Picking your next effects pedal, be it for electric guitar, electric bass, acoustic guitar, or any other instrument with a line out should be simple. Too often it isn’t.

The Challenges

We know that we can purchase online. Depending on who we buy from, it could be a great experience or a really awful one. The number of times I have heard of folks getting something that wasn’t what they expected or even wasn’t even genuine is too many. Moreover, while big pedal makers do tend to provide clips of their effects through their websites, delivered through Soundcloud or some other service, these clips are examples only, the same as any examples that I record and share here. They aren’t you, with your touch and your sensibilities.

So we head to a real brick and mortar guitar shop, provided one is close enough. That’s a challenge for a lot of folks as this business is not margin rich, like jewelry or clothing. Rents and staffing cost about the same, but margins and vendor practices don’t allow for traditional brick and mortar shops to inventory a ton of pedals, and the range of makers makes it even tougher. It’s pretty easy to find Boss or ElectroHarmonix or MXR in most stores, but the vendors and distributors continue to put the boots to smaller retailers as they make it harder and harder for the smaller shops to sell their products.

Customers can also be challenging. I have heard a great many times when a player spends hours trying pedals, but when he (invariably a he) decides to purchase, he wants one in a box never touched by human hands or a giant discount for taking the “demo”. Good guitar shops are cautious about letting pedals out for trial because some people are just assholes and beat the crap out of them, plus stores get busy, pedals are small and too often fit into pockets and make their way out the door.

In this article, I am going to tell you about an amazing new way to try pedals that has been years in the development and is now available. For folks where Richmond Hill Ontario is not readily accessible, I really feel for you, because there is nothing like what I am going to describe anywhere that I have been in the world, and when I go places, I do make a point to find guitar shops, because I am that kind of person.

An Incredible Solution

Cosmo Music in Richmond Hill Ontario Canada, has just opened up their new pedal trial centre. There is one of everything that they sell that they get, mounted securely on a metal backplane. Every pedal is wired and powered already. The potential buyer, plugs a guitar into a simple to use switching unit and then presses the numbered button that matches the number of the pedal he or she wants to try out. The signal goes to a couple of different amp / cabinet simulators and then out to a set of headphones. All the potential buyer needs to bring is a pick. You can try a pedal with any of the guitars and hear it clearly in your ears. If you want to chain a few pedals together, you can do that too.

To make things simpler, the architects and designers of this system have grouped like pedals together. Want to try different delays? You go to the delay unit. Choruses? Same idea. Overdrives? I think that you get the point. For those who absolutely must hear the sound through an amplifier, there are amps set up for this as well. The value proposition of the headphone solution is that many potential buyers can be trying out pedals at the same time without disturbing other customers, tying up an audition room for hours and no one else needs to hear your out of tune rendition of whatever.

As most of today’s recordings are done direct to desk with no actual amplifiers at all, this makes sense overall. For those who want to hear a big amp at full chat, there is a place for that too, that is not going to annoy the other customers.

The great design of the pedal centre is that it is scalable. In speaking with Paul, the principle engineer for the project and Andrew Lai, the Guitar Shop Manager, they’ve already been talking about making it easy for players to link pedals on different modules together, as well as having a module that will change to showcase popular performer pedal boards as well as those used by the professional musicians who also work in the store.

From my perspective, I think the ability to cross compare similar pedals is awesome. I am asked often questions such as what’s the best Tube Screamer or what’s the best digital delay. My answer, if I give one, is going to be based on my personal choices and biases as well as my own use cases. I will often ask what the use case or desired tone is before offering a response, but even then, it’s just MY opinion and that doesn’t mean it’s the right answer for anyone else. So go try it yourself. Want to audition a bunch of little green boxes that are all Tube Screamers and TS clones? You can do that. Want to find out if an Oil Can Delay will fit your style and needs? Want to see how that Oil Can works with a faux Tape Echo? This system allows for it.

I also learned by watching some customers who came in to try a specific pedal, take the time to try out similar pedals from other makers. Every module has a QR code that you can scan to see what is on the module and what each item costs. What if you come in to try a particular flanger, like it, but then try other options and you find one that pleases you as much as the one you came to see, but is quite a bit less money which facilitates a new opportunity? Maybe that means money not spent, or money saved now spent on another pedal. Take it from me, there’s no such thing as too many pedals. At least in my opinion.

So if you are able, make a trip to Cosmo Music in Richmond Hill Ontario and give the pedal centre a go. I think that you will find the trip worthwhile, but be prepared that your visit may cost you some money in purchases that you take with you.

Thanks as always for reading, and for listening to the podcast. I’m Ross Chevalier and until next time, peace.