Epiphone is, presumably quickly, going to announce a multi-effects pedal, as early vendor listings point out. Whereas there’s no official phrase on it but, the existence of these vendor listings, pictures and advertising and marketing copy counsel that this can be a actual, new product from Epiphone.
Besides… it perhaps isn’t. New that’s. And there’s an argument to be made that it would probably not be that “from Epiphone” both. Confused? Nicely, check out this picture, this picture and this picture of the Epiphone Energy Gamers Multi-Results Pedal, presently nonetheless listed on Sam Ash’s web site. Now have a look at this picture and this picture of the Joyo TC-1 Tone Chain.
The livery is totally different in fact, however the precise design of the casing – the form, plus the places of the footswitches, knobs, inputs and outputs – are just about equivalent simply with a distinct paintjob. Whereas we are able to’t speculate as to the interior similarities, it’s fairly hanging that each of those items have the identical casing, the identical results, the identical I/O format, even the identical knobs. So what’s happening?
Nicely, what appears probably is that Gibson wished an reasonably priced compact multi-effects unit, and so ordered the identical unit from the OEM (Authentic Tools Producer – tech converse for a corporation that produces objects which are then offered by a 3rd get together as their very own) as Joyo, and gave it Epiphone branding. The OEM would possibly even have been Joyo itself – in spite of everything, there’s a precedent for Joyo pedals being offered underneath totally different manufacturers – simply have a look at the Joyo American Sound in comparison with the Harley Benton American TrueTone.
That is completely authorized, and quite common on this planet of low-cost client electronics – from mp3 gamers to electrical razors to, sure, guitar pedals. It’s distinct from copying or counterfeiting, because the OEM retains the design rights, licensing them out to the model which the product is being offered underneath.
It’s not a brand new apply, both, as this prolonged deep-dive from Josh Scott exhibits – pedal-makers have been doing this because the Huge Muff was launched. Scott demonstrates in that video that for some time within the late ‘60s the Guild Foxey Girl fuzz was the very same pedal because the Electro-Harmonix Huge Muff – similar manufacturing line, similar elements, only a totally different title slapped on the entrance.
Neither is it restricted to results both – do not forget that embarrassing story the place Squier shipped a bunch of Strat-O-Sonics with Epiphone-branded tailpieces? Fender blamed the error on the OEM firm it sourced the bridges from. However this story was a reminder of how utilizing OEM merchandise could make a number of sense: when making reasonably priced guitars, you don’t actually need to reinvent the wheel with the {hardware}. On a sub-$400 guitar, a bridge is a bridge.
However for guitar merchandise, pedals are the place we see rebadged OEM merchandise most. Certainly, if you happen to’ve ever gone price range pedal purchasing on Amazon, you’ll have shortly been confronted with scores of equivalent items with totally different manufacturers stamped on them. For instance: the Getaria Guitar Multi Results Pedal, is seemingly equivalent to each this LEKATO pedal and this Dice Child unit.
In some ways, that is an inevitable consequence of merchandise being accessible at such absurdly low-cost price-points. Growing unique merchandise prices money and time. That’s why when Amazon itself created its personal line of AmazonBasics results pedals, individuals found the NUX emblem on the PCB – since you merely can’t design a brand new pedal from the bottom up, promote it for lower than $30 a pop and make any type of revenue.
However whereas that’s true of Amazon – who wished to make pedals as a result of it makes all the things – or price range manufacturers like LEKATO, it feels a bit totally different while you’re speaking in regards to the world’s second most well-known guitar model, which brings us again to the Epiphone Energy Gamers Multi Results Pedal.
As a result of whereas Epiphone is in fact the price range arm of Gibson, it’s nonetheless a model with an enormous quantity of historic cachet itself – Lennon, McCartney, Gallagher, Marr… and so why is it seemingly placing itself alongside the myriad nameless corporations promoting generic mini-pedals for peanuts on Amazon? Even on the absolute newbie Energy Participant stage, it could really feel like an odd determination to say the least.
Evaluate this with how Fender moved into the price range finish of the consequences market final yr with the Hammertone vary – every of which was housed in a unique enclosure and, in line with Fender, had been designed from the bottom up by the Huge F’s in-house pedal guru Stan Cotey.
On condition that Gibson additionally has in-house pedal-design expertise with the current Maestro revival, you’ll count on an organization with that stage of status and funding within the guitar trade to take a equally ‘ground-up’ strategy to its Epiphone pedals.
As a substitute, the one notable distinction between the Epiphone unit and its Joyo cousin – with out getting a glance inside no less than – seems to be the worth. Some vendor listings priced the Epiphone at $70 greater than the Joyo when it launched in 2020 (this value dropped throughout the product’s lifetime).
In fact, Guitar.com can’t affirm that the similarities are greater than beauty, and up to date internals could certainly justify the next price ticket. Besides, it could be fairly an uncommon factor for a significant guitar model to be seen doing. Gibson didn’t reply to our question as as to if there are any technical variations between the Epiphone Energy Gamers Multi Results Pedal and the Joyo TC-1 Tone Chain.
Within the meantime, we’ll await the official launch of the product from Epiphone, and hope that it’s going to convey some readability to the state of affairs.
