The importance of aesthetics to me.

KingsXJJ

KingsXJJ

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As much as I care about how something’s sounds and works for me, I also care a great deal about how it looks. I guess it shows my fallibility by admitting I’ve been guilty of keeping beautiful gear longer than I should have and letting stuff go sooner because it was unattractive to me. Zoom would be a great example of the latter. But the former has occurred with Strymon and others.

Here’s a couple of competing products that, at least to me, showcase aesthetic differences.

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IMG_0744.webp
 
Yeah aesthetics matter.

I tend to prefer pedals that don't try too hard for their styling, which is why most Strymons look good to me. The typical Boss pedal is also a great combination of form and function.

kemper-profiler-stage-1@1400x1050.jpg


For modelers, I actually really liked the black and green aesthetic of the Kempers. While the "fishnet" pattern they could lose, the green is just the perfect shade.

profiler-stage_wh_cropped_1200w.jpg


I was in Japan last year and at a rock festival I immediately spotted several Kempers because of their distinctive color and look. The Kemper MK2 design sucks for losing that visual identity to go for a drab black. It almost makes it look like a clone sold by some unscrupulous vendor.
 
KingsXJJ said:
Here’s a pair that are a close call in the looks department IMO. I think both could learn from each other.

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The Hotone A2 Stage could lose the CDCM advertising on it for a cleaner look.

The 10th anniversary red A2 Stomp I have looks better because the branding is less visibly obnoxious and there's less superfluous elements to the surface.

Fractal FM3 always reminds me of an old wood stove. There's something very tank-like to its appearance where everything about this says "I'm very robust" but at the same time...I'm not sure if that's what I want from a tech product. There's got to be something in between "wood stove" and Quad Cortex's "I want to be an Apple product when I grow up!"

quaker_antique_cookstove.jpg
 
laxu said:
View attachment 46683

The Hotone A2 Stage could lose the CDCM advertising on it for a cleaner look.

The 10th anniversary red A2 Stomp I have looks better because the branding is less visibly obnoxious and there's less superfluous elements to the surface.

Fractal FM3 always reminds me of an old wood stove. There's something very tank-like to its appearance where everything about this says "I'm very robust" but at the same time...I'm not sure if that's what I want from a tech product. There's got to be something in between "wood stove" and Quad Cortex's "I want to be an Apple product when I grow up!"

quaker_antique_cookstove.jpg
Click to expand...
They deserve credit for this one to… imho. And I would buy a black ampero mini as soon as they make one…

IMG_8344.jpeg
 
KingsXJJ said:
As much as I care about how something’s sounds and works for me, I also care a great deal about how it looks. I guess it shows my fallibility by admitting I’ve been guilty of keeping beautiful gear longer than I should have and letting stuff go sooner because it was unattractive to me. Zoom would be a great example of the latter. But the former has occurred with Strymon and others.

Here’s a couple of competing products that, at least to me, showcase aesthetic differences.

View attachment 46644View attachment 46645
Click to expand...
We're musicians who like pretty guitars. Of course that trickles down to other stuff. I actually think both of those examples (HX, Hotone) look nice. The Zoom stuff does look pretty ugly, but I know they make decent stuff. I miss my old 9000!
 
laxu said:
Yeah aesthetics matter.

I tend to prefer pedals that don't try too hard for their styling, which is why most Strymons look good to me. The typical Boss pedal is also a great combination of form and function.

kemper-profiler-stage-1@1400x1050.jpg


For modelers, I actually really liked the black and green aesthetic of the Kempers. While the "fishnet" pattern they could lose, the green is just the perfect shade.

profiler-stage_wh_cropped_1200w.jpg


I was in Japan last year and at a rock festival I immediately spotted several Kempers because of their distinctive color and look. The Kemper MK2 design sucks for losing that visual identity to go for a drab black. It almost makes it look like a clone sold by some unscrupulous vendor.
Click to expand...
I agree. I think the toaster looks fucking cool. Had they kept that, and uh, done other things to make it viable, I'd have been interested.
 
the swede said:
They deserve credit for this one to… imho. And I would buy a black ampero mini as soon as they make one…

View attachment 46684
Click to expand...
Yeah it would be cool to see them update that to Ampero 2 tech.

When the encoder on my A2 Stomp was busted, I tried using it with the touchscreen only and it's not like terrible. You can drag the sliders to get a coarse value and then tap either side of the slider to increase/decrease the value by one step.

This, with maybe just a single encoder somewhere would be dope. Or do this without footswitches but 3 encoders instead. MIDI for footswitching if you want.
 
laxu said:
View attachment 46683

The Hotone A2 Stage could lose the CDCM advertising on it for a cleaner look.

The 10th anniversary red A2 Stomp I have looks better because the branding is less visibly obnoxious and there's less superfluous elements to the surface.

Fractal FM3 always reminds me of an old wood stove. There's something very tank-like to its appearance where everything about this says "I'm very robust" but at the same time...I'm not sure if that's what I want from a tech product. There's got to be something in between "wood stove" and Quad Cortex's "I want to be an Apple product when I grow up!"

quaker_antique_cookstove.jpg
Click to expand...
Dag I want a modeler with wood stove or steampunk aesthetics. I’m weird like that.

There was an amp a while back that had a VU meter on it. Was it Ashdown? I’m a sucker for that.

Maybe the Stadium could at least give us a a screen with MPH & RPM gauges.
 
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