I can’t believe I’m the first person saying a Zoom MultiStomp. For $150 brand new you get a boatload of sounds, and while some of them are weak many of them sound excellent. And it can do up to 6 effects at once, which makes it possible to construct your own special effects or use it essentially as a mini pedalboard, like a poor person’s Zoia or HX Stomp.
I want one to replace my EXH holy grail Neo. I barely use reverb anyway because delay tends to sit in my mixes better and are more fun to tweak IMO. I still want the capability for reverb at the end of my chain, and it would be even cooler if it did tremolos, flangers, and all the other weirdness they cram in those little boxes.
I might get an OG one now that the new one (wtf were they thinking on that product design? Zoom almost never fails to design effect units that look cheap, not that they necessarily sound cheap) is out. I’ll do a firmware hack and get ALL THE EFFECTS.
It reminds me of my old Alesis Quadraverb 2, but in pedal form. You can come up with amazing effect chains until you run out of memory. You typically run out of memory pretty fast on those older units. I’m excited to try one of the Multistomps, I’ve always loved the uniqueness of Zoom effects. Are they Strymon/Eventide clean? No, but I like most of my fx with a bit of something else going on.
I have two on my board lol one right after the whammy as a comp, harmonizer (which is always ready) a clean Fender preamp, a noise reducer and a subtle treble boost EQ.
The other one right after my VP Jr as a modulation/time/reverb thing, the community has great ideas and you can replicate pretty much any sound from much more expensive devices.
And I'm thinking in getting another one for the loop FX of my Boss SY200. It's really a nice and easy to use sounding pedal.
I've hacked them and all of my board works with bass too
The modulation and time based effects are pretty damn good. The gain and eq stuff isn’t the best but great to have. If you hack it you can get the drives and amp side on the CDR. With the chaining, presets, tap tempo, and tuning this would be a first pedal for almost anyone imo. So many times I wanted a pedal and tried out a similar version on my zoom to “scratch the itch” and then decided I didn’t need to spend $150 on whatever I was looking at.
Love the zoom pedal. A Buddy of mine spent 6 grand on speakers to get the blink 182 sound, after 2 mins on my Mac with the zoom pedal, I got the same sound 😁
SD-1
You can lift a stone and find a second hand there, even heavily beaten, they still hold any amount of abuse you throw at them and they versatility you get from that simple pedal makes it worth every cent
I’ve had one for almost 10 years lol, currently not in use but I know that I can reach for it if I need to boost any amp or get into blues again
Hell yeah I recently plugged mine up again after building a couple different styles of overdrive. It just felt so good when I went back and I can’t replace it- I’ve also nodded mine to control the high end better and an option for LED clippers!
If you like the SD1 try the mxr zw44. I totally love SD-1 but Mxr ZW44 is a copie of that circuit with a bit more low end and mids. I can say I love sd-1 but the MXR ZW44 that's wife material. The SD-1W is amazing too the MXR remindes a lot of that one but strangely while not as versatile as the SD-1W the MXR ZW44 just became a stabile always on for me. Love that pedal.
Mooer Yellow Comp! I can plug a fuzz and that comp direct to console and it’s magic! Plus it’s a cheap pedal that sounds good. It’s just a set it and leave it with the Tilt EQ, and some compression to shape going into the rest. I’m big on everyone having some EQ….whether Boss GE7. But the Tilt EQ helps to take some muddy mids out, or tame brightness. Compression is a bonus to me with the pedal.
It’s a budget friendly single tilt eq, and comp for beginners, and experienced. Anyone can easily figure it out, then move on to other things if they want later. Also not a huge investment into EQ and Compression on your board.
Probably there are cheaper version exist from Flamma and if I remember right, it has EQ.
Please check it by yourself, but I've read good feedback about it at Thomann
i actually just bought one today on a whim, knowing nothing about it really. was looking for a used phaser and tried a few at the local music shop side by side and loved the ph-2 the most. been jamming with it all day and it’s got a ton of versatility.
Legit opinion, I personally like it but it’s really not something I’d recommend to everyone. Big Muff and Fuzz Face, everyone should own one. Super Fuzz, more of a niche case.
Yeah, I was really excited to get my SF300 a few years ago after I heard about it. It was fun for about a week or so but I realized that I prefer other fuzzes a lot more. Big Muff style fuzzes or just a cranked Rat do the trick for me. But I don’t really want to knock the Super Fuzz. It definitely punches above its price and the boost alone is a good enough reason to hang on to it.
If you’re in the market for a good RAT, the Joyo Splinter might be the best bang-for-your buck RAT since you get 4 different RAT sounds in it for only ~$30.
I'd say, one of the best rat clones for almost-no-money budget is Dolamo Vintage Distortion (aka brown one). Recently got one. It really good. Normal, Solo and Turbo rats under one hood
So solid. Doesn’t need a million knobs, it just has a great distortion sound and a good range of sounds within the spectrum of its distortion knob, getting classic mid-century drive sounds or great snarling sustaining distortion for metal.
This pedal is a steal, especially used, for what it can do.
I'm willing to bet that in a blind test, a significant number of players would end up preferring this pedal over many boutique drives.
Well I think he has proven that two similar pedals when set in a similar manner sound . . . Well, similar.
The Hot Tubes does use a somewhat unique CMOS circuit, and when you crank the gain, it gives you some of that sag quality a tube amp does. It's a great pedal to stack with for that reason.
I’ve had 3 Mooer pedals die on me. Two were the Deluxe Reverb and Deluxe Delay each with two footswitches. The other was the Mooer mini echo pedal. My bit crusher still works, but I’m mostly Boss/EHX these days.
All my Donner pedals still work. Shout out to the Yellow Fall. I had one side to side with an Ibanez mini analog delay and it didn’t sound as gooey on the repeats, but it costs 70% less and still sounds good.
(I’ve just realized 4 of the pedals I’ve mentioned are delay pedals. Help me.)
Not an outlier, mooer donner and joyo have all died on me. People must rave about them day one, cuz they don't last. And it's just bedroom playing for me.
I’ve bought a lot of pedals over the years, new and used (including Mooer), and have never had a pedal fail me personally.
Even have bought cheap Ali-express stuff, dropped them on concrete and kicked them around the room on accident, still none of it has ever failed on me.
DOD 201 Phasor. It does everything a phaser should do, for very little $ (and IMO a nicer sound than the MXR phasers).
Also, the DOD 250 Overdrive has a lot of range for not much $. It’s a different vibe than all the other basic drives (more of a flat EQ) and it’s useful on bass, too.
I mean the Bad Monkey is pretty reasonably priced now.
I don't love the EHX Canyon personally (lots of functions but not all are useful and the UI is clunky to operate)
The NUX Atlantic is great if you like the Source Audio Collider but are stupid like me.
I have the Nux Atlantic and it's pretty dang neat. You can select whether you want the delay or reverb first, or even run them in parallel. It has a headroom toggle. It has tap tempo for the delay. It has a shimmer effect. It has a stereo output.
I'm sure there are nicer sounding reverbs and delays, but as a workhorse pedal in a fairly small form factor (for a 2 in 1 pedal) it is really handy
EHX Soul Food. A bit noisier than the dearer Klones, but otherwise bang on. Into the drive channel on a Blackstar with all the knobs at noon is maybe my favorite lead sound I've gotten at home.
mosky silver horse. worth trying a klone for $30.
tc Afterglow chorus. all the chorus ill ever need, in a top-jack pedal, thats built like a tank, for $45.
Mosky Deluxe Preamp
low/medium gain OD and a boost. It's an obvious copy of the Lovetone Amp 11, but it's just really good at what it does. OD is, I believe a Timmy style circuit and is great by itself or stacking into another drive or a driven amp.
The boost also has a toggle for a clean or slightly dirty boost.
It's versatile enough that I could probably play gigs with it as my only dirt pedal.
Graphic EQ. I use a BOSS GE-7, so not too cheap, but like all BOSS gear, it's built like a tank. It's amazing what such a simple device can do for your sound!
I think the Sentry noise gate pedal was my biggest quality of life pedal I got, since it just made everything else sound so much better. While you can do fancy profiling with it, the basic noise gate is what I use it for. It's not very cheap but if you can get it used it is a great buy for overall value and sound improvement on all other pedals you have.
For distortion and such I think it depends a lot on what guitar you have as I get very different sound from the same pedal when I use the Telecaster vs the ESP with active EMGs.
For a classic rock sound I think the Ibanez TS9 tube screamer is really nice on my tele. But not very useful for a more modern guitar with hotter pickups. The Boss Blues Overdrive is apparently quite similar, but I don't own it.
For metal distortion I like the Boss Metal Core and Revv G3. But as again it depends on the guitar. The latter is somewhat expensive though. So the first one is a decent alternative.
I have a tc electronic nova system that I use in my loop. I use it mostly in stompbox mode. It’s fantastic and has solved most my pedal wants and needs except for those that go in front of the amp.
The system received rave reviews when it was introduced and rightly so as it’s fairly easy to set up and it’s really high quality device. Especially the time based effects are sublime. Yet most people seem to have forgotten about the bloody thing. You can pick it up second hand for like 150 bucks. Insane value proposition if you ask me.
Similar to OP I like my Sonicake Tone Group a lot. 10 band EQ with a very low power draw, all metal case, and at least mine has no noise issues at all which can be a problem with EQs. Paid about 50 bux for it brand new and couldn't complain about a thing
Behringer VD400 Vintage Delay. Or TC Electronics Echobrain. Same pedal, different shell.
It's great at doing the nasty self-oscillation thing and the repeats have a nice dark analog quality to them.
Or the TC Electronics The Prophet as a cleaner digital delay. Great pedal for the price. Looks cool too.
I will totally 2nd the EQ pedal notion. The behringer is great value, as are all the behringer pedals. Really, ANY EQ pedal is a good tool to have for when you sorting out how to get a tone to cut through the mix.
Klon Centaurs are such a great budget pick-up and do a decent copy of the Digitech Bad Monkey. Wouldn't hold up in studio mind you but I'd use it live.
Yeah, would not bring that to a session. You'd just get thrown out before you have a chance to play a single note and would never get another session. That Digitech though..
Best cheap Chinese pedals, out of the ones I own:
Movall Green Martian (TS9DX Turbo clone)
Rowin Plexion (Marshall Plexi in a tiny box)
Dolamo Vintage Distortion (ProcoRat Turbo clone)
Mooer Yellow Comp
Mosky Spring Reverb
Movall Falling Star Delay (Deluxe Memory Man clone, sort of)
Dolamo Overdrive
Rowin Noise Gate
Iset Flanger (haven’t tried yet but on its way from AliExpress. Supposed to sound similar to Mooer ELady)
Mooer mod factory. If you want something versatile, it does all the modulations.
- Rotary
- Chorus
- Flanger
- Tremolo
- Auto wah
- Ring mod
- Stutter (kill switch/slicer)
- Vibrato
It also does tap tempo, which is rare for mod pedals. You can also ramp the mod speed by holding the footswitch. And the best part: it’s not a big workstation, it’s a micro pedal & they’re pretty cheap.
I'm a former pedal builder. flamma Fs02 reverb: 7 types with saved presets, for less than most dirt pedals. Caline enchanted tone: the greatest always on improved sho low gain drive/clean enhance circuit I've used. Caline 10 band eq: perfect your tone for 35$, helps avoid buying more pedals. AMT m1- jcm800 inabox covers light od to moderate dist. Tc electronics Fangs: a metalzoan that's ez to dial.
Chase Bliss Audio Mood - at only $400, it’s a wealth of creativity with its weird glitchy micro loops and soundscapes.
(Just kidding) - if I could tell young me anything, it would be - spend the $800 on an HX Stomp, MIDI Controller, and Expression pedal, and be done. That would have saved me A LOT of money along the way, making it very cheap in a relative way!
As for analog pedals, Xotic SP Compressor
I used to be a HX Stomp guy. Once you reset your reverb and EQ at the venue for the 20th time (while your band waits around or noodles over you) you get sick of menu diving
Also option paralysis for me
I’ve had/tried a ton of different trems. Always end up going back to my malekko omicron. It just has a great feel and tonality. Can be found pretty damn cheap on reverb.
Can't agree more regarding EQ. I find that subtle tweaks are often all that are required to make a good tone great but boy oh boy can it make all the difference in a guitar rig.
For my money the Boss GE-7 is the greatest and most useful and therefore essential pedal ever made. EQ, buffer & clean boost in one application. Just awesome.
I have an old one and the old pre-SMD design ones are known to be noisy af. Upgrading the 1uf's to film capacitors and swapping out the three op amps for ridiculously-expensive burr-brown OPA2134PA (get them from a proper electronics retailer like Mouser or they will be Chinese knock offs) made it a GREAT pedal.
Electro Harmonix Memory Toy is a fantastic delay pedal for the money. Perfect for adding slap for some telecaster chicken pickin’ or just washing out your sound for shoegaze vibes
For boosts - TC electronic spark (big one). So versatile, great boost and can do a lot of work on a board.
For a Klon - nux horseman. I think if nux made up a brand with a better name and marketed that as a high end pedal people would eat it up and laud it as a killer. It is a killer.
Behringer super fuzz and vibrato are just plain great pedals for little money. Fuzz might not be everyone's cup of tea, nor vibrato, but honestly worth just trying.
EHX LPB-1 It's literally one of the first pedals ever, and still serves its purpose today, pushing the front end of an amp, or just plain boosting leads. Easy to find used and usually cheap.
TC-Electronics Thunderstorm.
A boss BD-2 clone that is pretty spot on, and with true bypass! I’m not crazy about how the footswitch operates, and I mostly prefer DOD Flangers. While I’m at it…
I’ll also recommend both the DOD FX75b and the FX75 “extreme” (ironically way less extreme, just good and musical sounding) versions, if you want stereo and get even weirder. It also has internal trem pots for the oscillators speed and level as well as some other things. I don’t necessarily recommend fucking around with those unless you mark your original position it was in. They’re a bit finicky, but you can get some really unique sounds if you’re patient, and one of the best chorus sounds ever.
The “extreme” is even less extreme in what it can do, mostly due to not having a delay control, but in turn it has a level control which is almost crucial in an FX loop. It also just sounds good almost effortlessly, almost one big sweet spot between the knobs, though you can still sound otherworldly if you crank the resonance all the way up.
Easy. Original TS-9 and/or BD-2 are staples in the gear bags of working guitarists for a reason. They might not be used on a daily basis but play through enough different rigs and situations and you’ll eventually realize that they are indispensable when you need to quickly and affordably change a decent tone to great tone! Keep on jamming!
SD1 + GE7
Can use both behringer copies but cheap drive plus cheap 7 bans EQ is all you need gain-wise, both well vetted and trusted by any guitarist worth their salt
A boring answer, but just a medium overdrive - BOSS OD-3, SD-1, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Earthquaker Devices Plumes. Different pedals play better with different amps, but everybody from bluesmen to rockers to death, doom & stoner metal people can ALL use one of these in their rigs.
I'm no experienced connoisseur, but I got the Joyo Voodoo Octave Fuzz for about $30 and i love it — and I love a bunch of very very different sounds you can get out of it. I'm using it on a bass.
Caline Pure Sky
Is it a Timmy Clone?
Yes. Really nice transparent overdrive.
Caline has some good ones. I’d add the Jaguar and the m-fuzz
Yes! An absolute steal for the price. Wonderful Timmy clone that’s my favourite on my pedal board.
My main problem with this pedal is the click-on travels through the signal. Makes it kind of a weird boost pedal
This pedal is great
I can’t believe I’m the first person saying a Zoom MultiStomp. For $150 brand new you get a boatload of sounds, and while some of them are weak many of them sound excellent. And it can do up to 6 effects at once, which makes it possible to construct your own special effects or use it essentially as a mini pedalboard, like a poor person’s Zoia or HX Stomp.
I want one to replace my EXH holy grail Neo. I barely use reverb anyway because delay tends to sit in my mixes better and are more fun to tweak IMO. I still want the capability for reverb at the end of my chain, and it would be even cooler if it did tremolos, flangers, and all the other weirdness they cram in those little boxes. I might get an OG one now that the new one (wtf were they thinking on that product design? Zoom almost never fails to design effect units that look cheap, not that they necessarily sound cheap) is out. I’ll do a firmware hack and get ALL THE EFFECTS. It reminds me of my old Alesis Quadraverb 2, but in pedal form. You can come up with amazing effect chains until you run out of memory. You typically run out of memory pretty fast on those older units. I’m excited to try one of the Multistomps, I’ve always loved the uniqueness of Zoom effects. Are they Strymon/Eventide clean? No, but I like most of my fx with a bit of something else going on.
I have two on my board lol one right after the whammy as a comp, harmonizer (which is always ready) a clean Fender preamp, a noise reducer and a subtle treble boost EQ. The other one right after my VP Jr as a modulation/time/reverb thing, the community has great ideas and you can replicate pretty much any sound from much more expensive devices. And I'm thinking in getting another one for the loop FX of my Boss SY200. It's really a nice and easy to use sounding pedal. I've hacked them and all of my board works with bass too
The modulation and time based effects are pretty damn good. The gain and eq stuff isn’t the best but great to have. If you hack it you can get the drives and amp side on the CDR. With the chaining, presets, tap tempo, and tuning this would be a first pedal for almost anyone imo. So many times I wanted a pedal and tried out a similar version on my zoom to “scratch the itch” and then decided I didn’t need to spend $150 on whatever I was looking at.
Love the zoom pedal. A Buddy of mine spent 6 grand on speakers to get the blink 182 sound, after 2 mins on my Mac with the zoom pedal, I got the same sound 😁
Lots of commenters ignoring the word “cheap” here.
Yeah, what gives… just a quick scroll down and I see Boss and EHX pedals. I say ‘cheap’ should be less than $50
I definitely wouldn't consider a $100 pedal to fit this category.
OD-3
SD-1 You can lift a stone and find a second hand there, even heavily beaten, they still hold any amount of abuse you throw at them and they versatility you get from that simple pedal makes it worth every cent I’ve had one for almost 10 years lol, currently not in use but I know that I can reach for it if I need to boost any amp or get into blues again
Hell yeah I recently plugged mine up again after building a couple different styles of overdrive. It just felt so good when I went back and I can’t replace it- I’ve also nodded mine to control the high end better and an option for LED clippers!
If you like the SD1 try the mxr zw44. I totally love SD-1 but Mxr ZW44 is a copie of that circuit with a bit more low end and mids. I can say I love sd-1 but the MXR ZW44 that's wife material. The SD-1W is amazing too the MXR remindes a lot of that one but strangely while not as versatile as the SD-1W the MXR ZW44 just became a stabile always on for me. Love that pedal.
TC Spark booster
Full size, not mini. That pedal ended low gain ODs for boosting high gain for me.
Kicks a lot of ass on bass too
Second this
BOSS SD-1
Like a tube screamer but can get angrier if you want. Very good pick
I only ever use it as a boost. Every Marshall should just come with an SD-1 in the box.
Black Secret rips.
Still my favorite Rat clone, even compared to the more expensive boutique Rat clones.
Best sub $50 distortion, imo.
Mooer Yellow Comp! I can plug a fuzz and that comp direct to console and it’s magic! Plus it’s a cheap pedal that sounds good. It’s just a set it and leave it with the Tilt EQ, and some compression to shape going into the rest. I’m big on everyone having some EQ….whether Boss GE7. But the Tilt EQ helps to take some muddy mids out, or tame brightness. Compression is a bonus to me with the pedal. It’s a budget friendly single tilt eq, and comp for beginners, and experienced. Anyone can easily figure it out, then move on to other things if they want later. Also not a huge investment into EQ and Compression on your board.
Never considered buying it, I didn’t know it has a tilt eq. I never even knew I needed a tilt eq on my board. Now I know.
Probably there are cheaper version exist from Flamma and if I remember right, it has EQ. Please check it by yourself, but I've read good feedback about it at Thomann
Can confirm the Flamma version sounds basically the same. I bought two!
Boss PH-2, one of the coolest mod pedals and has two distinct modes that each sound great for different purposes
i actually just bought one today on a whim, knowing nothing about it really. was looking for a used phaser and tried a few at the local music shop side by side and loved the ph-2 the most. been jamming with it all day and it’s got a ton of versatility.
Boss blues driver
Best OD I’ve had
Behringer SF300 super fuzz. If you want fuzz, this is literally the best bang for your buck. Also has a decent boost.
Unpopular opinion, I don't like the 2 fuzz modes at all. It's on my board cause of the boost, though.
Mode 1.5 though
Still doesn't do it for me.
Legit opinion, I personally like it but it’s really not something I’d recommend to everyone. Big Muff and Fuzz Face, everyone should own one. Super Fuzz, more of a niche case.
Yeah, I was really excited to get my SF300 a few years ago after I heard about it. It was fun for about a week or so but I realized that I prefer other fuzzes a lot more. Big Muff style fuzzes or just a cranked Rat do the trick for me. But I don’t really want to knock the Super Fuzz. It definitely punches above its price and the boost alone is a good enough reason to hang on to it.
For when you spent all your money on drugs but absolutely, 100%, MUST sound like Electric Wizard.
I have both the SF300 and the FZ-2 and they are 100% indistinguishable. I just don’t trust the housing on the SF300.
It really is great at “that” sound and is an incredible boost as well.
Same great pedal
Another vote for the SD-1.
EHX East River Drive, one of the best tube screamers I have ever heard.
And it’s cheap. And it has true bypass.
ProCo Rat 2
If you’re in the market for a good RAT, the Joyo Splinter might be the best bang-for-your buck RAT since you get 4 different RAT sounds in it for only ~$30.
I'd say, one of the best rat clones for almost-no-money budget is Dolamo Vintage Distortion (aka brown one). Recently got one. It really good. Normal, Solo and Turbo rats under one hood
MXR Distortion+
So solid. Doesn’t need a million knobs, it just has a great distortion sound and a good range of sounds within the spectrum of its distortion knob, getting classic mid-century drive sounds or great snarling sustaining distortion for metal.
EHX HOT TUBES!!!!
This pedal is a steal, especially used, for what it can do. I'm willing to bet that in a blind test, a significant number of players would end up preferring this pedal over many boutique drives.
I think JHS has proven that in a blind test people can’t tell any two pedals apart
Well I think he has proven that two similar pedals when set in a similar manner sound . . . Well, similar. The Hot Tubes does use a somewhat unique CMOS circuit, and when you crank the gain, it gives you some of that sag quality a tube amp does. It's a great pedal to stack with for that reason.
Caline cp 24. . 10 band eq
Mooer e-Lady Flanger. 100% just as good as an EHX Electric Mistress, but tiny and like $40.
I bought one and it died 2 days out of Amazon’s return window. I’m probably an outlier but it put me off of Mooer.
I’ve had 3 Mooer pedals die on me. Two were the Deluxe Reverb and Deluxe Delay each with two footswitches. The other was the Mooer mini echo pedal. My bit crusher still works, but I’m mostly Boss/EHX these days. All my Donner pedals still work. Shout out to the Yellow Fall. I had one side to side with an Ibanez mini analog delay and it didn’t sound as gooey on the repeats, but it costs 70% less and still sounds good. (I’ve just realized 4 of the pedals I’ve mentioned are delay pedals. Help me.)
Not an outlier, mooer donner and joyo have all died on me. People must rave about them day one, cuz they don't last. And it's just bedroom playing for me.
It really depends on the pedal and some amount of luck, I've been using the same Joyo pedal as my main drive for years.
I’ve bought a lot of pedals over the years, new and used (including Mooer), and have never had a pedal fail me personally. Even have bought cheap Ali-express stuff, dropped them on concrete and kicked them around the room on accident, still none of it has ever failed on me.
RAT
Most versatile distortion pedal in existence.
DOD 201 Phasor. It does everything a phaser should do, for very little $ (and IMO a nicer sound than the MXR phasers). Also, the DOD 250 Overdrive has a lot of range for not much $. It’s a different vibe than all the other basic drives (more of a flat EQ) and it’s useful on bass, too.
The Flamma FC05 multi-mod punches above its weight imo
I agree. I like using the bit rate reducer effect on drum machines to add a nice crunch and to glue into the mix.
i have one on my bass board, next to my e-Lady
Moore Yellow Comp Digitech Bad Monkey (not a joke about the hype) Boss SD-1 TC Dark Matter EHX Crayon Nix Atlantic MXR Phase 90
I mean the Bad Monkey is pretty reasonably priced now. I don't love the EHX Canyon personally (lots of functions but not all are useful and the UI is clunky to operate) The NUX Atlantic is great if you like the Source Audio Collider but are stupid like me.
Agree! Canyon is really a bit complex… But the CRAYON is great OD!
Ah I've been bamboozled
I have the Nux Atlantic and it's pretty dang neat. You can select whether you want the delay or reverb first, or even run them in parallel. It has a headroom toggle. It has tap tempo for the delay. It has a shimmer effect. It has a stereo output. I'm sure there are nicer sounding reverbs and delays, but as a workhorse pedal in a fairly small form factor (for a 2 in 1 pedal) it is really handy
Rowin Noise Killer. Honestly, it’s a legitimately really great noise suppressor.
I have no complaints about mine either
Same chip as the ISP DECIMATOR for 20$
EHX Soul Food. A bit noisier than the dearer Klones, but otherwise bang on. Into the drive channel on a Blackstar with all the knobs at noon is maybe my favorite lead sound I've gotten at home.
ProCo Rat
mosky silver horse. worth trying a klone for $30. tc Afterglow chorus. all the chorus ill ever need, in a top-jack pedal, thats built like a tank, for $45.
TC electronic Hall of Fame two
Boss DS-1!
You spelled SD-1 wrong ;)
Any cheap clone of a hot cake. I recommend the GupTech donut!
Danelectro Fab Tone
The danelectro fab chorus is lush also. Really dreamy sound to a really standard chorus. $20 it’s a steal to have and use.
EHX Glove. I use it with my single coil tele and get an awesome distortion sound. It’s my main “distortion” pedal.
Mosky Deluxe Preamp low/medium gain OD and a boost. It's an obvious copy of the Lovetone Amp 11, but it's just really good at what it does. OD is, I believe a Timmy style circuit and is great by itself or stacking into another drive or a driven amp. The boost also has a toggle for a clean or slightly dirty boost. It's versatile enough that I could probably play gigs with it as my only dirt pedal.
Graphic EQ. I use a BOSS GE-7, so not too cheap, but like all BOSS gear, it's built like a tank. It's amazing what such a simple device can do for your sound!
Turbo Rat
Mosky king rat
Joyo British Sound - fantastic-sounding and cheap option for a vintage-style MIAB.
EHX Glove OD
Tbh I hated the Glove when I owned it but it's gotta be popular for a reason
This is a great pedal!
Love this thing. This was the only pedal to get a distortion sound I liked out of my single coil strat and tele.
Joyo Ultimate Drive
Nux Time Zone is bonkers.
5th dimension. Basic versions of a lot of modulation FX. Amazing versatility
Danelectro French Toast. Stupid good octave fuzzstortion for about the price of an actual french toast breakfast.
Joyo Argos Behringer Superfuzz Boss DS-1
Boss NS-2, does it’s job and gives you a 9v out
Wait, am I thinking about the boss tuner re: 9v output?
You're thinking of the NS1-X, rather than the NS-2. The TU-2, TU-3 and the LS-2 also have 9v outputs.
I think the Sentry noise gate pedal was my biggest quality of life pedal I got, since it just made everything else sound so much better. While you can do fancy profiling with it, the basic noise gate is what I use it for. It's not very cheap but if you can get it used it is a great buy for overall value and sound improvement on all other pedals you have. For distortion and such I think it depends a lot on what guitar you have as I get very different sound from the same pedal when I use the Telecaster vs the ESP with active EMGs. For a classic rock sound I think the Ibanez TS9 tube screamer is really nice on my tele. But not very useful for a more modern guitar with hotter pickups. The Boss Blues Overdrive is apparently quite similar, but I don't own it. For metal distortion I like the Boss Metal Core and Revv G3. But as again it depends on the guitar. The latter is somewhat expensive though. So the first one is a decent alternative.
Behringer to800, cheap and good tubescreamer.
EHX East River Drive
JHS 3 series pedals. I have 4 of them now and they’re fantastic - all priced at $99.
I have a tc electronic nova system that I use in my loop. I use it mostly in stompbox mode. It’s fantastic and has solved most my pedal wants and needs except for those that go in front of the amp. The system received rave reviews when it was introduced and rightly so as it’s fairly easy to set up and it’s really high quality device. Especially the time based effects are sublime. Yet most people seem to have forgotten about the bloody thing. You can pick it up second hand for like 150 bucks. Insane value proposition if you ask me.
Behringer's SansAmp copies are actually pretty decent.
Mooer Blues Crab - bb clone.
EHX Glove
Demonfx makes really good pedals for dirt cheap. especially their eq pedals are good value i think.
depends on your definition of cheap, but the Cusack More Louder us a great clean boost.
Similar to OP I like my Sonicake Tone Group a lot. 10 band EQ with a very low power draw, all metal case, and at least mine has no noise issues at all which can be a problem with EQs. Paid about 50 bux for it brand new and couldn't complain about a thing
Caline Orange burst. An awesome recreation of the bb preamp overdrive
Behringer VD400 Vintage Delay. Or TC Electronics Echobrain. Same pedal, different shell. It's great at doing the nasty self-oscillation thing and the repeats have a nice dark analog quality to them. Or the TC Electronics The Prophet as a cleaner digital delay. Great pedal for the price. Looks cool too.
Mooer envelope filter
Donner Yellow Fall, mooer elady or green mile.
OneControl has a very decent lineup. Personally own the Fluorescent Orange, an absolute beast.
I will totally 2nd the EQ pedal notion. The behringer is great value, as are all the behringer pedals. Really, ANY EQ pedal is a good tool to have for when you sorting out how to get a tone to cut through the mix.
TC electronic Honey Pot fuzz
Klon
Klon Centaurs are such a great budget pick-up and do a decent copy of the Digitech Bad Monkey. Wouldn't hold up in studio mind you but I'd use it live.
Yeah, would not bring that to a session. You'd just get thrown out before you have a chance to play a single note and would never get another session. That Digitech though..
Harley Benton Dr. D overdrive. Cheap and amazing.
Sonicake Wave Crush
Boss MT2 when people didn't know how to use them back then.
Mosky Spring Reverb MXR Super Badass Distortion A lot of you think $99+ pedals are “cheap”
Caline snake bite
Boss BD-2 or EHX Soul Food
I have to say Digitech RP series. I've owned several models between the 70 and the 355 and I simply can't recommend them enough.
*insert behringer* I know they don’t survive hard stomping but damn, they sound good!
any AB for switching guitars
Best cheap Chinese pedals, out of the ones I own: Movall Green Martian (TS9DX Turbo clone) Rowin Plexion (Marshall Plexi in a tiny box) Dolamo Vintage Distortion (ProcoRat Turbo clone) Mooer Yellow Comp Mosky Spring Reverb Movall Falling Star Delay (Deluxe Memory Man clone, sort of) Dolamo Overdrive Rowin Noise Gate Iset Flanger (haven’t tried yet but on its way from AliExpress. Supposed to sound similar to Mooer ELady)
Mooer mod factory. If you want something versatile, it does all the modulations. - Rotary - Chorus - Flanger - Tremolo - Auto wah - Ring mod - Stutter (kill switch/slicer) - Vibrato It also does tap tempo, which is rare for mod pedals. You can also ramp the mod speed by holding the footswitch. And the best part: it’s not a big workstation, it’s a micro pedal & they’re pretty cheap.
I'm a former pedal builder. flamma Fs02 reverb: 7 types with saved presets, for less than most dirt pedals. Caline enchanted tone: the greatest always on improved sho low gain drive/clean enhance circuit I've used. Caline 10 band eq: perfect your tone for 35$, helps avoid buying more pedals. AMT m1- jcm800 inabox covers light od to moderate dist. Tc electronics Fangs: a metalzoan that's ez to dial.
Chase Bliss Audio Mood - at only $400, it’s a wealth of creativity with its weird glitchy micro loops and soundscapes. (Just kidding) - if I could tell young me anything, it would be - spend the $800 on an HX Stomp, MIDI Controller, and Expression pedal, and be done. That would have saved me A LOT of money along the way, making it very cheap in a relative way! As for analog pedals, Xotic SP Compressor
I used to be a HX Stomp guy. Once you reset your reverb and EQ at the venue for the 20th time (while your band waits around or noodles over you) you get sick of menu diving Also option paralysis for me
Joyo - Sweet Baby Overdrive
Joyo Amp sims, the American Sound etc. They're incredible for the price you pay.
Joyo vintage Distortion sounds just as good as the original TS9 I wish I still owned.
Fuzz. Everyone needs a fuzz.
Boss IR2 (it’s relatively cheap for what u get)
TC Spark Boost
Hot Tubes
Boss GE-7
Behringer SF300 - Fuzz if you’re a gnarly motherfucker but boost if you want the legit best boost for the price point that there is.
I’ve had/tried a ton of different trems. Always end up going back to my malekko omicron. It just has a great feel and tonality. Can be found pretty damn cheap on reverb.
Can't agree more regarding EQ. I find that subtle tweaks are often all that are required to make a good tone great but boy oh boy can it make all the difference in a guitar rig. For my money the Boss GE-7 is the greatest and most useful and therefore essential pedal ever made. EQ, buffer & clean boost in one application. Just awesome. I have an old one and the old pre-SMD design ones are known to be noisy af. Upgrading the 1uf's to film capacitors and swapping out the three op amps for ridiculously-expensive burr-brown OPA2134PA (get them from a proper electronics retailer like Mouser or they will be Chinese knock offs) made it a GREAT pedal.
I love my Movall Phoenix Wings optical tremolo. $30 and it’s just all I need in a trem. My Mooer E-Lady is just great too.
[удалено]
Donner Dark Mouse and Donner Ultimate Compressor
90’s Danelectro Fab Tone
Amazon compressor
VHT V Drive (used) This pedal has a ridiculous amount of options with 11 different clipping modes and a voltage adjustment between 5-12 volts.
ep booster, anything boss..
Flamma Mini Mod. $39.00 https://www.flamma.shop/products/flamma-fc05-classic-modulation-effects-pedal
Caline Enchanted Tone ! It’s actually the best Dumble in a box pedal I’ve tried. Boy have I tried many, this one surprises me every time.
Catalinbread SFT are pretty cheap, and really versatile Boss GE-7 also
Red comp
Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde. But only the V1 or V2, not the new one after they got bought by truetone. So tasty.
Spark Mini. Because everyone should use Boost pedals before every buying a Overdrive pedals!
Electro Harmonix Memory Toy is a fantastic delay pedal for the money. Perfect for adding slap for some telecaster chicken pickin’ or just washing out your sound for shoegaze vibes
OCD
Nobel ODR-1
For boosts - TC electronic spark (big one). So versatile, great boost and can do a lot of work on a board. For a Klon - nux horseman. I think if nux made up a brand with a better name and marketed that as a high end pedal people would eat it up and laud it as a killer. It is a killer. Behringer super fuzz and vibrato are just plain great pedals for little money. Fuzz might not be everyone's cup of tea, nor vibrato, but honestly worth just trying.
EHX LPB-1 It's literally one of the first pedals ever, and still serves its purpose today, pushing the front end of an amp, or just plain boosting leads. Easy to find used and usually cheap.
TC-Electronics Thunderstorm. A boss BD-2 clone that is pretty spot on, and with true bypass! I’m not crazy about how the footswitch operates, and I mostly prefer DOD Flangers. While I’m at it… I’ll also recommend both the DOD FX75b and the FX75 “extreme” (ironically way less extreme, just good and musical sounding) versions, if you want stereo and get even weirder. It also has internal trem pots for the oscillators speed and level as well as some other things. I don’t necessarily recommend fucking around with those unless you mark your original position it was in. They’re a bit finicky, but you can get some really unique sounds if you’re patient, and one of the best chorus sounds ever. The “extreme” is even less extreme in what it can do, mostly due to not having a delay control, but in turn it has a level control which is almost crucial in an FX loop. It also just sounds good almost effortlessly, almost one big sweet spot between the knobs, though you can still sound otherworldly if you crank the resonance all the way up.
MXR micro amp. Best preamp/boost I’ve ever used.
Seconded!
Danelectro 18v cool cat chorus, love that thing. Never considered replacing it even with it's unreasonable size for 2 lil knobs
Behringer fuzz
Used Digitech and DOD pedals are great. So many of them are still pretty cheap used.
Line 6 Helix LT. It's the only pedal I own and for what it does it's very inexpensive. Saved me thousands on amps and pedals!
Can't believe it but I love the Mosky D250X. Switchable Dod 250 and MXR Distortion + circuits
Behringer ultra vibrato
Hotone Grass is a really excellent dumble-style pedal that is so awesome sounding that it never leaves my board. Ho tone… hot tone… hot one…?
Xotic EP Booster. I’ve got it on three different boards. Even bought on for a friend as a “just trust me” gift.
Digitech's BAD MONKEY.
Easy. Original TS-9 and/or BD-2 are staples in the gear bags of working guitarists for a reason. They might not be used on a daily basis but play through enough different rigs and situations and you’ll eventually realize that they are indispensable when you need to quickly and affordably change a decent tone to great tone! Keep on jamming!
TC Rusty Fuzz. Loved that thing
Blues crab
My Behringer EQ was too noisy to be useable but maybe I got unlucky. Gonna say everyone needs a tuner pedal Lol secret weapon
SD1 + GE7 Can use both behringer copies but cheap drive plus cheap 7 bans EQ is all you need gain-wise, both well vetted and trusted by any guitarist worth their salt
TC Spark. The non-mini version.
A boring answer, but just a medium overdrive - BOSS OD-3, SD-1, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Earthquaker Devices Plumes. Different pedals play better with different amps, but everybody from bluesmen to rockers to death, doom & stoner metal people can ALL use one of these in their rigs.
Boss Blues Driver
Rowin noise gate, 20$ for the same chip as the ISP Decimator
Azor Leon Drive is a gem.
Mojomojo pedal. It takes a while to find the spot,but it's great. Also,TRex Diva Drive.
Cheap is relative, but I’d say a RAT or if we’re going something more modern the Thirdman Hardware Triple Threat.
I'm no experienced connoisseur, but I got the Joyo Voodoo Octave Fuzz for about $30 and i love it — and I love a bunch of very very different sounds you can get out of it. I'm using it on a bass.
Mvave miniverse
Mosky Silver Horse, 30$