Joking aside Eirik, I'd buy that "pedel" simply because I'm a guitar gear enthusiast first and foremost, although I am not a professional musician. As long as there are amateur and pro "string swingers", there's gonna be a market for those and all pedals. I miss your "Is this the worst pedal ever?" for I built myself one during the pandemic inspired by the JHS show... I think a better title for your video would've been: Are 'analog' guitar pedals dying? Ola Englund has videos from at least 5 years ago on how tube amps are basically dead but ORANGE, VOX, PEAVEY, JOYO, BLACKSTAR, SOLDANO, REVV, etc. are still manufacturing hybrid mini head amps to this day... Ultimately, it's all about tonal preference and, Who will question Marshall's Valvestate or BOSS' Katana brands' commercial success? Some of their low-watt models are obviously directed mainly towards beginners who need a desktop amp to practice at home AND if those renowed companies are still investing on such segment, Why not the rest of the hundreds of boutique builders worldwide? Trends could be manipulated by innovation. JHS is selling more, not less.
Guitar pedals aren’t dying. High-priced boutique brands are suffering because eggs are ten bucks. But the guitar pedal industry isn’t going anywhere. Same as tube amps.
I'll say as someone who in the past bought a lot of pedals from "boutique" brands or newer brands, I have found myself lately replacing most of those pedals with companies like Boss, MXR, and EHX. Sometimes the simple old school version of an effect is what I end up personally preferring.
I only started buying pedals in 2019 and skipped buying the boutique pedals and just stuck to Boss etc. and cheap clones, I can say I have never felt like a boutique pedal would get me closer to the tone I want that what I already have!
Live playing musicians are a VERY SMALL group of people (myself included). Pedals are like vanilla ice cream. You can get different brands that taste different, but at the end of the day, it's still vanilla ice cream. How good you are, being able to dial in your board, progression as a player, and what you truly need live will matter a lot more than the sliders on your $1000 Chase Bliss drive pedal. Clean power, low noise, small footprint, and reliability are not nearly as sexy on RUclips as sliders, but they're a lot more important. So the live player that lives and dies by his $90 Blues Driver is off the market as a customer...then you cater to hobbyists, who eventually are hit by the law of diminishing returns, or the economy, or other interests. We're there. The silver lining...it's good for me because cool stuff is dirt cheap used right now.
As a younger gigging guitarist, I just straight up can't justify buying pedals over $150. I'm not really into the whole modeling stuff either, I value the simplicity of just owning and learning to effectively use the analog versions of things. There's so many cool expensive boutique pedals I'd love to learn and experiment with, but I just don't have the time or money to incorporate them into the sound when I've got other expenses and my $90 overdrive is already doing the trick. Some pedals from small builders I've wanted are already discontinued and going for thousands too. I sincerely wish I was in a position to support the market and keep these builders going but it's just not feasible from the trenches at the moment.
I, uh, got into pedals after 20 years or so of only having a delay pedal (DD5). But when it hit, IT HIT. I've amassed... a very large collection in the last 5 years. I've put them all onto various cheap pedal boards and I swap them out for different adventures, but, I've got nearly every base covered. I'll look for something new, quirky, or yet another fuzz (never enough) but I'm pretty tapped out. I'm just ready to get to work exploring. It's been a wild 5 years.
I'm a digital designer, but I dabble in all other fields of design as well. Your example of a phone actually is a lot closer to what you are highlighting in pedals. Phones aren't really advancing much. Your current iPhone just has slightly better chips and cameras than the last 3 or 4 versions. The same can be said for cars, computers, etc. The nuances that new products bring to the market are minimal and have diminishing returns. Designers and engineers today are largely innovating on features, not entirely new products. The same is true with pedals and guitars. Maybe they switch out clipping diodes or add Midi, or add a soft switch or top mount jacks. Most products from shoes, to pens, to cars, to phones, to desks, to TVs... they all have converged on a sort of hegemony. How do we break out of this? Well, I might counter with, do we really need to? Innovation in products is a mechanism of capitalism and the need to acquire more wealth. You either grow or die. Innovation in the 21st century probably looks less like new products and more like improved quality of life. I don't need a new tube screamer, what I actually need is advances in medical treatments and exploration of renewable energy. Innovations in how we make, how we power, and how we consume are likely where the forefront of humanity is. Anyways, sorry for getting existential on a video about guitar pedals :)
I see a lot of parallels between the pedal market and the craft beer market in the US. Breweries are closing left and right, and the reasons are the same: Market oversaturation, economic reasons, young people losing interest and moving on to different markets. The giants of the industry will be able to adapt and weather the storm, but the little companies will be the ones that die out. Tale as old as the economy.
You made me realize the problem is the industry by and large sells that the old stuff is better. That's great for owners of the old stuff, but it means that the industry can't really innovate too much. Almost every new thing has to claim it's the next best thing to the old thing. That means that the market really is saturated with the same old same old. And that's why sales will be down...
I love the fact the guitar business is going down, it means : way more second hand products at good prices, as it used to be before Covid We don’t have second-hand-before-covid prices yet, but we are heading there slowly This crazy inflation about guitar products that we suffer since 5 years is boring af.
Great thoughts and video. I agree with you and I’m glad you briefly discussed the new tariffs. Just saw Templo Devices (Canada) posted about the 25% tariff that they’ll unfortunately have to tack onto unit cost for US (maybe other?) customers. Honestly such a shame. Huge margin
I prefer having all in one box like floor modelers and stuff. I just dont enjoy the thought of connecting bunch of stuff that you without tons of extra gear have to step manually on. Easy recallable presets and effect chains is just so much better for me in a live situation with less tap dancing
5:01 I wouldn’t say that the pedal has good marketing based on sounding good and being high quality… those words describe the product itself and its components. Looking good is/can be part of branding. As other comments states, the decline in standalone pedal sales is most probably due to Quad Cortex and Helix types of devices. I personally prefer getting pedals from smaller less known brands who gets their frame from word of mouth. 3LeafAudio for example. Spencer barely does any promotion/ads on his products, but they sound amazing and are almost always sold out because how highly regarded his products are (and also made in limited quantities…)
Market may be saturated with pedals, mostly clones and variations, but there is still place for innovation and new circuits. We are working very hard on creating unique circuits, based sometimes in obscure hard to find pedals, and takes us a lot of work until creating something different, not just adding features and stuff but intentionally creating something that would sound different and new. This said, the stuff is hard to sell as many consumers would prefer clones and there is so much great stuff and crazy cool builders!
Many comments already mentioned , people going for digital. Buying a good tube amp is expensive and recording it with a mic don't come out well expected. So directly connecting to an audio interface and plugins seems hassle free. 😊 MXR rockman pedal looks interesting but expensive 😢 . I like my pedals, sometimes I try to create the most complicated pedalboard. Sometimes trying to find essential 3-4 pedals if I was on an island. Playing guitar without headphones much fun. 🎉
They are just to expensive. I love pedals but it really just boils down to this point. The cost of living is to high and people can't justify spending 150-200 bucks on a pedal.
A Tonex One pedal that does "everything", is the cost of another tradinal pedal that does one thing, which you have to add tons of extra pedals to do the same thing, in case you are a guitarist that needs a lot of effects for the music you make.
I feel pedals are like handbags for ladies. Something that's expensive enough to feel special and unique, but not expensive like a vintage amp, guitar or car. You get to buy beauty/personality externally instead of developing yourself. How many overdrives can one really need to be "you", especially in a mix... You say the pedal market is dying, but in the last year alone I've seen perhaps 500 videos about "new" boost/overdrives/fuzz pedals pass my subscription feed. Maybe it's time to thin out the herd somewhat. I just hope that small companies survive the onslaught of big players with their digital platforms and ecosystems. It's hard to compete with a digital platform that keeps growing.
ok delays could have digital bpm so you can sync to click tempo pitch shifters could have formant/timbre shift too every pedal should have wet dry knob this is just 3 obvious improvements we are waiting for that are off the top of my head
I haven't been able to sell any pedals for months. Trades seem to work better. Many people seem to be moving towards digital platforms instead of buying more gear. I have also moved towards creating videos that move more towards knowing how to use the gear as opposed to buying more of it. Let's do another podcast episode and dig into this topic some more. You in, Eirik?
Pedals are a specialty interest. Like modular synths, they have a permanent (if niche) place in music, because they’re really about the physical interface design. Which knobs you twiddle, etc. Having said that, I agree with you about the difficulty in the market right now.
I think you're missing a big point here, which is digital stuff. It's the same thing for amplifiers-why should someone buy, for example, a Marshall JCM 800 and a cab when they can buy a Tonex or a Helix and get almost the same tone for less money and more convenience? I used to own a 5150 and a 2x12, and now all I need is space in my guitar case for a Tonex, and I'm good to go. I can play live, I can play at night on headphones. In the Helix itself, you’ve got over 200 guitar effects, and it’s getting better and better every year.
I agree with most of what you said, but I don’t think they’re entirely dying. The user profile and consumer is just changing, rapidly. People are buying tons of the nano cortex and the quad cortex, helix products, toneX, ampero, etc… (and we can include the plugin versions of these and working in the box) I do believe that the tariffs are for sure going to affect sales on everything though.
for 2 decades i only used 2 pedals. the hendrix digitech and the korg kaoss pad 3 for other timbres i just use the midi piano with virtual instruments. you want the guitar to sound like a guitar, and the hendrix digitech does that. the korg kaoss pad 3 is not a stomp box per se, but look at matt bellamy from muse. he made millions thanks to this touchscreen effect on guitar. i play with thumb left toe.
The pedal market was beyond saturated pre-pandemic, so now that it's finally passed it feels like how it did back then except now there is even more pedals. I surmise that manufacturers could stop producing guitar pedals for at least a year or two and there would still be enough on the market to satisfy the GASiest of players. And that's a good point, the EU has ruined A LOT for the people not just in Europe. Most big name brands sell the same product with all the EU regulations to everywhere across the world, so even in the US we're basically still subject to all those ridiculous restrictions.
The best modern iterations will format the product to modern usage and expectation. Make those classics easier to use, less noisy, smaller, sturdier, more energy efficient, more consistent, more reliable, etc. Digital options are more nimble to make those changes.
You can single handedly blame the Quad Cortex and Neural DSP for a lot of the market fading out. I still use every pedal I own in the studio, but the cortex has severely shrunk my rig and desire to go effect hunting unless it's something odd and ridiculous like what most of Chase Bliss or Old Blood Noise does
I agree. I was running 30 pedals and two amps. I use the Fender Tone Master Pro now with 4 of my old pedals. It's way easier to travel with my rig now.
@KoaCharvel I used to lug around full pedalboard/loop station, Revv 120 (dry amp), marshall 1969B (stereo), and a JC120. Now just a 4 pedal wetboard, cortex, Seymour Duncan stereo power amp (if needed) with the same marshall half stack (if needed) saved about 300lbs of gear
@@ryangunwitch-black the fender tone master? I think I've seen one out in the wild, you're not wrong. Every guitarist I know now has a cortex or something like it
Financially things certainly won't improve over the next decade and the saturated repetition of the market means that you simply have to accept that it's done as it was and a cull was needed...now it's on the companies to innovate and grow in a direction their market supports if they want to survive
I know you done a lot of qotsa tones, but the one thing i have seen no one done or put any interest to one my favorite lives by them is the tone from Over The Years And Through The Woods. By far one of their best tones and i was hoping maybe you can take a look at it and try to achieve it.
couldn't agree with you more on all these points... saturation is not good, but also not bad as there is just more and more pedal brands and actually if these pedal makers can survive and sell pedals then they still keep the interest for guitar and pedals alive. If it was still only Ibanez, Boss and MXR and 3 more pedal brands still, guitars would all be buried by now...
I have only just recently returned back to pedals. it is much easier and more convenient for me than multifx, just because I dont get overwhelmed by all the options. That being said - there are SO MUCH new companies, each more hip than the next one and all of that with an insane price tag most of the time - I do not care about them at all. Boss, Marshall, MXR, EHX, TC electronic and the occasional Behringer for pedals that are not being manufactured anymore - that's all I need.
Very nice groove at the end, dude! And yes, I got bored/annoyed/lost interest in the whole pedal world, as company after company just kept offering the same thing. Some with more knobs and switches, but essentially the same thing, year after year. Pedal co death by natural selection. Or, as Pearl Jam once said, "That's evolution, baby!"
To elaborate: Pedals are becoming more and more ambiguous and complicated. Most big hyped releases these days look more like studio equipment than something people would be willing to use in a live setting. And don't get me started on complicated with no preset switching, or 4 preset slots. The vast majority of guitar players need a few straight forward effects. Everything else is made for use in a home or professional studio. Very few people actually have a use for the latest Hologram Bliss StooperBloofer.
Every pedal now has twenty million knobs and too many features. I get that some love tweaking but there is no reason a big muff or a klone should have 6 knobs. Pedals won't die out but genuinely NEW ideas are few and far between. I've actually hit the point where I am done buying pedals because I cannot find better than what I have for the sound I want. Anything else is for the sake of having a sound at hand that I wouldn't usually use and it goes on a shelf, in those cases I go for a simpler pedal so these new fangled fancy ones are no good. That's just me though
For sure, Covid is playing a massive factor, the same hit the cycling market, the vendors failed to anticipate it was a short term bump and so over produced and then stock was sat there without demand. I think outside of that there is a need for the guitar brands to maybe hit this head on as well. What i mean here is there is obvious products that we are all waiting for or can think of which could reinvigorate interest. Examples (not exhaustive) Boss Waza series, there are obvious examples of products they could do there that would sell like crazy, a FZ-2W, A CE1 Waza in a more compact format, DS-2W, PH-2W. Outside of that, maybe a simple and basic device to allow connection to PC phone and perhaps they could then embrace digital software versions of their products, in many cases they already have done so by having those pedals in the katana line, why not productise that. For Fender, those Tonemaster amps are mostly great, why not make a premium one which has switchable amps, as i'm sure that theres no reason why they need to make one device per amp.... surely its all digital and this can be offered as a switchable mode....
Eff boutique builders. It became like the dorky Cigar Aficionado trend of the 2000's. Now every nerd with skinny jeans was cork sniffing about "discrete transformerless germanium warmth" or some other bullshit that kept them from making music. So weak and lame. And don't even get me started on when all these nerds in 2020 became BLM supporters. That was the last straw for me.
Lol I can agree there and this is coming from someone who likes the "transparent " variety. Awhile back I realized that I prefer a smaller pedalboard with the basics. I'll always have a tuner a Jfet drive that can do tge fuzzy thing, transparent drive, a tape style delay with a few presets and a modulation pedal. I have enough of these too switch in and out for some variety. Right now I can only think of about 2 or 3 pedals that I'll pick up in the future but for right now I'm set.
There are still A HUGE potential for innovation and HUGE emptiness of proper real vintage reissues JHS show killed the pedal culture with their ridicule of guitar tone enthusiasts (because most of their pedals wasn't able to compete at that point). Not a bad thing - we have some time to play instead of spending time for gear hunt. But there's still a pretty big list of possible products i will buy immediately as they will be released
Pedal market is saturated with tube screamer and fuzz face clones. You don't even need to know about electronics to make pedals. The guy from Beetronics doesn't know shit about electronics and look at his company.
I don't think so, most people have always known that tube amp overdrive sounds better! That's why a lot of pedals are based on the sound of overdriven tube amps (aka tube screamer, marshall bluesbreaker etc.) You won't hear many people saying an overdrive/distortion pedal sounds better through a completely clean amp, than an actual overdriven tube amp
Mhm still waiting for my amp to sound like an octave fuzz. But joking aside I get your point but I'd say for me it's the combination of pedal and amp gain where thie magic lies. But it's ultimately subjective
Nah ! Theres nothing better than jack in a new pedal , like a Habit or a Microcosm, or a 1981 Overdrive , or a Fable Granulater - its about the fun and the portals they open, to new and strange dimensions ! 😜
Pedals and amps just aren't needed in 2025 to get great tones. Modelers mean no more heavy amps, no mic placement, no power supply compatibility problems, instant rerouting. The sound I have at home is exactly what foh is getting
Shit take, all for clicks of course. Pedals aren't dying. Innovation is dying. New ideas are dying. Boutique brands that want $400+ for a single pedal are also a huge part of the problem. How about use the gear you have and don't worry about one new pedal after the next? I guarantee all the "new" pedals that are out there are nearly point-to-point redux campaigns of something that's already been around for 30+ years. On that note, RUclips "content creators" should mostly go away.
@@eirikstor well, sure. when garbage like this floods my feed day after day, it's annoying. go write a song or do something productive with your time instead of this nonsense.
Who's getting the pedal at 3:47 ? 🙋♂️
PyuPyu lulz
Joking aside Eirik, I'd buy that "pedel" simply because I'm a guitar gear enthusiast first and foremost, although I am not a professional musician. As long as there are amateur and pro "string swingers", there's gonna be a market for those and all pedals. I miss your "Is this the worst pedal ever?" for I built myself one during the pandemic inspired by the JHS show...
I think a better title for your video would've been: Are 'analog' guitar pedals dying? Ola Englund has videos from at least 5 years ago on how tube amps are basically dead but ORANGE, VOX, PEAVEY, JOYO, BLACKSTAR, SOLDANO, REVV, etc. are still manufacturing hybrid mini head amps to this day... Ultimately, it's all about tonal preference and, Who will question Marshall's Valvestate or BOSS' Katana brands' commercial success? Some of their low-watt models are obviously directed mainly towards beginners who need a desktop amp to practice at home AND if those renowed companies are still investing on such segment, Why not the rest of the hundreds of boutique builders worldwide? Trends could be manipulated by innovation. JHS is selling more, not less.
Guitar pedals aren’t dying. High-priced boutique brands are suffering because eggs are ten bucks. But the guitar pedal industry isn’t going anywhere. Same as tube amps.
I think anyone who leaves a comment like this has never tried a competent cabinet simulation or impulse response.
@@GearSoundsI think anyone who leaves a comment like yours didn’t really get the original commenter’s point.
Ultimately, the best thing to do is just keep playing and practicing
hard to disagree with that one
I'll say as someone who in the past bought a lot of pedals from "boutique" brands or newer brands, I have found myself lately replacing most of those pedals with companies like Boss, MXR, and EHX. Sometimes the simple old school version of an effect is what I end up personally preferring.
I only started buying pedals in 2019 and skipped buying the boutique pedals and just stuck to Boss etc. and cheap clones, I can say I have never felt like a boutique pedal would get me closer to the tone I want that what I already have!
Live playing musicians are a VERY SMALL group of people (myself included). Pedals are like vanilla ice cream. You can get different brands that taste different, but at the end of the day, it's still vanilla ice cream. How good you are, being able to dial in your board, progression as a player, and what you truly need live will matter a lot more than the sliders on your $1000 Chase Bliss drive pedal. Clean power, low noise, small footprint, and reliability are not nearly as sexy on RUclips as sliders, but they're a lot more important.
So the live player that lives and dies by his $90 Blues Driver is off the market as a customer...then you cater to hobbyists, who eventually are hit by the law of diminishing returns, or the economy, or other interests. We're there. The silver lining...it's good for me because cool stuff is dirt cheap used right now.
As a younger gigging guitarist, I just straight up can't justify buying pedals over $150. I'm not really into the whole modeling stuff either, I value the simplicity of just owning and learning to effectively use the analog versions of things. There's so many cool expensive boutique pedals I'd love to learn and experiment with, but I just don't have the time or money to incorporate them into the sound when I've got other expenses and my $90 overdrive is already doing the trick. Some pedals from small builders I've wanted are already discontinued and going for thousands too.
I sincerely wish I was in a position to support the market and keep these builders going but it's just not feasible from the trenches at the moment.
I, uh, got into pedals after 20 years or so of only having a delay pedal (DD5). But when it hit, IT HIT. I've amassed... a very large collection in the last 5 years. I've put them all onto various cheap pedal boards and I swap them out for different adventures, but, I've got nearly every base covered. I'll look for something new, quirky, or yet another fuzz (never enough) but I'm pretty tapped out. I'm just ready to get to work exploring. It's been a wild 5 years.
I'm a digital designer, but I dabble in all other fields of design as well. Your example of a phone actually is a lot closer to what you are highlighting in pedals. Phones aren't really advancing much. Your current iPhone just has slightly better chips and cameras than the last 3 or 4 versions. The same can be said for cars, computers, etc. The nuances that new products bring to the market are minimal and have diminishing returns. Designers and engineers today are largely innovating on features, not entirely new products. The same is true with pedals and guitars. Maybe they switch out clipping diodes or add Midi, or add a soft switch or top mount jacks. Most products from shoes, to pens, to cars, to phones, to desks, to TVs... they all have converged on a sort of hegemony.
How do we break out of this? Well, I might counter with, do we really need to? Innovation in products is a mechanism of capitalism and the need to acquire more wealth. You either grow or die. Innovation in the 21st century probably looks less like new products and more like improved quality of life. I don't need a new tube screamer, what I actually need is advances in medical treatments and exploration of renewable energy. Innovations in how we make, how we power, and how we consume are likely where the forefront of humanity is.
Anyways, sorry for getting existential on a video about guitar pedals :)
Totally agree 👍
This post saved me from buying a new car.
What a great comment man. You have perceived everything capitalism is, and what humanity needs instead and put it out in the simplest way. Kudos!
I see a lot of parallels between the pedal market and the craft beer market in the US. Breweries are closing left and right, and the reasons are the same: Market oversaturation, economic reasons, young people losing interest and moving on to different markets. The giants of the industry will be able to adapt and weather the storm, but the little companies will be the ones that die out. Tale as old as the economy.
In most cases people just wanna get drunk and not spend lots of money on every drink.
@@BlazonStoneyup. Miller lites are good enough for me.
That riff at the end was nasty!
We are all dying Hard to feel bad for pedals
You made me realize the problem is the industry by and large sells that the old stuff is better. That's great for owners of the old stuff, but it means that the industry can't really innovate too much. Almost every new thing has to claim it's the next best thing to the old thing. That means that the market really is saturated with the same old same old. And that's why sales will be down...
I love the fact the guitar business is going down, it means : way more second hand products at good prices, as it used to be before Covid
We don’t have second-hand-before-covid prices yet, but we are heading there slowly
This crazy inflation about guitar products that we suffer since 5 years is boring af.
Great thoughts and video. I agree with you and I’m glad you briefly discussed the new tariffs. Just saw Templo Devices (Canada) posted about the 25% tariff that they’ll unfortunately have to tack onto unit cost for US (maybe other?) customers. Honestly such a shame. Huge margin
Oddly, the Behringer "clones" have me the most excited currently.
They've figured out pricing.
I prefer having all in one box like floor modelers and stuff.
I just dont enjoy the thought of connecting bunch of stuff that you without tons of extra gear have to step manually on.
Easy recallable presets and effect chains is just so much better for me in a live situation with less tap dancing
Less guitar players = less guitar stuff sold
5:01 I wouldn’t say that the pedal has good marketing based on sounding good and being high quality… those words describe the product itself and its components.
Looking good is/can be part of branding.
As other comments states, the decline in standalone pedal sales is most probably due to Quad Cortex and Helix types of devices.
I personally prefer getting pedals from smaller less known brands who gets their frame from word of mouth.
3LeafAudio for example. Spencer barely does any promotion/ads on his products, but they sound amazing and are almost always sold out because how highly regarded his products are (and also made in limited quantities…)
11:37 That is indeed an awesome riff!
Thanks! ✌🏻
Hi Eirik. Watching this after seeing your q&a and realising I’d missed the last few videos 👍
Well put down, solid points!
Not here, just ordered 2 more today 😅
🫠
I always enjoy your videos !
Thank you for sharing you point of view !!
Market may be saturated with pedals, mostly clones and variations, but there is still place for innovation and new circuits. We are working very hard on creating unique circuits, based sometimes in obscure hard to find pedals, and takes us a lot of work until creating something different, not just adding features and stuff but intentionally creating something that would sound different and new. This said, the stuff is hard to sell as many consumers would prefer clones and there is so much great stuff and crazy cool builders!
Many comments already mentioned , people going for digital. Buying a good tube amp is expensive and recording it with a mic don't come out well expected. So directly connecting to an audio interface and plugins seems hassle free. 😊
MXR rockman pedal looks interesting but expensive 😢 . I like my pedals, sometimes I try to create the most complicated pedalboard. Sometimes trying to find essential 3-4 pedals if I was on an island. Playing guitar without headphones much fun. 🎉
They are just to expensive. I love pedals but it really just boils down to this point. The cost of living is to high and people can't justify spending 150-200 bucks on a pedal.
A Tonex One pedal that does "everything", is the cost of another tradinal pedal that does one thing, which you have to add tons of extra pedals to do the same thing, in case you are a guitarist that needs a lot of effects for the music you make.
Pedals will not die, if for only 1 reason. Eventually players get bored with what they have and want to try something different.
I feel pedals are like handbags for ladies. Something that's expensive enough to feel special and unique, but not expensive like a vintage amp, guitar or car. You get to buy beauty/personality externally instead of developing yourself. How many overdrives can one really need to be "you", especially in a mix... You say the pedal market is dying, but in the last year alone I've seen perhaps 500 videos about "new" boost/overdrives/fuzz pedals pass my subscription feed. Maybe it's time to thin out the herd somewhat. I just hope that small companies survive the onslaught of big players with their digital platforms and ecosystems. It's hard to compete with a digital platform that keeps growing.
It's a trend for them but it's a lifestyle for us. We're not going anywhere
ok
delays could have digital bpm so you can sync to click tempo
pitch shifters could have formant/timbre shift too
every pedal should have wet dry knob
this is just 3 obvious improvements we are waiting for that are off the top of my head
I haven't been able to sell any pedals for months. Trades seem to work better. Many people seem to be moving towards digital platforms instead of buying more gear.
I have also moved towards creating videos that move more towards knowing how to use the gear as opposed to buying more of it.
Let's do another podcast episode and dig into this topic some more. You in, Eirik?
I'm in! 🤟🏻
Pedals are a specialty interest. Like modular synths, they have a permanent (if niche) place in music, because they’re really about the physical interface design. Which knobs you twiddle, etc. Having said that, I agree with you about the difficulty in the market right now.
I think you're missing a big point here, which is digital stuff. It's the same thing for amplifiers-why should someone buy, for example, a Marshall JCM 800 and a cab when they can buy a Tonex or a Helix and get almost the same tone for less money and more convenience?
I used to own a 5150 and a 2x12, and now all I need is space in my guitar case for a Tonex, and I'm good to go. I can play live, I can play at night on headphones. In the Helix itself, you’ve got over 200 guitar effects, and it’s getting better and better every year.
GAS is here to stay.
oh man I know exactly what you mean, one-man company selling out of his basement in Belgium here :)
I agree with most of what you said, but I don’t think they’re entirely dying. The user profile and consumer is just changing, rapidly. People are buying tons of the nano cortex and the quad cortex, helix products, toneX, ampero, etc… (and we can include the plugin versions of these and working in the box) I do believe that the tariffs are for sure going to affect sales on everything though.
Interesting video, well presented. Thanks, Eirik
Ok.. he‘s unf right!
Aaaand what a banger at the end of the vid! Really great sounding Baritone for sure ✔️
I don't need another 30+ year old circuit repackaged for over 200 bucks tbh
The Tariffs will make things interesting. Maybe the used market will go wild. Who knows?
for 2 decades i only used 2 pedals. the hendrix digitech and the korg kaoss pad 3
for other timbres i just use the midi piano with virtual instruments. you want the guitar to sound like a guitar, and the hendrix digitech does that. the korg kaoss pad 3 is not a stomp box per se, but look at matt bellamy from muse. he made millions thanks to this touchscreen effect on guitar. i play with thumb left toe.
The pedal market was beyond saturated pre-pandemic, so now that it's finally passed it feels like how it did back then except now there is even more pedals. I surmise that manufacturers could stop producing guitar pedals for at least a year or two and there would still be enough on the market to satisfy the GASiest of players. And that's a good point, the EU has ruined A LOT for the people not just in Europe. Most big name brands sell the same product with all the EU regulations to everywhere across the world, so even in the US we're basically still subject to all those ridiculous restrictions.
The best modern iterations will format the product to modern usage and expectation. Make those classics easier to use, less noisy, smaller, sturdier, more energy efficient, more consistent, more reliable, etc.
Digital options are more nimble to make those changes.
Well now I have to know what pedal was used in the sick jam!
Thats the Hudson Broadcast AP-II into my Silvertone profiles in the Kemper!
You can single handedly blame the Quad Cortex and Neural DSP for a lot of the market fading out. I still use every pedal I own in the studio, but the cortex has severely shrunk my rig and desire to go effect hunting unless it's something odd and ridiculous like what most of Chase Bliss or Old Blood Noise does
I agree. I was running 30 pedals and two amps. I use the Fender Tone Master Pro now with 4 of my old pedals. It's way easier to travel with my rig now.
@KoaCharvel I used to lug around full pedalboard/loop station, Revv 120 (dry amp), marshall 1969B (stereo), and a JC120.
Now just a 4 pedal wetboard, cortex, Seymour Duncan stereo power amp (if needed) with the same marshall half stack (if needed) saved about 300lbs of gear
😂 There aren’t that many people using those.
@@ryangunwitch-black the fender tone master? I think I've seen one out in the wild, you're not wrong. Every guitarist I know now has a cortex or something like it
Almost ignored this video, didn’t realize you changed your channel’s name!
Yeah, looks like same thing happened for a lot of people!
Great overview! I would add:
Neural DSP (And other computer plugins)
Multi Effects Pedals
Im glad that you changed the name of the channel to yours but your name is damn hard to memorize for a spanish one 🙃
It’s fine if everyone else stops buying because more pedals for me!
Financially things certainly won't improve over the next decade and the saturated repetition of the market means that you simply have to accept that it's done as it was and a cull was needed...now it's on the companies to innovate and grow in a direction their market supports if they want to survive
I love pedals more customization of tones
I know you done a lot of qotsa tones, but the one thing i have seen no one done or put any interest to one my favorite lives by them is the tone from Over The Years And Through The Woods. By far one of their best tones and i was hoping maybe you can take a look at it and try to achieve it.
couldn't agree with you more on all these points... saturation is not good, but also not bad as there is just more and more pedal brands and actually if these pedal makers can survive and sell pedals then they still keep the interest for guitar and pedals alive. If it was still only Ibanez, Boss and MXR and 3 more pedal brands still, guitars would all be buried by now...
I have only just recently returned back to pedals. it is much easier and more convenient for me than multifx, just because I dont get overwhelmed by all the options.
That being said - there are SO MUCH new companies, each more hip than the next one and all of that with an insane price tag most of the time - I do not care about them at all.
Boss, Marshall, MXR, EHX, TC electronic and the occasional Behringer for pedals that are not being manufactured anymore - that's all I need.
Very nice groove at the end, dude! And yes, I got bored/annoyed/lost interest in the whole pedal world, as company after company just kept offering the same thing. Some with more knobs and switches, but essentially the same thing, year after year. Pedal co death by natural selection. Or, as Pearl Jam once said, "That's evolution, baby!"
Sure hope so.
To elaborate: Pedals are becoming more and more ambiguous and complicated. Most big hyped releases these days look more like studio equipment than something people would be willing to use in a live setting. And don't get me started on complicated with no preset switching, or 4 preset slots. The vast majority of guitar players need a few straight forward effects. Everything else is made for use in a home or professional studio. Very few people actually have a use for the latest Hologram Bliss StooperBloofer.
And while I am on this soap box I'd like to propose an industry wide ban on compact pedals with 2 switches on them.
I love pedals but 99% of the time I just plug straight into an amp. So I have many but they are mostly for display.
4:33 saturated 🟢👀
Every pedal now has twenty million knobs and too many features. I get that some love tweaking but there is no reason a big muff or a klone should have 6 knobs. Pedals won't die out but genuinely NEW ideas are few and far between. I've actually hit the point where I am done buying pedals because I cannot find better than what I have for the sound I want. Anything else is for the sake of having a sound at hand that I wouldn't usually use and it goes on a shelf, in those cases I go for a simpler pedal so these new fangled fancy ones are no good. That's just me though
True, man!
Im from Ukraine and now sale some pedals it’s really painful…
Hope you're doing okay over there!
@ we are holding on, thanks friend
For sure, Covid is playing a massive factor, the same hit the cycling market, the vendors failed to anticipate it was a short term bump and so over produced and then stock was sat there without demand. I think outside of that there is a need for the guitar brands to maybe hit this head on as well. What i mean here is there is obvious products that we are all waiting for or can think of which could reinvigorate interest. Examples (not exhaustive) Boss Waza series, there are obvious examples of products they could do there that would sell like crazy, a FZ-2W, A CE1 Waza in a more compact format, DS-2W, PH-2W. Outside of that, maybe a simple and basic device to allow connection to PC phone and perhaps they could then embrace digital software versions of their products, in many cases they already have done so by having those pedals in the katana line, why not productise that. For Fender, those Tonemaster amps are mostly great, why not make a premium one which has switchable amps, as i'm sure that theres no reason why they need to make one device per amp.... surely its all digital and this can be offered as a switchable mode....
Eff boutique builders. It became like the dorky Cigar Aficionado trend of the 2000's. Now every nerd with skinny jeans was cork sniffing about "discrete transformerless germanium warmth" or some other bullshit that kept them from making music. So weak and lame. And don't even get me started on when all these nerds in 2020 became BLM supporters. That was the last straw for me.
Is there a special reason for the renaming of your channel? I like it, you have a beautiful name 😊
I can’t find a pulse on any of my pedals!
No more LDR’s in EU. So no more Chase Bliss for you! 😀
The entire premise(s) of the video is bullsh*t. LMAO
please elaborate! I'd like to know.
I'm to broke to get these modlers
Speak for yourselves! I've been buying pedals left and right lately. Lol
haha
This what over saturation looks like....IMO.
what? Me making this video?
Wow, people are getting board with 1, 989 different "transparent" overdrives. Who knew.
Lol I can agree there and this is coming from someone who likes the "transparent " variety. Awhile back I realized that I prefer a smaller pedalboard with the basics. I'll always have a tuner a Jfet drive that can do tge fuzzy thing, transparent drive, a tape style delay with a few presets and a modulation pedal. I have enough of these too switch in and out for some variety. Right now I can only think of about 2 or 3 pedals that I'll pick up in the future but for right now I'm set.
No.
There are still A HUGE potential for innovation and HUGE emptiness of proper real vintage reissues
JHS show killed the pedal culture with their ridicule of guitar tone enthusiasts (because most of their pedals wasn't able to compete at that point).
Not a bad thing - we have some time to play instead of spending time for gear hunt. But there's still a pretty big list of possible products i will buy immediately as they will be released
No
Pedal market is saturated with tube screamer and fuzz face clones. You don't even need to know about electronics to make pedals. The guy from Beetronics doesn't know shit about electronics and look at his company.
Because we can afford anything nowadays, because Elon and his friends
This was stupid. I feel dumber having watched this.
Digital is probably the next frontier. That’s where innovation still happens. Analog pedals are basically rehashed nowadays.
Rest in peace in peace? 😂
It's a pretty widespread joke to write it like that 🤝
Modeling, I think is way more available for people kids
What happens when the software dies or they don’t support it anymore? Uh-oh….
@@75YBA Buy another software that is supported. Still cheaper and more practical than a pedalboard.
Could it be that guitar players are finally starting to realize that tube amp overdrive sounds better than pedal overdrive?
I don't think so, most people have always known that tube amp overdrive sounds better! That's why a lot of pedals are based on the sound of overdriven tube amps (aka tube screamer, marshall bluesbreaker etc.) You won't hear many people saying an overdrive/distortion pedal sounds better through a completely clean amp, than an actual overdriven tube amp
@@monsandreasnyquist8444 I think aside from Smoke on the Water, that is the first thing you learn about guitar
Mhm still waiting for my amp to sound like an octave fuzz. But joking aside I get your point but I'd say for me it's the combination of pedal and amp gain where thie magic lies. But it's ultimately subjective
Nah ! Theres nothing better than jack in a new pedal , like a Habit or a Microcosm, or a 1981 Overdrive , or a Fable Granulater - its about the fun and the portals they open, to new and strange dimensions ! 😜
To give a short answer, NEVER!
Pedals and amps just aren't needed in 2025 to get great tones. Modelers mean no more heavy amps, no mic placement, no power supply compatibility problems, instant rerouting. The sound I have at home is exactly what foh is getting
There are also just way to many pedal companies and everybody trying to out do the others….
Shit take, all for clicks of course. Pedals aren't dying. Innovation is dying. New ideas are dying. Boutique brands that want $400+ for a single pedal are also a huge part of the problem. How about use the gear you have and don't worry about one new pedal after the next? I guarantee all the "new" pedals that are out there are nearly point-to-point redux campaigns of something that's already been around for 30+ years.
On that note, RUclips "content creators" should mostly go away.
you are angry
@@eirikstor well, sure. when garbage like this floods my feed day after day, it's annoying. go write a song or do something productive with your time instead of this nonsense.
@davidmoorhead Take a chill pill and relax champ. It ain't that deep.
No.