The Worst Gear?

If I really had to pick a brand I would say iRig gear :see_no_evil::hear_no_evil::speak_no_evil:

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Yeah their stuff just looks like a lot of cash for a barely adequate solution.

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I tgought @Lanny had an iRig he used for his early videos that he was fairly happy with.

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I will say it again :smiley:

But I bet more people on this forum started out with something from iRig. Especially the cheap iRig gear feels like flimsy made in China gadgets IMO. I wouldn’t really be surprised if it stops working in a year or after some abuse. Can’t say anything about the higher tier stuff tho.

On a more serious note it’s kinda hard to point out bad gear. In the past “bad gear” is usually born from brands trying to innovate. If you are into synths you should check out this guy who has made a whole serie about bad gear. It’s really fun because he can make anything work and proof that it can also sound amazing.

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I have one I bought for hotel recording - its acceptable, but meh in general.
I have a Bluetooth page turner from them too that is very very meh, mostly works.

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Dang. Sounds like you speak of the snark super tight. I’ve got a couple. I love mine. Maybe you Just got a bad one? Because I’ve had one for about 9 months and its still good on battery. The other only like 2 months, but no problems at all.

I find the Snarks pretty bad for bass.
Useless for B sting for sure.
Good for other instruments though.

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That is the one.

ENTIRELY possible.

Yeah, I stopped trying to tune my B on it, unless I fret the 5th fret and tune it as E.

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So, yeah. I don’t play a 5 string. I’m simply not that good and my captain caveman war club fingers won’t fit a spacing less than 17mm. So i can’t really comment on that. That one was actually rated really high when i got mine. I’ve checked mine against the tuner on my metronome and my line 6 pod go. It seems they are on there. So I’ve no answers. Seems like we need to call the scooby-doo kids.

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Once upon a time, Guitar Center sold a $20 distortion pedal called the Just Distortion. I think it had one knob, and this was late 90s USDs btw. It was pretty awful and anyone that heard it basically hated it.

It’s pretty much unheard of in my experience and the internet doesn’t even have information on it, it seems.

Eh, either that or I could just trash it and buy another. shrug

:smiley:

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hahahahaha

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The one thing I found I didn’t really care for was the Caline Wine Cellar knockoff of the Behringer knockoff of the SansAmp. I was curious what they would give you for $35. I didn’t have a SansAmp to compare it to, but I’m having trouble believing it’s a substitute for less money only. Otherwise, I’m sure it’s good for what it does if it’s what someone likes. @eric.kiser did you have any better luck with it?

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I had great luck with the BDI-21. Loved that thing. It would be the first pedal I bought if I wanted a new pedalboard and wanted some time to decide on a preamp.

Cheap knockoffs that sound just like the originals is literally Uli Behringer’s business model. Many of their products sound identical to the originals.

And I am pretty sure the BDI-21 is one of them :slight_smile:

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I didn’t have any problems with it. I’ve played around with it quite a bit. My son even played around with doing looping so he could have two different guitar sounds on tap.

Like the video @howard posted there was one comparing the SansAmp BDDI, Behringer BDI-21, Caline Wine Cellar, and one other cheap one I can’t remember. To my ears, they all sound exactly the same.

Funny you brought this up because I was just looking at it yesterday and decided I’m going to post it in the Gear It Forward thread so somebody else can give it a try like you did for me. I’m going to be busy this weekend but I’ll post it next week.

It works fine, I just have other options I like better.

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Yeah. It wasn’t my favorite preamp, but it was definitely my favorite preamp for up to double or even triple the price. Great value.

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Big thanks to @eric.kiser for sending me down the Veritasium You Tube rabbit hole.

I enjoyed this episode about planned obsolescence. Fascinating that there was an actual worldwide light bulb manufacturing cartel with the aim of producing a shorter lasting light bulb.

On some level this exists probably with the music manufacturing world.

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Veritasium is awesome, great channel.

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Yeah, industry trade groups are like commerce Illuminati.
Every industry has them.
It’s why electronics ‘lifetime’ is 7 years (lifetime warranty = 7), kitchen appliances last 5, unless its a higher end brand like Viking, etc - they last a whopping 10. Phones = 2, etc.

Don’t get me started on how Wall Street negatively impacts the entire world and the consumer on how corporations are incentivized.

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