Classic Flanger

Over the last few years I acquired a number of these highly reviewed bargain mini pedals for my home acoustic guitar setup and am very pleased with the performance I've been getting. I've had no issues with any of them (not a dud in the bunch) and would not hesitate to recommend. I can't speak to how well they would hold up for a busy gigging musician (I have a bigger pedal board with full-size pedals for that) but for a small practice setup and something you can grab and go for small gigs or jamming they're ideal. All of these mini pedals perform the basic effect functions of their (much) more expensive counterparts (MXR, Boss, TC, etc.) and perform them well. While it's true that the bigger pricetag full-size pedals undoubtably have more features, these mini pedals do their basic functions well, with no added noise, hiss or hum and at a great bargain price. The Horse Classic Flanger is a nice little flanger pedal that gives you all of the classic flanging effects and I was pleasantly surprised at the performance of this unit - from a very subtle warm sweep to a full-blown jet plane psychedelic kaleidoscope. Are there better flanger pedals out there? Yes, there are but the Horse Classic Flanger can credibly compete with full-size flanger pedals at less than half the price. I highly recommend! I know that these mini pedals are popular with new players just starting out with guitar and effects pedals and prices of $20 or less makes them very much within reach compared to the full-size pedals that cost $50 to $100 or more. A couple things to note: 1. No, it does not come with a 9-volt power adaptor - as clearly stated in the description (several places). There are many available on Amazon - many with "daisy chain" adaptors to power muliple pedals, make sure it's "tip negative" (almost all of them are}. 2. To get the best performance out of these pedals use good quality shielded patch cables and a good quality power supply. Many problems with hiss or hum can be traced back to poor cables especially if you have multiple pedals connected together. 3. if you have multiple pedals - the order in which you set them up in the signal chain is key to getting good results and low noise. There are a number of articles online - google "what is the best order for guitar effects pedals", check YouTube. There are many opinions on this but experimenting with your own pedal order to find the combination that works for you is recommended. This mini pedal board setup is configured with guitar -> distortion -> chorus -> flanger -> phase shifter -> delay -> amp. I've found this signal chain order gives me the best results and low noise. Hope this helps!

This is a fantastic sounding light TS-style overdrive pedal. It does what a TS pedal is supposed to do, pushes your amp into a nice, mid-gain overdrive. The gain range goes from light breakup to a heavier crunch. The tone does what a tone knob is supposed to do, and the volume will give you a slight boost at it's max volume settings. The real win with this pedal is the price + the footprint + the construction. At this price, you probably wouldn't expect much from the build quality, but this is a very well built and robust pedal, you could easily throw this on a gigging pedal board and not worry about it getting damaged. And even if you're unnecessarily abusive to your pedals and somehow do manage to damage it, the price makes it easy to replace. I'd recommend this pedal for any beginner player who wants to get their first overdrive pedal or an intermediate or journeyman player who wants a working TS style overdrive that they can put on a board and not worry about. In the audio clip I'll include with this, I used a stock Reverend Flatroc into a Fender Superchamp X2. Buy this pedal!

I own 3 variations of these Horse branded pedals now, and I decided to change my review to talk about the most intriguing one. The nascar delay. Being a pedal builder myself, and having built several analog delays, I was really curious if this BBD delay had actual bucket brigade chips in it. Turns out that it does! It has two MN3208’s which will give you around 300ms of total delay time. I can’t say for certain but, I’m willing to bet that this is a clone of the Joyo branded nascar delay albeit, some slight differences. First off, this pedal has mostly surface mount components compared to the joyo’s through hole. That’s no big deal and has no effect on sound or tone. The second difference is the delay chips. The Joyo version uses V3205 BBDs vs. the MN3208s in this one. That doesn’t really affect sound and tone but, it does mean this version has about half of the delay time of the Joyo version. Another thing I noticed is that out of the box, the repeats were kinda distorted. That’s pretty indicative that the delay chips weren’t biased properly so I don’t think the manufacturer spends a whole lot of time setting these up. At least this one anyway. Since I had a couple of Coolaudio V3205’s in my inventory, I threw them in this pedal, gave it the Boss DM-2 calibration treatment, and voila! It sounds so much better and has a lot more delay time. Now, if you think you can buy this delay, tear it apart, and just swap the chips, you’d be mistaken. It requires adjustment to the trimpots to get everything sounding and working properly. You need to understand how the circuit works and at the very least, have and know how to use, an audio probe. Best to use an oscilloscope and signal generator. Overall, I’m really impressed with this delay. After a BBD swap and proper adjustments, it’s even more impressive.

The Vintage Overdrive by Horse is a surprisingly good overdrive mini-pedal at a very reasonable price. It requires a 9v power adapter; it does not take a 9 volt battery. This is how the pedal is able to be so small. However, since most guitarists have multiple pedals on a pedal board with a power source, it probably won't be much of an issue. I like that it has a small footprint. The sound is crisp and clear. And, the pedal is solid; it seems like it will last. An overdrive pedal was really the last pedal I was looking for. I had good luck with a couple of other Horse products, so I decided to give them a try. I am glad I did. This pedal would be a great buy for a beginning electric guitarist who is just starting to explore the different types of effects out there. This pedal sounds great, and at a very reasonable price. I would also recommend it for anyone who wants a decent overdrive sound at a fraction of the space.

Built well. Not nearly enough depth in the vibrato. Ok when used playing alone - doubtful it will stand out within a band situation.

For the money these are great pedals, my hearing is not the best so it's not worth buying a name brand at five times the price, but what you get is a solid little pedal that sounds excellent and is perfect for the home user. Why pay more just to say that you have this or that name pedal. it's all down to personal taste in the end and if you are happy with what you have got that's all that matters.

Good price, nice built but the sound was not what I was looking for. Maybe good for others.

Good

This is a very functional delay pedal. The housing is nice and sturdy, I like the brushed metal finish. You can get a nice slap back sound by dialing the settings down or a nice long trail by adjusting the levels up. It has a cleaner tone than a 7 function mini delay pedal I own. In fact it doesn't change the natural tone at all when it's on. I think anyone would be happy with this delay because it does the job well for a very good price. I like that it doesn't take up much space on my pedal board. Definitely a keeper.

absolutely phenomenal product