Cheap Pedals from "El Cheapo"

[zombiwoof]

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am unfortunately on a limited budget, and can't afford the wonderful boutique pedals out there these days, so I've decided to explore the realm of cheaper effects!  Besides trying for older pedals I've wanted on Ebay (recently scored an original MXR 6-Band EQ for $50!), I found out about the pedals that Fender and Gibson are selling through discount stores.  The "Maestro by Gibson" pedals seem to be relabeled Daphon pedals, so I haven't gone that route yet, but I got a couple of the "Starcaster by Fender" effects that are sold through Target and Bestbuy.

I got a $50 gift cert for Christmas, and when I looked online at Target I found out about the Fender pedals.  I checked on Harmony Central for the reviews, and they were favorable, especially for the Chorus and Flanger.  Target didn't have the Flanger, so I got the Distortion.  Just thought I'd post a review here.  First off, it's in a heavy folded steel king of enclosure, and opening it up, it's old school construction, thru-hole components on a pc board, case-mounted jacks and DPDT switch, and an LED (obviously not true bypass).  The sound?  Well, I'd say it's kind of high-gain Marshall sound, it immediately reminded me of sort of a Green Day type sound, not really my thing, but not bad.  It's got a bunch of knobs, Level, Distortion, High, Low, and Mid and a Sweepable Mid control, quite a bit of variety there.  Not too bad, but needs a 3DPT for true bypass, it sucks a bit of tone in bypass.

The thing is, these things are $50 from Target, so I looked elsewhere for the other two pedals.  Got the Chorus on Ebay for about $20 plus shipping, and this thing is great!  Really good Chorus, and 5 knobs, Level, Rate, Depth, and High and Low Filters.  I'd say it's as good a chorus as any I've ever had.

Haven't got the Flanger yet, it's harder to get cheap, but I see that Bestbuy has all three for $43.00 a piece, I'll probably get the Flanger there at some point to complete my collection, it actually got the best reviews on HC.

Here's the one that you guys might care about more, I found out about the "Lyon by Washburn" stuff that I think sells at Walmart.  Some of the pedals looked a little cheesy, but the Wah got my attention.  Probably not much talk here about them because they sell at the store for $70, you can get a Dunlop for that to mod, but I looked around and found them through Amazon Marketplace and Ebay for less than half that.  I got one from an Ebay discount store for about $20, and I thought twice about telling everybody, because I know there's going to be a run on these now, but this thing is the best deal around for a Wah.  It's obviously Chinese, but guys, this has the same shell (I think) that Smallbear sells for $40!, I got the whole pedal for 20, and it sounds pretty damn good stock!  It's got an "Arrow" DPDT style switch, some inductor that I've never seen, and the jacks are mounted to the board, like the later Dunlops, but it ain't surface mount parts!  Looks at first glance to be a copy of a Crybaby, with the input buffer on the board.  It's ripe for modding!  I'm going to true-bypass it and go from there.

Just thought you might be interested in these cheap pedals, I haven't seen much mention of them here.  I'm now going to change my user name to "El Cheapo".

Al

[antojado]

Shame, shame, shame. 

$20 for the wah is worth it just for the case if nothing else! Just make sure you put one of those smiley face stickers on it and you're good to go! 

[Mark Hammer]

I don't know what they sound like, but the image makes these things look attractive.  I mean, a FIVE-KNOB chorus?  That's rare.  It's as if it came premodded.  Great deal in my books.  Wish I could buy one here.

[MikeH]

I snagged the starcaster distortion on ebay for ~20 bucks as well.  I figured the enclosure, switch, jacks and pots were worth that alone and I expected that I would end up scrapping it for parts, but.... honestly I was amazed at just how good it sounded.  There was a slight effect bleed when in bypass, which could easily be fixed by true bypassing it, which you could do without changing the switch if you disengaged the LED.  So, while it's not on my gig board, I certainly haven't scrapped it.  I read a little later that it's a Boss Metal Zone clone.  I don't know if that's true, but I believe it has all of the same controls (3 band EQ with mid frequency).

[aab0mb]

Reguarding the Daphon pedals:  http://www.analogman.com/delay.htm

You can get the analog delay for around $40.  Might be a cool one to try out a few mods on.

[Electron Tornado]

It's interesting with all the hype over "vintage" and "boutique" pedals, and the derision some people give cheap "happy meal" pedals, just how many people really like the cheap stuff when they try it.

One point about pedals is that no one (except maybe a DIYer) is going to come to a gig and want to check out your pedal board. No one cares what's on there, just that you sound good. There are some pedals that may be great, but there are a lot more that are only "great" because some big name musician uses it. People will buy it for that reason alone because they want to sound like (fill in the blank).

What's great about cheap pedals is that they can be modded, and if you don't like the plastic enclosure, then re-house it in a better one. In the end you can end up with a pedal that sounds as good or better than the ones that get the hype.

[Mark Hammer]

Very often, "cheap" = someone else did the heavy lifting of making and stuffing the PCB.

Sometimes, "cheap" also means that the pedal uses surface mount construction, which can pose an obstacle to modding (small traces/pads, no substitute or alternate components in your parts bin, etc).  But in many instances, "cheap" means that the manufacturer used a cookbook or copyright-expired design.

Remember, once upon a time Danelectro, Teisco, and Ibanez guitars and Supro amps were considered cheap knockoffs.

[superferrite]

I went and got the Washburn Blues Overdrive a couple of months ago--hey, it said "true bypass" on the box!
Sounded like, well, Poop.  The Starcaster pedals, esp the Flanger and the Chorus are well received on Harmony Central. 

[zombiwoof]

I don't know what they sound like, but the image makes these things look attractive.  I mean, a FIVE-KNOB chorus?  That's rare.  It's as if it came premodded.  Great deal in my books.  Wish I could buy one here.

Where are you?  You can get these things from Best Buy online, Amazon Marketplace, and sometimes Ebay, although I notice they've kind of dried up there lately. 

Al

[zombiwoof]

Reguarding the Daphon pedals:  http://www.analogman.com/delay.htm

You can get the analog delay for around $40.  Might be a cool one to try out a few mods on.

Does anyone know where to get the Daphon pedals here in the U.S. at a good price?  I missed out on one on Ebay for $20, it went fast.  I can get them from Australia but the shipping is a bit steep.  They have a wah that looks interesting, I can't figure out if the enclosure is metal or plastic from the picture, but it's different from the usual Dunlop or Chinese ones.

Al

[zombiwoof]

I snagged the starcaster distortion on ebay for ~20 bucks as well.  I figured the enclosure, switch, jacks and pots were worth that alone and I expected that I would end up scrapping it for parts, but.... honestly I was amazed at just how good it sounded.  There was a slight effect bleed when in bypass, which could easily be fixed by true bypassing it, which you could do without changing the switch if you disengaged the LED.  So, while it's not on my gig board, I certainly haven't scrapped it.  I read a little later that it's a Boss Metal Zone clone.  I don't know if that's true, but I believe it has all of the same controls (3 band EQ with mid frequency).

Boss Metal Zone, huh.....  I was wondering what it was a copy of, I knew it had a metal sound, and I never tried the Boss pedal.  I'm definitely gonna true bypass both of the Starcaster pedals I have soon, there is obvious tone-suckage there.  I really like the Chorus, I wonder what they copied that from?

Al

[5thumbs]

Does anyone know where to get the Daphon pedals here in the U.S. at a good price?  I missed out on one on Ebay for $20, it went fast.  I can get them from Australia but the shipping is a bit steep.  They have a wah that looks interesting, I can't figure out if the enclosure is metal or plastic from the picture, but it's different from the usual Dunlop or Chinese ones.

Al:

The E10-series pedals have a plastic housing.  The E20-series pedals have the metal housing.

Just out of curiosity, which pedal did you miss on eBay?  I picked up a Daphon E20CH chorus the other day for $20 on eBay myself.  Hopefully this is a sign that more of the E20-series pedals are worming their way into the US and will be showing up on eBay soon.

I'm interested in picking up several Daphon E20-series pedals for experiments (as well as some of those Beta-Aivin pedals).  Through-hole components, metal housings and low prices...something bored DIY modders everywhere can cheer about.

[moro]

There's a guy in Canada who carries the Daphon pedals. I got the analog delay from him several weeks ago and shipping was pretty reasonable. Here's a link:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZlordfretless

I replaced the BBD with one of the Coolaudio 3205 clones and it sounds great. The construction is abysmal though. It has the sloppiest soldering I've ever seen and a lot of the components stick out at weird angles instead of sitting flush on the board. The PCB seemed really flimsy. (Yes, I realize this is why they're so cheap.) I was originally going to put in trimpots, like on Analogman's delay, but I just replaced the BBD chip and the compander. I didn't really want to muck around in there too much because the thing seemed so fragile.

The Fender chorus looks interesting. A guy on HC claimed it was analog. Is this true?

[MikeH]

I snagged the starcaster distortion on ebay for ~20 bucks as well.  I figured the enclosure, switch, jacks and pots were worth that alone and I expected that I would end up scrapping it for parts, but.... honestly I was amazed at just how good it sounded.  There was a slight effect bleed when in bypass, which could easily be fixed by true bypassing it, which you could do without changing the switch if you disengaged the LED.  So, while it's not on my gig board, I certainly haven't scrapped it.  I read a little later that it's a Boss Metal Zone clone.  I don't know if that's true, but I believe it has all of the same controls (3 band EQ with mid frequency).

Boss Metal Zone, huh.....  I was wondering what it was a copy of, I knew it had a metal sound, and I never tried the Boss pedal.  I'm definitely gonna true bypass both of the Starcaster pedals I have soon, there is obvious tone-suckage there.  I really like the Chorus, I wonder what they copied that from?

Al

I think it (meaning the MT2 and all variants thereof) has the ability to sound VERY metal, although there are tons and tons of non-metal type tones that can be coaxed out of one with ease.  Which really makes me wonder why BOSS decided to market it as a "metal" pedal.  It seems that title would immediately turn a lot of "non-metal" players off, when it is just as well suited to them as it is to any metal-head.  And I'd know; it turned me off of it when I first saw it.  I think they would have done even better with it marketing it as a "Hi-gain" distortion or simply another "distortion" in the DS-... series.  Because it's not like the HM2 or a digitech "Death Metal", it has way more tricks than that.

[Mark Hammer]

I don't know what they sound like, but the image makes these things look attractive.  I mean, a FIVE-KNOB chorus?  That's rare.  It's as if it came premodded.  Great deal in my books.  Wish I could buy one here.

Where are you?  You can get these things from Best Buy online, Amazon Marketplace, and sometimes Ebay, although I notice they've kind of dried up there lately. 
Al

I buy stuff I can touch, using cash.  My only exception is buying from Steve Daniels.  Other than that, on-line is off-limits.  Call me a fuddy duddy that way.

[5thumbs]

There's a guy in Canada who carries the Daphon pedals. I got the analog delay from him several weeks ago and shipping was pretty reasonable. Here's a link:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZlordfretless

Thanks for the link.  Buying Daphon E20s from him would be at least $10 cheaper than buying them from Swamp Industries in AU.

Most of the Daphon E20s are price-compelling, but the E20DD (digital delay) is essentially a DD-5 near-clone, but costs as much as a used DD-5.    Used BOSS wins that value comparison in my book.

As for the E20DL (analog delay) that folks are buzzing about because of Analogman's version, the stuff I've read have the stock pedal sounding like more of an oscillation-generator than anything else.  Mike is using an E20DL version custom-built by Daphon for him, so it will be interesting to see if DIYers can mod the stock E20DL to tame the oscillations or not.  Not my cup of tea, but I'm sure there are folks who will try and do it.

[zombiwoof]

Does anyone know where to get the Daphon pedals here in the U.S. at a good price?  I missed out on one on Ebay for $20, it went fast.  I can get them from Australia but the shipping is a bit steep.  They have a wah that looks interesting, I can't figure out if the enclosure is metal or plastic from the picture, but it's different from the usual Dunlop or Chinese ones.

Al:

The E10-series pedals have a plastic housing.  The E20-series pedals have the metal housing.

Just out of curiosity, which pedal did you miss on eBay?  I picked up a Daphon E20CH chorus the other day for $20 on eBay myself.  Hopefully this is a sign that more of the E20-series pedals are worming their way into the US and will be showing up on eBay soon.

I'm interested in picking up several Daphon E20-series pedals for experiments (as well as some of those Beta-Aivin pedals).  Through-hole components, metal housings and low prices...something bored DIY modders everywhere can cheer about.

The one I missed was the Distortion, for $20.  The guy doesn't seem to have any items up now.

Al

[zombiwoof]

There's a guy in Canada who carries the Daphon pedals. I got the analog delay from him several weeks ago and shipping was pretty reasonable. Here's a link:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZlordfretless

I replaced the BBD with one of the Coolaudio 3205 clones and it sounds great. The construction is abysmal though. It has the sloppiest soldering I've ever seen and a lot of the components stick out at weird angles instead of sitting flush on the board. The PCB seemed really flimsy. (Yes, I realize this is why they're so cheap.) I was originally going to put in trimpots, like on Analogman's delay, but I just replaced the BBD chip and the compander. I didn't really want to muck around in there too much because the thing seemed so fragile.

The Fender chorus looks interesting. A guy on HC claimed it was analog. Is this true?

I'm not sure about whether the chorus is analog, I presume it is, but maybe someone else can verify.  As for the link, just before I saw your post I did a search on Ebay and found his site, yeah that's a bit better than the price from Swamp in Australia, although from Swamp you can get the "slow boat from OZ" shipping for about $17, don't know now long that would take!

Al

[zombiwoof]

I don't know what they sound like, but the image makes these things look attractive.  I mean, a FIVE-KNOB chorus?  That's rare.  It's as if it came premodded.  Great deal in my books.  Wish I could buy one here.

Where are you?  You can get these things from Best Buy online, Amazon Marketplace, and sometimes Ebay, although I notice they've kind of dried up there lately. 
Al

I buy stuff I can touch, using cash.  My only exception is buying from Steve Daniels.  Other than that, on-line is off-limits.  Call me a fuddy duddy that way.

OK Mr. Fuddy Duddy, do you have a Target or Best Buy near you?  They have the Starcaster pedals, Best Buy is the better one, right now they're $43 and I do believe they still take cash (but I wouldn't bet my '56 Les Paul Jr. on it!).  They also have all three pedals, whereas Target seems to never have the Flanger.

Al

[Mark Hammer]

No Target in canada to my knowledge, and Best Buy is one of those stores that requires ear plugs and Gravol to walk into, so I haven't been inone for a while.  Last time I looked a few months ago, though, such devices, or anything guitar related, was not to be found in the store.  Keep in mind that Canadian Best Buy is likely to be different than American Best Buy.  Certainly looking on their web-site reveals precious little that is guitar-related.