Right out of the gate, the Bumblebee from Hungry Robot Pedals had me intrigued. This pedal is being hyped as an EQ-Boost-Overdrive-Distortion-Fuzz, which seems like a pretty tall order to me. But with a few twists of the knobs, I could tell that this thing was a beast, and could deliver on all it promises, and perhaps a little bit more. A truly unique and dirty pedal, the Bumblebee can perform many functions, from a delicious clean...
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Here’s another VIDEO review for you today, this time it’s the Churro Chorus from our friends at Taco Guitars! Shimmery Goodness, very musical! Check it out and subscribe to Kyle’s channel! Click ‘PLAY’ and enjoy the show! Submitted by Kyle
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The Twin Pedal Collection from Boss has produced some interesting and quite useful pedals – one of my favorites (and, a bunch of other guitarists, apparently) is the DD-20 Giga Delay. Flush with options, tones, sounds and surprises, the DD-20 takes some getting used to, like any pedal of this magnitude, but once you get it down, it’s a ton of fun to play with, and can really be utilized on stage and in the studio to meet a...
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There are a lot of tremolo pedals floating around these days, and honestly, each of the ones I’ve played have sounded great, in one way or another. So, I suppose (like most pedals) it comes down to personal preference, and what fits with your other gear, as well as your style of playing. I gotta admit, I’m a bit of a sucker for pedal mods – I think they’re fun and exciting ways to make a so-so pedal into...
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We’ve got another VIDEO review for you today, this time from the fine folks at Buzz Electronics in the UK! Check it out and subscribe to Kyle’s channel! Click ‘PLAY’ and enjoy the show! Submitted by Kyle
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Classic Marshall amp tone is revered by many guitar players, and it should be, because it sounds incredible. However, the majority of us don’t have an extra $2000 laying around to blow on an early ’80s JCM800 (or whatever your particular flavor happens to be), so we need something in pedal from that will help transform whatever amp we are currently using into a pseudo-Marshall. The folks at Catalinbread have come up with a...
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I was intrigued by the label of the Snapperhead, I’ve gotta tell you. The weird little monster with big eyes and British teeth really peaked my interest, and I knew I had to take this pedal for a ride. Not to mention I had heard about it via articles from Richard Fortus (Guns N’ Roses) and Nick Perri (who is an incredible guitar player if you haven’t checked him out yet!), who were a couple of great endorsers, so I...
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First and foremost, the Saturn V Harmonic Booster (in Limited Edition White) from Spaceman Effects is gorgeous. Pretty much the cleanest, slickest, futuristic-looking pedal I have ever had the opportunity to play. Not to mention it sounds simply incredible. You’d think a pedal with only two knobs would be kind of a one-trick pony, but the sonic ranges in these 2 knobs are BIG, allowing for an unusual amount of tonal structure...
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I know, this isn’t an effects pedal, but they can’t all be, can they? Wait…nevermind. This thing is great, however, for what it does. The VooDoo Lab Amp Selector is exactly what the name tells you it is: an amp selector. There’s more to it than just a clever name, though, so let’s run through the specs. There are many great qualities to this particular switching system, starting with the sound. There is...
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Here’s another VIDEO review for you today, this time it’s the Serrano Drive from our friends at Pepper Pedals! It’s a low to medium gain overdrive that’s perfect for blues or classic rock. Check it out and subscribe to Kyle’s channel! Click ‘PLAY’ and enjoy the show! Submitted by Kyle
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We’ve got another VIDEO review for you today, this time it’s the Doc Music Station Val Drive! Modern gain structured Tube Screamer tone! What’s not to like…and it’s from France! Check it out and subscribe to Kyle’s channel! Click ‘PLAY’ and enjoy the show! Submitted by Kyle
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What phaser to choose? We’ve all faced this question at one time or another, and with so many choices, it can be a daunting task. As with most any pedal, it all comes down to personal preference, and how the options and sounds of each pedal work with your particular setup and tone. The Compact Faye Sing from Infanem is my current phaser of choice, and one that I think will remain on my board for a long while. There are a few...
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JHS has been making great drive pedals for a while now, and the Double Barrel keeps the tradition going strong. Their version of a low-to-medium gain overdrive, the Double Barrel features 2 independent sides, which can be used separately or together, making for some interesting and extremely useful combinations. The Right side of the pedal is the JHS 808, which is their standalone version of the classic Tubescreamer. Featuring that...
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Mark Tremonti is well-known for his work with ’90s superstars Creed, especially his use of the wah. Getting together with Morley allowed Mark to design a wah built to his specifics, and here it is. The Mark Tremonti Wah (Model Mark 1) is extremely easy to use – you just step on it and go. One of the few wahs without a clickable on/off switch, the Tremonti Wah automatically shuts itself off when you take your foot off the...
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Greyscale Devices have taken the concept of a vintage wah and, using some modern parts and techniques, created the perfect blend of past and present in the wah world. My Vintage Wah is housed in an old CryBaby housing, which I think makes it look super badass. It also sounds pretty rad as well, but that’s another story. Based on the classic VOX v846 wah pedals of the ’60s and ’70s, this Greyscale wah produces sounds...
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As a musician that is always playing live, it is very important for me to have a warm tone that pushes my guitar out of the mix without mudding everything else. I’ve been searching for a pedal that could give me these features and even more. Two months ago, someone recommended me the Rockerbox Ruby Head Preamp pedal, I tried it and I fell in love with it. What can this pedal offer me? Well, this pedal is a preamp, it’s...
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The search is over…well, that’s not entirely true. As we all know, the search for the ultimate overdrive is never COMPLETELY over, but I may have just gotten one step closer. In a world littered with Klones and Transparency, Greer Amps presents us with a warm, punchy, overdrive-sounding overdrive pedal. Really, it sounds like an overdrive! I’m not joking! The Burning Goat is not full of bells and whistles – in...
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The Happy Valley Analog Clean Boost is an extremely well built hand painted and hand wired boutique clean boost effect pedal. Happy Valley Analog is a relatively new boutique effect company with fantastic customer service. They use nothing but the highest quality parts and it really shows in the sound quality of their effects. The HVA clean boost is a very straight forward pedal with great sound designed to be used with a tube amp....
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I had never heard of Taylor McGrath Guitars until a few months ago, but this pedal with the weird name kept coming up in different circles and online, so I figured I should check it out. I watched a couple of video demos (most notably the Pete Thorn demo) and decided that I need to try the awesome-sounding DRHIVE for myself. Designed with legendary artist, writer and producer David Ryan Harris (Follow For Now, Brand New Immortals),...
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This thing really DOES scream. I play lead guitar in a melodic metal band (Think August Burns Red, We Came As Romans, and A Day to Remember). Since acquiring my first all-tube amp (Blackstar HT50), I’ve been searching for the best way to squeeze more gain out of it and tighten the tone up for more attack on chugs, and better sustain on leads. Man does this thing deliver. After reading reviews from some of the best bands in the...
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The Hungry Robot Dual Overdrive by, well, Hungry Robot Pedals is sick. I’m a sucker for dual-whatever pedals in general, and this guy is no exception. One side is a nice, light overdrive, one side a bit heavier, and the two in combination are an overdriven dream. The Lou Drive starts us off on the left side, featuring Volume, Grit and Tone controls. Sporting a huge range and massive headroom, the Lou Drive can drive you amp as a...
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In a world filled with boutique builders and Klon copies and Deluxe Memory Man wannabes, MXR has been churning out quality analog greatness for decades and are still sort of flying under the radar. The MXR M78 Custom Badass ’78 Distortion is another example of MXR greatness. While not completely original, the custom badass series wasn’t intended to be. While drawing from a “classic circuits”, the series offers...
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The Blackeye Effects MVP (Mighty Volume Pedal) is no longer in production, but is still worth entioning and reviewing. If you are lucky, you will still find one floating around. This pedal is a compact, Wah enclosure-sized volume pedal that looks stunning on any board. One of the great things about this pedal is that it does not use a string! No more broken strings! It came stock with a blue LED underneath, with the famous Blackeye...
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The EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master was the first pedal I ever bought, and it is still on my board today. It is a DSP based reverb/delay combo with decent analog voicing. On the left are reverb and mix knobs, allowing you to dial in how much decay you want, and how the pedal is blended with your dry signal. I tend to lean toward ambient soundscapes, so this reverb is almost always on, and always set to be very prominent. The mix...
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Another great pedal from E-Wave. This thing is cheap, sturdy, true bypass and a full blown analog delay to boot. I’ve opened this one up as well to verify the true bypass since it was made in China. The circuitry is all quite neat. All well soldered and looks to be in pretty good order. The E-Wave delay has a standard three knob layout of Volume, Repeats and Time. This thing is a lot of fun to play with. has that great analog...
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The Sparkle Drive from Voodoo Lab is a very unique and pretty awesome overdrive pedal. What makes this pedal stand out is the ability to blend in the clean tone of your guitar into the drive sound, making for endless tone possibilities. The Sparkle Drive has four knobs: Gain, Tone, Clean, and Volume. The gain controls the amount of gain you want in your overdrive sound. By itself this pedal is a Tubescreamer style drive that goes from...
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So, you want to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robben Ford or Santana, eh? Well, Step 1 is practicing 16 hours a day for, like, 40 years. Step 2 is a little bit easier now, however, with the introduction of the DMBL Overdrive pedal from Mojo Hand FX. The classic tones the aforementioned guitarists’ presented to the world were due in part to their amplifiers – extremely rare, highly sought-after and wickedly expensive...
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Look on any pro player’s pedalboard and you will find a little orange one-knob wonder. The Phase 90 is a timeless pedal. The swirly goodness has reached to every genre and to probably every electric instrument ever played (not to mention to studio use on drums and vocals!). Now, in researching this pedal you will find there are two versions: the older “script” model, which offers warmer phase shifting, and the...
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One of my favorite things about effects pedals are when companies design something new, fresh and innovative, especially when it combines multiple effects into one unit. Sometimes, though, these things are over-the-top, with a manual that takes 3 days to read and a month to figure out how to use properly. The Quantum Leap from Diamond Pedals incorporates a number of effects possibilities, while making them easily accessible and fun to...
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This is the NashPedals Bronco Billy clean/treble boost. I’ve been using this hand painted version for 6 months now, and I am always impressed with how transparent and usable this little guy is. With the toggle in the up position, the Bronco Billy acts as a treble boost. I really love how you can dial it in if you need just a touch to cut through, or really use it to push the amp without getting big, boomy bass. I often use this...
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The White Pine Overdrive from Blackeye Effects is a low to mid gain overdrive that goes from a sparkling clean boost to a gained out fuzz with the turn of a knob. For the price, you will be hard pressed to find a better drive that can cover more ground or look as stunning on a board than this pedal. This pedal has three tweakable knobs: gain, volume, and presence. The gain and volume knobs work together to creating nearly any...
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The Electro-Harmonix Small Clone is an extremely well built unique sounding chorus pedal. With only one rate knob and one depth switch, it is very easy to dial in a great chorus sound. This pedal works great with all dirt effects, time based effects, and other modulation effects alike. It is built with time tested Electro-Harmonix quality and styling sure to look as great as it sounds while standing the test of time. The rate knob...
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The RAT TAIL is based on a pedal based off of the ProCo RAT – Fuzzrocious modded it to be made towards the low end of the sound spectrum for bass players to be able to use the pedal as well. Depending on the version this pedal comes with a slew of features. Mine per say has a V (volume), F (tone filter), D (distortion), and two red knobs label 1 and 2. These two red knobs in conjunction with the D knob allow you to dial in the...
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Compressors have always been hit or miss for me, and I haven’t really been able to keep one on my board for longer than about 2 months, before I got frustrated with it, or thought it was just taking up space where another pedal could thrive, or any number of reasons I concocted in my brain. That all changed when I met the compressor of my dreams, the Deep Six from Walrus Audio. The best function in my opinion on this fantastic...
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Here’s an awesome VIDEO review for you today: the Doc Music Station Lucy’s Drive 2! Check out the video below and subscribe to Kyle’s channel! Click ‘PLAY’ and enjoy the show! Submitted by Kyle
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I love this fuzz, I gotta say. The Bun Runner from JHS Pedals is a sonic marvel, and one of the most versatile and useful fuzzes I have ever had the privilege of playing. With two quite different sides to this 2-in-1 pedal, many fuzzy tones are easily accessible, ranging from slightly overdriven to all-out crazy, gooey, fuzzy goodness. The left side of the (now-discontinued) Bun Runner is the (now discontinued) JHS Astro Mess Fuzz,...
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P.I.F Pedals is a small boutique pedal company with one mission: Pay It Forward. Their first offering is the Dual Preamp Boost – a dual boost pedal with inputs and outputs for both, giving you immense flexibility as well as superb tones. The right side of the boost is the “sparkle” boost, which is a BS170 FET transistor-based boost. This adds a shine to your tone and mixes well with warm humbuckers or semi-hollow...
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The E-Wave Compressor is a great cheap compressor. It’s based around the original Ross compressor circuit with an added attack knob. If you’re looking for something to get you started in the world of compression then this is the pedal to check out. For only $45 you’re not going to find another pedal this great. It pays its dues to the original Ross and has the added versatility of the attack knob. It can go from a...
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We’ve got another VIDEO review for you today, this time it’s the Vintage Machines Guitar Pedals Red Rocket Fuzz! Transparent Fuzz… I know sounds to good to be true. The absolute most transparent Fuzz I have ever gotten my hands on. Check it out and subscribe to my channel! Please go give Vintage Machines a ‘LIKE’ on Facebook, too! Click ‘PLAY’ and enjoy the show! Submitted by...
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Mr. Black has outdone himself again with this pedal, the Downward Spiral. I would like to classify this pedal as ambient delay: instead of the typical echo you would naturally hear, the Downward Spiral takes the note and reproduces it in a lower octave that you can make basically never end. This pedal comes with 3 different knobs on the top, Level, Regen, Time. We’ll start with the Regen knob – this knob allows you to...
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First off, to be perfectly honest, I’m not entirely sure why the TimeBender from Digitech is not on the delay pedal A-list. This thing is super powerful, sounds great and is relatively inexpensive. DigiTech has a prolonged history of making incredibly innovative pedals. The TimeBender combines conventional effects with some nutty, yet still sweet delay effects. The interface is great, and the ability that it gives you to...
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Here’s another awesome VIDEO review for you – the RJM Effects Green Vodka Fuzz! This is a Muff variant with some amazing mods added. Very like the 90’s era Sovtek Muffs. So thick and Hairy. A great tone machine here for your listening pleasure! Be Sure to go give RJM Effects a ‘Like’ and click subscribe on the channel! Click ‘PLAY’ and enjoy the show! Submitted by...
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Eventide makes some pretty rad pedals. Complicated, but rad. Along the same general design lines as the incredible TimeFactor Delay and the Space Reverb comes the ModFactor Modulation pedal. This beast is capable of doing phaser, flanger, chorus, tremolo, vibrato, auto-wah, modfilter, rotary, undulator and ring mod sounds…and it does them well. Whew! Let’s get started, shall we? The main modes for the ModFactor are as...
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The Boss NS-2 is your basic noise reduction system, it does exactly what it says and takes the unwanted noise and feedback you get from playing at high volumes or with a lot of gain. Specially when your not playing and just standing by your amp. This pedal comes with 3 different knobs on the top THRESHOLD, DECAY, REDUCTION/MUTE MODE the Threshold knob adjust how much or how little feedback you would like to reach your amp, The Decay...
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I should start by saying if you’re looking for a “Pajama Party Barbie Overdrive”, you my friend should keep looking. You’re not dealing with any ordinary cookie cutter Zendrive here. Don’t let her name fool you. This thing was forged in the fires of Mordor and doesn’t give a damn about noise ordinances. This baby’s pulse is pumping 1.21 jigawatts of pure uncensored sonic destruction through...
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So this is actually a great little compressor pedal that I currently have on my board and it stays on. It was made in the eighties and has the pink paint job to prove it. I paid $45 bucks for it of the Fleabay and it works like a dream. The CP10 is basically a clone of the Famous Ross Compressor and the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer (Ross OJ). It’s an all analog device. I’m sure if you’ve heard of this pedal and done...
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The Thunderbird from Keisman Pedals is an awesome 2-in-1, combining their Velvet Drive and Earl Bird pedals into one modestly-sized enclosure, and providing the user with a nice array of sounds and tones to beef up a guitar’s signal. The Early Bird side gets things started by providing a nice clean boost to your signal, with all the levels around noon. A light-medium drive, the right side of the Thunderbird produces a warm,...
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I came across the Joyo pedals when searching on YouTube for a high gain distortion pedal, I was looking for something big sounding and a lot of videos were speaking very highly of the ‘Suhr Riot’ pedal. After many days of trying to convince myself that the Riot pedal was the one for me, I couldn’t bring myself to parting with the cash for this boutique pedal. So I began searching for a clone of the Riot, and the US...
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Normally I am not a great seeker of weird sounds or most modulation effects for that matter, I am a guitar, amp and distortion pedal kind of guy. And the only reason this pedal ended up in my collection is the fact the pedal I ordered was out of stock and I took this one for a substitute. And how did I end up picking the Vahlbruch Chorus? I saw a Youtube review for it, of course, and was blown away by how lovely it sounded for a...
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I’ve gone through a ton of Fuzz, Overdrive and Distortion pedals looking for THAT sound. Most Fuzz pedals are just too noisy, static sounding. The OD’s and Distortions only sound good to me on one setting. Not a lot of useful variations. Find a sound I like and nail it down. Not much variety. Until I saw the Velvet Fuzz by Wampler. I could tell by the videos on line that this was not going to be a one trick pedal. I think...
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