Are There More Pedals Today Or Less?

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Noticing a comment about pedals in the 80s on another thread, I've been wondering... Are there more pedals available to us than there used to be? My own personal "used to be" refers to the early 80s, just to get the terms of reference sorted out.

 

On the one hand, there seem to be a lot more manufacturers, (including the zillions of boutique pedal makers), but on the other, there seems (IMHO) to be less diversity out there. Everybody seems to be making the same basic pedals, ie some sort of overdrive, echo, chorus, wah and erm... that's pretty much it. You can still get flangers and phasers, of course, and graphics pedals too. But you could always get those, pretty much, and I have the feeling there used to be more variety out there. The Boss Slow-Gear comes to mind when thinking about vanished pedals of yesteryear, as well as the Ibanez parametric EQ and so on. I even used to have this bizarre pedal reverb which consisted of a box about the size of a cigarette carton with an actual spring inside.

 

Is it just my perception or is it actually happening? Are there more FX pedals, but less variety?

[Caevan O’Shite]

Well, there are certainly a LOT more makers and models, and I think that there is also a greater variety amongst the "same" types- there are more flavors of fuzz, overdrive, distortion, echo/delay, modulation (this last being a WIDE open category, LOTS of different things being modulated)... some real twists on these categories, and a lot of diffrent takes, from no-frills with little or maybe even no controls, to feature-laden tweak-freak NASA Mission-Control modules!

 

And there are some truly weird and unique pedals, and some hybrid effects; even some completely new ways to do some things. The more you look into all these pedals from various makers, the more new things you find.

 

Check out the current offerings from Z. Vex, Pigtronix, Moogerfooger, and even venerable old Electro Harmonix.

 

There's been more- a LOT more- added on the More knob! Ehhrr, pedal.

[GuitarPlayerFL]

Are there more pedals available to us than there used to be?

 

.....

 

.....there seems (IMHO) to be less diversity out there. Everybody seems to be making the same basic pedals, ie some sort of overdrive, echo, chorus, wah and erm... that's pretty much it. You can still get flangers and phasers, of course, and graphics pedals too. But you could always get those, pretty much, and I have the feeling there used to be more variety out there.

 

More boutique pedal makers = a lot more $$$ for a chorus.

 

There are a lot of the same effects because they're usable as opposed to the freak out sound effects....what are you going to use them for?

 

The only effects I used live in the mid 80s were (BOSS)chorus, delay, reverb, flanger, and distortion pedal. I've never used a Wah live, but that may change soon.

 

Of course, I started using rack gear in the late 80s and still have it. I haven't plugged in a pedal since then.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

There are a lot of the same effects because they're usable as opposed to the freak out sound effects....what are you going to use them for?

 

Yeah, I guess that's probably it, there's been a sort of Darwinish process and all the pedals that were too weird to actually use regularly have died out. Or in cases like the Slow Gear's, I guess people realized they could do the same thing with a volume pedal.

 

I wonder why the feedbacker died out though. Sounded like a pretty clever idea.

 

http://www.bossarea.com/images/DF2.jpg

[Mike Gug]

There are more pedals out there today that will amount to nothing. The classics are the classics.

 

I can't see many single effect boxes being created today that, in 30 years, we'll be saying, "Boy, I'm glad THAT sound came along in 2008. It's my go-to box."

 

Today, there are too many possible points in the creation of a guitar sound where the sound can be colored. (the pick, strings, fret board, PUP's, wood, finish, bridge, endless effects, and endless amp combos with on-board effects, mics, producers, engineers). In the 50's (for instance), there were a few guitars, and a few amps.

[Mudcat]

...I wonder why the feedbacker died out though. Sounded like a pretty clever idea.

 

http://www.bossarea.com/images/DF2.jpg

 

It was an intersting effect. I never owned one but I did monkey around with one a few times in a guitar shop. The distortion sound was OK, nothing to write home about though. The feedback circuit did have one major limitation. Since the feedback was internal to the pedal, your guitar was disconnected from the circuit while your foot was on the pedal engaging the feedback circuit. There was no way to warble the feedback or change the harmonic feeding back by moving your guitar around. You basically got one stable note feeding back with no way to alter it.

[miroslav]

Speaking of pedals...anyone here ever try a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive...?

 

The reviews on HC are all in the 9-10 point range...great clean boost and good crunch OD.

 

It's relatively inexpensive at about $120 compared to the current over-priced pedal madness..

Likeyou can almost buy a decent small amp for the price of some pedals these days.

 

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Likeyou can almost buy a decent small amp for the price of some pedals these days.

 

I suspect it's always been that way. When I bought my Boss DD-3 (digital delay) back in oh... 1991 (?) I remember that, at about $200, it was pretty damned pricey. A real think-twice type purchase.

 

 

Mud: That's interesting about the feedbacker. I always thought it'd be cool for doing that trick of finishing off a solo and having the last note fade into feedback. Very useful pedal when your band rehearses in an apartment and you can't really crank up the volume.

 

Still, you'd need to do that trick on a lot of songs in order to justify the purchase!

[Guitarzan]

Speaking of pedals...anyone here ever try a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive...?

 

The reviews on HC are all in the 9-10 point range...great clean boost and good crunch OD.

 

It's relatively inexpensive at about $120 compared to the current over-priced pedal madness..

Likeyou can almost buy a decent small amp for the price of some pedals these days.

 

Darklava has used one. he may still be using it.

[Dr. Ellwood]

There are less!... I just counted them.

[The Geoff]

I'm into the Marshall pedals quite a bit. Most of them are multifunction.

 

The Regenerator has 5 modes & so does the Echohead, and the Bluesbreaker does 2 things pretty well.

 

G.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

I'm into the Marshall pedals quite a bit. Most of them are multifunction.

 

So when did they come out?

[Dave da Dude]

.... .... .... ...the Bluesbreaker does 2 things pretty well.

What are the two "things"? I've had a low key interest in that pedal for a few years now.

 

The last time I wound up buying the DOD FX102 Mystic Blues on Bluestrat's recommendation. I liked it well enough... pretty well really. But I'm starting from scratch again.

[Caevan O’Shite]

"There are less!... I just counted them."

 

Hahhahhahhahhahhahh!! I literally laughed out-loud when I read that!

 

Counted the ones in front of your amp, right? Yeah, me too. Wasn't that long ago I'd've said there weren't any left anymore. Now there're more...

 

 

[Danzilla]

You need to check out TheGrooveKing's gear pictures; there are definitely more pedals there than in any 10 music stores combined.

[Part-timer]

I am not sure of the 80's, but in the early 70's most guitar player I knew had 2 or 3 pedals. I have seen some early pics of Cream and other big bands and you only see a few pedals.

 

Now they have a pedal for any sound you could think about. Or one unit that is progamable to 100's of sounds.

 

Then there are these big $ pedals I see in magazines. I haven't had a chance to play abig $ pedal, but personally, I think effects have become excessive. If you can't get the sound you want with a good guitar, good tube amp and 3 or 4 pedals, you aren't going to find it anywhere.

 

 

[Soulrock]

Well, in response to there being less diversity, or at least not a bunch of new types of effects, i think that may be accurate, if we are using the 80's as a reference. With digital technology and modelling there seemed to be a focus on multi effects pedals that attempted to combine all the classic effects(as well as amp modelling) in one package. The backlash from that, I think, are the boutique pedals that try to nail classic sounds in a more authentic way, for the people who are unhappy with the digital stuff. Both seem more about recreating older sounds, rather than creating new ones.

[Squ]

There's definitely more pedals, and more variety. How could anything else happen? No one will stop making pedals that existed in the past, and people will continue to innovate and make new pedals, even if they're dumb and useless.