Boutique vs Production Line effects pedals

JoeyBones · 2008-05-15T08:06:04+00:00

I've looked into boutique pedals over the last couple months and bought a ZVEX Box Of Rock, ZVEX Fuzz Factory and a Cuzack Tap-A-Whirl.They are great pedals but after a lengthy discussion and some jamming with my buddy last night I'm not completely convinced that they were really necessary. He started out with a BOSS SD-2 and a DD-3 and used them for the first year or so of playing in a cover band. His argument was that instead of buying pedals for different tones, you should take something like the SD-2 and get the most out of it and in that way you will train yourself to get the most out of any gear you buy. I'm pretty good at getting my modulations and delays tuned in, but I was having problems getting the OD/Dist tone I wanted and after hearing sound clips and demos, I bought the drives and distortion pedals that I have. I guess I fell for the sales pitch. Don't get me wrong, these pedals definitely have their place, but you gotta be sure you know what you want and what you're gonna get. So, to cut to the chase I started the thread is to discuss the pros and cons and the technical defferences between the common pedals, such as BOSS and IBANEZ vs the hi end stuff made by guys like lovekraft,ZVEX, catalinbread, etc. I have found that custom pedals can range from R100 to R5000 vs the production line stuff that you can pickup for anywhere from R300 to R1500 new.

JoeyBones

Brilliant!!

Thanks Rob.

JoeyBones

This is cool. I'm reading electronics schematics. What's a uF is a that like an ultra F ?

JoeyBones

I found this schematic online just for interest sake :

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/circ/ps-lm317.html

ralley

Joey,
Not sure if you were joking on that one. The uF is short for micro Farad. Farad being the measure of capacitance and micro the prefix meaning 10−6 (one millionth).

The scheme you linked too is a bit more complicated as it uses a pot to adjust the output voltage, could be fun to simulate a dying battery though.

Rob.

JoeyBones

Thanks for explanation Rob. I'm sure my brother explained that too me a while back, but I forgot.

About the PSu my buddy uses, he bought it from MANTEC. It is center positive, so you just have swap the cables around to change the polarity. I'm not sure if they do a center negative version.

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