cheap Chinese clones Vs the supposed real deal

Voxsupertwin

What do you think ?

Leaving the ethics aside, that’s another issue …..

The performance and sound quality of ‘clones’…..

I’ve got a few originals and some clones and to be honest there’s nothing in it sound wise ….

Just the price ……

So is the magic of an original just snake oil and in reality any duplication of the circuitry by whoever not good enough or is  it just name snobbery ?..

Alex2678

Depends on the circuit and how much they had to cheap out on parts. Something complicated like a chorus they might have to cheap out on parts because there’s so many. Something that needs a lot of tuning like a univibe probably won’t get that care and attention. Something sensitive to parts selection like a vintage fuzz won’t get that, they’ll just be throwing the parts in. 

Danny1969

In general if the circuit is the same it will sound the same. Technically there may be small issues with the components used. The cheapest way to build a circuit is to use surface mount components placed on a board by a pick & place machine. In general surface mount components are equal in performance to their larger thru hole equivalents ..but not always. Some SM components behave a little differently. Cheaper forms of surface mount resistors are aren't quite linear with voltage for example. In as much as their resistance can change with the applied voltage. This tends to be an issue with higher voltages than a  9V pedals but even a small difference may be noticeable to some. 

I've fixed a few expensive pedals over the years. I wouldn't say the expensive pedals are built better than a Boss to be honest. There's certainly some nice tones in some of them though. 

allen

After I did this comparison I sold the ‘real’ one. 

https://youtu.be/fe0PjkunD5g?si=vqY_QKz6BZb5LSbp

monquixote

If the circuit is the same then it will sound the same however....

If the components are cheap it will be more likely to have noise problems and break.

I've had numerous Tone City, Joyo, etc pedals crap out on me whereas a Boss will probably outlive you.

That said a lot of boutique pedals are badly made. I've seen Fulltone and Roger Mayer pedals die and EHX explode if you look at them funny.

LionAquaLooper

allen said:

After I did this comparison I sold the ‘real’ one. 

https://youtu.be/fe0PjkunD5g?si=vqY_QKz6BZb5LSbp

Yep I've got an LY Rock Duellist v2. Sorry to say but it's a great sounding pedal. 

Dave_Mc

It really depends on each pedal. As @Alex2678 says, some circuits are easier to clone cheaply than others. Even with that, some of the easier-to-clone ones (overdrives etc.) sometimes have mistakes in the schematic/circuit. Some don't just sound as good as the real thing, for whatever reason... but some do. I've definitely had some which sounded bang-on. It all depends, really.

As @monquixote rightly said, the really cheap ones are often not made that well, but at the same time a lot of boutique pedals aren't either...

I realise that's not much help, lol. But there isn't really a definite answer, you really have to look at each one separately...

ScreamingDave

I’ve had some supposed clones that seem pretty good, like the Donner Dark Mouse, but others are massively disappointing, like the Mooer Reecho.  I guess it partly depends how determined the manufacturer is to make an accurate clone

Alex2678

I’ve got one of those cheap £11 Temu green overdrives and it sounds better than a TS808 clone I very carefully and thoughtfully built with some Keeley mods. Don’t know why. Tried the £11 Temu OCD clone and it was awful 

soma1975

Anything where someone has to manually test, sort and discard transistors for gain and leakage etc you are better off buying from someone who gives a shit enough to do that, as the drop shipper OEMs will use every component they have without testing and just play the numbers game on returns. Basically most things germanium.

Anything where components are uniform and of small tolerances I think you are on much safer ground, although quality of jacks and switches will be a place to compromise quality for them. 

Dodge

ScreamingDave said:

I’ve had some supposed clones that seem pretty good, like the Donner Dark Mouse, but others are massively disappointing, like the Mooer Reecho.  I guess it partly depends how determined the manufacturer is to make an accurate clone

What's the Reecho a clone of?  I thought it was one of their originals.

I've got a few cheap Rowin analogue modulation pedals and a delay kicking around I bought from Ali Express over the past year when they're on sale.  They all sound great, and close (if not identical) to the Mooer equivalents.  I'm sure I've read somewhere that Rowins have the same PCBs as Mooer and maybe one builds for the other company.  I did have a duff flanger (the rate control didn't do anything) but they're fine.

I wouldn't trust them (or any other mini pedal) on a gig through.

digitalscream

On the other hand...I've had a Mooer Ninety Orange for about 10 years now, and I swear by it. Had a studio engineer scoff at it, saying his script-logo Phase 90 was obviously much better, so we did a blind A/B test - he consistently picked the Mooer, because it wasn't as noisy as his original unit.

He died a little inside that day.

JayGee

I have the TC “3rd Dimension” Boss DC2 clone, a Joyo “Vintage Overdrive” TS 808 (I think!) clone, and a DemonFX “King of Drive” KoT clone. All of them certainly seem to do the sort of thing the originals are described as doing - I’ve got no idea just how close they come to the originals but they’re all perfectly fine, usable pedals in their own right (which is all I ask of them really) and all of them have so far proved entirely reliable in regular use at home and on stage.

DrJazzTap

I had a wampler pedal that had some shocking wiring in it. The pedal sounded great.....but still. 

I bought a helix to cure me of my pedal gas. Which it kind of did.......

However I couldn't be arsed getting it out and sorting patches etc to just jam along with a backing track.

So I have an additional small pedal board.  To keep costs down I did buy a few Chinese pedals. 

The mosky klon clone is alright, the elec lady sounded good. 

However some are better than others. The ch vibe pedal is okay and the tc electronic sky surfer is incredibly uninspiring. 

I have acquired a few boss pedals though. I won a bd2 waza craft which is fantastic. And I have just bought a ce2 which sounds a lot better than the small clone ive got. 

I do like the sound of ehx pedals, but I do feel like at some point they are going to break. And from what I understand, aren't they made in China and then just finished in the states? 

TLDR Boss is best

Jazzy_Jake

When I lived in China, I got really into buying cloned pedals, I now have a cuboard full of them haha.

The clones themselves have different tiers. For example, some of the earlier Ly Rock clones, such as the BJFE ones, were cloned from originals degooped by the Ly Rock guy himself (also worth noting that Ly Rock is essentially just one guy). The circuits are identical and populated by hand using high quality components. On the other hand, the newer output tends to use SMD components and just be a direct (probably stolen) copy of the SMD circuit boards.

The DemonFx, Joyo, Mooer, etc. clones are made by companies, probably with a bit less care and cutting corners.

There are also other higher end Chinese cloners such as 68 Pedals (the most under-rated in my opinion), Nonametone, Blizz and Momo lab, who produce very high end clones by hand and using expensive components. But, some of these are harder to get outside China.

Check out my Nonametone Klone for example (photo below), the circuit is cloned directly from a real early serial number Klon and uses 1:1 the same components, also comes in a custom enclosure which I actually prefer to the real Klon.

Unfortunately, the Momo lab ones are the best I have seen but are hard to get now because the guy making them quit the pedal biz. See pics of my BJFE clones below, they sound the same as the Onecontrol versions to me and are probably built better than the originals which always look a bit of a mess to me.

soma1975

Will just say that everything I have had from Demon FX has been brilliant. 

LionAquaLooper

soma1975 said:

Will just say that everything I have had from Demon FX has been brilliant. 

Same. Also Mosky. 

ScreamingDave

Dodge said:

ScreamingDave said:

I’ve had some supposed clones that seem pretty good, like the Donner Dark Mouse, but others are massively disappointing, like the Mooer Reecho.  I guess it partly depends how determined the manufacturer is to make an accurate clone

What's the Reecho a clone of?  I thought it was one of their originals.

I've got a few cheap Rowin analogue modulation pedals and a delay kicking around I bought from Ali Express over the past year when they're on sale.  They all sound great, and close (if not identical) to the Mooer equivalents.  I'm sure I've read somewhere that Rowins have the same PCBs as Mooer and maybe one builds for the other company.  I did have a duff flanger (the rate control didn't do anything) but they're fine.

I wouldn't trust them (or any other mini pedal) on a gig through.

I’d read it was supposed to be a clone of a Boss DD-3, but it didn’t sound anything like my DD-3.  Maybe I got that wrong

Nerine

At the end of the day, a guitar pedal is just an electrical circuit, and electricity doesn’t care about brand names. Resistors, capacitors, and op-amps all obey the same laws of physics, so a Chinese clone won’t ever be that far off from the so-called original

Alex2678

Nerine said:

At the end of the day, a guitar pedal is just an electrical circuit, and electricity doesn’t care about brand names. Resistors, capacitors, and op-amps all obey the same laws of physics, so a Chinese clone won’t ever be that far off from the so-called original

Transistors obey the laws of magic though