by glitch » Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:46 pm
Well, as a local I guess I should probably finally chime in here.
After finally getting over to Japan, I discovered that the number of effect manufacturers here is really phenomenal. I go into a couple of the big music shops in Osaka, and I'm astonished at the number of pedal companies I've never heard of.
Yeah, there are a lot that you already know of over in the West: Maxon, Guyatone, Arion, etc. (not to mention Boss or Ibanez). Other lesser-know pedalmakers include Sobbat, Albit/Cranetortoise, Hao, and Boot-Leg, just off the top of my head.
Albit has some interesting ideas for preamps and tube circuits (I've got one of their A3GP pre's, which comes in handy sometimes) and their sister company Cranetortoise makes a few nice boosts. However, they're interesting in the same way that Radial Engineering is interesting over in North America: they solve problems. They're not really so appealing in a "this makes my guitar sound like a grinding steel girder" sort of way, as least not that I've found yet.
The biggest problem, though, is finding "cool" effect builders. LAL has been mentioned. (I love those guys, BTW.) However, as in the West, the vast majority of pedal manufacturers seem to be just recycling the same old distortion boxes -- nothing really groundbreaking there.
And, frankly, there's a huge amount of stuff here that's just plain crap. Don't go thinking that just because it's Japanese, it's cool. That's the case with pretty much everything, though. (Aside: after I started travelling, I began referring to this as BBC Syndrome: if you were to judge by what's imported to America, you'd think that British TV was full of nothing but thoughtful, entertaining, well-produced programming; when you actually go to the UK, however, you find that most of their television is just as unwatchable as it is in the States.) Only the good stuff leaves the country, so that's really only what you see from the outside. "Grass is always greener", and all that.
As far as finding another company that is as cool as LAL (or the usual suspects roundup of boutique manufacturers from the States), I'll keep looking. But that really isn't the sound that most Japanese guitarists seem to be going for. Those few that do go in for that kind of noise are already used to buying import pedals or ordering their gear from overseas, so I think it might be a while before the local market here catches up.
-- glitch.@#$%!
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"I want to keep you alive so there is always the possibility of murder... later"
Devi-esque: E13 TBD, Torn's Peaker, Feed Back Loop Oscillator, Synth Mangler; Devi OK, BIT, ND, 25, 05/25, Hype, US, JP, PEEP's