As you may know, I recently purchased the Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay, and wrote about how much I absolutely LOVE this pedal! While I can’t say enough about it, I anguished over getting it for a long time because of the price. At $335, it was so difficult to justify buying the pedal. But though I’m very budget-conscious, and a lot of this blog is about getting great tone without spending a lot of money, sometimes great tone just costs what it costs. I’m glad I finally did break down and get it because it is by far the best delay pedal I’ve ever used!
So what’s the big news? Well, one of the biggest complaints about Mad Professor pedals is that they’re super-expensive. People who have purchased them, like myself, are very happy with them, but their price still smarts a bit. So in response to that complaint, MP made a great move: They added a line of less expensive pedals that mirror their current line. But instead of being hand-wired, these pedals are built using PC boards. Also the case they’re using is much less expensive. The net result is that you can get into Mad Professor pedals in the $200 price point range as opposed to the $300+ price point. Nice.
In any case, here’s what Mad Professor has to say about their new offerings:
Mad Professor was at Summer NAMM 2010 in Nashville 18-20 June 2010. We did show there the first redesigned pedal, a new Little Green Wonder.
Same tone, same look, but we did design a new pcb that helps us build these lot faster and for better price. The quality is the same, same parts but now pcb mounted pots, jacks and switch.
The box is also not the same Made In Sweden Elfa box that is made for heavy industry but a high quality pedal box that is bit lighter but very durable. That helps us to save a lot of money.
The only complain we have heard about the pedals have been the price, this is our answer to that.
We still make the handwired pedals for those who prefer them. Coming soon new Deep Blue Delay and Sweet Honey Overdrive.
Conceivably, if the circuit is the same, the tone should still be the same, but based upon experience, different build materials create different tones. They may be slight, but there’s always a difference. My only concern with the less expensive line would be response. As long as the response and dynamics remain the same or as close to the same as the original hand-wired pedals, these pedals should
Guitar Gear 
Recently purchased Mighty Red Distortion PCB Model and in Brand New Condition thru US Dealer and It was not working out of the box was very dissapoitment and upset knowing that MP pedals are the best and expensive in the world but still PCB is PCB there is something to compare, and the mass production of those pedals will give these results that the pedals won’t work out of the box. Yes it is cheaper but not reliable.
Wow! Interesting! Sorry to hear about the DOA pedal! Wouldn’t expect that out of MP. I guess it all depends on who’s doing the wiring. I do know that the PCB is used to cut down on cable runs, and that they still hand wire the connections to the board.
But you’re right with regard to mass production as usually only a sample the units are tested out of the lot, and there’s always a chance that a bad unit is missed in the test.