The Pedal Movie

Documentaries are relatively cheap and easy to make compared to a feature film. They still require a huge amount of work and significant money, but its possible to come out of nowhere and make a great documentary without a huge budget or much experience. This is not one of those great documentaries. It's worth seeing because the topic is so interesting and there's no other film on the topic as far as I know, and it'soverdue, but its all over the place, and I really questions a lot of their choices. A much better film about several of the topics in this documentary could have been made. Like a lot of medicore documentaries, they touch on too many topics without really giving you any definitive history or even a consistent them. They kinda just throw it all in there. And because its a documentary and not a fictional drama, you don't notice just what a mess it is. Still worth watching, just could have been so much better if they had narrowed the focus and stayed on track instead of touching on everything under the sun, and the latest trends which may not be so relevant in a few years. I'm thinking many part of the second half will age very poorly. It certainly didn't feel remotely definitive on even one topic covered.

It start as a docimader and becomes advertisment of the individual pedal industry! Agree cool thing to make your pedal, but the "movie" forget to tell about tube pedals.. and talk only negatives from the rack "refrigerator"!!

SO one specific side of information and hide all the other sides!

This is a great history of pedals and the love of pedals, the manufacturers as well as the players. They also touch on how some players are more of pedal players or technology players, rather than guitar players. (If The Edge has no effects, does he make a sound?)

There was also a wealth of information on the various pedal manufacturers, technologies, circuits, and mystique. However, on the whole it never focused and went on far too long.

In the process, only a very brief mention was given to DSP "pedals". Or even effects built into newer amps. The limiting factor of pedals (other than the cost and singular focus) is that you can not effectively change settings mid-concert or mid-song.

DSP based pedal solutions can save endless "patches" and settings, opening up a world of freedom, while incorporating many (though of course not all) features from the pedals they were based on.

In the end it could have been an amazing hour-long documentary, or possibly extending it to cover other subjects. As it was, I had to watch it in many pieces to be able to make it all the way thru. Still it is worth a watch for guitar players, and will likely have you going to check out some new pedals!