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Boutique owners....your dirty secret?

#21
MGR said:
Ok, this has probably been asked a million times, but hey, what the hell, why not get an updated version?

My question is to high end, boutique effect users. With all that artisinally made gear, is there still an old, dirty, potentially (god forbid) chinese made pedal that you actually use more?

For the spirit of getting the thread started, out of all my pedald (Lovetone, Frostwave, Infanem, Mr. Black, Idiotbox), the one pedal that gets love all the time and never gets turned off and never leaves my board is a.................................

DOD 250 Overdrive/Preamp Chinese made reissue. It just has a sound that really thickens up my tone and widens my bass's sonic footprint. In fact, right now, it's the only pedal on my board!
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The only pedal I'll probably ever own is my Boss GT6B. If you don't do metal, pedals don't have a lot of use, and I can get close enough to anything I want with this that I just don't really feel the need to bother with anything else. One and done.
 
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#22
MGR said:
Interesting......

I notice a lot of "big name" players actually have Boss pedals too. I always wonder if it's because they are simply just great pedals, or if they just grew up with that being the major brand and they stuck with them. I, for one, have an old Boss DM-3 that's been with me for over 25 years. To my ears, there is no better analog delay pedal.
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I think part of it with big name players is that most aren't gear hounds and don't spend a lot of time A/B ing every fuzz or filter etc - they often just find something that works and stick with it. The other aspect is just practicality. Much easier to have someone run out and replace a malfunctioning Boss pedal at the local big box store than to try and track down a rare boutique pedal.

That said I have always loved the Boss OC-2. The PN-2, PS-3 and BF-2 are pretty awesome as well. As is a modded CS-2. And the TU-2 is a workhorse and a bit of a standard.

Right now I don't have any "non-boutique" pedals on my board but my board is also pretty small these days. For me it's just about what works best.
 
#26
nshuman said:
Well, if you actually read the original question, you did not give an answer to it. You also, by your own admission, do not fit the targeted audience of the question. I'm sure you saw it coming ;) There is a word for that :)
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Yep. As I posted I realized I was not the "target" audience. It's what made my post doubly fun! Sorry, just in a really good mood right now and feeling kinda, oh, snotty. :D

But make of it what you will. I'll leave you "boutique owners" to it and quit being a spoiler/troll. :)
 
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#27
MGR said:
Interesting......

I notice a lot of "big name" players actually have Boss pedals too. I always wonder if it's because they are simply just great pedals, or if they just grew up with that being the major brand and they stuck with them. I, for one, have an old Boss DM-3 that's been with me for over 25 years. To my ears, there is no better analog delay pedal.
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Pros often use Boss/MXR/EHX because they are easy to replace on tour if they malfunction. Save the boutique stuff for the studio where the audience can actually tell a difference. Then again I think lots of pro players I've heard interviews with just don't have the time or desire to search out the "special" pedals, especially in an era where software emulation is so powerful...
 
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#29
nshuman said:
MXR has great pedals. Way Huge Pedals (also under the Dunlop umbrella) has great relatively cheap pedals: Swollen Pickle, Pork Loin, almost their entire range is awesome.

SouthAMPton is boutique I guess but super cheap. Their Fifth Gear and All things Equal are great little pedals.

Then, you have Joyo. Their UD is better than any OCD or OCD clone I have ever tried.

Source Audio is not boutique and their pedals are hard to beat when you consider all you get for their price.
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Yeah, what he said. My Fifth Gear and Orbital do all sorts of great things for me, I probably don't have any reasonable need to upgrade them.

Everything is relative too. For example, just the other day I was making the case to myself in my own head as to how much I love my Wren & Cuff, smallsound/bigsound, and Diamond pedals, and therefore there is no reason to pursue Spaceman or FEA stuff. :D
 
#30
sunbeast said:
Pros often use Boss/MXR/EHX because they are easy to replace on tour if they malfunction. Save the boutique stuff for the studio where the audience can actually tell a difference. Then again I think lots of pro players I've heard interviews with just don't have the time or desire to search out the "special" pedals, especially in an era where software emulation is so powerful...
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The Lime Aid compressor is amazing, but it's easier to just pull out the GT6B for everything. It's "good enough".
 
#32
Dave W said:
I've got a few Boss pedals that I tend to prefer over anything. The BF-2 Flanger and CE-5 Chorus Ensemble are both excellent IMO. I have a bunch of "better" chori but I still prefer the tone of the CE-5. I've tried a bunch of flangers but the BF-2 does exactly what I want.

I have a Vortex Flanger and a Corona Chorus so my next stunt is to try and attempt to make a tone print that sounds like the BF-2 and CE-5 for them. I'm skeptical but with the amount of control you have in the tone print it should theoretically be possible.

I also like the DD-3, DD-7, OBD-3 (gasp!), the TU-3, and a bunch of others. Not better than others, but they're still good pedals.

In fact, I threw together a board with only Boss pedals on it just for fun and to show that you don't have to spend a ton of money to have good effects that a lot of pros use. TU-3 > OBD-3 > BF-2 > DD-3 > CE-5
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The CE-2 redo toneprint from sweetwater captures that boss chorus sound. It also makes the knobs on the corona work like the boss pedal. It's not exact but it's close.
 
#34
Not sure I fit the demographic any more. I've turfed pretty much my entire collection of "boutique" pedals. Ye olde Korg Pitchblack tunes my basses, and the EXH Bass Soul Food does what I need it to do on the two songs where I use it. Not sexy in the least. The only other pedal I'm running is a VT Bass DI, and I don't know if the Tech 21 stuff counts as "boutique" or not (I assume not). If not, I have a small board full of non-exciting but totally worthwhile pedals.
 
#37
mmbongo said:
Dang I was able to make the Vortex do anything and evreything with the Toneprint editor. Did you notice the drop down box with all the different flanger modes? I didn't at first.
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Sure did. The problem for me was the detuned warble, it was just too much. I like a nice swooo000OOO00ooosh in stead of the bAngarAngarAng that the Vortex delivered. Or maybe I just had no idea what I was doing. Either way, I flipped it for a BF-3, which does actually do the sounds I want, and a few more. Different strokes and all that :)
 
#39
I've just got my first Boss OC-2 today, made in Taiwan. Spent a few hours with it and it's a cracking pedal, easily as good as my boutique Foxrox Octron, and sounds lovely with my boutique, and not so boutique envelope filters. So long as it sounds good I don't care if a pedal's boutique or not, or where it's made :D
 

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