Sunday, February 17, 2008

Cheap & good



I am certainly not trying to propel cheap, obscure brand names to fledglings reading this entry but there are indeed items out there which are affordable and reputable.

The pedals here are my Behringer EQ & Beta Aivin Heavy Metal distortion pedal. The former brand name is rather prominent when it comes to duplicating other established technologies but many cite the manufacturer's plastic housing & fiddly battery latch to be its undoing. My take here is this- if you wish for caviar, be sure to look for sturgeons otherwise be content with cod roe especially if you are shopping with that limited budget. This is no defence for a preferred brand name but Behringer stuff generaly works, people tend to equate its performance with the original item it is duplicating. That's when the endless whining & bashing begins.

Beta Aivin on the other hand is another name in the effects emporium very much ignored for its far eastern origin. Yes, it's not too different from other semi-nameless products out there but it has its refined moments privy to the initiated. The Heavy Metal here gets the idea very much from BOSS' ubuquitous Metal Zone, especially its stacked midrange feature. The pedal sounds great per se because the distortion does not suffer from an implosive ('compressed' to the rest of us) nature at higher level settings. The output we hear is thus a progressive kick rather than sounding choked. A great possession for those on a budget but in preference of plesantries.

No comments: