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2019 Trends in the pedal world

Laurent

Laurent

Supporting Member
May 21, 2008
4,156
3,050
Napa, California
#1
2019 is almost a wrap!
What were the trends changes you saw in the world of bass pedals?

Here are some of my observations:

1. A saturated market: too many options to keep track of.
2. They all want a piece of the pie: everybody's making pedals even companies which historically never made any (Boss, EH, MXR now have way more competition).
3. Darkglass continues to dominate the high end (meaning expensive) market.
4. I am seeing more all in one pedals or pedals offering three or more functions.
5. MXR started making clones of older designs (Brown Acid Fuzz and Vintage Bass Octave).
6. EH is reissuing some of their own historic designs (Ram's Head, Triangle Big Muff Pi, Green Russian Big Muff....).
7. Boutique has lost some its luster: with so many players making pedals, it's not special anymore.
 
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#2
I can agree personally with it feeling like a saturated market to some degree (I for sure feel sometimes that there's too much out there, but then I often also don't), but that's difficult to assess in terms of the actual marketplace. And I'm curious what you're basing the "Darkglass dominates the high-end market" assertion on. I don't know that it's true or false, just genuinely curious

In terms of bass players, I think it's just more common to see them have pedals. In terms of pedals generally:
-ambitious multi-function pedals seem to still be exciting people (combine multiple effects, like the Red Panda Tensor or most of the stuff from Meris)
-glitch and ambient textures are still big
-synth emulation is definitely in
-mixing of digital and analog

"Boutique" definitely has lost some of its cachet, but is also bigger than ever: people still love limited and small-batch runs of pedals with big price tags and something different to it

Pedals are huge right now, so there's like a 24-hours news cycle feel for an industry centered something that's often slow to develop, and the way it feeds off of near-constant consumption for what are in theory creative tools... I don't know, I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it all that I'm still working out
 
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#3
remcult said:
I can agree personally with it feeling like a saturated market to some degree (I for sure feel sometimes that there's too much out there, but then I often also don't), but that's difficult to assess in terms of the actual marketplace. And I'm curious what you're basing the "Darkglass dominates the high-end market" assertion on. I don't know that it's true or false, just genuinely curious

In terms of bass players, I think it's just more common to see them have pedals. In terms of pedals generally:
-ambitious multi-function pedals seem to still be exciting people (combine multiple effects, like the Red Panda Tensor or most of the stuff from Meris)
-glitch and ambient textures are still big
-synth emulation is definitely in
-mixing of digital and analog

"Boutique" definitely has lost some of its cachet, but is also bigger than ever: people still love limited and small-batch runs of pedals with big price tags and something different to it

Pedals are huge right now, so there's like a 24-hours news cycle feel for an industry centered something that's often slow to develop, and the way it feeds off of near-constant consumption for what are in theory creative tools... I don't know, I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it all that I'm still working out
Click to expand...


It's arguably a bit anecdotal but when I look on ebay or on Talkbass of what actually sold (do a search under sold item and sort by price) I see a lot of Darkglass pedals selling from $400 down to $150. That being said it only represents a fraction of the actual market. I am sure that numerically, the big three (Boss, EH, MXR) still dominate.
 
#10
^Yeah. Synth pedals made huge leaps this year.

Octave/pitch shift pedals have cooled off.

Weird/ambient-centric multi-reverb pedals are now more of a thing.

The Tube Screamer refuses to die but every company is eager to tell you how different theirs is.

I think the trend for 2020 is going to be more mid-size modulation/delay/verb-centric pedal multi-effects. Like, similar size to the HX Stomp, but cheaper and without all the amp sim stuff.
 
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#13
Ryan L. said:
This is something I’d love to see more of. Hoping you’re right!
Click to expand...

Me too!

I use really minimal effects on bass and it would be pretty useless to me there. Guitar is a different story though.

I think a lot of players are like me in that they prefer analog drives and boosts but like the flexibility of digital for a lot of the other stuff and prefer a simple knob-based interface.
 
#16
Laurent said:
2019 is almost a wrap!
What were the trends changes you saw in the world of bass pedals?

Here are some of my observations:

1. A saturated market: too many options to keep track of.
2. They all want a piece of the pie: everybody's making pedals even companies which historically never made any (Boss, EH, MXR now have way more competition).
3. Darkglass continues to dominate the high end (meaning expensive) market.
4. I am seeing more all in one pedals or pedals offering three or more functions.
5. MXR started making clones of older designs (Brown Acid Fuzz and Vintage Bass Octave).
6. EH is reissuing some of their own historic designs (Ram's Head, Triangle Big Muff Pi, Green Russian Big Muff....).
7. Boutique has lost some its luster: with so many players making pedals, it's not special anymore.
Click to expand...
It’s hard to say for 2019 in particular because I don’t keep up with the exact release dates on every pedal.

I’m definitely seeing more bass players use pedals in general.

Where everyone who used pedals seemed to used to use a sans amp I now see a big variety of drive pedals. I’m a darkglass fan myself and have the microtubes X on my board right now.

Octave pedals are everywhere. It’s interesting really. Because 5 strings don’t seem to be as common as they used to be but using octave pedals seems to be more popular than ever. I chuck that up to bass sounds trending towards a more synthy vibe analog octaves produce. Bands in all kinds of styles ranging from snarky puppy to Muse religiously use octave pedals these days.

As for the clone stuff. It’s been a welcomed thing imo. To see stuff like the mxr vintage bass octave or boss even bringing back some of their popular old school pedals with the Waza series.

As for the high end/boutique market. I’ve never really got into rare pedals that no one uses. I guess darkglass would be the closest thing but as the companies evolved over the years they have become more of a big pedal pedal company selling a lot of pedals. So I don’t really consider them rare. The prices seem high by the prices of years gone but all pedals have seen a price increase in recent years. Lot of the new boss and mxr stuff is $150-$160 so a $220 pedals doesn’t seem too boutique to me.
 
#18
Swimming Bird said:
Year of the synth.

More momentary control switches/multi function soft footswitches, more control (but with attention to surface controls). Reissues of reissues. Glitch pedals continue to evolve.
Click to expand...

Spot on. Synth pedals jumped in leaps and bounds. Started w the Mono Synth, then the Kelley Synth, then the Boss SY-1, the C4 from source audio, the other Boss Synth...and even the Future Impact got its 3.0!!!!

I also found that some of the real pioneers took leaps forward w Hedra, Particle v2, Bloop, Outward/chase bliss...and some of the uber limited stuff in that realm became more available w big batches of count to 5 released, PurPLL finally seeing the light of day, Bananana stuff becoming readily available, and Fabrikat chopping down the waitlist. Really looking forward to seeing whats next!
 
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#19
JohnnyBottom said:
hmmmm...People are getting rid of them, and people are buying them. :blackeye:
Click to expand...

I don't think that is a recent thing though. From my experience watching the forums here and the friends that I have that use a lot of pedals, it is very common for people to be constantly changing their pedalboards. I feel like musicians that use a lot of pedals are inherently more prone to tinkering so it's not surprising that they are always on the lookout for new/different pedals. This probably happens more so with effects pedals than other types of gear. Since they are also just little boxes with a circuit in there, it's easier to get another down the line and not have to worry about the sound consistency between products of the same line. For instance, if I sold a jazz bass that I loved, it's not as easy to find the same instrument and know full well that it is going to play and sound the same. I've read many times in the forums of guys buying and selling the same pedals multiple times though.
 
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