# Counterfeit Pedals - Beware



## Jeff B. (Feb 20, 2010)

Mad Professor, Xotic and MI Audio fakes are 3 currently offered.
effect pedal - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

I suppose they needed something to do to pass the time between making fake MN3005 delay IC's.


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## georgemg (Jul 17, 2011)

Thanks for the heads up. At first glance they look really close to the originals. The knobs on all three give them away though - too far apart on the Deep Blue Delay and Crunch Box, and the wrong type on the BB. Sadly, I could definitely see someone get taken buying one of these used if they didn't compare them.

A real one below, compare to above.


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Anything "boutiquey" seems to get knocked off these days. Buyer beware and thanks for the PSA Jeff!


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

oh dealextreme.....

some great stuff on there.... too bad they've gone the way of the fakes.


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## Evilmusician (Apr 13, 2007)

Ya know what now I'm curious how they sound ????????????????? compared to the real deal............


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

About 10 years back or so, Zachary Vex was having problems with knockoffs of the Super Hard On being sold in Japan. He posted pictures of the original and knockoffs. It was clear there were differences in the build quality, although the circuit was identical. So, as far as how they sound, my guess is, as close as they can, given component tolerances. As for build quality, we are well beyond the days of the solder-heavy boards that EHX, MXR, and Boss used to produce. Anybody can send the specs to a jobber these days and get SMD-form boards made for them at reasonable cost in modest quantities. And an SMD board contracted by the original manufacturer from that jobber will be the same build quality as one contracted by an independent "maker".

One of the corners that Zach had painted himself into was that from the get-go he has only used Hammond 1590B chassis, which any doofus hobbyist can buy easily and cheaply. I'm not criticizing him for his choice, just noting that using a generic form factor elevates the risk of being pirated. You won't see counterfeit Boss, DOD, Mayer, or Danelectro pedals out there, simply because the boxes are non-standard and commercially available in OEM form, and few counterfeiters will want to invest the money to get such boxes made for them. Silk-screening somebody else's logo on a standard box, however, is child's play. And nobody is going broke making and selling 3PDT stomp switches in volume these days.

In the early days, Zach's pedals were all hand-painted by Jason Myrold. That gave them a little something extra, but it also meant that it was harder to spot the sorts of unit-to-unit variations that would tip one to something being a non-original, since the hand-painted aspect meant each original would be just a little different (although the finishing on the ZVex pedals was really something to behold, and rarely undertaken by other manufacturers). Looking at the pictures of the real and fake SHOs, it took me a while to spot the differences. Not as hard as the find-the-7-things-different-between-these-two-cartoons challenges, mind you, but still not the sort of thing that would seize your attention if it was the only store for 100 miles that carried that pedal, and there was only one in the display case.

It's ironic that the standardization of chassis, switches, and manufacturing methods has made many aspects so cheap, that it allowed small time guys to get into the pedal business, and at the same time made it so easy for others to seize on, and exploit, the success of individual small-time manufacturers. I will point out that you tend not to see counterfeit amplifiers the way you see counterfeit pedals, simply because producing enough to justify the effort requires a tremendous outlay on the part of the counterfeiter, something which is much less true of pedals. These days just about anybody can run a pedal business from their college dorm room; something you couldn't do when it comes to amps or guitars.


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