“All the pedals should be put in a big pile and we should light ‘em on fire”: Mac DeMarco says why he thinks pedals are “crappy”
“They’re stupid. They’re cheap pieces of shit with crappy electronics.”

Image: Scott Legato / Getty
Mac DeMarco has some rather scathing opinions on guitar pedals, with the artist and producer sharing his in a new interview with MusicTech that they’re “crappy” and he “hates them.”
It might not come as much of a surprise that DeMarco has a different approach to making music and playing guitar, as he’s not always one to conform to usual methods of recording and putting out music – earlier this year, he released an album (One Wayne G) which boasted 199 songs and had a run time of over eight hours.
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DeMarco’s comments to MusicTech might well earn him the ire of pedal junkies: “Honestly, before I talked to you, I was just talking to my sound guy. I was sitting around the table outside and I was telling him how much I hate guitar pedals,” he says.
“They’re stupid. They’re cheap pieces of shit with crappy electronics. It’s just crap in the path. I don’t like crap. I don’t care if it makes you sound like Jimi Hendrix or whatever. I don’t want it. I don’t want it! It just stresses me out thinking about it.
“And the cables that people use in between them. Oh, man. And then the power – crappy. Everything’s crappy. It’s just crappy. And I don’t want them crapping up my shit. No crap.”
With all of his bold opinions shared, he does admit that he did have a small pedalboard for the Five Easy Hot Dogs tour that he embarked on, however it comprises of just a tuner, a vibrato pedal and an impulse response effect for his acoustic guitar.
“Yeah, no more pedals. All the pedals should be put in a big pile and we should light ‘em on fire,” he states.
Keep up to date with Mac DeMarco’s latest news and releases on his official website.