Boutique Gear & Soft forums

[edgie]

@Shredcow: Great to hear from you again. Yeah, those were the days. Money's abundant and the GAS was rampant. hahaha.

@Naviros - I see that you just joined about two years ago. Just in case you don't know, a year or two earlier than that, you will be selling a sought-after pedal in MINUTES. In some cases like those 550sgd zendrives, it would only take seconds after posting. Funny but true.: )

The release of line 6's m13 and m9 has noticeably caused a big dent on the boutique modulation market with more players opting to go for their user-friendly features(something which IMO the T.C. Nova products don't have) and flexibility than hauling those large analog modulation pedals in gigs or even just in their bedrooms.

Another culprit could also be the lack of live playing exposure among boutique players. Being a bedroom rockstar can only be so much fun until you get tired of it. A lot of boutique players here have a high-paying but physically-taxing jobs that take up a lot of their playing time.

 

[Weiht]

Maybe we grew tired of the fact that we kept spending loads of $$$ to improve our tone, and get happy when we initially like it, but come 1 full circle and we still play ol' way without much improvements?

I guess i was also part of trend, owning an effect that i hardly use but need it just so i can nail a song that requires it. Overdrive after overdrive that kept changing with different amps. Sounding gd at home, but struggling at jam studios n all. Im glad i made an early switch to guitar straight into amp, using only a booster, chorus, delay pedal n my trusty volume knob.

I guess maybe that was a time where there was alot of marketing too from the US abt the next best pedal, the holy grail of all tubescreamers n analog delays blah blah blah. The reviews from harmony central too were so POISONOUS!!!

Maybe with the increase of age comes commitment, compared to the past where we could spend 70-80% our mthly allowance or pay to acquire gears n starve. I recently bought an amp, but i found myself thinking so much more about whether i shld just get it or not, even tho i can afford it more now than say 5 yrs ago...

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

a lot of relevant points here. i can't say the same for me because i never really stepped into real boutique territory because of financial issues common to most students. the most i got was a $300+ tubezone and loads of other keeley and monte allums modded stuff ($200 boss pedals = poor man's boutique).

realised after a while, my skills are not worth my gear (in some kinda weird mental equation, skillz ≠ $$$ spent on gear)

sold almost everything to get a pod x3 live (partially because it was better than previous gen of multiefx and it's a cheap way to explore some "boutiques" through the respective model)

stuck to pod x3 live for the ease of use and the convenience for jamming sessions and gigs. tone sticks with you regardless of amp present at venue (hopefully not crappy loudspeakers at said venue)

told myself that if i ever go back to purely single pedals, i'll at least get a tube amp head which i can carry around for gigs and jamming sessions (thousands of dollars spend on gear and pedals, hours or tweaks to get the tone, just to get it changed by the amp at another venue!? doesn't make sense to me) , which won't really happen till i get myself a car.. so.. i'll stick to the pod x3 live, maybe sell it for something better if it comes along.

financial reasons, practical reasons, technological reasons, exploration cycle, and guilt, all stated before in all the above posts!

 

[Whitestrat]

If I may say so myself, I have gone through the phases of gear-whoring and now know what I need and am contend with what I already have.

Lucky you, Phil... That you managed to keep your GAS in check... Mine is still in full bloom, though somewhat muted heavily by my tastes getting more and more expensive.

BTW, check out that new LP Studio I just posted in a new thread! Bet that WON'T help your GAS...

 

[van_halen]

when i first joined in late 2007, the buy/sell section was superb. i wasn't selling boutique gear, just a normal boss ds2, mt2 and a seymour duncan hotrails but the response was fast and buyers sincere, no such thing as lowballers, timewasters or disappearing "buyers". i was totally wowed by this experience. now it seems like theres not alot of demand for gear, boutique or otherwise.

i miss those days.

 

[edgie]

Lucky are you guys who managed to settle happily with multi-fx. My GAS needs is still like in 2006-2007 but the difference now is that I tend to put items for sale quickly than before when I used to hold on to the ones that are being replaced.
Sometimes I still wish that I still have some of the pedals I sold e.g. hotcake, liquid sunshine, etc. now that more and more genre of music is appealing to me. It's quite ironic that the boutique scene has died down at a time when builders are producing much better pedals than their predecessors like wampler, cmatmods, cbread, rockett, etc.

 

[JOSH83]

I guess goin boutique is kinda outta budget for most of the ppl here. No doubt, they do sound good and help to improve the tones,
but considering ppl who are still schling, $300++, they'll rather be off with multi-effects than ala carte pedals.
Maybe there can be more post on introducing and reviewing boutique pedals, so can create more awareness to the next generation of musos out there.

Cheers! Peace

 

[EugeneSmasher]

Lucky are you guys who managed to settle happily with multi-fx.

Indeed. I was never hit by the 'boutique pedal fever' because I'm not willing to go through the hassle. Either way, most mass production analogue pedals sound generic. My Pod sounds more amp like, despite having a bit of a digital tone. Boutique pedals are tone-monsters, but if I can only go for mass production pedals, might as well get multi-effects. So much more convenient.

 

[Whitestrat]

No doubt, they do sound good and help to improve the tones,

There is not a single boutique pedal in my line up... I use off the shelf stuff for pedals (Digitech Pedals, Ibanez Tubescreamer), and I think i've got pretty nice tone. You don't need boutique pedals for a nice tone. just a nice guitar, a nice amp.

 

[ShredCow]

I dare you to use the current stock line of Boss pedals!

 

[theunknown]

I think it's more "blamed" to the recent "induction" of younger generation starting out players who need recommendations more than already having knowledge of current products. Those who have less budget and more curiosity for budget line products. I'm one of them actually. Though no doubt that I have curiosity for boutique gear, just not the resources to get them. Maybe in years to come, I'll join in the fun of serious tone chasing or GAS-with-resources. Haha. Now, I'll just settle for my trusty cheap TGM first guitar les paul copy, some cheap effects and a my trusty Vox AC4TV.

 

[Jumpin'Jellybean]

Hahaha. I'll use the DD-7. Add a FDR-1 for reverb. And maybe a Marshall tube, so i'll use the built in distortion. With a decent guitar it'll give good tones.

 

[edgie]

There is not a single boutique pedal in my line up... I use off the shelf stuff for pedals (Digitech Pedals, Ibanez Tubescreamer), and I think i've got pretty nice tone. You don't need boutique pedals for a nice tone. just a nice guitar, a nice amp.

I think it depends on the situation man. As much as I like my THD flexi-50's tone a lot, I haven't had the chance to gig with it in the 3 years it's been with me. The gigs I've been to just won't allow the use of it coz the bars we've played already have their own amps and the soundguys have already "tuned" themselves to those gear. What's helping my tone now in a very big way is my Cbread DLS. It's one piece of gear that makes sure I get a Marshall-y base tone with all the amps they provide us at the gigs(all of them are solid state). I just vary the gain by what I run into it. If i'll be using the current off the shelf stuff for my tone, I probably have to chain up 3-4 pedals in which their prices would be equivalent to 1-2 boutique pedals. If you notice, their prices now are not that far off from a medium-price boutique.

 

[funktastic]

you all know why when you look at the buy/sell it looks so damned boring?
all the good stuff which some sellers often sell, can't be posted here.
cos its "commercial posting" hence all you see is just simple stuff than passes through hands, not boutique gear that people often buy and sell, buy and sell.
if that were to happen, they'll get banned from the buy/sell. imo we're on a downwardddddddddd spiral.

 

[ungauged]

Soft is on an economic crisis....


Not monetary terms but gear....

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

just a nice guitar, a nice amp.

true that, tube amp plays a big part of the much sought after over-driven tones. (Y)
solid state capacitors and chips.. analogue they may be, they emulate.
that said, boutique pedals are still much cheaper than boutique amps. A $500 distortion pedal is cheap compared to a $1500 - $2000 tube amp head.

i hardly see a point in boutique pedals for modulations, delays, reverbs and filters though. i think today's digital counterparts are more than capable of handling those effects and doing exact simulations of analogues of said effects at a fraction of the price. am i wrong to say?

 

[Jumpin'Jellybean]

Nope, you're right. I've seen boutique noise gates or delays worth 5 times a digital pedal and both give about similar functions.

 

[dudelove]

i hardly see a point in boutique pedals for modulations, delays, reverbs and filters though. i think today's digital counterparts are more than capable of handling those effects and doing exact simulations of analogues of said effects at a fraction of the price. am i wrong to say?

Sorry, that's not true at all. When you actually play them you'll understand. Take a Line 6 M9 for example. On its own it'll probably sound lovely. Put it side by side a Skreddy Echo, or a DMM, then you'll hear the difference.

But it's okay if you think that way. I do not want to go around proving that boutique pedals sound better than mass produced pedals, even though thats how I feel. I choose boutique effects simply because I like and enjoy playing boutique pedals. Just like why some men need Ferraris when a Toyota will also take them from point A to point B. Just pity my wallet.

 

[Jumpin'Jellybean]

...Just pity my wallet.

No need to. it's lighter. Less workload for your wallet.

 

[superpotato_30]

In response to the new generation thingy, the problem with the new generation is that everyone expects to be spoonfed. They ask the same questions over and over again. Where to buy this how much is this and then the older guys will tell them to use google or check the search function. Then the newdoods will get pissed and start flaming with stuff like 'ask question only you reply liddat wtf is ur problem etc etc'.. if we dont even move past this stage then i guess its expected that the topics related to boutique gear/electronics and the like will not even be skimmed on the surface.

Check out overseas forums and one will realise that such questions do not pop up as often as they do on soft despite us having a smaller population online. The frequency of such questions popping up again and again never fail to bore me.

You can tell me yes, everyone has a different playing style and hence require different opinions but at the end of the day at such topics will end up with the same responses : Go try out whichever guitar you think suits you to best. One mans meat is another mans poison. The end.

A little off topic here but this also constitutes to the reason why soft remains at a stagnant pace of the same recurring qns being asked over and over. Talk about boutique? What is that? Not interested. I got heavy heavy distortion. Shiok.