Questions

  • What's a tube based distortion pedal you have or you think might be worth buying?

  • What would be a good site / reddit sub / forum / Youtube channel / whatever to check? I'm going to check Reverb tonight when I have time.

Skippable boring details

The thumb is for this COMING SOON: Audiode Overdrive / Distortion Pedal - Curious Audio

Curious Audio is run by a couple of lefties and the pedal intrigued me but there are issues. The pedal is more than I want to spend. The site lists the price as "$379.00 $289.00". I dont know if they are actually still making the damn thing. The apparently sold five. They were supposed to have a Youtube vide up around September. But now they removed any mention of that. Also - I emailed them a follow up question 3 months ago and they never replied.

I shouldn't have wasted my time but this morning I emailed them again. I broke a simple but very useful rule I have. If a business doesn't reply promptly - I should never do business with them. And it's not like there aren't loads of other pedal options.

  • supafuzz [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    People shit on Behringer but I've wanted to get my hands on one of these for awhile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c63kxPAVvU They're pretty cheap on reverb. I don't know of a cheaper pedal with a tube in it.

    A pedal like that is basically just a preamp section in a box. You could look at the Joyo Bantamp series, which are actually full amp heads with a tube preamp, 20W solid state power section, and an effects loop in a tiny form factor. You could stick it in the middle of a pedal chain by only using the effect loop send, bypassing the power section. I have a Meteor and it's pretty rad. They're all cheaper than that Curious Audio pedal.

    Also, do you need tubes? This guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcBEOcPtlYk demonstrates in a way that's pretty convincing to me that distortion is distortion and most of the difference we perceive between amps/pedals has more to do with EQ and where the EQ stages are positioned between gain stages.

      • minilogue [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        except for the antisemitism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behringer#Controversies

        • Findom_DeLuise [she/her, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          :jesus-christ: https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxe7qx/a-major-synth-company-created-this-fake-product-to-attack-a-journalist

      • supafuzz [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I don't have a ton of their pedals but my experiences with their synths and interfaces and microphones have all been very solid

        For cheap pedals don't sleep on Azor, Dolamo, Mosky, Caline or Nux

        • Findom_DeLuise [she/her, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yes! Also Donner, Mooer, and Joyo. Joyo is really coming into their own nowadays as a semi-mainstream guitar gear manufacturer with their mini amp heads and their R-series pedals. Kokko is also worth a mention; their compressor pedal is a badge-engineered Nux for like $20. Oh, and Flamma makes a tiny "all in one" modulation pedal with a trippy bitcrush effect on it.

          • supafuzz [comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I have that Flamma, and it is pretty sweet. I'm pretty sure it's a re-badged Mooer Mod Factory at a lower price (I actually suspect that all of the Flammas are re-badged Mooers). The Amazon Basics pedals are Nux/Kokko rebadges. Chinese guitar pedals are actually a pretty small world if you spend too much time on aliexpress and learn what to look for.

            • Findom_DeLuise [she/her, they/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I definitely developed a soft spot for those AliExpress logo-swap brands when I was looking around for an even cheaper Mooer E-Lady. I figured fuck it, they're all the same board just with different paint jobs on the case, so I got a purple one. There aren't nearly enough purple pedals, damn it!

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      most of the difference we perceive between amps/pedals has more to do with EQ and where the EQ stages are positioned between gain stages.

      I've already got a very expensive pedal board that I bought to encourage myself to play more and to mess around easily with the effects chain. I can program stuff on my computer and then downloaded it into the board. I haven't played my guitar in a very long time. The more I think about this - the more it's clear the purchase is probably very silly. My board allows me an endless amount of digital tinkering and tweaking.