Do These $50 Caline Pedals Sound Good?

In this article, I want to answer the age old question: can a fifty dollar guitar pedal not suck? Or, to put it another way, is a pedal's non-suckiness inversely proportional to its price? Let’s find out.

Caline Guitar Effects is a company that has always intrigued me. I first saw them at the 2014 NAMM show when they were operating as a basic OEM/private-label service, pitching the same products to different companies to sell under their own brand name. It’s pretty clever. As a guitar effects company, they came onto the map in 2011, when an engineer in Shenzhen, China named Gary convinced the company to start making guitar pedals. Then, in 2018, they brought on a guy who became a friend of mine over Facebook: Shane Perry.

Now, Caline had released some decent products pre-2018, including the Caline Scuru S5 Mini Guitar Amp, which my son really enjoys playing with, and the Caline CP-43 Pegasus Overdrive, which is a Klon replica, but Shane is the guy who started making pedals that really caught my attention. They caught my attention because 1.) they include a unique, old school enclosure design that appeals to the pedal nerd in me, and 2.) the average price for a Caline guitar pedal starts around $40.

Shane really went back to the basics with Caline Guitar Effects and asked their fanbase on Facebook what they were looking for in a pedal. The resulting series is a ton of fun, and in the best way, it's a complete rebrand.

Simon Super Delay

First up is the Simon Super Delay. This is a brand new Caline pedal that doesn’t technically hit the market until August 2021. I managed to get an advance copy of the Simon Super Delay to futz around with, and basically? I really like this pedal. The design itself shows a funky little robot (who I can only assume is the eponymous Simon) in shades of battleship gray, black and red. It’s quirky, retro, fun, like one of those metal lunch boxes from the 1960s.

The functions on this are refreshingly simple. There are knobs for time mix and repeats, and then the rotary dial lets you choose between digital delay, analog delay and tape delay. This is a fully digital pedal, which means that the analog and tape delay options are just a simulation, but they get the job done. If you’re not sure whether or not digital pedals sound as good as analog, I’d recommend watching this past episode of the JHS Show. (Spoiler: they do.)

The M-Fuzz

The M-Fuzz is a bit of an enigma. I’m honestly not sure what the M stands for. Magnificent? Mighty? Magical? Your guess is as good as mine, and the enclosure doesn’t really offer any clues other than the color scheme, which is red and white, and the typeface, which reminds me of a 1960s car wash logo.

There’s definitely a connection here to the Big Muff circuitry, though there are some pleasant differences in the tone control sweep that set it apart. Although I haven’t seen the schematics, I’d guess that this is a classic Big Muff circuit with an altered tone stack. To reiterate: you can own this forever for a total of fifty bucks. Come on, people. You’d spend the same amount on a triple decaf mochaccino at your local Starbucks.

Enchanted Tone Highly Prized Overdrive

The Enchanted Tone Highly Prized Overdrive may have a long freakin’ name, but it’s worth it. This is a well-crafted Dumble-style overdrive stompbox that you can take home for around fifty bucks. Compare that with a vintage Dumble amplifier that starts in the neighborhood of $100,000 (give or take), and you’ve got yourself a heck of a deal.

I also love this enclosure design. It’s black and purple, and features a panoramic of ghosts, zombies, bats and graveyards-- not necessarily the first things that come to mind when you hear the word “enchanted,” but that’s why it works so well. Subverting an audience’s expectations is an art, and Caline Guitar Effects has perfected it.

Now, I played my fancy pants custom guitar through this in the JHS Show episode, but you can pretty much play this with any working guitar and enjoy the results.

Wonderland Ambient Reverb

This next pedal has its origins back in the year 1862, when a mathematician named Charles Dodgson started writing a little book called “Alice’s Adventures Underground.” He eventually decided to use the pen name Lewis Caroll, changed the title to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” and the rest is history. Roughly ninety years later, Walt Disney turned Alice’s story into one of his trippier animated movies (it’s no coincidence that they started showing this film in theatres again at the height of the psychedelic craze), and sixty years after that Caline Guitar Effects turned it into a guitar pedal: the Wonderland Ambient Reverb.

I love this pedal. I just do. The enclosure is really fun to look at. There's a white rabbit on it (remember, the one who was late for a very important date?), and a tagline at the bottom of the enclosure says “curiouser and curiouser.” It’s basically begging for you to launch into a David Bowie-worthy, shimmery, glimmery ambient guitar solo.

This pedal also draws a link back to the 1970s, to a musician named Brian Eno who created the sound of shimmer for pianos and keyboards and consequently featured it on records like The Unforgettable Fire by U2.

*Caline Technology CP-511 Enchanted Tone*

Osmium High Gain Distortion

Next up is a distortion pedal, which is clearly a tribute to a very famous late-seventies distortion pedal: The BOSS DS-1 Distortion. It's a simple black design with three knobs: tone, level and dist. Full disclosure: when you dime the tone control, it basically kills you. Like, your skin literally falls off and you can't breathe. But if you turn it up, it stays smooth. It's not harsh or brittle. Just do that, and you’ll be fine.

The name and the design here is a shout out to-- what else --the chemical element osmium, also known by the atomic number 76. Now, 76 could be a reference to 1976 and the DS-1, but the BOSS compact series didn’t actually drop until 1977. Maybe someone at Caline Guitar Effects made a mistake. Maybe it’s actually a secret code. Maybe it’s Maybelline. Whatever the case, I think we can all agree on one thing: this pedal has a cool name, and it sounds great.

Multimod Modulation Multi-Tool

Now I want to showcase the actual definition of “bang for your buck”-- a $50 pedal that has seven different sounds: the Multimod Modulation Multi-Tool. I love this pedal because you fit it on virtually any pedalboard and use it as your catch-all extra. The effects include chorus, flanger, phaser, doubler, vibrato, tremolo and pitch. Really basic modulation sounds, honestly, which is why this works so well. You also have knobs that allow you to tweak speed or shift (depending on the effect algorithm you’re using), depth and mix control.

It's a perfect pedal to put after your drives and/or before your delays and just have some fun sounds. Seven different sounds for fifty bucks. I think that math works out to basically $7 per effect. I can’t get over how bonkers that is.

Honorable Mentions

Now, this brand has a butt ton of pedals and effects, so I have to give a few honorable mentions before we wrap this up. Here we go:

The Jaguar Classic High Gain Distortion: Basically, this is the sound of a vintage Marshall head, but it’s small enough to throw in your gear bag. You’re welcome.
The Queen Bee Overdrive: a slightly different flavor of overdrive in the vein of the Honey Bee from BJFE/Bearfoot/One Control.
The Mellow Overdrive Reverb: This is an old school reverb with options for church, hall and room. It’s got a quirky sound to it and a sort of old diner vibe.
Caline Mariana Modulated Reverb: Spoiler: it's not modulation. It's actually reverb and modulation, and it has tons of cool sounds.
The Wave Machine Chorus: This is a play on classic BOSS CH-1 Chorus.
Stack Attack Preamp Overdrive and Compression: This is a preamp overdrive that also allows you to kick on compression. Pretty baller.
The DCP Series: This is a series of two-in-one pedals including the Easy Driver, the Artemis, the Sundance Special, the Stellar, the Brutus, The Nightwolf, the Andes, the Key West, the Devilfish and the Tigershark. I didn’t have time to go through these in as much detail as they deserve, but honestly, they’re insanely cheap, so you should take my word for it and buy them all. You won’t regret it.

Now, I’d like to wrap up this article with a disclaimer. A lot of times I see people saying, “JHS must be getting paid promotion on the products they use on the show.” Short answer? No. Long answer? Nooooooo. Take the episode this article is based on: Shane sent me a lot of these pedals pro bono, which was a nice gesture, but I also bought several of these for myself. Basically, I show what I like on the JHS Show. I have no attachment to this brand, or any of the others that we showcase. I don't do reviews. I don't do sponsored deals. I just show you gear that I like-- and occasionally, that I don’t like --to give you my honest opinion.

That’s it. That’s the show.

Guest UserJuly 9, 2021