Pedal vs Stomp vs laptop?

[Iron1]

Was thinking about how pricey so many FX pedals have become lately and started wondering why?

If Dell can churn out a laptop for $500, and Line 6 can make the Stomp for $600, why the H E double hockeysticks are so many singular pedals $3-700?

Are we all that dumb that we support price gouging in the name of tone-cork-sniffing? Or is there some special unobtanium that pedal manufacturers use that make 50 year old tech more expensive than modern stuff? Is it a lack of microchips? Resistors and transistors made from unicorn bone marrow? WTH?

Discuss.

 

[JiveTurkey]

A rig full of pedals is a hell of a lot more fun than a rig full of laptops.

 

[Iron1]

A rig full of pedals is a hell of a lot more fun than a rig full of laptops.

Im not advocating for laptop use, more that pedals should be like $50-100, not $599

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Im not advocating for laptop use, more that pedals should be like $50-100, not $599

I don't disagree some pedals are too expensive but making anything at decent quality in the £50-100 isn't realistic either.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Im not advocating for laptop use, more that pedals should be like $50-100, not $599

Oh I know. And I don't disagree. But I am also so completely wrung out of any sort of GAS for almost really anything (sorry for the ) that it's all just par for the course. What pedals are you looking at? If the answer is 'Yes'; it's even worse than I expected

 

[Iron1]

I don't disagree some pedals are too expensive but making anything at decent quality in the £50-100 isn't realistic either.

if this is $179, why not?

 

[JiveTurkey]

if this is $179, why not?

That clock radio volume slider is

 

[SillyOctpuss]

if this is $179, why not?

It's also not in the $50-$100 bracket but the enclosure is plastic, they're making millions of them and they're made in china or Vietnam.

If you want to knock out direct clones with the cheapest parts possible using schematics pulled from freestompboxes.org which may or may not be correct and made in China then yeah go nuts, you'll easily knock out a line of pedals in that price range.

If you're hand building pedals using decent quality parts, paying your staff properly, building them anywhere which isn't China and still making a profit then it's just not realistic.

 

[itchyfingers]

There's a time and place for everything. Sometimes all I need is a Blues Driver. Sometimes I have to have a MKII Automatone with MIDI and moving sliders.

Don't fret - I haven't found a pedal that plays porn yet, so the $500 Dell will still be an essential item...

 

[Whizzinby]

Strymon, Meris, and Eventide aren’t Dell. Economies of scale. There are companies making awesome pedals for under $200, but most of them also have a lot of volume and scale worldwide. (EHX, JHS, Walrus, EQD, Boss, Line 6, AliExpress Clones) Strymon has a lot of scale, but…

Strymon, Meris, Eventide, Chase Bliss etc. are also competing against each other in the Prestige Pedal market, and cheap(er) offerings relative to each other, generally speaking, will lead to a perception of inferiority. (And perhaps more importantly, the cheaper/affordable pedal market is just not what they are interested in competing in)

But yeah it is a hugely derivative, overhyped, piece of shit subsection of the instrument market. I’ve been trying to hold a pedal maker convention for years!

 

[mbenigni]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale

Value-based pricing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[laxu]

Was thinking about how pricey so many FX pedals have become lately and started wondering why?

It depends a lot on the size of the manufacturer. Some 1-2 person outfit in a garage in the US making boutique drive pedals needs to sell theirs for probably at minimum around $200 to make a living. Labor costs, living costs, shipping, support, small product runs etc. all amount to higher base price.

By comparison a company making theirs in China can depend on volume sales, so maybe they sell theirs for $100.

Even cheaper if they use another manufacturer and just slap their name on it. Donner, Mooer, all those random generated Chinese brands on Amazon...

In between is something like Boss's Japanese made Waza range - made in a higher cost of labor/living country, but making use of Boss's factory scale.

Digital pedals like Strymon, Source Audio, Universal Audio etc are all significantly more complex so there's a lot of software development cost, and initial costs in developing a hardware platform. Most of them are basically the same base DSP + I/O PCB, combined with another PCB for front panel controls and then a different chassis for each model. They are also aimed at a more premium market so that puts their price higher.

On top of that the guitar pedal market is way, way smaller than the market for laptops. The people who might get/need a laptop is basically everybody but young children.

So Dell can make a $500 laptop and it's probably a functional piece of crap as far as laptops go. A decent laptop is maybe $1000-1500. An actual great laptop costs more like $2000-3000.

 

[Achilles]

Economies of scale.

*mic drop*

That and manufacturers somewhat choose their own price point niches and component quality.

 

[Stone]

fancy graphics, claims of ultimate toanz, notoriety, fairy dust, vintage alien components

 

[SillyOctpuss]

vintage alien components

I quite like parts like that in my own builds tbh. Not because they sound any better but because I think they look cool. I'd rather build my own pedals with cool looking old parts that still measure in spec than modern surface mount stuff.

 

[Aelred]

"What the market will bear" springs to mind.

Dipping one's toes into the waters when you don't know a humbucker from a P90, an Orange Terror from a Princeton etc means most every new or mid-life crisis re-newal (me!) player ends up with a bit of gear or two they don't consider a good purchase.

Or you end up having pedals and amps for different guitars and storage issues.

I work in IT for a living still, and have no wish to mess with laptops and even multi-FX otherwise. I play games on a PlayStation while my tradesmen friends have massive gaming PCs with multiple screens and all sorts of gear.

My old built-like-a-tank AmpTweakers always felt like value for money quite apart from the features and tones. And I can afford Boss (even Waza) over Behringer. When I had a bit of spare cash to spend, I finally bought myself a Strymon Deco I thought would be surplus to requirements. Now I want another for the other tube Amp I have set up. I also have a Timeline I use for basic delay because I spent the money expecting magic to appear beneath my feet. I do not "blame" Strymon at all.

And who doesn't gas for demon heads and skulls or kaleidoscopic vomit and stuff all over their pedals? I can't read a thing on my Polara but it's a good pedal.

Confession: I have some modest gear but mostly play a PRS SE 245 into a Yamaha THR10.

 

[la szum]

if this is $179, why not?

.... are cheap.

 

[maguchi]

If Dell can churn out a laptop for $500, and Line 6 can make the Stomp for $600, why the H E double hockeysticks are so many singular pedals $3-700?

Pedals that are $300-$700?! I don't know maybe so, but I really haven't seen many/any in that price range. Maybe an occasional pedal that barely gets up to $300. But to be honest there are good to great pedals like Boss, TC Electronic and EHX in the $50-$100 price range. I did a quick search of dirt pedals on Sweetwater and the largest price category several times over was the $100-$200 range with 562 pedals. The $300-$500 category was only 90 pedals and $500-$750 only 18 pedals.