Today’s featured pedal is a modern take on a classic distortion effect. Based on the famous Interfax Harmonic Percolator, the Harmonik Germanium Fuzz from Dubrek Audio Boutique boasts the same type of fuzzy distorted sounds as the vintage unit, but with a couple of modern upgrades. Level and Gain are the only two control knobs present on the Harmonik, alongside a lone toggle switch. Both knobs feature a broad range, with plenty...
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We’ve reviewed the first two pedals produced by the SFG Music Supply crew up in British Columbia, and have been impressed by both. The Howlerr Classic Overdrive was a lower-gain, almost boost-like drive, while the Back Burner Vintage Delay was a sweet short delay slapback gem. From vintage sounds and graphics to hand-built quality pedals and parts, these guys know what’s what, and are coming out swinging into the pedal...
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There’s just something so unique and inviting about each pedal we’ve reviewed from Hudson Electronics, and today’s featured pedal is no different. The Sidecar Overdrive is a special take on a classic “green” overdrive circuit, with some added elements and quality components, to make it a drive that will contend with anything you put it up against. We recently reviewed the Hudson Broadcast Pre-Amp, and...
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It seems like there has been a bit of a tremolo resurgence in the pedal world as of late, and we here at Pedal of the Day couldn’t be happier about it. Lots of innovative pieces of gear keep appearing out of the woodwork, pushing the effect to the limits, and offering a whole new array of tone-shaping, sound-crushing effects that can really send your guitar signal into the atmosphere and beyond. As expected, the fine folks from...
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One of the first “transparent” overdrives we reviewed here at Pedal of the Day was the EM Drive from Emerson Custom, and that awesome pedal is still spotted on a TON of pedalboards. Stepping up their game a little bit, and getting into a bit dirtier territory, the crew at Emerson designed a completely original circuit, and turned it into a pedal that is great as a mid-gain or second stage overdrive. Here is the Paramount...
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The Boss family of stompbox delays have been a staple on many, many pedalboards since the inception of the DM-1 Delay Machine way back in 1978, especially the DD series, which features the DD-3, DD-5, DD-6, DD-7 and the DD-20 (click each one for our reviews). In keeping with the tradition, but stepping up the game immensely, Boss has created a delay that will rival anything out on the pedal market today: the DD-500 Digital Delay....
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Flanging can be an excellent effect when used right, and can really ruin a tone or song when used wrong. In general, most flangers I’ve come across have been fairly complex machines, often requiring lots of manual reading and experimentation. The FX747 Supersonic Stereo Flange pedal from DOD, made from 1996-1998, features 4 simple knobs, and is as easy to dial in a great sound as it is fun to experiment with. One thing...
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What can you say about Greer Amps? Nick and the gang just keep putting out incredible pedal ofter pedal (among other things), consistently topping their previous endeavor somehow. Today’s pedal continues on where their famed Southland Overdrive left off, bumping up that great tone into the realm of a true high-gain overdrive/distortion pedal, but keeping with the same smoothness and crispiness that their pedals are all known...
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We here at Pedal of the Day had the pleasure of reviewing the PreDrive from PettyJohn Electronics last year, and finally got to see what all the hype has been about. Continuing in the tradition of innovative and exquisitely built pedals, they have now brought us a completely different beast altogether, one that is destined to become a classic, just like their first flagship pedal. Let’s take a look at the PettyDrive, alright? As...
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There are some rack mount delay units from the 1980s that are considered to be in the upper echelon of all-time delays, and one of them has now been shrunk down to fit onto your pedalboard. The original SDD-3000 from Korg had a sound and tone all its own, separating it from other delays in the same category, and helped to make its way into the signal chains of many guitarists, including Daniel Lanois, Johnny Marr and most famously The...
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As is the case a lot of times with effects pedals from Electro-Harmonix, the phrase “Where to begin?” popped immediately into our head as we opened the box for the Super Pulsar Tap Tremolo. So many knobs, so many options and so much to learn, this was gonna be a challenge, but in the best way possible. I mean, it’s figuring out how to use a guitar pedal, what’s more fun than that? A simple Volume knob starts...
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A one-knob overdrive pedal? That’s what we first said when the box we received from Bookworm Effects was opened. Granted, there were a couple of toggle switches as well, but what about the Tone knob? Or Gain? Or Volume, even? After playing around a bit with the Billy Pilgrim Overdrive, however, it was clear that this was no one trick pony, and that a surprising amount of differing tones were capable through this little Kurt...
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Seeing their pedals here and there floating around the old Interwebs, the effects from Dreadbox always seemed very interesting to us here at Pedal of the Day, so when we finally got our grubby paws on one of them, it was quite a celebration. Not only do their effects have a similar look and theme to them, they all apparently sound great, according to the masses, and we got to witness this phenomenon first hand. The Taff 2 Scientific...
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The Airis Effects Savage Drive is one of the most underrated overdrive pedals out there, the design that is put on it automatically makes you think, ok this is another “metal pedal” when sure it is used a lot for metal, but it is a very versatile pedal! Do not let the graphic fool you. I use this pedal for metal as that is just the genre I play, I can play other genres on it but since I play metal mostly I will base my...
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We get pretty excited about all the pedals we review here at Pedal of the Day, but when a box arrived from the UK with “Hudson Electronics” on the label, we knew we were in for a treat. Having already reviewed the awesome Buzzard and Fuzz pedals a while back, we were stoked to see what Michael and the crew had come up with this time around. In short, we were not even close to being disappointed – here is the...
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Continuing our look at analog delay pedals this week, today we take a look at another incredible pedal, one that features the analog warmth and dirtiness we all love, plus controls for modulation, making it even more fun to use. The Supa-Puss™ Analog Delay from Way Huge Electronics not only sounds like a classic analog delay, but has some excellent modern features to make it a great delay hybrid. Plus, you can get up to 900ms of...
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With so many new effects with so many functions and big learning curves, it’s nice to come across an older pedal that has a couple simple knobs and sounds just fantastic, without having a bunch of bells and whistles. Today’s featured pedal, the FX96 Echo FX Analog Delay from DOD was produced way back in the ancient year of 1997, and was billed as a modern improvement on classic tape echo machines like the Binson Echorec...
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Last fall, we reviewed an incredible fuzz pedal from Retro Mechanical Labs, the Electron Fuzz Custom, and it really rocked our faces. Recently, Johnathan at RML made a special, potentially one-off version of this pedal called the Mini, featuring a gorgeous wooden enclosure and a rare, vintage voltage meter. We knew we had to have it, and the result is one of the most beautiful pedals we’ve had the pleasure to lay our eyes on....
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Being a pedal review blog, we love discovering new pedals and companies that we hadn’t previously heard of, and developing new relationships with them, which is the case with today’s pedal, the Sagittarius Overdrive Boost from Celestial Effects in Hudson, MA. 2-in-1 pedals are always welcome around here, and you really can’t beat the Overdrive/Boost combination. There’s a Volume knob to start us off, which...
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As we’ve said before, the 10 Series of pedals from Ibanez are among our favorites from the 80’s, and today’s featured pedal is one of the best from that group. In general, chorus has been an effect that has a love/hate relationship with guitarists, and while it can be heard on amy classic recordings, there are some players who just will not touch it. That said, the DSC10 Digital Chorus pedal might just have something...
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There seem to be a lot of compressors coming out lately that are really complex and intriguing, and while that can be fun, sometimes you just want a simple compressor pedal with easy controls and great sound to throw into your rig, set to taste and forget about. However, you might not necessarily want to same circuit that’s been redone a million times over the last couple decades, but something newer, edgier and a bit more...
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One of my guitar heroes, Nels Cline, is a super effects junkie, like many of us, and I always liked how diverse and cool his rigs have been over the years. He’s also gotten me to try out numerous pedals, and today’s featured pedal is one that I wanted to get my hands on as soon I could after seeing his Rig Rundown. Having reviewed the Stardust from Crazy Tube Circuits, I wanted something a bit heavier and crunchier, and...
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Some delay pedals have such a broad range of sounds that it can be hard to focus in on what you really need the delay to do. That is definitely not the case with today’s featured pedal, the Back Burner Vintage Delay from SFG Music Supply. This delay is focused solely on the famed “slapback” sound that started with country and rockabilly, and continues to have uses throughout numerous musical genres today. Short and...
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The Big Muff. Chances are, you own at least one album that has this classic fuzz sound featured prominently on it, but you probably have more like 50 or 100. A classic sound that has stood the test of time, and has been showcased expertly through guitarists ranging from Jack White to David Gilmour to J. Mascis to Billy Corgan to Carlos Santana to Dan Auerbach, as well as countless others. Today’s pedal is a brilliant take on a...
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Today’s pedal is really a delay to end all delays, as long as you’re not running a stereo rig, that is. The Flight Time Delay (FT-1Y) from Free The Tone looks like the Flux Capacitor and the Millennium Falcon had a love child, with it’s vast control section and digital read-out parameters. Truth is, that’s not far from the truth, as it is just about as futuristic looking and sounding a delay that’s on the...
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Sometimes, your rig just need an extra bit of sparkle, a push to kick it into high gear and get to that one sweet sonic spot you’ve been hearing on your favorite recordings for years, but never seem to be able to quite achieve. In the case of today’s pedal, that magic ingredient is a Boost pedal. While there are a ton of these available on the market today, each one is unique in design, output and color, and I’ve...
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Happy Valentine’s Day, pedal people! Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to some serious delay business, cool? Is there a better way to celebrate this most joyous of fake holidays than with a giant, pink pedal? I don’t think so, no. Maxon has been in the mix as far as killer analog delays are concerned for years, and today’s pedal is absolute echo beast, full of bold delay tones, classic sounds...
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There’s a little pedal company out of Denmark called Emma Electronic, and they’ve been putting out some sweet pedals for years now. One of our favorites here at Pedal of the Day is their envelope filter, the DiscumBOBulator (check out the review here), and we’ve got another rocker for you today. The OnoMATOpoeia (great name, by the way) is a Boost and Overdrive in one, but won’t color your original signal in...
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Boost pedals have been appearing on pedalboards all over the place the last couple of years, but few look as awesome as the Strategy Boost from CopperSound Pedals. An op-amp based clean boost with simple controls and powerful sound, this is one boost that will get your audience talking, about both the pedal and the sound. Just looking at this pedal will put a smile on your face. Even if you’re not the biggest Strat fan,...
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If you want originality in your pedals, one company you can always rely on to come through in the clutch is Dwarfcraft Devices from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Mainly fuzz and octave-based for the majority of their lineup, today’s featured pedal sees them jumping into a new genre, one that’s our favorite here at Pedal of the Day: delay. Not just any delay, of course – the Minivan Echo conjures up analog tones of the past,...
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Vintage pedals seem to always have a mysterious aura about them, whether there were only a few of one model made, or pedals made with certain inner chips no longer available, or obscure effects made famous by players who possessed them. Mu-Tron / Musitronics was known for creating incredible, state-of-the-art and technologically advanced effects back in the 1970’s, and their pedals were made popular by the likes of Jerry Garcia,...
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The Nova series of pedals from TC Electronics have been enthralling us for some time now, cramming a seemingly endless supply of options and effects into each pint-sized box that’s produced. Whether it’s in the realm of delay (ND-1, RPT-1), modulation (NM-1), dynamics (NDY-1) or Overdrive (NDR-1), or today’s featured pedal, the NR-1 Reverb, each of these pedals bring something new to the effects game, including this...
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Sometimes in this line of work, you come across a pedal that was produced by a now-defunct company, and there’s very little information available about it for you to really dig into a review. Today’s featured pedal is one of these rarities, although I’m going to try to do my best (plus, there’s a video at the end!). The Cedar Drive from Cedar Custom Effects is the overdrive on display today, There’s not a...
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How does one company manage to craft not ONE, not even TWO, but THREE of the most-used and highly regarded delay pedals in existence? Starting from scratch and perfecting Version One, that’s how. Although the Memory Lane 2 might be generally regarded as a better machine, and the Memory Lane Jr. might appear on more pedalboards throughout the world, it all started with today’s featured pedal, the Memory Lane Analog Delay...
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Today’s wicked rad and partially insane pedal is of the delay variety – a shocker, I’m sure, given how much we love delay around here. This one really steps it up a notch, though, and introduces some great features to accentuate and exasperate your delayed tone, feel and sound. DigiTech has been immersed in the delay world for years now, and the TimeBender Digital Delay might just be their most complex and...
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I have yet to come across an Ibanez pedal in their 10 series from the 80’s that I haven’t found to be exciting and exceptional all at once. I mean, these things are all built like tanks, usually have a ton of options, regardless of what type of pedal it is, and sound like they were decades ahead of their time…which they were, in fact. Today’s shining example is basically a multi effect, although it’s...
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No doubt you’ve heard of the old pedal company Ross, who are probably most famous for what many consider to be the finest compressor pedal ever made, the ever-cloned Grey Compressor. In addition to this expensive and much sought-after grey box, Ross made a slew of other awesome (and extremely underrated) pedals in the 70s and 80s, and we’ve got one for today’s featured pedal. Simple to use but great-sounding and...
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Although they reside in different categories, guitar and bass pedals can be fun to interchange instruments with, as is the case of today’s featured pedal. The Octamizer Analog Octave from Aguilar Amplification is specifically geared towards the lower frequency register, but it sounds wicked rad on guitar as well. Let’s see what this sweet bright red can do, shall we? Right away, the first two controls you see are essential...
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Having reviewed such classic Selah Effects’ pedals as the Feather Drive and Scarlett Love, we were excited to check out their first foray into the world of fuzz, and were not disappointed. Exemplifying a broad range of sounds, from thick and driven to glitchy and wacky, the Misty Mountain Fuzz offers something for everyone who digs this genre of pedal, and with simple controls in a gorgeous enclosure, dialing in a distinct but...
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Having just reviewed the Mercury Flanger from Source Audio’s lineup of One Series pedals, we couldn’t wait to dive in and check another of their offerings, the Vertigo Tremolo. Again loaded with a ton of options to create a multitude of sounds, this tremolo boasts a huge range of tones, and will most certainly add a little hint of what’s been missing to your pedalboard. With 3 completely different tremolo voicings to...
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Colt and the crew at Walrus Audio are continually popping up with new pedals that change the way you think about certain effects, and how to use them in your rig. Today’s featured pedal takes a classic effects and essentially turns it around, flips it upside down and magically creates a powerful phaser tool that’s sure to make your playing improve and your tone sparkle. The Vanguard Dual Phase is a series phaser, with 2...
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The Flanger effect is one of the most recognizable in all the land, and one that generally is not in the forefront of a lot of music these days (or, in the past, either, really). Sort of an oddball effect, the lone kid on the playground that’s kinda weird and is sometimes difficult to approach, flanging is mostly used in very specific settings, and even then only for short bursts or passages. Until now. Joel Korte and the team...
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We here at Pedal of the Day have been hearing about and seeing the big, rad-looking and apparently amazing-sounding line of compressors from Origin Effects for a while now, but the price tag was just a bit out of our reach, and the opportunity to acquire one just hadn’t yet presented itself. So, you can imagine our joy when the new line of Compact pedals was announced recently, featuring both a smaller size AND a smaller, more...
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Sometimes it just seems impossible to get just the right fuzz sound, and the harder you look the harder it gets to achieve it. As you keep looking the more peachy you become about it and suddenly you come to decide anything will fit your non realistic expectations and kinda led you into a big depression. That’s how I got to Vntage Tone (www.facebook.com/vntagetone), a Mexican custom pedal and pedalboard builder who seems to hit...
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Today’s pedal builder is a relative newcomer to the community, after trying out some dead-end jobs and realizing building pedals would be more fun and worthwhile. Ruffian Pedals’ flagship pedal is today’s featured piece of gear, The Feels Overdrive/Distortion. A sleek and stylish-looking pedal, it packs a wallop that’s sure to get both your amp and your crowd moving in a hurry. The control layout of The Feels...
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The gang over at Source Audio has been creating some unique musical gear since their inception in 2005, and their lineup of One Series pedals have taken the guitar community by storm. Seemingly simple in layout and design, these pedals house some secret functions and sounds that really make them stand out from the crowd. Today’s featured pedal just happens to be one from the One Series, the Mercury Flanger, which has a ton of...
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Recently, we reviewed a dual fuzz/boost pedal from some friends of our over at Pusher Pedals, a prototype of their newest creation, the Bad Dancer. Now, this pedal is a combo of their first two flagship pedals, the Dirty Darling and today’s featured pedal, the Leap of Faith Boost. A simple but powerful pedal, this baby will give your guitar’s signal some oomph, and a bit more as well. Featuring one lone knob, such as most...
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The gang at Fairfield Circuitry are well-known for creating new and exciting pedals, so we were super-stoked when we teamed up with them and they sent us our first pedal for review, the Four Eyes Fuzz. Having reviewed their Barbershop Overdrive and Meet Maude Analog Delay pedals so far, we were excited to test out their take on a fuzz pedal, and it did not disappoint. Containing three parallel JFET fuzz circuits driven by a voltage...
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For me, the words “Texas Flood” bring one thing immediately to mind: the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughn. Not just the man himself, but that classic Screamer tone he is known for, one that many, many of us have tried in some form to replicate. Today’s pedal, the aptly named Texas Flood Overdrive from Cast Engineering, takes that original tone and builds on it, adding in some more low end and still maintaining the sound...
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Sometimes when you review a particular pedal, you get to do a little research and discover another pedal in the process. The flavor of the day today focuses on the classic Shin-Ei Super-Fuzz FY-6 pedal, which was produced from 1968 until the late 1970s. Our featured pedal today not only made a long journey to us via India, it also has the innards and homage that make it an excellently-modified version of an awesome vintage effects...
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