Poor man's Strymon options?

scarry67

Just watched a load of tempting YouTube demos of their wares. Lovely sounds but out of my wallet's humble reach. Do any cheap alternatives offer a bit of their sound at Aldi/Tesco prices? iStomp, Zoom MS100BT downloads or the Line 6 M5 perhaps?

spacecadet

Bearing in mind who the Strymon guys used to work for, probably worth looking at the Line 6 stomps. DL4, MM4. Not as good, suck tone but essentially a budget version. The Zoom stuff is very good though.

scarry67

The Zoom Stomp Store, I think it's called, has several imitations which sound pretty good through an iPad. Models not on MS50 or 70 (yet...)

Gagaryn

I chose Strymon. I am now a poor man. Ergo, the poor mans option is Strymon.

ElectroDan

I can't afford a flint, so I get my wife to turn the master up and down.

not_the_dj

/\ Wisdom! 

Which Strymon sounds/pedals are you looking to emulate on the cheap?

hugbot

double post

hugbot

The line 6 pedals really sound nothing like them. The DL4 algorithm hasn't been updated since 1999.

The TC electronic pedals are the nicest mid range reverb/delays I've tried but even they don't sound quite the same. Belle epoch is a good el capistan alternative but still quite pricey.

kelvinburn

If its what you really want then buy a Strymon. My own previous experience of cost cutting with pedals just ends up with me buying loads of pedals with relatively little resale value, which usually add up to the cost of the thing I wanted in the first place.

ThePrettyDamned

Zoom MS70CDR? Heard amazing things about this.

Drew_TNBD

crunchman

How easy is it to change patches on the Zoom in a live situation with only a single footswitch?

ThePrettyDamned

Drew_fx;257062" said:

Yup, want.

Drew_TNBD

crunchman said:

How easy is it to change patches on the Zoom in a live situation with only a single footswitch?

It's a piece of piss if you've got it in playlist mode. But then you can't bypass the thing. So it's kinda one or the other... ability to bypass the effects, or ability to switch the preset. Throw the pedal in a true-bypass looper, and then you can leave it in preset mode.

scarry67

/\ Wisdom!  Which Strymon sounds/pedals are you looking to emulate on the cheap? The Flint sounded particularly amazing. Although none were less than mightily impressive...

scarry67

Thanks to Drew_fx: know where my money's heading now, having enjoyed demo.

Drew_TNBD

It's a killer pedal. Kinda wish I'd kept it lol.

ROOG

kelvinburn said:

If its what you really want then buy a Strymon. My own previous experience of cost cutting with pedals just ends up with me buying loads of pedals with relatively little resale value, which usually add up to the cost of the thing I wanted in the first place.

Agreed, this principle can be applied to so many things, have a wisdom

marktheharp

I have had the zoom ms70cdr a few months now(thanks to Drew's thread and review)
Have used in countless open Mic/gig situations and is great once you get used to menu and switching etc.
I currently have a digitech blues screamer into ms70cdr straight to P.A.
Have also recorded with it and the.song was played on BBC introducing last month :-)
so a big thumbs up from me.
Cheers Mark.

therose789

I have an M5 (now broken) you can get some really cool sounds out of it however after using it alongside a guitarist who was using both a big sky and a time line you can really hear the difference and it doesnt even come close.

The positive thing i will say about the M5 is that the reverbs are really flexible and you can get some nice sounds out of it, great for ambient kind of stuff, swells etc.... i really liked the particle verb until mine died (used the wrong power supply!) and i dont think you can get that same sound on a big sky! 

crunchman

therose789 said:

I have an M5 (now broken) you can get some really cool sounds out of it however after using it alongside a guitarist who was using both a big sky and a time line you can really hear the difference and it doesnt even come close.

The positive thing i will say about the M5 is that the reverbs are really flexible and you can get some nice sounds out of it, great for ambient kind of stuff, swells etc.... i really liked the particle verb until mine died (used the wrong power supply!) and i dont think you can get that same sound on a big sky! 

I currently have M5, Timeline, and Big Sky.  Have had Nova Delay and Boss DD6 in the past.

The Strymon stuff is on a different level to all the others tonally.  Even where they have the features they just don't sound as good.

The M5 is a great pedal for what it is, but it's not as good as the Strymons.  Likewise the Nova Delay is a perfectly competent delay (until it goes wrong) but the Timeline smokes it.  The DD6 is completely impractical.