TEMU is the new Ali Express

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in passing the TEMU site. Little was I to know that a few days later I would actually order something from TEMU. I must have been temporarily insane because the items that I ordered weren't exactly necessary. One of them, a guitar t-shirt, is made out of 100% polyester and so it is dubious as to whether I will ever wear it. Oh well, that's only 28 NIS down the drain, so not exactly a great loss. 

Along with the t-shirt, I ordered something more useful: a portable pedal power supply with 8 channels. I have noticed that many guitar pedals these days are very small, and that the reduction in size precludes them from having their own battery. So in order to supply these (as yet non-existing) pedals with power, the portable power supply was born that gets charged in advance before a gig. At this stage, I was informed that the mininum order is 120 NIS, so I added a guitar string winder that cost all of 8 NIS. This apparently is a useful accessory when changing strings.

This order was very much a test, to see how fast TEMU supplies their goods, so it's just as well that there was nothing essential in this order. To my surprise, the tracking information showed a few days ago that the package was already in Israel and on Friday I saw that the package had been delivered. I assumed that it was delivered to the kibbutz 'post office', although by the time I saw the notification, the office was already closed. But the package was there on Sunday morning.

From ordering to arrival took only three weeks and this is because the package was sent by air, instead of by sea. Thus when my wife said the other day that she was having no luck in finding curtains for our granddaughters' rooms, I could recommend the ridiculously low priced curtains of TEMU. Of course, the end result probably won't look as good as in the picture, but for the price that they are charging (33 NIS for a pair), the result should be well worth it.

At the same time, I took the opportunity to order what I should have ordered before: the portable multifunctional guitar effects pedal. This little unit has received several positive reviews on YouTube, and again for its ridiculously low price (183 NIS), it seems worthwhile to buy and try. This unit has its own internal battery so there's no need for the external power supply.

I've been watching a series of YouTube about playing ambient guitar; this is of course device heavy, and one of the pedals used is an octave shifter. Shifting the sound up one octave will make for a very interesting sound. TEMU has a suitable pedal (the Rowin Harmoniser with no inbuilt power supply) for a very reasonable 215 NIS (and I've seen how I can get a 30% discount), but the reviews of this pedal were very bad (bad latency and inacurracy), so I am no longer tempted to buy and try this pedal. A much better pedal is the Electronic Sub 'n' up mini octaver pedal, but this is also more twice the price, at 528 NIS here in Israel (so add some more for delivery). Now I have to consider whether this is such a good idea. Another pedal that will be much cheaper is a compressor, but again, I have to consider whether this is necessary.

On the other hand, I have discovered the Donner Octave Guitar Pedal that in terms of functionality seems to be as good as the Electronic Sub but only costing $56 via Amazon, including shipping. I am still waiting for the wireless connection to arrive, so I don't know when to expect this guitar pedal (for financial reasons I'm not going to order it for another two weeks). There are many demonstrations on YouTube and all the reviews are positive.

There are many pedal reviews on YouTube but these are almost all with guitars playing lead lines, not chords, and certainly not in a band setting, making it very hard for me to justify purchasing any. I'll see what I can get out of the multifunctional pedal before I make any further decision.

We were discussing TEMU during the visit of my son/daughter-in-law/granddaughter, when the DIL said that "TEMU is the new Ali Express". Sending by air is definitely an improvement, although this might explain why items cost more than they do at AE.

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