4 Things to Consider Buying Cheap Pedals & 4 Reasons to Buy

Let's see 4 things I think should be taken into account before purchasing cheap pedals even if they sound good! Also we will see some situations in which cheap pedals are awesome alternatives!
Here is some of my gear:

--Time stamps
01:20 Usability
02:30 Build Quality
03:26 Reliability
04:35 Re-sell value
05:33 4 ideal situations for cheap pedals!

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[AngusNB]

5th reason to buy a cheap pedal.
An inexpensive way to see if you actually like an effect before laying out big bucks.
Try a Joyo British Sound before buying a Tech21 British.

[MatoyaLim]

8 minutes of just pure information + along with some killer playing.
great video!

[MrKornea]

Mostly disagree with the content of this vids... reliability ? Expensive pedals also suffer reliability issues (TC, for example). Build quality ? do you really care of touching the card when your pedal is set on the pedalboard ? Usability ? Never got any problem with DC in or jack with Joyo (and never feel any difference in comparison with expensive one... Re-sell values ? when you buy a $30 pedal, who cares about the re-sell value... You can afford 4 pedals for the price of one expensive... No, really, for me, these cheap pedals are a really good alternative to the real expensive pedal. And most of the time, when the pedal is faulty, it's at the beginning (under warranty)...

[anonymousanonymous]

I've got 3 Joyo pedals, a Tomsline, and a Rowin. All of them are excellent quality with none of the problems you described. All of them are metal housing with quality jacks and switches. As far as the circuit board goes, you'll be able to see and touch the circuit board in any expensive boutique pedal and the battery will likely touch it. To prevent unusual "electricity discharges" I would suggest not using it while walking across a fuzzy carpet in the winter.

[acousticsoul_]

Nico I love how you sit beside your guitars like they are your best friends hanging out and chilling hahaha so sweet

[smooth_jazz_escola]

Nowadays there is a phenomenon called gourmerization. Here in Brazil stomps of recognized brands are very expensive, and, if you look inside them, you will find in your boutique circuits made with components with cheap components, have already been tested in pedasi from JhS, for example. So, I have preferred to buy pedals that have the sound I seek, the Joyo are great.

[edwardmakabling]

Im a musician for about 7 years.. and joyo, nux and sonicake are my best friend.

[surfzion]

The Joyo American Sound is the best pedal I have ever owned.

[thisdyingsoul]

My pedalboard is a mix of boutique, mid grade mass produced pedals and cheap Chinese stuff. Typically I buy the Chinese pedals to audition the circuit they're based on. Understanding the Chinese pedal won't sound exactly like original, they do get close enough to know if you like them. Then I keep them around until I can afford the original. They also make a great substitute if you can't afford the original. I'm currently using a Joyo US Dream and hope to one day find a good deal on a Suhr Riot but it's otherwise beyond my reach. I also lucked out a while back and found a local builder who was making straight up clones and also modded pedal copies his own personal touch. He's no longer building pedals, a real shame because he had a knack for it and his Part for part Klone was only $120.

[furyiiiplate]

Sweet sounds from that setup, good playing too.

[davidstorm]

Any pedal can be faulty, regardless of make. The main consideration is the sound and the quality of the switch. These pedals are made with surface mount components, with 9vDC through them, there isn't much to go wrong apart from the switch. My thoughts would be that there won't be reliability issues if you buy a Joyo. I have a Vintage Overdrive, no issues with it.

[MB-ywpv]

I live in the US and there are 2 pedal companies that are sold here that I have found to be just as relieable as the companies making more expensive pedal and they are Mooer and Donner, Donner especially have made some very inexpensive pedals, some selling for $35 brand new and I haven't heard anyone complain about reliability or build quality, but most of the time you get what you pay for, but I have a rule when buying cheaper gear and that is buy from the bigger and more well known companies that have the experience and track record of making good low cost gear and the bigger companies can also afford to spend more in research and development of products, or if a company is under the umbrella of a bigger more well known name for example the LTD line of guitars is under the watchful eye of ESP and all LTD factories have reps from the ESP Custom shop there to make sure everything is being done right, for anyone looking for a cheaper alternative to buying a bunch of pedals I say buy a ZOOM G3N or G5N because the effects are good and you get every effect you would ever need and the amp modeling is top notch and is up there in terms of sound with the bigger way way more expensive gear on the market and the G3N is only $200 and you have all the pedals built in your ever gonna need and you using the amp modeling for recording sounds great, I cant over emphasize how good this product is and I recommend everyone at least try one

[strathippie]

I have a lot of Joyo pedals and never had a problem. I have used them or five years.

[KozmykJ]

You mentioned getting a shock from a pedal. If it's a 9V pedal it will be your mains earthing or a fault with your PSU or amplifier not the pedal that is giving you the shock.
A pedal which uses valves/tubes inside, that require higher voltages to bias them, COULD possibly give you a shock if they were faulty but not a 9V only type pedal.

[DSeN]

I bought a Joyo sweet baby overdrive. It was faulty out of the box. Then I bought a Joyo American Sound, and it has been awesome. I always have it on when I am playing live.

[Chilinoploppy]

I own the joyo vintage od. And I prefer it's tone over any TS I've played. I even prefer it over my Wampler Clarksdale. it's the only Joyo I've played.

[rubenceja]

Your Joyo American pedal video was the main reason I got one. it cleans up my cheap Solid State amp. Great for tube sounds on a cheap budget.

[rldays]

I bought a bunch of Joyo's new and a couple of good second hand pedals to go with them. It was a good inexpensive way to start my pedal board and now I just swap them out as I find something worthy. The Joyo's for 5 pedals cost less than 1 top of the line pedal like a decent Boss or Wampler or Neunaber or if I ever have the cash, a big sky. So buying a box full of cheapies (of which 1 didn't work properly) worked out well. I did notice the dc input on some was a bit tricky and you had to make sure the plug was in correctly or it would keep going off. The other thing I have noticed, when first turning some of the pedals on there is a perceptible bang or thump sound. Seems to go away after the initial switching on but still not something you want in the middle of a gig.

[peterbrusch]

Again: Very informative plus excellent playing :-)

[SunAndMirror]

Musicians should learn whats actually inside their instrumenst and how they operate. You'd be suprised at how many people dont know what the inside of a jack even looks like.