Unnecessarily Aesthetic Pedals

J

Joben Magooch

Well-known member
A new contender has emerged for "most unnecessarily aesthetic pedal I've seen in quite some time". It's like someone tried to make a pedal out of a macbook...

Harby Pedals

Visually speaking I'll admit they do look quite nice IMO. There's certainly a few aspects that I find intriguing...but the overall form-factor is less-than-convenient in my estimation. Looks like they are offering a TS-10, CE-2, and Mostortion at the moment. At first I thought $250 for a TS10 or CE2 seems kind of crazy, but then I was like...well, most "boutique" overdrives from someone like JHS or Wampler or the like are ~$200 and a CE2W from Boss is also $200+ retail, so I guess not that far off if you are really wanting that chunker of an enclosure and whatnot. Don't think you'll see one on my board any time soon but to each their own I guess.

I must admit though I love when companies put buzzwords in their ad copy that probably seem impressive on first glance or if you aren't super familiar but...stuff like "Genuine Texas Instruments op amp!" "Real Neutrik Jacks!" or the like. I'm sure having a brand name attached to it makes it sound nicer but doesn't really mean that much, does it? Then again I guess they are also probably banking that the type of person who is looking to spend $250 on a Macbook-inspired Tube Screamer probably doesn't know (or care to know) any better one way or the other.

Any other candidates for pedals/manufacturers who seem to put a premium on form over function?
 
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I wanna know what's going on with those Harby enclosures. Couldn't find any pics other than those top down shots from his website.
 
spi said:

hard pass. does the shill really believe this?
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His other video is also hilarious. We see him holding the thing in his hands and it looks huge, maybe 1590C size, but guys, your eyes are deceiving you. It's just an optical illusion. What the hell 😂 Also milled out of a solid block of aluminum. Just why?

 
Them Harbys are Thicc!

The look doesn't really do it for me, but I'm honestly surprised at that 250 price point given what I imagine those enclosures must cost.

Also, I respect that he's not pretending his clones are anything original.
 
Joben Magooch said:
I must admit though I love when companies put buzzwords in their ad copy that probably seem impressive on first glance or if you aren't super familiar but...stuff like "Genuine Texas Instruments op amp!" "Real Neutrik Jacks!" or the like. I'm sure having a brand name attached to it makes it sound nicer but doesn't really mean that much, does it?
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I think using genuine Neutrik jacks is a valid flex, since lots of manufacturers use cheap "Neutrik-style" jacks that are unlikely to be as good and as durable, IME. Good connectors matter, especially in the longer term.

Now, as for "Genuine TI" or even worse, "Genuine JRC4558" op amps, I think that's pushing it too far. Sounds like making it a desirable feature that the chips are not fake. Excuse me? That's just...normal and expected, no?
 
Erik S said:
Them Harbys are Thicc!

The look doesn't really do it for me, but I'm honestly surprised at that 250 price point given what I imagine those enclosures must cost.

Also, I respect that he's not pretending his clones are anything original.
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Yeah that's kind of what I was thinking after I considered it a little bit more. I mean I have no idea how much it costs to get something like that machined but I have to think that's contributing to a good chunk of that cost. Like I said above, guys like JHS or Wampler or etc charge $200 for their "standard" drives in 125B's (which seems to be more or less "industry standard" to some extent)... so I can't imagine there's a ton of profit there at $250 but that's just totally me guessing lol
 
Aentons said:
Not my thing, but I'd be interested to see how the footswitch is mounted below the top
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That was honestly the part I found most appealing TBH. I think it looks really clean...
My first assumption (for both that and the i/o jacks) was that perhaps the enclosure itself is threaded and they just thread right into it somewhere? But i don't know if you'd run into issues w/ corrosion or etc that route...
 
Woof. I grow weary of the apple-ization of all things.

I'm still bitter about the killing of the 3.5mm jack. Sure, Bluetooth is fine, but there's still so much legacy audio stuff out there that has an RCA or other physical line in.

The USB dongles are trash too. Nudge the USB connector? Sorry, lost connection.

I sincerely hope we don't move onto wireless pedal connections. That would be a CF.

I'll stick with silly stick figure drawings on my pedals, thankyouverymuch.
 
Anyway, stuff like this looks nice for people who don't want their tone to be copied by people peaking on their pedal boards. Can't think of any other reason to be this minimalistic, outside of being unable to tell what's what.

Is it me, or is very American (as in, more typical for American builders than others) to brag about specs like this? I rolled my eyes when going through Spruce Effects' jibber-jabbering.
  • Switchcraft and Lumberg Jacks
  • Demont soft-touch mechanical switch
  • Proprietary turret+PCB design
  • NOS Germanium transistors
  • NOS Ero, Vishay, Philips, CDE, Sprague, Dearborn and other premium quality audio-grade capacitors
  • Dale Military spec metal film resistors
  • Silver-coated solid core teflon wire
  • Hand-wired and assembled in California
  • Custom tin 'lunch box' carrying case
  • Hand silk-screened customized ID tag
  • Custom maple and steel etched bartender's bottle opener
  • Custom art print and instruction card

    Via: https://spruceeffects.com/

    Most of what this comes down to, to me at least, is that such builders don't feel like testing parts and rather let the customer pay premium for factory sorted components, aka: him being lazy. Let alone that for 90% of the components it doesn't even matter anyway.
 
tegendemuur said:
Anyway, stuff like this looks nice for people who don't want their tone to be copied by people peaking on their pedal boards. Can't think of any other reason to be this minimalistic, outside of being unable to tell what's what.

Is it me, or is very American (as in, more typical for American builders than others) to brag about specs like this? I rolled my eyes when going through Spruce Effects' jibber-jabbering.
  • Switchcraft and Lumberg Jacks
  • Demont soft-touch mechanical switch
  • Proprietary turret+PCB design
  • NOS Germanium transistors
  • NOS Ero, Vishay, Philips, CDE, Sprague, Dearborn and other premium quality audio-grade capacitors
  • Dale Military spec metal film resistors
  • Silver-coated solid core teflon wire
  • Hand-wired and assembled in California
  • Custom tin 'lunch box' carrying case
  • Hand silk-screened customized ID tag
  • Custom maple and steel etched bartender's bottle opener
  • Custom art print and instruction card

    Via: https://spruceeffects.com/

    Most of what this comes down to, to me at least, is that such builders don't feel like testing parts and rather let the customer pay premium for factory sorted components, aka: him being lazy. Let alone that for 90% of the components it doesn't even matter anyway.
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*Takes a look in the mirror*

*Lets out a heavy sigh*
 
I'm very curious if anyone really cares/makes purchasing decisions based on the cattle-call of fancy components. That kind of thing brings out the worst of my insecurity (should I be making investments in Dale resistors/eBay hunting for overpriced NOS components/hiring a graphic designer/etc.). I must admit I'm a fan of how Spruce does their "turret" builds but acknowledge that they're very silly and just for the 'gram.
 
t1redhands said:
I'm very curious if anyone really cares/makes purchasing decisions based on the cattle-call of fancy components. That kind of thing brings out the worst of my insecurity (should I be making investments in Dale resistors/eBay hunting for overpriced NOS components/hiring a graphic designer/etc.). I must admit I'm a fan of how Spruce does their "turret" builds but acknowledge that they're very silly and just for the 'gram.
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I mean, it's complicated.

The real difference between a pedal that sounds great and one that sounds like ass isn't components, but *engineering*.

Fancy parts inside the box are meaningless...mostly. They cost more and they don't necessarily do the job any better.

That said: I use the shit out of fancy parts in my builds, because I'm a hack and a fraud. I'm a terrible EE: more likely to burn down the house than to design a great sounding OD from scratch.

So...I compensate. With fancy parts. And I say "yes, this makes my builds better, because look at those parts. No cheap royal ohm resistors here. Be gone with your so-called Mylar Film decoupling capacitors: I only use polypropylene. Or polystyrene. Like civilized people do."

Which is a fun game to play when you're willing to completely ignore the reality that you're spending too much on parts. Which, luckily, I am.
 
Unpopular opinion........

I really like the way the Harby pedals look......

Way over priced for what they are and would never buy one at that, but I do like the way they look.

 
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