A history of my guitar effects purchases: Part Four "Left overs and Clones".

My last post of the subject of my effects.

A big massive pedal that I didnt include in the Part 2, that maybe should have been, is the Line 6 DL-4.
This is the huge green delay looper pedal. I use this all the time but not for delays, more for its 24 second loop. Its really great as you can record in half time, and play back in real time, so it coverts the pitch and speed (really high pitch and fast is my fave). You can also reverse loops. Theres better loopers out there, but this is the one I have, and it has four switches so its easy to use. I think something like the new small red Boss Loop station would be good, but I cant think its practical with one switch. That mean expression switches, and then its about teh size of the DL-4 again.

Anyway. Everyone knows these, but here you go:

Another oddity in my big blue box of pedals, is this Korg Toneworks Distortion device. Its quite cool, has two footswitchable presets voices, which you can customise using the knobs and save. It also has a simulated recording output/speaker emulator, I should really try that into my PC sometime.

Speaking of my big blue box of pedals, here it is, with one of my cats who was very intrigued as to why the box was now on the bed she was sleeping on =^-^=

The last few pedals I wanna describe as from three categories. First up is the category of "this pedal is currently clonable via PCB sellers". You could of course include the RAT in here, and maybe a couple others of my effect. But this one goes in here. Ill come back to it in a sec. The second category is gonna be old school clones. I mentioned in Part 3 I have a couple of Ross pedals, so Ill show those off. And thirdly, I wanna introduce a new sector of effects: The grey import. Chinese made, mass produced, often SMD based rips offs of current or classic FX.

So First up, currently clonable.
Here is a classic example of pedal that is actively cloned. you can buy PCBs. there are veros/schematics around. Its the 5 knob beast that is the Marshall Shredmaster. Most famous I think because of Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine). I dont really like it, and its my mates, but I keep it for some reason. Anyway, its a real one, woo.

Second category: old school clones.
Nowadays there are numerous far eastern companies pumping out clones. Back in the day Ross were one of the best. I happen to own a Ross Chorus, based on the lovely CE-2 from Boss. That pedal offers great analog chorus sounds, using the proper bonafiade Panasonic BBD chips. The chip is worth more than I paid for the whole pedal. The original CE-2 go for silly money nowadays.

The other one is im fair sure a verbatin repro of a MXR distortion+ (the much loved little yellow 2 knobber).
Both these effects sound great, use great parts inside and work a treat. The boxes are also really nice and the knobs have a great feel to them. Keep an eye out for these, and the venerable Ross compressor, on which many current boutique clones are based.

So. Theres two examples of vintage clones. So, as we know cloning isnt a new thing.
Im all for a good deal, so the next two pedals I wanna show you hail from China, in what I see as a big influx of cheap, well made, versatile pedals. Some are based off well known designs, other not. One big guilty party is Daneletro, who have got into trouble recently cloning directly from current production boutique pedals (see FSB et al for some controversy on their copy of the Paul Cochrane Timmy). They also offer a fairly obvious Fulltone OCD tribute among others.

anyway, first up Biyang. I found these via ebay. They have the 8 series, which are lovely Chrome boxed True Bypass pedals with coloured LEDs. Check them out via there uk dealer HERE
They offer a range which from memory is this:

Fuzz - switchable fuzz based on the Fuzz Face and Big Muff
Mouse - based on the rat, with 3 way "original / Rat 2 / Turbo rat" mode switch
Chorus - based on the Boss CE - 2 with added tone control
Flanger - based on the Ibanez analog flanger
Overdrive - a TS clone, with user accesible socket and includes 3 chips inc a JRC4558d.
Distortion - a MXR D+ clone
Delay - a PT2999 based analog voiced digital delay (they call it analog, but it isnt really)
Phase - clone of the MXR phase 100 

They also offer a recently instroduced 10 series called Baby Boom, which include some of the above reboxed in small colourful MXR sized housings. This also includes a stereo In AND Out reverb pedal, which looks awesome.

Anyway, I have the Chorus. Its tremendous, and well worth the £40 paid.

On the topic, there are a number of these companies, Biyang, Belcat, Artec. I have an Artec Soloist Distortion that I bought on a whim after watching a cool youtube video. Sadly it doesnt sound as nice in my hands but its a good distortion pedal. The build quality is nice, and the stompswitch is great.

These effects can be had for around the £20 - £40 price range, Belcat being at the lower end. See the UK distro page. 

Which brings me to my point. With reasonably well made pedals starting at £20 for popular sounds, "inspired" shall we say by, nice vintage or current boutique effects, is it worth the time and effort to build one yourself? I say yes, as the satisfaction and personal touch make it 100% worth it. But, as I advised someone recently who was in a band with a multifx and wanted to get into individual pedals and wanted to know some tips on building one, I couldnt really recommend it. With such affordable and good sounding pedals available these days, it makes no sense for the gigging musician without the prior motivation to set about buying the necessary tools and parts to make some FX. You can get in the ball park with these for pocket money.

I figure that even if you go with teh nicer 8 or 10 series biyangs, you would have your pick of 2 dirt boxes, delay, chorus, and one other with change from £200. You cant do that with Boss, MXR or ibanez for example, but the pedals are all based on them. Counting my limited experience with the Biyang Chorus, I woulnt have any problem gigging with a whole pedal board of these. In the case of the 10 series, they even looks like super cool boutique effects(!)

Example

Worth noting also, if you are tempted with a Modtone pedal. they may look fancy, but they are made in exactly the same place as the artec, and save for the paintjob, im very confident, as are other people, that its 100% the same thing. Save yourself half the price tag and find the corresponding Artec version.


Lastly, I couldnt end the blog without including the cheapest pedal Ive ever bought. This Daphon is a fairly blatant clone of a Boss DS-1, and sounds ok. I messed up the footswitch having a tinker, so I might actually rexob this one day. This was mine for the princely sum of £5. :)

Adios for now. Im hoping to find some time to build a Wolf Computer and a Red Llama, however I need to go to Ireland this week for work, then Im off to San Francisco for 10 days (work and play). Maybe ill pick up a souvenir pedal while Im out there. I quite like the look of the new  TC Electronic Compact Line