Back in the heat of my pre-digital, D clone tone quest, buying and trying every pedal and selling most of them, I landed on those early Joyo clones, which were $23 a piece at the time. I couldn’t suspend disbelief for the reverbs and delays so I didn’t buy those, but maybe they were good too.
But the Vintage Overdrive (TS) and Dynamic Compressor (DynaC) were incredible pedals. I sold them on principle (?!) soon after—and the board was covered with all original desirable stuff. But I’ve always planned to buy those same first gen Joyos again.
The ts clone was sparkly and detailed, different than my real vintage (Analogman modded) pedal. And the comp had a zingy unabashed squish sustain personality thing going on that was missing from all the Ego and Cali era more nuanced comps that everyone was exploring at the time. I forget what the Trem was called but it was great too.
Over the years since, I’ve built-up a drawer full of later Chinese mini D pedal Klon etc clones from various brands, but those really never get used because I’m mostly inside the Kemper. I have been putting a KOT in front that I got last year in a trade from Analog Mike. And yes it’s great. And yes, I kind of want to add his Mini Bi Comp and Sun Face, after all these years, because they’re cool and great and you don’t overthink his stuff, because they sound like they’re supposed to, so you end-up playing more. But that’s a studio board, not something that sits on the floor in a bar.
Anyway, back in the day I had so many frustrating interactions with many of the other legends of the boutique pedal world, long waits and sketchy build quality, and all that stuff topped-off by egregious pricing. It seemed at the time kind of like the dental world: one dentist decides to charge a thousand bucks for a filling, patient pays, and so then the entire industry follows suit.
Fine. I want a guy to make a living, but with pedals, I don’t know. Just like with Dumble clone amps, over the years lots of manufacturer internet finger-pointing at one another and sometimes even at customers about copping designs that they’d copped themselves in the first place, only to all circle their wagons to vilify anyone else who came out with related equipment at a price that guitarists could actually afford.
So then you get this perfect well built well packaged stuff that sounds good for no money, like so little money that no one would ever steal your board because it’s dirt cheap, and you still get grail tones .. it’s hard to at least not explore that breath of fresh air.
After like six different pricey Klones, EHX coming out with the $80 Soul Food was so cool. And it was closer to my ear to the real Klon I use regularly than some of the other cooler looking $200+ klones that now populate product lines of all those other companies that for years resisted ‘stealing’ Bill Finnegan’s design.
I don’t really know. I have a $30 Joyo AC Tone that has literally never been used, beyond testing. At some point I’d considered it as a backup. I’m not crazy about not sending money to Tech 21. But believe me if that thing became central to anything I was doing, I’d figure out a way to make it “right” with the NY company.
In the early days of digital recording and digital imagery, I had a ton of cracked plugins. Those really helped me get going. But at a certain point, once I’d actually used the stuff to make some substantial money, and maybe once I’d grown up a bit, I purged my systems of all that stuff and ponied up the dough. It felt better actually.
I don’t know .. Analog Mike consulting EHX on a cheap great TS, or making his signature sound available through a collab with MXR, this sounds like the viable future. Build expensive stuff, but don’t isolate your vision in a way that working folks, and kids especially, can’t also find a way to check your sounds out.
With money in our pockets it’s easy to judge, but I for one would point anyone on a budget in the direction of the cheap stuff.
This topic is at least murky. Yes I want some DemonFx clones. Will I use them, maybe maybe not. But no it’s not only because of digital or even clones. The pedal community, sort of like FCS and Gibson reissues, kind of ate itself by deciding at some point over a decade ago that their business model was to make expensive stuff for rich baby boomers, not for kids or working musicians.
I do see signs that they’re pivoting and even listening but there’s still a big vacuum and fun good cheap stuff is rushing in. ***Using the actual pedal name in the clone name—that’s new and crazy but … it’s a crazy world.
war and peace post™
(sorry - I’m traveling in india w time on my hands, but heading back to nyc tomorrow and then i’ll pipe the h*ll down. maybe.)
