Are AliExpress guitar pedals worth it? (I bought 7! These two are the best and worst)

Last update: Jan 17, 2024

Spoiler: the only AliExpress guitar pedal that is terrible is the Tomsline Engineering Mario BitCrusher. I gave it away. The Ammoon Delay / Echo was my favorite. All in all, are AliExpress pedals good? YES, they can be! Many of the AliExpress pedals (often also available on Amazon) are clones of other pedals, and at prices ranging from $15-$45 these are good options if you’re on a budget.

If you don’t want to read this article I made a video with all of the AliExpress pedals I purchased, including sound demos:

Original article published Nov 06, 2021:

I had to do it. How could I resist?

Everybody knows Behringer launched a series of cheap $25 pedals and that’s cool and all. But you know what’s better than a name brand pedal? A no name pedal.

Don’t hold me to that.

In any case, if you’ve never shopped at AliExpress it’s like the Amazon of Asia. And unless you’re buying brand name stuff on Amazon you can probably find what you want on AliExpress for a lot cheaper. Of course, you gotta wait a month or two or sometimes more for the shipping.

But guitar pedals?

Listen, I don’t need 7 new guitars pedals tomorrow. Amazon, Sweetwater, Musician’s Friend, Guitar Center … well, they ship way too fast for my needs. 😉

So here we are.

What pedals did I buy?

Oh man, get excited, because I got quite an assortment.

In order from cheapest to most expensive we have …

SAPHUE Tremolo for $16.60

Yeah it looks ugly as hell and I can’t wait to try it. Why does it have a bull on it?! Very exciting!

Dolamo D-3 Super Chorus for $19.45

Sadly there are no random animal graphics on this one. I kinda dig the 70s style, though.

Dolamo D-14 Delay for $20.77

This color is atrocious. In other words, it’s perfect. I can’t imagine a $20 delay is going to be useful for anything other than an expensive brick, but we shall see.

Ammoon Retro Fuzz for $23.75

I don’t know why, but I have high hopes for this one. And you know what they say about high hopes, right? I don’t either. But it’s probably something like “don’t have them if you’re buying $23.75 guitar pedals you dolt.”

Ammoon Delay / Echo for $23.75

Yeah, I bought two delays, okay? If I get two bricks, though, so help me. Also, the description says delay, but the pedal says Echo. WHICH IS IT AMMOON?!

Rowin Dumbler Overdrive for $23.99

These companies could get better logos for $5 on Fiverr. But who am I to judge? Wait, I just did. Dumb jokes in honor of the dumbler. I’ll be here all week.

And for the grand finale I am so excited for this pedal I can hardly breathe. Introducing the …

AROMA AMO-3 Mario Bit Crusher! for $34.76

First off, what a name for a pedal company. Can you smell it from there? Scratch and sniff, baby! I love bit crushers so I absolutely had to splash out for this $35 bad boy.

After shipping and taxes this massive haul ended up costing $175.64 or an average of $25 per pedal. Just like Behringer! But better … or different. Hopefully better, though.

Actually, I’ll settle for “at least they work.”

Of course I’ll review every pedal as they come in. Stay tuned by subscribing to Art of Shred!