So many overdrive/distortion pedals….so little time. But what separates a GOOD one from a GREAT one? Well, therein lies the age old question, right? For us, it’s always been about the FEEL you get, as soon as you plug a pedal in, before you have time to dissect and scrutinize every little aspect of the build and sound….when you know, you know. Your amp comes alive, a big grin washes over your face and, for a moment,...
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If you play guitar, chances are you have wanted or still do want to emulate the amazing tones of David Gilmour from Pink Floyd. Even if their music isn’t your jam, it’s hard to deny the affect he has had on the guitar as an instrument, and his tone from the 70’s is the stuff of legend. One of the main pieces of said tone was the Colorsound Power Boost, later renamed the Overdriver, which is where today’s pedal...
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A couple months ago, we got our first taste of the new pedal lineup from Teisco, a classic musical company that’s been recently revived. Their Distortion pedal was pretty incredible, and we were looking forward to what was next. Today, we’ve got their Overdrive pedal for you, a simple but crunchy, punchy low-mid gain boost with no frills and a lot of drive under the hood. Control-wise, there’s nothing too crazy about...
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Not to brag, but we knew about Beetronics FX before most of the rest world did. Back in 2015, we reviewed their first pedal, the Boos-tah Preamp, and have been fortunate to have more of their pedals come through the shop in the time since. After the success of the Overhive, Whoctahell, Royal Jelly and more, today we’ve got a small, simple and powerful little pedal, the first in their Babee Series. The Fatbee is hiding a lot of...
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As impressive as their amps have always been, the crew at Orange have, especially in recent years, had a knack for conjuring up some fantastic effects pedals. The Orange Amps Bax Bangeetar Guitar Pre-EQ is a pedal, but is more of a machine masquerading as a pedal (and it has the girth to prove it). Not shy about its size or power, this mammoth boasts a unique and hugely versatile gain structure with extensive EQ controls. You can dial...
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Crazy pedals are the best, aren’t they? The wackier, the better, when you looking for something based purely in experimentation and noise enhancement. Synth pedals are usually excellent for this task, and when you pair it with a fuzz, it sounds even better. Today’s pedal, the Googly Eyes Pedals Synthfuzzizer, brings us the best of both of these worlds, combining both effects into one nice-sized enclosure and letting you...
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TUBE. SCREAMER. These words are loved (and sometimes hated) by guitar players the world over. So many classic sounds from some of the best players ever have come via the Tube Screamer, including Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Mayer, Trey Anastasio, Eric Johnson, The Edge and many, many more. With so many variations and models, not to mention the price tags for some of the more sought-after pedals, its hard to know where to start with these...
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When you think of fun, exciting, life-changing effects pedals, noise gates are not usually the first things that pop into your brain. Mainly geared towards players with louder, high-octane rigs, they are actually quite essential in many scenarios to keep feedback and overall volume at acceptable levels. Not having a ton of experience with these things, we were interested and excited to check out today’s pedal, the DECI-MATE G...
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HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY! Hope yours was safe, enjoyable and filled with love and happiness! Speaking of love and happiness, we’ve got a monster overdrive for you on this wonderful New Year’s Day, one that will bring a smile to your face and put some joy in your heart. The R-403 Vintage Overdrive arrives to usher in 2020 from our friends at Big Joe Stomp Box Company, and is sure to start the year off right, at least as...
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It’s been a hot minute since we’ve had anything in the shop from Joe and Lone Wolf Audio, but we’re pretty stoked about today’s pedal, for sure. The Outsider V2 is a bit of an oddity pedal, based on a super rare piece of gear that most of you have probably never heard of. Described as a Lead Boost Sub-Harmonic Energizer, this little black box has the ability to conjure up some fun sounds, bold tones and, if...
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The folks at Caline Technology have been pumping out some affordable but pretty rad-sounding pedals over the last couple of years, and we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to try a bunch of them. Up next, we have the explosive, bright orange CP-70 High Chief Dual Overdrive, which seeks to conjure up tones reminiscent of the classic (and spendy) King of Tone from Analog Man. With two separate but similar circuits, you can...
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As you might guess from our “Klone Wars” series on YouTube, we love a good klone pedal here at Pedal of the Day. With so many to choose from, we’ve had a great time exploring each one we can get our hands on, and test the differing nuances and tonal subtleties that make each one unique in their own way. Today, we’re going to check out yet another one, this time from our friend to the north in Winnipeg, Canada,...
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If you use pedals, chances are you have a boost, overdrive, distortion or fuzz on your board….or maybe all of them, or many multiples of all of them. But what if you had a pedal that could do ALL of those things, that was built for classic and contemporary tones and was as versatile as can be? Then you’d probably want to check out today’s featured effect, the Odyssey Intergalactic Driver from Hamstead Soundworks. Not...
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If you happened to have seen our Klone Wars series on YouTube, you may very well be aware of an excellent Klon-inspired beast called the Pegasus Overdrive. Based on the original Golden Professional edition of the Klon, this beaut made by Caline produces some gorgeous vintage-style overdrive and boost sounds, it brings everything we all love about that famous mythical pedal and offers it in an affordable and still true-to-form effects...
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There are times when we receive a box in the mail here at the office, open it up and just say “WOW.” Today’s pedal did exactly that to us, in an awesome and slightly unnerving way. The Schumann PLL Analog Harmonizer from FTelettronica Pedals is an absolute beast, full of more options than any pedal probably should have, sending your signal into the far reaches of space and beyond. Taking the input, turning it into a...
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A few years back, we reviewed and demoed a pedal called the DynaMorph™, a crazy fuzz-filter-synth thing that blew our minds, from the creators over at Totally Wycked Audio (TWA) and Godlyke Distributing Inc. Recently, they’ve released another effect along the same lines, a younger brother, per se, to the DynaMorph™ – today, we’d like to explore the MM-01 MiniMorph™ Dynamic Waveshaper with you. An envelope-dependent...
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The 10 Series of effects pedal from Ibanez (also called the “Power Series”), created in the 80’s, features some of the most underrated and loved pedals of all time. We’re going to talk about one of these 10 effects that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough: the MT10 Mostortion. This mosfet drive has become pretty rare, and when you can find one, they’re fairly spendy, which is perhaps why...
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We did a review of the Double Barrel Overdrive from JHS Pedals back in 2014, when we were first getting started, and have come full circle to be able to check out the newest model of this fine dual overdrive. This famous box now incorporates the newest versions of the separate pedals it houses, giving it an overall upgrade to the individual sides, as well as the whole pedal. You know what this is, you’ve probably played or owned...
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Newer effects pedals that are based on older effects, or electronic unit, or tape machines, or screen projectors, or whatever, always put a smile on our face. Taking something that might not have been geared towards our current effects world and utilizing the sounds it makes to enhance our musical world is a fascinating concept, so we’re stoked about today’s featured pedal. The Jive from our pals in Germany, JPTR FX, is a...
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We dig a good hard rocking, amp crushing, super clipping distortion pedal around here (who doesn’t?), and today’s featured piece of monster machinery scratches all of our high gain itches. A simple pedal built around a simple need, the Thallium 81 Hard Clipping Distortion pedal from Fat Foot Effects brings the thunder, but not in an overpowering kind of way. With a plug and play mentality, easy-to-use parameters and some...
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Ah, the Klon….such a mysterious, magical and ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE piece of gear. Now, we love a delicious overdrive, and have even grown to love boost pedals over the last few years, but really, enough is enough. Since we have no money (or desire) to spend over $1500 on one singular item, especially when it’s an EFFECTS PEDAL, we’re glad there are companies like Rock Your Repaired Amp, or RYRA, as...
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Now fully established as a fuzz and distortion-producing powerhouse of a company, we are always happy to get new effects in the office from our friends at Wren & Cuff, and we’ve got another mammoth for you today. The Super Russian is a potent fuzz pedal, plus a buffer/boost as well, a well-rounded machine that works wonderfully with bass and guitar alike. Featuring loud, boisterous, Muff-y tones and distortion, plus a...
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Tattoos and music have gone hand in hand for decades, so it only makes sense to add effects pedals in and make a killer trio, right? Our new pal Joe Halliday from across the pond in the UK has managed to successfully fuse all three of these things together, to create a company offering reasonably-priced effects that look and sound great, perfect for the working musician and up-and-coming bands throughout the globe. Today, we look at...
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Here at Pedal of the Day, we’ve always tried to support the little guy, the company consisting of one or two employees, working in a basement somewhere, trying to create an effect they think the masses will love. These qualities are most certainly represented here today with our featured pedal, the Ahab Overdrive from Pine-Box Customs. Their flagship overdrive is an all-analog, amp-like pedal, pushing your amp into glorious (but...
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Happy 4/20, kiddos! We’ve got a pedal today that seeks to build upon an already existing design, giving you two different sounding but equally incredible pedals to choose from (who are we kidding, you’ll probably buy both). The original Warped Vinyl Analog Vibrato Chorus from Chase Bliss Audio was a monster modulation pedal in its own right, as was the subsequent MkII version, which took things up a notch. Their new...
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Keeping with the theme of heavy and dirty started off earlier this week with the Medor Amps Hurt Circuit Fuzz, today’s featured pedal is an absolute mammoth of a distortion, with an easy-to-use control panel, a versatile array of sounds it can produce and a price tag that will fit any budget around. The Red Ghost Distortion comes to us from Deep Space Devices, and enjoys elements of sludge, doom, metal and even some good old...
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Today’s guest review comes to us from Nikki King – you can find her and the band Spank on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and on their website as well. Thanks again, Nikki! I wanted something similar to the Marshall Shredmaster, but its not in production anymore and the vintage models go for lots of cash. I asked Pepers if they could make me something like that, and he totally obliged, I’d spent heaps trying to find...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Another compressor pedal, you say? Well, this one is a bit different than the one we reviewed earlier this week, the Lamplighter from Greer Amps. Where that one focused on studio compression in a pedal, the Kegel Compressor from Farm Pedals can get down and dirty, with enough squeeze to make your tone sparkle and pop. All we know is, a compressor with a Gain control sounds absolutely OK to us! V controls the overall output volume of...
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Efren Castro Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico Paradox Effects www.paradoxeffects.com How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? Since I was 11, I’m currently 30. I started playing bass on my own and then got together with a few friends to play some Misfits covers. I think one of the reasons I got through most of the days playing instruments was to keep myself away from the streets of my hood,...
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Clayton Donofrio Pittsburgh, PA American Wizard Toneworks americanwizardtoneworks.com How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I think I was 12 or 13 when I got my first guitar, but I always wanted to play. Growing up my parents always had a great record collection (Black Sabbath, CCR, Led Zeppelin, Queen, etc.) so Rock n Roll was in my blood from the beginning. My mom in particular was very...
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Mihali Savoulidis Vermont Twiddle twiddlemusic.com How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I’ve been playing guitar since I was 14, but I really had just been playing in my bedroom and writing songs and working on my lead playing. I went to college to form a band and play all these songs I had written during high school, and the end result is Twiddle. I started really gigging out when I was 18,...
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Today’s featured pedal will not only enhance your tone and drive either a tube or solid state amp, but proceeds from its sales help to fund a family farm in Maine as well. The Casco Logger is the first pedal from our new friends at Farm Pedals that we’ve had the privilege to demo and review, and this simple orange box made quite an impression on us. A simple overdrive, it can be used as a great clean boost as well, and...
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We have had the pleasure of reviewing and demoing a whole bunch of pedals from our friends at Celestial Effects over the years, and we get to do it again today! The Virgo Rock Overdrive conjures up feelings and sounds of all your favorite classic rock tunes and guitarists from the ’60’s and ’70’s with ease, while adding in some modern functionality and enough options to fill Madison Square Garden. Deceptively...
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The folks at Free The Tone are making some absolutely phenomenal effects pedals, and have been for some time. Today, we’re going to take a look at their latest offering, an effect genre that is as popular now as it’s ever been, and one that continues to gain traction moving forward. The Ambi Space AS-1R is a digital reverb that has a warm and analog-ish feel, while supporting digital interfacing and harnessing modern...
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Many, many moons ago, when we were first getting started here at Pedal of the Day, one of the first companies that took a chance on us and helped us get going was Vaux Flores, a small company from Baltimore, Maryland, who continue to create some super-unique pedals at super-affordable prices (check out their Gold Standard Fuzz we reviewed). Today we look at the Pejibaye Overdrive, a simple but powerful pedal that unleashes beautiful,...
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Pedals like the one we’ve got for you today are always a blast to review, as they seem so futuristic and uncommon, even though they were first released decades ago. With a ton of knobs, footswitches and jacks, the UE 305 is a multi effect for the ages, combining three excellent pedals from Ibanez’s golden age of effects into one HUGE enclosure (no joke, this thing is massive). Let’s just dive right in and see what...
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For those of you who don’t already know, we’re crazy Star Wars fans here at Pedal of the Day, so when the chance arose to check out a pedal with an semi-iconic robot plastered on its enclosure, we knew we’d be in for a treat, regardless of how it sounded. Fortunately, it didn’t disappoint in the sonic category, either, making it a definite Win-Win for us, and really for anyone who plays this pedal, if they like...
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One of our favorite things here at Pedal of the Day is when someone sends us a custom pedal with our logo on it – since we have no clue how to actually BUILD these pedals, seeing our design embossed on an effect is a pretty rare and cool thing that we appreciate a lot. The guys over at PuzzleSounds not only didn’t make us build the Deep Blue Delay they sent us, but they emblazoned it with our signature circle as well,...
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3-In-1 effects pedals usually require, well, 3 switches, a huge enclosure and a control panel that rivals something at a NASA launch site. Today’s pedal brings the versatility of 3 pedals to one super-small enclosure, providing a bunch of tones all with a user-friendly mindset. The Bipolar from PFX is a Buffer, Boost and Overdrive all rolled into one – curious yet? The Bipolar features just three control knobs, but they...
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Today’s guest review comes to us from Coe S. – find him on Instagram (@coeschneider) and say Hi! As part of the Skyline Series by Hotone Audio, the Verb caught my attention for three reasons; price point, size, and a cool glowing knob. This was my first reverb pedal, that being said, I had no reference point, and still don’t have much. I’ve watched a ton of demos though;) The light up knob is super cool, and...
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Chuck Garvey Cincinnati, OH moe. www.moe.org Ha Ha The Moose @chukg on Twitter moechukg on Instagram How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I started playing instruments when I was young, just hammering stuff out by ear on acoustic guitar and piano, but started lessons for Tenor saxophone when i was in 5th grade. Played sax for 8-9 years and also started to play more acoustic and electric guitar...
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Today’s guest review comes to us from Wesley S. – find him on Instagram (@wesleystuart1) and say Hi! Emerson Custom (though mostly known for their wiring kits) has also dipped their fit into the pedal making business; one of their two offerings being the Paramount Overdrive. I recently bought this pedal as I just wasn’t satisfied with the drive tone I’d been getting from my rig and hated how the pedal I was...
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