Used Pedals vs Cheaper alternatives

paulcaye

Hi All,


What are peoples thoughts on buying used more expensive pedals? i.e.  JHS, Boss etc. compared to the cheaper lines which you see, tone city, mooer etc.  

Some you can pick up less than half the retail price and not much more than the cheaper cousins.  Is this pedal dependent?

Apologies, if this topic has been done before.  

meltedbuzzbox

It is pefal dependant and individual dependent as well as amp and guitar.

There is nothing wrong with buying used.  
Equally some of the cheap joyo, mooer, tonecity and even mosky pedals are great.

You really have a world of choice at the moment

munckee

I’ve bought some great joyo and donner pedals as well as high end pedals like a flint and middle range TS9 boss pedals etc. 

I’ve had a few bottom end pedals die and get problems and not a single problem with mid range or better. 

Hence I would buy used. Plus you can generally sell them for what you paid for them, which in turn leads to an addiction to gear you will never shake. 

The classifieds in this forum are the biggest single threat to my finances including COVID and brexit!!!

Sassafras

I would rather buy a good quality used pedal.
I don't have much confidence in cheap new pedals. They're cheap for a reason. They're mostly designed to be disposable.
As are many things now.

paulcaye

munckee said:

I’ve bought some great joyo and donner pedals as well as high end pedals like a flint and middle range TS9 boss pedals etc. 

I’ve had a few bottom end pedals die and get problems and not a single problem with mid range or better. 

Hence I would buy used. Plus you can generally sell them for what you paid for them, which in turn leads to an addiction to gear you will never shake. 

The classifieds in this forum are the biggest single threat to my finances including COVID and brexit!!!

I bought 4 pedals in the last month 2 new, 2 used after a 20 dry spell of not buying any.  

Seems like my bank balance will also be taking a hit for the next few months.  Will need a pedal cupboard soon.

paulcaye

Sounds like quality used is the way to go, or bite the bigger bullet and buy new.  

Fuengi

Initially I bought cheaper pedals just to try them out. The ones I liked, I immediately wondered what a more expensive pedal would sound like. 

There are good quality pedals available used from around £50. Really good. You'll always be able to sell them on again without much of a hit. 

Alternatively have a try of a mates pedal board to get some sounds in your ear. 

Wazmeister

I always try to buy the best quality I can, whether new or used.

Beexter

I've found that buying used is generally more cost effective as I've usually been able to sell for similar amounts to what I paid if a pedal doesn't float my boat. It doesn't matter if it's a cheap or expensive pedal, the principle is the same.
It makes it fairly cost effective to try a number of different pedals to find your favourites. 
I'm not averse to buying new but I'll usually try to fund any musical purchases from selling existing kit I'm not using which enables me to satisfy curiosity without spending a fortune. 

Funkfingers

I look for a pedal to make a sound I find interesting/inspiring and which will not fall apart under live performance conditions.

ICBM

Sassafras said:

I would rather buy a good quality used pedal.
I don't have much confidence in cheap new pedals. They're cheap for a reason. They're mostly designed to be disposable.
As are many things now.

True, although that said my Behringers seem fairly tough and have been totally reliable so far, and I’ve been practicing and gigging with one of them for at least a couple of years.

joetele

Of the cheaper pedals I've owned, the majority have died on me after little use. A Joyo clone of the Suhr Riot, a Behringer reverb machine,  a Teisco delay, and a Mooer preamp.  Oh, and the Marshall Regenerator not long after it came out. The failure rate of better quality pedals has been almost none - the only ones that have - from memory, an old Ibanez DE7 - they've been well used and years old. All the 'boutique', stuff I've owned has been great. 

slacker

I've had some of my pedals over 15 years. Some fail, some don't. The expensive ones get repaired, the cheaper ones binned. 

steer

I've only ever had 2 pedals fail - a Marshall and an Ibanez. Plus a Morley wah was not working properly when I bought it secondhand. All of those I would consider "middle of the range" in terms of price.

I've never had one of the cheap Donner, Joyo or Mooer's fail. So I am not sure that price = quality - not all of the time anyway. 

ewal

The only pedal to fail on me was my EQD Avalanche Run - thank goodness for the lifetime warranty.

Danny1969

Cheap pedals tend to be fine electronically but the quality of the jacks and footswitch can cause problems. Having said that the footswitch on a £400 overdrive pedal can fail quite easily, I've changed loads on expensive pedals. I would like to say the quality of pots on expensive pedals are far better but often they aren't. 

The actual electronic guts in terms of components tends to be less than 10% of the pedals cost with drive pedals and an opamp with 2 diodes chucked in the NFB loop will sound the same whether you spend £25 or £250 if the circuit and components is identical. 

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

Cheap pedals tend to be fine electronically but the quality of the jacks and footswitch can cause problems. Having said that the footswitch on a £400 overdrive pedal can fail quite easily, I've changed loads on expensive pedals. I would like to say the quality of pots on expensive pedals are far better but often they aren't.

The jacks are the weak point on the Behringers - they don't grip the plugs very positively, and they're PCB-mounted with no chassis support. I always use right-angle plugs with them to reduce the stress. The pots aren't brilliant, being similarly PCB-mount with no extra support, but the design of the casing means they're fairly well-protected and I've yet to see a broken one. (Unlike on countless mini-pedals.)

The Behringer footswitches are fine, like almost any pedals that use proper electronic switching . You're right, a 3PDT can break on a £400 pedal just as easily as on a £40 one .