Pedals: Love Strymon, but $$$$! Best budget alternates?
 

I want a really excellent Reverb/Chorus, an outstanding Compressor, a great acoustic Distortion for those "just gotta have it" times. The best pedals I have heard or tried have all been Strymon... amazing tone, so easy to use... but so danged expensive.

I hope you guys have some ideas on Bang without the Buck.

Empress EchoSystem

Unfortunately also quite an expensive unit but might be a better value depending on the features your looking for. If they add looping in an update (a popular rumored addition) I'll spring for one. Also possibly one of the big box stores would include it in a discount (chat with them online rather than what the exclusions say).

Maybe something like the Neunaber slate and the preset switcher pedal, that will give you reverb, shimmer, echo, chorus, and whatever else Neunaber have and come up with. All the sounds are KILLER. The only downside is you can only use one effect at once.

Depends on what you are using them for. For most live performance, inexpensive multi effects pedals or units work just fine.

Take your time, save your money, buy what you really want. Otherwise you’ll always be chasing something you should’ve just bought in the first place. You may not be able to fill your pedal board in one shopping trip, but in the end it will be worth it.

Great advice.

For budget that may come close......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Dgsz-1t30

Thanks Mark, I listened thru the laptop speakers, then listened again thru quality headphone... the Zoom Multistomp is surprisingly lush, and close to the Strymon... for a very low price and multieffects... now we're talking.

Growler and Atticus, I would normally agree with you... take your time and buy the thing your heart desires. I have never played with effects other than the light reverb on my Fishman LB Mini and my Soloamp... I need to experiment a bit to understand where it would be worth $700 a pop to go with Strymon pedals... a bit of ear training seems like a smart way to start.

I would look at some of their more affordable pedals and look used. Instead of the Big Sky look at the Blue Sky. It’s what I run on my rig and is an incredible reverb. The Big Sky is nice if you have that kind of money, but I was able to pick up my Blue Sky for ~$230 on the used market. An expensive reverb for sure, but it’s one of the highest quality verbs you will find in that price range. For chorus/flange look at the Decco. Again, you’ll probably pay in the upper 200s used, but that is a sick tape emulation pedal that does great chorusing, flange, and phasing as well as adding a nice “tape warmth.” The Flint is another nice pedal that combines a few reverbs and tremolos- again, upper 200s. For a delay ether the El Capistan or the Dig are great clean options, both in the same price range. If you go with their smaller pedals you’re looking at $250-$300 per pedal instead of $500 or so per pedal for their bigger toys. All told for the $700 you mentioned you could get a very nice reverb, delay, and modulation if you find the right used deals. Also these pedals hold their value extremely well as compared to other budget pedals, so if you ever decide you don’t like them or want something different, you can recoup most if not all of your investment.

Yep, the reverb is what I bought mine for and I only use it. Plus there is a new patch upgrade with tons more models.

Go for it, cheap and reliable as all hell!

Hey thanks!! I wasn't aware of the update :)