You all have fun at NAMM last week(end)? Well, we’ve got one of the premiere effects from the show for you RIGHT NOW! Continually pushing the musical envelope is what it’s all about these days, especially in the crowded effects pedal market. Colt and the squad at Walrus Audio seem to be keeping themselves up near the lead in this crazy race, and with today’s pedal, they just might take the lead. The Fathom is a...
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While everyone is always out to find a great deal, there don’t seem to be a ton of decent options for low-priced gear that sounds great in the world of effects pedals. That all changed when we plugged in today’s featured pedal and went for a funky, delay-filled ride down the rabbit hole. The Time Force from NUX is a multi modulation digital delay, with a ton of different echo modes and fun around every delay-infused...
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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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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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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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If you guys have ever had the pleasure to play an effects pedal from the warped mind of Joe Anastasio from Lone Wolf Audio, you know what kind of crazy gear that dude creates. Today we’re going to look at one of the wackiest, awesomest pieces of musical equipment we’ve seen, a pedal that really can’t fit into just one category, but will revive your interest in how music and sound are created. The Acetylene Nirvana is...
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For a number of years now, the folks at Pigtronix have been pushing, pulling and re-working the Delay genre with their lineup of echo devices, and we’re going to take a gander at one of the newest ones today. The Echolution 2 Filter Pro is an extremely flexible, option-filled, preset-ridden, multi-tap stereo modulation delay, that’s capable of more than you could care to imagine. However, if you DO think big, and want your...
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The crew over at Hungry Robot Pedals has been known for creating new, unique and innovative effects since their inception in 2012, quickly garnering a reputation for the obscure and awesome. Today’s featured pedal might just be the most unique yet, and is one hell of a fun pedal to play around with. The Kármán Line is a delay and oscillation device that uses a modulating joystick with a heavily filtered delay line that...
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Pedals such as today’s featured behemoth are intimidating, plain and simple. However, once you sit down and chat with the Flanger Hoax from Electro-Harmonix for a little while, you’ll find that it’s a mellow, mild-mannered piece of gear, that just so happens to have a bunch of features and options, making it that much more lovable. A flanger, phaser and modulation monster all wrapped into one, this pedal has a bit of...
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Today’s guest review comes to us from Marlin M. – find him on Instagram (@goes_by_fish), Twitter (@goes_by_fish) or Facebook (Marlin.Morin)! The NuX Mod Force is a multi effects pedal boasting an impressive 12 modulation types in a compact, pedalboard friendly enclosure. This unit has a full color LCD display (128×128) to adjust parameters for each of the modulation models. These models include chorus, tri chorus,...
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Today’s guest review comes to us from Max F. – find him on SoundCloud (@MaxFaith)! While octave pedals are available in a variety of configurations it’s hard to find units that operate in the desired octave range and track well enough to be useful and musical. Enter the Walrus Audio Luminary Quad Octave Generator. The fine people at Walrus have designed this pedal to work in the lower and higher octave ranges with some of the finest...
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When one of the most talked about and anticipated effects of the year shows up on your doorstep, the excitement that has been building up in your brain finally becomes a reality. The aptly named Reverb pedal from Empress Effects is the pedal we’re talking about today, and it absolutely lives up to the hype. We’ll try to give you a good amount of info in this review and subsequent demo video, but this is truly a pedal that...
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Multi-effects pedals can be tricky to write reviews about, as there is so much going on, and so many different options to choose from that it makes it hard to narrow the writing down and focus on a few things to discuss in detail. Such is the case with today’s featured pedal, the M5 Stompbox Modeler from Line 6 – and if the regular functionality of this pedal wasn’t overwhelming enough, this model has been modded by...
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When you think about the wackiest, most innovative and sometimes difficult to control pedals on the market today, an overwhelming majority of musicians’ thoughts go to one company: EarthQuaker Devices. Now, they make some semi-straightforward pedals: overdrives, fuzzes, delays, etc., but even most of those have some element of magic to them. Today’s featured pedal, the Rainbow Machine, falls into a category where it may be...
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With their unique wooden tops and intriguing control layouts, the pedals from Anasounds in France are instantly recognizable, and we love to check ’em out here at Pedal of the Day. Since reviewing the Cerberus and Freq Up last year, we stumbled across a sweet, short-style delay/echo with some modulation for added depth. Producing sounds like the Echoplex, Binson Echorec and the Skreddy Echo, this is the Utopia Tape Echo Delay....
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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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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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In reviewing so many pedals, there can be periods where a group of effects all seem really similar, and although they may have slight differences, they feel like pedals we might have already reviewed before. There are, however, some pedal production companies who really set themselves apart from the rest, in terms of innovation, creativity and all-out awesomeness. A couple that come to mind off the bat are Red Panda, Dwarfcraft...
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Delays that have some kind of modulation incorporated with them have been my favorites for a long time, and I’m always intrigued with each new one, to see what differences and similarities they might share will others I’ve played in the past. The first version of the Reptile Delay is the one we’re gonna check out today, and although there’s a newer model, the Reptile 2, the original is still highly regarded on...
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After reviewing the Defibrillator Reanimating Shock Fuzz from Paradox Effects, I was super excited to see what they would come up with next. Crazy graphics, tones and controls seem to be the general makeup of all their pedals, and the latest is no exception. When the Oniric PseudoAleatory Delay Modulation showed up on my doorstep and I opened the box, I knew I was going to be in for a real treat, and it turns out I was right. As...
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Anticipation is one of the funnest parts about getting new pedals in the mail to review, and sometimes, that anticipation is higher than other times. Case in point: I couldn’t wait to open the box for the brand new Interstellar Orbiter from EarthQuaker Devices when it arrived on my doorstep. I had heard a lot about it from the last NAMM show, and was super-excited to see what it could do, and run it through the paces to maximize...
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In this awesome world of pedals, it can sometimes seem like it’s all been done before: sure, there might be a couple of different toggles on this pedal and a new knob or two, but really unique, new and innovative stuff can elude the masses at times, until you stumble across a pedal that truly makes you stop in your tracks. Today’s piece of hardware did exactly that me, as I had never come across a...
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All-in-one pedals can be great, and they can be terrible, as anyone who has ever tried a few out can attest to. The good ones, though, when they’re good, they are GOOOOD. Where to begin with a pedal like this, with so many options, tones, squeaks, sound and delights? With a long-standing reputation of making some of the finest musical gear around, the folks at Eventide have one-upped even themselves at this point, and released...
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Rainbows and Unicorns are known to be magical, especially in the realm of musical instruments (no duh). But let’s not get caught into rainbows at the moment… Unicorns, yes unicorns can often be found in the wild land of “Hendrix,” but the Unicorn can be tamed and domesticated for much subtler uses too. JHS has produced a modern *Uni-vibe* device which is reviving the nearly “extinct” species. With...
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Some pedals are great at doing one thing, and one thing only. It’s usually quite specific, and they’re not trying to do anything but the ONE thing they’re great at. The Depths from EarthQuaker Devices is NOT one of those pedals, as it can perform many effect functions, with ease and sounding great in the process. Chorus, vibrato, rotary speakers, phasers and more – this pedal has got your needs more than...
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The Mobius super-modulation pedal from Strymon is yet another example of some of the finest gear offerings available on the market today, and doesn’t really leave much to chance as far as options and tones are concerned. Created in the same realm and structure as the TimeLine Delay and BigSky Reverberator, the Mobius is a true all-in-one modulation box, supplying just about any kind of phaser, flanger, chorus and vibrato sound...
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The latest offering from the folks over at Strymon is based on some classic sounds throughout the past century: the Deco Tape Saturation and Doubletracker. Conjuring up the sounds of ancient reel-to-reel tape machines from the 50’s and 60’s, the Deco provides all the vintage echo and delay sounds you’re after, and the Tape Saturation side aims to fatten up your sound using tasty compression and just a bit of...
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The Rain is my favorite pedal on my board. It is weird and does such a wide range of things that I always find a new use for it. The Rain is a super tweaked clone of an EchoBender by Polish Power Pedals, the best of the best of small pedal builders. The settings include modulation, delay, two different decay settings, the wet effect and amount of dry guitar, as well as “feedback/shit” as labeled in the manual Nathanael put...
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The Assblaster is an absolutely unique, deviant, evil, and yellow effects system unlike any other available. The sounds it makes are always new, often very unpredictable, and are never repeatable. The Assblaster combines several of Metasonix’s classic vacuum-tube processing circuits: The preamp stage from the TM-7 “Scrotum Smasher” distortion pedal, the pulser of the TM-1 vacuum-tube waveshaper, and the the thyratron...
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This Custom pedal for Daniel Ettorre was especially fun to build because where I normally let the customer have complete control and input on what the pedal will be Daniel wanted to flip that idea around. As he put it “I want you to build me a pedal but I want it to kind of be a surprise. It can be something crazy you wanted to try, your favorite/best build”. By turning the whole ‘customization’ aspect on its side I was...
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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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