Chibson USA Delivers Finest Transparent Tone Tech With the Placebo Pedal

July 14, 2021 · 5 sources

Chibson USA, the Instagram page known for zany guitar memes, partnered with Daredevil Pedals to launch the Placebo Pedal, its first pedal release. The joke is in the name: the pedal does literally nothing to the guitar signal, which its makers present as the pinnacle of transparent tone technology¹. Mixdown reported the pedal was available now at launch, in limited numbers².

The pedal carries the furniture of a real effects unit without the effect¹. Its features include:

• A footswitch
• A status LED that lights to let you know the effect is engaged¹
• Two control knobs, labeled Dosage and Side FX

All of these, once again, do absolutely nothing to change the guitar's sound¹. Gearnews confirmed the same after its look at the pedal, noting that the two controls labeled Dosage and Side FX don't really do much, and that the guitar sounds exactly the same³.

The pricing leaned into the gag. The Placebo Pedal was available in limited numbers at a discounted price of $99, down from its usual $1,496¹. Gearnews gave the pre-discount figure as $1495.99³. One genuine option hid inside the joke: buyers could add an optional "classic fuzz" circuit from Daredevil for an additional $25¹. Gearnews tried the fuzz add-on and reported that it sounds pretty dirty and raucous³.

The makers played the premise straight in their launch copy¹:

Guitar.com also noted that the tongue-in-cheek pedal is not endorsed by Brent Hinds of Mastodon¹. Daredevil's own product page describes the Placebo as a collaboration with Chibson USA, both cashing in on the opportunity⁴, and a Japanese product listing later cataloged it as a joke pedal born of the Chibson USA collaboration, offered with a PCB kit⁵.