Does everyone still buy pedals?

[GreySuits]

Or do you try and build everything?

[digi2t]

I buy pedals. I then tear them down, trace them out, and sell them.



Then I build it. 

[paul.creedy]

I've sold a lot this year, partly to fund building more of my own, partly to change what I have available so what sounds I make has to change (though I've kept all of my favourites, which reduces that effect somewhat ).

[EBK]

I would never build a chromatic tuner, at least. 

[Joncaster]

Pedals I would still buy:

A good EP3 emulation
Boss Dimension C
Another Turbo Tuner if mine died.
Power banks

[EBK]

Pedals I would still buy:

A good EP3 emulation
Boss Dimension C
Another Turbo Tuner if mine died.
Power banks

aion sells a nice board for a Dimension C clone.

[Joncaster]

Aah, haha.
That list just got smaller then!

Edit: that's a hefty project...

[Elijah-Baley]

What do you men with buy pedals? Can we really buy it? I could try this new experience.

Anyway, I bought much years ago a MT-2, and when I learnt to build pedals I modded it.
I bought a pedal tuner.

Pedals I would still buy:

A good EP3 emulation
[...]

EP3 preamp? Why buy it, I guess it's a kind of pedal we could tweak pretty well.

[Mark Hammer]

I haven't bought anything in a while, finding that most of my sonic needs are addressed by things I can make.  However, I made $40 volunteering for a study**, so I took it and a gift certificate my co-workers gave me when I retired, and got myself an EHX Attack Decay.  Polyphonic envelope control is definitely not something I can do on my own.  Maybe one day I'll gain some marginal mastery over digital.  But for now, if it requires digital, it will be purchased, rather than made.

(**Ironically, an aging and memory study.  It's the same stuff I worked on when doing my doctoral studies in the late '80s, only now I'm the old guy, instead of the college punk studying the old guys.  The hunter becomes the hunted.  )

[ElectricDruid]

Nope, I've never owned a commercial pedal.

Actually, that's not *entirely* true. I've got a couple of prototype units from a boutique manufacturer that they sent me as a test platform while I was writing firmware for them a few years ago. But I never *bought* a commercial pedal.

[stallik]

With the exception of a tuner and a ditto looper, I'd not bought a commercial pedal for maybe 5-6 years but recently picked up a Mosky Golden Horse for £14 new. Sounds really great and I couldn't build one for that price so maybe I'll try more of these...

[Mark Hammer]

I'm sure many of us here think in terms of "They want HOW much or that?  Jeez, do you know how big a parts-order I could make for that money?".

[Ben N]

I do, but for the most part I'm a seller of commercial pedals these days rather than a buyer. Occasionally I will buy something digital that I can't build, or something that is cheap and fills a specific niche. The last legit effects pedal I bought was a TC Electronic Dark Matter distortion, and while I like it a lot, I will probably sell in the not too distant future because (a) I don't use distortions much (in contrast to overdrives and fuzzes), and (b) I have a couple of projects in the queue that will make it redundant.

[Ripthorn]

I've got a boss ms3 and a mooer preamp that I like. Other than that, I build them all. I've built quite a lot over the last couple years. The isn't much left on my wishlist for either buying or building.

[miketbass]

I'm probably an odd ball, but I havent done a from scratch build in a few years now. I primarily buy non functioning production pedals to repair and modify, some get gutted and I will install my own board (wahs for example) but I try to avoid messing with enclosure hassles.

I find most of my joy in learning the circuit through repair and mods, tracing it out, learning about obscure ICs and calibrating things correctly. More of an academic exercise than a practical one really. Its a hobby and I really only need to run a few things things on my pedalboard, which consist of a tuner and noisegate, some OD and delay.

[bartimaeus]

Like a lot of others folks here, I build all of my own analog stuff these days, but there are some digital effects where I just give in and buy it. Maybe one day I'll be able to program a hall reverb that sounds as good as an rv6, but I'm sure not there yet...

[amptramp]

I did buy a wah pedal for my daughter (who is the guitarist in the family) because it was available new at a decent price.  I also bought a wah pedal at a garage sale for $10 once, fixed It up (it had a bad stompswitch) and sold it back to the original vendor for $40 a few weeks later.

[soggybag]

I buy things used, or new if there's a deal. I make them also especially when it's something you can't really buy or is boutique expensive.

There is a break even point where complex projects start to converge on the price where it's worthwhile to buy something already built and save myself the time/labor, and cost of parts. Plus I get it in mail in the time it would have taken to order parts and PCBs.

These days there are some many great PCBs available I don't make these anymore. I'd always buy the PCB before making it. $7 for BMP PCB is worth the time it would take to cut, etch and drill a blank copper board, and the manufactured board is solder masked and a joy to work with.

[diydave]

Last pedal I bought was a Chorus from Jacques Pedals (early 2000).
Since then, all may pedals and amps are homemade.

[FUZZZZzzzz]

About a year ago I bought a Laser Phase by Coron at a flea market for only 10 euros. I cant remember when I last bought a new pedal in a store. Probably my tuner pedal, years ago. I do buy kits and pcbs from various places, but mainly etch the smaller projects myself or build on vero or perf.