs have secondary and even tertiary functions. It's annoying having to guess what all of the settings are (just as you showed with the El Capistan). Meris and Alexander pedals come to mind.
Manufacturers: Take a cue from the Boss 500 series and add a &?$%ing screen so we can see clearly see all of the settings!
You earned a sub just because you’re one of the the kids who came after us.
I was just starting to play shows the year you were born. I’ve been thru many, many types and trends of gear.
What I can tell you is gear doesn’t matter, and there is more great gear available now than there ever has been.
Old gear ISN’T better. It’s just old. You can makeyour sound with anything.
My pedal pet peeves? The whole ‘vintage’ market. It’s a distortion. You can get that EXACT same sound 100 ways if you tried and seriously, no one cares. Why are you wasting money? There is no piece of guitar gear that should cost as much as a custom shop guitar. Aaaaaaaaaand….all the tones that are being recreated were done with the cheapest stuff around. Remember, we’re guitar players. We have no money. I used the same Boss DF-2 since 1989.
Going to play a show next week with it.
It’s never really about the gear. Your tone is right there, just keep playing and it’ll get better and better.
I'm coming for you! Thanks for the sub!!!
Yeah, Matt, back in the day, we took our tubes down to the drugstore and ran them through the tube tester. Whichever ones were bad, we threw away and bought whatever the guy had on hand. Didn't look at the brands, didn't look at the plates, didn't look at the bottle, just whatever the guy had there, we bought.
Selling the same box multiple times with different firmware. Lookin’ at you UA. Also blue LEDs are evil incarnate.
P&P. Preset and paint job. Sell the same pedal to the same people 5 or 6 times.
That's because the R&D investment goes into the software, not so much the hardware. Developing software isn't cheap.
What's the matter with blue leds???
@@guillemdc They are painful to look at , and I *do* have sensory issues, but I am far from alone in hating them.
@@mooseymoose interesting! I had never heard of that. I make pedals and I always put LEDs that have the same colors as the knobs. I never knew some people are bothered by led colors!
Biggest pet peeve by far is how many manufacturers put in NO protection for people accidentally plugging in the wrong voltage or polarity. Judging by the number of panicked posts to reddit, this happens way too often. Plenty of ways exist to protect against this that are not expensive. And no, it doesn't count if your protection scheme involves a blown diode that has to be soldered. To the 99% of guitarists who DON'T know electronics repair, that's as much a dead pedal as if the rest of it fried.
To that point, why dont they all just use a center ground adapter?
This is a very good point. Also over-voltage protection. Some pedals lurrrve the 18 volts instead of 9 and some... Just blow up
I'd love to have pedals with controls labeled "Butt" and other creative names.
There are, like the fart pedal... They're amusing for all of 5 minutes and then you just want to get back to creating good music.
Digitech
Controversial is one thing, but it gets really weird when the TH-camr decides to write a dialogue and talk to himself. 🙃
The thing about digital (like in DSP) pedals is that they're kinda unserviceable, and will be even more with time, since chips will evolve and older models with be off market. Kinda like those old bucket brigade chips. But it will be faster.
When you film all alone, sometimes the intrusive thoughts win. Agreed on DSP, I have a fear of any product that requires a phone app to get the full feature set. It's not a guarantee that phones will even look like phones in a very short amount of time. The UI could change completely in the blink of an eye.
@@DannyUnderwood Agreed 100%. Also, why the hell do I need more reasons to be on my phone, lol.
100%. Every analog amp and pedal can be easily repaired. Everything digital is a potential paperweight. I learned this in the 90's when a buddy bought the first line6 amp and it was a door stop in a year. I will buy nothing that requires usb or bluetooth. That's why boss is King. They are bullet proof and the pedal is complete.
Biggest pet peeve is probably not having a 9 volt battery option. There are times where i just want to grab one pedal and a headphone amp for a project and dont want to hunt down power cables or an adapter, or sometimes expand my board to have that 'one extra pedal that I dont have power cables for'
You are completely right about everything. Congrats.
screenshotting this and sending to my mom. lol
a mini pedal saves basically no space over a standard enclosure with top jacks. A medium enclosure (eg Strymon Bluesky) is effectively the same footprint as a standard enclosure with side jacks. TLDR everything should have top jacks
Totally agree ...with exception being boss style pedals.
All pedals should be Boss style (ts9 enclosure is about ideal).
But....they became "uncool" for sime reason, and then everyone had to have the steel button boxes, with some rando artsy paintjob / name...for that "boutique" look..
Beats me why... It is far better to stomp on a nice wide rubber padded plate, than to impale your foot on a steel button...,🤷♂️
⏭️RANT TANGENT COMPLETE! ⏹️◻️◽▫️
They save a lot of space in storage which is nice for niche effects you rarely use but if it's something that's going to be on your pedalboard all the time then there's no space advantage.
@@lueyteledeluxe7457 agreed. i dont wear shoes around my home because im not a psychopath, i want a pedal that actually looks like a pedal in a car, not a spike.
For me, it's that mini sized pedals can't use batteries.
I don't use them on big boards, but your comment isn't accurate. Minis can be very space saving. I made a living room board that's 10"x10" and has 8 pedals on it. My concern with the top jack trend is manufacturers aren't making sure there's enough room for standard pancake jacks, not to mention a power supply cable as well. This should go for all companies. No one is wiring up pedal boards with strait cables. I wish more manufactures would take a cue from mini pedals and off set the input, and output jacks.
ban trims and dips.
How many overdrive do we need and the names for them are getting dumber and dumber.
"ElectroShart Therapy classic overdrive"
Soft-touch switches that aren’t just “on” or “off.” Might not be a current trend but something that came and went, but it was there for a while. I had an OD with one of those and half the time it wouldn’t STAY on because I didn’t step on it the RIGHT way.
Earthquaker Plumes has it and I hate it
@@intelligentmastermined That’s the one, yep.
Internal dips and trims are a bonus - you can't break them by stepping on them.
E.g. a bassist doesn't care about super lead mode.
PS no one is fine with digiral pedals that have latency.
There's no such thing as latency - it's factory-set pre-delay!
I'm pretty sure that most pedalheads dislike those teeny weenie plastic pots and internal switches and pots that could have easily been made accessible on the face or side of the pedal.
Making more of those extra pots and switches accessible on the face of a pedal is not easy. But the extra effort required to do so really goes a long way to help the end user.
Everyone needs to agree if the input/output jacks are on the top or the side and just do that.
Yea this was an amazing take. This is the kind of outlook we need in the musician world. Who cares, get weird embrace the absurdity that is life.
How could you say some things so controversial yet so true??
The truest stuff hurts the most 🥲
Mini pedals are handy for Shoegazers who are constantly turning on and off 5 pedals at a time (and they’re cheaper than a custom programmable true-bypass strip), but I want the old days back again, when EHX were making literal Big Muffs!
Man, I started watching thinking I might agree with maybe one point and wound up agreeing with everything you said! But by FAR, my strongest agreement is over the internal trim pot/DIP switch issue. So you go to adjust and tweak, but unless you have the pedal hooked up and running ala Frankenstein with the case off, you don't get to hear the changes until the thing is put back together again. Pedal makers please take note: STOP PUTTING TRIM POT AND DIP SWITCH CONTROLS MEANT TO BE ADJUSTED BY THE USER INSIDE THE DAMNED CASE!!!!
I'm just here to call out the Olly Moss Star Wars print set - nice work.
HELL YEAH! Represent!
Unlabeled functions is the big thing for me. Love, love my Meris Polymoon but the secondary modes of the time and multiply nobs are many and sometimes challenging to get the one I want. The two nobs have 16 different modes for each. Fantastic and ridiculous all at the same time.
That's all way too much fiddling for me. I like to find the best setting the pedal has to offer, set it there, and then leave it alone. Use it when you want that effect and shut it off the rest of the time. As for more details than necessary. I feel Aguilar is the worst at that. Their pedals, head, pre amps, all have 15 variables for a simple midrange control. I can't decide. So I'd rather not.
Well said! I constantly feel the push pull of options vs simplicity.
Can’t wait to crank the bias knob on all my gear! 🎉
Few observations having owned hundreds over several decades;
1) I've little love for any of the classic drive circuits; I prefer boosts, and the right amp;
2) There's actually only a few Fuzz circuits that are different in any substantial regaurd;
3) Whatever effect is only as useful or limited as the player using it.
4)I haven't kept any complicated pedals with digital menu read outs.
5)Buffers and buffer placement matter
6) Digital and analog are preferable in different contexts.
7) Try not to buy the pedal's appearance over it's function.Some of the prettiest designs are both overpriced and mediocre.It was def a thing a few years back.
8) Don't worry which effect so and so used; they would laugh at you.
9) No pedal sounds good into the wrong amp for your purposes.
10) Power supply does matter.
There is a lot of OCD / neurotic/ anal retentative behavior when it comes to gear in general.First and foremost, it's supposed to be fun, not tiresome work and worry.
Hey Danny, first time viewer here. Good stuff, I agree with your points entirely. I haven't been playing my whole life like most, but like most newbs I fiddled a lot with guitar growing up through the 90s and 00s, and then got busy trying to be an adult, and then the panny demmy hit and I thought what a great time to become a guitar Demi-god. I kid(about the Demi-god), but I have fully fallen in love with this form of expression/art, and I really would love to change my life and be involved in the industry one way or the other. Gonna check out more of your vids here shortly. Hope to find some good stuff you've created. Real quick, what's a good Dr. Scientist pedal to get my feet wet with? I was curious about The Elements. At the time I was looking for a dirt/drive and after seeing a bunch of info and demos with the EAE Longsword I picked that up, but I'm told one dirt is never enough and I'm still curious about The Elements. Thanks for your time, and have a great day.
Thanks for the comment, and watching the vid! If you're looking for a versatile drive, the Elements is a great choice. It can basically do a clean boost, to full blown metal distortion. It's a really clever circuit. Definitely can't go wrong there.
Couldn't agree more, if the pedal doesn't offer anything new what's the point? How many overdrive, distortion, fuzz, delay, chorus, reverb, tremolo, flanger or phaser pedals do we need? There's scuds of them out there. I salute companies like JHS incorporating 8 versions of a pedal in the one pedal, all selectable by the turn of a switch for example. With Modelling now being so good are the days of pedals numbered and we'll all just have our preferred floor MIDI controllers with as many switches as desired. Or perhaps the amazing Zoom pedals with up to 80 pedals rolled into one easy to control unit the same size as a single BOSS pedal? ATM it's mainly a market were there is now a pedal manufacturer to suit any budget providing for a no more excuses world.
Counterpoint, pedals with creative labels are cool, “fuzz” is synesthesia, and onomatopoeia : put more weird phrases and words on pedals, adjust the “squick” and the “glomp”
100% would turn up the glomp
ok now i understand why i can't have a bias knob on the back of my marshall
One of my pedal pet peeves is when pedal companies will do ‘limited editions’ of one their popular pedals when it’s the exact same pedal just a different color. They still sale the standard’ edition of the pedal but the ‘limited edition’ cost just a few more bucks for a different paint job.
Then just buy the original. I don't get it.
This was a good ribbing.
Ribbed for your pl… nah I’m not going there.
@@DannyUnderwood LMAO.
Omfg the trim pot thing. I don't enjoy taking my pedals aoart just to adjust a feature.
One big reason to like mini-pedals...they travel easily. I don't formally 'gig' around the country but I have played select events from North Carolina to Michigan to Cleveland to Boston purely for fun, as an amateur, with the 2 bands I belong to. Taking my large multi-effects system is nearly impossible with just a carry-on. However, I can easily disassemble my mini-pedal board and take select pedals by cramming them into my backpack or carry-on suitcase. So - mini-pedals travel more easily and conveniently than full-sized pedals or large multi-effects boards.
Pet-peeve - high prices as @v.k.7463 said below.
Multieffect pedals without an effect loop so you are forced to use it with the included amp models
Who needs mini pedals? 😂 I just switched over my pedal board to using a guitar hard case and I will never go back. It fits so many more pedals that I finally have separate signals chains for left and right. It fits spare pedals and cables, and theres no need to waste time mounting new pedals with velcro because its carpeted. I can swap pedals out or change pedal order quickly, and when it gets all dirty from shoe grime, I can easily vacuum it out. Don't knock it til you try it.
I gotta say, I was ready to be all angry at you, but everything you said is spot on. Even if some of the not boring pedals I love have ambiguous knob labels. Because I also hate having to open my phone and pull up the manual that I've downloaded because I couldn't remember what the X knob does in Program 3.
Hmm.. that "Dirty Little Secret" pedal was so into that "secret". Maybe they put those two secrets inside (for you to find out). If CatalinBread put it outside, it's not a dirty little secret anymore. 😅 Just sayin'.
"must" seems like a strong word 🤔🤔
You MUST subscribe! 😬 thanks for watching!
Mini pedals really aren't really a trend TBH. Totally agree on trim pots and dip switches: If it's worth giving you the option, put it on the outside and if not, just fix the value/option. Secondary functions that you need the manual for are really just found in those fancy expensive digital pedals. Unlabelled controls are sort of OK up to 3 knobs, especially if laid out logically. Witty names for the labels are cool as long as you can identify what it all means (e.g. I can live with stuff like "glass" or "body", but whatever the hell "breaking", "entering" and "the goods" is on the Poison Noises Crook, eff me...), but overall I wouldn't call it a trend as it really appears with a couple of small boutique brands and otherwise was a thing in some 90s/2000s pedals. Boring pedals are in the eyes of the beholder and innovation for the sake of doing something else or new doesn't necessarily birth something amazing. Yes the Chase Bliss pedals are cool, but they are too expensive for the average Joe and realistically speaking mostly usable in ambient or shoegaze applications. When it comes down to what pedals are used extensively across a variety of genres in all kinds of rigs, you'll always see rats, tubescreamers, basic delays and reverbs, etc. This is not to say "dear pedal companies, we need yet another uninspired tubescreamer", but only so many people will ever have a real use for something that makes your guitar sound like the vinyl recording of a ring-modulated didgeridoo in a sewer.
Overall good takes with some caveats! If I could give one it's new companies making themselves look premium with custom enclosures or knobs that don't contribute anything to the functionality or tone of the pedals and putting in big cash to do marketing, just to sell things like basic or minimally tweaked fuzzes or Timmy clones 300 or more euros/dollars/pounds. Right now it's very easy to produce professional looking and sounding pedals, but the markup is kinda crazy considering there is little to no hands-on work going into a lot of the boutique pedals anymore. Proprietary tech and actual digital development I totally get (Chase Bliss etc.), but no analog dirt pedal should ever cost more than 200 currencies.
I agree 100% - I dislike Mini-pedals and Internal trim-pots & dip-switches.
My unpopular opinion is we have overshot the mark on pedals. I don’t want a soundscape generator in a box where you can’t hear what I’m actually playing.
You say "you can press 2 or 3 at once" as a downside of mini pedals, but I see that as an advantage!
I'm actually really into unlabelled functions. I've got two RATs and I'm still not entirely certain what "Filter" does, it means you have to use your ears rather than rationale and I like that a lot
It's a high pass filter. Turning it down blocks the high frequencies that are allowed to pass. Think of it like a ten band eq, and every time you turn it down you are sliding the sliders down on your graphic eq right to left for every "number" on the filter knob but basically only till half way through the frequency spectrum. it doesn't effect the lower 5 bands. It doesn't boost the high either. So visualizing it on the graphic eq, your sliders would be flat undil the mid range area at which point the slope downwards when the filter is turned down, or flat when the knob is open all the way. But never up. With the filter knob all the way open you are only getting the natural high end and not boosted high end. That's not the actual explanation but the gist. Normal tone pots like DS-1 will cut high and boost low when you turn it one way and boost high and cut low when you turn it the other. So if it were the graphic eq scenario a "normal" tone knob will have a straight angle either sloping from right to left or left to right straight across the eq. That's why the boss DS-1 is only useable between ten and two oclock on the tone knob. Because if it's all the way bass side it's zero treble and all bass, or all treble no bass, so only the middle section of the eq blends.
Point B first : Earthquaker Devices pedal names drive me nuts and for that stupid reason alone I will never buy one.
Point B - The nub and thrust if you will : As an old man I miss, in a way, those days in the '70s when I had a Distortion+, a Dyna-Comp and a Micro Amp and they only had 5 knobs between the 3 of 'em.
I love my Fat Fuzz Factory and my too many Origin Effects and Thorpy pedals (and all the other stuff I've bought as presents for myself for being a good boy) and I will always return to Stratocasters but sometimes a Distortion+ and a Les Paul Junior is just perfect.
Enjoyed the video. Subbed.
“Music is not perfect and neither should the gear.” Have you been studying grammar with Richard Marx?
Pet peeve is standard pedal sizes with two foot switches. They are so close together, my big hoofs can't hit only one switch. I'm look at you Walrus and JHS - love your gear but two switches require a larger pedal enclosure. Oh, you want examples? OK, Bad = JHS AT+, Emperor, Kodiak etc...; Walrus Slo, Mako series, and the new 385, Jam Pedals Delay llama V3, Harmonius Monk 2. Good dual switchers: Jam Ripply fall, Double Dreamer, JHS Double Barrel and JHS Sweet Tea, Browne Protein, Hudson Broadcast etc...
I dunno, the smaller pedals are absolutely useful sometimes. Often the circuitry is identical to a larger casing version and it opens up more space on the board as well as cut down on the weight. The extra board space doesn't have to be then crammed full of as many pedals as possible...but it allows you to rearrange pedals in different ways, especially always-on pedals, you can fit an extra pedal or two if necessary without causing any problems for your big boots etc.
Smaller pedals also make turning one or more on/off at the same time easily possible. An big advantage in some cases.
I got a mini pedal for my tuner which I really appreciated actually because the normal size would not fit. Now everything is comfortably on the board and I haven't upgraded in years.
Also new pedals can be hard because it's far easier to end up with a gimmick than a real game changer. Washy ambient tone pedals come and go while the Whammy completely changed guitar music only within a few years after its launch.
1. Top jacks and low-profile cable ends are far better solutions than mini pedals. As far as big pedals. Width doesn’t bother me, but I hate when a pedal is longer than a boss pedal and slips into a third row of a pedal train.
2. Agree. Even with the hi-cut switch on the side of the jHS morning glory. I still have to take it off my pedalboard and get a pen to stick in there and switch it.
3. Agree. To me this is an even bigger issue on DAW plugins. I want to know what it is I’m changing.
4. Disagree. I just want to be able to get the sound I imagine. I’m not looking to spend more time tweaking. I rather experiment with the instrument itself.
I broke one Catalinbread pedal because of those damn trimpots. The delay distortion blend was a trimpot... WTF ? Common Catalinbread, just add a button on the face !!!
Ive busted soany mini pedals, its bonkers.
A bad trend: Pedals that try to do 5+ mediocre things, rather than 1-2 things very well.
Pedals that look & sound boring/the same.
No Boss DS1, a Jim Dunlop Fat Sandwich for me
1. Ditto looper is the only acceptable mini pedal IMO
2. I agree DLS should definitely have had the switch and pot on the outside, or at least have gone the effectrode / drybell route with holes pre-drilled in the chassis sides to adjust the trimmers.
3. To be fair to Strymon, their small box pedals did come with a little card showing the secondary functions if I recall correctly - in some ways it's nicer than littering the front with too many tiny pots.
4. I miss all my moogerfoogers. Those things write songs and riffs on their own!
5. Great video!
Having to remove the back of a pedal to flip a switch or use a screwdriver to adjust sound is absolutely frustrating and I refuse.
Glad the great algorithm lead me to your door, sir. Nice work.
I want a double whammy
I don’t own any mini pedals anymore :) I just found I prefer the normal foot size! Plus you get more options with the bigger stuff :) I like to stick to the standard Boss size
Dipswitches, as on Chase Bliss, are insane.
Well Chase Bliss at least puts the dip switches outside the pedal so you don't have to open the enclosure to access them. It is very clear that you're intended to use them and they are easy to access.
1:11 hits hard for us that have been on the internet for long enough to remember.
I like having a bias control on fuzz pedals, but I hate when its an internal trim pot as im going to adjust it quite often depending on the song.
Chase bliss has done dipswitches right with all of them on the outside of the enclosure. I dont adjust them very often on my mood mk2, but when I do its easy.
My list:
1. Top mount jacks (I have a narrow board and a wide foot)
2. All the crappy power supplies I bought before selling a kidney and finally getting Cioks
3. Big, badly placed midi plugs
4. Solderless patch cables
5. Patch cables I soldered myself
6. The alphabet on 7-seg displays (cheers Boss)
Agree with the Mini Pedals. They don't take up a lot of space, but if you are trying to actually step on a pedal while playing, you have to sort of tip-toe on the pedal board. I want to just step on something real quick and not miss.
Some pedals have top jacks but power on the side. Kind of defeats the purpose lol. I think top jacks and mix/blend knobs should be the standard. Don’t mind mini pedals at all. Pedals with too many functions are usually no fun after the novelty wears off. Oh, and I refuse to pay 500$ for a simple effect. Prices are crazy high. A lot of boutique stuff just isn’t worth the hype.
Eh... love trimpots and dipswitches. Disagree on that one.
The talking one after... depends on the creator. Need both to make a clear picture. Especially when it comes to what type of circuit something is... or what is coming out... or if someone has a hot take. (Which is really rare, because almost none of the pedal creators speak like normal people. Love to hear a well placed "fuck off" every now and then).
I can't disagree with anything you said. You are spot on. My biggest pet peeve is to do with myself. I tend to buy Strymon pedals that I'm too dumb to figure out. And when I get sick of trying to figure out the last one I bought, I go buy another Strymon that is equally or even more enigmatic. Okay, done.
Did we just become best friends? I too am too dumb for most of what I buy, and it doesn’t stop me. What are we?!?!
People complain about menu diving but I think that's always preferable to pedals with a lot of unlabeled secondary functions. I always have to pull up the manual every time I use them because I forget how to use them every time I use them. I would love screen on those types of pedals.
I absolutely agree about pedal manufacturers making boring pedals. I rarely buy pedals anymore because everything is just a clone of something else and the only thing setting it apart is some small tweak that can be achieved by messing with the knobs on your guitar or amp.
as someone who is starting to design my own pedals, if it's meant to be adjusted it should be on the outside, otherwise it's inside.
You’re the hero we deserve!!!!!
Be honest. This is a damn rant.
And. How small is too small? Bring back some big Bertha gear! How easy does this have to be?!?
Knobs came in and made the absolute best pedal demos. Andertons paved the way for podcasty pedal demos, but I don't think people watched Andertons for quality demos, but because of their onscreen chemistry... I think the wrong lessons were learned in both cases. I like having a few minipedals, but agree that if compromises must be made to fit them into small enclosures, then perhaps it shouldn't be in a small enclosure. I haven't the patience to mess about with trim pots, so if I can't access a pedal's ideal sound from the front, I probably won't bother using the pedal and just go with something else
I also agree I should talk less and play more haha. I absolutely love stumbling onto weird and/or awful sounds, like a cocked wah into an octave fuzz self-oscillating, weird ring mod stuff. Zoning out in pads of ambient guitar
Cocked wah is an unsung hero of effects people don’t talk about enough.
my problem with mini-pedals is that they are weightless.. and without a pedal board the flop around.
that's a great point, off a pedalboard they flop around like a fish
I bought an ehx good vibes off reverb, it has an internal trim pot that caps the rate/speed of the chorus/vibe. i didnt know that and first thought it was just a really subtle pedal, then i watched vids of other people playing their good vibes and though mine was broken.
i found the pot and set it well, but that never should have been a thing imo. internal settings are kinda bs, agree.
The truth that you seem to be missing about trim pots is this:
Not all of them are meant to be adjusted by metal screwdrivers. In fact, you will discover many are immediately affected by anything metal in close proximity. So when you make an adjustment, and then remove the metal screwdriver it will behave differently than when the screwdriver was making the adjustment. There are ceramic screwdrivers that you use to adjust these. Yes, this is a real thing, I’ve repaired radios and built synthesizers myself.
I always thought the nano pedals were for synth users.
To challenge your position a bit: when you say you don’t like it when pedals have ambiguous names for controls, but you like the mystery of not knowing how to use a pedal because it inspires creativity, I believe usually the first is done to accomplish the second. However, I’d say for tried and true classic sounds/effects, convention is best. Newer designs/types of pedals fare better with ambiguous names.
Agree with most of this, especially mini pedals and internal pots/switches.
Lasik eye surgery LEDs you shouldn't need recycled eclipse glasses to look at your pedal.
Aluminum. Folded, bent, rolled. Don't like it, no sir, not one bit.I want cast boxes.
Top mounted jacks. If you do this make sure there's enough room for the cables. You can't fit pancake plugs,and power supply in a lot of pedals lookin' @u E.Q.D.
I have too many pedals. I don’t care for secondary functions. I want straight forward easy to use gear.
I just got the Boss GT1 it is replacing everything
sounds great less filling
Danny's 5-year follow-up video of Worst Effect Pedal Trends includes Chase Bliss for having too many useless options: too many knobs and dipswitches that slow you down.
I do like my chase bliss pedals, however, I've never flipped one of the dipswtiches, and I've never saved a preset lol.
I'm definitely off of mini-pedals and trim pots. Especially plastic trim pots that don't even use flathead screwdrivers. Subbed as well
Jesus, I agreed with everything that you said. Spot on. Great...
The revolution always come from someone who was not from the field. Leo Fender and Mike Mathews from EHX
“It’s got a reverb?” 😂😂😂
It's fun. But that's because Strymon give reverb separate knob at V2
I think you're missing the manufacturer's point of the dip switch; if you like both settings, buy two pedals..
haha too true!
There is something way worse than mini pedals which are pedals with a case the size of a MXR pedal with two footswitches. You just can't use that with your feet at all, unless is the only pedal in the board.
I really like fuzzrocious pedals.Good fuzz/overdrive pedals
Agreed on all fronts. You Canadian? Guessing by the Frank Brothers AND the Leprechaun FX pedal ;) - both sweet, by the way. FBG is a "grail" guitar for me.
1. Mini pedals: HARD disagree. While I have often noted that human feet have a certain size range, and this limits how closely one can practically place footswitches, mini pedals serve a valuable place in the pedal spectrum, and can often make the difference in fitting that one effect you need, and not being able to fit it on the board. While some might say, "just use a bigger board", there are limits to what you can bring on an airplane, and if you are flying with your instrument, then your pedalboard has to fit in an underseat "personal item".
Most airlines limit you to a bag no larger than 18" x 14" x 8", so the most practical size board is about 385 mm x 290 mm (15.15" x 11.41"), which is just large enough to fit four standard pedals across and two deep, leaving just enough room for cable ends not to overhang the board, protecting them in transit. The judicious use of the occasional mini pedal will allow you to fit 5 pedals across, and still leave enough room to step on them cleanly, though it will be admittedly a bit tight. That difference between 8 pedals and 10 pedals can make or break a song.
If you want to go bigger than that, you are either going to need to fly your instrument or your pedalboard, or both, as checked baggage, and if you haven't seen what TSA pretty commonly does to pedalboards, you should look into it. The only marginally safe way to transport an instrument or pedalboard as checked baggage involves great expense on bulletproof flight cases and paying for oversize/excess baggage fees, and possibly overweight baggage fees, as well, which is a nightmare. And even packing an instrument or pedalboard carefully in a flight case doesn't guarantee it will arrive in one piece, unmolested and undamaged.
These considerations also apply in large part to musicians who are travelling by train or public transit, or who live in a city and cannot transport large pedalboards by car to gigs. The "airline underseat" size is totally unserved by the commercial pedalboard market, for reasons I cannot fathom, but it's a useful constraint for a wide variety of musicians, even ones who aren't flying their gear on passenger airlines.
Gigging musicians, especially travelling and urban ones, aren't trying to build the biggest rigs they can imagine, only amateur hobbyists who play primarily at home and/or can depend upon private vehicles to transport their gear do that. Gigging musicians know that every piece of gear is a potential point of failure, and that every piece of gear is a piece of gear that slows us down or weighs us down getting to and from the gig, and getting on and off stage, so we try to reduce our rigs to the least number of pieces possible and the smallest and lightest weight possible, that is consistent with the musical purpose they serve, for ease of transport.
8:50 I'm not even from or in the US, but even I know this means you're a midwesterner because you haven't said or done even one single offensive thing. No one could possibly be offended by anything in this video!
I have this fantastic lo-fi reverb pedal from 'Orion Effekte' called 'Kafka' but even with Gaffer's tape on the insane blue LED I can't use my pedalboard in a dark-ish room. The light spills through the sides and makes the whole pedalboard painfully bright!
Right there with you on trimpots and dip-switches. Naming no names, I have a pedal that has diode clipping on two separate internal dip-switches. Super frustrating.
I dont need a 10minute pedal video where the adjustments made on the knobs are so small that the compression of audio youtube uses wouldnt pickup anyway. More short videos on pedals especially when the pedal only really has 2-3 knobs
If you're using a loop switcher, mini pedals are gold.
I don't adjust switches and pots internally. If that is advertised as a feature I just will look at another pedal, the world is full of pedals.
yes the mini pedals suck sometimes...i like to have big knobs i can really grab onto...uh some people like that....not me but yeah stop with the small pedals already
Have you tried that Meow box? There's an application of digital that really does something. I've only seen videos, but OMFG.
Is that the one with the cat noises? Haha
@@DannyUnderwood Exactly. There's a harp player who did a video of it. She did a bit of guitar too. The box is effing deadly.
This is why I waited until this year before buying an Expandora pedal, LOL! I read that ZZ Top had 2 on the board to cover their sounds without having to play with dip switches.