Here's where the info you want starts:
Dan Electro - $15-$25
Behringer - $25-$50
Donner / Joyo - $30 - $40
Moen / Biyang - $40 - $60
Mooer / Tone City - $60 - $80
Electro-Harmonix / MXR $60 +
Please comment with your experience with any of these brands.
I have an MXR Phase 90 which is simple and great, as well as a Behringer mixer which works great, except their mic-preamps on the mixer could use a pre-amp. LOL
Now for the story:
I have been working on setting up an affordable pedal board, but have been frustrated, by a number of factors (asking price, available pedals, meeting arrangements, etc.) while attempting to pick them up from CraigsList. After seeing a review of the Tone City pedals I was excited to find excellent sounding pedals for affordable prices. Heck, at those prices I could buy a pedal a week.
Then I decided to look into what a pedal board would actually cost to just buy new items. While at first I was seriously daunted by spending around $100 +/- per pedal I found several affordable options. Figured I would share what I found for people in my similar situation and get some input from people on build quality etc.
1. For this post I started with a pretty standard set of recommended pedals; your choices may be different. Tuner, Wah, Overdrive/Distortion, Modulation (I chose Chorus), Delay, Reverb, and (my addition) Looper.
2. There are A LOT of pedal companies out there with affordable pedals, but I wanted to ensure they were easy to get and seemed somewhat reputable. To this I looked to where are they available to purchase - mainly music stores either online or brick and mortar. The one exception is Donner pedals. More on them below.
3. Not all manufacturers I was looking at had every pedal in the list, and not all had pedals in the target price range of less than $80. Instead of overwhelming you with the tons of data I put together in any one or more of the various formats; I decided to simplify the price range of the majority of inexpensive pedals from each manufacturer and hope to get responses on the build and sound quality of each from readers.
Notable finds:
- Mooer has every pedal on my original list for about $65 each with the added bonus of their FireFly pedal boards / suitcases which are a very affordable way to set-up and carry it all. Ideal if you want to stay with one brand, but it doesn't look as if other manufacturer pedals will easily fit. Let me know if you have modded the kit.
- Donner: While I have not found their pedals located anywhere but their website they were a definite stand-out in the comparisons. While they do not have a reverb pedal as of this writing...
1. They consistently came in with the best price on pedals,
2. Free shipping with order over $30 (one pedal)
3. They have their own isolated power supply for $39 (I will be opting for more expensive version, $45, for the higher mA connections).
Let me know your thoughts on the post and your experience with the pedal companies mentioned or any other recommendations.
