Pedal Purchase Problems

[GAD]

I hate buying pedals. I've bought and sold a lot of gear in my lifetime and the vast majority of problems have been related to pedals. I haven't ordered a pedal in probably 10 years and I wanted to get some pedals to dedicate to the Garshall so I bought them on Amazon instead of dealing with Reverb or Ebay sellers since I've had so many problems there.

That, it would seem, was a mistake.

Pedal #1 was a Boss DD-8. I've never been a huge fan of the Boss pedal look, but sometimes they have just the right sound for '80s tomfoolery of the type I enjoy. I wanted a digital delay and I preferred that it be small so I could keep the new pedalboard small and the Boss DD pedals fit the bill so I ordered one. This is what it looked like out of the box:



The foot switch lid is crooked! I actually took it off to see the cause and the hole for the screw is actually drilled off-center, so this one is a manufacturing defect and/or inadequate QC from the factory:



Thankfully, Amazon's return system is pretty great so I returned it. I opted to forget about the digital delay and bought an EchoPlex delay and preamp instead.

Today I got the second pedal I ordered, which was a Boss Waza Craft SD-1w overdrive. This is supposed to be THE pedal for pushing a JCM800 into "that's too much" gain territory and the Waza line gets some great reviews, so I figured what the heck. Here's how my brand new SD-1w looked when I pulled it out of the box that incidentally included no documentation or wrapping of any kind:



Sigh. This one sounds pretty great so I told them to send me a new one, so we'll see how that goes.

I probably would have been better off with Reverb. At least there I stand a chance of seeing pics of the pedal before it gets shipped.

 

[Midnight Toker]

^ yikes! Was that waza a used pedal? It looks to have had a strip of Velcro on it and on someone’s pedal board. Amazon is also just a marketplace w/ loads of 3rd party vendors who sell used stuff so you have to read the fine print before simply clicking on purchase. Basically, only things listed as “Prime” w/ 1-2 day shipping are items that come direct from Amazon warehouses. (All of this I’m sure most here already know, but I figured I’d write it anyway as folks tend to blacklist vendors based on others’ experiences) As for Boss, I gave up on them (and dod) by the early 90’s. I won’t buy a pedal that doesn’t have a solid switchcraft stomp button switch! If fact, I once drilled through a non working tube screamer and installed a proper switch right through the original crap switch.

 

[GGJaguar]

Poor QC is one thing, but re-selling a used item as new is another. Yikes!

 

[chazmo]

Poor QC is one thing, but re-selling a used item as new is another. Yikes!

 

[GAD]

^ yikes! Was that waza a used pedal? It looks to have had a strip of Velcro on it and on someone’s pedal board. Amazon is also just a marketplace w/ loads of 3rd party vendors who sell used stuff so you have to read the fine print before simply clicking on purchase. Basically, only things listed as “Prime” w/ 1-2 day shipping are items that come direct from Amazon warehouses. (All of this I’m sure most here already know, but I figured I’d write it anyway as folks tend to blacklist vendors based on others’ experiences) As for Boss, I gave up on them (and dod) by the early 90’s. I won’t buy a pedal that doesn’t have a solid switchcraft stomp button switch! If fact, I once drilled through a non working tube screamer and installed a proper switch right through the original crap switch.

Nope. It was supposed to be brand new.

I generally favor MXR if I’m not going boutique. I tend to agree about the foot-switches.

I do a lot of business with Amazon and try and only buy from Amazon direct and if not then I’ll only buy if fulfilled by Amazon. I’ve read of people receiving used items when buying new but it’s the first time it’s happened to me.

 

[James Hart]

I’ve read of people receiving used items when buying new but it’s the first time it’s happened to me.

I bought my snare new from Musician's Friend 2 years ago and received a used one in a random ill fitting box from Guitar Center... at least they refunded me over 60% of the retail price.

Sorry about your recent purchases went the way they did, we've noticed a drop in reliability from Amazon ordering

 

[Default]

A lot of the stuff I buy from Amazon ends up coming from businesses that ship from their locations, and only use A as an ordering system. It's kind of a fluke, but I try to hold on to the invoices for the business websites.
The only time I've been less than satisfied with the items was, of course, a couple of Chinese kit guitars that I bought from an advertising link on FB.
Turns out to be b-stock kits, but they were inexpensive enough that it wasn't worth the hassle to send them back.

 

[Midnight Toker]

There are also some low down dirty people out there who are in the habit of purchasing things, using them, then carefully repackaging and returning them…if not outright buying a replacement for something that is acting up, and returning the used one as if still new. Receivers and loading dock crews don’t know the difference and the person getting screwed is their next customer. I used to work for a guy that if he needed a heavy duty hammer drill or something, instead of renting one, would buy a new one w/ cash, use it for the day and return it saying he never opened it. I hated even being part of it. I also knew a sound man that bought a bunch of Shure beta 57’s and 58’s…pulled the little slotted set screw to remove the guts and swopped them into all his basic (and much cheaper) 57’s and 58’s, and returned the Beta’s. Scum…all of them!!!

 

[GAD]

Today was a much better day pedal-wise:



The tuner came direct from Sonic Research and the two Echoplex pedals came from Amazon and are NIB. Hooray!

Weirdly the delay comes with an adapter and the preamp does not. They’ll all be powered by a Cioks DC10 so no biggie, but I found that odd. The preamp specifically says that the pedal does not come with a battery or power brick. I’m sure it’s a price point thing.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Very nice! I have the Epochboost from Caitlinbread (basically a echoplex pre) and it's become one of those "always on" pedals.

 

[Walter Broes]

I think the delay comes with an adapter bc it has high current draw, and not any old generic adapter will work with it

 

[GAD]

Very nice! I have the Epochboost from Caitlinbread (basically a echoplex pre) and it's become one of those "always on" pedals.

On my "Fenderish" rig I have pedal that is a clone of a Roland Space Echo preamp and it's magnificent so I thought I'd give this one a try. This EchoPlex into the JCM800 definately has a sort of "not more - just better" thing going on. I like it.

I think the delay comes with an adapter bc it has high current draw, and not any old generic adapter will work with it

Interesting. It is a weird rating at 670ma so you're right that the run of the mill cheap 200ma brick wouldn't do.

 

[Walter Broes]

I think you'll love the Echoplex delay. I did, and I didn't : I have an old echoplex, and I think they really nailed the sound, envelope, feel of the repeats, it's pretty impressive.

The part I didn't like is that there is always some modulation there that you can't turn off, but then I'm 200% "chorus-phobic" - I really cannot stand the sound of a chorus pedal. I like univibes, almost any kind of tremolo out there, Magnatone-style vibrato, real Leslie cabinets, but chorus reminds me of the top-40 stuff of my teenage years that I hated with a passion. But never mind me - I know I'm a little weird.

 

[GAD]

I think you'll love the Echoplex delay. I did, and I didn't : I have an old echoplex, and I think they really nailed the sound, envelope, feel of the repeats, it's pretty impressive.

So far I dig it. EVH used an Echoplex so that works for me. As much as all the digital delay modes are fun to play with, in the end I never use them. I have a Strymon on my other board for the Brian Setzer tape echo sounds and this one will stay on the high gain amp.

The part I didn't like is that there is always some modulation there that you can't turn off, but then I'm 200% "chorus-phobic" - I really cannot stand the sound of a chorus pedal. I like univibes, almost any kind of tremolo out there, Magnatone-style vibrato, real Leslie cabinets, but chorus reminds me of the top-40 stuff of my teenage years that I hated with a passion. But never mind me - I know I'm a little weird.

Weird? I'm the guy who doesn't "get" tremolo, remember.

 

[Midnight Toker]

On my "Fenderish" rig I have pedal that is a clone of a Roland Space Echo preamp and it's magnificent so I thought I'd give this one a try. This EchoPlex into the JCM800 definately has a sort of "not more - just better" thing going on. I like it.


Interesting. It is a weird rating at 670ma so you're right that the run of the mill cheap 200ma brick wouldn't do.

Crazy. I'm running that Epochboost INTO a Roland 301 Space Echo tape delay.

 

[Midnight Toker]

So far I dig it. EVH used an Echoplex so that works for me. As much as all the digital delay modes are fun to play with, in the end I never use them. I have a Strymon on my other board for the Brian Setzer tape echo sounds and this one will stay on the high gain amp.



Weird? I'm the guy who doesn't "get" tremolo, remember.

One of the secrets to Jimmy Page's live tone was his use of his echoplex pre which was on a LOT! The pedals are good, but not quite as rich as the real tube goodness.