Boutique vs. uhhh...other pedals

i think some people look down on boss and ibanez because they have been around for a long time and most of their stuff is not very expensive. i think some people have the attitude of "you get what you pay for, and if something is less expensive it must suck..." we all know that that is not always true.

i know some of the boutique stuff i have is made with better components and is all handwired, which can have a big impact on your overall tone. a lot of the boutique stuff is true bypass too, which some of the mass produced name brand stuff is not.

i use a boss tuner and chorus ensemble pedal. the tuner is one of the best on the market and has been for years. boss makes some great stuff. i just prefer some of my boutique stuff because some of the ODs and distortions are just a little bit more versatile and just seems to sound better with my vintage amps. that said, i have not bought a new pedal in 4 years and have rarely checked out the newer stuff on the market. i am just not into researching new things at this point. i like my rig now.

now line6 is another story all together. i can not stand anything from line6. terribly fragile products, sounds way too digital, and that company has the worst customer service i have ever seen. i think their amps really, really suck too, and if i am at a bar and someone is playing one, i shamefully admit it, but to my friends i do go all "tone snob" on them.. i think on board effects are cheating, and if you do not know what you are doing, it is very easy to make that super expensive guitar sound like dogshit.

the only thing that matters is that you like how your rig sounds, no matter what gear you use.

I have a Boss delay, a Vox wah, MXR phaser and compressor, Korg tuner, and Line 6 reverb and tremolo. The only "boutique" pedals I have are my modded Ibanez tubescreamers. I've seen a lot of pro-level pedalboards, and the majority of pro musicians use off-the-shelf effects from the main manufacturers. Every once in a while, you might find a Lovepedal or Caitlinbread, maybe a Keeley compressor or Zvex distortion. It's much more common to find Keeley or Analogman mods, or other 3rd-party mods.

There are two main reasons people might prefer boutique pedals: 1) The pedals are made to a higher quality, with better parts and higher-quality manufacturing (esp. hand-wired) techniques; and 2) The boutique pedals do something substantially different than the mainstream pedals do. On the first point, like gimmesometruth27 said, there are features like true-bypass and lower self-noise due to better components and better wiring. That's the one reason I got modded tubescreamers instead of stock Ibanez models; in fact, about a third of the boutique overdrives on the market are trying to improve upon the Ibanez tubescreamer or replicate the original TS-808. On the second point, a small boutique pedal manufacturer can afford to make a pedal that will only sell 50 or 100 units because it's specific application is very narrow.

There are several pedals that Boss makes that I am unimpressed with, but I think that their offerings are mostly pretty good. I really like a lot of Ibanez pedals, and then there are MXR and Electro-Harmonix, both of which I love. I even use those pesky digital Line 6 pedals (I think their Verbzilla is the best reverb pedal on the market, and I love the Tap Tremolo). I think most players can find pedals that fit their needs from the major manufacturers without spending tons of money and research trying to chase boutique tone.

I do know that I've run across many players who are "tone chasers," who will spend thousands of hours and dollars trying to find that perfect overdrive, distortion, wah, analog delay, phaser, or compressor. Just go on eBay and read the description of a Lovepedal for sale; the seller usually has this story about the pedal being a great sound and everything he was looking for, until he found something better, but really he just wants the pedal he had and sold last year. Tone chasers very rarely find the thing they are chasing, so they keep chasing that dragon.

My personal opinion is that you should find the tools that give you the ability to make your craft, and then stop worrying about the tools and focus on the craft. When you spend so much time and energy worrying about the gear, you aren't focusing on your technique or compositions. I don't listen to bands or artists or songwriters based on what I think about their gear, I like them because I like the songs and musicianship. None other than Mike McCready uses Line 6 pedals, and I think he's the shit. Weezer did entire tours with Line 6 PODs. Eddie Van Halen had signature guitars and amplifiers made by Peavey, and his most famous guitar was a piece of crap with electronics that technically shouldn't have produced sound. So if any of you can make pretty music with Danelectro mini pedals and a Zoom multi-FX unit, power to you.

My take on things:

Who cares? And I do not mean that in the way you think I did. No snarkiness.

I mean: If a $30 pedal gets you the sound you want, or a $600 boutique pedal gets you the sound then go for it. Go for whatever fits you, your style, the sound you are trying to achieve, etc. I have maybe 15-20 pedals, with about 7-8 in my electric setup at any given time, and 4-5 in my acoustic (gigging) setup. My pedals range from a crappy (yet I love it) 20 year old Ibanez Soundtank flanger, to 2 $500 Mooger Fooger pedals. And in between are plenty of Boss pedals, and my main overdrive is as boutique as you get: A Blackstone Mosfet. The combination of all of them is how I achieve my sound. I use some of them sparingly, and some a lot. But I've built that sound over many years and I'm where i want to be.

Just go with what sounds and feels right.

These threads remind me you all are on a whole other level.

tominzinga said:

After 5 years of playing and about 3 spending considerable amounts on pedals I've come to the conclusion that it all comes down to the ears. I mean look and guys like john frusciante or even mccready. Fru in his last tenure with rhcp primarily used the boss ds-2 for distortion and he's a tone freak. I believe mike used an ibanez tube screamer in the ten - vitalogy era and IMO that was his best distortion tone. I say if it sounds good then it's good.

fru also uses a backline of marshall silver jubilees, widely considered the best marshall amp aside from the '68 50 watt plexi.

just sayin...

2-feign-reluctance said:

xtremehardy388 said:

2-feign-reluctance said:

xtremehardy388 said:

2-feign-reluctance said:

These threads remind me you all are on a whole other level.

What do you mean?

Reminds me of just how much I don't know about gear & such!

I don't know much either...I just fake it

Haha! I just go with what sounds good to my ears & try not to over think things when possible. Pedals can get a little crazy - I've never used anything but factory made stuff. My favorite is still my Boss Blues Driver, Dunlop Wah & some delay pedal mfc2006 sold me long ago.

DigiDelay, I believe!

xtremehardy388 said:

The BD2 is the most versatile OD pedal out there, IMO. I mean, it's affordable and you can get a LOT of different tones with it.

The bd-2 I such an amazing pedal. But my bd-2 keeley mod with the fat boost is damn near untouchable to my ears. It's allllllllllllllllllllll subjective.