Super Budget Pedalboard - Looking for Pedal Recomendations - (No politics of gear please)

[ghettosynth]

Since I've switched back to hardware for a lot of my production I want to revisit having a small pedalboard. This will not replace my more complex rack mounted stuff nor will it replace plugins. I just want something on the floor, plugged into my mixer, that I can just pick up my guitar and start playing without farting around with any presets. I only have a few pedals, none of which I'm in love with, and so I'm pretty much starting from scratch with this.

I am not interested in the politics of boutique pedal builders which is, IMNSHO, even worse and more irritating than that of boutique module builders. I'm looking for the cheapest things that sound great. To be clear, if it is a clone and it shares the schematic of the original, then it sounds just like the original to my ears and I have absolutely zero interest in collecting vintage pedals. Obviously, digital pedals have a much wider variance. The one thing that is important is the basics of durability. I'll pay more for something in a metal box with a durable foot-switch.

Ok, then, let's begin.

Input : some kind of buffer with three outputs, pedal chain, direct out to mixer, and tuner. I have a few choices on Amazon for this, but I'm not settled on anything. If I could build this cheaper than buying it, I would because it is dead simple. However, at the current budge pedal prices, I see no point to this.

So, I'm thinking the Behringer tuner would be fine for a tuner, but I'm not sure if I want to spend $35 even when I can get a monoprice tuner for $20. Suggestions welcome. I want a tuner on the floor though that is on all of the time.

Then comes overdrive and distortion, right now I think that the Moskey Audio Silver (klon clone) followed by the Moskey Audio Black Rat (proco rat clone) will fit the bill at about $30 each. Open to suggestions for good reasons.

Then comes whatever. Here's where I want good suggestions of excellent low budget pedals. I'm not really looking for time based pedals because that isn't something that I typically want before the amp-sim. That said, we can still talk about the coolest budget options because I might change my mind on this. So mostly just simple mono in, mono out pedals. I really want a phasor that can be very slow or even have manual control with no LFO.

Finally, I want an amp sim. Here I'm willing to spend a (little) bit more. I'm thinking that the Boss IR-2 might have the right level of simplicity with a reasonable balance of quality, price, and flexibility.

So this will give me two outputs to feed into my mixer. Direct from the guitar, and an amp modeled output with distortion. I can just pick up my guitar and jam with whatever else that I have going on but I can also capture just the clean channel so that I can re-voice it later, all without turning on my computer.

Related: I need a power supply and high quality right angle short cables that consume a minimum of space. Willing to spend more on these, I hate crappy cables.

[BertKoor]

I could do what everyone else does: enumerate what I use. Will that help you? I very much doubt so, but will do so nevertheless.

The last revamping of my guitar chain and set me free from presets was two decades ago. Out went a Boss ME-10, in went a quite nice Orange tube amp and only the pedals I really liked and wanted again. A Boss flanger which I regretted having sold earlier (has a setting at which it passes for a chorus), and a Tech-21 Tri-OD overdrive that offers three "models": tweed (Fender), british (Marshall) and cali (Mesa). Already had and reused a tuner and passive volume pedal. This is all I really need to jam & gig. I'm not The Edge, I can do without delay.

Oh, the tuner which predates the Boss ME-10 has two outputs: one mutes while tuning, the other not. Never really used it as a splitter, but I could.

I think you can pick the stuff yourself. You know best what you like. Visit a real shop. Invest time in travelling to that big city where it still exists. Endorse them.

There's this tiny Zoom multi-fx pedal I have my eyes on, but I don't need it and have not tried it.

My right-angle cables still work fine after all these years. I doubt they have a brand printed on them. I might have soldered them myself. Just get metal connectors (Neutrik is decent) never plastic because these cannot be repaired.

Maybe the best investment is a $15 soldering iron.

[ghettosynth]

Well, thanks, no, your list isn't that useful, but I'll elaborate. First, I have multiple soldering irons and I build lots of things. I just don't think building cables or pedals that can be had for $30 is a good use of my time.

Sure, I can pick pedals that I like. But that's not what I'm asking. I'm asking which of the cheap pedals that are currently all over Amazon have other people tried. JHS has no problem talking about things like this. I love his "can you hear it" video series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK5H0e9Ejmc

So, from here, there are a couple of specific gems. Similarly, if I wanted a BOSS super distortion sound, then I'd buy the Bheringer because it's a worthy clone.

So, the point is, what have others liked that are low budget.

As far as cables, I guess you aren't rough enough. I've had cheap molded ones break a few times and I have had ones that have soldered connectors break many many times. I make very few cables, only specialty cables. Making generic cables is largely a waste of time. I am really looking for a recommendation of "I got these at this amazon link because they are really flat and give me lots of room on my board and appear to be of high quality."

[vurt]

boss patch cables are pretty sturdy.
ive had a set of 10 for about 20 years. maybe longer...

tuner, ive got the behringer, it works as one would expect not much else to say about a tuner is there?

the rest, i don't have specific recommendations as most of my cheaper stuff, is no longer available or is now comparatively expensive...
but the behringer range of stomps, sound pretty good for the most part, only caveat would be the plastic cases are a bit flimsy if you have a heavy foot, but for studio use, should be fine.

[ghettosynth]

tuner, ive got the behringer, it works as one would expect not much else to say about a tuner is there?

Sure there is. Is it visible while standing. Does the analogish bar graph display work better or worse then the standard Boss tuner. Korg used to sell a lot of the rack mount guitar tuners that had that really wide display. They were very popular in the 90s and the quality of the display factored into that.

In fact, it's the one thing that varies across the cheap tuners.

[vurt]

well its not as wide as a rack mounted one, but it's generally closer to the eyes than "through some glass across the room under or above the desk."

ive not a/b tested against the boss, but after using it, my guitar was in tune. i figured that it worked well enough if it did that, especially to my guitar. (i use a combination of old/new/recycled/different guage strings)

[DMG68]

I can suggest, if you want an eq, Caline CP-24 from Amazon. Also, EHX LPB-1 if you want a boost pedal. Both are quite affordable.

[khanyz]

If you check the All things pedal related thread, I posted when I put together a cheap mini pedalboard. Here's what I have ended up with

20231224_195120-1.jpg

I found Mosky to be very hit/miss quality wise and only OK at best. Sonicake are good but you can find bargains, like Hotone, if you keep checking Amazon etc..

I use an Orchid Electronics Muting DI to split between direct, FX and tuner. I consider it a bargain for the quality but it's not that cheap.

+1 for the EHX LPB-1as a great pedal at a cheap price but maybe not for this, unless there's a mini version out.

[ghettosynth]

I can suggest, if you want an eq, Caline CP-24 from Amazon. Also, EHX LPB-1 if you want a boost pedal. Both are quite affordable.

Thanks, see, I had no idea that Caline existed. In this day and age it's really hard to keep up with all of the various made in China brands on Amazon. It's also hard to figure out anything in terms of relative quality or MO just by looking at reviews. Hence, why I made this post.

[ghettosynth]

If you check the All things pedal related thread, I posted when I put together a cheap mini pedalboard. Here's what I have ended up with
20231224_195120-1.jpg
I found Mosky to be very hit/miss quality wise and only OK at best. Sonicake are good but you can find bargains, like Hotone, if you keep checking Amazon etc..

What were they lacking when they were lacking?

I use an Orchid Electronics Muting DI to split between direct, FX and tuner. I consider it a bargain for the quality but it's not that cheap.

Seems like a nice device. I like the quiet mute. That's probably the one device that I will scrimp less on because it does cost a bit more to make high quality buffer circuits with good connectors. I don't quite feel the same about the simple distortion boxes with single ended inputs and outputs.

+1 for the EHX LPB-1as a great pedal at a cheap price but maybe not for this, unless there's a mini version out.

I'm also keeping the pedal count low. So I'm not sure that I need the EHX as well as something like a klon clone.

[lfm]

I've seen Caline and Joyo as identical pedal, also around $50 or so. Think one and the same manufacturer.

I bought this one - California(Mesa) JF-15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-tak4PSGgE

and one called American JF-14 based on Fender .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5STIAYot5ws

I use as a single pedal with a looper doing that kind of practising. See it as amp sims or dist pedals, you need nothing more to a mixer.
- whole range of sound tweaking you get out of these.
- very versatile

If to only have two pedals, I would get two of those if needing for gigging purposes just stomping another sound in there.

Think clones of some Tech21 pedals.

There is also JF-16 British, which is based on Marshall and Oxford JF-22 one is based on Orange.

[imrae]

The RAT and Klon are great circuits but I'm not sure that's a great dirt section to pick out before you know what preamp is being used.

I suspect it is more economical to choose the right dirt pedals early on than to find the cheapest and keep repeating the search when the results are disappointing.

What kind of tones are you after? What kind of gain-staging and frequency-shaping flow do you have in mind? What jobs do you want the dirt pedals to do?

(To be clear, I do see the value in tracking "known good" budget pedals. But some good-sounding pedals will be a liability at high gain or in a long chain, so the context matters. A loop switcher would help, but that adds cost which might have been earlier spent on a better enclosure.)

[ghettosynth]

The RAT and Klon are great circuits but I'm not sure that's a great dirt section to pick out before you know what preamp is being used.

I suspect it is more economical to choose the right dirt pedals early on than to find the cheapest and keep repeating the search when the results are disappointing.

Ah, you miss the point. I don't give a shit about what is more economical in the long run. I want to know which budget pedals people think are decent. I don't care if I buy one to five too many $30 Chinese specials. I have zero interest in buying one to five too many $250 boutique pedals where I can't hear the difference between them and the low budget imports.

What kind of tones are you after? What kind of gain-staging and frequency-shaping flow do you have in mind? What jobs do you want the dirt pedals to do?

(To be clear, I do see the value in tracking "known good" budget pedals. But some good-sounding pedals will be a liability at high gain or in a long chain, so the context matters. A loop switcher would help, but that adds cost which might have been earlier spent on a better enclosure.)

You're thinking too hard about this. For now, I want the sound of a Klon and a Rat, most likely not together very often. I may not keep the rat, I've just never had one and I like the sound of them. This isn't my first rodeo with guitar effects. I just haven't purchased pedals seriously in decades.

I haven't been following the pedal market other than for the small overlap where they are also useful as desktop processors in a modular context. So, e.g., reverb pedals, I'm more familiar with what's hot and what's not there. Although I'm intrigued by some of the budget pedals there as well, maybe they'll be fun.

So, maybe a different question would have framed this better. If you had the choice of throwing $500 in the trash or spending it on pedals for fun, and you had to buy at least eight pedals, what would be the most fun you could have for that $500? You don't have to include the prices of the input splitter or the output cabinet modeler in that $500. Those are separate and can be up to $500 additional for the pair.

[ghettosynth]

I've seen Caline and Joyo as identical pedal, also around $50 or so. Think one and the same manufacturer.

I bought this one - California(Mesa) JF-15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-tak4PSGgE

and one called American JF-14 based on Fender .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5STIAYot5ws

I use as a single pedal with a looper doing that kind of practising. See it as amp sims or dist pedals, you need nothing more to a mixer.
- whole range of sound tweaking you get out of these.
- very versatile

If to only have two pedals, I would get two of those if needing for gigging purposes just stomping another sound in there.

Think clones of some Tech21 pedals.

There is also JF-16 British, which is based on Marshall and Oxford JF-22 one is based on Orange.

I have a Joyo American. I've had it for a few years now. It's alright. I bought it as a one pedal solution to the same idea. I'll probably use it, but given how much the speaker cab affects sound, I'm not sure that I'll keep it on the board. That's why I'm tempted by the IR-2.

[imrae]

The RAT and Klon are great circuits but I'm not sure that's a great dirt section to pick out before you know what preamp is being used.

I suspect it is more economical to choose the right dirt pedals early on than to find the cheapest and keep repeating the search when the results are disappointing.

Ah, you miss the point. I don't give a shit about what is more economical in the long run. I want to know which budget pedals people think are decent. I don't care if I buy one to five too many $30 Chinese specials. I have zero interest in buying one to five too many $250 boutique pedals where I can't hear the difference between them and the low budget imports.

Sure, I'm not trying to push you to the $250 boutique pedals at all! More that it may be better to take a boring $60 Boss/TC Electronic/Digitech pedal over the $30 clone of a cool-but-inappropriate $250 pedal.

For now, I want the sound of a Klon and a Rat, most likely not together very often. I may not keep the rat, I've just never had one and I like the sound of them.

Ah, but what is the sound of a Klon, really? The Klon tones that people lust after generally involve using them to boost an amp that people also lust after. Think of it as a posh tubescreamer; the low-cut is a bit more subtle and the saturation a bit (subjectively) tastier, but it does a similar mid-boosting job. It's a great choice for an already-saturated slightly scooped or dark amp - not so much for a clean (JC-120, Fender Twin) or mids-heavy (Vox) base tone.

RAT is great because it can be a clean-ish boost, or a brash crunchy distortion, or a dark sustainer/fuzz. But it can't be all of those things into the same amp/settings, and for each of those uses there are more versatile alternatives.

I bought a bunch of nice fuzz pedals that mostly sound terrible into my Kraken V4 preamp (which, on a decent non-pedal setting, tends to cut the input lows and sizzles up the high end). Then I got a simpler, lower-gain preamp (low-gain side of Sushi Box Detective, basically a simple class-A tube stage into Fender tonestack) and it takes the scooped/full-bandwidth fuzz pedals much better.