Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

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MrShake
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Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Tue Dec 06, 2022 6:56 am

It seems like just last year that I was going on and on about all the cheap pedals I got for Christmas. If you've been around here a while you know I've become a cheapskate for pedals. I've got my nice stuff, but I love finding some $20 knock off of a Rat or Muff, or some weird cheap delay or flanger that kicks ass.

So, this year I'm doing it differently. I'm just going to put them all in one thread as I get them, instead of a new thread every time I get another $15 fuzz pedal.

I've already got a half-dozen in progress, but my rules are that it has to have been ordered post-Thanksgiving, something I'm not just buying a second of (so, not including the discounted Behringer Super Fuzz and Vintage Delay I picked up), and either under $50 or a gift and close to $50.

Let's kick it off in style!

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Wow, this one's a doozy. At $65, it was too much for me, but at $35, it was a no-brainer. I know I was just raving about my new RV-3 last month, but this is a fair substitute. Different character, but deep, non-spring, 2-knob reverb, trails or not, and a 3-knob, 2000ms delay with tap tempo? It was cheaper than the Amazon Basics (Nux rebrand) tap delay I got last year, and it comes with huge reverb. Discount shoegaze all day, and more than passes the smell test from this crusty old reverb and delay addict. I'd still pick my RV-2/DD-5 combo, but if I didn't need dotted eighths, this would already be on my gigging space-punk board.


Next up...


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And in context...

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I gave my Phase 90 to my wife. I'm just not a phaser player, and she LOVES it. But my "bass & postpunk" board had a spot, too small for an MXR. It was $14. I have all my other modulation options on there. How am I supposed to get my Bauhaus vibes without slow phase?!? I couldn't resist. And it sounds good! For a phaser...

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Thu Dec 08, 2022 5:51 am

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The hits just keep on coming! I'd wanted to try this since last year. I've been hit or miss on Eno/EX, but I got their purple flanger called (yes) the BF-2 last year, and liked it as a "close enough" sub for my live board. When I A/B'd that one with my MIJ BF-2, it had the same character, but was just a little "flatter". But I don't think I could differentiate one bit in a mix or live. The $27 for the Swoosh was cheaper than another Boss, and I wanted to see if it was different.

The casing seems heavier and it seems altogether a nicer pedal than the purple one from last year, but it seems to be the same thing with a new paint job. The catalog inside seems to indicate that Eno/EX just gave all their stuff new names, paint jobs, and casings, but seems to be about the same lineup of pedals, based on controls and stuff.

But it's got a cool blue LED, it doesn't pop when I turn it on, and it otherwise sounds like a BF-2 style flanger. Since not many cloners make those, it seemed like a good bet to grab one, and it was.

Stay tuned!

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by sal paradise » Thu Dec 08, 2022 5:58 am

MrClone

I’m already enjoying this thread ;D
I have nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion?

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by Nevets » Thu Dec 08, 2022 6:42 am

Me too! I'm a sucker for cheap pedals and I love living vicariously through other people's purchases of them! :)

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by s_mcsleazy » Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:22 am

ce-3 AND a rat II, you're copying my board.
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'Are you trying to seduce me Mrs Robinson? Or do you just want me to solder a couple of resistors into your Muff?'

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:32 am

s_mcsleazy wrote:
Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:22 am
ce-3 AND a rat II, you're copying my board.
Serves you right for stealing my style with a SF Bassman ;)

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:42 am

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This one was a whopping $21, and had a 3-way switch instead of a 2-way. Thought I'd take a gamble. Much more available output than my other Rats (unity at, like, 10:00), and I haven't spent too much time on it yet, but sounds like a Rat to me.

BUT...

I'd heard other people complain about the switch. I blew it off. They were right. It feels like it's scraping something down inside the mechanism. I toggled it a few times, and set it to "Rat", and that's where I plan on having it stay.

The tone is fine, in the Rat lineage, even if it turns out to be non-identical to a 1984 WF or something. The increased output is nice, having that much more on tap. But the switch is such junk, it feels like it will break at any moment. If they fix this, it'd be a slam dunk, but it's not worth having the third mode if it ends up self-destructing your mode switch. Maybe I can put a nicer one in, but just for kicks, it was a $20 pedal.

If you want a Rat, I think there are better options for similar money, if a couple bucks more. The Donner and Sonicake have been my favorites so far, Eno used to be good, but their latest ones are screwy, and the Mosky has a weird problem with the Filter pot having the wrong sweep and bunching the usable area up at one end.

This one, while tonally great, would get a "hard pass" until that switch problem gets fixed. Then? Total score.

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Tue Dec 20, 2022 10:35 am

It's been a buncha nice stuff recently, so back to the budget pedals!

This one was an anniversary present from my wife. I'd been curious about pitch shifters, but didn't know where to go. Did I just get a Boss? What did I want to use one for? Would a cheap one cut it, or should I go whole Pog?

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I realized all I wanted it for was a pseudo-chorus thing, like a low-rent version of my SPX90s "Pitch Shift C" that I could tap on and off with my foot. So, with only an hour of playtime so far, this one cuts the mustard in octave mode.

If I want something better or more feature-heavy, I can upgrade later, but at the moment, $35 for a new texture makes this one a winner. For the time being, it's living on a board full of delays, so I wanted to add some more magical shimmer and glint as the echoes bounce around the funhouse mirrors.

I'm already wondering if a Bass VI with a fifth-up octave through a Super Fuzz could make some ersatz "bass power chords" noise. A vote "yes" for a quick n dirty entry to pitch shifting.

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:51 pm

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A board full of delays needs a tuner if those notes are gonna be bouncing around off into the ether. This was the cheapest one that wasn't one of those "LED cluster" types, and it was under $20. Seems to work so far, and it was down to this or the "Keytars" brand. This won only due to the Peavey-esque "S", but I'm pleased so far.

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Thu Dec 22, 2022 9:25 am

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Ohhhh yeah.

Tell me your experiences?

Cuz this is a real nice fuzz for $32. I don't have a real Foxx, so I don't know exactly how it compares. But free of comparisons, this thing's what I'd call a "nasty bargain" on its own merits. Octave fuzz with a mid-forward mode and a mid-scoop mode -- what's not to like?

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by sal paradise » Thu Dec 22, 2022 9:31 am

That logo makes me feel sick :-X
I have nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion?

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Thu Dec 22, 2022 10:00 am

I showed my wife your post.

"Oh my god, me too. I HATE it!"

To be fair, loud enough, I bet the fuzz from this thing would make all my pedals' logos look like this, just from the pressure in my eyes.

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by sal paradise » Thu Dec 22, 2022 10:14 am

MrShake wrote:
Thu Dec 22, 2022 10:00 am
I showed my wife your post.

"Oh my god, me too. I HATE it!"

To be fair, loud enough, I bet the fuzz from this thing would make all my pedals' logos look like this, just from the pressure in my eyes.
You’ll be too busy scanning the crowd of the stadium show when you’re using a fuzz that MASSIVE
I have nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion?

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Sun Dec 25, 2022 3:00 pm

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This one's pretty cool, and despite everything, super simple. Dedicated tap switch is smart. Expected the Reverse setting to resemble the DD-5. It's different, but quite cool. Other than that, it's a matter of "pick your voice: analog or digital?", and tap for quarter notes, no interally-calculated subdivisions. 2000ms delay time.

It's through no fault of this pedal that it's my third favorite budget delay this year, but that's more an embarrassment of riches on the low-end market. The NUX Edge/Atlantic and Donner RevEcho are getting stepped on more (I know the RevEcho basically is this one's digital mode with a more cumbersome tap system, but I like the way it mixes with its internal reverb!).

But $35 in a half-off sale make this a no-brainer and win for simplicity and functionality. It's going to be something I can drop in anywhere and it will give me what I'd expect.

Since it seems to be last year's model, there weren't many when we were shopping, so I thought I'd try one cheap before the New Thing moves in. Super-useful small delay pedal. If this is the kind of thing you need, this thing might be what you need.

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Re: Mikey's End-of-Year Budget Pedal Bonanza!

Post by MrShake » Sun Dec 25, 2022 3:06 pm

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Been curious since last year, she grabbed one off my wishlist. May come in handy as an expression pedal, but as a back-pocket passive volume pedal for a tertiary board or a go bag, it's solid enough. My clumsy foot is NOT used to the size or sweep, but it does what it's supposed to do and that's why I bought it. $25 gets my vote, but if you're real picky about purity of signal or volume pedals, it may not be for you. I'm not, and this won't even be MY main volume pedal. But it passes the sniff test so far.

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