After getting the chance to review and demo the M-1 Ram’s Head Fuzz from Buffalo FX, we were looking forward to something a little milder from them, as the M-1 was a real powerhouse (in only the best of ways, mind you). They responded with the Carrera Overdrive, a low-to-mid gain boostable dirt pedal that was designed for clean and edge-of-breakup types of tones. Combining an easy-to-use control layout with impressive circuitry...
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As it turns out, our first foray into the world of effects pedals from Bogner Amplification is a good one. The Burnley Distortion features a simple control setup, transformer design by one of the most famous audio pioneers in the business and an LED that reacts to your playing. What else could you possibly need from a slick, purple, monster of a dirt pedal? You’re correct: nothing. Assembled with a 100% analog circuit, the...
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2-in-1 pedals are fairly badass, and always welcome into the musical fold around here. Every once in a while, however, we get to check out the rare and even more fun THREE-in-1 pedal, one of which has graced us with its presence today. The High Tide from M.D. Effects is a chorus, reverb and delay all mixed together, with a boatload of options for tweaking this sonic beauty to fit literally any musical situation you may come across...
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The Earth Drive from Sarno Music Solutions was one of the best drives we had the pleasure of reviewing lately, so we were equally stoked to check out its big brother, the Solar Flare Distortion. Featuring another user-friendly control section and a whole slew of killer tones to drive your amp, this second offering from Sarno lived up to expectations, and then some. Get ready to blast some eardrums and rock some faces, this is the...
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After checking out the new Getaway Driver from our friends at Orange Amps a couple months ago, we were excited to plug in the Fur Coat, another new effect in their lineup. This monster is a vintage fuzz loosely based on the Foxx Tone Machine, with an added octave option, for full tonal control and all the dirt you can handle. User-friendly controls and aesthetically intriguing artwork make this one fuzz that’s sure to...
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Ambient reverb pedals have been all the rage over the last few years, and today’s featured pedal stands right up there with the best of them. The Mercury Seven were the first group of American astronauts to be chosen to go to space, way back in 1959, and the Mercury7 Reverb pays homage to their journey into the unknown. An options-laden reverb pedal that sends you high into the atmosphere, with no real knowledge of if...
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Overdrive effects are, let’s face it, everywhere, and in order to stand out from the crowd, you’ve got to do something pretty special. The crew over at Bomes Electric has done just that with today’s featured pedal, the Sir-Gains-A-Lot, a dual preset boost overdrive that sings with amp-pushing flash and gorgeous sustain. Extremely user-friendly and a cinch to program, this pedal is perfect for the beginning of any...
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Delay is pretty much our favorite effect around here, from a slight slap back to an endless echo through space and time, and today’s function-filled pedal takes us on a journey that covers just about all the bases you need in the delay world. The Andromeda from Seymour Duncan is labeled as a dynamic digital delay, but there are wonderful analog aspects present here, too, plus some modulation, MIDI stuff and more. A real...
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We love a good dual effect pedal around these parts, and the pedal we’re taking a gander at today features two beloved tones in spades. The FuzzBubble 45 from Analog Alien is an overdrive and fuzz in one, combining a couple of classic sounds into one pretty purple box, and giving you all the dirt you can handle. Giving you multiple tonal options ranging through a lot of years past, this beast is sure to have you sounding like...
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While we don’t often do many bass pedal reviews (sorry, guys), we’ve got a pedal today that guitarists AND fans of the low end will appreciate and marvel in. Based on the famed Akai Deep Impact SB-1 Bass Synth, the Future Impact I is also a bass synthesizer pedal, offering more options and parameter controls than the the Akai, but all the while staying true to the sounds it has become famous for creating. Ready to take a...
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We’ve been wanting to get our grubby mitts on a pedal from Wilson Effects for a couple of years now, and that day has finally arrived. Today’s featured pedal, the Stoned Grasshopper, not only has one of the best monikers we’ve come across so far, but also houses three independent effects that can be used by themselves or in conjunction with each other. While Boost, Overdrive and Fuzz are three fairly popular effects...
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The last couple of pedals we’ve checked out from ZVEX Effects have been pretty wild, untamed and crazy, to say the least. Today’s pedal brings us back into reality, if just a hair, for a truly powerful and rocking overdrive/distortion effect, via the Box of Rock. A classic in its own right, this little silver gem appears on pedalboards and in rigs throughout the world, and we were lucky enough to get our hands on one to...
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Combining delay and reverb into one effect should absolutely be done more often, especially if the result is anything like today’s featured piece of gear. Improving a bit on the first version of this pedal, the Caverns Delay Reverb V2 takes everything we loved from the initial go-round and fine tunes it all into a still-compact enclosure with amazing sonic prowess. With three reverb modes and an analog, tape-style delay,...
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There’s a decent chance you’ve heard of the famous Echoplex EP-3 Tape Delay from Maestro, made popular in the 70’s and 80’s by Andy Summers, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, and Brian May, among others. You may also know that these older units are finicky, tricky to repair, costly at times and not always the most road-worthy for the touring musician. That’s where today’s pedal comes in: the Belle Epoch...
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Having recently reviewed and demoed a couple of pedals from our pals down under at Midnight Amplification, the Sentinel Reverb Overdrive and the Giant Sound Preamp Boost Fuzz, we were wicked excited to delve into yet another one of these Aussie-created effects. The Mynd Driver, in addition to having an awesome name, also conjured up some incredible overdrive sounds, from slight to heavy, with a lot of variation between the extremes....
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There are a ton of great reverb pedals on the market right now, so you’ve got to do something to stand out from the pack to succeed. The crew at JHS Pedals is pretty good at that in general, and today’s pedal is no exception. The Spring Tank Reverb not only provides lush, amp-type spring reverb tones, but gives you a second channel from which to select for a different reverb depth at any given moment. The two independent...
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If you haven’t noticed by now, we like delay pedals here…a lot. Needless to say, we were pretty stoked to hear about the release of the Rubberneck Analog Delay from DOD / DigiTech, and were finally able to get our hands on one to review and demo for you. Let’s just say this machine has a cool retro vibe, with echo sounds spanning decades, and more options in an analog delay pedal than we may have ever seen. Buckle...
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Instrument crossovers are fairly rare in this business, but we’re super-excited about the one we’re bringing you today. The PLUS is a piano-style sustain pedal from Gamechanger Audio, and while that may seem like a not-too-flashy effect, it is. All the ambience and swells you’ve been searching for in countless reverb pedals presents itself here in a unique and unexplored fashion, giving you a ton of layers and audio...
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Wacky, crazy, outside the box effects really get our pulses racing here at Pedal of the Day, and today’s pedal delivered the goods in spades. Effects that are hard to categorize or identify are usually our favorites, as they represent a new style of thinking and showcase the builders’ innovative technique and auditory prowess, which we simply cannot get enough of. The Sneak Attack VCA Tremolo, accompanied by the Lil’...
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One of the new key ingredients to our demo video sound is the marvelous Black Box from Sarno Music Solutions, a true audiophile quality, vacuum tube pickup driver that brings your tone to life. In addition to this marvel, they also make some effects pedals, and today we’re going to look at the Earth Drive Overdrive Boost. An easy control section makes this one a cinch to set and go, but there’s a lot to be discovered...
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Every now and again, we get an effect coming through our shop that defies all reason, logic and musicality, and those pedals usually come straight from Akron, Ohio. If you don’t know by now (all 3 of you), EarthQuaker Devices has been not just pushing, but destroying the sonic envelope for the last decade or so, crushing everyone and everything in its path to total oddity domination in the effects pedal world. Today’s...
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What can you say about the crop of pedals coming out of Portland, Oregon from Spaceman Effects? They have taken on a life all their own, with limited edition runs, outside-the-box designs and sonic explorations and a design, both inside and outside the pedals, that is rivaled by none. We try to get our hands on each pedal they release, just to see what they’ve come up with now, and are proud to bring you their latest today: the...
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The Big Muff Pi “Ram’s Head” fuzz circuit is one of the most well-known, coveted and revered sounds in the history of guitar effects, heard on countless classic albums and in live shows over the past 4+ decades. While the original pedals are expensive and difficult to obtain, there are a number of companies who make tasty recreations of this type of sound, emulating that specific fuzz tone to a T. The M-1 Ram’s...
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Happy Thanksgiving Weekend, American readers – hope you had a good one! We’ve got a killer overdrive boost pedal for y’all today, coming straight outta Indianapolis, Indiana. The Dream Drive features a simple enclosure, basic controls and not a lot of frills, but when a drive sounds like this one does, who needs anything else? Taking its inspiration from classic, overdriven tube amps, the Dream Drive is a uniquely...
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Sometimes, you see a pedal and, for purely aesthetic reasons, say to yourself, “I gotta check this thing out.” Well, that’s how we’ve felt about the Bloody Finger Distortion from the Guitar Tone Company (GTC) for some time now, and were super-stoked to finally get our grubby mitts on one. No disappointment here, folks, this guy is the real deal, with a simple control section, and enough power and gusto to bring...
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Having been fans of Ryan Adams’ music for years, we were pretty stoked about his collaboration with JHS Pedals and PaxAm Records in the form of today’s featured effect, the VCR (Volume-Chorus-Reverb). Inspired by 80’s guitar heroes and Ryan’s signature sound, this pedal takes three effects, crams them into one box and gives you a ton of combination options for adding slight nuances of sound or bold, fat tonal...
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Over the years, we’ve reviewed some awesome pedals from our Canadian friends Fairfield Circuitry, and today we get to do it once more. The Shallow Water is a K-Field Modulator pedal, one that mixes in elements of chorus, flanger, vibrato and more, to form a distinctly exclusive new type of effect. Built using simulation mathematics and old tape echo flavors, this hard-to-classify pedal is right up our alley. A Rate control...
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After the success of the DD-500 Delay pedal they put out late in 2015, Boss decided to ride the wave and issue two more similarily-shaped but vastly different effects machines, one of which we’ll take a look at today. The MD-500 focuses on modulation effects, and we have a review coming up for that one, but let’s check out the RV-500 right now, a mega-powerful reverb with more ambient options than you can shake a Fender...
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In the land of 2-in-1 effects pedals, there are a ton of fairly familiar combinations we’ve encountered over the years – Boost/Overdrive, Delay/Reverb, Chorus/Vibrato, etc. Today’s pedal takes a bit of a left turn from the norm, combining Overdrive and Reverb, for a marvelous new sonic equation. The Sentinel from Australia’s own Midnight Amplification mixes these two effects in a unique yet extremely useable...
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With all the powerful delays that have been coming out over that last couple of years, we were still REALLY excited about today’s featured pedal. After checking out the Reverb pedal from Empress Effects last year, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on the all new Echosystem, a Dual Engine Delay with the same look and feel of its predecessor. Needless to say, it was quite impressive right out of the box, and even more so...
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Last year, we had the chance to review/demo a new pedal from Orange Amps, the Two Stroke, a versatile clean boost/EQ with a ton of options. We couldn’t wait to see what they came out with next, and today we get to head down that road once more. The Getaway Driver is an overdrive pedal that is also versatile, with a load of sounds, output choices and classic rock and roll tones. When you first look at the Getaway Driver, you see...
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We’ve been fortunate enough to get to review and demo some excellent gear from our friends over at Eventide, and that is gonna keep going today when we take a look at another marvelous creation from these guys. The PitchFactor is a pitch shifter / harmonizer / octave and so much more, adding layers upon layers of sound into your signal path, and allowing you to create and imagine more than you could before. With synth effects,...
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Getting pedals that come through the shop without a distinct label as to what they are or what they can do is always intriguing, and our featured pedal for today baffled us until we had the chance to plug it in. The Instant Lo-Fi Junky from ZVEX Effects is a compressor, chorus, vibrato and more, an sound experimenter’s dream in a small, pedalboard-friendly enclosure, with controls that are basic, but create a wide palette of...
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Reverb and Delay are based in similar categories, the main one being ambience. Fantastic individually, these two effects really take it to the next level when combined and played together, and that’s exactly what happened with today’s featured pedal. The Sky Fi from Alexander Pedals is a reverb and delay wrapped into one silvery enclosure, exploding with echoes, shimmers and all the ambient tones you can handle. Reverb...
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Happy Halloween, everybody! Today we’re going to take a look at a revolutionary delay pedal, one that’s no longer in production, but set the tone for echo effects worldwide. The Panther from JHS Pedals is a BIG, bold, fat-sounding, lush delay pedal, complete with a ton of tones and options, making it perfectly customizable for what you need it to do. Lots to go over here, so let’s jump right in! Feedback, Mix and...
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Continuing their status as one of the top-of-the-heap companies in the effects pedal world, Keeley Electronics introduced some multi-effects boxes to the world last year, and we’re lucky enough to have one of them to check out today. The Super Mod Workstation covers more ground than it probably needs to, or should be able, which is definitely NOT a bad thing. With more effects and parameter settings than you’ll know what...
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Effects pedals with actual tubes in them are just the best, right? They produce a comfortable, inviting sound and feeling when engaged, one that you don’t want to give up…ever. Today’s pedal does just that and more – the Tube Factor Overdrive from Hughes & Kettner promises to take your sound up a notch, maybe even to 11 if you’re lucky… As far as controls go, there are three knobs on the Tube...
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A couple years back, we reviewed a pedal from a small company in Chicago (the Nothing Is Dead Fuzz), and it was one of the funnest pedals we saw all year. Happily, we have another offering from these guys to check out today, and while it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the last fuzz of theirs we saw, it brings the heat and the heavy with ease, and will surely rock your face. The FY-2 is a modded germanium fuzz, giving...
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One of our favorite pedals from over the years is the Snowjob Underdrive from Lotus Pedal Designs, a boost/overdrive with simple functionality and great tonal properties. Since we liked the original so much, we were stoked to get our hands on a special version of this pedal, the Ge Underdrive, and see what new and exciting features came with it. We’re happy to report that this pedal reveals a nice twist on the first version,...
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With the new-ish trend of players building smaller pedalboards these days, smaller pedals were bound to be a hit at some point. There are a couple companies who have embraced this, and quite well, but there was one who did it a while back, before the hype set in. The Micro Series from Guyatone ranged from Overdrive to Boost to Octave and more, including the MD2 Micro Digital Delay, which we’re going to look at today. The control...
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If you’re a fan of compression on your pedalboard, there’s good chance you’ve heard about the wonderful compressors being made over at Origin Effects. With a new lineup of smaller effects in their current arsenal, they have become a giant in the world of studio-quality compression for players throughout the world. Today, however, we’re going back to where it all started, with their Cali76 Standard Big Box...
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Look, effects pedals that have tube built in are just plain rad. There’s a warmth and energy that they bring forth that is hard to capture otherwise, and we always love getting these types of effects into the shop. Today, we’re going to look at the now-discontinued Tonebone Classic Tube Distortion from Radial Engineering, makers of fine tube-filled gear. Let’s see what’s under the hood with this beast, k? Level...
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The name Analog Man is right up there with the top dogs in the effects pedals industry, a company that makes reliable, excellent-sounding gear for use by every type of player you can think of. Today’s featured pedal is an excellent example of their work and craftsmanship, and of the sonic prowess they consistently bring to the table. The ARDX20 Dual Analog Delay features two independent echo channels, and a delay warmth that...
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Pedals that are based off of old, classic amplifiers tend to produce some really incredible overdrive tones, and today’s featured pedal emulates a couple of vintage amps and sounds to perfection. The Vox Supreme, Defiant, Conqueror and Virtuoso amplifiers had a fuzz/drive built right into them, and were used to record many, many songs you know and love by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The White Pedal Fuzz Overdrive from...
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A really good simple pedal can sometimes knock your musical socks off more so than a complex, Tolstoy-novel-length manual-having pedal can, and we’re all for that with as many effects as we see around here. Today’s delightfully simple sonic recipe has only a couple of ingredients, but speaks volumes in terms of tone and value. The Electric is an overdrive and compressor in one, with elements of boost and preamp as well...
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Somehow, we hadn’t yet discovered the company building today’s featured pedal until now, and we’re sure excited that we did. Midnight Amplification Devices hail from Brisbane, Australia, and feature an eclectic lineup of effects over a variety of musical genres. We’re checking out the Giant Sound Boost Fuzz Preamp today, and have a couple more pedals from these guys in the queue for review as well…...
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It’s always a treat when we get a 2-in-1 pedal to check out here at Pedal of the Day, and even cooler when we get a 3-in-1 effect. Today’s pedal blows right past these and gives us a rare and unsurpassed FIVE-in-1 stompbox, something that sounds complicated, but in reality is just easy to use and produces great sounds. The PRISM from Jackson Audio is a buffer, boost, EQ, overdrive and preamp all rolled into one –...
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Are you a sucker for aesthetics when it comes to your pedal collection? Not that it makes or breaks a purchase, but we love a good graphic and layout, and today’s pedal takes us on an exciting journey of sight and sound. The Aqua Lung Overdrive from Rockfabrik Effects is an overdrive with a few common controls and a couple of added options for a wide range of sonic flavors to behold. Like most in the overdrive world, the Aqua...
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Whenever a weird, un-categorizable pedal comes our way, especially if it has a name we can’t quite pronounce, we become instantly intrigued. Today’s pedal, the Okto-Nøjs Octaver Fuzz from Emma Electronic checks all of these boxes, and produces some killer effects sounds as well. An octave effect and fuzz pedal in one, strange sounds lurk about deep within this creature, waiting to be released is a fiery ball of sonic fury....
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Discovering new pedal manufacturers is always a pleasure here at Pedal of the Day, and we’ve got another rad one for you today. Straight outta NOLA, Retroactive Pedals’ first offering is a fuzz/overdrive effect that has both aesthetic and sonic wonders for everyone. Loaded with options, the Designated Driver is easy to use and fun to dial in. Designed to be of the “Marshall” sound when strumming chords and...
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