Why can't anybody post good pedal demos?

J

jamiefbolton

Member
Messages
916
After listening to sound-clips from various pedal manufacturers, I've come to the general conclusion that nobody know how to do a good pedal demo. This is of course an overstated generality, but still, there are very few pedal demos that are worth listening to.

Here is my thought process: If I'm a pedal manufacturer, then I want you to buy my pedals. You would think I would put time and effort into creating some good sounding demos that would convince people that my gear is worth buying!

But NOOO!! It seems that many clips are done with RadioShack mics with the delay on and reverb wide open!

Anyway! Maybe we should write to these pedal makers and ask why their pedal demos sound less than stellar. A bad clip makes me wonder about people's competency, which doesn't boast well for their pedals.
 
MarkL8

MarkL8

Member
Messages
1,466
The other side of the coin Id like to see demos without them using the $50,000 old growth guitar plugged into the the $85,000 Unobtainium ODS 100.
 
twoheadedboy

twoheadedboy

Member
Messages
13,733
My hat goes off to MJM for getting Phil Sayce to do all of their pedal demos. While not the most informative set of demos, I think they are the most musically pleasing set of clips put forth by any builder.
 
H

hemlock

Check out fatback's vids on youtube. Some very fun and informative vids.
 
The Pup

The Pup

No Complexity Without Value
Messages
3,646
Lou V makes a good demo.

There was that Enlish chap who did a cool JVM demo not long ago.

Sometimes a demo can same me money.
 
JJGross

JJGross

Member
Messages
253
Flip side, get a good player to demo them. Nothing will result in an immediate 'Back Button' frenzy than weak players with goofy technique issues. Getting a friend who 'plays in a band in bars' usually isn't good enough for the average world wide audience.

I recently watched a YT vid with some guy demoing a P2P amp. The video introduces the guy and names the band he plays in (must be local) as if everyone should know who this guy is. His playing sounded like one of these guys who has played for 30 years and still has the same bad habits he had when he was 13. The grey goatee and baseball cap only drove that point home. This demo consists of him playing sloppy versions of a couple Zep tunes followed by him stinking up an SRV cover.

My wife (not a guitar player) was in the other room and over the TV show she was watching she says "Who the hell is that? They suck!".

Hint :: If you're going to do covers of very well known songs to demo gear, please know the difference between a major and minor scale used in the song. And download the tab or something, this guy wasn't even close. And it wasn't a 'feel thing', just weak playing.

Makes me want to run right out and have the guy wire me up one o' them BooTeek turret board hand wired point to point fancy schmancy 10 watt 6L6 tube amps stuffed into an Epi Jr chassis. Yup, gittin my wallet out right now.

Rick Nielson once said :"I'm a good enough guitarist that I can make any guitar sound like ****".
laff.gif
 
J

jzucker

Silver Supporting Member
Messages
21,055
I think the demos of the xotic pedals on their site are great. So are the zendrive clips and i've got some good demos of the zendrive, vaughnc ts9 and bb preamp, fractal audio's axefx as well as various amp and guitar demos at www.youtube.com/sheetsofsound

Maybe you just need to get out more? :)
 
J

jcoggins7

Member
Messages
1,196
I like Z Vex's demos, Menatone's demos for the Red Snapper, Pleasure Trem & Blue Collar only (the rest are garbage). That Crunchbox demo is pretty good as well. I usually like MI Audio's own soundclips as well. There are a lot of companies that don't get it though.
 
T

Tbone135

Member
Messages
4,304
Fulltone demos jump to the front of this line for me. I didn't try an FDII for years due to the horrible samples they have.
 
M

MrMike

Member
Messages
490
A few weeks ago I watched the VG-99 demo on the Roland/Boss website with Paul Hanson playing and I can't figure for the life of me why anybody would buy one. Worse yet, I can't imagine why Roland would put the video out with those buzzy pseudo-high gain tones and expect that anybody would want to buy their product, especially for $1100.
 
R

Red Suede

Member
Messages
2,829
Analogman has very good demos. I've bought a Beano Boost and Clone Chorus based off the demos on his web site.
 
G

grantster

Member
Messages
356
I have to agree that there is a lot of crap demo's online. Some of the worst are on the guitar magazine sites. They appear to be filmed in a broom closet with a cheap camera and sound like amateur gratuitous fretboard wanking on a saturday afternoon in the local guitar shop. Other annoying aspects of these demo's.

- I have seen demo's of high gain amps with inapropriate choice of guitar making the amp sound horrible.

- Running the amp at such a low volume that you can hear the guy's pick noise over the amp.

- Demonstrating an amp or pedal and adding so much delay and reverb that you can't hear what the amp or effect sounds like.

- The player demonstrating the device with the wrong style of music for the amp or effect. eg SRV lick thru a high gain amp or pedal

The above being said, there are still some great demo's out there eg ZVEX.
 
JohnK24

JohnK24

Silver Supporting Member
Messages
5,916
Here's one guitar shop that is trying to do the right thing with demos...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eRnLmXMZOjw...

BUT every freakin' demo is void of bass, all the pedals sound thin and terrible...they go through the knobs, clean and pedal tones, but the sound quality is ruining it

Overall, Xotic has got the best demos I've seen/heard on the 'net.
 
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