Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to play and enjoy some wonderful 3-knob delay pedals, such as the TC Prophet, the Cusack Music TME, the Deadbeat Sound Delay Lay Lay, the Guyatone MD2 and the Ninevolt Relaxing Walrus, just to name a few. Today’s pedal is a fine addition to this club, and we’re glad it made the long trek from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Slow Pick Analog Delay comes to us from XFX Boutique,...
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Anyone who knows the band Fu Manchu knows they have a pretty signature sound, and the bass is a big part of it. What you might not know is that the bass player, Brad Davis, is also the mastermind behind Creepy Fingers Effects, and he was kind enough to send us a pedal to check out today. The Fuzz Nugget is just that: a tasty little morsel of fuzz wrapped in a big old gold box, Eatin’ Dust and just waiting to be unleashed on the...
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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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Who doesn’t love some AC/DC? Really? Well, you’re wrong, and you need to go download their whole catalog immediately. Speaking of folks who really dig that band, our featured pedal today is basically the accumulation of facts, tones and info regarding Mr. Angus Young (of said band) and his instantly-recognizable tone, compiled over a lifetime and finally brought to life in the form of the TSR Schaffer Replica Compander...
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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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Coming from such a compression-based pedal lineup for so many years, we were excited when the folks at Origin Effects announced they were releasing an overdrive pedal. After all, their studio-quality gear is second to none, and we knew they would put that expertise and high-quality craftsmanship into their new effect as well. With a $650 price tag, however, the first RevivalDRIVE was just a bit out of our range, so we were once again...
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The Big Muff. You’ve heard it, you know it, you love it….but, can you afford an original, 1970’s-era model? Probably not, plus there’s the maintenance, reliability, etc. that goes along with owning any piece of vintage gear. Thankfully, we’re super-spoiled in the effects pedal community, and have companies like D-Sound Effects, all the way from Russia, to help us with these bumps in the road. Today...
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We decided we’d shake things up a bit here at Pedal of the Day today, and bring you a piece of gear that isn’t a pedal at all. The Asphalt TAR-20G is a miniature guitar amplifier from our friends at Valeton, and we’re going to take you through how it works, and can enhance your tone. Small and light but mighty and boasting some nice options, let’s check out this nifty little amp, shall we? Compact and not heavy...
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Preamp and buffer pedals seem to get swept under the rug these days a bit, in part due to the incredible modulation, delay and drive pedals seemingly coming out every other week. However, these pedals are an absolutely essential part of any rig, and today’s pedal harkens back to a classic circuit and tone that has yet to be almost exactly replicated – until now. The Epoch Pre EP3 Preamp Buffer from Catalinbread emulates...
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In The Whale Denver, CO Eric Riley – drums/vocals Nate Valdez – guitar/lead vocals inthewhale.com instagram.com/in_the_whale twitter.com/inthewhale facebook.com/inthewhale How long have you been musicians? How did you get into it in the first place? ERIC: I started playing percussion in the school band in junior high. I got a drum kit for Christmas when I was 13 and never looked back. I continued to play in school band throughout high...
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Do we like Modulation effects here at Pedal of the Day? Yes. What about Delay? Check. Reverb? Of course. What about all of them in one pedal, one that fits into the palm of your hand and costs less than 100 bucks? Sign us up!! Today’s pedal is all of these things and more – the CRL-1 Coral Modulation Delay Reverb from Valeton is small, affordable and boasts a slew of sounds you might not expect would fit into an enclosure...
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Let’s be honest: ring modulators are just not for everyone. However, for those of us that love innovation, chaotic noise and aggressively distorted sounds, you can’t go wrong when in this genre of effects. The original Gonkulator from DOD was released in the 90’s, and has become somewhat of a cultish, sought-after pedal, which usually leads to becoming overpriced and difficult to obtain. Luckily, for a little while...
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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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Loophole Pedals thrives on their ability to navigate the unique tones these delay produce and add useful, thoughtful and exciting mods to them, turning an already great pedal into an exquisite one. Today we’re going to check out the TC Electronic Alter Ego x4 Vintage Delay Looper, and see what a few simple mods can do to really open up this marvelous effect. Here’s what Loophole Pedals did to our lovely Alter Ego x4: Footswitch...
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Today, we’re going to go to a place where we’ve only ventured a couple of times in Pedal of the Day’s history – AcousticTown. Now, while the acoustic guitar and its vast array of sonic weapons don’t get the spotlight all that often, that doesn’t mean we don’t love the sounds they all make, especially when the gear sounds like today’s machine. The ALiX from Grace Design is a...
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Brandon “Taz” Niederauer tazguitar.com @brandonniederauer @NiederauerMusic How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I have been playing guitar since I was eight years old. I became fascinated with my father’s album and video collection and was listening to The Allman Brothers and other guitar and jazz music. When I went to my first concert at eight, I knew I wanted to play. Who...
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Chris and the crew at Haunted Labs are making some crazy pedals these days, if you haven’t had the chance to check them out. We were fortunate enough to get blistered with ambience by their Dark Aura Reverb a little while back, and thus were stoked for today’s featured gem. The Paranormal Fuzz V2 builds on the original version of this monster, with a cleaner, quieter circuit design, more gain and improved construction....
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Altough we don’t do it as often as we should, a good bass demo is always a fun way to end a long week. And speaking of bass pedals, the crew at Mantic Effects have been building some low end-inspired pieces of gear for years now, several of which we’ve been fortunate enough to tackle here at Pedal of the Day. Today’s effect might not be as flashy as some of those others, but it’s an important piece to any bass...
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Patrick Garland Houston, Texas GARLAND FX garlandfx.bigcartel.com How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I’m 33 years old, and started playing guitar at age 10 – so about 23 years. 20 on electric guitar. The first guitar I ever played was my mom’s Guild Madiera from 1970. My mom uses it for playing music to pre-schoolers – she’s quite talented and can play and sing. I also still...
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There is nothing like the sound of a Marshall stack, particularly a vintage one, perhaps of the Plexi variety, with the classic 4 input configuration. Those in the know have discovered a special secret about these amps: using a patch cable to connect two of the inputs together. This results in the Volume controls from both channels becoming active, and able to be blended at will to produce gorgeous, soaring crunch tones. If...
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After the powerhouse of a pedal we witnessed last month in the American Geek from Zander Circuitry, we couldn’t wait to delve into their next offering, a rare THREE-IN-ONE pedal that has more options than you’ll know what to do with. The Avalanche is described as a “Harmonic Clipping Trifecta,” and it certainly gives you three completely different sounds to concoct your next sonic meal with. Fuzz, Boost,...
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Continuing our week of powerful distortion effects, we’ve got another monster fuzz pedal for you to check out today. The American Geek is a high-gain fuzz machine from Zander Circuitry, one with a spread out tone section, a ton of drive and a super-charged footswitchable option to send your sound into the metal stratosphere. Level and Gain set the output volume and amount of crunch the American Geek produces, as they should, but...
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Sometimes, a small adjustment to an effects pedal layout can make all the difference. Today’s pedal is a distortion, yes, with the usual trio of controls, but their positioning is instantly a head turner, and as you delve in, you’ll find them to be additional functional, too. The Distortion 1 from LunaStone Pedals also sounds fantastic, everything you want in a high gain rocker, so let’s check it out, shall we? The...
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We’re always interested in what our gear-making friends across the pond are up to, and today we’ve got a new company that we’re checking out for the first time. Jānis lv Effect Pedals are straight outta Birzgale, Latvia, and have both a unique look and sound to their effects. With just a couple pedals in their lineup so far, we’re excited to check out the first one, the Miesnieks, a powerful...
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Big. Black. Bold. Bowerful. Well, maybe not that last one, but the others (and Powerful) definitely describe the lineup of pedals produced by Wounded Paw Audio. Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure to check out their Battering Ram Overdrive/Fuzz, Echo Drive and, most recently, the Black Wolf, a massive distortion for guitar AND bass. Today, we’ve got another creation of theirs for you: the Bighorn Overdrive. A little...
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The World of Compressors here in effects pedal land has really come on strong the last couple of years, with some incredible, studio-quality stompboxes coming out into the fold more and more. Today’s featured pedal is no exception, using an expected control section to produce not just excellent, high-quality compression, but a gorgeous clean boost sound if you need it as well. Straight from our friends at Analog Alien, the Alien...
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If you’re on the lookout for nice, simple, run-of-the-mill overdrive/distortion effect, today’s featured pedal is definitely NOT for you. The Kismet from Ramble FX houses everything you love about dirt pedals, from clean boost to almost heavy metal, into one enclosure, but adds a ton of options and features as well. Four presets, toggling/cycling, expression pedal control, even MIDI and more, this blue tank can easily...
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Right away, today’s featured pedal jumps out at you: big box, crazy, futuristic graphics and knobs the size of small cars…well, not really, but it’s a bold-looking effect, for sure. Once you plug in the Spitfire Overdrive Distortion from Lauren Audio, you realize all of your excitement and fear was not for nothing, as gorgeous dirt tones drip and ooze from your amplifier. Created by Lauren Audio in sunny Southern...
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The effects company Montreal Assembly is an elusive entity in today’s modern world, with little to no online presence, just a basic website and little social media activity. Somehow, they’ve managed to make an incredible name for themselves, and we get to check out one of their now-discontinued creations today. The Positive Overdrive Distortion is just that: a driving force of gritty tone and crunchy distortion that leaves...
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We love seeing effects arrive at the shop from smaller pedal companies who are up-and-coming in the game, and we are going to check out a scorcher of a fuzz today. Andrew and Tori from MidValleyFX have built the Go To Fuzz, and aptly-named distortion that could just be the one effect in your rig you rely on the most moving forward. Simple and powerful, this gated beauty can conjure up classic and distinguished tones, while...
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We get pedals coming through the office here from time to time that are so fun and so insane that they’re difficult to write about. The Tesla Oscilador (Oscillating Tesla, for you English-speakers) from Lee de Forest is a synthesizer-fuzz-envelope-filter-harmonizer-laser-maker of a pedal – again, difficult to write about. While you’ll get the best idea of what this thing can do from the demo video below, we’ll...
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Joey Lewis Buffalo, NY Funktional Flow www.funktionalflow.com facebook.com/FunktionalFlowMusic youtube.com/user/funktionalflowmusic/videos How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? From what I can remember, a man in our neighborhood growing up gave an acoustic guitar to my older brother Justin and he quickly lost interest in it. That’s when I swooped in and nabbed it lol. But it was ok...
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DUMBLE. If you play guitar, there’s a decent chance you’ve heard about these rare and legendary (and ridiculously expensive) amps, used by such players as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ben Harper, Ry Cooder, Lowell George and more. Fetching price tags ranging from $50,000 – 100,000 EACH, there’s also a good chance you’ve never (and will never) get to play one for yourself. Today’s pedal, the Dumble Overdrive...
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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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Although we’re not the fastest or most technical of players around here, we sure can appreciate a good heavy metal tune, and the pedal we’re going to look at today is capable of providing the tones needed for speed, thrash, glam, black, death and other metal genres with ease. Robert and the kids at Keeley Electronics have covered just about all the bases when it comes to effects, and the Filaments High Gain Distortion is...
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Combining delay and reverb into one effect should absolutely be done more often, especially if the result is anything like today’s featured piece of gear. Improving a bit on the first version of this pedal, the Caverns Delay Reverb V2 takes everything we loved from the initial go-round and fine tunes it all into a still-compact enclosure with amazing sonic prowess. With three reverb modes and an analog, tape-style delay,...
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Having recently reviewed and demoed a couple of pedals from our pals down under at Midnight Amplification, the Sentinel Reverb Overdrive and the Giant Sound Preamp Boost Fuzz, we were wicked excited to delve into yet another one of these Aussie-created effects. The Mynd Driver, in addition to having an awesome name, also conjured up some incredible overdrive sounds, from slight to heavy, with a lot of variation between the extremes....
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In the land of 2-in-1 effects pedals, there are a ton of fairly familiar combinations we’ve encountered over the years – Boost/Overdrive, Delay/Reverb, Chorus/Vibrato, etc. Today’s pedal takes a bit of a left turn from the norm, combining Overdrive and Reverb, for a marvelous new sonic equation. The Sentinel from Australia’s own Midnight Amplification mixes these two effects in a unique yet extremely useable...
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A couple years back, we reviewed a pedal from a small company in Chicago (the Nothing Is Dead Fuzz), and it was one of the funnest pedals we saw all year. Happily, we have another offering from these guys to check out today, and while it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the last fuzz of theirs we saw, it brings the heat and the heavy with ease, and will surely rock your face. The FY-2 is a modded germanium fuzz, giving...
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Pedals that are based off of old, classic amplifiers tend to produce some really incredible overdrive tones, and today’s featured pedal emulates a couple of vintage amps and sounds to perfection. The Vox Supreme, Defiant, Conqueror and Virtuoso amplifiers had a fuzz/drive built right into them, and were used to record many, many songs you know and love by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The White Pedal Fuzz Overdrive from...
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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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Whenever a weird, un-categorizable pedal comes our way, especially if it has a name we can’t quite pronounce, we become instantly intrigued. Today’s pedal, the Okto-Nøjs Octaver Fuzz from Emma Electronic checks all of these boxes, and produces some killer effects sounds as well. An octave effect and fuzz pedal in one, strange sounds lurk about deep within this creature, waiting to be released is a fiery ball of sonic fury....
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Discovering new pedal manufacturers is always a pleasure here at Pedal of the Day, and we’ve got another rad one for you today. Straight outta NOLA, Retroactive Pedals’ first offering is a fuzz/overdrive effect that has both aesthetic and sonic wonders for everyone. Loaded with options, the Designated Driver is easy to use and fun to dial in. Designed to be of the “Marshall” sound when strumming chords and...
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Last month when we reviewed and demoed our first pedal from Frana Effects, the White Wave Fuzz, the impression that it left was one of amazement (as well as a shattered eardrum or two). So, we were stoked to be able to try another one of their pedals, but go in a completely different direction from the aforementioned fuzz genre. The Moon Land is a tremolo with extra oomph, based on some classic circuitry, but with its own flare and...
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Today’s featured pedal is kind of a 2-in-1, which you know we dig here at Pedal of the Day. Part fuzz, part distortion and all-powerful, the Boar Fuzz from Ohmless Pedals produces a broad spectrum of dirt tones, waiting to be unleashed from inside a smaller-than-usual enclosure, perfect for adding to any pedal setup. With simple controls and one fun additional knob, this effect will have affect on your tone, effectively and...
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Kevin Wilson Guilford, Indiana Wilson Effects www.wilsoneffects.com How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I started playing guitar in the 4th grade and dropped it for a while. I picked it back up when I was around 17 and have been playing ever since. I was an 80’s metal thrash kid so Metallica, Slayer all contributed to my willingness to pick it back up. Ultimately Pearl Jam became one of my...
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From the twisted, brilliant mind of Jack Deville comes another pedal in his line of effects with the Friday Club moniker, the PD100. This simple-looking overdrive is anything but, producing a good bit of crunch when dimed, and a wonderfully clean boost when set at lower levels. A perfect front-end effect for your board, it will drive an amp into sweet sonic glory and work with other pedals to enhance your all-around tone. The Master...
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If for some reason, you still don’t know about or haven’t experienced any of the sonic marvels that Walrus Audio continually puts out into the effects community, you need to get on that quick (after you read this and watch the demo, of course). For the rest of us, it comes as no surprise that Colt and the crew have come up with an incredible new tremolo to unleash on the world: the Monument Harmonic Tap Tremolo. Featuring...
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Although we reviewed this guy a while back, it was V1, and we weren’t doing demo videos at the time, so we decided to revisit one of our favorite fuzz pedals, and update it a bit as well. We’ve included excerpts from our original review, as well as the sweet, sweet demo… We love this fuzz. The Bun Runner from JHS Pedals is a sonic marvel, and one of the most versatile and useful fuzzes we have ever had the privilege...
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Sef, lead guitarist in the band Your Favorite Enemies. Montreal, Quebec, Canada www.yourfavoriteenemies.com www.facebook.com/yourfavoriteenemies www.instagram.com/yourfavoriteenemies www.youtube.com/yourfavoriteenemies www.twitter.com/yfeofficial As you can see in some of the pictures, we have the crazy privilege of living in a former catholic church that we turned into our own professional studio a couple of years ago. It’s pretty...
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