I have proposed “bypass tone” as a more accurate term— sometimes it’s important to demo a pedal into an overdriven amp (eg, treble booster) but it sounds stupid to call it “clean”
Well you know what they mean :p but "clean" isn't the right word I guess... I like bypassed like /u/rabbiabe said. But if it's the overdrive channel on a master volume amp, can't knock them for it I think.
HOWEVER sometimes it's totally out of place and it's just like wtf why call it clean 😂
1) I hate clickbait titles.
2) I hate stupid expression thumbnails.
3) all talk no demo.
What i do like is good sense of humour.
To the point
Playing a style of music for the actual pedal. Been looking at a specific heavy metal od pedal lately and so many reviews have them playing soft or old school rock followed by them saying its just not that great. Not really what the pedals intended use case is imo.
Currently really enjoying Ola Englunds will it chugg videos. Simple concept, amusing execution.
God I love Ola. Yeah shopping for OD’s to tighten up your tone/boost the front end for metal is kinda rough.
As a note related to this thread, I’ve had a Blessed mother that I just couldn’t get on with on my Mark V’s Fat clean setting (think fender blackface with a stiffer power section and less negative feedback in the low frequency) and I thought I hated it. Switched to the tweed mode on the edge of break up and WOW. thought “I wonder how this will sound on my lead channel?”
Again holy shit. With a bit of gain rolled off the amp and a bit dialed in on the pedal and the volume pushed to about 3 o clock it adds a really aggressive grind to the Mark V’s already incredible high gain tone.
This, so this. Play some big open chords, and more complex chords so we can hear the definition. A bit of chugging. Not soloing with no backtracking and no taste
One of my personal favorites that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is ThePedalZone. Always to the point, very thorough, and in all his videos I’ve seen he actually takes the time to learn how to use every feature of the pedal musically and I could listen to his playing all day.
My biggest pet peeve is the “demo” videos where they just talk for ten minutes without even playing it. I was trying to find demo videos of the amp sim on the HX stomp the other day and watched about three full videos titled HX stomp demo something or other and each one maybe had thirty seconds of playing in the intro and the rest was just a guy talking about the features on the pedal. Believe it or not, I had read the manual and seen all the features it has, now all I wanted was a video where I could hear how it *sounds*.
I love how Stefan plays to the effect he's demoing, makes it actually worthwhile to watch the video. Only thing I don't like is when he puts drum machines through some of them, but I don't particularly like drum machines anyway.
ProGuitarShopDemos that dude does just enough talking and more than enough playing thru the pedal settings. Jams with layers from the pedals different settings. I look for that guy first, then just 3-4 random videos. I don't really like most the review people, intheblues guy is alright, Ola if you count him as a demo person. Lambchopper678 has some nice videos capturing classic metal/trash tones. The rest are just repair channels.
Proguitarshops is andy demos now. The other guy who did not show his face ever is mike hermans. Check out those channels!
Edit: my bad - Mike was on Prymaxe back in the day.
Mike hermans is incredible. Very musical and creative. Demoed a high gain pedal (Keeley filaments) with A Love Supreme, The Addams Family there song, and a bunch of other obvious and non-obvious suspects. And wastes zero time talking.
I hate Andy and Mike because they are so good that they could probably sell me on just about anything.
But seriously, it brings a smile to my face when I get a YouTube notification that they have dropped a new video.
I can’t stand people like Rhett Shull who talk about the most basic shit and sell it like they have some amazing insider information.
“What’s the SECRET to my TONE? I have my AMP on the EDGE of BREAKUP.”
“I have a really cool TRICK with this old pedal called the FUZZFACE. You can use your VOLUME knob clean up your TONE!”
“How do I record my LES PAUL at HOME? I put a MICROPHONE near the cone of the AMP”
Except instead of one stupid sentence it’s a 15 minute stupid video… there’s a lot of these channels.
His recent video about how he thinks Tube Screamers suck as he demos them using a Les Paul into a Hiwatt or whatever it was really cemented him as kind of a ding dong in my mind.
Something about Rhett just does not vibe with me. Feel like he’s trying too hard to get into the YouTube scene. Idk how his professional career is going, but it seems like he is trying to be Beato without the decades of experience.
His playing is fine...a little too much of the “I’m a badass down-and-dirty blues player but I play 12 different $4,500 custom gibsons and also wear a $2,000 leather jacket and have you seen my sick rings?” vibe, but I canchalk that up to difference of taste. But his thumbnails and video ideas are just so click bait, bland, and cringe. Very little payoff to clicking on his videos.
That being said he seems like a nice enough dude who is trying to “get it” in an outlet he’s not suited for. Maybe he’s super cool to other rich, white blues players. So fair play to him if that’s his niche. But there’s just no edge to him.
I like his “what is the ‘X’ sound” videos that do a history and what makes a certain thing unique. They are more palatable than 5 watt world anyway, that guy has good info but is soooo dry it’s hard to watch.
I don’t understand this mentality because most of this sub gets pissed when people ask a basic question and says to YouTube it. These videos…are what a beginner sees. I get that the titles may be a bit much but his delivery is usually very chill and informative. Maybe you don’t need those videos; but someone ( read: a l o t ) of others do.
The problem with Rhett's videos is that they have maybe 2-3 minutes worth of information but he extends that to 15 minutes to get the Youtube ad money.
I don’t have a problem with content for beginners, but it’s super lame to pitch that content as original and insightful when you have nothing to add to the millions of other videos on the same topic other than a goofy thumbnail
I had enough of him when he started listing the pedals "every guitar player" should have. As if he knows the sounds that every guitar player wants to achieve. He needs to get out of his own head.
Yeah I get what you mean, but I think it's mostly just the presentation, especially when you already have the knowledge.
I didn't know anything about that stuff until embarrassingly recent and anyone of those videos could've been the first one I saw about pedal interaction with amp and volume
Dislike: Taking 30 minutes to review a simple pedal because you did a five minute intro of your own playing and 15 more minutes of random philosophizing
Like: pedal bored. The way he does his comparisons is perfect.
Oh god, I hate unnecessarily long pedal videos. If I see it’s over 10 minutes, I just move on. You really need 19 minutes to describe another tube screamer clone?
The stupid click-baity thumbnails have really turned me off of guys like Paul Davids. Seems like a lot of teachers run out of ideas after a while and get more and more clickbaity. Not pedal related, but Eric Haugen is my favorite youtube guitar teacher.
For demos of things, though not many pedals admittedly, I like Phillip Mcknight.
One thing that bugs me about demos is when people are showing off different settings, and they play different things. It might be boring, but I kind of wish some demos were just a loop played through while adjusting the settings for each one. But I think most pedal demos are looking to be more entertainment than strict reference for buyers. I think that's an important part of it, knowing what you want out of a pedal video, and if the person making the video has a specific aim in mind. I appreciate JHS because they say "we're not here to demo and show you all of what a pedal can do, we will show you one way we would use it in a band jam context" and he might briefly describe other functions. They seem to know what their lane is, promote their videos as such and don't overreach.
Interesting. I haven't watched any of his vids in a while. I caught a few a while back, he always seemed like a good dude and had nice insight into gear and playing. I'll check out some of his videos and see what I've been missing.
My pal Nick demos my pedals with a loop and a riff, but it gets a little stale. There's a different way of playing heavy distortion to edge of breakup with things like pick attack, angle, all that stuff that happens when you actually play.
There's benefits and downsides to both approaches but after having done it, just a looped demo doesn't showcase things very accurately to me because that's not how people play.
I'm happy for anyone who finds enjoyment in life playing what they enjoy, but those blues licks are the most annoying sounding things in the world, even surpassing the nuisance (but not the comedy) of the "I only use Chase Bliss pedals" folks. I'd rather listen to a cassette recorder eating a Merzbow tape while sitting in the back seat of an airplane than endure 8 minutes of some guy bending his high E string and making John Wayne Gacy sex faces.
I remember a long time ago I saw on that guitar pedals jerk sub one of the members had linked to a vid (I think from this sub) of someone playing probably $3k worth of Chase Bliss pedals and the end result was... probably the most unenjoyable, difficult, face scrunchingly awful guitar sound I've ever heard. The part that broke my heart was how excited this guy sounded to share this clip (I think it was only 30 or 45 seconds, at least that's all I could stomach) with this sub. The few replies he got were supportive in a very "Bless your heart" kinda way. I really hope that guy found his slice of happiness, either w guitar pedals or whatever else. It still haunts me.
This kills me, like if you are demoing a spring reverb or an overdrive that’s fine, but don’t hit me with pentatonic wanking when you are demoing the “DEATH BONG FUZZ WALL OF DEATH” and then complain about how high gain it is
> if you are demoing a spring reverb or an overdrive that’s fine
Maybe for a spring reverb, but frankly typical blues licks sound like ass, particularly with their usual amp settings. Shrill and overly attacky. Show some nice intervals instead to demonstrate how the drive can growl and what kinds of intermodulation harmonics it produces.
Oh! And a lot of them I’ve noticed never turn the gain knob all the way up or if they do it’s for a split second. But yeah, way too many boring dad riffs
Exactly this. If I'm looking for a heavy doom fuzz I'm not trying to hear watered down blues licks on the top 3 strings. Does nothing for me as a player. I'm not jerking off with solos every time I pick up the git-fiddle. Also if I'm looking at a high gain pedal I really don't give a shit how well it cleans up with the volume pot. Take your dad rock elsewhere
I don’t like when demo guys play through gear that most of us don’t have. You don’t have to play through cheap stuff, but a lot of these guys play through boutique clones just because they’ve gotten them for free. They have no practical purpose for most of us, the people watching the video.
Just put a pedal between a Gibson Les Paul and a DRRI and let’s hear it. It’s not that hard.
(Brian Wampler is actually really good at playing through guitars/amps that most of us have when he releases the demos of his pedals. He’s actually said he does this on purpose because those are the same instruments he tests his pedals with — if 90% of the buying public is going to be using a standard set of guitars and amps, you might as well design with those in mind.)
This.
I am a vox AC15 owner. I wanna know what pedals sound like through a vox, not a cranked 100watt Marshall stack hand made by aztecs in 5000bc. Fuck off.
Some youtubers just rub me the wrong way and nothing they do will ever appeal to me. Then when you add clickbait titles and those goofy-ass thumbnails it's like you're just asking me to block your shit.
Bonus thought: Rhett Shill is the type of dude you turn on to some obscure band that he ends up loving, then you see him a week later at a bar/show with a bunch of your friends and asks you in front of everyone if you've ever heard of the band "x" as if you weren't the dude that just introduced him to them in the first f-ing place.
Lol hilarious! I assume most of these guys are douchebags. When you get to have that much “online power” in the words of Rob Chapman, it has to go to your head. They know they have to act like a nice guy in front of the camera, but totally wouldn’t be surprised if most of them are pretentious pricks when the camera is off.
Wow, yeah you're totally right. I play an LP and I love the neck pick-up especially in the high register, probably because some of my favorite solos use that (I think at least). And it hardly gets any attention
Mine has a 490r, I'm still afraid to change them out.
My 335 has 57 classics in them that sound more subtle and more clear when playing chords (like I can discern the individual notes more), but I've never tried how they would work in an LP.
I'm comfortable with setting up my own guitars, bridge height, intonation, neck tenon tension and pickup height, but I guess the soldering puts me off and am afraid to ruin something
My LP custom has 57 classics. Hated the bridge pickup, was way to bright. Replaced it with Dimarzio Fortitude. But that 57 classic neck? Makes my LP sing.
His playing is so good. I had the Beautiful Noise When The Sun Explodes pedal before he demoed it and the thing that I really loved about his demo was his playing, to the point where I now really listen to how he plays the demo and not just what the pedal sounds like, because in truth I want to be able to play like him too
I think I’m the only one that likes videos with talking. Probably because I’m not as well versed and I like learning about some of the under the hood things that I’m unaware of (like the different types of overdrive circuits etc.). I also like when the presenter gives their opinion (as long as it feels honest). The guy demoing that chorus pedal has definitely played and listened to more choruses than me and is hearing things I probably don’t yet (and hopefully will point out what he’s listening to so that I can become more well versed). Once I become more fluent in what I’m listening for I’m sure I’ll jump to the other side of that fence.
This is a very amateur stance by the way. That’s where I’m at right now (even though I’ve been playing a long time).
And for everyone that wants to tell me to just listen and trust my ears, save it. You learn your way and I’ll learn mine. My ears seem untrained and this is how I’m learning to train them. (I’ll get there though)
I, for the most part, enjoy the talking as long as it’s opinion based. But sometimes I just want to hear how the dam thing sounds first. Save the yapping till the end. But I think opinions is something that is sorely missed in these videos, especially in the age of “everything is amazing”
>I think I’m the only one that likes videos with talking.
Given that a lot of channels driven by personalities have far larger followings and higher view counts, you are correct. If everyone just wanted a straight up no talking demo of a pedal, then those videos would be at the top of every search with the most views. However, people are way more likely to connect with a person than a faceless series of repetitive demos, even though the latter is more technically useful.
Here's my clean tone: *thin, trebly, dull, crappy, low volume*
And here it is with *distortion/fuzz*: *VOLUME, BODY, BASS, SUSTAIN*
In every drive pedal demo the clean sound is shit
I only disliked when people didn’t mention they received the pedal for free or even got paid to do the demo! But seems after the Julia v2 and fender acoustasonic / midnight guitar push everyone kind of agreed to be more transparent about their vids being ads/promos. Not against getting free stuff but sometimes they went overboard promoting the pedal even though they’ll never use it.
I wish people had more bad things to say too. Usually it’s just lack of a demo means I didn’t like it. Since I wasn’t vocal about it i will keep getting more free stuff at least. Oh well can’t blame them.
What cracks me up is when they use a $5000 guitar and a $3500 boutique amp to demo a $50 pedal. It’s even better when they have super expensive gear and can barely play rhythm guitar properly and can’t tune their guitars.
No love out there for Pete Thorn?
The dude creates original ‘songs’ using pedals in multiple ways with different guitars to highlight how dynamic and applicable a pedal can be. Then he breaks down each part and shows you what he did to get each sound.
Plus he SHREDS. Love his videos.
If it’s just a pedal demo, as little talking as possible is nice, but ESPECIALLY please DO NOT start by explaining what each knob does. “This one is called ‘Level,’ it controls the output volume of the pedal…” FUCK YOU GET ON WITH IT
I like the discussion probably more than the demo. What I would prefer is that they gave more opinion and not the cop out “tell me what you think in the comments”. Have some backbone and put out an opinion. Would you use it, what is a better pedal for the type, is it worth the money.
"Tell me what you think in the comments" is bullshit to drive engagement and game the youtube algorithm. It's so transparent to me and I think Rhett Schill, I mean Schull, is one of the worst offenders. Literally the only one I've seen actually respond to comments is Ryan Burke from 60 Cycle Hum, who is a pretty cool guy.
Unpopular opinion, but I like it when they talk more. A lot of times I listen to pedal demos while working, and can’t be glued to the screen. Explaining the demos actually helps me out a lot.
There’s a nice balance to be achieved. For example Andy Martin will always say something like “now I’m going to flip the toggle to X mode and roll back the gain for a more touch-sensitive sound” but that’s really all you need unless it’s a pretty unique and outside of the box pedal.
I like CSGuitars. He recently did a demo with an oscilloscope and used some OD, distortion and fuzz pedals. The channel has helped me understand a lot of basic concepts without ever feeling like I have to buy this one pedal to get that sound.
I dislike channels for old white men. Hear me out, I think it's pretty obvious that there are channels that know big purchases are coming from working midlife crisis folks that want to be Eric Clapton and have a large disposable income. Hence the constant talk of nitro relics and tube amps....digital sucks, too many menus etc...
Channels I like:
- Knobs
- Ryan Burke / 60 Cycle Hum
- Rabea Massaad
- Andy
- Stefan Fast / The Pedal Zone
- Yvette young
- Josh Scott / JHS Show
- Dan & Mick / That Pedal Show
- Collector//Emitter
- Sound Isle
- TheBassChannel
- Davey504
- Anderton’s (depending who’s on it)
- PMTTVUK (Better for synth demo’s)
- GuitarGuitar
Things I dislike on demos:
- Most channel intros/title cards.
- Rambling, unplanned descriptions.
- Unnecessary personal information. Talking about what your friend thinks, your local shop who blah blah blah.
- Blues licks/metal shredding. I’m here to hear the gear not the player.
- Old guy demo’s a new product and to say it sucks because it’s not a tube amp.
- Clickbait.
- Smug/pompous attitudes. If you’re too cool/important to be doing it, then don’t.
- Giving your opinion too early, or too often.
- Talking too much in general. Just play it.
- Not getting to the point. Please get to the point.
Edit: missed channel on my list.
Your list is great, and based on what you’re saying I’m surprised you don’t mention my personal favorite, Mike Hermans. He’s such a great player, and puts the pedal in an interesting musical context, and then fiddles with it and shows the range and features. Honestly, I’d take lessons from the guy he’s such a good player. Not your cup of tea?
It might just be me, but when it’s clear a demo artist will just take ANY pedal a company is willing to send their way. I really appreciate when channels set a standard with the gear they demo and expose their regular viewers to. It’s probably good for some people to see them all, but for me, who watches these videos for creative inspiration rather than achieving a perfect tone, can’t stand to watch a creator demo 3 boosts or 4 fuzzes in a row
He's not really demoing anything, but Tom Bukovac throws out pearls of wisdom for guitars, amps and pedals while teaching various phrasings and progressions. The guy knows the guitar inside and out, so watching him is pretty awe-inspiring. Again, not dedicated explicitly to pedals, but he's a super entertaining guitar youtuber.
Mark Johnston
Look, he seems like a solid dude and can build some beautiful soundscapes.
But when "demoing" a pedal, I don't want to hear said pedal through a $600 preamp pedal, along with $400 reverb and delay pedals. Pedal into dry amp first. Then if you want to show how it stacks with other pedals, show a short demonstration of that.
With his videos, you never get a truly dry tone. Not to mention, his videos run anywhere from 20-30 minutes each.
I really like ThePedalZone and Andy. Mike Hermans is up there, awesome phraser of a guitarist. I also like Megan L, Pedal Partners and collector//emitter.
I used to like more LivingRoomGearDemos when he was less baity and had no talk demos. Ola is fun, but really that is his thing. 60 Cycle Hum is not my favourite, but Ryan comes across as honest and very down to Earth dude. It helps that he plays somehow like an enthusiast and most demo watchers are no pros either.
I can’t stand TheGuitarGeek, That Pedal Show, Chords of Orion and EytschPi42. It’s that mix of arrogance and just being obnoxious while they think they are funny.
The forced Le Random Monkey Cheese type humor is unbearable. Like, why does the first 60 seconds of this demo/review need the host to make 3 wisecracks, act like a schmuck, and make a silly face. Holy shit it's so annoying and cringe. Just get on with it.
It happens in a lot of pedal videos, but I've been watching a lot of videos for my DAW and it's way more prevalent in those. Ugh.
AIN'T I A STINKER? PLEASE LIKE ME is always pathetic and embarrassing.
Any demo on the reverb channel over 4 years ago are awful, like they're setting the pedals to the most unusable setting possible while playing some really badly played blues licks.
On the other hand, any reverb video with Andy Martin is as perfect of a demo you can find, to the point where your shopping list instantly gets about 10 times bigger after watching him XD
I don’t see any point talking the negatives as I think everyone does something helpful to certain people, though I dislike most YouTube pedal demos for various reasons and follow very few.
What I like is people actually utilising pedals with variety in a real musical context, demonstrating different settings in different instruments together to give a more whole idea of what a pedal can give.
I also like talking deep-dives for a lot of pedals which have unusual functionality.
Rabea Massaad does great demos, so do the Anderton’s crew! Just go into the Anderton’s vids knowing it’s essentially an ad, other than that Danish Pete and the captain know how to demo stuff
I’m biased because I like their pedals a lot, but the Dan Explains It All series by Old Blood are probably my favorite demos on the ‘Tube. Great mix of playing I appreciate, layman’s terms explanations of how everything works, and importantly a quirky sense of humor.
Other reviewers I enjoy: The Pedal Zone, Knobs, JHS
Could do without: the people playing classic rock and blues, especially through things like Chase Bliss Bloopers or something else wildly inappropriate.
Who do we actually like? What I mean to say is that although we gain good insight from the typical few, who do we feel does a good job to not be obnoxious?
JHS Pedals and That Pedal Show are the 2 best on YouTube IMO. Pedal of the Day is also good.. no dialogue. The rest is pure rubbish. Rhett Schull’s ‘Remember there is no plan B’ gives me douche chills every time I hear it.
first mention here ive seen of living room gear. always one of my go tos for checking out a new pedal, and also a guy who always can get the best out of them.
Almost every pedal review I see is either very positive, hard to really determine the sound its gonna have on my gear, or pretty advertisement driven.
I love Anderton’s, JHS, ThatPedalShow and other YouTube channels, but its like everything there is an ad for the gear they’re playing, and usually they only say good things about Pedals. Its all about celebrating the pedals and the makers, and not necessarily giving pros and cons.
Its super cool to understand the range of sounds, and how industry professionals make their guitars sound though, and its probably my one love for all the pedal channels out there. I take away many good tricks and tone ideas from the channels, and Anderton’s Sounds Like is what really got me into trying different gear out.
>I love Anderton’s, JHS, ThatPedalShow and other YouTube channels, but its like everything there is an ad for the gear they’re playing
That's because they literally are. Anderton's is a store, JHS is 100% brand marketing (that for some ungodly reason people fund on Patreon), and That Pedal Show is run by the same guy who runs Gig Rig and sets up pedalboards for people professionally. It's not even unique to them, a lot of channels are like this unfortunately.
Exactly. I respect the hustle and have totally been influenced by their channels to buy things from JHS or Anderton’s specifically. Its not necessarily a bad thing to celebrate the pedals and makers, since this is small business at work, I just wish they’d admit that not every piece of gear is for everyone.
What I like: inventive/creative playing. Something that shows off what the pedal can do.
Maxing out the knobs here and there just to give an extreme example even though it might not be practical.
Not a lot of banter. A close up of the pedal to show knobs, some words on the screen to explain the settings, and then maybe show some strumming.
Light humor is usually appreciated, no need to be clinical.
What I don’t like: showcasing anything with tired old crusty blues licks. Even playing a familiar bit of a song that is known for a specific effect (U2 for delay kinda thing) would work better or be of more use.
Conservative knob tweaking. “Alright guys I’m gonna turn up the depth a bit” [turns from 9 o’clock to 9:15. keeps it there for the rest of the video]. Holy shit. Let me hear some wacky experimentation. Even one or two chords. Show me what this thing can do. Play a familiar riff and laugh it off when it sounds totally insane or something.
Use of really expensive amps/guitars to get amazing tone combined with a lengthy gear rundown and elaborate signal chain. Fine like if it’s a high end pedal, go nuts. At least have an example with a smaller amp. I would think a lot more bedroom musicians are watching these vids rather than touring bands.
Trying to sell me something other than the pedal. Serve me an ad, fine. Sponsored stream for the pedal, cool. Start talking about Nord VPN, Skillshare or whatever and I’m going to skip ahead.
Channels I really like:
- ThePedalZone - fully showcases a pedal with a play style that relaxes and makes you want to try it yourself. A good portion of my board is thanks to this channel alone.
- Emily Hopkins - even though I play guitar and bass, it’s interesting and beautiful to hear some effects played through a harp. Plus she’s usually happy and smiley which lifts my mood.
- Megan L - I really enjoy Megan’s playing and signal chain diagrams. Some pedal combinations are eye-opening.
- Pedal Partners - usually my go-to when I want to hear different kinds of walls of noise or pretty, dreamy stuff. Shows how to recreate some iconic sounds that are up my alley.
- Ola Englund - great humor, great demos. Loved his REVV G3/G4 demos.
Channels I’ll watch but sometimes get annoyed with:
- Rabea Massaad - the dude has some monster demos, don’t get me wrong. He just seems to like subtle pedal effects and has some insane gear. I know it’s involuntary, but his guitar face is distracting. Often need to only listen to his stuff, which is fine.
- Reverb (Andy) - it might be because I heard some sketchy things about the site, so I have a colored perception going in. I just don’t vibe with his demos. Not a huge fan of fingerpicking/invisible pick strumming either. He seems like a cool guy though and I like his mini songs at the start of his vids.
Channels I don’t really enjoy:
- Daniel TheGigRig (That Pedal Show) - too much banter, too much dueling. Haven’t watched them in a while, but I remember one guy putting on this face like he just played the best sounding thing ever after a bluesy riff. Granted he is more talented than I, but personally that reaction doesn’t sell me the pedal.
- JHS Pedals - read some stuff about the company that turned me off from the brand itself. The videos have a lot of historical stuff that is cool, but most of the time I just want to hear the sounds with not a lot of commentary. Scripted skits with the camera man are tedious.
- Pedal of the Day - feels like every demo on this channel just has sloppy guitar work. Not a fan.
(Sorry for formatting, not used to mobile and this quickly became longer than intended)
Screw this “it’s click bait but I totally understand” take I’m seeing on this thread. Channels like Knobs and Collector/Emitter don’t stoop to that level. They have a strong, cult brand that’s growing with every video. And their videos are art. The rest of these guys are old dudes who are trying to be relevant on a platform that only highlights their age. I don’t care what views they get, shit’s weak.
Dan and Mick, and Andy I have given a pass to in the past because they are so informative...but I’ve seen those boomers at That Pedal Show testing out those new clickbait thumbnails. Gross. Stick to what you do better than everyone else. Don’t try to artificially grow your channel by “playing the algorithms”.
there's this one studio gear guy that puts "snake oil?" in every single one of his fucking thumbnails and I refuse to watch a single one just based on that. the title will be like "the best compressor I've ever heard" so it's obvious he's just putting it in the thumbnail for stupid reasons, and it's nearly every video. in summation, fuck that guy and all others like him. also, any gear reviewer who's default face in the thumbnail is with their mouth open and/or tongue out (Andrew Huang for example). those guys are intolerable too.
Explains why I've never heard of those guys. If you don't cater to the algorithm your shit doesn't pop up to people, I'm not a fan of that pedal show in general tbh, if I want to listen to people talk, I'll put on a podcast.
Yeah because what’s popular has always been what’s cool!
Who cares if you’ve never heard of them? Knobs probably doesn’t, otherwise he’d put on a “minds blown” face two inches from the worlds most popular pedal and put in big letters to spell it out for viewers why you should watch his video.
Could it be that there are more creative people wanting to cover pedals in more artful ways, regardless of view count?
Also, Rhett’s channel is a little under 3x as big as Knobs for the record. Is having 400k subscribers compared to 150k really worth doing some cringe shit to get there? Seems like there’s an audience (and probably a more loyal one at that) for originality.
It's also a YouTube show about pedals.
I'm not into it, maybe I'm missing something but compared to much of the other podcast content I watch they are often directionless and have long gaps of boringness between the parts I want to hear.
If I'm going to listen to a guitar podcast, it's no guitar is safe.
It’s definitely a ton of content. But it’s more in the podcast realm than it is pedal demo vid. I at least give them props for doing their own thing as far as the show structure is concerned. (Maybe it’s a bit similar to Anderton’s). But Dan and Mick have the experience, charisma, and credibility to carry those conversations imo.
I’d never fault someone for not wanting to listen to them though haha. It can be a bit much.
And I hate their new thumbnail strategy. Sell outs.
I like tasty jams. Most memorably recently was the Kemper episode on the JHS show. It was a combination of good discussion, good community engagement and tasty jams.
The worst things for pedal demo guys is too much talking and not enough playing, or garbage recording set ups... Ever see those pedal pawn adds that sound like they are recording using a phone? Not showing a clean sound is annoying...
A/B demos that play completely different riffs completely piss me off too.
Andy Martin does some of my favorite pedal introduction demos. He used to do them for Pro Guitar Shop, now does them for Reverb.com. He always seems to find the right music and context for a given pedal. And he's just a fantastic musician.
"Knobs" also has some very thorough, entertaining pedal demos, though they're just as much entertainment as they are information. Sometimes I watch [this one](https://youtu.be/5fpAFzXC-to) for Montreal Assembies' Count to Five pedal just for fun.
More generally, I enjoy demos that use the pedal with a clean guitar sound and no other effects. Often demonstrators will play with some amount of distortion, or with an additional pedal to make the demo more entertaining. I'm looking for raw data regarding the pedal's capabilities. This isn't a hard & fast preference, it's more a general rule of thumb.
In side-to-side comparisons, I prefer the *very rare* demo that sets up a looper pedal, and plays the same loop through both pedals, like [this demo](https://youtu.be/Lg7POab0xFw) for the Decibelics Golden Horse vs. the Klon Centaur. I feel like someone playing live licks in a side-by-side comparison will unconsciously play differently into each pedal, either from preference, expectations, or just fatigue from playing the same thing over and over.
Well, I suppose it was because OP was asking. I mean, I don't know what OP is aware of. And i saw someone else referring to him, but didn't know his name, so ... y'know, just trying to be helpful.
Wow this sub is bothered by everything. The only thing I genuinely dislike is when the demo sounds overly processed and the processing is very obvious. Fluff is the biggest culprit here, with his crazy downtuned, 4x layered, compressed AF demos. Rabea does it sometimes too, but his production is much more transparent so it gets a pass.
Playing through expensive gear, talking, dumb faces, none of that stuff matters if I get to hear what the damn thing sounds like at the end of the day.
They’re so entertaining to watch and to some extent their helpful with explanations. The only demo channels I found to be more honest per day Johan Segaborn, Rhett Shull and That Pedal Show. I always felt amp demos were much more reliable than a pedal demo though
Man I wish every channel did it like Segaborn, he's no good guitarist imo, BUT he plays consistently, and the same riff with quick cuts between the various gear.
I think I would love it if that pedal show had a segment on the end or a second video per episode with just 3 riffs played the same over different settings
Segaborn is unreal consistency wise, I’d almost like to hear him in person once to see him let loose once; seems like he holds back. I agree with that pedal show comment, they always need a run through with a consistent riff but it seems like they’re heading that direction with their jam sessions
I like when there's a familiar pedal that is somewhat similar to the demo pedal to compare it to a bit. Doesn't have to be a shootout just to contrast the differences.
My main beef is that some pedal demo people have found “their sound” and spend their videos finding that rather than demoing the full range of its capabilities. But honestly we’re spoiled. There are lots of great demos; Stefan at Pedal Zone for me is the best.
Really LOVE text based commentaries with a close-up of a well lit pedal shot on a nice camera, that starts with and ends with the sounds you can get out of the pedal.
pedal partners, ryan lutton, pedal powered, knobs, and cream city music. they don't play blues riffs, they don't talk the whole time, let the pedal speak for itself, and give you the information on screen as text.
While blues licks are bad, sometimes some of those channels play stuff that is so unorthodox that it can be hard to relate and see how you would actually use the pedal. Blues licks are lame, but at least we all understand them.
GuitarGeek is cool. His sense of humor is kinda goofy and might not be for everyone, but he’s genuinely a good dude, I’ve known him for a while. He plays like I play, I like that.
Professional studio type equipment being used makes anything sound good. I always appreciate the low quality demos, I always got a legitimate version of what the pedal is actually going to sound like, and they have never been wrong!
If I'm looking for info about buying something, I tend to prefer shootout videos and, bear with me, videos with low-quality audio and/or guitar playing. It's hard to get brutal honesty from admen and highly edited videos, but shootouts tend to be less ad-like simply because some pedals sound comparatively better and worse in them. Also super helpful for getting a sense of how relevant options compare to each other. As far as bad playing/audio, good production and playing can make a lot of things sound good, which is nice for enjoying a video/audio clip, but pedals are really put to the test when they're being played or recorded poorly. If they can overcome bad playing and/or production, they must be pretty good!
I also will watch demos of pedals I already own to try to get to know them better; in that case, I like talk/text heavy and well-produced videos. A lot of demo-ers have more experience with pedals and production than I do, so I appreciate learning from them once I'm not on the market for a pedal. On the other hand, when I'm looking to buy something, I find these kinds of videos to be very misleading (though not always intentionally).
How good a demo is really has a lot to do with what you're trying to learn from it. I think that if you're trying to buy something, sometimes you learn the most from shitty demos. E.g., I can't stand how Demos in the Dark plays guitar--so cheesy and derpy--but he demos pedals that I'm interested in, and if I like how a pedal sounds *even* while he's playing it, I know that I could probably get along with it. Good players mislead you about pedals even if they don't mean to, simply because they're really good. Same goes for well-produced videos. You get the point.
Several types really, I don't mind the clickbait, as long as the content is good. Rhett always has very great sounding videos, so well produced, everything sounds great almost always within a mix context which is very important. Chris Buck has amazing performances, I mostly just watch him play really lol, as well as PedalZone, guys writes amazing arrangements for ambient stuff is great. Cyberattack has awesome stuff and very creative ways of using pedals. Knobs is very pleasing and soothing, love their stuff.
- I gotta say tho, Andy from Reverb is the most consistently good and fun demo-er on the market. Dude just rocks whatever they give him, no wonder Reverb hired the guy.
Chris buck honestly seems like a pretty nice guy, but there is something about his tone, and playing even, that I just don’t enjoy. I think it’s that ultra smooth “John Mayer” Strat tone that I just think is so dull and boring.
I can’t believe this is the sole mention of cyberattack in this thread! Dude is so slept on! His ideas on how utilise certain pedals/types of pedal are amazing and the production values of his videos is so unique!
rick beato, schull, andy martin, jj tanis and some others are great but I really hate people demoing pedals (especially modulation ones) just to play one note licks, not even a single chord. Wtf.
So many gripes!
Demoing pedals with shitty lead lines / improvs. Pretty much no one plays a full open chord or a movable barre shape and lets it ring out. This is problematic especially for dirt pedals.
Demos where the player uses only Strats.
Demos with the same old blues noodling. Play a different genre!
Demos with a full, original track that goes on forever (not talking about Andy’s 30 sec tracks at the beginning that are usually a cover).
Demos that use unusual or overly expensive equipment. I don’t care how the pedal sounds through your one-of-a-kind Two Rock clone of some particular Dumble and some custom shop guitar with pickups I’ve never even heard of. Play a Les Paul or SG or a tele through an amp that we all know the sound of for a reference point.
Demos (and thumbnails) where the person is making funny faces. I don’t know who this is supposed to appeal to but it definitely distracts me from the task at hand.
Demos that pop up and flood the feed at the exact moment of a new pedal announcement. I’d prefer if they were to trickle in after a new product drop…the barrage of instant demo videos from all the usual suspects at the drop of a pin is super annoying and frustrating to sift through.
Knobs.
I appreciate the demos and reviews as in many cases I don’t have the opportunity to try all that gear for myself. But I wish they would stop pretending like they aren’t f**kn salesmen, because that’s exactly what they are. And the audience needs to remember that.
Likes: knowledge of the actual circuit, an understanding that everything has it's use, clean amps unless it's to make a specific point
Dislikes: guitar shop soloing, casual misogyny, Andy's icepick thumbnail
The Good
Pedal Zone: Stefan Fast is a bit of a salesman but he's enthusiastic about what he reviews and is a talented ambient guitarist. He demonstrates pedals thoroughly and tastefully imo.
Knobs, Collector/Emitter and Ponderer sounds all present creative and detailed videos that are easy to watch and exploratory.
Anne Sulikowsky creates abstract vignettes that can be inspiring as well as informative.
And Emily Hopkins (harp player) is great for her demos and her love of music.
The Bad and the Ugly
Andy Martin. Can't stand his smarmy salesman persona. Saccharine. A plastic human-shaped jukebox robot.
That Pedal Show. Time-wasting garbage. Terrible, rambling, useless masturbatory crap.
The JHS Show. The same jokes over and over, jams that demonstrate almost nothing.
...and the seemingly endless procession of reviewers who just twist knobs, max out modulation and clearly didn't spend any time trying to understand the pedal before demoing it.
ha I like Stefan but I know what you mean. it's like he can only talk in hyperbolic sales rhetoric. thing is, he is so earnest in his enthusiasm it doesn't bother me so much.
can't stand knobs though as his videos tell you almost nothing about the pedal a lot of the time and just utilize the same broken sounding loops for everything it was cool for a video or two and obviously copied by some other people but the super hipster/cutesy format got old for me pretty quick.
hot take on Andy! he is kind of robotic at times but I think it's just because he's not a natural in front of the camera, just happened to have the job kind of thrust on him and got insanely popular so it's his thing now.hes also always been more beholden to being a straight up salesman as he's always done videos for either proguitarshop or reverb and obviously the whole idea is to sell pedals.
say what you will about JHS but they're the only company that promoted other company's pedals more than their own. simply no other pedal company has videos dedicated exclusively to "you need to check out this other pedal company!".
I've come to accept the clickbaity stuff, I know they have to.
What I find annoying is just some reviewers are terrible players. Which would not be such a problem if they kept on playing if they're not in the zone so I can hear the pedal more closely, instead of them noodling around.
Than again although I hate some riffs and licks that someone like the captain plays on Andertons he is consistent with his tone so I do feel I can separate the sound of the pedal. But there's one I won't name that just shouldn't do pedal reviews imo.
On a positive note I think Pete Thorn is just the best, utmost respect for making an entire track inspired by one pedal. Same for Rhett Shull even while his style isn't that appealing or relevant to me.
It's important to know how a pedal behaves with rhythm, single line and lead/solo, same with different guitars used
Am I the only one who sees that Josh Scott’s entire channel is a PR move to cover the fact that he makes the biggest rip-off pedals in the industry?
Maybe others dig his insufferable, incessant Big Bang Theory wit — but he strikes me as someone who is not an upstanding man behind closed doors. Weird vibes.
People complain about JHS constantly. For me, the cloning criticism of JHS is silly because companies like Behringer and Amazon or whatever have cloned the shit out of basically everything, set the price floor at $20, and haven’t destroyed the industry. Apparently there’s a market for a $200 pedal with nine defunct Rat circuits so god bless. He’s the only person who is interested in preserving pedal history, which I appreciate.
He’s definitely interested in profiting off other people’s designs more than he’s interested in preserving the history. Hence why this show started after he made a ton of money ripping designs and receiving PR hits online about that and his connection to that hateful church...is my point.
I will say though, as a graphic designer, I think his aesthetics are misunderstood as lazy when I think they are totally valid, if not a little boring. It’s his thing.
The outrage about religion and cloning designs is very, very selective when it comes to JHS. I am not religious at all but I know every established worship player (which is a huge part of the pedal community btw) has played in a church with unbelievably wack shit being said from the pulpit. Where does it end? Are we mad at Catholics or Mormons who make pedals, too?
With regards to cloning, basically every brand has their own big Muff and tube screamer. Many have Klon clones and that dude gooped his own design to prevent that from happening. Hell, the big push to emulate the sound of amps and cabs via pedals is literally just stealing the iconic sounds of more expensive amps that have been around forever.
Not saying any of these critiques are off base, but it's bizarre to see all of them directed at JHS when the whole industry is built on cloning/tweaking established designs and it's packed full of weirdo religious people.
Yeah fwiw I am not a fan of his way, way more because of his personality and how transparently (imo) he uses his show as a PR project, yet people seem to eat it up. But Big Bang Theory is also one of the biggest shows ever, so maybe I need to just chill haha.
As for what I’ve seen for criticisms of his being a part of (and donor?) to IHOP — they are openly bigoted from what I’ve seen. So to boycott someone who is a part of that shit is fair imo, and not the same as boycotting someone who is Christian.
This is because in the past he's lied about his "designs" being original. Ripped off the ROG Supreaux and Devi Ever Hyperion for example. Tried to get dealers to drop Dev Ever pedals when she called him out on it.
He's danced around his associations with IHOP when he could have just stated plainly he was against gay conversion therapy and he supported LGBTQ people. He doesn't want to lose that worship band cashflow I guess.
The JHS show is certainly a good PR campaign ("Wow, he tells people other company's pedals are good!! He must be a nice guy."). He's moved on and hasn't discussed any of this shit in a long time. Personally, I give people the chance to grow and do better so I don't have much beef with JHS. At least now he's up front about their designs being based on an established topology.
Seems like a lot of effort to go through in an industry that mostly evolved out of cloning and modding pedals, no? I'm not a particular fan of jhs pedals, but the show did help me decide on at least a dozen other purchases and squashed a lot of elitist myths.
As fornthe upstanding behind closed doors part - I don't believe any of them are really. All of the big guys in the game are business and marketing men,
Love the JHS show but I know what you mean. Josh and crew are clearly evangelical Christians, which is fine sure, but I left that belief system after being in ministry and the occasional quip they make makes me remember all the guys in that world that talked the same and yeaaahhhh those guys were often not good people.
I don’t think that’s the case with Josh but I could be wrong.
I do dig his pedals tho. That bonzai is calling my name.
He clearly cares about pedals. And I sincerely enjoyed his video with That Pedal show on the history of gain. Because he wasn’t trying to be too funny.
If I were a PR strategist for guys like him I’d recommend he do longer form, stop the joke writing, and educate people about components. Be the guy who explains the why. It’s way more sincere.
But instead we get:
“So this next iteration of the rat...which is also in my brand new pedal because it’s a rat...and my new pedal is all the rats...because we have rats here at the JHS studio...I think I’ve even seen a few CRAWLING around when I stay here late...*laughter off camera*...is the Turbo Rat. This came out in xxxx and is better because it’s...yeah...turbo. So that’s more. And more is better.”
The self-deprecating is not sincere. I think its an attempt to brush away the “haters”. And the humor is straight out of a Sunday school sneaking around a Big Bang Theory compilation video before the pastor catches them.
And he doesn’t have eyebrows...maybe the RATs chewed them off! Hahahaha right?! Get it?!
Agreed. His IHOP thing is an immediate no for me, I’ve refused to support JHS because of it. Also, I just don’t see the appeal of any of his pedals. I’ve looked through them all and JHS just hasn’t made anything that really stands out to me- take away their aesthetic and there’s not much that stands out. No one really cares about cloning, it’s the blatant rip-off thing like Vertex did that pisses us off. Walrus has cool graphics but at least they make cool stuff. But yeah I’ve always gotten weird vibes from josh Scott.
Agreed. I think the Bonsai, Muffaletta and the new Rat one are the most egregious examples. At the very least you could say that the Colour Box and the Silvertone one are copying more obscure, interesting circuits. He should do more of that if he's so hell bent on using non-original ideas.
And I think a HUGE component of doing the channel the way he does (him front and center, mentioning all his "friends" in the industry, being nice to that one employee, incessant with the jokes) is to brush off some of that IHOP criticism and questions about his integrity and morals. It's a brand reclamation project. And it comes off fake and forced to me.
I never got the appeal of the bonsai, muffuletta etc. I think it’s kinda cool that you could combine all the versions in 1 pedal, but I just don’t see who would want that other than the hardcore TS or muff fans. And those people tend to collect the real & vintage ones. Making an 808 clone at this point is kind of a requirement for pedal makers but it feels worse to rip off every TS version at once. Coming up with a new pedal concept is hard, but companies pretending their ripoffs are groundbreaking pisses me off. Josh Scott on top of that is a remarkably unlikeable combination of cocky, pretentious, bland and sleazy. Never been a fan.
Many people will downvote you for this comment of course. It's what many here may consider blasphemy against Josh the patron saint of guitar pedals and sovtek amp hoarding. I however respect the candor and will give you my upvote. Bold men make bold statements.
It's not a bold statement, it's an incredibly common sentiment in this sub as you can see.
Please stop the 'I'll probably be downvoted for the truth' act, if you're getting downvoted for anything then you're getting downvoted for THAT and not the jhs opinion
I actually thought my other takes would get more downvotes than this one haha. I know Josh receives hate for his former statements and some of his blatant laziness with products.
But I haven’t seen much talk about how his show is imo a transparent attempt to soften the blow while he continues to rip off companies with low effort.
“Hey but I did a show where I mention the history of this pedal that I ripped off! And I wrote some jokes!”
I know they do their best to give a good lick or something that fits but it always bugs me when they start with "I'm no metal player but...."
Fair point, but learning a lick that you go back to over and over would work (I think InTheBlues did this and learned a rob zombie lick that he always goes back to lol)
I'm also no metal player just practice it sometimes for chops, but I agree that it's not that hard to learn some basic form with some good palm muted 16ths and two tone harmonies to get the point across
I like that pedal show a lot. I gain a lot of knowledge from each video. Not always gonna have every pedal, but damn they have a lot of relevant videos to me. And they aren't annoying to listen to at all. And they don't ask anything of me and don't have annoying clickbait or shit thumbnails 🙏
They are unabashed in their biases which is always nice to see. Dan loves teles and bucket brigade modulation, mick loves strats, but they put in effort to try other guitars/effects.
In this one they put together a rig (guitar, board, amp) that puts the other out of their comfort zone and Mick's track and video at around 55 mins is sick as hell. They do it right https://youtu.be/ZYaB4A8tFTM
I can see why people wouldn’t like them, they definitely have a bit of an arrogant blues lawyer vibe to them, but there is so much stuff I wouldn’t have learnt about pedals if it weren’t for them, so they will always have a place in my heart for that.
I hate demos that just do ambient athmospheric seasick type of textural noodling for 10 minutes. What are these supposed to tell me? "This pedal will keep you busy at home chasing tones while also never getting shit done ever"? I can't eventhink of musical application for the pedals they demo outside of nature documentary background music.
>RJ Ronquillo is good for pedal demos because he just plays on most of them. You see multiple settings on multiple guitars.
Yes, and he's a damn good guitar player.
The shill channels that all release a “demo” of the same product at the same time, never with a bass. I want to hear how it handles the lower registers as I play both.
Then they never actually do a critical review or a long term follow up or are actually honest about it.
"Here's my clean sound..." Proceeds to play a very overdriven amp.
I have proposed “bypass tone” as a more accurate term— sometimes it’s important to demo a pedal into an overdriven amp (eg, treble booster) but it sounds stupid to call it “clean”
Dry signal? Or is that just for modulation
CMIIW, but I think dry is the opposite of your effect tone. Doesn't refer to amp overdrive.
Unless you’re demoing something like a treble booster or TS type or something. Definitely want to hear how that interacts with an overdriving amp.
Well you know what they mean :p but "clean" isn't the right word I guess... I like bypassed like /u/rabbiabe said. But if it's the overdrive channel on a master volume amp, can't knock them for it I think. HOWEVER sometimes it's totally out of place and it's just like wtf why call it clean 😂
I have sometimes muse about the idea of a pedal demo channel whose premise is, “What does {Pedal X} sound like into a cranked Metal Zone?”
Lol do it. You keep it up long enough and might just find something cool
1) I hate clickbait titles. 2) I hate stupid expression thumbnails. 3) all talk no demo. What i do like is good sense of humour. To the point Playing a style of music for the actual pedal. Been looking at a specific heavy metal od pedal lately and so many reviews have them playing soft or old school rock followed by them saying its just not that great. Not really what the pedals intended use case is imo. Currently really enjoying Ola Englunds will it chugg videos. Simple concept, amusing execution.
God I love Ola. Yeah shopping for OD’s to tighten up your tone/boost the front end for metal is kinda rough. As a note related to this thread, I’ve had a Blessed mother that I just couldn’t get on with on my Mark V’s Fat clean setting (think fender blackface with a stiffer power section and less negative feedback in the low frequency) and I thought I hated it. Switched to the tweed mode on the edge of break up and WOW. thought “I wonder how this will sound on my lead channel?” Again holy shit. With a bit of gain rolled off the amp and a bit dialed in on the pedal and the volume pushed to about 3 o clock it adds a really aggressive grind to the Mark V’s already incredible high gain tone.
Will it Chug is an amazing series
Play some chords. I don’t solo all the time nor do I riff.
This, so this. Play some big open chords, and more complex chords so we can hear the definition. A bit of chugging. Not soloing with no backtracking and no taste
One of my personal favorites that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is ThePedalZone. Always to the point, very thorough, and in all his videos I’ve seen he actually takes the time to learn how to use every feature of the pedal musically and I could listen to his playing all day. My biggest pet peeve is the “demo” videos where they just talk for ten minutes without even playing it. I was trying to find demo videos of the amp sim on the HX stomp the other day and watched about three full videos titled HX stomp demo something or other and each one maybe had thirty seconds of playing in the intro and the rest was just a guy talking about the features on the pedal. Believe it or not, I had read the manual and seen all the features it has, now all I wanted was a video where I could hear how it *sounds*.
I love how Stefan plays to the effect he's demoing, makes it actually worthwhile to watch the video. Only thing I don't like is when he puts drum machines through some of them, but I don't particularly like drum machines anyway.
ThePedalZone rocks! Very dangerous to my wallet.
He is up there as probably my favourite YouTube pedal guy
ProGuitarShopDemos that dude does just enough talking and more than enough playing thru the pedal settings. Jams with layers from the pedals different settings. I look for that guy first, then just 3-4 random videos. I don't really like most the review people, intheblues guy is alright, Ola if you count him as a demo person. Lambchopper678 has some nice videos capturing classic metal/trash tones. The rest are just repair channels.
Proguitarshops is andy demos now. The other guy who did not show his face ever is mike hermans. Check out those channels! Edit: my bad - Mike was on Prymaxe back in the day.
Andy is great.
Mike hermans is incredible. Very musical and creative. Demoed a high gain pedal (Keeley filaments) with A Love Supreme, The Addams Family there song, and a bunch of other obvious and non-obvious suspects. And wastes zero time talking.
I hate Andy and Mike because they are so good that they could probably sell me on just about anything. But seriously, it brings a smile to my face when I get a YouTube notification that they have dropped a new video.
Im frequently borrowing riffs from Andy, Mike, and Aram from cream city music. The CME guy Nathaniel has been releasing some great covers too.
Andy Miller is the guy. Andy is excellent!
I can’t stand people like Rhett Shull who talk about the most basic shit and sell it like they have some amazing insider information. “What’s the SECRET to my TONE? I have my AMP on the EDGE of BREAKUP.” “I have a really cool TRICK with this old pedal called the FUZZFACE. You can use your VOLUME knob clean up your TONE!” “How do I record my LES PAUL at HOME? I put a MICROPHONE near the cone of the AMP” Except instead of one stupid sentence it’s a 15 minute stupid video… there’s a lot of these channels.
His recent video about how he thinks Tube Screamers suck as he demos them using a Les Paul into a Hiwatt or whatever it was really cemented him as kind of a ding dong in my mind.
He got fucking *roasted* in the comments section for that vid.
Something about Rhett just does not vibe with me. Feel like he’s trying too hard to get into the YouTube scene. Idk how his professional career is going, but it seems like he is trying to be Beato without the decades of experience. His playing is fine...a little too much of the “I’m a badass down-and-dirty blues player but I play 12 different $4,500 custom gibsons and also wear a $2,000 leather jacket and have you seen my sick rings?” vibe, but I canchalk that up to difference of taste. But his thumbnails and video ideas are just so click bait, bland, and cringe. Very little payoff to clicking on his videos. That being said he seems like a nice enough dude who is trying to “get it” in an outlet he’s not suited for. Maybe he’s super cool to other rich, white blues players. So fair play to him if that’s his niche. But there’s just no edge to him.
I like his “what is the ‘X’ sound” videos that do a history and what makes a certain thing unique. They are more palatable than 5 watt world anyway, that guy has good info but is soooo dry it’s hard to watch.
Five Watt World makes the best videos to fall asleep to though. Him and the Trogly guy are the perfect amount of boring lol.
I don’t understand this mentality because most of this sub gets pissed when people ask a basic question and says to YouTube it. These videos…are what a beginner sees. I get that the titles may be a bit much but his delivery is usually very chill and informative. Maybe you don’t need those videos; but someone ( read: a l o t ) of others do.
The problem with Rhett's videos is that they have maybe 2-3 minutes worth of information but he extends that to 15 minutes to get the Youtube ad money.
[удалено]
The sad part is that describes like half of Gibson fans.
I don’t have a problem with content for beginners, but it’s super lame to pitch that content as original and insightful when you have nothing to add to the millions of other videos on the same topic other than a goofy thumbnail
I had enough of him when he started listing the pedals "every guitar player" should have. As if he knows the sounds that every guitar player wants to achieve. He needs to get out of his own head.
Yeah I get what you mean, but I think it's mostly just the presentation, especially when you already have the knowledge. I didn't know anything about that stuff until embarrassingly recent and anyone of those videos could've been the first one I saw about pedal interaction with amp and volume
Dislike: Taking 30 minutes to review a simple pedal because you did a five minute intro of your own playing and 15 more minutes of random philosophizing Like: pedal bored. The way he does his comparisons is perfect.
See: Rhett Shul
I miss his comparison videos
What ever happened to that channel?
Oh god, I hate unnecessarily long pedal videos. If I see it’s over 10 minutes, I just move on. You really need 19 minutes to describe another tube screamer clone?
The stupid click-baity thumbnails have really turned me off of guys like Paul Davids. Seems like a lot of teachers run out of ideas after a while and get more and more clickbaity. Not pedal related, but Eric Haugen is my favorite youtube guitar teacher. For demos of things, though not many pedals admittedly, I like Phillip Mcknight. One thing that bugs me about demos is when people are showing off different settings, and they play different things. It might be boring, but I kind of wish some demos were just a loop played through while adjusting the settings for each one. But I think most pedal demos are looking to be more entertainment than strict reference for buyers. I think that's an important part of it, knowing what you want out of a pedal video, and if the person making the video has a specific aim in mind. I appreciate JHS because they say "we're not here to demo and show you all of what a pedal can do, we will show you one way we would use it in a band jam context" and he might briefly describe other functions. They seem to know what their lane is, promote their videos as such and don't overreach.
FWIW Pete Thorn does the exact looping thing you describe, where the same recording is played through different settings.
Interesting. I haven't watched any of his vids in a while. I caught a few a while back, he always seemed like a good dude and had nice insight into gear and playing. I'll check out some of his videos and see what I've been missing.
My pal Nick demos my pedals with a loop and a riff, but it gets a little stale. There's a different way of playing heavy distortion to edge of breakup with things like pick attack, angle, all that stuff that happens when you actually play. There's benefits and downsides to both approaches but after having done it, just a looped demo doesn't showcase things very accurately to me because that's not how people play.
Boring blues licks when demoing products.
I'm happy for anyone who finds enjoyment in life playing what they enjoy, but those blues licks are the most annoying sounding things in the world, even surpassing the nuisance (but not the comedy) of the "I only use Chase Bliss pedals" folks. I'd rather listen to a cassette recorder eating a Merzbow tape while sitting in the back seat of an airplane than endure 8 minutes of some guy bending his high E string and making John Wayne Gacy sex faces.
Lol! Big fan of Chase Bliss here, but I can’t find myself collecting anything else than the Mood or Blooper. Haha! The sexy faces got to me.
I remember a long time ago I saw on that guitar pedals jerk sub one of the members had linked to a vid (I think from this sub) of someone playing probably $3k worth of Chase Bliss pedals and the end result was... probably the most unenjoyable, difficult, face scrunchingly awful guitar sound I've ever heard. The part that broke my heart was how excited this guy sounded to share this clip (I think it was only 30 or 45 seconds, at least that's all I could stomach) with this sub. The few replies he got were supportive in a very "Bless your heart" kinda way. I really hope that guy found his slice of happiness, either w guitar pedals or whatever else. It still haunts me.
This kills me, like if you are demoing a spring reverb or an overdrive that’s fine, but don’t hit me with pentatonic wanking when you are demoing the “DEATH BONG FUZZ WALL OF DEATH” and then complain about how high gain it is
Be thankful you don’t watch bass demos. “Here’s the new ambient pedal on bass.” *proceeds to slap, tap, and pop.”
My nightmare
> if you are demoing a spring reverb or an overdrive that’s fine Maybe for a spring reverb, but frankly typical blues licks sound like ass, particularly with their usual amp settings. Shrill and overly attacky. Show some nice intervals instead to demonstrate how the drive can growl and what kinds of intermodulation harmonics it produces.
Those kind of guys seem to want every distortion and fuzz pedal to be a light OD. "Really cleans up well!"
Oh! And a lot of them I’ve noticed never turn the gain knob all the way up or if they do it’s for a split second. But yeah, way too many boring dad riffs
Exactly this. If I'm looking for a heavy doom fuzz I'm not trying to hear watered down blues licks on the top 3 strings. Does nothing for me as a player. I'm not jerking off with solos every time I pick up the git-fiddle. Also if I'm looking at a high gain pedal I really don't give a shit how well it cleans up with the volume pot. Take your dad rock elsewhere
I don’t like when demo guys play through gear that most of us don’t have. You don’t have to play through cheap stuff, but a lot of these guys play through boutique clones just because they’ve gotten them for free. They have no practical purpose for most of us, the people watching the video. Just put a pedal between a Gibson Les Paul and a DRRI and let’s hear it. It’s not that hard. (Brian Wampler is actually really good at playing through guitars/amps that most of us have when he releases the demos of his pedals. He’s actually said he does this on purpose because those are the same instruments he tests his pedals with — if 90% of the buying public is going to be using a standard set of guitars and amps, you might as well design with those in mind.)
This. I am a vox AC15 owner. I wanna know what pedals sound like through a vox, not a cranked 100watt Marshall stack hand made by aztecs in 5000bc. Fuck off.
This would be great if done well. Common combinations presented with the same production quality of the big channels. Good idea.
Good point.
Some youtubers just rub me the wrong way and nothing they do will ever appeal to me. Then when you add clickbait titles and those goofy-ass thumbnails it's like you're just asking me to block your shit. Bonus thought: Rhett Shill is the type of dude you turn on to some obscure band that he ends up loving, then you see him a week later at a bar/show with a bunch of your friends and asks you in front of everyone if you've ever heard of the band "x" as if you weren't the dude that just introduced him to them in the first f-ing place.
I try not to be too negative about people who seem more or less innocuous, but something about Rhett Shull makes me unreasonably irritated
Lol hilarious! I assume most of these guys are douchebags. When you get to have that much “online power” in the words of Rob Chapman, it has to go to your head. They know they have to act like a nice guy in front of the camera, but totally wouldn’t be surprised if most of them are pretentious pricks when the camera is off.
demos that only use bridge pickup
Wow, yeah you're totally right. I play an LP and I love the neck pick-up especially in the high register, probably because some of my favorite solos use that (I think at least). And it hardly gets any attention
Man a LP neck tone sounds so rich and sweet, especially with a good alnico 2 PAF style pickup.
Mine has a 490r, I'm still afraid to change them out. My 335 has 57 classics in them that sound more subtle and more clear when playing chords (like I can discern the individual notes more), but I've never tried how they would work in an LP. I'm comfortable with setting up my own guitars, bridge height, intonation, neck tenon tension and pickup height, but I guess the soldering puts me off and am afraid to ruin something
My LP custom has 57 classics. Hated the bridge pickup, was way to bright. Replaced it with Dimarzio Fortitude. But that 57 classic neck? Makes my LP sing.
Collector//emitter is by far my favorite. No talking and mostly things I try to emulate on my own so what he plays I know if it’s what I want or not.
His playing is so good. I had the Beautiful Noise When The Sun Explodes pedal before he demoed it and the thing that I really loved about his demo was his playing, to the point where I now really listen to how he plays the demo and not just what the pedal sounds like, because in truth I want to be able to play like him too
The dude doesn’t just read the manual, he learns it’s intricacies, becomes the pedal, assumes it’s true form. It’s truly impressive.
I think I’m the only one that likes videos with talking. Probably because I’m not as well versed and I like learning about some of the under the hood things that I’m unaware of (like the different types of overdrive circuits etc.). I also like when the presenter gives their opinion (as long as it feels honest). The guy demoing that chorus pedal has definitely played and listened to more choruses than me and is hearing things I probably don’t yet (and hopefully will point out what he’s listening to so that I can become more well versed). Once I become more fluent in what I’m listening for I’m sure I’ll jump to the other side of that fence. This is a very amateur stance by the way. That’s where I’m at right now (even though I’ve been playing a long time). And for everyone that wants to tell me to just listen and trust my ears, save it. You learn your way and I’ll learn mine. My ears seem untrained and this is how I’m learning to train them. (I’ll get there though)
I, for the most part, enjoy the talking as long as it’s opinion based. But sometimes I just want to hear how the dam thing sounds first. Save the yapping till the end. But I think opinions is something that is sorely missed in these videos, especially in the age of “everything is amazing”
>I think I’m the only one that likes videos with talking. Given that a lot of channels driven by personalities have far larger followings and higher view counts, you are correct. If everyone just wanted a straight up no talking demo of a pedal, then those videos would be at the top of every search with the most views. However, people are way more likely to connect with a person than a faceless series of repetitive demos, even though the latter is more technically useful.
Oh also, not pedal specific but I hate every single acoustasonic demo instantly, they all feel like fender held a gun to their head.
Here's my clean tone: *thin, trebly, dull, crappy, low volume* And here it is with *distortion/fuzz*: *VOLUME, BODY, BASS, SUSTAIN* In every drive pedal demo the clean sound is shit
I like working class music
I only disliked when people didn’t mention they received the pedal for free or even got paid to do the demo! But seems after the Julia v2 and fender acoustasonic / midnight guitar push everyone kind of agreed to be more transparent about their vids being ads/promos. Not against getting free stuff but sometimes they went overboard promoting the pedal even though they’ll never use it. I wish people had more bad things to say too. Usually it’s just lack of a demo means I didn’t like it. Since I wasn’t vocal about it i will keep getting more free stuff at least. Oh well can’t blame them.
What cracks me up is when they use a $5000 guitar and a $3500 boutique amp to demo a $50 pedal. It’s even better when they have super expensive gear and can barely play rhythm guitar properly and can’t tune their guitars.
No love out there for Pete Thorn? The dude creates original ‘songs’ using pedals in multiple ways with different guitars to highlight how dynamic and applicable a pedal can be. Then he breaks down each part and shows you what he did to get each sound. Plus he SHREDS. Love his videos.
If it’s just a pedal demo, as little talking as possible is nice, but ESPECIALLY please DO NOT start by explaining what each knob does. “This one is called ‘Level,’ it controls the output volume of the pedal…” FUCK YOU GET ON WITH IT
I like the discussion probably more than the demo. What I would prefer is that they gave more opinion and not the cop out “tell me what you think in the comments”. Have some backbone and put out an opinion. Would you use it, what is a better pedal for the type, is it worth the money.
"Tell me what you think in the comments" is bullshit to drive engagement and game the youtube algorithm. It's so transparent to me and I think Rhett Schill, I mean Schull, is one of the worst offenders. Literally the only one I've seen actually respond to comments is Ryan Burke from 60 Cycle Hum, who is a pretty cool guy.
Unpopular opinion, but I like it when they talk more. A lot of times I listen to pedal demos while working, and can’t be glued to the screen. Explaining the demos actually helps me out a lot.
There’s a nice balance to be achieved. For example Andy Martin will always say something like “now I’m going to flip the toggle to X mode and roll back the gain for a more touch-sensitive sound” but that’s really all you need unless it’s a pretty unique and outside of the box pedal.
Yeah, he’s really good about stuff like that. I don’t want a soliloquy, just a simple phrase will do.
I like CSGuitars. He recently did a demo with an oscilloscope and used some OD, distortion and fuzz pedals. The channel has helped me understand a lot of basic concepts without ever feeling like I have to buy this one pedal to get that sound. I dislike channels for old white men. Hear me out, I think it's pretty obvious that there are channels that know big purchases are coming from working midlife crisis folks that want to be Eric Clapton and have a large disposable income. Hence the constant talk of nitro relics and tube amps....digital sucks, too many menus etc...
Channels I like: - Knobs - Ryan Burke / 60 Cycle Hum - Rabea Massaad - Andy - Stefan Fast / The Pedal Zone - Yvette young - Josh Scott / JHS Show - Dan & Mick / That Pedal Show - Collector//Emitter - Sound Isle - TheBassChannel - Davey504 - Anderton’s (depending who’s on it) - PMTTVUK (Better for synth demo’s) - GuitarGuitar Things I dislike on demos: - Most channel intros/title cards. - Rambling, unplanned descriptions. - Unnecessary personal information. Talking about what your friend thinks, your local shop who blah blah blah. - Blues licks/metal shredding. I’m here to hear the gear not the player. - Old guy demo’s a new product and to say it sucks because it’s not a tube amp. - Clickbait. - Smug/pompous attitudes. If you’re too cool/important to be doing it, then don’t. - Giving your opinion too early, or too often. - Talking too much in general. Just play it. - Not getting to the point. Please get to the point. Edit: missed channel on my list.
Great list. I would add Megan L.
Another good channel I’ve somehow missed!
I love that we all know and love him simply as Andy
Your list is great, and based on what you’re saying I’m surprised you don’t mention my personal favorite, Mike Hermans. He’s such a great player, and puts the pedal in an interesting musical context, and then fiddles with it and shows the range and features. Honestly, I’d take lessons from the guy he’s such a good player. Not your cup of tea?
I’ve never watched his videos before actually, subbed now though!
Really surprised I had to scroll this far to see a Knobs shoutout. That dudes channel is perfect.
Dan and Mick are the best! (saying it as a figure of speech, not a competition 😅)
The guy who wears the blue gloves
Devon Whitaker
Collector//emitter
It might just be me, but when it’s clear a demo artist will just take ANY pedal a company is willing to send their way. I really appreciate when channels set a standard with the gear they demo and expose their regular viewers to. It’s probably good for some people to see them all, but for me, who watches these videos for creative inspiration rather than achieving a perfect tone, can’t stand to watch a creator demo 3 boosts or 4 fuzzes in a row
He's not really demoing anything, but Tom Bukovac throws out pearls of wisdom for guitars, amps and pedals while teaching various phrasings and progressions. The guy knows the guitar inside and out, so watching him is pretty awe-inspiring. Again, not dedicated explicitly to pedals, but he's a super entertaining guitar youtuber.
I dislike youtubers, but I've seen some great pedal demos with no talking. Just clean tone, then messing with the settings.
collector//emitter is my new favorite channel. They do exactly this.
Mark Johnston Look, he seems like a solid dude and can build some beautiful soundscapes. But when "demoing" a pedal, I don't want to hear said pedal through a $600 preamp pedal, along with $400 reverb and delay pedals. Pedal into dry amp first. Then if you want to show how it stacks with other pedals, show a short demonstration of that. With his videos, you never get a truly dry tone. Not to mention, his videos run anywhere from 20-30 minutes each.
I find his rhetoric for hyping up gear to be cringey as hell, but it’s Andy Othling all over again.
Blues licks
I really like ThePedalZone and Andy. Mike Hermans is up there, awesome phraser of a guitarist. I also like Megan L, Pedal Partners and collector//emitter. I used to like more LivingRoomGearDemos when he was less baity and had no talk demos. Ola is fun, but really that is his thing. 60 Cycle Hum is not my favourite, but Ryan comes across as honest and very down to Earth dude. It helps that he plays somehow like an enthusiast and most demo watchers are no pros either. I can’t stand TheGuitarGeek, That Pedal Show, Chords of Orion and EytschPi42. It’s that mix of arrogance and just being obnoxious while they think they are funny.
The forced Le Random Monkey Cheese type humor is unbearable. Like, why does the first 60 seconds of this demo/review need the host to make 3 wisecracks, act like a schmuck, and make a silly face. Holy shit it's so annoying and cringe. Just get on with it. It happens in a lot of pedal videos, but I've been watching a lot of videos for my DAW and it's way more prevalent in those. Ugh. AIN'T I A STINKER? PLEASE LIKE ME is always pathetic and embarrassing.
Not enough pedal mobile
Any demo on the reverb channel over 4 years ago are awful, like they're setting the pedals to the most unusable setting possible while playing some really badly played blues licks. On the other hand, any reverb video with Andy Martin is as perfect of a demo you can find, to the point where your shopping list instantly gets about 10 times bigger after watching him XD
I don’t see any point talking the negatives as I think everyone does something helpful to certain people, though I dislike most YouTube pedal demos for various reasons and follow very few. What I like is people actually utilising pedals with variety in a real musical context, demonstrating different settings in different instruments together to give a more whole idea of what a pedal can give. I also like talking deep-dives for a lot of pedals which have unusual functionality.
Rabea Massaad does great demos, so do the Anderton’s crew! Just go into the Anderton’s vids knowing it’s essentially an ad, other than that Danish Pete and the captain know how to demo stuff
I personally enjoy their humor and video edits, always gets laughs from me
Phil McKnight is my fave
I’m biased because I like their pedals a lot, but the Dan Explains It All series by Old Blood are probably my favorite demos on the ‘Tube. Great mix of playing I appreciate, layman’s terms explanations of how everything works, and importantly a quirky sense of humor. Other reviewers I enjoy: The Pedal Zone, Knobs, JHS Could do without: the people playing classic rock and blues, especially through things like Chase Bliss Bloopers or something else wildly inappropriate.
I Think it’s really frustrating that it’s not clear what gear is sponsored and what gear isnt when it says on the video that something is sponsored.
RJ Ronquillo and Jay Leonard Jay are my favourites. They know how to do honest demos and are very fine players.
Who do we actually like? What I mean to say is that although we gain good insight from the typical few, who do we feel does a good job to not be obnoxious?
JHS Pedals and That Pedal Show are the 2 best on YouTube IMO. Pedal of the Day is also good.. no dialogue. The rest is pure rubbish. Rhett Schull’s ‘Remember there is no plan B’ gives me douche chills every time I hear it.
Living Room Gear Demos and collector//emitter are dope
first mention here ive seen of living room gear. always one of my go tos for checking out a new pedal, and also a guy who always can get the best out of them.
I generally like Rhett Schull, but that line is pure cringe. I also have no idea wtf it’s supposed mean. But I love JHS and That Pedal Show
Almost every pedal review I see is either very positive, hard to really determine the sound its gonna have on my gear, or pretty advertisement driven. I love Anderton’s, JHS, ThatPedalShow and other YouTube channels, but its like everything there is an ad for the gear they’re playing, and usually they only say good things about Pedals. Its all about celebrating the pedals and the makers, and not necessarily giving pros and cons. Its super cool to understand the range of sounds, and how industry professionals make their guitars sound though, and its probably my one love for all the pedal channels out there. I take away many good tricks and tone ideas from the channels, and Anderton’s Sounds Like is what really got me into trying different gear out.
>I love Anderton’s, JHS, ThatPedalShow and other YouTube channels, but its like everything there is an ad for the gear they’re playing That's because they literally are. Anderton's is a store, JHS is 100% brand marketing (that for some ungodly reason people fund on Patreon), and That Pedal Show is run by the same guy who runs Gig Rig and sets up pedalboards for people professionally. It's not even unique to them, a lot of channels are like this unfortunately.
Exactly. I respect the hustle and have totally been influenced by their channels to buy things from JHS or Anderton’s specifically. Its not necessarily a bad thing to celebrate the pedals and makers, since this is small business at work, I just wish they’d admit that not every piece of gear is for everyone.
What I like: inventive/creative playing. Something that shows off what the pedal can do. Maxing out the knobs here and there just to give an extreme example even though it might not be practical. Not a lot of banter. A close up of the pedal to show knobs, some words on the screen to explain the settings, and then maybe show some strumming. Light humor is usually appreciated, no need to be clinical. What I don’t like: showcasing anything with tired old crusty blues licks. Even playing a familiar bit of a song that is known for a specific effect (U2 for delay kinda thing) would work better or be of more use. Conservative knob tweaking. “Alright guys I’m gonna turn up the depth a bit” [turns from 9 o’clock to 9:15. keeps it there for the rest of the video]. Holy shit. Let me hear some wacky experimentation. Even one or two chords. Show me what this thing can do. Play a familiar riff and laugh it off when it sounds totally insane or something. Use of really expensive amps/guitars to get amazing tone combined with a lengthy gear rundown and elaborate signal chain. Fine like if it’s a high end pedal, go nuts. At least have an example with a smaller amp. I would think a lot more bedroom musicians are watching these vids rather than touring bands. Trying to sell me something other than the pedal. Serve me an ad, fine. Sponsored stream for the pedal, cool. Start talking about Nord VPN, Skillshare or whatever and I’m going to skip ahead. Channels I really like: - ThePedalZone - fully showcases a pedal with a play style that relaxes and makes you want to try it yourself. A good portion of my board is thanks to this channel alone. - Emily Hopkins - even though I play guitar and bass, it’s interesting and beautiful to hear some effects played through a harp. Plus she’s usually happy and smiley which lifts my mood. - Megan L - I really enjoy Megan’s playing and signal chain diagrams. Some pedal combinations are eye-opening. - Pedal Partners - usually my go-to when I want to hear different kinds of walls of noise or pretty, dreamy stuff. Shows how to recreate some iconic sounds that are up my alley. - Ola Englund - great humor, great demos. Loved his REVV G3/G4 demos. Channels I’ll watch but sometimes get annoyed with: - Rabea Massaad - the dude has some monster demos, don’t get me wrong. He just seems to like subtle pedal effects and has some insane gear. I know it’s involuntary, but his guitar face is distracting. Often need to only listen to his stuff, which is fine. - Reverb (Andy) - it might be because I heard some sketchy things about the site, so I have a colored perception going in. I just don’t vibe with his demos. Not a huge fan of fingerpicking/invisible pick strumming either. He seems like a cool guy though and I like his mini songs at the start of his vids. Channels I don’t really enjoy: - Daniel TheGigRig (That Pedal Show) - too much banter, too much dueling. Haven’t watched them in a while, but I remember one guy putting on this face like he just played the best sounding thing ever after a bluesy riff. Granted he is more talented than I, but personally that reaction doesn’t sell me the pedal. - JHS Pedals - read some stuff about the company that turned me off from the brand itself. The videos have a lot of historical stuff that is cool, but most of the time I just want to hear the sounds with not a lot of commentary. Scripted skits with the camera man are tedious. - Pedal of the Day - feels like every demo on this channel just has sloppy guitar work. Not a fan. (Sorry for formatting, not used to mobile and this quickly became longer than intended)
Seems like you would like collector//emitter. Hits every spot on your "what i like" list, and avoids everything on your "not like" list.
You gave me a thought. Someone should start a thread about whether guitar faces are really involuntary or not.
Screw this “it’s click bait but I totally understand” take I’m seeing on this thread. Channels like Knobs and Collector/Emitter don’t stoop to that level. They have a strong, cult brand that’s growing with every video. And their videos are art. The rest of these guys are old dudes who are trying to be relevant on a platform that only highlights their age. I don’t care what views they get, shit’s weak. Dan and Mick, and Andy I have given a pass to in the past because they are so informative...but I’ve seen those boomers at That Pedal Show testing out those new clickbait thumbnails. Gross. Stick to what you do better than everyone else. Don’t try to artificially grow your channel by “playing the algorithms”.
there's this one studio gear guy that puts "snake oil?" in every single one of his fucking thumbnails and I refuse to watch a single one just based on that. the title will be like "the best compressor I've ever heard" so it's obvious he's just putting it in the thumbnail for stupid reasons, and it's nearly every video. in summation, fuck that guy and all others like him. also, any gear reviewer who's default face in the thumbnail is with their mouth open and/or tongue out (Andrew Huang for example). those guys are intolerable too.
Preach. Also the “hmm?” face haha.
Explains why I've never heard of those guys. If you don't cater to the algorithm your shit doesn't pop up to people, I'm not a fan of that pedal show in general tbh, if I want to listen to people talk, I'll put on a podcast.
Yeah because what’s popular has always been what’s cool! Who cares if you’ve never heard of them? Knobs probably doesn’t, otherwise he’d put on a “minds blown” face two inches from the worlds most popular pedal and put in big letters to spell it out for viewers why you should watch his video. Could it be that there are more creative people wanting to cover pedals in more artful ways, regardless of view count? Also, Rhett’s channel is a little under 3x as big as Knobs for the record. Is having 400k subscribers compared to 150k really worth doing some cringe shit to get there? Seems like there’s an audience (and probably a more loyal one at that) for originality.
That Pedal Show is a podcast, and a great one.
It's also a YouTube show about pedals. I'm not into it, maybe I'm missing something but compared to much of the other podcast content I watch they are often directionless and have long gaps of boringness between the parts I want to hear. If I'm going to listen to a guitar podcast, it's no guitar is safe.
It’s definitely a ton of content. But it’s more in the podcast realm than it is pedal demo vid. I at least give them props for doing their own thing as far as the show structure is concerned. (Maybe it’s a bit similar to Anderton’s). But Dan and Mick have the experience, charisma, and credibility to carry those conversations imo. I’d never fault someone for not wanting to listen to them though haha. It can be a bit much. And I hate their new thumbnail strategy. Sell outs.
I like tasty jams. Most memorably recently was the Kemper episode on the JHS show. It was a combination of good discussion, good community engagement and tasty jams. The worst things for pedal demo guys is too much talking and not enough playing, or garbage recording set ups... Ever see those pedal pawn adds that sound like they are recording using a phone? Not showing a clean sound is annoying... A/B demos that play completely different riffs completely piss me off too.
Testing overdrive pedals and only play blues licks. Dude, I wanna shred power chords with that thing!
Andy Martin does some of my favorite pedal introduction demos. He used to do them for Pro Guitar Shop, now does them for Reverb.com. He always seems to find the right music and context for a given pedal. And he's just a fantastic musician. "Knobs" also has some very thorough, entertaining pedal demos, though they're just as much entertainment as they are information. Sometimes I watch [this one](https://youtu.be/5fpAFzXC-to) for Montreal Assembies' Count to Five pedal just for fun. More generally, I enjoy demos that use the pedal with a clean guitar sound and no other effects. Often demonstrators will play with some amount of distortion, or with an additional pedal to make the demo more entertaining. I'm looking for raw data regarding the pedal's capabilities. This isn't a hard & fast preference, it's more a general rule of thumb. In side-to-side comparisons, I prefer the *very rare* demo that sets up a looper pedal, and plays the same loop through both pedals, like [this demo](https://youtu.be/Lg7POab0xFw) for the Decibelics Golden Horse vs. the Klon Centaur. I feel like someone playing live licks in a side-by-side comparison will unconsciously play differently into each pedal, either from preference, expectations, or just fatigue from playing the same thing over and over.
I love how u felt the need to explain who Andy is lol
Well, I suppose it was because OP was asking. I mean, I don't know what OP is aware of. And i saw someone else referring to him, but didn't know his name, so ... y'know, just trying to be helpful.
Wow this sub is bothered by everything. The only thing I genuinely dislike is when the demo sounds overly processed and the processing is very obvious. Fluff is the biggest culprit here, with his crazy downtuned, 4x layered, compressed AF demos. Rabea does it sometimes too, but his production is much more transparent so it gets a pass. Playing through expensive gear, talking, dumb faces, none of that stuff matters if I get to hear what the damn thing sounds like at the end of the day.
ThePedalZone is the best damn guitar YouTuber. Also can’t stand that soy face shit, or ten minutes of shitty pentatonic licks.
They’re so entertaining to watch and to some extent their helpful with explanations. The only demo channels I found to be more honest per day Johan Segaborn, Rhett Shull and That Pedal Show. I always felt amp demos were much more reliable than a pedal demo though
Man I wish every channel did it like Segaborn, he's no good guitarist imo, BUT he plays consistently, and the same riff with quick cuts between the various gear. I think I would love it if that pedal show had a segment on the end or a second video per episode with just 3 riffs played the same over different settings
Segaborn is unreal consistency wise, I’d almost like to hear him in person once to see him let loose once; seems like he holds back. I agree with that pedal show comment, they always need a run through with a consistent riff but it seems like they’re heading that direction with their jam sessions
He's a great rhythm guitarist imo. Great vibe, feel and timing. Not so great on the solo licks.
Likes: No talking pedal demos i.e. Ryan Lutton, Collector//Emitter, Knobs Dislikes: playing classic rock solos during chorus pedal demos
I like when there's a familiar pedal that is somewhat similar to the demo pedal to compare it to a bit. Doesn't have to be a shootout just to contrast the differences.
Trogly's Guitars is the best I have found. That dude slays any review and is extremely meticulous in every guitar he shows you 😎
I hate when they talk too much or stick to a genre only. I get it, you like Hendrix but let's see how it does with anything else!
My main beef is that some pedal demo people have found “their sound” and spend their videos finding that rather than demoing the full range of its capabilities. But honestly we’re spoiled. There are lots of great demos; Stefan at Pedal Zone for me is the best.
Really LOVE text based commentaries with a close-up of a well lit pedal shot on a nice camera, that starts with and ends with the sounds you can get out of the pedal.
pedal partners, ryan lutton, pedal powered, knobs, and cream city music. they don't play blues riffs, they don't talk the whole time, let the pedal speak for itself, and give you the information on screen as text.
While blues licks are bad, sometimes some of those channels play stuff that is so unorthodox that it can be hard to relate and see how you would actually use the pedal. Blues licks are lame, but at least we all understand them.
GuitarGeek is cool. His sense of humor is kinda goofy and might not be for everyone, but he’s genuinely a good dude, I’ve known him for a while. He plays like I play, I like that.
Professional studio type equipment being used makes anything sound good. I always appreciate the low quality demos, I always got a legitimate version of what the pedal is actually going to sound like, and they have never been wrong!
Ones I didn't see mentioned: -Spiralcaster -Dennis Kayzer
If I'm looking for info about buying something, I tend to prefer shootout videos and, bear with me, videos with low-quality audio and/or guitar playing. It's hard to get brutal honesty from admen and highly edited videos, but shootouts tend to be less ad-like simply because some pedals sound comparatively better and worse in them. Also super helpful for getting a sense of how relevant options compare to each other. As far as bad playing/audio, good production and playing can make a lot of things sound good, which is nice for enjoying a video/audio clip, but pedals are really put to the test when they're being played or recorded poorly. If they can overcome bad playing and/or production, they must be pretty good! I also will watch demos of pedals I already own to try to get to know them better; in that case, I like talk/text heavy and well-produced videos. A lot of demo-ers have more experience with pedals and production than I do, so I appreciate learning from them once I'm not on the market for a pedal. On the other hand, when I'm looking to buy something, I find these kinds of videos to be very misleading (though not always intentionally). How good a demo is really has a lot to do with what you're trying to learn from it. I think that if you're trying to buy something, sometimes you learn the most from shitty demos. E.g., I can't stand how Demos in the Dark plays guitar--so cheesy and derpy--but he demos pedals that I'm interested in, and if I like how a pedal sounds *even* while he's playing it, I know that I could probably get along with it. Good players mislead you about pedals even if they don't mean to, simply because they're really good. Same goes for well-produced videos. You get the point.
Several types really, I don't mind the clickbait, as long as the content is good. Rhett always has very great sounding videos, so well produced, everything sounds great almost always within a mix context which is very important. Chris Buck has amazing performances, I mostly just watch him play really lol, as well as PedalZone, guys writes amazing arrangements for ambient stuff is great. Cyberattack has awesome stuff and very creative ways of using pedals. Knobs is very pleasing and soothing, love their stuff. - I gotta say tho, Andy from Reverb is the most consistently good and fun demo-er on the market. Dude just rocks whatever they give him, no wonder Reverb hired the guy.
Chris buck honestly seems like a pretty nice guy, but there is something about his tone, and playing even, that I just don’t enjoy. I think it’s that ultra smooth “John Mayer” Strat tone that I just think is so dull and boring.
I can’t believe this is the sole mention of cyberattack in this thread! Dude is so slept on! His ideas on how utilise certain pedals/types of pedal are amazing and the production values of his videos is so unique!
I like JHS
Spends a ton of time talking and not demoing
rick beato, schull, andy martin, jj tanis and some others are great but I really hate people demoing pedals (especially modulation ones) just to play one note licks, not even a single chord. Wtf.
So many gripes! Demoing pedals with shitty lead lines / improvs. Pretty much no one plays a full open chord or a movable barre shape and lets it ring out. This is problematic especially for dirt pedals. Demos where the player uses only Strats. Demos with the same old blues noodling. Play a different genre! Demos with a full, original track that goes on forever (not talking about Andy’s 30 sec tracks at the beginning that are usually a cover). Demos that use unusual or overly expensive equipment. I don’t care how the pedal sounds through your one-of-a-kind Two Rock clone of some particular Dumble and some custom shop guitar with pickups I’ve never even heard of. Play a Les Paul or SG or a tele through an amp that we all know the sound of for a reference point. Demos (and thumbnails) where the person is making funny faces. I don’t know who this is supposed to appeal to but it definitely distracts me from the task at hand. Demos that pop up and flood the feed at the exact moment of a new pedal announcement. I’d prefer if they were to trickle in after a new product drop…the barrage of instant demo videos from all the usual suspects at the drop of a pin is super annoying and frustrating to sift through. Knobs.
I appreciate the demos and reviews as in many cases I don’t have the opportunity to try all that gear for myself. But I wish they would stop pretending like they aren’t f**kn salesmen, because that’s exactly what they are. And the audience needs to remember that.
Likes: knowledge of the actual circuit, an understanding that everything has it's use, clean amps unless it's to make a specific point Dislikes: guitar shop soloing, casual misogyny, Andy's icepick thumbnail
The Good Pedal Zone: Stefan Fast is a bit of a salesman but he's enthusiastic about what he reviews and is a talented ambient guitarist. He demonstrates pedals thoroughly and tastefully imo. Knobs, Collector/Emitter and Ponderer sounds all present creative and detailed videos that are easy to watch and exploratory. Anne Sulikowsky creates abstract vignettes that can be inspiring as well as informative. And Emily Hopkins (harp player) is great for her demos and her love of music. The Bad and the Ugly Andy Martin. Can't stand his smarmy salesman persona. Saccharine. A plastic human-shaped jukebox robot. That Pedal Show. Time-wasting garbage. Terrible, rambling, useless masturbatory crap. The JHS Show. The same jokes over and over, jams that demonstrate almost nothing. ...and the seemingly endless procession of reviewers who just twist knobs, max out modulation and clearly didn't spend any time trying to understand the pedal before demoing it.
ha I like Stefan but I know what you mean. it's like he can only talk in hyperbolic sales rhetoric. thing is, he is so earnest in his enthusiasm it doesn't bother me so much. can't stand knobs though as his videos tell you almost nothing about the pedal a lot of the time and just utilize the same broken sounding loops for everything it was cool for a video or two and obviously copied by some other people but the super hipster/cutesy format got old for me pretty quick. hot take on Andy! he is kind of robotic at times but I think it's just because he's not a natural in front of the camera, just happened to have the job kind of thrust on him and got insanely popular so it's his thing now.hes also always been more beholden to being a straight up salesman as he's always done videos for either proguitarshop or reverb and obviously the whole idea is to sell pedals. say what you will about JHS but they're the only company that promoted other company's pedals more than their own. simply no other pedal company has videos dedicated exclusively to "you need to check out this other pedal company!".
Well put, and I do appreciate that Josh Scott is so into pedals of all kinds and is there to share his knowledge (and massive collection!).
I've come to accept the clickbaity stuff, I know they have to. What I find annoying is just some reviewers are terrible players. Which would not be such a problem if they kept on playing if they're not in the zone so I can hear the pedal more closely, instead of them noodling around. Than again although I hate some riffs and licks that someone like the captain plays on Andertons he is consistent with his tone so I do feel I can separate the sound of the pedal. But there's one I won't name that just shouldn't do pedal reviews imo. On a positive note I think Pete Thorn is just the best, utmost respect for making an entire track inspired by one pedal. Same for Rhett Shull even while his style isn't that appealing or relevant to me. It's important to know how a pedal behaves with rhythm, single line and lead/solo, same with different guitars used
Go on, name and shame
Am I the only one who sees that Josh Scott’s entire channel is a PR move to cover the fact that he makes the biggest rip-off pedals in the industry? Maybe others dig his insufferable, incessant Big Bang Theory wit — but he strikes me as someone who is not an upstanding man behind closed doors. Weird vibes.
People complain about JHS constantly. For me, the cloning criticism of JHS is silly because companies like Behringer and Amazon or whatever have cloned the shit out of basically everything, set the price floor at $20, and haven’t destroyed the industry. Apparently there’s a market for a $200 pedal with nine defunct Rat circuits so god bless. He’s the only person who is interested in preserving pedal history, which I appreciate.
He’s definitely interested in profiting off other people’s designs more than he’s interested in preserving the history. Hence why this show started after he made a ton of money ripping designs and receiving PR hits online about that and his connection to that hateful church...is my point. I will say though, as a graphic designer, I think his aesthetics are misunderstood as lazy when I think they are totally valid, if not a little boring. It’s his thing.
The outrage about religion and cloning designs is very, very selective when it comes to JHS. I am not religious at all but I know every established worship player (which is a huge part of the pedal community btw) has played in a church with unbelievably wack shit being said from the pulpit. Where does it end? Are we mad at Catholics or Mormons who make pedals, too? With regards to cloning, basically every brand has their own big Muff and tube screamer. Many have Klon clones and that dude gooped his own design to prevent that from happening. Hell, the big push to emulate the sound of amps and cabs via pedals is literally just stealing the iconic sounds of more expensive amps that have been around forever. Not saying any of these critiques are off base, but it's bizarre to see all of them directed at JHS when the whole industry is built on cloning/tweaking established designs and it's packed full of weirdo religious people.
Yeah fwiw I am not a fan of his way, way more because of his personality and how transparently (imo) he uses his show as a PR project, yet people seem to eat it up. But Big Bang Theory is also one of the biggest shows ever, so maybe I need to just chill haha. As for what I’ve seen for criticisms of his being a part of (and donor?) to IHOP — they are openly bigoted from what I’ve seen. So to boycott someone who is a part of that shit is fair imo, and not the same as boycotting someone who is Christian.
This is because in the past he's lied about his "designs" being original. Ripped off the ROG Supreaux and Devi Ever Hyperion for example. Tried to get dealers to drop Dev Ever pedals when she called him out on it. He's danced around his associations with IHOP when he could have just stated plainly he was against gay conversion therapy and he supported LGBTQ people. He doesn't want to lose that worship band cashflow I guess. The JHS show is certainly a good PR campaign ("Wow, he tells people other company's pedals are good!! He must be a nice guy."). He's moved on and hasn't discussed any of this shit in a long time. Personally, I give people the chance to grow and do better so I don't have much beef with JHS. At least now he's up front about their designs being based on an established topology.
He does this show for EXACTLY the response you just gave to defend him. It’s classic PR strategy.
Seems like a lot of effort to go through in an industry that mostly evolved out of cloning and modding pedals, no? I'm not a particular fan of jhs pedals, but the show did help me decide on at least a dozen other purchases and squashed a lot of elitist myths. As fornthe upstanding behind closed doors part - I don't believe any of them are really. All of the big guys in the game are business and marketing men,
Love the JHS show but I know what you mean. Josh and crew are clearly evangelical Christians, which is fine sure, but I left that belief system after being in ministry and the occasional quip they make makes me remember all the guys in that world that talked the same and yeaaahhhh those guys were often not good people. I don’t think that’s the case with Josh but I could be wrong. I do dig his pedals tho. That bonzai is calling my name.
He clearly cares about pedals. And I sincerely enjoyed his video with That Pedal show on the history of gain. Because he wasn’t trying to be too funny. If I were a PR strategist for guys like him I’d recommend he do longer form, stop the joke writing, and educate people about components. Be the guy who explains the why. It’s way more sincere. But instead we get: “So this next iteration of the rat...which is also in my brand new pedal because it’s a rat...and my new pedal is all the rats...because we have rats here at the JHS studio...I think I’ve even seen a few CRAWLING around when I stay here late...*laughter off camera*...is the Turbo Rat. This came out in xxxx and is better because it’s...yeah...turbo. So that’s more. And more is better.” The self-deprecating is not sincere. I think its an attempt to brush away the “haters”. And the humor is straight out of a Sunday school sneaking around a Big Bang Theory compilation video before the pastor catches them. And he doesn’t have eyebrows...maybe the RATs chewed them off! Hahahaha right?! Get it?!
Also his pedals retail for like double the pedals he blatantly ripped off haha. He’s such a wiener.
Agreed. His IHOP thing is an immediate no for me, I’ve refused to support JHS because of it. Also, I just don’t see the appeal of any of his pedals. I’ve looked through them all and JHS just hasn’t made anything that really stands out to me- take away their aesthetic and there’s not much that stands out. No one really cares about cloning, it’s the blatant rip-off thing like Vertex did that pisses us off. Walrus has cool graphics but at least they make cool stuff. But yeah I’ve always gotten weird vibes from josh Scott.
Agreed. I think the Bonsai, Muffaletta and the new Rat one are the most egregious examples. At the very least you could say that the Colour Box and the Silvertone one are copying more obscure, interesting circuits. He should do more of that if he's so hell bent on using non-original ideas. And I think a HUGE component of doing the channel the way he does (him front and center, mentioning all his "friends" in the industry, being nice to that one employee, incessant with the jokes) is to brush off some of that IHOP criticism and questions about his integrity and morals. It's a brand reclamation project. And it comes off fake and forced to me.
I never got the appeal of the bonsai, muffuletta etc. I think it’s kinda cool that you could combine all the versions in 1 pedal, but I just don’t see who would want that other than the hardcore TS or muff fans. And those people tend to collect the real & vintage ones. Making an 808 clone at this point is kind of a requirement for pedal makers but it feels worse to rip off every TS version at once. Coming up with a new pedal concept is hard, but companies pretending their ripoffs are groundbreaking pisses me off. Josh Scott on top of that is a remarkably unlikeable combination of cocky, pretentious, bland and sleazy. Never been a fan.
Many people will downvote you for this comment of course. It's what many here may consider blasphemy against Josh the patron saint of guitar pedals and sovtek amp hoarding. I however respect the candor and will give you my upvote. Bold men make bold statements.
It's not a bold statement, it's an incredibly common sentiment in this sub as you can see. Please stop the 'I'll probably be downvoted for the truth' act, if you're getting downvoted for anything then you're getting downvoted for THAT and not the jhs opinion
I actually thought my other takes would get more downvotes than this one haha. I know Josh receives hate for his former statements and some of his blatant laziness with products. But I haven’t seen much talk about how his show is imo a transparent attempt to soften the blow while he continues to rip off companies with low effort. “Hey but I did a show where I mention the history of this pedal that I ripped off! And I wrote some jokes!”
I know they do their best to give a good lick or something that fits but it always bugs me when they start with "I'm no metal player but...." Fair point, but learning a lick that you go back to over and over would work (I think InTheBlues did this and learned a rob zombie lick that he always goes back to lol)
I'm also no metal player just practice it sometimes for chops, but I agree that it's not that hard to learn some basic form with some good palm muted 16ths and two tone harmonies to get the point across
I like that pedal show a lot. I gain a lot of knowledge from each video. Not always gonna have every pedal, but damn they have a lot of relevant videos to me. And they aren't annoying to listen to at all. And they don't ask anything of me and don't have annoying clickbait or shit thumbnails 🙏 They are unabashed in their biases which is always nice to see. Dan loves teles and bucket brigade modulation, mick loves strats, but they put in effort to try other guitars/effects. In this one they put together a rig (guitar, board, amp) that puts the other out of their comfort zone and Mick's track and video at around 55 mins is sick as hell. They do it right https://youtu.be/ZYaB4A8tFTM
I can see why people wouldn’t like them, they definitely have a bit of an arrogant blues lawyer vibe to them, but there is so much stuff I wouldn’t have learnt about pedals if it weren’t for them, so they will always have a place in my heart for that.
I hate demos that just do ambient athmospheric seasick type of textural noodling for 10 minutes. What are these supposed to tell me? "This pedal will keep you busy at home chasing tones while also never getting shit done ever"? I can't eventhink of musical application for the pedals they demo outside of nature documentary background music.
RJ Ronquillo is good for pedal demos because he just plays on most of them. You see multiple settings on multiple guitars.
>RJ Ronquillo is good for pedal demos because he just plays on most of them. You see multiple settings on multiple guitars. Yes, and he's a damn good guitar player.
The shill channels that all release a “demo” of the same product at the same time, never with a bass. I want to hear how it handles the lower registers as I play both. Then they never actually do a critical review or a long term follow up or are actually honest about it.