The Phaser Effect. It’s been heard on famous recordings and utilized in live settings by all of our favorite guitarists for decades, and continues to be one of the more interesting effects genres out there. Now, as much as we love a good, simple, one-knob phase shifting unit, the ones that are REALLY fun are the multiple-switch, more-than-you-need knob configuration, too-many-options-to-handle types of phasers, and that is...
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Modulation can add an entirely new dimension to any musical endeavor, whether it be a subtle, layered effect or a noise-laden, pulsating fury of sound screaming through your amplifier. The Tremulus Maximus from RPS Effects is an exciting, fully analog optical tremolo and amplitude modulator that will change your approach to writing and recording your tunes. While it features a pretty straightforward control section, the ranges...
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It’s been a minute since we had a new pedal from JHS Pedals come through the shop, but they’ve reappeared with a brand new effect that sure to get the tremolo/vibe folks salivating. The Kodiak is a Tap Tempo Tremolo pedal, complete with a ton of bells and whistles that will suit anyone looking to add a fat, bold, pulsing effect to their lineup or board. Boasting subdivision note control, 4 differing waveform choices,...
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When a pedal describes itself as a Phaser, our interest is automatically peaked. Now, not everyone loves the phaser effect, for whatever reason, but then a pedal comes along that changes the game, and could possibly make a whole slew of haters into converts after they hear it in action. That pedal has arrived today, folks: the Arctic Wolf from Dogmatek Effects Pedals is a twin modulator phaser, but is also a ring modulator, tremolo,...
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It’s been a hot minute since we had anything from Yellowcake come through the office, but boy, was it worth the wait. The Lida Machine is an analog resonant filter, with hints of tremolo and vibrato, ring modulator, phaser and more jammed into an impressive-looking and sounding enclosure. With two footswitches and a lot of knobs, we’re ready to dive in and explore this beast immediately… Also known as a VCF (Voltage...
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Remember when you first discovered how to add a little bit of funk into your playing? Those couple of chords that you could jam on forever, thinking you were going to form the next Parliament or be the next Stevie Wonder, but on guitar? The Blurst from Electro-Harmonix is a modulated filter pedal that brings the funk with authority, while adding in some fun twists and turns, and always keeping a smile on your face. Diverting slightly...
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The Uni-Vibe is an iconic effect, whether coming from Hendrix and Band of Gypsy’s “Machine Gun,” Robin Trower’s “Bridge of Sighs” or multiple tracks from “Dark Side of the Moon” from Pink Floyd, you’ve heard it before many times, and chances are you dig it. Today’s pedal seeks to re-create those iconic effects units of the past, with a couple new enhancements as well. The...
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The folks at Pigtronix have always put out wildly innovative, sonically-pleasing and sometimes futuristic effects, that are always surrounded by questions like, “Who makes that pedal?” or “How did you get that sound?” The purple piece of gear we’ve got today for you to check out and listen to is their newest creation, one that works wonders in both the guitar and bass worlds (and other, too, we’re...
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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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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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It’s always fun to experiment with guitar pedals on bass, and bass pedals on guitar as well. Today’s bass-oriented fuzz sounds incredible on guitar, with a tremendous bottom end beautiful harmonic structure for any six-string machine to bond with. The Woolly Mammoth from ZVEX Effects shows us that low frequencies can be enjoyed by other instruments besides bass, and that we all still think fuzz effects kick ass. As far as...
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Whenever a package arrives carrying ANYTHING from our friends at EarthQuaker Devices, the whole shop seems to light up instantly. Continually reinventing the sonic wheel, Jamie, Julie and the crew keep dazzling our eyes and ears with each new creation, and one of their newest is what we’re going to explore today. The Space Spiral™ is a delay with all the modulation you could want, as well as out-of-control repeats, outer space...
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For those of us in the know, the pedals from Main.Ace.FX are pretty easy to spot, as they hold a consistent look and feel throughout the lineup created by James Granuzzo. As for their sound, that too is consistent, quality-wise, if not always surprising and creative. Today’s pedal, the Shell Shock Fuzz/Tremolo, is yet another in this impressive group of effects, a 2-in-1 that is chalk-full of sonic exploration and enhancement,...
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Sometimes, you just know an effect is going to be rad based solely on its name, and today’s pedal proves that once again. The Dirty Robot from DigiTech is a mini-synth pedal, turning your guitar or bass into a close-to-full-blown synthesizer, without having to worry about a second pickup or interface to haul around. A powerful effect indeed, there’s lots to learn about it, so let’s dive right in! There are a bunch of...
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We’ve had some great experiences reviewing and demoing pedals from our friends at Big Joe Stomp Box Company, and we get to do it again today! The R-409 is an all-analog, vactrol-based optical tremolo, one with a bunch of controls that allow you to create almost any tremolo sound your brain can come up with, and some that have yet to be discovered. Join us on a funky and modulated journey through space and time, won’t you?...
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*This is our last review before a much-needed (and we think deserved) break for the holidays here in the States. Thanks everyone for another killer year of support and helping Pedal of the Day continue to grow and thrive – and if you haven’t already, head over to Our Online Store and pick up some shirts, stickers and pedals for the musician in your life, or as a little treat to yourself. See you in 2017 – Cheers!*...
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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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Where do we even start with a pedal like this? The Goatkeeper 3 has become a pedal of mystery and intrigue, not to mention hard to find and pretty expensive, too. Described as an analog tremolo sequencer, this big white whale is so much more, a giant tone machine just itching to be experimented with, and thanks to the folks at Lightfoot Labs, one that we get to indulge in for you today. The Goatkeeper is a pedal unlike most, utilizing...
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Today’s guest review comes to us from Max F. – find him on SoundCloud (@MaxFaith)! The Boss DS-1 is a classic circuit that most of us are familiar with. Players have been modifying the little orange boxes for years and the amount of modifications and spinoffs are too numerous to mention. Despite the variety of DS-1 circuit configurations, most specimens seem to impart the same familiar gain-structure that originally made the pedal a...
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Complex delay pedals can be confusing, sometimes hard to figure out and even extremely frustrating, but the payoff for hard work and actually reading the manual will ALWAYS pay off. That said, the Echolution 2 Deluxe Delay from our friends at Pigtronix features a more-than-slight learning curve, but it also packed with options and delay sounds not heard very often, in any pedal or context. This delay is set up sort of like other delay...
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After a quick day off yesterday to move the shop, we’re back with a bang! From the insanely talented and innovative brain of our pal Joel Korte over at Chase Bliss Audio comes one of the most talked-about and anticipated effects pedals of 2016. The Tonal Recall Analog Delay not only manages to squish a TON of options into a regular-sized, pedalboard-friendly pedal, but takes the entire genre, dumps it on its head and reinvents...
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Alright, kiddies, you’re in for a real treat today. The Dream Sequence from Hologram Electronics is one of the hottest pedals out at the moment, and if you haven’t heard it or heard of it, we’ll try to give you a great review and demo so you can know it’s true power. Part envelope filter, part tremolo, part pitch shifter, part sampler and part sequencer with a dash of synth thrown in for good measure, this...
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Chorus is a great effect, when used in the right context. I suppose the same could be said about any other effect, but chorus really seems to have a special following of haters, while other players consider it a crucial part of their signature sound. As with most pedals from EarthQuaker Devices, the Sea Machine is not a traditional chorus effect, but instead another gorgeous re-imagining of a classic effect with those very special EQD...
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Where to even begin with a pedal like this? While Moog is known for their incredible synths and revolutionary sonic invention, we here at Pedal of the Day are much more familiar with their line of Moogerfooger® effects pedals. Having checked out the 12-Stage Phaser, Ring Modulator, MuRF and Analog Delay so far, the next logical step was the MF-107 FreqBox®…for which we were overwhelmingly unprepared. The FreqBox® is a little...
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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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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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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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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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What happens when a company runs out of an important piece of the sonic puzzle that has been used in manufacturing one of their most popular pedals? The price of the ones already in existence goes through the roof, which happens to be the case with today’s pedal, the absolutely fantastic Moogerfooger MF-104M Delay, the final pedal of our “Moog Week” run here at Pedal of the Day. This all-analog delay is no longer in...
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Day Three of “Moog Week” is upon us, and this one is a mammoth. The beauty of ring modulators is that they are unpredictable at best. Especially when you’ve got one like today’s pedal, the MF-102 Ring Mod from Moog – this thing has got so many controls and such big ranges on each, it’s easy to get blissfully lost in a sonic wash that overtakes your amp, ears and anything else that might be within...
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I really dig the simplicity of the pedal produced by today’s featured builder, Like My Pedals. The stuff that they’re putting out to the world from Gainesville, Florida is nothing short of awesome, and with the simple but bold enclosures and no graphics or text, their pedals are very easily recognizable, and come with a hint of class, prestige and mystery. Today’s pedal is a newer model (I think we got one of the...
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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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Troctave. Just say it once or twice – it sounds like something interesting, right? That’s because it is. This is the first (and only) Troctave I know of, and it combines 2 great effects into one unique and rare stompbox, capable of both smooth and choppy tremolo vibes, as well as an entirely new realm of sonic exploration, the likes of which few of us have seen. The controls, although unlabeled, were fairly easy to figure...
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The last few months have been busy for Joel and the crew at Chase Bliss Audio. After releasing brand new versions of their staple pedals the Warped Vinyl and the Wombtone, they’ve now released a THIRD pedal in almost as many weeks, and it will shatter your expectations once again. Keeping with the theme of “best modulation gear on the planet”, we present you with the Gravitas Analog Tremolo. As with the other Chase...
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If you haven’t heard it, or of it, yet, the Warped Vinyl Analog Vibrato/Chorus pedal is one of the hottest pieces of gear on the market right now, but Chase Bliss Audio didn’t stop there. They managed to revamp another of their flagship pedals, the Wombtone Analog Phaser, and somehow make it more incredible than it was previously. I got the chance to check both pedals out recently (click here for my review of the Warped...
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The first Warped Vinyl Analog Chorus/Vibrato was an instant hit, and was always in high demand from players across the country (and world, I would assume). Originally created to sound like a warped LP record, the analog sounds and options available made it a surefire classic, and everyone wondered what they would create next. Somehow, the gang from Chase Bliss Audio have managed to step up their game yet again, and have released the...
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I’m always excited to find a rare pedal, something that was a prototype or a one-off, that hasn’t been mass-produced, and frankly, can’t be had by other players. Maybe that sounds a little selfish, but hey, you all feel the same way! Case in point: this Tremolo pedal from our friends in Iceland, Pedal Projects. Now, there’s nothing too fancy about this tremolo, which is one of the things I like about it. As...
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The Warbler Tap Tremolo pedal from Midnight 30 Music is a two-of-a-kind pedal, meaning there’s only one other one in existence. I was lucky enough to snatch this guy up, and am now the proud owner of a versatile, fun, deep, lush and rare tremolo pedal. It’s got some great features, a super-rad Star Trek graphic and a lot more that we’ll get into in this review as well. The Warbler is a pretty complicated pedal, to be...
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The LoLo Optic Double Speed Tremolo comes to us from MRB Pedals in Venezuela, and is truly a unique tremolo beast. It features 2 separate speed controls, which you can set independently, and then choose which one you’d like to use on the fly via a footswitch. 2 different LEDs that blink simultaneously, 2 footswitches for Speed and On/Off and 2 different color knobs to control the unique Rates of the independent tremolo speeds. A...
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Alright, so maybe I wanted to test this pedal out because I thought the penguin looked cool, so what? The point is, not only is the Emperor from JHS Pedals aesthetically pleasing, it is sonically as well. A 2-In-1 Analog Chorus and Vibrato, the Emperor really boasts some gorgeous modulated sounds throughout all of its settings, and promises to make you want to keep coming back for more and more. Volume, Speed, Tone and Depth controls...
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This Digitech Hardwire TR-7 Tremolo/Rotary pedal is amazing, with 7 different modes it’s a blast to tinker with. 4 basic knobs: Speed, Depth, Modify and the Type Selector knob. The first two knobs are self-explanatory, but the modify knob does many different things depending on what setting you’re on. It either changes waveform, tone, secondary speed, dry mix, chorus or vibrato mix or phase. You can get amazing sounds out...
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I’ve used many, many tremolo pedals over the years, and while most of them do a pretty good job, there are a few I’ve found that really stand out. This is one of those pedals: the Tremolessence from Dr. Scientist. Everything you’d want in a tremolo sound, plus one cool added bonus. Six control knobs and 2 toggles might SEEM a bit much, but they all serve their purpose, and work collectively to create a wide-sweeping,...
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I have played a tremolo pedal or two in my days as a guitarist, and the optical Tremolo from Diamond Pedals is right up there at the top of the list. With so many variables, the sonic possibilities are vast, but getting to them is the real fun part with this pedal. The Speed knob controls the rate of the modulation, moving from a slow, pulsing wave to a extreme, almost whirly sound close to a ring modulator. There’s also a Tap...
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The Tremolo2 from Empress is an original design built from the ground up to include innovative features without sacrificing tone. The next generation of the great Empress tremolo! The empress tremolo 2 is true to its predecessor with many more features! It now comes with the ability to have an external tap/expression pedal and you can save up to 8 presets! Specs: Pristine Sound – The Empress Tap Tremolo2 Pedal has to be heard to...
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