... or the colour. On the left, a Line6 Echo Park pedal. On the right, the new Behringer Echo Machine pedal. Then again, I suppose Line6 didn't get the green from nowhere. Previously, Behringer were sued by Boss. They changed the cosmetic design of the pedals and the lawsuit went away.
Posted by Tom Whitwell.
Comments:
How in the hell does Behringer get away with ripping off peoples pedals?! This is rediculous ...
hm....regarding your previous comments and what seems to be the general mindset that behringer make crappy gear, "but at least it's cheap"....not so much. it seems with the new lines of pedals they're also upping prices, as shown in this list:
most new pedals look to be between 45 and 75 USD. certainly they're competing with (and beating) the prices of BOSS and others...but it's still not the 20/25 dollar bargain that it seems like a lot of people make it out to be.
I have a few of the Behringer pedals. I got them for inexpensive circuit-bending projects. They are good for that purpose, except the newer ones have so many controls and wet/dry jacks, they don't leave a lot of room for putting your own parts in.
That said, they really are cheap crap, and generally sound like cheap crap, too. Every single part is surprisingly cheap and flimsy.
Don't buy from Behringer if you believe that they're ripping off other people's work.
That said, I don't think there's anything illegal about naming your controls in the same manner as a competitor. After all, if there were such restrictions we'd have no conveniently labeled ADSR envelopes, no filter cutoff knobs, and a distinct lack of LFOs on most synth front panels.
I wouldn't be surprised if Roland is "OEMing"these for Beherunger. This is done ALL the time. A company makes the product and sells the naked (sans case) boards or licences another manufacturer to make and market the product. The closest (business) model would be DVD players. There are only about 3 or 4 companies that manufacture them, yet there are hundreds of brands for sale.
check this fantastic ebay link for a guy selling his behringer multi effects..he describes it as 'complete and utter toilet' Certainly the most honest ebay listing i have ever seen.
Roland OEM'ing these to Behringer? No way. You can't OEM something to a company AND sue them at the same time. Roland doesn't OEM anything. Sometimes they co-brand a unit (like Rhodes), but they don't sell their inside stuff to others in the same exact market. That would be dumb marketing.
Oddly enough, the reviews on the Behringer pedals seem to be pretty solid.
Boss was always known for stuffing their cheapo boxen with cheapo parts anyway... That's why guys like Robert Keely can charge to "upgrade" them. I'm not so sure how the Behringers could be that much worse.
From Harmony Central: Behringer OD-100: 9.1 rating Boss OD-1: 8.8 rating
Maybe that's just the effect of people expecting less from cheap gear, but if it was shoddy, I'd expect a few "What utter crap" reviews.
I find it amusing when you said : "They changed the cosmetic design of the pedals and the lawsuit went away." So what that says is the effects are the same, we are just protecting our consumer image, hmmm.
Why are people acting as if one undercutting company profiteering off of other peoples ideas and cheap labor are superior to another company doing the same thing?
Behringer is just playing capitalism by the rules. Now that they own the low budget corner of the market, they are raising their prices. Wow, businessmen being businessmen, shocking!!
i am no fan of behringer, but after having bought three diff line 6 pedals, consider these issues with line 6:
*each requires its own power source (no daisy chaining!) @ ~$25 each. If you have a run-of-the-mill floor board with 5 pedals - that's $125 in power and a sh*t load of wall worts to plug in.
*if you're like me and you go ahead and use your daisy chain, you get a lovely 60hz hum out the wazoo.
I have some Behringer pedals and the Sansamp clone is quite good, actually. As good as the original, with a XLR output as a bonus. And CHEAP, bought mine for like 1/6 of what I would pay for a Sansamp. It's my favourite "conventional" guitar distortion unit these days. I have plenty, but I really like this one :)
The Big Muff clone isn't a good, tho... okay, it sucks big time. ¬¬
The cheap plastic ones are so so, they're Boss clones, and there's nothing special about Boss (to me, at least).
i can't believe anybody is getting upset about behringer copying Line 6- a company that freely/blatantly quotes the names of other products as the basis for its 'models'. These effects cost coppers to make for boss and everyone else, at least behringer is making them affordable. i own two of these pedals and they're ok (not awesome and not very sturdy) at but at least I didn't spend a fortune. i wouldn't advise anybody to spend a fortune on boutique effects when you could get another amp or guitar for the same kind of money.
i've ABed boss and the equivalent behringer pedal several times (eq, distortion, octave, acoustic simulator, chorus, etc) and there's very little (if any) difference in sound. in fact the behringer acoustic simulator is better than the boss. i don't gig and so the plastic boxes are fine for me. can't wait for the harmonizer
... or the colour. On the left, a Line6 Echo Park pedal. On the right, the new Behringer Echo Machine pedal. Then again, I suppose Line6 didn't get the green from nowhere. Previously, Behringer were sued by Boss. They changed the cosmetic design of the pedals and the lawsuit went away.
Posted by Tom Whitwell. 
: 3:32 am
