Pedal prices and other random pedal chat!

[Thunderbird]

My bit of random chit chat is that I've never really been into pedals always tried a few out but mainly just use some drive anyway me and my son have been on the pedal journey together which is cool but now we want more pedals lol but my wife ain't so keen on the idea and neither is the bank lol 

[Al Krow]

25 minutes ago, Thunderbird said:

My bit of random chit chat is that I've never really been into pedals always tried a few out but mainly just use some drive anyway me and my son have been on the pedal journey together which is cool but now we want more pedals lol but my wife ain't so keen on the idea and neither is the bank lol 

So what've you got on your "board" so far and what do you have in your sights?

You playing mostly originals or covers?

[Thunderbird]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

So what've you got on your "board" so far and what do you have in your sights?

You playing mostly originals or covers?

We mostly just mess about with the noises lol if I play on my own all I really use is a bit of distortion as I mess about with classic rock stuff  I only play at home as not in a band or anything

My boards pretty simple Tuner/Fender Downtown and a Yellow fall delay I have a Zoom B3n which I really like but I have not sussed it out yet due to lack of time also use the Vox Stomplab as its pretty easy to use the fun pedals we play with are an EBS Fuzzmo ( thats nippers favourite and he nicks it lol )  few drive pedals and a cheap Chinese Phaser and Chorus we do have a T rex bass juice incoming 

Not really looking for anything particular maybe a decent Chorus at some point and finding time to get to grips with the Zoom would be good   

[Al Krow]

That's a tidy haul and I completely relate to messing about with noises at home - my bands are very happy with their bass player being in or below the mix and not above it, and have gotten used to simple bass - - > amp. 

You'll find that the B3N does an excellent chorus (as well as a bunch of other stuff) I had one and now have its more compact sibling the B1-4, which has the same available effects. If you have a PC check out the Tonelib editing software for the Zoom pedals. It makes creating and messing about with patches fun and a doddle. 

[Thunderbird]

42 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

That's a tidy haul and I completely relate to messing about with noises at home - my bands are very happy with their bass player being in or below the mix and not above it, and have gotten used to simple bass - - > amp. 

You'll find that the B3N does an excellent chorus (as well as a bunch of other stuff) I had one and now have its more compact sibling the B1-4, which has the same available effects. If you have a PC check out the Tonelib editing software for the Zoom pedals. It makes creating and messing about with patches fun and a doddle. 

Awesome thanks on the subject of chorus do chorus pedals have to be bass specific only asking as I have heard they should be 🤔

[dannybuoy]

They don’t have to be, but ones that do often have a filter so that the chorus effect isn’t applied to the lows. But there are guitar pedals that have this feature (e.g. Boss CE5) and ‘bass chorus’ pedals that don’t have it (Aguilar Chorusaurus)!

EHX Bass Clone, Hartke Bass Chorus or TC Corona are good places to start.

[Thunderbird]

Well I think when the wallet is a bit healthier the next purchases will be a couple of TC pedals the blood moon phaser and the thunderstorm flanger they seem to be good value and have plenty of positive reviews may also try one of the chorus pedals dannybouy suggested at a later date 👍

[Al Krow]

39 minutes ago, Thunderbird said:

Well I think when the wallet is a bit healthier the next purchases will be a couple of TC pedals the blood moon phaser and the thunderstorm flanger they seem to be good value and have plenty of positive reviews may also try one of the chorus pedals dannybouy suggested at a later date 👍

And worth checking out your B3N too - it can do most modulation stuff (phase, flange, chorus, delay, tremolo) really well! Won't cost a penny extra either 😉

[Thunderbird]

8 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

And worth checking out your B3N too - it can do most modulation stuff (phase, flange, chorus, delay, tremolo) really well! Won't cost a penny extra either 😉

Good point I really should make time to learn how to use it 👍

[SimonEdward]

On 25/07/2020 at 21:43, Woodinblack said:

But not much good in the context of a looper that only plays wav files

 

 

My comment was not in the context of loopers which only play WAV files...

[Woodinblack]

On 21/07/2020 at 23:06, Al Krow said:

Did you get one in the end? I've managed to get my head around mine in the last week and am actually finding it, if anything, easier to use than my old (and vastly bigger) Boss RC 30; things like overdubbing and then deleting / redoing the last take until you're happy with it is surprisingly straightforward. The one niggle is that its output and input have to be in .wav files rather than the more compact / widely used mp3 format.

Turned up today, looks great for £35. I will give it a try tonight!

[Woodinblack]

5 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Turned up today, looks great for £35. I will give it a try tonight!

Works great and also the bluetooth page turner i got at the same time for £23 can be connected by USB and switches patches. not sure if I am going to use that but nice to have the functionality!

 

[Al Krow]

9 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Works great and also the bluetooth page turner i got at the same time for £23 can be connected by USB and switches patches. not sure if I am going to use that but nice to have the functionality!

Excellent. I think the Lekato really does punch well above its weight as a looper. It has the functionality of pedals costing several times more and then goes one further by putting it all in such a tiny package! But it's relatively unknown still.

The only slightly fiddly thing I'm finding is the quick double press to switch it into standby - where a second stomp button might have been easier. But that would likely have needed a bigger box and, besides, I suspect that is the same issue with most single stomp loopers. 

So what is the £23 blue tooth page turner? 

[Woodinblack]

15 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Excellent. I think the Lekato really does punch well above its weight as a looper. It has the functionality of pedals costing several times more and then goes one further by putting it all in such a tiny package! But it's relatively unknown still.

The only slightly fiddly thing I'm finding is the quick double press to switch it into standby - where a second stomp button might have been easier. But that would likely have needed a bigger box and, besides, I suspect that is the same issue with most single stomp loopers. 

So what is the £23 blue tooth page turner? 

One of these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353141464225

My wife bought one and it was just what I was looking for. It has an up / down (optionally left / right) button, a switch on the back to switch from apple / android, a USB socket to connect to a looper, and a usb power socket (lasts for weeks on batteries). But the USB socket was marked as 'looper pro' and although I bought them from different places and both ebay adverts show different footswitches / loopers, they did turn up in the same packaging with the same sort of paperwork, so I wondered if I connected them would it work. And it did.

[Thunderbird]

10 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

One of these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353141464225

My wife bought one and it was just what I was looking for. It has an up / down (optionally left / right) button, a switch on the back to switch from apple / android, a USB socket to connect to a looper, and a usb power socket (lasts for weeks on batteries). But the USB socket was marked as 'looper pro' and although I bought them from different places and both ebay adverts show different footswitches / loopers, they did turn up in the same packaging with the same sort of paperwork, so I wondered if I connected them would it work. And it did.

Never new such a thing existed looks really cool 

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, Thunderbird said:

Never new such a thing existed looks really cool 

My thoughts exactly!

I'm now desperately resisting the temptation to get things loaded up on a larger board, to make space for the tap tempo and Woody's new gizmo 😁

[Al Krow]

And if that tickles you, it's nothing compared to the evidence of my going do-lally that this thread has shown me! 

That rather handy Mosky dual switch, Woody recommended ...well shortly after it turned up from Amazon, turns out I already had one sitting patiently on my on-the-pedal-shelf! 

I used to do that with CDs, duplicate pedals takes it to whole new level! 

[Al Krow]

I've been having a bit of a gear clear out - mostly pedals.

Lockdown has been really helpful in getting me to see that some of my gear was not getting used just because of a lack of time - or at least that's what I'd been telling myself was my excuse. Quite a lot of us, me included, I suspect have had a fair bit more time with less commuting / meetings etc. over the past four months. Kinda made me realise that the real reason that some of my kit was not getting used was that they were actually more appealing on paper than in real life! Certainly in terms of the amount of reward for buck of time invested. Obviously I'm just speaking from my own purely personal perspective here.

So I've kinda resolved that any "pseudo multifx" pedals that aren't actually multifx, but where you still need to get into PC editing or midi or your bluetooth phone etc etc to get the most out of them are not for me. PC editing headspace is gonna be reserved for proper bona- fide, good dog, multifx like my amazing value Zoom B1-4 and the very capable Helix HX Effects I'm fortunate to have.

Anyway! The main point of this neo-luddite ramble is that interestingly (to me anyway!) 1/3 of my pedal sales over the past couple of weeks have been to bass players from the EU. I'm guessing that things might just be a little more positive on the continent than for us Brits, right now, on the music front and that £:euro may well be making our used gear seem like good value despite postage costs being +£10 more than it is to send within the UK. Just a thought.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

Boss seem to be on a roll with their new  product launches such as the OC-5, and GT1000 Core and now these two (pretty spendy!) loopers the RC-5 (£175) and RC-500 (£263)

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/news/141208/

[BillyBass]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Boss seem to be on a roll with their new  product launches such as the OC-5, and GT1000 Core and now these two (pretty spendy!) loopers the RC-5 (£175) and RC-500 (£263)

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/news/141208/

The OC-5 will probably fly off the shelf, possibly a licence to print money.

[Al Krow]

10 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

The OC-5 will probably fly off the shelf, possibly a licence to print money.

I agree - there's a separate thread on it and quite a few BCers have already said they are getting. It's supposed to be pretty good too! 

I did spend £199 on a new Boss RC-30 back at the start of 2015, so I'm not sure why I'm feeling quite so daunted by the price of the RC-500 which looks like a very worthy successor! Maybe I've been spoiled by being able to buy quality used gear on this forum over the past few years? 

[BillyBass]

32 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I agree - there's a separate thread on it and quite a few BCers have already said they are getting. It's supposed to be pretty good too! 

I did spend £199 on a new Boss RC-30 back at the start of 2015, so I'm not sure why I'm feeling quite so daunted by the price of the RC-500 which looks like a very worthy successor! Maybe I've been spoiled by being able to buy quality used gear on this forum over the past few years? 

My looper is the Ditto Jam.  I got it to fit in with the Beat Buddy mini on my practise board, and it does that very well, so I won't be looking at the Boss loopers.  

The OC-5 is tempting but I'll wait.  I have an Aguilar Octamizer that doesn't get used very much but then it doesn't do that synth sound the OC-2 does.  I reckon we'll be getting plenty of feedback on here as to how good the OC-5 is and I'm sure GAS will get the better of me. 

In some ways, the release of the OC-5 is the bass event of the year!

[Al Krow]

"the release of the OC-5 is the bass event of the year!"

You heard it here first, folks 😁

[Al Krow]

3 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

My looper is the Ditto Jam.  I got it to fit in with the Beat Buddy mini on my practise board, and it does that very well, so I won't be looking at the Boss loopers.  

I think that's what I like about the RC-500 is the combination of looper + drums

Ditto Jam £130 + Beat Buddy mini £150 = cost of the RC 500

I reckon RC 500 will win on looper capability and the Beat Buddy mini have the better drums.

Hmmm...

[BillyBass]

55 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I think that's what I like about the RC-500 is the combination of looper + drums

Ditto Jam £130 + Beat Buddy mini £150 = cost of the RC 500

I reckon RC 500 will win on looper capability and the Beat Buddy mini have the better drums.

Hmmm...

I have never used the Boss loopers, so I don't know what I'm missing.  With the BeatBuddy, however, getting a looper to sync with the drums is very difficult, with the Boss loopers you have to press your foot down at just the right time.  You would mess the timing up 19 times out of 20 before getting it right!

The Ditto Jam syncs with the beat buddy, or whatever drum machine you use with it, it sort of stretches or flattens your loop to play in time with the beats!  So you don't have to worry about the timing so much, get it near and the Ditto will do the rest.

If you are looking for the best drum machine around then go for the BeatBuddy and Ditto Jam but if the looper is more important to you then you probably don't need the BeatBuddy.

Currently I mainly use the BeatBuddy's metronome and use the Ditto to listen back to my playing...but that is because I joined a covers band in July and my practise sessions are mainly taken up with learning songs.