JHS Pedals has partnered with DIY pedal specialist Coppersound for its latest make-it-yourself stompbox, the Short Circuit.

It becomes the latest build-at-home stompbox to bear the JHS Pedals name, following the Notaklön and Notadümblë drive pedals. It also joins Coppersound’s generous lineup of DIY pedal packs.

That said, this one is slightly different. It foregoes the IKEA-style, white enclosure in favor of a more rugged chassis in keeping with the Coppersound aesthetic.

It does sort of keep the naming style, though: the $119 Short Circuit has been described as a versatile, three-in-one Boost-a-Drive-a-Fuzz pedal.

The industrial pedal has controls for Volume, Gain, and Filter, as well as a Mode switch to flick between those three voices. There’s also a sole footswitch and the customary ‘On’ LED indicator.

Notably, the Short Circuit looks to be a far more involved DIY project, vastly more hands-on than anything JHS Pedals has released in the past. The foolproof Notaklön and Notadümble pedals only needed a few cables connecting and some screws tightening.

The Short Circuit is a much more advanced project. It has a PCB board upon which you’ll need to attach an assortment of electrolytic caps, film caps, diodes, resistors, transistors, potentiometers, ribbons, power jacks, and more.

You’ll also need a bunch more tools, including a soldering iron, an array of wrenches, a screwdriver, flush cutters, needle nose pliers, and – if you’re feeling really fancy – a multimeter.

So, yes, fans of the first two pedals, expect a big step up here. Equally, it looks like a nice level to graduate to for those who felt that the Notaklön and Notadümblë were a bit too easy.

The Short Circuit has been in the works for a while and marks a sizable release for JHS Pedals founder Josh Scott. As he explained in a build-along livestream, it was the project he was working on before he suffered a horror bike accident last year.

In August 2025, Scott was forced to take a step back from his business to recover from the accident. John Mayer kindly stepped in as a temporary pedal demo-er in his absence.

“This is a bit of a personal marker for me,” Scott says. “I was in a pretty hideous mountain biking accident and I did almost die. I broke my nose in two places [and needed] 29 stitches on my face.

“I broke my back, I broke my hand, I was lacerated all over my body. It was pretty nuts. I did all this right before that.”

Scott opened up to Guitar World about his accident in an interview last year, and revealed how Mayer's impromptu demo of the 424 Gain Stage came to pass.

The Short Circuit is available now for $119.

Head over to Coppersound to find out more.

What is it?

The JHS-3 Series has been going strong for a while now and was recently bolstered by the release of three new effects in the form of a bit crusher, glitch delay, and oil can delay. Today’s focus is an older pedal which has become a staple on the ‘boards of players who only need a single reverb pedal tone: the JHS 3-Series Reverb.

Recently, some of my colleagues on the Guitar World team decided to pit all of the best reverb pedals against one another in a YouTube video (linked below). As well as testing those properly expensive workstations containing myriad reverb algorithms and impulse responses, we had to look at those at the other end of the spectrum. There’s all manner of cheap reverb pedals available these days, and the 3 Series Reverb is one of the cheapest out there at just $99.

The 3-Series pedals all feature the exact same chassis and lineup of 3 controls plus a toggle switch. On this pedal, we have a verb control, an EQ knob, and a decay control. The single switch is a pre-delay, which slightly delays the time it takes for the reverb to start by a few milliseconds, making the start of your notes much clearer.

It’s got a simple 1-in, 1-out connectivity via 1/4-inch connectors, and takes a 9V DC pedalboard power supply that draws 74mA. You can’t run it on a 9V battery, so pedal power is your only option here. And that’s your lot. It may not sound like much, but as we’ll find out, it’s very much a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Specs

• Launch price: $99 | £90 | €114
• Type: Digital reverb pedal
• Controls: Verb, EQ, decay, pre-delay
• Features: N/A
• Connectivity: 1 x 1/4-inch input, 1 x 1/4-inch output
• Bypass: True bypass
• Power: 9V DC, 74mA
• Dimensions: 112.27 x 60.45 x 30.99mm
• Weight: 0.46 lbs, 0.21 kg
• Options: N/A
• Contact: JHS

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

The chassis is very simple with its all-white build and plain black writing. It looks like those generic store-brand items you used to get in the 80s. All-white packaging and exactly what it does written on the tin or the carton in big, black, bold lettering. Some will love it. Those who like their unique-looking pedals with intricate artwork will likely hate it.

One thing I can say about it is that it certainly feels robust. Like those cans of generic pork & beans, this pedal would definitely survive an apocalypse with its die-cast aluminium construction. The powder-coated matte white finish is textured and feels durable enough to put up well with on-stage abuse.

The knobs are all firmly attached with a travel that’s not too soft or too firm. The pre-delay switch clicks satisfyingly into place, and the footswitch offers a similarly sturdy feel that leaves me in no doubt it can survive some serious stomping. It gives a satisfying click when you depress it, not the clacking sound of a super cheap pedal, but not a soft-touch, silent switch that you might find on something pricier.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

Actually using the 3-Series Reverb is a doddle, even if it’s your first reverb pedal. The verb control dictates how much of the reverb you hear, while the EQ makes the reverb itself brighter when you turn to the right, or darker when you move it to the left. The decay control determines how long it takes for the reverb to stop reverberating. It doesn’t have spillover, so ambient users be wary: when you turn the pedal off, your reverb tails will cut off.

With just the three controls, it’s super easy to start dialing in tones, and I can’t see many struggling here. For complete beginners, it would be nice if it was clearer when the pre-delay is on or off. A new ear might be well-honed enough to understand what’s happening here, and the graphics don’t make it super clear. For clarity, putting the toggle switch in the up position engages the pre-delay.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Plugging in a Sire S7 HSS Strat-style guitar and running the pedal through the clean channel of my Orange Rocker 32 tube amp, I start with all of the controls at the 12 o’clock position, and the pre-delay switch set to off. As you might imagine, it’s quite a neutral reverb sound, present, but it doesn’t overwhelm your tone.

I’d describe it as a medium room setting, adding a nice tail to what I’m playing without completely masking the original note. Setting the EQ all the way to the right brightens the reverb up, making it a lot more present during my playing. Heading the other way darkens it, which has the same effect as pushing it back in the mix and making it more subtle.

With the reverb and decay settings on max, the tail takes a good 15 seconds to die off. It makes it great for those cavernous post-rock noodlings, although on this setting it drowns out your initial pick attack. Putting the decay back to the middle point and turning the verb all the way down, the pedal gives you complete zero. With the verb back up to 9 o’clock, it’s a very subtle room sound, great for adding a touch of life to the tone without it being obvious it’s there.

With the pre-delay engaged and the settings back at 12, the pedal delivers a very short reverb, almost delay-like in its quality. It’s subtle when I arpeggiate chords gently, but strike the strings hard, and it comes back at you like the reflection of a snare drum off the back wall at a live show.

The pre-delay makes things much more well-behaved with the verb and decay settings cranked, too. That milliseconds pause before the tail kicks in lets your notes cut through while still keeping those synth-like pads of the reverb tail undulating beneath your playing. It makes moody tremolo-picked guitar lines stand out much better, while still sounding like you’re playing them from a glacier cave.

Verdict

It’s hard to knock the JHS 3-Series Reverb when it’s so cheap and does its one job perfectly. I was surprised at how much variety of sound there is in it despite the simple design, and that’s exactly the thing that people will either love or hate about it. For beginners or those with simpler needs, this is a lot of pedal for just $99. It can go from barely there room sound to a drawn-out blooming reverberance, making it a very versatile option for those on a limited budget.

For more experienced players or those who love to endlessly tweak, you’ll probably run out of things to do with this pretty quickly. There’s no preset saving, no expression functionality, no MIDI, nor any of the other fancy features we often associate with a modern reverb pedal. If you’re gigging a covers band and need something that can play a lot of roles, this isn’t the reverb pedal for you.

Guitar World verdict: Simple to use, cheap, yet great quality, it’s easy to see the JHS 3-Series Reverb as one of the best budget reverb pedals going. It’s got a surprisingly big range despite the simple 3-knob layout, and the pre-delay function makes the really ambient stuff a lot more usable. Those after really tweakable delay sounds probably won’t find much here to love, but if you want a single reverb tone for your pedalboard that doesn’t cost much, this is a low-cost way to add it to your rig.

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Another mainstream modeler is now offering native support for the fastest rising digital amp technology – and it could mark a watershed moment for the gear industry.

HeadRush has announced a major firmware update for its Prime, Core, and Flex Prime floorboard modelers, which now support direct integration with TONE3000 and Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) captures.

TONE3000 has revolutionized the modeler space over the past few years, having worked with engineer Steve Atkinson on the open-source AI NAM platform. Recently overhauled as the Architecture 2 tech, it has changed the way players access tones.

In practice, TONE3000 and NAM lets players create and share digital captures of amps, pedals, cabs, rigs, outboard gear, and more. And, because it’s open source, it’s completely free to use.

The movement has gained strong momentum recently. TONE3000 has steadily grown its industry partners, bringing NAM to a growing range of modelers, practice amps, and headphone amps.

The list includes the LAVA Studio Smart Amp, Blackstar Beam Solo, Blackstar Beam Mini, Valeton GP-50, NUX Amp Academy Stop, and more. HeadRush has now joined the lineup.

What’s even more significant in this particular case is that HeadRush’s pedals have become the first to allow players instant access to TONE3000 and NAM captures directly through the onboard touchscreen on the pedal, no computer connection required.

The opportunity this presents to the player shouldn't be understated. When TONE3000 announced the NAM Architecture 2 platform, it released a research paper that showed it beat the market’s biggest players in a blind-listening competition.

It quantitatively outperformed the likes of Neural DSP, Fender, Line 6, and IK Multimedia.

The fact that such cutting-edge tones can be accessed for free directly from a modeler of HeadRush’s cost and caliber (the $499 Flex Prime scored a near-perfect review from us), is a huge step towards the democratization of digital guitar tones.

Before, the perception was that premium digital tones had to come at a premium financial outlay, and that budget floorboards were objectively tonally inferior to the industry’s big guns.

That no longer seems to be the case. The HeadRush Flex Prime, for instance, costs under $500, and thanks to this new update, statistically proven market-leading tones are within reach.

“I'm very proud of the level of quality that NAM offers,” notes Atkinson. “Seeing HeadRush affirm this by bringing it to their product line is a win for open-source technology in the music industry and, ultimately, the artists that industry serves.”

The sky is the limit for TONE3000 and NAM. We fully expect more companies to offer direct integration in the near future. The market’s big guns will no doubt be looking over their shoulders at what’s happening here. Whether they too will hop on the trend remains to be seen.

In the meantime, head over to HeadRush and TONE3000 to find out more.’

What is it?

Buying a pedalboard is usually a compromise between size, portability, and having enough room for adding pedals in the future. With the XPND series, D'Addario attempts to remove some of that guesswork by offering a 'board that adapts to your current setup while also expanding as your pedal collection grows – or as you move between different projects that require different effects. After all, pedalboard design hasn't changed dramatically in decades, and D'Addario leans into that with a telescopic system that is, notably, patented.

This pedalboard is aimed at players who regularly need to switch between setups, whether that’s switching between bands, moving from studio to stage, or simply wanting a more portable rig without committing to multiple boards.

The XPND 1 is the single-row model in the range and the most compact option available. It measures 14 inches when closed and extends to 24 inches when expanded, offering a flexible footprint without committing to a permanently large ‘board. Players with more extensive setups will naturally gravitate towards the dual-row XPND 2, but the inclusion of multiple sizes is a smart move from D’Addario and makes the system feel more considered than gimmicky.

Balancing portability with durability is always a challenge in pedalboard design, but here D’Addario opts for ultra-durable aluminum construction. The surface is fully covered in loop Velcro on both the top and underside, so it’s ready for pedal placement straight out of the box. Also included is a cable management system that doubles as a structural support between sections, while helping keep power and patch cables neatly routed underneath the ‘board.

When D’Addario first launched its XPND pedalboard range in the early 2020s, I wasn’t entirely convinced of the need for a telescopic design. But after joining two bands with very different pedal requirements, the appeal quickly became much clearer. One setup demanded a stripped-back ‘board, the other a far more effects-heavy rig, and suddenly the idea of expanding and contracting a pedalboard to suit the gig made a lot more sense. Add in the fact that several guitarist friends had already adopted the system and were full of praise, and I was keen to finally put it to the test for Guitar World.

Specs

• Price: £79 | $64.99 | €79
• Material: Ultra-durable aluminum
• Features: Telescopic row expansion, pre-installed loop Velcro, adjustable feet for height, cable management clips
• Dimensions: 356-610 mm (extension range) x 149 x 65 mm
• Weight: 51.85oz/ 1.47kg (without pedals)
• Contact: D’Addario

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Having recently moved house and discovering the XPND arrives flat-packed, I did feel a fair amount of trepidation. However, it was actually fairly straightforward to assemble. There are a few moving parts that are slightly fiddly, but it only took about 10 minutes to complete, after following the supplied instructions.

Four of the six rubber feet and side brackets are attached with countersunk hex screws, tightened with the supplied hex key. Everything lined up neatly, and there were no problems to report.

The top two rubber feet work slightly differently and are secured with a washer system that lets you adjust the pedalboard height between 35mm and 50mm. This adds a bit more angle to the unit and some additional clearance for larger power supplies, though it’s by no means generous.

In practice, I found this limited height a bit of an issue. My T-Rex Fuel Tank had absolutely no chance of fitting underneath the XPND 1. To be fair, it is chunky, so I wasn’t expecting miracles, but it’s still worth noting if you’re running a larger pedalboard power supply.

D’Addario does provide a compatibility list for power supplies that do fit underneath, which is helpful, but in my case I had to either place the unit on top of the board – which ate into pedal space and made cable routing a little messier – or leave it on the floor.

Once built, I was impressed by the heft of the thing. The aluminum feels genuinely durable as D’Addario claims, and I’m confident it’ll easily stand up to being thrown in and out of a car on the way to gigs. The telescopic mechanism is also pleasingly smooth, so adjusting the size between rehearsals and gigs takes only a few seconds, and when fully collapsed, the board tucks away very neatly.

On that note, the XPND 1 weighs 1.47kg without pedals, making it light enough to carry without much issue. One slight omission, however, is the lack of a gig bag. For a product clearly aimed at active and gigging players, that feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. D’Addario does offer a dedicated bag separately, but it’s priced at nearly the same as the XPND1 itself, making it a harder sell, in my opinion.

On the underside, there are two plastic braces on each rail that need to be flicked open when extending the board and closed again once you find your desired length. These don’t feel quite as sturdy as the rest of the construction, and I’d be slightly wary of heavy-handed use here, as they feel like the most obvious potential weak point in the design.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

Having loop Velcro installed on both the top and underside was a win for me. Although my T-Rex Fuel Tank didn’t fit underneath, being able to mount a power supply with Velcro would have avoided the awkward attachment issues I’ve had with my Palmer Pedalboard 40, which lacks a pre-velcroed underside.

In its unexpanded state, you’re realistically looking at three, maybe four pedals at a push. I found compact, top-mounted pedals worked best here, as they allowed for tighter spacing without clashing with knobs or switches. I was initially unsure whether my Way Huge Pork Loin and Angry Troll would fit comfortably, being quite chunky and large, but thanks to their top-mounted controls, they slotted in without too much trouble next to my guitar tuner, a Boss TU-3.

I managed to squeeze four Boss pedals onto the board in its compact form – a TU-3, BD-2, RV-6 and CS-3 – but only just. That setup was only achievable thanks to my low-profile pancake patch cables. With standard cables, it would have been too tight to be practical.

Extending the XPND1 to its full 24-inch length opened things up considerably, replicating the effects of a more effects-heavy rig. In this configuration, the pedalboard remained stable, although there is a slight amount of flex. It didn’t bother me in use, but heavier-footed players should take note.

I managed to squeeze on seven pedals, including the Boss models above, my Way Huge Pork Loin and Angry Troll, plus an MXR Carbon Copy, making for a pretty versatile rig.

Although I don't typically play with a wah or other expression pedals, I also threw my Cry Baby wah pedal on to see how the single-row layout coped. Here, the XPND1 showed its biggest limitation. The length of the pedal caused the board to rock back and forth more than I'd have liked, making it feel a little awkward underfoot. If you regularly use a full-sized wah or expression pedal, it's definitely something worth considering.

I also found the playing angle a little flatter than I’m used to. Personally, I prefer a more pronounced tilt, as it makes pressing the pedals feel more natural. The standing height also feels slightly elevated, meaning I had to lift my foot a bit more than expected when switching pedals. These are, of course, preferential things for me, but I thought it’d be worth mentioning.

Verdict

For guitarists who regularly swap between different pedal setups, I think the XPND1 is a genuinely clever solution. With the ability to go from 14 to 24 inches, it has the flexibility to run a compact, everyday board and expand when a bigger gig or project demands more effects. As expected from D’Addario, it's exceptionally well built, thoughtfully designed, and feels like it'll survive years of gigging.

There are compromises, though. Under-board clearance is limited for larger power supplies, and full-sized expression pedals don't pair particularly well with the single-row layout. Even so, if flexibility is high on your priority list, the XPND1 is one of the smartest pedalboard designs I've used.

Guitar World verdict: Simply put, the D’Addario XPND 1 pedalboard is a clever, flexible solution for gigging guitarists who need to switch between compact and expanded setups. Its telescopic design and durable aluminum construction allow you to adapt your board to almost any situation, and the pre-installed Velcro means you can get up and running quickly. That said, there is limited clearance underneath, and a single-row layout restricts which stomps will fit comfortably on it.

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• Best pedalboards: perfect platforms for your pedals, tested

What is it?

The Hazee Delay, the first in the Pollinator series, is a bit of a departure for Beetronics in that it’s the company’s first totally digital pedal.

In true Beetronics style, though, this is not just a standard digital delay pedal but one that’s designed to deliver textural delays and ambient sounds.

This is a pedal solely for modulated delays, not simply delays where there’s a bit of wobble on the repeats – we’re talking delays where the modulation is a totally integrated component of the sound as the modulation comes first in the signal chain and is then delayed.

There are eight modes of modulation available – four tremolo and four filter – each mode featuring a different type of repeat, giving you a choice of forward repeats, octave up repeats, reverse repeats and octave up reverse repeats.

There are just four knobs to adjust the effect: the delay pedal staples are Time, Mix and Feedback, and the Mod knob controls the modulation rate.

Specs

• Price: $249 | £229
• Type: Digital delay pedal
• Origin: USA
• Features: Buffered bypass
• Controls: Time, Feedback, Mix, Modulation, Mode selector, Bypass footswitch
• Connections: Standard input, standard output
• Power: 9V DC adaptor (not supplied) 80 mA
• Contact: Beetronics FX

Build quality, usability and sounds

The Hazee Delay controls are very interactive – small changes can have a big effect on the sonic outcome – so experimentation followed by considered adjustment is the key to getting the pedal to work for you.

It can be an inspirational and creative tool in that certain modes may encourage you to adapt your playing in reaction to what you’re hearing, rather than adjusting the controls to fit your playing.

There’s quirky stuff here, for sure, but the modes that are most conventional are those that offer the non-pitch-shifted forward repeats.

For example, the filter will give you auto-wah effects and even something that sounds like a rotary speaker at fast Mod rates, while the tremolo offers a nicely rounded pulse; keep the delay time at minimum if you want something closer to a straight effect.

With the pitch-shifted and reverse repeats, the other modes offer a more ‘out there’ take on things and are capable of pulsing and shimmering sonic layers with rhythmic movement as the repeats and modulation interact.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★

Guitar World verdict: This pedal encourages you to twist the knobs until you find a favoured sweet spot and offers plenty to explore in the realm of strangely voiced repeats and finely textured ambient soundscapes to sit with your core sound. Not your average digital delay by any means, the Hazee Delay is a vibe machine that could help get those creative juices flowing.

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The Studio Rats

• “Lo-Fi and Pitch modes take you well beyond the usual analog delay paradigm”: Beetronics Bee Bee Dee review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

It seems EarthQuaker Devices is in a constant flux between light and dark duality — call it Yin and Yang, if you will — across most of its recognized pedals. On one side, it's known for beautifully ambient pedals that create luminous soundscapes, while the other side unleashes bellowing, sonic mayhem. Its latest stompbox, the Sunn O))) HalfLife Octave Distortion & Booster, firmly falls under the latter description. The HalfLife stompbox (as you probably guessed with its play on words) is a more compact, condensed and pedalboard-friendly version of the Sunn O))) Life pedal, and lives on as a successful ongoing collaboration between Sunn O))) — the loudest of drone metal doomsayer bands — and EQD.

HalfLife is also the standard-issue successor to the extremely limited-edition Sunn O))) HalfLife Fer MMXXV, which featured a striking, cast-iron enclosure made using a centuries-old Nanbu-tekki casting technique. Like the Life Pedal before it, HalfLife is designed to capture Sunn O)))'s core front-end signal chain driving multiple vintage Sunn Model T 100-watt tube stacks into glorious saturation. As an aside, and as someone who owns the V3 version of the Life pedal, I can declare the current HalfLife stompbox doesn’t half-ass any of the chaos-inducing tones of its predecessor.

Specs

• Price: $259
• Type: Analog Octave, Distortion and Boost
• Made: USA
• Controls: Octave, Filter, Distortion, Magnitude, Amplitude
• Features: Three-mode clipping, octave-up, expression pedal control
• Connectivity: 2 x 1/4" instrument and 1 x 1/4" Octave Expression input
• Bypass: True bypass with Flexi-Switch technology
• Power: 9V DC center-negative; 15 mA current draw
• Dimensions: 127 × 70 x 57 mm
• Weight: 0.74 lb
• Contact: EarthQuaker Devices

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

Do I even need to talk about build quality? Like all the other stompboxes in its stable, this EQD is about as solidly built as they come and employs premium components. Housed in a rugged, textured enclosure with contrasting red and black spirals, the pedal pairs distortion with a blend-able octave up at the first stage with the Amplitude footswitch, while the Magnitude footswitch activates the second stage — an all-discrete MOSFET clean booster.

Controls for Octave, Filter, and Distortion occupy the top portion of the pedal, and just below that are Mag (output volume for Boost), Clip (Clipping switch for OpAmp, Asymm or Symm modes), and Amp (output volume for Octave/Distortion). I would also urge anyone to become very familiar with where each specific control is because the tiny UV screen-printed characters are nearly impossible to read from above — just in case you need to make any heat-of-battle adjustments on a dark stage.

Rounding out its features are standard 9VDC power, an expression jack for Octave blending, and EQD's proprietary Flexi-Switch technology for seamless momentary or latching true bypass operation.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

Inspired by the vintage Shin-Ei FY2 Companion and FY6 Super Fuzz boxes and a vintage white-logo RAT distortion-style circuit, with a low-pass filter control, there isn’t much to deal with in this triple-threat of a stompbox arriving in a more pedalboard-friendly size. Most of your guesswork will be made by using your ears and selecting which of the three clipping modes will provide the utmost in aural black magic.

The first OpAmp removes the clipping diodes entirely, unleashing its full output for an aggressively brighter, high-volume attack. Assym employs an asymmetrical clipping configuration using two silicon diodes and one LED, producing a slightly compressed, smoother amp-like crunch. Finally, Symm recreates the original double silicon diode configuration, delivering the classic, familiar rodent-like saturation that made the white-logo circuit a favorite.

Unlike the original Life Pedal, which features a dedicated Octave footswitch, HalfLife's upper octave is only controlled by dialing it in using the O knob or controlled dynamically with an expression pedal connected to the Octave EXP jack, allowing the octave to be blended in as needed.

The final Magnitude stage is designed to overload your preamp tubes with a clean, high-impedance boost while preserving your amp’s natural character, driving it harder without adding coloration or introducing distortion of its own.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Whether paired with single coils or humbuckers, HalfLife delivers a thundering octave/distortion experience tailor-made for doom architects and those who poke around in subterranean noise.

While it nods heavily to the classic ProCo Rat design, it departs from its saturation in a more symphonic fuzz-stortion that’s tightly layered and articulate. What’s interesting is you can hear the fuzzy textures become progressively darker in its clipping modes as you sweep from the brighter and grittier frequencies found on OpAmp, to the warmly compressed Big Muff-style saturation in Asymm, and finally plummeting down to the deep hirsute fuzziness in Symm mode.

I can only imagine that if I brooded in bands like Boris and Burning Witch, I would dwell within the sludgy depths of Symm mode.

The highly responsive Filter knob sweeps from dense darkness to the cutting slice reminiscent of a cranked Sunn Model T's Brite channel. The upper octave tracks clearly on single notes above the ninth fret, provided you are flying high with your neck pickup.

Here, the spiked upper octave tones add a clanging, metallic ring to the signal. It’s an intensely fun pedal that can easily coax the bottom-heavy fuzz found on Gish-era Smashing Pumpkins as well as the shimmering, furry pulse of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless album (Yes, I’m dating myself).

Finally, the highly transparent Magnitude clean boost is loud with a capital “L.” Be mindful of your level setting, as its massive output — combined with the Amplitude stage — can quickly push an amplifier into explosive meltdown and endless sustain. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

Verdict

Whether it admits it or not, EarthQuaker Devices knows exactly how to weaponize distortion — and it's quite good at it. Any aspiring dirt purveyor worth their salt will naturally gravitate toward the HalfLife’s crushing wall of sound. For players seeking targeted drone strikes of blend-able upper-octave fuzz, aggressive distortion, and a powerful clean boost designed to push an amplifier into massive, amp-melting territory, the HalfLife delivers the droned, bottom-heavy fury inspired by Sunn O))) with uncompromising force.

Guitar World verdict: With its combination of brutality and flexibility, the Sunn O))) HalfLife Octave Distortion & Booster is a true “FAFO” pedal for sonic mayhem. It unleashes a full-scale assault of saturated ecstasy, proving once again that this Machiavellian alliance with those shadowy Sunn O))) guitarists is a notorious victory for EQD.

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Jack White’s Third Man Hardware is back with another collaborative pedal, this time creating a buzz with Beetronics with the Old Zoo Lion Meat.

The bizarrely named pedal, which looks like a can of tuna, is a short-run fuzz pedal limited to just 333 units. It’s not the first time White’s left-of-center gear firm has spat out a fuzz box, but none have been this streamlined.

The stompbox redresses Beettronics’ tuna-can design, offering “thick, vintage-inspired tones” and a no-frills single-dial design. Turning the ‘Phlegmatic Roar’ dial sets the overall output volume, while the fuzz is dictated by the Volume knob of a player’s electric guitar.

When rolled back, it promises an articulate clean. When at its most extreme, expect a “roaring wall of vintage fuzz”.

In a quirky twist, the pedal’s underside features a transparent back cover, meaning Beetronics’ bee-bestowed circuit board is visible. And there’s not even a hint of tuna to be seen.

Artwork has been provided by Rob Jones, with whom White has worked before. The pedal ships in “an over-the-top blister pack” which is, fittingly, designed to look like a vintage meat label, and plays on the biblical story of Samson and the lion.

As a statement from the collaboration says: “Eat up, then plug in to give your guitar a belly full of bees, like the carcass of Samson’s legendary leonine corpse.”

Each pedal is priced at $150 and is exclusively available via Reverb.

However, at the time of writing, the drop has already buzzed off. As such, Reverb recommends users hit the heart icon in case any second-hand units appear on the site in the future.

For other eye-catching Third Man Hardware collabs, see its one-of-a-kind reverb, made with JHS Pedals, and the Knife Drop, a synth/octave/overdrive built with Eventide.

Beetronics, meanwhile, ventured beyond the usual analog delay paradigm with its recent release, the Bee Bee Dee.

As the trade war escalates between the US and Canada, with the Trump administration applying a 50 percent tariff on selected goods imported from Canada, there will be some knock-on effects on prices paid by American consumers.

If you’re buying potash, salmon, and critical minerals from Canada, shop as usual. The 50 percent Section 338 tariffs do not affect you. If you’re buying, say, cars and aluminum, there’s no change – these are already covered. But say you are in the market for a guitar effects pedal from north of the border – or indeed an electric guitar or tube amp – then you might be in for a shock.

Empress Effects is the first of the high-profile Canadian gear brands to break cover and warn customers that from August 5, “tariffs, duties, or import fees” will be the responsibility of the customer.

This does not mean that, if you were to buy a ZOIA modular synth pedal for $549 from the Empress website, you would automatically be paying 50 percent on top of that (around $823, not including any local taxes etc), but that the US Customs department will calculate whatever duties are payable on the imported value of the item – and then those duties will be payable to your courier.

Of course, many retailers across the US will already have some of the Empress catalog in stock, so it might take some time for these costs to filter through, and in that time the tariffs could be paused or cancelled altogether. This is, however, another example of how the market for guitar gear is vulnerable to externalities such as this.

Steve Bragg, owner and designer at Empress Effects, says until now the company has been able to absorb the cost of tariffs, but not any longer.

“Because shipments can take up to two weeks to reach and clear the U.S. border, orders placed on or after August 5 may be subject to the new tariffs,” he writes. “Beginning August 5, any applicable tariffs, duties, or import fees will therefore be the responsibility of the customer.

“We’re hopeful that a resolution will be reached quickly. Until then, we’ll continue to cover all applicable tariffs on orders shipped to the United States before August 5.”

It will not just be Empress Effects that will be facing these difficult decisions. Revv Amplification, Godin, and other Canadian gear brands will be figuring out how all of this shakes out financially.

The economic rationale behind the tariff is that it will encourage US consumers to buy a rival domestic product, or for a domestic manufacturer to make one. Good luck in finding an alternative to the ZOIA.

What is it?

Surely we already have enough options when it comes to guitar amp modeling? Well, now we have one more in the form of the Darkglass Anagram and its Guitar Essentials package and limited edition hardware. The thing is, this isn’t just any addition to what is a fiercely competitive market, as there are some twists to this launch that make it an interesting proposition.

First, Darkglass is already a household name when it comes to bass processing and has proven pedigree in tone. Second, one of the founders of Darkglass was none other than Douglas Castro, who has since moved on to work on another project - Neural DSP. You may have heard of the brand and its market-leading guitar amp modeler, capture device, and multi-effects - the Quad Cortex.

Then, (and some will see this as the biggest news) there's the inclusion of NAM A2 capture tech courtesy of Tone 3000. This is an open-source form of capture software that is completely free to use, and has been making waves as a genuinely impressive bit of software, regardless of its free nature.

Lastly, the Anagram Guitar Essentials has been put together in collaboration with seasoned guitar retailers Sweetwater and Andertons and is available exclusively through their stores. So, with plenty of knowledgeable brains behind this launch, expectations are, quite rightly, high.

But, before we dive in, let’s clear up exactly what we have here. The Anagram was originally aimed at bass players as a multi-effects and amp modeler that can run as part of a pedalboard or as an entire rig in its own right.

This Guitar Essentials Limited Edition version is exactly the same device, and comes with all that bass goodness. The differences are in the black finish and the inclusion of the Guitar Essentials package, which is a selection of amplifiers and effects essential to every guitarist.

Once the limited run of the hardware (which costs $100 more to cover the pre-loaded Guitar Essentials package) is sold, the Guitar Essentials will be available for every user of the original Anagram to buy and add to their device.

Specs

• Launch price: $1,299/£999
• Type: Bass amp modeler/multi-fx
• Controls: 6x rotary controls (assignable), 3x footswitches, 7-inch touch color screen
• Features: Amp modeler and multi effects, NAM captures, Darkglass Marketplace
• Connectivity: Input, outputs 1&2 (XLR), outputs 3&4 (1/4-inch jack), FX loop headphones (mini-jack) MIDI in/out (mini-jack), USB C
• Power: 9-12v DC, 2A
• Dimensions: 210mm x 105mm x 62mm/8.2" x 4.1" x 2.4"
• Weight: 815g/1.8lbs
• Contact: Darkglass

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

In the hands, the Anagram’s premium feel is the first thing that jumps out. It’s an aluminum chassis in a classy black finish, a look which I prefer to the original.

That aluminum carries the robustness of a piece of gear that can easily live through the rough and tumble of constant gigs, and this is followed suit by the knobs that turn with a reassuring resistance and click without any unwanted horizontal movement.

The footswitches are also clearly built with a gigging life in mind, and I have no concerns about the lights getting drowned out on bright stages. The same can be said for the screen, which shows off its high resolution with some pretty impressive renderings of its imagery.

The I/O at the back of the unit is also free of any looseness that may indicate a poor build, but this is what you would expect at the price point, and from a company with the pedigree that Darkglass has.

The soft-shell-style case continues the premium feel and houses the hardware neatly. It's not the sort of case you would chuck in with the rest of a band's gear on its own, but it is about as sturdy as lightweight soft cases can be.

Additionally, competitors such as the Neural DSP Quad Cortex Mini do not come with a case at all, so this is an easy score for Darkglass.

The only minor complaint I have is that the mains adapter feels a little flimsy for a bit of gear that could potentially replace an entire rig. This is exacerbated by a 2A power draw, which, although not problematic on its own, will necessitate the use of the provided mains adapter as most pedalboard power supplies won't accommodate this demand even when combining outputs.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

Ease of use is make-or-break for these units. With so many different functions to get the head around and parameters to adjust across the vast number of blocks, avoiding a steep learning curve is no mean feat.

As we noted in our previous review of the Anagram, the unit does well here thanks to a small but intuitive suite of physical controls (six encoders and three footswitches) and a useful touchscreen. The Guitar Essentials version of the Anagram is exactly the same setup, with the only difference being the inclusion of those guitar sounds.

So, in terms of usability, there is no change from the mostly positive points in that previous review; however, it is still worth reiterating the highlights.

It’s the familiar three modes of Presets, Stomps and Scenes through which the footswitches change the entire rig, turn individual effects on and off, or seamlessly switch active blocks and parameters within one scene respectively.

You can also edit the way you view the rig by selecting Chain, Bindings, or Name. The first shows your entire 24-block chain, which can be zoomed into a more palatable and scrollable five at a time.

Bindings view is the highlight for me. It allows us to view exactly what we have set each footswitch to in text form, whilst additionally assigning whatever we want to the six encoders, whether that is activating/de-activating a block or changing individual parameters within a block.

These assignments can be stacked too, and you can set limits on the minimum and maximum amount of adjustment made to save some blushes caused by hasty editing at a gig. Pretty handy.

Name clearly displays the preset in big, easily-readable text as well as the footswitch assignments, making it the view that will be most useful in a gigging circumstance.

The touchscreen is intuitive and makes things easy when it comes to the functional stuff like saving presets, routing, adding blocks, and dragging effects around. The only tripping point is that when I'm scrolling through the icons that represent the effects, it's sometimes reliant on the text within the imagery to discern what the effect is. This text is quite small and is not always easy to read.

There's also a pretty comprehensive I/O featuring stereo ¼” and XLR outputs (separate L and R), MIDI connectivity, Bluetooth audio connectivity, a ⅛” Headphone output, and a TRS stereo effects loop.

Herein lies a limitation, as the Anagram does sport an expression input; however, this takes up the return of the effects loop. This is mitigated by the option to instead use a MIDI controller if you need to use that effects loop for some external stomp boxes, but I’d still much rather see a dedicated expression pedal input given the number of guitarists who own expression pedals.

Back to the positive, and what is particularly exciting about the Anagram isn't just its stellar sounds (more about that soon) but the way in which it can be expanded through NAM and Darkglass Marketplace.

NAM stands for Neural Amp Modeling, which should be noted as a totally separate thing from the closely named Neural DSP. NAM is instead an open-source, capture-based tech that is completely free.

The captures can be browsed and downloaded via Tone 3000’s website, and doing so is straightforward, but does require the Darkglass Suite software and a USB-C connection to link your Anagram to a laptop in order to import the files.

Marketplace is similar and is where third parties can share blocks they have created for the Anagram, some paid, some free. It’s important to note that all core firmware updates and standard blocks developed for the Anagram by Darkglass will remain free.

While it has Bluetooth, there is no mobile app as of yet, and at the time of writing, I'm unaware of any plans to include one. So, at least for the moment, making use of Marketplace and NAM will necessitate a laptop, which feels a little old school at this point, with devices such as the Line 6 Helix Stadium not only sporting Bluetooth apps, but also WIFI to allow similar functions to take place natively within the hardware.

Finally, and helpfully for those of us like myself who are lost on anything with less than six strings, there's the option to hide the bass-aimed blocks from the menus (this is the default on the limited edition model), saving on brain space and scrolling time by displaying only the guitar-relevant stuff.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Making some noise is where things get really exciting. I’m going to preface it all by saying that the range of guitar sounds here is not as expansive when compared to guitar-first modelers like the Helix Stadium and Quad Cortex.

The clue is in the name. It really is the essentials, so if you are looking for an all-encompassing range of wacky guitar sounds, you will not find that here. At least not yet.

What you do have at launch is a range of 12 models of classic amps, going from classy Fender Cleans to all-out 5150-style distortion. In addition to the NAM models, too, of which there are thousands.

Then there are seven drives, three delays, five reverbs, 10 modulations, and 13 more effects under the EQ, Filters and Dynamics category. Again, all choices that fit the “essentials” moniker. I’ll reiterate that this is not as many as on other modelers, but it’s still more than enough for most.

The amp models are almost universally brilliant. I particularly like the Leonardo Twin, which gives an accurate feeling, mid-scooped Fender Twin Reverb clean, and the Admiral JJM800 with its biting, mid-forward hi-gain Marshall JCM800 thing. The only one I’m not as much of a fan of is the 5150-inspired Phoebe SISO, which, while it is still a good high-gain sound, on its own it lacks the tight low end of the real thing.

I find the amps in general to be impressively touch-sensitive, cleaning up on the volume control and reacting to my picking dynamics in a way that makes them feel truly alive.

As I do with a lot of modelers, I feel the need to add a low-pass filter to help with some high-end that comes across just a little digital on some of the amps. Depending on the amp model, I find around 7K works well, eradicating the 'digitalness' and leaving me with truly inspiring guitar sounds that undeniably put the Anagram in the same league as the market-leading modelers.

The drives are impressive too, with models such as the aforementioned Valve Crier 808 adding the rewarding mid-humped sound associated with the famous Tube Screamer, if slightly lacking in that weighty compressed feel, and the Kentauri Firenze happily fulfilling the role of Klon clone.

A particular highlight is the Green Pie Rate Fuzz, which is a hugely rewarding, thick, mid-scooped Big Muff sound, which includes the option to remove the tone circuit to add in some of that mid frequency, as per the common mod on the real Big Muff pedal.

There is no direct Fuzz Face model, which I find to be a bit of an omission given it's an essentials package. But included is the Duality fuzz, which is a fantastic, meaty-sounding fuzz pedal, with a useful Filter control to adjust its spitti-ness.

There are 10 modulation models - Chorus, Flanger, Whammy, Phaser, Tremolo, Pitch Shifter, Vibrato and then three Octavers (tell me you were originally a bass pedal without telling me you were originally a bass pedal).

I start by kicking on the Flanger, and find it easy to imitate that sound from the intro of Stereophonics’ Dakota. The other modulations follow suit in their rewarding and easy-to-use nature, with the only exception being the Pitch Shifter, which manages to impressively mitigate the odd artifacts these types of effects often add when moving things too far one way or another, but it loses a bit of high end at even small shifts.

We all like a bit of space around our sounds, but we are a little limited when it comes to delays here, with only three to choose from. These are named Analog, Digital, and Mod and expertly do as you would expect.

I am a sucker for an analog delay and the way the repeats darken as they go, keeping themselves out of the way of the mix. The Anagram nails this with buckets (pun absolutely intended) of analog tone and degredation.

The five reverbs are of similarly high quality, featuring Room, Plate, Hall, Shimmer and Spring. I particularly like the authentic drop of the Spring, but the Shimmer feels a little bit separate from the dry signal, resulting in a sound that comes across as unnatural. Useful for some things, but not to my taste.

Also included in the EQ’s, Filters and Dynamics section is a collection of envelope filters, compressors, limiters, EQ’s and autowahs.

The Luminal FET compressor is fantastic for funky compressed cleans, and the amusingly named 'Mo**erf***er' provides a Moog Moogerfooger-style envelope filter for those times when we want things to get a little outlandish.

Verdict

As I referred to earlier, compared to other guitar multi-effects, the Guitar Essentials package does not have a vast amount of options. But this is relative talk. It certainly has enough to cover all the essential sonic bases (and indeed, basses) a guitarist might need.

With the Anagram already established in the bass world, we six-stringers are getting the benefit of a pre-developed platform that has been up and running since April 2025. And it’s worth remembering that if you happen to play bass too (let’s face it, the world is already saturated with guitarists), this limited edition Guitar Essentials version contains all the same bass tones and effects that the already-available Anagram does.

When it comes to pro-level compact, pedalboard-friendly guitar modelers and multi-effects, Fractal, Neural, and Line 6 have some real competition here. For a lot of people, the Anagram’s stellar sounds, NAM compatibility, and ease of use will make it the best choice.

Guitar World verdict: Having already made waves as a bass product, the Anagram is now fully capable of taking it to the established leaders in the guitar modeling and multi-effects world with Guitar Essentials. Relatively speaking, it is not the widest selection of sounds, but what it does do is almost universally brilliant. It covers, as the name suggests, the essentials, and for many, that is all they will need.

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Hands-on videos

The Studio Rats

Guitar World

Steve Sterlacci

Pedals Week 2026: In late 2021, I lugged my 39lbs tube amp to play a basement gig in East London in front of 50 people. Fast-forward to summer 2025, and I was playing in front of 30,000 people at Portman Road Stadium.

This time, I left my amp at home. The venue may have been 59,900% bigger, but my rig had gotten smaller – probably by about the same rate.

Why? Because I had stumbled upon a pedal I thought I’d never find: one that convinced me to ditch my tube amp.

I grew up believing in the gospel of the tubes. I couldn’t envisage my rig without one. I thought ‘tube amps just sound better’ was a fact.

Given my line of work, I was well aware of modelers and the players who used them. But I never considered making the switch.

That reluctance was exacerbated when, after being forced to use my HX Stomp as a modeler for a silent stage show, I was left feeling underwhelmed with my tone. It was an uncomfortable and sobering experience.

But between the basement gig and stadium show, I realized that something a bit more practical probably would be a good idea, especially with my gigging calendar filling up. Traveling with my amp and pedalboard became tedious.

I also began dreading soundchecks, having had some poor shows with bad mics and dodgy FOH systems. Tone anxiety and insecurity became a big issue for me, and I was losing confidence in my rig.

Convenience and consistency became my main concern. I wanted to be able to turn up to a venue and plug in knowing exactly what my tone was going to sound like.

It was around this time that I reviewed the Nano Cortex. Without mincing my words, I was staggered at how good it sounded out of the box. An all-in-one rig station with a load of digital amps, cabs and effects from a pint-sized package, it proved to be the tipping point for me, and a watershed moment for my guitar rig.

I didn’t think it would happen to me. But it gave me what I thought modelers inherently lacked: a dynamic, expressive tone that sounded and responded like a genuine tube amp. It was the same feeling I had when I played my Strat for the first time; it just felt right, like I’d found the missing piece of a puzzle.

My pre-conceived notions well and truly challenged, I took the Nano Cortex to its first rehearsal, hoping it could replicate that performance in the mix. Lo and behold, it excelled where my HX Stomp had fallen short, and, perhaps more importantly than just sounding good, it gave me a renewed feeling of confidence in my tone.

I knew that, whatever the venue, and whatever the occasion, my rig was going to sound largely exactly how I dialed it. I didn't have to worry about mic placements, stage volume, how the amp would react in the room, or anything else. I could simply focus on playing.

After trialing it at a few smaller sets, I rebuilt my pedalboard around the Nano Cortex just in time for the biggest gig of my life.

The Nano Cortex was revelatory for me because I needed something quite specific: a hybrid amp pedal I could use alongside my existing pedalboard, which I didn’t want to ditch completely. Hence my reluctance to play a floorboard a la the Quad Cortex, Tone Master Pro or Helix. The Nano Cortex landed in my lap at the right time.

Ultimately, it proved to be a stellar pedal platform that not only sounded like my real amp, but responded to my pedals like an amp as well, giving me the confidence to further experiment with my sound and setup, and arguably making me a better player.

The Nano Cortex was small, light, looked the part, and its companion app was highly effective. It fit the bill.

I’m now at the point where I can turn up to a show at the drop of a hat, bring everything I need in one bag, and confidently play with a solid and consistent sound. That, to me, is far more important than the romanticism of “pushing air” through my amp on stage.

Since first making the move to the Nano Cortex, I’ve done two headline tours, and a number of support shows at venues such as London’s Roundhouse and Eventim Apollo. I haven’t gigged with an amp in nearly three years, and I don’t think I will again. The confidence I have in my rig has never been higher.

Pedals Week 2026: Every now and then, a pedal comes along that leaves guitarists wondering what they just plugged into. Maybe it looks different. Maybe it works differently. Or maybe it solves a problem that nobody was really thinking about at the time.

Whatever the reason, some of the most interesting effects ever made didn't become favorites overnight. In fact, quite a few were overlooked, misunderstood or simply ahead of their time.

Looking back now, it's easy to see just how many of these once overlooked ideas helped shape the way guitarists think about effects today.

1. Boss SG-1 Slow Gear

The SG-1 has always been one of Boss's most misunderstood pedals. Instead of adding gain, delay or modulation, it simply fades in every note automatically, creating smooth violin-like swells without touching the guitar's volume control.

When it arrived in 1979, most players had no idea what to make of it. It didn't fit into any familiar category, and there wasn't much music calling for that kind of effect. Fast forward a few decades and it suddenly makes perfect sense.

Ambient players, soundtrack composers and experimental guitarists all discovered something Boss had quietly introduced years before anyone was really ready for it.

2. EarthQuaker Devices Rainbow Machine

Few pedals have left guitarists scratching their heads quite like the Rainbow Machine. The controls seem almost random at first, and the sounds range from subtle pitch modulation to noises that don't sound much like a guitar at all.

That's probably why so many players weren't quite sure what to make of it when it first appeared. Anyone expecting a conventional harmonizer was likely disappointed.

Dial it back and it adds movement and texture that few pedals can match. Turn it up and things get weird in a hurry. The Rainbow Machine isn't for everyone, and that's exactly the point.

3. Electro-Harmonix Attack Decay

The Attack Decay is one of those pedals that almost defies explanation until it's plugged in. On the surface, it recreates the automatic volume swells of Electro-Harmonix's original late-'70s design, but that's really only the beginning.

With adjustable attack, reverse-style envelopes, fuzz and expression control, it can drift from violin-like swells to synth textures and sounds that barely resemble a guitar. That's probably why it never became a mainstream hit. It asks players to experiment instead of reaching for familiar tones.

Those willing to spend the time are rewarded with one of the most creative and inspiring pedals Electro-Harmonix has ever produced.

4. Boss DF-2 Super Feedbacker & Distortion

The DF-2 is one of those pedals that's much easier to appreciate today than it was when it first appeared in the mid-'80s. Most players saw the word "Distortion" on the enclosure and treated it like another gain pedal, but the real innovation was hidden under the footswitch.

Hold it down and the DF-2 generates controllable amplifier-style feedback, even at volumes where natural feedback would be impossible. At the time, it felt like an odd feature that few players really needed.

Looking back, Boss was solving a problem decades before the rest of the industry caught on. Fast forward a few decades, and what once seemed like a gimmick now feels surprisingly innovative.

5. Boss TE-2 Tera Echo

Trying to describe the Tera Echo is almost impossible because it isn't really a delay, a reverb or a modulation pedal. It borrows ideas from all three, creating spacious, blooming echoes that react to the player's touch in a way that's still difficult to explain. That may be one reason it slipped under the radar.

Guitarists naturally tried comparing it to traditional delays, only to discover it played by its own rules. Give it a little time, though, and its strengths become obvious. The Tera Echo isn't trying to sound like a delay or a reverb. It really does its own thing.

6. Electro-Harmonix HOG

One look at the HOG was enough to intimidate a lot of guitarists. Between all the sliders, switches and expression pedal options, it looked more like a synthesizer than a stompbox. This is probably one reason why it never caught on with the average player.

Spend a little time with it, though, and it starts to make sense. It can create everything from convincing organ sounds and rich octave layers to swelling pads and sounds that barely resemble a guitar.

Most players simply weren't looking for a pedal that could do this much. The HOG wasn't overlooked because it lacked great sounds. It was overlooked because many players never got far enough to it to discover them.

7. Boss DA-2 Adaptive Distortion

At a glance, the DA-2 looks like just another distortion pedal, and that's probably why so many players passed it by. Hidden beneath the familiar controls, however, is Boss's Adaptive Distortion technology, which constantly analyzes your playing and adjusts the distortion across the frequency range. The result is a surprisingly balanced sound that stays articulate whether you're playing open chords or single-note lines high on the neck. It never enjoyed the cult status of classic Boss dirt boxes but that may have had more to do with timing than tone. There's a really good distortion pedal hiding underneath all that technology.

8. Pigtronix Mothership

One look at the Mothership and it's pretty obvious this isn't your average pedal. Part analog synth, part octave generator and part fuzz, it can produce everything from thick octave sounds to quirky synth tones that barely resemble a guitar.

It's not a pedal you can just stomp on and expect instant results. The Mothership rewards clean, accurate technique, and if your playing gets sloppy, you're probably not hearing it at its best. That alone was enough to turn some players away. Those who spent the time with it discovered one of the most expressive and creative analog synth pedals ever built.

9. Z.Vex Seek Wah

The Seek Wah doesn't resemble or behave anything like a traditional wah pedal. Instead of a rocker pedal that sweeps back and forth, you're greeted by a row of lights, knobs and switches that hint at something completely different. It steps through a series of programmable filter patterns that can sound rhythmic, random or somewhere in between. This confused many guitar players.

But the Seek Wah wasn't trying to replace a Cry Baby or Vox wah. It was trying to do something completely different. Players willing to think beyond a traditional wah discovered it could do things no Cry Baby ever could.

10. DigiTech FreqOut Natural Feedback Creator

Initially, creating controllable feedback with a stompbox sounded more like a novelty than something guitarists would actually use. That's exactly why so many players overlooked the DigiTech FreqOut when it first appeared.

Instead of relying on a loud amp, it electronically recreates natural harmonic feedback at almost any volume, with controls that let you choose different feedback harmonics and even adjust how quickly the feedback blooms into each note.

Back then, if you wanted endless sustain, you simply turned the amp up. Today, with lower stage volumes, modelers and home studios becoming the norm, the FreqOut makes more sense than ever.

Pedals Week 2026: Guitarists are contrary beasts. We spend hours honing tones, then declare it’s all in the hands. Pine for a simpler time, while excitedly downloading firmware updates. Form unbreakable bonds with gear, while simultaneously looking over our shoulder at the next shiny object. It’s part of the fun.

Sometimes, then, I think the most telling way to judge gear is just to see what has actually made enough of a difference to stay with us as players and writers – to set up residence in a little bit of our musical brains.

With Pedals Week in full swing, I set about badgering the inboxes of Guitar World’s hard-working staffers, demanding responses to the somewhat tenuous brief of ‘the pedal that changed me’.

To their credit and my surprise, they did not immediately get together and demand my dismissal – instead, their responses have resulted in a bunch of tips, insights and a little window into the slightly unhinged consciousness of the GW team.

Damian Fanelli, Editor-in-Chief – Fender ’63 Reverb reissue

This big brown box entered my life in 2004, when my band, Mister Neutron, didn’t know if we were destined for They Might Be Giants-inspired indie rock or full-on, Dick Dale-inspired instrumental surf-rock. You know, the usual dilemma for New Jersey bands in 2004.

But, as soon as I plugged into the ’63 reissue, my TMBG aspirations packed their witty little bags and never returned. The seas parted before me, leaving a small walkway between two restless 90-foot waves. I walked forward about 15 steps when suddenly the walkway disappeared, the waves crashed down upon me, and I was awash in gloriously lush tube-driven spring reverb. Mister Neutron dived into the world of surf, released three albums, toured quite a bit and even scored an alt-radio hit in Ohio.

But is the ’63 Reverb even a pedal? Yes and no. It’s a big brown practice-amp-sized box that does the job of a pedal, but — because it was invented when pedals weren’t a thing — it looks more like a pipefitter’s lunchbox. Luckily, there are now plenty of normal-sized spring reverb pedals that’ll make you feel like you’re drowning. In a good way!

Michael Astley-Brown, Digital Editor-in-Chief – DigiTech Whammy

I was about to turn 14, and there was only one thing I wanted for my birthday: a DigiTech Whammy pedal. At last, I could perform songs from my favorite bands – Rage Against the Machine and Muse – with the same siren squeals.

But as I have grown as a player over the past 20 years, so too has the way I use the Whammy. It’s very rare you’ll find me dialing in the two-octave-up Killing in the Name death-screech anymore. The octave up/down blend has become my perennial sidekick – a cheat code whose glitchy warble transforms on-the-verge-of-cheese leads into something edgier, more alternative.

Just about every song I have recorded with my band Maebe features the Whammy in some capacity. It has become my voice on the instrument. I have had countless, painstakingly wired pedalboard setups in my lifetime, but the Whammy has been the sole constant. I could gig without it, but it just wouldn’t sound like me.

Jimmy Brown, Senior Music Editor – Hughes & Kettner Tube Rotosphere (MK1)

If there’s one pedal that has inspired my guitar playing more than any other, it’s the original Hughes & Kettner Tube Rotosphere (MK1).

The thing I love most about this pedal, other than the impressively authentic way it emulates the sound and texture of a real Leslie rotating speaker cabinet better than any other pedal I’ve ever tried or heard, is its breaker button, which gradually slows down the low and high rotors (which ramp up and down at different speeds, just like the spinning woofer drum and tweeter in a real Leslie cabinet).

The breaker button is a momentary switch, which means it slows the modulation speeds to a complete halt if you keep your foot pressing on it for more than a few seconds. As soon as you lift your foot off the button, the low and high rotors begin ramping up to full speed again, with the high rotor (emulating the spinning horn tweeter in a Leslie cabinet) accelerating more quickly than the low rotor, which emulates the massive drum with a hole cut in the side that spins around a stationary woofer speaker.

To me, there’s nothing as musically expressive as the sonic magic of the “ebb and flow” that happens during the acceleration and deceleration of the trippy, swirling, phase-y tremolo and Doppler effect of a two-way rotary speaker effect. I’ll often play an entire ballad, such as Thank You by Led Zeppelin, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds by the Beatles or my own capo-5 guitar arrangement of The Eagles’ Desperado with my foot on the breaker button the entire time, using it to create a quasi-rubato effect without actually slowing down or speeding up what I’m playing.

The pedal is big, heavy and expensive, and it requires a special 12-volt AC power supply. But to me it’s worth keeping on my pedalboard, more than any other pedal. It’s the ultimate expression pedal and my secret weapon.

Rob Laing, Reviews Editor – Boss DM-101 Delay Machine

I'm not an analog snob – I'm a pragmatist. So modeling works for me, but I appreciate why a player would insist on a tube amp. But one area of delay I love... well that's an exception. There are lots of great digital delay pedals but the Boss Delay Machine reminded me that nothing beats warm, slightly wild bucket brigade analog delay.

And I really think this is the final destination for it – this black and chrome beauty is packing eight BBD chips and it's using 'em. It sounds glorious and with 12 varied modes, each with variations, I'm still using it as a creative tool with endless possibilities. Oh, and if you have a stereo rig you really are in for a treat.

Paul Riario, Tech Editor – MXR Phase 90

When I was a young, budding guitarist with my very first electric guitar and amplifier, the next step in my journey was to color that sound with an effect. Was it going to be a chorus? Nah, too boring. Delay? That was still a mystery to me. Distortion? Overdrive? Pass. My amp already handles this.

Seeking to replicate the cool onboard phase shifter from my bandmate's Peavey Deuce amp, I initially picked up a Boss Phaser. However, its piercing, square-wave phase left me uninspired.

It wasn’t until I eventually discovered the venerable MXR Phase 90 that all my swirly dreams came true. Yes, the day the Phase 90 landed on my pedalboard, all the mysteries of the Divine and supernatural made sense – “Oh, that’s how Eddie Van Halen did that!?!” was a consistent, resounding cry from me.

Using its solitary Speed knob, I’ve continuously adjusted it to shift from a gentle sweep to an increasingly dramatic swirl. Whether delivering a warm, chewy texture for solos, throbbing rhythmic stabs, or acting as subtle as an F-15 shattering the sound barrier, its lush, accelerated swoosh always satisfies. Word of advice: For a genuinely organic tone, the original “Script logo” version is the one to get.

Matt Parker, Deputy Editor – Danelectro Black Licorice

At some point around the age of 18, dipping a toe into stompboxes, I ordered up a set of fun-looking Danelectro pedals with weird names, like the PB&J Delay, the Milkshake Chorus and Bacon and Eggs pedal amp (which literally had a speaker in the pedal). They came in a fetching purple plastic carry case (complete with a pretty much useless tuner), had shells of bright moulded plastic, and sounded so much better than they had any right to.

The best of the bunch was the Black Licorice ‘Beyond Metal’, an utterly unhinged high-gain distortion and octave effect. As an indie rock-type, I was not dropping Dimebag riffs on the regs, so every time I hit the sponge-y footswitch it was a ride-the-tiger moment: I never knew what it would do next. The tiny controls made it pretty impossible to commit to a specific setting. Live, it would feed back with a glorious, anarchic bloom that made me whoop.

It got me playing and writing differently, too. I began leaning on more arpeggiated melodies that played well with its octave tracking. I wrote my favorite self-penned riff on it, and those intervals are still a big part of my playing, even now. For an all-black pedal, it had a truly colorful character.

Jackson Maxwell, Operations Editor - Boss DS-1

When I first started hacking away on the guitar, my heroes were alt-rock wizards like Jonny Greenwood and Kevin Shields. Because of them, I knew what a guitar pedal was, but I thought that they were the domain of six-string world-builders like them – not for plebes; you could only have one if you had 100.

But I also, of course, loved Nirvana. I wanted to sound like Kurt Cobain when I played Smells Like Teen Spirit, but I couldn’t turn the volume knobs on my little Strat and amp up to 10, lest my weary parents take their gifts to me away. ‘Isn’t that what he’s doing?’ I thought.

Then my friend said, “you know the Smells Like Teen Spirit sound is just a DS-1, right?”

“A what?”

“The Boss DS-1 pedal.”

“Isn’t that really complicated and expensive?”

“Nah dude. Try the one I have.”

The DS-1 was my first pedal – and with it came the first thrilling moment of “That’s how he got that exact sound!! I can do it too!” We all know how amazing that feels.

Matt Owen, News Editor – Xotic SP Compressor

I could use this time to talk about some of the pedals that revolutionized my rig, but fundamentally there really is one stompbox that actually changed the way I play. So I would like to give the Xotic SP Compressor its flowers. Ever since I bought one back in 2018, it is the only pedal that has never left my rig.

The HX Stomp has come and gone in waves. Even my Nano Cortex has been demoted. But I simply will not consider my pedalboard complete without the SP. I set Volume at 11 o’ click, Blend just after noon, the toggle locked in the middle.

It just makes everything sound and, even more importantly, feel better. Tonally, it is magic; a tonic to thicken and sweeten both my single-coil and humbucker guitars. More importantly, it gives any guitar a lovely expressive touch that feels spongy and reactive.

As such, it has injected my six-strings with a load more dynamic response that has me feeling more in touch with the instrument as a whole, more expressive in lead playing, and more confident when digging in for rhythms. When I turn it off, I'm a completely different player.

Daryl Robertson, Senior Deals Writer – Electro-Harmonix Big Muff

When I think of pedals that changed my life, I instantly think of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. I bought my first Big Muff at a pawn shop, bundled with a few other pedals for dirt cheap when I was about 14, and it's the only one I kept.

Despite its massive size and impracticality for my tiny homemade pedalboard, I was hooked. I just love its thick, fat sound. It’s not fizzy or brittle like a Fuzz Face, it’s smoother and fuller. Over the years, I've owned several versions, from the green Russian one to the more pedalboard-friendly Nano.

When I was playing bass live in a band, I, of course, got the bass version, which featured a handy clean-through to preserve the low-end. I actually ended up using it on guitar too, because it sounded so good.

Back when I had a ridiculously complicated rig and ran two amps, I used the bass Big Muff’s dry out through an overdrive, then into a Fender Blues Jr, while the fuzz signal went through a Vox AC30.

I must admit, my signal chain is a lot simpler now, but I always keep a Big Muff handy for when I want to get fuzzy.

Janelle Borg, Staff Writer – Line 6 M9

The pedal that changed my life has to be the Line 6 M9, for many reasons. From sweaty punk shows back in my native Malta to my first tentative gigs abroad, and eventually a full move to another country, it's been a core part of my setup (even though it's currently very much on its last legs) and my love affair with reverbs and delays.

This is (I believe!) the second Line 6 M9 I've owned, as the first one got stolen. Thanks to a crowdfunding effort, I managed to buy the one I currently have. Safe to say this pedal has been through a lot, and even though I probably need an upgrade – and soon – I can't imagine selling it, if only for the memories and the lore.

Pete Emery, Reviews Writer – Mooer Pure Boost

Like most guitarists, I enjoy the process of chopping and changing things and seeing what the newest addition to the board can do. Thinking back on all the pedals I’ve owned, there is one that sticks out as instigating an important penny-drop moment – the Mooer Pure Boost.

It’s a cheap, transparent boost pedal that I bought early on in my playing days, with the intention of using it to make my solo tones louder. Naively, I put it in the front of a distorting Peavey practice amp, and stamped on it, ready for the room to shake with the extra earth-shattering volume.

This did not happen. Instead, all I got was more distortion. Confused, I looked into why and discovered what is probably the most important part of building a guitar tone: gain staging.

This opened the door to understanding how signal chains work, and what to do to get the intended results. Important knowledge that I’m still using 15 years later.

Matt McCracken, Junior Deals Writer – Line 6 POD XT Live

Back in 2009, when modeling was something attractive people did, and metalcore was all the rage, I purchased a Jackson seven-string. I absolutely hated it. When a guitarist in another band asked to trade, I couldn’t wait to get rid of it. He offered me a Line 6 POD XT Live; it had lots of buttons and lights, so I figured, why not?

Little did I know I was exchanging a guitar I hated for every amp and effect I could ever want. It let me craft dream signal chains as a broke student and gig nationwide without a car, packed right into my backpack. I recorded multiple albums with its USB output.

I eventually gifted it to a friend who still uses it today, but it remains the most transformative piece of gear I’ve ever owned, and its influence continues with the legacy models found in Line 6’s modern amp and effects modelers.

Pedals Week 2026: There comes a time in every guitarist’s life when, really, you have everything you need. No stone unturned on the amp front; no room on the wall for more guitars; no glaring holes in the pedal chain. How on Earth do you feed your GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) if you already have everything? Enter: the pedalboard accessory.

We’re looking beyond the addictive collectability of the pedal itself, towards something a little more… practical. Even with your ideal effects chain in situ, your pedalboard might not be quite at its best, whether due to inefficiency or overall scruffiness. You need accessories.

These items are not always the most glamorous of pedalboard accoutrements, nor are they always the most thrilling of guitar-related purchases. Between them, though, they represent a quiet and constant improvement of a pedalboard in progress, making it easier for you to play, to maintain and to evolve your signal chain whether you’re a home musician or a gigging pro. And they might temper that GAS a little, too. Here’s a handful of ideas for plussing up your pedalboard.

Pedals Week 2026: Looper pedals are undoubtedly one of the best writing tools a guitar player can have in their arsenal, but they’re also invaluable for anyone looking to sharpen their skills as a soloist, both technically and theoretically.

You could take the chord progression from one of your favorite songs, for example, and start testing out new ideas – which will help you find your voice and identity on your instrument.

As any Guitar World reader already knows, it can be highly rewarding to learn your favorite solos note for note, but studying the chord progression underneath them will help you put your own spin on things. And this is precisely where a looper will come in handy.

Some of the world’s greatest solos were written over movements that allowed the players to create something truly astounding and unique. The more attention you pay to chords and rhythms, the more impactful your solo might end up sounding.

Play the chords into your looper and start experimenting with different sounds and feels. You might notice how some tracks stay in one key and allow you to build your story a scene at a time without any radical harmonic departures.

In other situations, you might notice that some of the chords you’re playing over allow you to add in other tonalities and venture outside of the key, with options for more ear-catching notes from a different scale – from the introduction of Dorian, Aeolian or Mixolydian flavors to more dramatic-sounding harmonic and melodic minor scales.

So, even if you feel like music theory isn’t a strong point, just a little bit of due diligence can go a long way to impress listeners and help you learn how to deliver a solo that truly soars and sings. Your ear is the most important thing here.

Here are 10 tracks that are great for looping, with repetitive progressions that give you plenty of opportunities to conjure up something extra special.

1. Eagles – Hotel California

It’s one of those songs that’s always in the running for the greatest guitar solo(s) of all-time, with Don Felder and Joe Walsh going head to head before joining forces for some lavish harmonized arpeggios at the end.

The minor chord progression underneath is what gives ample opportunity to create something dramatic, with the V chord being changed to dominant (F#7 instead of F#min) and the IV chord alternating between major and minor instead of staying minor.

This is what allows soloists to switch between B pentatonic and Aeolian to harmonic minor, especially on the substituted chords Ultimately, the goal here is to not stick with one scale – make your solo more fluid and unpredictable to catch listeners off-guard.

2. John Mayer – Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

If you’re looking for the perfect song to master your C# minor pentatonic chops, as well as its E major relative, this could very well be it. Unlike Hotel California, the progression is completely diatonic and therefore feels like it’s all in one key, so it’s more about phrasing and delivery than note choices when targeting chords.

With a laid-back tempo and slinky feel, it’s the kind of musical scenario that calls for big pentatonic bends, and therefore works as a practice tool for pitch accuracy. It’s worth asking yourself what note are you trying to bend up to and how close are you getting.

3. Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb

Often cited as one of David Gilmour’s greatest moments, this final single from Pink Floyd’s 1979 rock opera The Wall is an absolute masterclass in how to speak B minor pentatonic.

Pay attention to your vibrato and note choice, because these are two areas where Gilmour is known to excel, and see if you can find your own lines that feel natural and avoid over-complication.

The bar where the chords drop from G to F#min and Emin calls for something extra special – think about what you can play to emphasize the movement underneath you and have some fun with it.

4. B.B. King – The Thrill Is Gone

Anyone trying to master the art of 12-bar blues will undoubtedly come across this Grammy-winning hit from 1969. This is another B minor progression that’s all about the bends – know exactly what you’re aiming for and see what happens when you undershoot or overshoot to unlock “the in-between notes” on the fretboard, like the original blues masters.

The minor pentatonic will be your friend here, but if you’re looking to spice things up, try introducing B melodic minor or A# half-whole diminished scales over the dominant chord (F#7) to create tension before the progression returns to root. This resolution from the V chord to the I is often referred to as a perfect cadence.

5. Metallica – Wherever I May Roam

Arguably one of the most famous heavy metal tracks written using the Phrygian scale, the fourth single from Metallica’s self-titled landmark album of 1991 is a great way of introducing yourself to more outside ideas.

For his solo, Kirk Hammett chose to use a mixture of E minor pentatonic and E Phrygian Dominant – which is the fifth mode of A harmonic minor – to great effect. The big jump from a minor second to a major third is a surefire way of capturing people’s attention.

Use it too much, however, and it loses its effect. So try switching between Phrygian, which has a minor third, and its dominant sibling to mix things up – essentially swapping a G for a G# wherever you think it feels right. Follow your ears and have fun.

6. Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven

Maybe don’t try this one while testing looper pedals in your local guitar shop, but if you’re hoping to explore the world of natural minor, this hit provides a perfect backdrop.

The A minor pentatonic scale will do the trick for most of the chords, but highlighting the F chord with an F note will add a sense of sophistication to what you play, showing everyone how you understand the song’s inner workings by targeting the sound of a minor 6th at exactly the right time.

If you listen to the last note of Jimmy Page’s opening line, you’ll hear how it creates an atmosphere of tension after the familiarity of more bluesy sounds.

7. Free – All Right Now

Some of the world’s greatest guitar solos aren’t strictly major or minor, with the player blending ideas from both worlds into one seamless package. This 1970 hit is one of those, thanks to Paul Kossoff’s iconic fretwork halfway into the song.

Maybe start off in A major pentatonic and work your way into A minor pentatonic as your solo builds towards its grand crescendo, or try using both in a ‘call and answer’ fashion. Kossoff’s vibrato also played a huge part in his solo’s overall feel, so experiment with how you shake the notes you’re choosing to let ring – there’s plenty of space to get creative and express yourself here.

8. Joe Bonamassa – Sloe Gin

The New York blues maverick is one of the undisputed titans of the long-form solo, and the title track from his 2007 album is the perfect example of why that is. Once you’ve recorded the chords into your looping pedal, begin with some simple phrases in D minor and slowly build your ideas in terms of intensity and dynamics.

The original solo is almost three minutes long and never outstays its welcome. Holding back is an art form in itself – and playing along to a progression like this is a great way of learning how to flow naturally through control and discipline, keeping the listener on the edge of their seats every step of the way.

The chords to Purple Rain by Prince would also work very well for this – look at it as telling a story with a beginning, middle and end, rather than going in all guns blazing.

9. Joe Satriani – Flying In A Blue Dream

If you’re mainly used to pentatonic scales, Lydian – which is the fourth mode of the major scale – can present some serious challenges when it comes to phrasing.

Jamming along to the chords from this title track on Joe Satriani’s third full-length, released in 1989, is a great way of familiarizing yourself with these shapes and sounds. You can look at C Lydian from a G major perspective, which is its parent scale, or think of it as C major with a sharpened fourth, or even C major pentatonic with the inclusion of a B and an F.

Ultimately, different ways of visualizing a scale can help you explore new sonic horizons. Experiment with every possibility, even the ones that feel more confusing and less natural, because they might push you in a completely new direction.

10. Gary Moore – Parisienne Walkways

Much like Moore’s most famous track Still Got The Blues, this late ’70s hit is a great way of getting used to cycle-of-fifth progressions, also typified by songs like Autumn Leaves and I Will Survive.

Parisienne Walkways is in the key of A natural minor but at the end of the main progression, the perfect cadence of a V chord (E7) into the I chord (Amin) provides an opportunity to use the A harmonic minor scale for extra tension, which is then released by resolving back to the root.

Like Stairway To Heaven, it’s a great way of learning how to change just one note over the right chord and provide more depth for the listener to appreciate, taking them on a journey that travels further and therefore exceeds expectation.

Pedals Week 2026: The guitar pedal is an ever-evolving format, but also an ever-present one. The first guitar pedals were introduced only in the early 1960s, but in the intervening years they’ve been a source of change in sounds, tastes and techniques in guitar music.

As technology has advanced, so has the debate between the two core types of guitar pedal: analog and digital. Each one elicits different opinions, preconceived notions, and even prejudices: analog and digital. Analog warmth; digital artifacts. Analog mojo; digital harshness. Alternately, noisy analog; pristine digital. Vintage analog; sleek digital.

In this article, we break down the real difference between analog and digital – and what that means for the pedals of today.

What’s in a signal?

To understand the difference between analog and digital pedals, you first need to understand what those pedals are working with. The audio from your electric guitar is a small, variable AC voltage generated by the movement of its strings across its electromagnetic pickups and is directly equivalent to the sound of the strings.

It’s this voltage that amplifiers, well, amplify – and it’s this voltage that pedals make changes to. The method by which those changes are made is what we’re looking at today.

Anatomy of analog

Analog pedals make changes to your guitar’s signal by passing it through discrete electronic components, each of which has different properties. The signal that leaves an analog pedal, though altered, is the exact same signal that came in.

Distortion pedals were among the first analog pedals made, using the limitations of transistors – the small-scale, solid-state replacement for the vacuum tube – to artificially clip the peaks and troughs of incoming signals.

Successive transistor stages continue to amplify the signal, eventually reaching saturation; soft clipping from saturation creates a warmer, more musical sound, while hard clipping creates the buzz-saw (or Velcro-esque) sound of harsher fuzz. Diodes can also hard-clip signals and are often deployed after gain stages for a little extra bite.

Resistors and capacitors, when placed in the right configurations, can make frequency-sensitive alterations to sound. They constitute filter circuits, which can be used to shape your guitar’s tone or the character of an effect. These, in tandem with cascading transistor-based distortion circuits, are the make-up of practically every dirt pedal you’ve ever touched.

Time-based pedal effects came next, as manufacturers sought to replicate the magic of tape delays and spring reverbs in circuit form. Success came through Moore’s Law – the exponential increase in transistor counts in ICs (integrated circuits).

Early analog delay and reverb effects were created with “bucket brigade” ICs, or BBDs, that used arrays of capacitors and transistors to sample, slow, or smear the shifting voltages of the guitar’s signal against itself. Such circuits are also responsible for chorus and phase effects, which come from minuscule time divisions between dry and affected signals.

Iconic analog pedals

There are a great many iconic analog pedals, being that so many were responsible for so many idiosyncratic – and wildly popular – sounds. For instance, pretty much every well-regarded distortion pedal is an analog classic.

The Dunlop Fuzz Face was an early fuzz pedal, championed by the likes of Jimi Hendrix. Electro-Harmonix’s Big Muff spawned a thousand variants, clones and successors, as well as the fulsome tones of David Gilmour’s guitar on Pink Floyd’s Animals, and Billy Corgan’s riffs on Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream. Time-based analog effects are no different, of course.

Electro-Harmonix’s Memory Man was among the first analog delay pedals to market and was responsible for, amongst other sounds, The Edge’s early tone in U2.

Dissecting digital

Digital pedals, meanwhile, use the power of computation to alter sounds. The signal from your guitar is converted from voltages into ones and zeros, typically using something called an ADC (Analog-Digital Converter) that feeds into a microcontroller or small computer chip. From there, the character of the sound can be changed algorithmically, using code.

The first digital pedals were, effectively, miniaturisations of larger rack effects units, made possible again by the ever-shrinking, ever-duplicating transistor. As smaller and more complex pedal-friendly microchips were made possible, so too did it become possible to generate effects otherwise impossible with discrete components: reverb emulations, crystal-clear digital delays and complex pitch-shifting.

Dazzling digital devices (and how they got better)

In 1983, the Boss DD-2 was the first digital delay to enter the stompbox format, marking the effective birth of a new approach to guitar effects. The better chips got, the more digital time-based pedals were capable of; by 1999, the Line6 DL4 was on the market, with its extensive looping and time-stretching capabilities (and with some compelling analog delay emulations too). Why, then, did digital get a bad rap?

In the ’90s, a host of digital multi-effects pedals would launch with the beginner guitarist in mind – the most (in)famous being DigiTech’s RP-1 and Zoom’s 505. Nestled between some semi-capable delay and chorus patches were some of the least inspiring digital-emulation distortions and amp tones a guitarist could ask for.

In certain guitar circles, the preconceived notions that ‘digital=bad’ endure today, despite digital audio technology having come on leaps and bounds – and despite digital delays, reverbs and the DigiTech Whammy (a classic pitch-shifter, used handily by Tom Morello, Jack White and Dimebag Darrell to name but three) having been excellent the whole time.

Today’s digital effects are a world away from those of the ’80s and ’90s, as contemporary digital devices contain entire microcomputers capable of ever more complex algorithms and ever higher audio fidelity – hence the explosion of amp modelers in the past decade.

Hybrid theory

As such, today, it’s not so much a matter of analog vs digital in the pedal world. Digital audio technology is reliably emulating analog tones and technologies to the point of indistinguishability. For another, analog and digital have already been sharing chassis for some time now.

One of the pioneers in this new, harmonious world of analog-digital hybridity is Chase Bliss, the boutique pedal outfit responsible for the Warped Vinyl, Condor HiFi, the recent Automatone series and countless others. Chase Bliss’ slogan is ‘digital brain, analog heart’, speaking to the design smarts behind most of its pedal: all-analog signal paths, with digital control for finer, more accurate and more extensive tweakability.

This is a lesson well-learned by other pedal brands, who are embracing the melding of analog and digital circuits – and embracing the fact that digital effects no longer amount to pale imitations. Boss’ DM-101 is proof positive of this concept hitting the mainstream, being an extensively-featured analog delay with precise digital control. More pedal makers are embracing the possibilities of MIDI and CV too – a topic for another time.

With this whistlestop tour of pedals, their innards and their variably-earned reputations, maybe your pedalboard’s gained a little more luster – and maybe that digital delay you’ve got at the back of your pedal shelf deserves a little more love. Even the Zoom 505 is welcome. Just about.

Pedals Week 2026: Shoegaze is well and truly back. The return of legendary figures to the touring circuit – My Bloody Valentine chief amongst them – has been a heartening thing, demonstrating the continued, vibrant and powerful relevance of the blissed-out guitar as a mode of unreal expression.

These new upwellings of legacy acts are also a reflection of shoegaze’s long and aptly slow second act – newer artists like Glixen, Mo Dotti and They Are Gutting A Body Of Water woozily picking up the mantle left by the likes of Cocteau Twins, The Jesus And Mary Chain and Slowdive, spurred on by the runaway successes of their era.

Even outside of the nu-gaze scene, shoegaze tones have caught on with more mainstream indie and rock torch-bearers, from Wet Leg to Turnstile. But what makes the shoegaze tone? Well, in a nutshell: distortion, modulation, reverb – lots of each, and not quite in that order.

Shoegaze pedalboards are famously well-populated things, Kevin Shields’ small village of floor- and rack-based effects king amongst them. The typical shoegaze sound is heavily distorted guitars, pitch-modulated in some form or another, and smeared by large reverbs placed before them in the chain.

That placement is the defining aspect of a shoegaze tone, in that the huge trails from the reverb compound saturate and swell around the playing at its core – making for a febrile wall of untamed sound. Though the shoegaze tone is broadly easy to recognize, there are countless iterations of it and even more ways to achieve it.

Below you'll find 5 pedals that'll get you into the right spacey ballpark, from do-it-all multi-effects to lush reverbs, glitchy delays, and a must-have My Bloody Valentine signature pedal.

Keeley Loomer

Keeley Electronics’ Loomer is a dual-footswitch multi-effects pedal that combines fuzz, reverb, delay, and modulation into an extremely transparent love letter to everything that jangles, saturates, and otherwise overwhelms.

There are three core reverbs to choose from, each of which has a corresponding amuse-bouche of an effect: hall with shimmer; reverse with vibrato; soft-focus with parallel delays. The fuzz circuit is a Big Muff-of-sorts; big, beefy op-amp distortion with a powerful filter sweep for tone control. A push-button switch on the back lets you switch the order of fuzz and reverb, but for shoegaze, you want reverb first, always.

Fender Shields Blender

What pedal could be better-equipped for shoegaze than one co-designed by Kevin Shields? The Fender Shields Blender is a contemporary remake of the gold-dust ‘70s fuzz-octaver, viewed through a My Bloody Valentine-y lens and tinkered with accordingly. It keeps the same core circuitry as traced from Shields’ own OG Blender but also adds some equally incredible and oblique modes of control.

The Fender Shields Blender contains multitudes, figuratively and literally – what with the two flavors of octave fuzz that run in parallel, the now-optional octave-up, and a whole new control surface just for voltage sag. With so many tonal differentiations at your feet, this is a real Swiss army knife for shoegazery.

Walrus Audio Melee

Walrus Audio’s Melee pedal is another exceedingly swanky dual-effect distortion-and-reverb device, and another immensely handy shortcut to shoegaze. It’s a fuzz and a three-mode reverb, the three modes being Ambient, Octave Down and Reverse With Feedback (all, in one way or another, shoegaze in a box). The fuzz and verb can have their order swapped by a toggle switch, and a Sustain footswitch allows you to both latch reverb pads and swell your trails.

Even accounting for all of that goodness, the Melee’s key USP is something else entirely: that massive joystick on the top-right. It’s an XY controller that gives you precise and expressive control over the blend of fuzz and ‘verb. All the better for dialing in just the right volume of inscrutable trails….

Read more: Full Walrus Audio Melee review

Catalinbread FX40 Soft Focus Reverb

Catalinbread’s FX40 Soft Focus reverb quite literally captures the sound of shoegaze history for pedalboard-friendly delivery to a new generation of ‘gazers. It’s a replication of the ‘Soft Focus’ reverb patch found on the Yamaha FX500 – a ‘90s studio rack processor used heavily on Slowdive’s Souvlaki, amongst other quintessentially dreamy ‘90s records.

The Soft Focus is a big plate-style reverb with some lush modulatory goodness stashed within. The plate reverb meets three parallel channels – one clean, one with an octave-up, and one with a multi-voice chorus – for a blended tone that shimmers and moves in highly idiosyncratic fashion.

Old Blood Noise Endeavors Parting

Shoegaze has always been about tonal experimentation. And the second wave of shoegaze has coincided quite handily with what might be described as the second wave of glitch pedals, as evidenced by Old Blood Noise Endeavours’ pedal collab with harpist Emily Hopkins, Parting.

To make a long story short, Parting is glitchy, random ambiance via a delay/verb and Fun With Samples. It’s an inscrutable box of chance, incorporating downsampling, LFO-based modulation, delay, and reverb. It’s capable of everything from zippy reverse-sample soundscapes to smeared (there is literally a knob labeled ‘Smear’) verby beds. Three-dimensional lushness abounds.

Pedals Week 2026: The stompbox does not belong in these times. A crude metal brick studded with switches and dials, its scuffed footswitch still bearing your bootprint from last night’s gig, its innards a tangle of wires and solder globs – the format is a far cry from the intangible, unknowable sleekness of modeling software.

But perhaps that’s why stompboxes have endured – even flourished – on the modern scene. “People still love turning knobs,” shrugs Reverb’s Senior Director of Analytics, Cyril Nigg, as he prepares to mine the data for GW’s week-long celebration of pedals. “There's just something very satisfying about looking down and seeing your chain of effects and dialling it in. With stompboxes, it's cause and effect, right? I love it. And I'm guessing you love it too.”

What’s the overall health of the pedal market in 2026?

“First of all, people still love pedals. Y’know, we’re selling thousands a day on Reverb. There’s been 100 new pedals released so far this year, so it’s still a thriving market. It’s hard to find a brand-new pedal that hasn’t got more expensive over the last five years. Cost of materials, tariffs, labor costs, all of those things have gone up.

“But then, if you look at the used market, prices have actually been pretty steady. And we know this because we built the Reverb price index, which shows millions of transactions since 2018, just to help us understand how the whole market is moving.”

What pedal categories are selling best in 2026?

“Prices on vintage and rare pedals – y’know, things primarily made in the ’70s through the ’90s, like a Moogerfooger or a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz – are up about 20% year over year, and 50% higher than pre-pandemic. And then, if you look at effects categories: overdrive, distortion, fuzz, that group is all up about 25% since 2019.

“Delays have done well, they’re up about 15% in that period. Of the four main modulation categories, flange has always been the least popular and chorus is still number one by far. But tremolo used to be number two until, like, 2020, when the phaser overtook it.”

Which specific pedals do people want in 2026?

“One that’s definitely come up, especially recently, is the Analog Man King Of Tone. They’re still a boutique builder and they’ve kept that supply limited. To get a new one, you have to email Mike Piera, and I’ve been on the waiting list for a while now. So prices have gone [up sharply]. He sells them for, like, $350 direct, but they regularly sell for over $750 now, and they’ll go up even more if he stops producing them.

“That’s certainly one of the iconic pedals to have. Then there’s the Klons: the KTR and the Horsie/Centaur, those are always in high demand. The Nobels ODR-1, especially the ’90s version, which became the Nashville session pedal – those are selling for, like, $1,000.

“Other things like a Shin-ei Uni-Vibe: you’ll get about $2,500 to $3,000 for those. Of course, there’s the original Roland Space Echo, and the Dallas Arbiter Germanium Fuzz Face will go for around $3,000.”

How expensive can a pedal get on Reverb?

“We regularly sell pedals for thousands of dollars. We’ve certainly sold some original Klons for over 10 grand. And pedals with provenance or a story behind it, something that’s been owned by an artist, or really early serial numbers, those command an even higher price. Recently, Denmark Guitars in London sold Kurt Cobain’s original ’80s BOSS DS-1, used both live and in the studio during Nirvana’s Nevermind era [for $9,748].”

What are the hottest eras of production?

“I think there’s two primary periods. There’s the early days, from the late-’60s into the late-’70s. So y’know, the original Fuzz Face, Uni-Vibe, Space Echo, Mu-Tron, the early wahs, Tone Benders, all that stuff that the Stones, Hendrix, Pete Townshend and these guys used.

“Then it kinda leapfrogs into the ’90s, when you get brands like Nobels, Lovetone, some of the early Way Huge pedals. That ’90s era that has gotten very popular, almost in line with the classic ’60s and ’70s stuff.”

How about the big losers in the pedal market?

“One category that has certainly gone down is multi-effects, which are down about 15% since 2019 and 5% year over year. There’s probably two things driving that. One is the rise of amp modelers. If you’re looking at a Neural DSP, Axe-FX or Fractal, they operate not only as an amp in a box, but also a multi-effects.

“Also, with multi-effects pedals, the technology kinda goes out of out of favor. Like, the newest version of a multi-effects usually has better engines, the sounds are better, they’ve evolved the interface.

“But if you go back a few years, those multi-effects units just don’t sound as good. Whereas, with an individual stompbox, a lot of the good ones are analog, and even the digital ones, they’ve really honed in the sound, and it does its job really well.

“I haven’t really seen that amp modelers have impacted the popularity of individual pedals. Based on the data we see, a lot of people are buying both individual pedals and amp modeling units. Also, people will often have two or three rigs: maybe a traditional setup, and then, if they’re playing gigs, they might recreate that on an Axe-FX or Neural DSP Quad Cortex.”

Have any companies bucked the trend?

“Hologram Electronics are interesting, because they’ve really kept their catalog pretty limited, and one of their best-selling pedals is the Chroma Console, which is actually a multi-effects unit. It’s usually in our top 20 best-selling pedals, but it’s going against the grain. Whereas most other multi-effects are trying to hang on, that one has actually done really well.”

Have any iconic pedals cooled in popularity?

“I’ll put this one out there. The Klon Horsie: they’re still, like, $5,000, so it’s not like there’s not a lot of demand. But at the peak of the pandemic, they were closer to $6,000 or $7,000. So they’ve certainly come down from their peak. They’re still legendary, but people aren’t willing to pay quite as much as they once were. But there’s not many examples of legendary pedals falling off.”

What’s your advice for buying and selling pedals on Reverb?

“Pedals are one of the easiest things to sell. They retain their value well, they’re pretty indestructible, they’re easy to ship. Make sure you price it correctly, using Reverb’s price guide. That’s the most important thing. And then, taking good pictures, being honest about the condition, saving the box and accessories – those things always help.

“On the buyer side, if you have a specific pedal you’re looking for – say, a Lovetone Big Cheese – set up a save search to get notified when anyone lists one or it gets a price drop. You often have to act quickly. And don’t be afraid to make offers. On Reverb, most of the sellers are open to that.

“I’d also say that pedals are one of the best ways to get a different sound without spending a lot of money. Particularly if you buy used. You could spend, like, 50 to 100 bucks, buy a chorus pedal and a DS-1, and get Kurt Cobain’s sound. Or plug in a Phase 90 and sound like Waylon Jennings or Eddie Van Halen – with the right touch.”

Finally, if you could invest in any pedal, what would you choose?

“Right now, maybe an Analog Man King Of Tone. But of course, an original Fuzz Face. It’s so iconic. I grew up wanting to sound like Hendrix, and you see that big red pedal and it conjures up that sound in your mind…”

• Check out to Reverb’s price guide for more insight on pedal price trends.

Pedals Week 2026: If you’ve ever wondered what MIDI can do for your guitar rig, this is the guide you’ve been looking for. MIDI isn’t just for synth nerds. It can add incredible flexibility to your setup, particularly for live players looking to cut down on tap dancing. It can also get you the kind of seamless tone changes normally reserved for pro touring players.

In this guide, I’ll take you through everything you need to know about MIDI, the hardware and connectivity you’ll need, and some examples of how to get it set up on your own rig. It might take an afternoon to get your head around, but once that’s done, you’ll unlock some seriously cool functionality from your pedals.

What is MIDI?

Let’s get one thing straight: MIDI isn’t audio. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, and at its core, it is a communication protocol for sending signals from one piece of hardware to another. For guitarists, this means you can send a signal that changes a preset on your multi-effects pedal, or even just changes a single setting, like turning up the gain on an overdrive pedal, or adjusting individual EQ knobs.

Back in the ’80s, synth players were growing frustrated at having loads of gear that couldn’t talk to each other. If you bought a synth from Roland, it wouldn’t work with one from Oberheim or Sequential. Ikutaro Kakehashi, then president of Roland, recognized that this issue was limiting the growth of the electronic musical instrument industry, and together with Dave Smith from Sequential, came up with a standard protocol that would allow universal communication. Thus, MIDI was born.

MIDI sequencing enabled musicians with no formal training to create complex arrangements, making music creation far more accessible to the masses. It also allowed a smaller group of musicians to sound like a much bigger group, revolutionizing live performances.

MIDI also coincided with another significant tech development: the personal computer. The combination of MIDI and PCs meant that home recording became far more accessible for your average Joe, without having to use expensive studio equipment.

MIDI & guitars

MIDI had two large effects on the world of guitar. The first camp was those who wanted to turn the guitar into a synthesizer. Suddenly, you could make your guitar sound like a violin or a lush pad on a synthesizer. Players like Allan Holdsworth, Pat Metheny, and Jerry Garcia utilized these to varying degrees, producing some pretty wild effects and some absolutely crazy-looking guitars.

Using pitch to MIDI, you could now send the dynamic signal of an electric guitar, convert it to 1s and 0s, and send it on to a synthesizer to completely transform the sound. This required a hexaphonic pickup, which tracked each string individually in order to prevent the computer from getting confused by so many incoming signals.

The other camp, and the one that is more relevant to today's guitarist, is the rig controllers. Players like The Edge needed a way to manage their ginormous setups with multiple amps, pedals, and rackmount gear more easily, and MIDI systems provided a way to do that.

MIDI foot controllers allowed them to change multiple parameters at once, switching amp tones and multiple patch settings on their rack gear seamlessly, without having to bend down and turn knobs or have someone backstage do the changes manually. It completely revolutionized what guitarists were able to do onstage when it came to controlling masses of effects.

MIDI protocol

How does MIDI actually work? Let’s break it down. There are two main types of MIDI communication:

• Control Change (CC): This is typically used for parameter changes within a preset. For example, turning up the delay time on a delay pedal.
• Program Change (PC): This is used for wider changes like switching to a completely different preset on a multi-effects pedal.

When you send a MIDI CC signal from a foot controller to your hardware, you’ll be sending what’s called a three-byte package. For MIDI PC signals, it only uses the first two bytes to send a signal.

For guitarists, the three-byte package will look something like this:

• Byte 1: The type of message it is and what channel it’s on. For example, “this is a Control Change (CC) message, sending on channel 4.” This means anything not on channel 4 will ignore the message. With a MIDI controller, you get a total of 16 channels to send signals over.
• Byte 2: Each knob, switch, or function on a guitar pedal will have a MIDI CC number assigned, from 0 to 127. Byte 2 will send a MIDI CC number from the foot controller to engage that particular knob, switch, or function. In this example, we want to change the mix knob of our delay pedal, which might be CC number 15.
• Byte 3: This is the value you want to change the parameter to. This also operates the MIDI CC from 0 to 127, so sticking with our delay pedal example, 0 would be the mix knob all the way down, and 127 would be the mix knob all the way up. You can then set this to whatever level you like, adding in more of your delayed sound for a particular section of your song.

As you’re able to send 16 channels with a potential 128 parameters, that totals to 2,048 individual parameters. It means there’s basically no chance of running out of room to send signals in a MIDI system. If you’ve got that many knobs or switches on your pedalboard, please send me a picture!

MIDI hardware

Now you understand how MIDI works and what it does, let’s look at which hardware you can use with MIDI as a guitar player.

MIDI foot controller

The most common use of MIDI by guitar players is the MIDI foot controller. These are pedals with a variety of footswitches, and they usually have a screen so you can see what bank/patch you’re on or which function you’re triggering.

Multi-effects pedal

Many multi-effects pedals also have MIDI already built into them. Units like the Quad Cortex or Helix Stadium can be configured to send MIDI data via their footswitches, so you can control external pedals or hardware whilst using them for your main amp tone.

MIDI receivers

You also need somewhere to send your MIDI data, and there are a few common bits of hardware that you can control with MIDI.

Digital pedals

The most common for guitar players would be a digital effects pedal. Things like reverbs, delays, and modulation pedals are the most typical recipients of MIDI signals.

Guitar amps

Modern guitar amps also often have MIDI ports, which allow you to use a MIDI controller to change the channels. So you could use your multi-effects pedal with a guitar amp, and get that to change the amp channel from clean to dirty at the same time as engaging your delay pedal, and upping the mix knob to 50%.

Laptops

A more modern way to use MIDI is by sending the data to a laptop. This might be to use a guitar plugin live, with the MIDI controller to change presets or parameters. More often, though, especially for big touring bands, they’re using MIDI automation via backing tracks.

In this example, there’s a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) running on a laptop, and all the changes to the amp and pedals are preprogrammed via MIDI. The backing tracks play, and when the band moves to a new section, for example, going from a big chorus to a clean middle eight, the MIDI track sends the changes to their gear, resulting in a seamless switching of tone.

This is what allows big bands like Muse to put on an amazing live show, running around the stage without having to worry about getting back in time to stomp on their pedals to change their settings for a chorus section or a guitar solo. Obviously, this can go wrong, so most pro bands use two laptops running in unison in case the first one fails.

MIDI connections

You might already have some MIDI-enabled gear, so what should you look for to start setting up your own MIDI rig?

5-pin DIN

This is the classic MIDI connection that’s been in use since the ’80s. It’s a round connector with 5 pins, and these are universal, allowing any gear with the same connections to interact with one another.

TRS MIDI

5-pin DIN connections are quite large, which means you’re only likely to find them on bigger pedals like multi-effects or Strymon workstation pedals. So, TRS (Tip Ring Sleeve) MIDI was born, enabling MIDI functionality using a 1/4-inch or 1/8-inch jack, which it makes it much more usable on compact pedals.

Unfortunately, unlike in the ’80s when companies all agreed on a single format, TRS MIDI varies in its functionality depending on which cable you use. The cables look identical on the outside, but are wired differently on the inside depending on what the manufacturer wants them to do.

• TRS MIDI Type A: This is the most common type of TRS MIDI cable, used by Strymon, Boss, Line 6, Meris, and many others. These are wired so that the Tip sends the data and the Ring sends the power. Note that the power isn’t to power pedals, but rather a small voltage required to send the MIDI data.
• TRS MIDI Type B: It’s unlikely you’ll encounter this as a guitarist, but it’s worth knowing about. Type-B cables are often used by synths and MIDI controllers, and here the data is sent down the Ring with the power down the Tip, so if you tried to use this cable with a modern pedal, it won’t work. It just means you need to be careful when buying TRS MIDI cables that you’re getting a Type A rather than a Type B.
• Chase Bliss: On Chase Bliss pedals, neither Type A nor Type B MIDI cables will work. CB uses a specific wiring where the MIDI data is sent down the Ring, but the Tip is disconnected. This is because Chase Bliss MIDI ports need to act as both MIDI inputs and expression pedal inputs. If you have a Chase Bliss pedal, then you need to buy their specific cable or use a MIDI utility/splitter box that translates the signal for you.

MIDI In/Out/Thru

Confused yet? Just wait, there’s more. Many pedals using the 5-pin DIN system will have a separate MIDI In connector, as well as a MIDI Out and/or Thru. Your MIDI footcontroller might only have a single MIDI Out, so if you want to chain multiple MIDI pedals together, you’ll need to go out from your controller, to the In of your pedal, then use the Out or Thru to go to the next pedal’s MIDI In, and so on and so forth.

The hole goes even deeper as we start to get into TRS MIDI. On some pedals, manufacturers use two 1/8-inch jacks side by side to act as the In and Out/Thru. You might need to dive into your pedal settings to get this to work properly, as by default the Out will need to be reconfigured as a Thru.

You might notice that some of your pedals only feature a single TRS MIDI connector. In this instance, you can’t daisy chain them and instead need to buy an additional MIDI splitter box, which acts as the main hub for all your MIDI pedals. A typical setup would be to run a master 5-pin DIN from your MIDI foot controller to your MIDI splitter box, then send out from here to each individual pedal with a single TRS MIDI connector.

Other MIDI uses

MIDI can do more than just change pedal settings, so here’s some extra functionality you can unlock.

MIDI clock

Syncing your delay and modulation effects with the song’s tempo will make your songs sound a lot more professional, and a MIDI controller can do this automatically. A MIDI clock can be sent by a controller or a DAW and will automatically synchronize all of the pedals in the MIDI ecosystem to the same tempo. This means your delay repeats or tremolo pedals will be exactly in time with the beat.

Don’t worry if you don’t play with a DAW; most MIDI foot controllers also allow you to set a global tap tempo. That way, when your drummer inevitably speeds up the song, you can still make sure all of your pedals are synchronized to the tempo of the track when playing without a click.

MIDI expression

A lot of MIDI foot controllers have a dedicated expression pedal input. Traditionally, an expression pedal controls a single or two functions, so you’d need to get two pedals to control more than one or two pieces of gear. With a MIDI controller, however, you can digitally alter which parameter you want the expression pedal to control.

For example, on the first song of your set list, it can be set to do a traditional wah effect, on the second song it will seamlessly control the time knob on your delay pedal, and so on. You can even program it to change multiple parameters at once, which can unlock some wild sounds you wouldn’t be able to achieve without a MIDI controller.

Common issues

If you’re setting a MIDI rig up for the first time, here’s a few cautionary tales from other players so you can learn from their mistakes.

Omni Mode

Many pedals come set to Omni mode by default, which means they’re listening to all 16 MIDI channels at once. If you chain a couple of pedals together without specifying a channel for them to communicate, you’ll likely find that both pedals change presets at the same time.

To counter this, make sure to find the MIDI channel settings for each pedal and give them their own channel number to communicate over.

MIDI loops

Connecting the MIDI Out of the foot controller to the MIDI In of the pedal is the right way to use MIDI functionality. Many beginners, however, then end up going back from the MIDI Out of the pedal to the MIDI In of the foot controller. This is logical to a guitarist because we’re used to plugging in guitar pedals in this way.

This doesn’t work with MIDI because when communicating with MIDI, we want a one-way stream. If you connect them in this way, you’ll get a feedback loop where the foot controller sends messages to the pedal, which sends back to the controller, which then passes it back on to the pedal, resulting in crashes or freezes.

The only time you would be likely to use both the MIDI ports on your controller is when integrating a rack processor like the Kemper or Axe-Fx. Here you might want to send data like the tuner from the rack unit to make it visible on your controller, or to align preset names so you know which song setting you’re on. This requires a more advanced setup to enable bi-directional communication between the two without getting the feedback loop.

Cable compatibility

I mentioned it earlier, but cable compatibility is one of the biggest issues guitarists run into. When you type ‘TRS MIDI cable’ into Amazon, it’s not always clear which one you’re getting. Make sure you check the specifications or title so that you’re getting a Type-A cable, as Type-B cables typically don’t work with guitar gear.

MIDI 2.0

You may have heard of MIDI 2.0, and for now it’s primarily within the realm of synthesizers and DAWs. It’s worth mentioning here however as eventually it will become the norm for guitarists with pedalboards.

As I mentioned before, MIDI communication typically works as a one-way street. With MIDI 2.0, bidirectional communication becomes much easier. This means that in the future, you can plug a MIDI controller into a guitar pedal, and it will automatically know things like CC maps and preset names, so you won’t have to program them in manually.

MIDI currently works with the 0 to 127 parameters, so for some effects with really fine control, you might notice small ‘steps’ as it ramps up. This is sometimes called ‘zipper noise’. MIDI 2.0 has 32-bit resolution, so zipper noise disappears as there are billions of steps in MIDI 2.0.

MIDI 2.0 also features up to 256 channels, which, while it isn’t that useful for guitar players, can open up more options for big bands running super-complex MIDI setups. If you’ve got a single laptop running a huge group of musicians, you won’t be limited by MIDI channels any longer.

Finally, MIDI 2.0 is backwards compatible, so it will recognize MIDI 1.0 devices automatically. It means all the MIDI gear we have now won’t suddenly become obsolete when the music industry moves to MIDI 2.0 at a larger scale.

Conclusion

Still with me and excited by the possibilities of MIDI now? Well, my advice would be to start small first. Use one controller for one pedal, changing one parameter. MIDI can be a real minefield when you start introducing multiple components, so starting small will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.

Once you’ve got one thing working, you can build on top of this to create an automated rig that will up your live playing to the level of the pros. It’s one of those things that takes a while to set up, but you will absolutely reap the benefits once you get your head around it.

Pedals Week 2026: Before the late 1990s, your options for guitar pedals were pretty limited. You either bought a mass-produced, assembly-line stompbox, or you spent a fortune hunting down old vintage gear that might just die on you mid-gig. If you wanted a truly unique sound, you basically had to burn your fingers with a soldering iron and mod it yourself.

Then, everything changed when a quiet revolution started bubbling up from basement workbenches. A small group of circuit tweakers and tone chasers began pulling apart classic designs, swapping in premium components, and focusing entirely on touch-sensitive dynamics.

What started as a niche DIY hobby quickly exploded into a massive industry that completely changed how we sculpt electric guitar tone.

Here are 12 of the definitive stompboxes that built the boutique pedal boom.

1. Pete Cornish P-2 / Precision Fuzz

Hand-built in the UK since 1983, Pete Cornish originally created the Precision Fuzz (later named the P-2) specifically for Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. It delivers a massive, violin-like sustain and rich, creamy distortion that completely eliminates the sputtering harshness of traditional vintage fuzzes.

Players love this pedal because its proprietary, studio-grade active buffer preserves total signal integrity, keeping the massive wall of sound entirely noise-free. Combining classic-rock history with serious engineering, the P-2 cuts through a dense band mix with a tight low-end and a singing note bloom that responds naturally to your pick attack.

2. Klon Centaur

The mythical Klon Centaur is the most talked-about pedal of the boutique gear movement. Hand-built by Bill Finnegan, this transparent overdrive is famous for being incredibly rare, very expensive, and – outside of perhaps the Tube Screamer – the most cloned circuit in guitar history.

Sonically, it blends an 18-volt clean boost with overdrive to add massive headroom, a harmonically rich mid-range push, and a singing, touch-sensitive crunch. Using an internal voltage trick to unleash massive headroom and a sweet midrange push, its known for making a tube amp sound and feel alive while preserving its natural tone.

3. Menatone Red Snapper

Before "transparent overdrive" became a marketing buzzword, Brian Mena helped invent the concept from scratch. Launching Menatone in 1996, his flagship Red Snapper circuit debuted as a direct alternative to mid-heavy, tone-coloring overdrive pedals.

Engineered to preserve the natural chime and character of a player’s guitar and amplifier, it delivers an incredibly organic breakup. Its highly responsive "Bite" and "Cut" controls allowed guitarists to sculpt high-end dynamics without adding unwanted compression.

As one of the earliest point-to-point hand-wired pedals of the 1990s, it laid down the blueprint for the transparent dirt pedal movement.

4. Analogman King of Tone

The King of Tone is a legendary forefather of the boutique pedal boom. Inspired by the vintage Marshall Bluesbreaker circuit, this dual-channel pedal acts as a transparent extension of your rig.

It doesn't compress your signal or add a harsh mid-hump; instead, it stacks harmonic grit onto your existing tone while keeping your low-end intact and pick attack crisp.

It became iconic for this touch-sensitive clarity, but also for a multi-year waitlist so absurdly long it’s a running industry joke, proving that this benchmark handmade circuit is truly worth the decade-long wait.

5. Fulltone Full-Drive 2

Inspired by the thick, mid-forward crunch of a classic Tube Screamer, this heavy-duty blue box was hand-built in the mid 1990s as a rugged, premium alternative for touring players.

It featured clean true bypass switching and an independent "Boost" footswitch that pushed the circuit into a thick, singing lead tone for solos.

By delivering great dynamic touch-sensitivity without squashing your guitar's natural voice, this workhorse became a mandatory pedalboard staple and one of the forefathers of the early boutique boom.

6. Keeley Electronics Compressor

The Keeley Compressor completely changed how guitarists looked at utility pedals, proving that studio-grade compression could actually work on a pedalboard.

Prior to its release, most guitar compressors were just tone-suckers that added tons of noise and flattened your playing dynamics. Robert Keeley solved this by using high-fidelity, ultra-quiet components that smooth out your dynamics while keeping a snappy, musical feel.

It gives you great, singing sustain without coloring your core tone, making it an "always-on" essential for touring pros.

7. Paul Cochrane Timmy

Released in the early 2000s, this legendary overdrive completely rewrote the rules for the transparent dirt market.

Frustrated by pedals that aggressively chopped off a guitarist's low-end, Paul Cochrane designed a circuit featuring a post-gain clipping structure and subtractive bass and treble cuts. Instead of adding tons of mids, the Timmy pushes a tube amp into natural breakup while keeping its core tone completely intact.

It became legendary because it gave players total control over their frequencies, making it a permanent staple that helped define the early boutique pedal movement.

8. Way Huge Red Llama

Jeorge Tripps was an absolute trailblazer of the early 1990s boutique scene. Operating out of his garage, Tripps built the Red Llama using a digital CMOS inverter chip uniquely configured as a raw audio amplifier.

The resulting tone was a ferocious, touch-sensitive overdrive that effortlessly crossed the line into fuzzy, speaker-tearing saturation when pushed hard.

With just volume and drive controls, this quirky, high-output monster proved that handmade boutique designs didn't need to be overly complicated or sterile to be brilliantly effective rock and roll tools.

9. Hermida Audio Zendrive

While early pedal builders experimented with capturing Howard Dumble’s mythical amplifier tone, Alfonso Hermida’s 2004 Zendrive perfected it.

Hand-soldering the initial units straight out of his garage, the aerospace engineer built a touch-sensitive masterpiece designed to replicate the ultra-smooth overdrive of fusion guitarist Robben Ford.

Its brilliance lies in a raw, hand-wired clipping circuit paired with a "Voice" control that sculpts precise mid-range frequencies.

By offering a flawless, dynamically responsive "Dumble-in-a-box" experience built on a home workbench, this handmade masterpiece defined an entirely new genre of boutique tone-shaping history.

10. JHS Pedals Morning Glory

Josh Scott started JHS by repairing and modifying pedals by hand at a small kitchen table. That backyard grit led straight to the Morning Glory, a gold box that perfected the art of the transparent overdrive.

Acting as a transparent low-gain drive, it adds a musical layer of chime, top-end clarity, and grit without altering your amplifier's natural voice. It swaps out the muddy mid-hump of old-school overdrives for a crisp, high-fidelity response that lets your pick attack shine.

Highly responsive and incredibly touch-sensitive, this workhorse quickly became a permanent pedalboard staple and a definitive modern classic.

11. B.K. Butler / Chandler Tube Driver

Frustrated by the artificial, thin clipping of early 1980s solid-state dirt boxes, engineer B.K. Butler took matters into his own hands. Hand-soldering real vacuum tubes directly into an instrument-level stompbox circuit, Butler developed the Tube Driver.

Originally distributed via Chandler Industries in the mid-1980s, this discrete, hand-wired unit supplied authentic, high-voltage tube saturation, sag and rich low-end focus to conventional clean amplifiers.

Famously adopted by Eric Johnson for his legendary violin-like lead tone and David Gilmour for Pink Floyd’s late-era stadium runs, it pioneered the modern, premium "amp-in-a-box" boutique pedal genre.

12. Z.Vex Effects Fuzz Factory

Released in 1995, Zachary Vex’s Fuzz Factory turned the guitar world upside down by proving that boutique pedals didn’t have to just recreate the past.

Built around a pair of New Old Stock germanium transistors, this wild five-knob circuit completely abandoned traditional tone-shaping.

By giving players direct control over transistor bias and stability, it unlocked everything from Velcro-like sputter and gating to infinite, self-oscillating theremin shrieks.

It became an instant icon for players looking to push sonic boundaries, cementing Z.Vex as a brilliant, mad-scientist pioneer of the early handmade pedal movement.

Strymon may have just unveiled the pinnacle of delay pedal design with the TimeLine MX Multi Delay – an astonishingly feature-packed workstation that looks to blow the competition out of the water.

However, all that innovation comes at a cost: the TimeLine MX will cost you $679. So, not only is it perhaps the most advanced delay pedal of all time, it could also be the most expensive.

To put that into perspective, its predecessor, the TimeLine Multi Delay, weighed in at $449.

Elsewhere on the market, the Meris LVS Modular Delay costs around $599, the Line 6 DL4 MKII is priced at $299, and the Boss DD-500 will set you back $399.

But make no mistake – the TimeLine MX Multi Delay isn’t your average delay pedal. This isn’t for your standard slapbacks or springs (though, at $649, you can bet it would do those effects just fine).

Instead, this is for the delay connoisseurs out there – the pedal aficionados who make delay experimentation and layered echoes a core part of their playing style. For many players, it will be simply too much. In the right hands, though, it could be the only delay pedal you’ll ever need – and then some.

“And then some” is accurate, because this thing is jammed with features. It has 12 delay engines, two of which can be run at once for the first time. A new OLED display has been updated. Three footswitches. Nine control knobs. Did we mention the five-minute stereo looper? Yeah, it’s got one of those.

It’s a dizzying spec sheet to scroll through. Elsewhere, there are new sounds in the form of Oil Can and Drum Echo, and Spectral. The latter is a glitchy granular delay for oddball textures, while the former are vintage-y delays.

There’s also more power under the hood, courtesy of a tri-core MHz ARM processor, to keep everything ticking over, and fully expansive series, parallel, and split routing options with full stereo and MIDI support.

“It’s taken a long time, but the day is finally here”, says Gregg Stock, Strymon’s CEO and analog guru. “I’m really proud of the entire group that worked on this project and what they’ve accomplished.

“It takes a diverse collection of talented folk to create a product like this, and everyone brought their ‘A’ game to work every day.”

It’s a delay pedal built for professionals and one that has likely raised the bar for the market. But with a price tag that reaches into multi-effects territory, it's likely to pique the interest of only the most ardent delay fans.

The TimeLine MX Multi Delay is available now for $679.

Head over to Strymon for more.

A judge has granted Boss’ motion to dismiss after Behringer hit the company with a lawsuit over the use of polyphonic tuning technology.

In March, Empower Tribe, the owner of Behringer and TC Electronic, filed a lawsuit against Boss parent company, Roland, claiming the latter had produced a “knock off” version of its patented polyphonic tuner.

At the time, Boss removed the polyphonic tuner function from many of its flagship modeler pedals, including the GT-1000, GT-1000CORE, GX-100 and GX-10, pending litigation.

Boss filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that Behringer’s original patent for polyphonic tuning – first used in the TC Electronic PolyTune pedal in 2011 – fell short on key criteria.

Specifically, Boss’ motion stated that the polyphonic tuning failed to adequately show the “inventive concept”, which is required for patents.

The judge residing over the case agreed. In court documents, it was asserted that Empower Tribe had failed to justify its patent despite attempts to protect its existence. Roland therefore could not be penalized as the patent was unenforceable in the eyes of the court.

“The Court agrees that nothing in the claim limitations, considered individually and together as a whole, is sufficient to transform the Asserted Claims into a patent-eligible invention,” the court says.

“Because the Court finds that the Asserted Claims are directed to an abstract idea and lack an inventive concept to transform the Asserted Claims, the Court grants the Motion.”

The court has also said it would be “futile” to allow Empower Tribe to amend its complaint, owing to the fact that patent-ineligibility is a “defect which cannot be cured through amendment”.

As such, Behringer’s Complaint has been dismissed with prejudice, and in doing so may have just set a precedent for the open use of polyphonic tuners elsewhere. Now that the polyphonic tuning patent is unenforceable, Empower Tribe seemingly no longer holds a monopoly on multi-string tuning.

It’s the latest legal tangle for Behringer, which was sued by Klon creator Bill Finnegan last year over its $69 Centaur Overdrive Klon copy. The lawsuit was dismissed after Behringer introduced a number of name and stylistic changes to the pedal.

Boss has been contacted for comment.

Ernie Ball has made a major play in the effects pedal market by announcing the acquisition of Source Audio.

It’s a significant move from the string maker, which is set to take control of one of the most innovative effects specialists of the past few years.

The acquisition also marks the first time Ernie Ball has branched into the world of premium effects, expanding its scope well beyond its own in-house roster of volume pedals.

Founded in 2006, Source Audio has become a key player in the premium effects market, releasing a broad array of innovative drive, delay, reverb and modulation effects.

Highlights include the Artifakt Lo-Fi Elements, Encounter, ZIO Analog Front End + Boost, and Collider Delay+Reverb.

Source Audio has also earned multiple product and innovation awards over the past two decades, and as per Source Audio's website its pedals can be heard on recordings from the likes of U2, David Gilmour, John Mayer, Aerosmith and more.

“Source Audio has built one of the most creative and respected effects platforms in our industry,” says Brian Ball, CEO of Ernie Ball. “What excites me isn’t just the technology; it’s the way their pedals inspire musicians to find sounds they didn’t know they were looking for.

“Ernie Ball has always existed to help artists create, and Source Audio gives us a powerful new way to do exactly that.”

Ernie Ball’s acquisition could have a knock-on effect for the rest of the market. Source Audio’s credentials have never been in doubt. But if Ernie Ball’s connections can help put its pedals into the hands of more players, then competing premium effects firms such as Strymon, Eventide and Keeley could be faced with a rejuvenated competitor.

Going forward, it will largely be business as usual for Source Audio. It will continue operating under its own brand, but with the backing of Ernie Ball, which will look to scale the company’s profile and appeal.

Existing Source Audio pedals are expected to remain available, with an eye on developing future products and pedals mooted. Don’t expect any Ernie Ball pedals, either. This move will be about increasing Source Audio’s exposure and putting them in the hands of more players.

Roger Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of Source Audio, comments, “Ernie Ball understands musicians, artists, and the culture of guitar in a way very few companies do, and that alignment is what makes this such an exciting next chapter.

“Ernie Ball gives Source Audio the scale, support, and reach to keep growing while preserving the spirit of what we built. I am confident this is the right home for the brand, the products, the technology, and the community of musicians who have supported us from the start.”

Visit Ernie Ball and Source Audio for more.

During the late ’60s, Tom Oberheim earned notoriety among Los Angeles musicians for the ring modulators he built for everyone from the experimental electronic psychedelia band the United States of America to film composer Leonard Rosenman, who used Oberheim’s ring modulator on the soundtrack for 1970’s Beyond the Planet of the Apes.

By 1969, Gibson’s Maestro division contracted Oberheim Electronics to build his ring modulator for them, which was marketed as the Maestro RM-1A.

The ring modulator had limited appeal to the masses (especially after the U.S. government outlawed LSD in 1970), but Oberheim’s follow-up was an incredible success – the PS-1 Phase Shifter, introduced in 1971.

The PS-1 technically wasn’t the first phase shifter on the market (the Shin-ei/Univox Uni-Vibe preceded it by four years), but it was the first effect unit called a “phase shifter” as well as the first to produce the steady rising and falling sweep effect that musicians now recognize as the standard phase shifting effect.

Oberheim designed the PS-1 as a compact substitute for a Leslie rotating speaker cabinet for keyboardists. As a result, it was housed in a rather large, boxy enclosure with only three large rocker switches on the top panel for selecting slow (blue), medium (yellow) and fast (red) sweep speeds.

One especially cool characteristic of the Maestro phase shifter effect is how the LFO speed ramps up or down to the selected rate (similar to the mechanical function of a Leslie) instead of changing abruptly. The unit itself had no bypass switch, but an optional foot controller provided bypass/slow, medium and fast footswitches.

Despite its bulky, keyboard-centric design, the Maestro Phase Shifter quickly gained popularity with guitarists, who were mesmerized by the deep, trippy swirling textures produced by the six-stage circuit where six JFETs provide a cascading all-pass filter network.

Maestro produced three different versions of the Phase Shifter — the PS-1, PS-1A and PS-1B. The PS-1A is basically an improved version of the PS-1 that fixed a flaw with the input buffer amplifier that produced popping noises.

The PS-1B features a variable speed knob, which is a very useful upgrade, but because this version was introduced near the end of Oberheim’s contract with Maestro these units are very rare and command significantly higher prices on the vintage market.

Maestro sold an estimated 60,000 units to guitarists and keyboardists alike during its brief four-year lifespan. When smaller phase shifter pedals emerged around 1974 that were much more guitar rig-friendly, the bulky Maestro unit was soon rendered obsolete.

However, it still sounds great today and is great for studio applications. If you don’t want to bother with a vintage unit, Heptode Virtuoso replicates the Maestro’s vintage tones for players who want a modern pedalboard-friendly update.

Some of the most dedicated early fans of the Maestro Phase Shifter included Ernie Isley, who ran an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff in front of his to create the synth-like lead tone on Isley Brothers classic That Lady; Alex Lifeson, who used his Maestro on the first four Rush albums up to and including 2112; George Harrison, who plugged into a PS-1A on his Extra Texture and Thirty Three & 1/3 albums; Waylon Jennings on numerous mid-’70s outlaw country singles, plus John Cipollina, Steve Howe and Terry Kath.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Darkglass has branched into the world of electric guitar multi-effects pedals for the very first time with a limited-edition modeler designed in collaboration with two behemoth retailers.

Co-founded by Douglas Castro – who’d later go on to conquer the modeler market with his next venture, Neural DSP – Darkglass is the undisputed leader in the world of digital bass guitar modelers and multi-effects pedals.

Indeed, Darkglass has cemented its position with a run of acclaimed amps, pedals and plugins, and the near-perfect, bass-specific Anagram multi-effects unit.

Now, though, Darkglass has waded into electric guitar waters for the first time, partnering with Andertons and Sweetwater for the Anagram Guitar Essentials pedal.

It’s a big development from Darkglass and an interesting side-step into the world of conventional guitars. Competition in this area is already at an all-time high, thanks to the likes of Line 6, Fender, Boss, Kemper, Neural DSP and more.

But with its background in bass guitar and digital tone expertise, Darkglass could make some serious waves in the industry.

The Anagram Guitar Essentials takes on the same compact form factor as the regular Anagram, with a seven-inch central display screen offering 3D-rendered interfaces, flanked by three footswitches and six control knobs.

The pedal comes preloaded with a bunch of preamp models and effects as part of the Guitar Essentials plugin curated by Andertons and Sweetwater. Some heavy hitters are included in that list, such as Fender-style Deluxe and Twin amps, some Marshall-y models, and others inspired by Hiwatt, Matchless and Magnatone offerings.

As for effects, three pedals are part of the drop, inspired by the Klon Centaur, Marshall Blues Breaker and Ibanez Tube Screamer. In total there are 12 amps and a trio of effects to play with.

What’s even more tempting, though, is the fact the Anagram can host compatible third-party NAM profiles, should you wish.

For the uninitiated, NAM (Neural Amp Modeler) is an open-source, free-to-use modeling tech offering amp profiles that is poised to revolutionize the industry. The recently released A2 architecture, for instance, beat out Neural DSP, Line 6 and IK Multimedia in a comprehensive blind listening test.

The NAM compatibility here is a huge benefit. None of its direct competitors currently offer that function, and only a handful of mainstream practice amps and headphone amps – most notably from Blackstar – accomodate this function.

That already gives it a leg up over the likes of the Quad Cortex, Helix Stadium and TONEX.

And, like the OG Anagram, there’s some expansive routing and connectivity options, including MIDI, USB and Bluetooth.

“There was no one better than Sweetwater and Andertons to identify the pieces of gear that helped define the sound of the electric guitar,” says Managing Director of Darkglass, Marcos Barilatti.

“These are the amplifiers and pedals that generations of players built their tone around, and that continue to set the standard today.”

To put a downer on the whole thing, Darkglass is stressing its guitar-based Anagram is a one-time-only, limited-edition launch. A genuine shame, because this could take the fight to some key players in the compact modeler game. Here’s hoping for a more regular run at some point in the future.

The Guitar Essentials Anagram will be available exclusively from Sweetwater in the US ($1,299), and Andertons in the UK (£999).

Visit Darkglass for more.

Solar Guitars is the latest firm to enter the hotly contested pitch-shifting market with the Chug Capo, a no-nonsense stompbox being billed as “a digital bi-directional capo” that is set to go toe to toe with the likes of Boss and DigiTech.

The chrome pedal shifts up and down by one octave in semitone increments, has a bright display, and two key selling points.

The first is the promise of low latency performance – weighing in roughly half its rival's – so that “fast tempo right-hand picking and chugging won’t give the feel of your playing dragging.”

Beyond that, Solar says the “sonic integrity” of a player’s tone will not be harmed when shifting the signal. Its voicing has been “meticulously programmed” so that the affected sound the same as an unaltered chord sound.

That’s important for those considering a pitch-shifting pedal as a primarily practical piece of gear. Dropping by, say a whole tone, can help eradicate the need for taking multiple guitars on the road, thus slimming down live rigs.

Elsewhere, the pedal has two modes. Mix offers a “very powerful fast-tracking octave divider,” while a saved preset can be recalled via Fav mode. There’s also the option of plugging in a non-latching switch, which is not included.

Finally, there’s a Mix dial for blending the pitched signal, meaning it can double up as an octave, and a USB-C port on the back for connecting to a computer.

For a good while, the DigiTech Whammy and Drop pedals, alongside Electro Harmonix’s Pitch Fork, were the go-to for on-the-fly transposing. But in recent years, Neural DSP has impressed with the Transpose feature built into its plugins, and Boss did some serious work with its artifact-free XS-1 Poly-Shifter last year. The market has woken up to the need for high-end pitch shifters for bedroom musicians and working guitarists alike.

In certain cases, artifacts have proven a key characteristic of pitch-shifting – it’s why the DigiTech Whammy DT edges out the Boss XS-100 in my opinion – but for pitch-shifting in its purest form, Boss has proven a force to be reckoned with. That means that Solar has to meet a high bar if it is going to stage a successful content.

“This is the fastest and most transparent-sounding pitch shifter to date, especially when it comes to tight rhythm playing, chords, and pinch harmonics,” says firm founder, Ola Englund. These, he adds, “are usually the first things to expose weaknesses in pitch shifters.”

The Chug Capo is priced at $249, which makes it a chunk pricier than the $199 Boss XS-1, which has slightly more features and a wider octave range. The acid test comes down to audio quality alone.

See Solar for more.

JHS Pedals is poised to correct its biggest error after announcing the long-awaited second edition of its DIY Notadümblë pedal will be released tomorrow, Tuesday 30 June.

The second stompbox in the firm’s build-it-yourself category, the Notadümblë V1 made the headlines after JHS Pedals founder Josh Scott realized he’d dropped the ball pretty dramatically.

In short, a schematic mix-up meant the clean boost circuit inserted into the Dumble clone was actually modeled on an even rarer Dumble pedal than advertised. As such, it was discontinued after just two weeks.

With V2, JHS Pedals is not only releasing the pedal as it always meant to, but it’s also introducing some pleasing quality-of-life improvements.

It is now a true two-in-one pedal, with independent footswitches for both the Dumble-style overdrive and boost side. The Presence control has also been promoted to the top control panel.

But most importantly, the boost side now correctly draws from John Mayer’s one-of-one A Box Later pedal.

Other quirks that weren’t in the earlier version include a slider toggle to choose which side of the pedal comes first in the signal path, and an effects loop for its preamp boost circuit.

Controls on the pedal’s face include Volume, Drive, EQ, and Presence for the overdrive, and Input and Outputs for the clean boost, staying true to the streamlined controls on the A Box Later.

The first batch is limited to 6,000 units, but fear not, because this is not a limited edition release. The Notadümblë V2 will be available indefinitely; there might just be a small wait for those not quick enough to snag one from the first drop.

The first batch launched on Tuesday, June 30th at 10 am CST.

See JHS Pedals for more.

JHS Pedals has been busy of late, having dropped the ultimate pedal demo guitar in collaboration with Bilt; a curious, against-the-grain octaver; and the Fumble, which separates the wrongly copied Dumble from V1 into its own unit.

With more and more big manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon, the Amazon Prime Day sales are rapidly becoming a legitimate destination for guitar players looking for a deal. What began as an opportunity to grab cheap accessories and off-brand alternatives has now become a place where even legendary companies like Boss are getting in on the action.

There are absolutely loads of Boss' compact stompboxes in the Prime Day guitar deals at the moment, so if you've got a gap on your pedalboard to fill, then now's a great time to take advantage of some serious savings. Some have dropped even further in price since first being launched, so whether you need an overdrive pedal, some delay effects, a new tuner, or even some utility pedals, there's pretty much something for everyone on offer here.

Here's every single one of the 13 Boss stompboxes currently on sale for Prime Day, but act fast, they won't be around much longer!

All the best places to shop at Amazon

• Amazon: All Prime Day guitar deals
• Guitars: Save on beginner guitars
• Pedals: Cheap multi-effects
• Amps: Money off smart amps
• Strings: Stock up on essentials
• Accessories: Capos, slides, straps, and more

Today's best non-Amazon sales

• Guitar Center: Early-access 4th July sale
• Sweetwater: Big savings on guitar gear
• Musician's Friend: Up to 60% 4th July sale
• Universal Audio: Huge up to 80% off half year sale
• IK Multimedia: 50% off software coupon
• Positive Grid: Giant Spark summer sale
• Fender: Up to $200 off Tone Master
• Guitar Tricks: 1 month for $1
• B&H Photo: Money off pro audio
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of plugin discounts
• Reverb: B-stock deals
• Waves: Plugins for just $34.99

• 🇬🇧 Best UK sales
• Thomann: Huge Music Days sale, up to 60% off
• GuitarTricks: Half-price annual plan
• Plugin Boutique: Huge software savings
• Waves: Sale on studio staples

If you’re searching for a feature-packed multi-effects unit that won’t break the bank, the Mooer GE150 is a deal you can’t ignore. Over the past few years, Mooer has undergone a dramatic transformation, evolving from a brand best known for its affordable micro pedals (often inspired by classic designs) to a genuine force in the world of guitar effects. With flagship releases like the GE300 amp modeler/multi-effects, Mooer has proven it can compete with the big guns. Now, with the GE150 Pro, the company brings its innovative spirit and commitment to value into a compact, affordable package perfect for players at any level – and right now, there’s 35% off at Amazon, making this pedal only $129.

What sets the GE150 apart? For starters, it delivers an astonishing range of tones and features at a price point comfortably below $200. Built on Mooer’s acclaimed MNRS modeling technology, the GE150 comes loaded with 55 amp models derived from the brand’s best-selling Micro Preamp series. That means you get access to a huge library of authentic amp sounds, from sparkling cleans to high-gain heaviness, all at your fingertips.

• Keep up-to-date with our Prime Day guitar deals live blog
• Shop all the best Prime Day guitar deals at Amazon

But the value doesn’t stop there. The GE150 packs in a massive 151 effects, covering everything from lush reverbs and delays to wild modulation and dynamic processors. Want even more sonic flexibility? The unit boasts 26 high-quality cabinet simulations and supports MNRS sample files for both the amp and cab modules (GNR and GIR formats). The AMP module offers 20 slots for loading your own sample files, while the CAB module also provides 20 slots for user customization, making the GE150 one of the most versatile pedals in its class.

For those who want instant inspiration, the GE150 includes 200 factory preset tones, so you can plug in and play right out of the box. Whether you’re a bedroom noodler, a gigging musician, or someone looking for a powerful recording tool, the GE150 offers pro-level sounds and features without the pro-level price tag.

In short, the Mooer GE150 is a must-see deal for any guitarist who wants maximum value, versatility, and tone-shaping power. With its impressive feature set and wallet-friendly price, it’s no wonder the GE150 is making waves in the world of guitar effects.

Shop more Prime Day deals

• All the best places to shop at Amazon
• Amazon: All Prime Day guitar deals
• Guitars: Save on beginner guitars
• Pedals: Cheap multi-effects
• Amps: Money off smart amps
• Strings: Stock up on essentials
• Accessories: Capos, slides, straps, and more

• Today's best non-Amazon sales
• B&H Photo: Money off pro audio
• Guitar Center: Save up to 30% on acoustics
• Guitar Tricks: 1 month for $1
• IK Multimedia: 50% off software
• Musician's Friend: Up to 40% off electrics
• Native Instruments: Up to 30% software savings
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of plugin discounts
• Reverb: B-stock deals
• Sweetwater: Big savings on guitar gear
• Universal Audio: Paradise Guitar studio $99
• Waves: Plugins for just $34.99

When it comes to dialing in guitar tones, I’ll be the first to admit I’m a straight shooter. I like straightforward saturated rock tones, minimal fuss, and as few pedals as possible. I’ve rarely been tempted by massive ambiance or shimmer reverb pedals. But after spending time with the Hotone NC-200 Verbera, I have to admit, my thoughts on do-it-all reverb units have been turned upside down - and better yet, it has 20% off this Prime Day!

This is a dual-engine stomp, loaded up with both real-space impulse response (IR) convolution reverbs and Hotone’s own stellar algorithmic sounds. That means you get everything from lush concert halls and subtle plates to wild, otherworldly textures perfect for atmospheric playing. If you’ve ever found yourself paralyzed by too many options or confused by complicated menus, you’ll be relieved to know that the NC-200 makes it all refreshingly simple. Every knob is clearly marked, and the colorful LED rings let you know exactly what you’re adjusting at a glance.

Even with its deep list of features, the NC-200 is one of the most intuitive pedals I’ve ever used. I braced myself for a labyrinth of submenus and cryptic buttons, but instead, I found a layout that made sense from the get-go. Whether you’re at home, in the studio, or on stage, you can get to any sound you want in seconds, with no manual diving required. That’s a rarity in the world of modern effects.

• Keep up-to-date with our Prime Day guitar deals live blog
• Shop all the best Prime Day guitar deals at Amazon

The NC-200 comes loaded with a staggering 100 presets, and impressively, almost all of them are entirely gig-ready. There are, of course, a few settings that didn’t quite hit the mark for me (the spring reverbs aren’t quite as convincing as the rest), but the ambient, hall, and space options are genuinely inspiring.

Of course, no piece of gear is perfect, and the NC-200 does have a minor quirk. Weirdly, the MIDI jacks are in a rather odd spot. I can’t imagine a scenario where their placement wouldn’t be a bit awkward, either in a pedalboard setup or in the studio. They’re a little too easy to bump or accidentally disconnect. Still, that’s a small nitpick in an otherwise stellar package.

If you’ve ever felt intimidated by the idea of modern reverb pedals, or just wanted a unit that can go from classic to experimental without a learning curve, the Hotone NC-200 Verbera is an easy recommendation. And right now, it’s an even easier decision, as you can save 20% at Amazon, bringing the price down to just $239.99. That’s a killer deal for a pedal this loaded with features and inspiring tones.

Curious to hear more? Check out my full Hotone NC-200 Verbera review and see the pedal in action in the Guitar World demo video linked below. If you’re ready to rethink what a reverb pedal can do, this one might just change your mind, too.

Guitar World takes a closer look at what the Hotone Verbera can do

Shop more Prime Day deals

• All the best places to shop at Amazon
• Amazon: All Prime Day guitar deals
• Guitars: Save on beginner guitars
• Pedals: Cheap multi-effects
• Amps: Money off smart amps
• Strings: Stock up on essentials
• Accessories: Capos, slides, straps, and more

• Today's best non-Amazon sales
• B&H Photo: Money off pro audio
• Guitar Center: Save up to 30% on acoustics
• Guitar Tricks: 1 month for $1
• IK Multimedia: 50% off software
• Musician's Friend: Up to 40% off electrics
• Native Instruments: Up to 30% software savings
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of plugin discounts
• Reverb: B-stock deals
• Sweetwater: Big savings on guitar gear
• Universal Audio: Paradise Guitar studio $99
• Waves: Plugins for just $34.99

Let's face it, cheap pedals can be hit and miss. For every diamond in the rough, there are 8 or 9 that should probably be destined for landfill. With the launch of the Amazon Prime Day sale today, there's a myriad of budget stompboxes available at serious discounts, but which should you get?

Before Prime Day guitar deals even started, the Guitar World team bought 8 of the most talked about cheap pedals on Amazon to put them to the test and find out what they're really good for. We've used them with real tube amps, with a modeling amp, and through an audio interface with guitar plugins to see how they hold up.

Tonally, there's some really great stuff here, especially if you're willing to tweak. You can absolutely use them to record and rehearse. Where they typically fall short of more expensive models, however, is in build quality; they're fine for use on a home pedalboard, but I'd stop short of playing them live.

For the money, it's hard to knock these pedals, especially if you're just building a budget second-home board or you want to try some iconic pedal circuits out without committing to spending hundreds of dollars. Of the 8 pedals we tested, 7 have seen discounts, so here's what we thought of each one. We've also ranked them in order of preference.

Now, it's worth noting that Amazon Prime Day is coming to a close, but as we enter the final day, you still have an opportunity to score a real bargain if you're quick! So if you're eyeing any of these stomps, we suggest you don't hang around, as these deals expire at the end of the day.

Want the most up-to-date information? Keep track with our Prime Day guitar deals live blog.

Shop the full Prime Day sale

• Amazon: All Prime Day guitar deals
• Guitars: Save on beginner guitars
• Amps & pedals: Save big on fresh tones
• Accessories: Strings, slides, straps, and more

More retailer sales

• 🇺🇸 Best US sales
• B&H Photo: Money off pro audio
• Guitar Center: Early 4th of July sale
• Guitar Tricks: 1 month for $1
• IK Multimedia: 50% off software coupon
• Musician's Friend: Up to 60% off gear
• Native Instruments: Up to 30% software savings
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of plugin discounts
• Reverb: B-stock deals
• Sweetwater: Big savings on guitar gear
• Universal Audio: Paradise Guitar studio $99
• Waves: Plugins for just $34.99

• 🇬🇧 Best UK sales
• Thomann: Shop the huge Thomann Music Days sale
• Gear 4 Music: Big clearance savings
• GuitarTricks: Half-price annual plan
• Plugin Boutique: Huge software savings
• Waves: Sale on studio staples

What is it?

With so many options, it can be hard to choose an overdrive pedal. For the most part, it comes down to two things - the job you want the pedal to do, and personal preference. The original Little Green Wonder from Finnish brand Mad Professor is an example of a more interesting choice, with its different take on controlling tone courtesy of its unique ‘Body' control.

Since the initial release around 20 years ago, the original version has been discontinued, with that ‘Body' control being replaced by the more ubiquitous Treble and Bass controls on the second iteration, named The Green Wonder.

Now, Mad Professor is bringing the original layout back, including its bougie handwired nature. With it in front of me for review, I am looking forward to seeing what this different take on an EQ control can do.

Specs

• Launch price: $378 | £286 | €330
• Type: Overdrive pedal
• Made: Finland
• Controls: Volume, Gain, Body
• Features: Unique ‘Body’ control EQ, handwired
• Connectivity: ¼” in and out
• Bypass: True
• Power: 9V centre negative, 4mA
• Dimensions: 2.7”x5.3”x2.5”/70x135x65mm
• Weight: 0.9lbs/415g
• Contact: Mad Professor

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

Being a hand-wired pedal, we are paying a hand-wired price, and the Little Green Wonder, with its metal chassis, boasts the near-indestructible feel we can expect when spending this sort of money.

It’s an impression that continues with the knobs and footswitch pushing back in a way that makes them feel premium and reassuring in use, and a bright power LED settled in a metal bevel completes the feeling of industrial strength.

The artwork here is more intricate than the less expensive factory version, and in my opinion, the art deco approach just looks better and, yes, more premium as a result.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

With only three controls and without no screens or menus to worry about, there is no need for a manual here.

A ¼” in and out is as you would expect, and the standard 9V power input that will suit any pedalboard power supply. It can take up to 18V, but Mad Professor recommends we stick to the noted 9V for best results. Still, it’s handy to have this range to avoid any accidents with mixing up voltages.

To state the obvious, the Volume control makes things louder, and the Gain control adds more drive. Less obvious is the Body control. Fully left adds more bass and low mids with a slight treble boost, and fully right reduces bass with more mid focus.

We’ll get into the minutiae of the sounds later, but the result is a control that is, oddly, darkest in the middle and different types of bright at the extremes. In other words, not your usual tone control, or the low-end control that most people would associate with the term.

Whilst this might take a beat or two to figure out, it is still a simple pedal that requires only minimal brain power to get the head around and dial in on the fly.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Now, as a drive pedal with green in its name and finish, most are going to, fairly, assume that the Little Green Wonder is a take on a Tube Screamer.

The gain range is similar, as it goes from light breakup to a relatively driven overdrive. But the increased headroom and Body Control are where things differ quite drastically from a classic TS-type pedal.

With the Body control set straight up the middle, the tone has a TS-style mid hump, but without the smooth feel of a Screamer. This is my least favorite setting, as it sounds a little lacking in high-end life to me.

Turn left, and some high-end gets added back in while the bass response is retained, resulting in a pleasing, relatively full-range type of drive, quite far removed from the TS thing, and perfect for edge of breakup tones or classic rock rhythms when the Gain is pushed.

Turn right, and some more high mid is added (at a higher mid-frequency than a screamer), and the low end is slightly reduced, which means a cutting type of drive that will get you heard in the mix whilst still being pleasant to listen to on its own.

This setting is well-suited to pushing another drive pedal or driven amp into saturation, helped along by a huge amount of output available on the Volume control.

This all ends up in a unique-sounding drive pedal that can work well as a standalone crunchy rhythm or driven lead, or as a boost for a driven amp and other pedals. It is not transparent like a Bluesbreaker, for example, but has a mid hump that is not as forward as a TS-type pedal. A pretty great middle ground.

Verdict

The result of all this is versatility. It can do Tube Screamery things, but the highlights are within the Little Green Wonder’s ability to provide a range of boost and overdrive tones, creating a drive pedal that will fit most pedalboards or guitars. A handy little device.

Guitar World verdict: Ignore the connotations of its green color and title. This is an impressive drive/boost pedal with the unique Body control being the crux of its versatility. It can provide a relatively full-range drive, or a mid-humped lead as a boost or a standalone pedal. Something that could find a home in many a setup.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Mike Hermans

Mad Professor

What is it?

Strymon made its name on the back of its formidable skills in digital guitar effects design, reverb pedals the likes of which we had never seen nor heard before, great, multi-modal delay pedals like the TimeLine that come packed with all kinds of sounds.

Its DSP architecture puts studio-quality sounds on your pedalboard – sounds ranging from the quotidian essentials to the avant-garde. There is MIDI connectivity, presets, functions out of the wazoo.

The Canoga is not that. It’s something completely different; an analog fuzz pedal inspired by a vintage Fuzz Face. Just two knobs and the truth, ma’am. And it wasn’t even designed to be launched as an actual project.

That’s the thing about stompbox designers like Strymon CEO and analog engineer Gregg Stock; they just like making stuff. The Canoga was initially a fuzz box that was made to complement the UltraViolet Vintage Vibe, something suitably Jimi Hendrix to get the most out of this digital Uni-Vibe-inspired modulation for the demo videos. They even made a rudimentary, unbranded enclosure for it. And it sat around gathering dust.

In the interim, Strymon underwent a revolution of sorts. It went analog, unveiling the Series A in December 2025 with the launch of the Fairfax Class A Output Stage Drive. It was a taste of things to come. Strymon, as it turned out, had a heart that beats for all things old-school and analog, too, such as the Garnet Amplifiers Herzog device that inspired the Fairfax, and the Arbiter Fuzz Face that inspired the Canoga.

This two-knob silicon fuzz does not reinvent the wheel-shaped original. But, says Strymon, it might just prove to be more than the sum of its parts. The Canoga is a simple pedal but it is designed to perform both as a fuzz, and a drive-come-distortion when you roll the volume back on your electric guitar.

Specs

• Launch price: $199 | £199 | €263
• Type: Fuzz pedal
• Controls: Drive, Level
• Features: Silicon analogue fuzz circuit, internal jumpers for switchable power-up state (bypassed or engaged)
• Connectivity: 1/4" input/output, DC centre-negative power input
• Bypass: True
• Power: 9V DC (min. 50mA)
• Dimensions: 4.53” (D) x 2.83” (W) x 2.33” (H)
• Weight: 270gm
• Contact: Strymon

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

Like the Fairfax, the Canoga arrives in an unfussy boxy but compact enclosure that will appeal to players who baulk at any pedal that requires consultation with the manual. It has a silent soft-touch footswitch, a pair of amp-style knobs for Drive and Level that sit on a raised black plastic panel.

As with all the pedals that come out of Strymon’s US facility, the build is impeccable. There is no battery power here. Feed it 9V DC from your pedalboard power supply and it’s good to go. All of your connections on the top of the pedal. It’s a simple affair but you can unscrew the base plate to change how the pedal powers up.

By default, it will power up in bypass mode, but there are a pair of internal jumpers that allow you to set it to power up as engaged, which may be useful depending if you have this in a rack setup. The orange LED lets you know when it’s on.

The Canoga has the feel of one of those super-rugged pedals you throw on your 'board, tape it down, and never have to worry about it again. There's no buffer. Stick it on the front end of your signal chain and have at it.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

Sure, the switchable power-up modes speaks to the stereotypical Strymon user – those of the multi-level pedalboards, loop switches, electric toothbrushes and Soundbrenner wearables... Y'know, the tech-literate and ready to mingle. But the Canoga is a time machine pedal. It is Woodstock ’69, not Coachella 2026, and there is something to be said for that.

It’s not about presenting players with all mod cons. We can have too many features. There is none of the post-modern fuzz accoutrements here, no selectable modes, no blend knob or bias control. There isn’t even a tone control. It is old school.

Adjust the Drive and Level, and use the volume control on your guitar to roll off the gain. The Canoga’s simplicity, its presentation of a vintage Fuzz Face in the hear and now, is what we’re here for.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

This is one of those occasions where the instinct to dime a fuzz pedal’s controls and work back makes sense. Strymon has designed this to be one of those fuzzboxes you set up on the floor but control with your guitar’s volume knob – or indeed with how hard you hit the strings.

Unity gain was a little surprising. With my ‘50s Telecaster into a clean tube amp, it came around two o’clock on the Level control but there is a whopping amount of output gain beyond that. The Canoga can hit your amp hard.

But just like a shot of tequila as your first drink of the night can be a bit much, the Canoga is best introduced when you’ve already got a little bit of breakup on the amp – that’s where it sounds the sweetest. And it really does sound sweet, teasing out that harmonic content, adding a bit of sparkle and bloom to your chords, giving single notes the juice they need to hang in the air a bit more.

Strymon is as good as its word here; the Canoga cleans up beautifully. Starting from our all-guns-blazing position of both dials maxed out, there’s all the bestial woof you could want – especially when switching to a Jackson loaded with a Bare Knuckle Holy Diver humbucker, but notably also with both Tele pickups engaged in series, whereupon it came good for all those hairy Kyuss-style stoner tones.

Rolling back the volume brings us to almost clean but with the Canoga just heating everything up. This is where your Hendrix-style triads might take flight. Who needs a blend control when a pedal sounds this good?

Sadly, I didn’t have a Uni-Vibe to hand, but the disorientating throb from the CE-1 vibrato mode on my Boss Waza Craft CE-2 Chorus pedal was surely lysergic enough to give some acid casualties a mean flashback to Monterey; burning Stratocasters, all that mojo. Just add some tape echo and you might open up a new dimension (or set off the smoke alarm). Hmm, maybe it was just as well there was no Uni-Vibe.

Stick it on your ‘board and you’ll surely open up pathways to all kinds of sounds. There is the countrified scratch of its low-gain drive-stortion voicing. There is chewy Gary Moore blues-rock.

Just as the original fuzz pedals were deployed for quasi-horn tones, you can dime this, noodle on the upper registers on the neck pickup and the guitar transcends its anatomy as a stringed instrument.

Which is all to say that the Canoga is a great-sounding vintage-voiced fuzz, and that can be a much more versatile pedal than you might think, especially if you are comfortable working your volume pot during a show.

Verdict

Fuzz pedal design has moved on since Hendrix et al tread the boards, for good and for ill.

There will be some players who, quite reasonably, might baulk at paying 200 bucks for a Fuzz Face clone in 2026. Some of them might want a more modern voicing. Others might simple want more stuff going on. These days, we are used to options. There will be those who want more control over their tone on the pedal. Again, not unreasonably.

But the Canoga makes no promises on that score. It invites you to turn it up and search for the sweet spots via your instrument, or your amp, and how the Canoga interacts with that and other pedals further down the signal chain.

From the full-bore fuzz, to those in between tones that could pass for console grit or dirt from some unbranded vintage drive pedal you found at a pawnshop, the sounds are stellar.

And the simplicity lets you concentrate on doing the playing instead of worrying how the pedal is setup. Sometimes you realise that’s what you've been looking for – what you have needed – all along.

Guitar World verdict: Who would have thought in 2016 that the best Fuzz Face-inspired pedal of 2026 so far would have come from Strymon? But the digital powerhouse has proved it has the appetite for adventures in analog, with the Canoga presenting as an old-school fuzz that can be equally effective as an all-purposes dirt pedal.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Strymon

Perry Frank

Pete "Danish Pete" Honore

• “This is a powerhouse of a stompbox that manages to keep things simple while offering endless inspiration”: Strymon EC-1 Single Head dTape Echo pedal review

Swiss firm Ebbe Design has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a new modular pedalboard design that ditches velcro in favor of magnets for cleaner, more flexible setups. And it’s gone to extreme lengths to show how well it works.

Set up by two Swiss industrial designers and first conceptualized in 2024, Ebbe Design’s modular pedalboard looks like a bold step forward for pedalboard design.

The idea is simple but manyfold: metal boards piece together like Lego, so players can customize their 'board size, with pedals fastening via ultra-strong magnetic plates attached to the bottom of the pedals.

There’s a 5mm gap for patch cables to run underneath each pedal, space for a power supply underneath, and each pedalboard comes supplied with magnetic clips to make cable management on the underside a dream. Its feet are also height-adjustable.

To show how strong the magnets are, the firm took one of its 'boards to the Pendenta Bridge in Graubünden, Switzerland, which is 270m long and nearly 100m above the Rhine river.

There, the pedalboard, which features a Boss OC-2 octaver and an expression pedal, was given the ultimate litmus test.

“To show you how much we trust this product, we’re gonna throw it off this bridge,” he says before gleefully tossing the pedalboard – which was attached to a bungee rope – over the edge

Every single pedal held steadfast as the bungee cable jerked back skywards and beyond. It’s one hell of a demo.

What makes this really cool is the level of attention to detail Ebbe Design has shown. The magnets, vitally, have been designed through an exhaustive process to ensure they don’t interfere with audio signals, while the cable routing looks intuitive and sufficient to satisfy even the freakiest of neat freaks.

Plates featuring the magnets attach to the bottom of pedals with adhesive, but are easily removable thanks to pull strips, which are said to leave no damage or residue behind, helping remedy an age-old issue with velcro and other adhesives. Also, the fact the boards can effortlessly be made bigger or smaller means that customizing a rig for each gig is a doddle.

Kickstarter pledges start at €235 (approv $270/£204). That tier includes a one-row board set up (44.8 cm x 17.6 cm), which can house up to five pedals, a host of plates and cable clips, and an equally modular soft case.

That means it can grow and shrink in tandem with your board. It’s made from ballistic nylon, a heavy-duty fabric, too, so it can take a beating. But only throw it off a bridge if it's attached to a bungee.

See Kickstarter for more.

What is it?

Be it overdrive, distortion or fuzz, pedals of a certain nature fall into the catch-all category of ‘dirt’ pedals, and The Joker, the latest offering from Flattley, is certainly of that ilk – it even says so on the front panel! What you have here is a pedal with two toggle-switched modes, the aforementioned Dirt and, to take things a stage further, Filth.

Flattley tells us the pedal was inspired by a simple question: what happens if you add controlled distortion to a normally clean booster? And to that end, the designers developed a pedal with a FET-based 12AX7 valve simulation with the aim of achieving a similar sound to an overdriven single-valve amp.

However, this pedal takes it a stage further by adding the Filth mode for more gain and distortion.

Specs

• Price: £259
• Type: Overdrive pedal
• Origin: UK
• Controls: Volume, Gain, Tone, Dirt/Filth switch, Bypass footswitch
• Features: True bypass
• Power: 9V DC adaptor (not supplied) 50mA
• Contact: Flattley Guitar Pedals

Build quality, usability and sounds

In Dirt mode with the pedal’s Gain knob at minimum, the Volume knob (starting from silence) hits unity gain at around 11 o’clock, so anything beyond that will give you a boost – not squeaky clean but with a touch of grit to it and coloured by whatever you have dialled in on the tone knob.

To our ears, that knob is at its most neutral at minimum position, but advancing it starts rolling off bottom-end, and from the midpoint onwards there’s increasing top-end emphasis, heading right into classic treble-boost territory towards its end point. All good stuff for hitting the front-end of your amp in exactly the right way or pushing another dirt pedal.

When you start advancing the Gain knob there’s plenty of those ‘just beyond clean’ tones to explore as you move through low-level break-up and into the more crunchy arena with the flavour of a small valve amp that’s being driven hard. It’s all very playable with fully exploitable dynamic response, pulling back from the dirt to cleaner tone with a softer touch.

Switching to Filth mode, the starting point is somewhere towards the upper end of Dirt mode, so there’s some crossover between the two, but Filth moves very naturally from that crunch into a more compressed, gainier (but not overly saturated) version of it.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★☆

Guitar World verdict: A practical range of gain, from clean-ish through to raunch, combined with a Tone knob that focuses it to push the right buttons, make The Joker a versatile boost/drive asset for your signal chain.

Hands-on videos

R.J. Ronquillo

Flattley

• “Arguably the most practical single pedal you can put in front of an amp”: Flattley The Outlaw review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

Guitar tuner pedals are never going to be the most exciting pedalboard-based purchase, but they are essential, and the Fender Strobo-Sonic Pro Tuner Pedal wants to steal your attention. It arrives at an interesting moment for the company, but boardroom antics and internet discourse aside, it’s my job to look at the gear objectively. Ignoring the logo on the box, is this tuner pedal able to compete in a part of the market with some already very established names? Let’s find out.

The Strobo-Sonic promises a tuning accuracy of just 0.01 cents, which, on paper, is better than the TC Electronic PolyTune, the legendary Boss TU-3, and even the benchmark for accurate tuning, the Peterson StroboStomp HD. Like other competitors in the Walrus Audio Canvas Tuner and TC PolyTune, the Strobo-Sonic features dual modes, so you can use it in a combo strobe/needle mode, or in the more familiar needle mode.

The large, 2.3 x 2.1” screen is second only to the Walrus Audio Canvas tuner, providing plentiful real estate to view the notes you’re aiming for. It also has an auto dim function that adapts to the ambient light condition, getting less blinding when you’re on stage in the dark versus a brighter mode when playing in daylight.

It also has a switchable buffer. You can run it in true bypass, buffered bypass, or an always-on mode, which is what you’ll find with the Peterson, Canvas Tuner, and TC PolyTune. In the always-on mode, the footswitch acts as a mute button, but the tuner is always active, so you can see which note you’re on whilst playing.

The Strobo-Sonic Pro can be powered via a traditional pedalboard power supply, drawing 9V 180mA. You can also run it with a USB-C connection if you’ve got a modern PSU that features a USB-C port.

Specs

• Launch price: $129.99 | £99 | €102
• Type: Tuner pedal
• Controls: Footswitch, bypass switch, mode button
• Features: Auto dim display, strobe mode, needle mode, always on mode, bypass switching
• Connectivity: 1 x 1/4" (instrument), 1 x 1/4" (main out), 1 x USB-C
• Bypass: Buffered, true bypass, buffered always on
• Power: 9V DC, 180mA, USB-C 5V
• Dimensions: 4.53 x 2.57 x 1.73" (115 x 65.3 x 44mm)
• Weight: 0.5 lbs, 0.22 kg
• Options: N/A
• Contact: Fender

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Pulling the Strobo-Sonic tuner out of its box, it’s a pretty unassuming bit of kit. The all-black fascia is very toned down, with just the silver footswitch, retro-gaming inspired white logo, and the classic Fender ‘spaghetti’ logo. It’s very lightweight at 0.5 lbs, weighing no more than a smartphone in the palm of my hand.

It’s got a very low profile in terms of height too, with a 1.73” (44mm) thickness. The footswitch sticks out a good amount and features a modern, quiet-click operation that doesn’t have the loud ‘clack’ of older pedals. It has a nice balance of easy press and feel, so you know you’ve engaged it, and sticks out enough from the chassis that it’s easy enough to hit from a variety of angles.

On top of the unit are two 1/4-inch jacks, and nestled in between the 9V DC power input. All are marked with bold white text so there’s no doubting what does what. This theme continues on the right-hand side of the unit, with a bypass switch, tuning mode switch, and the USC- port nestled here. The bypass switch moves solidly if unspectacularly, and there’s a nice click to the small, circular mode button when you engage it.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

Plugging the Fender Strobo-Sonic at the front of a pedalboard of cheap pedals I’m testing at the moment, the display lights up dimly, showing the reference pitch before going to black. Plugging in a Baum Core Verve electric guitar into the front of it, I engage the footswitch, and I’m greeted with the pedal in dual strobe-and-needle mode.

The strobe portion of the tuner display consists of blocks of LED dots that drift left or right across the screen, depending on the string's pitch. If drifting to the left, it’s flat; if drifting to the right, the note is sharp. The aim is to get the blocks to stop moving, which signals that your guitar is perfectly in tune. Strobe tuning allows you to be more accurate than a needle tuner, because it’s an overlay of the exact pitch of your string. It means even if you’re out by 0.03 cents, the blocks will still move ever so slightly.

Above and below the blocks that drift across the screen is the more familiar needle tuner. This works like the tuners most of us know, turning blue when flat or sharp and going green when it reaches the center of the screen, indicating the pitch is correct. Needle tuners have some guesswork in them, however, because this kind of tuner is constantly sampling your note and doing a little smoothing to make it readable for the human eye.

Having the option for both makes the Strobo-Sonic Pro incredibly useful. Use the needle for quick check-ups in between songs, but you have that strobe accuracy for recording sessions or set-up work, allowing you to get as close to perfect intonation as possible. Interestingly, there’s no strobe mode on its own as you’d get with a Peterson tuner, so your options are either traditional needle on its own, or both strobe and needle together.

The display itself is fantastic, super bright, and readable from any angle. I used the tuner both in my home studio and in a dingy rehearsal room, and had zero issues reading it from any angle. I didn’t really notice the auto-dim function, which is probably a good thing, and although I didn’t try it in bright sunlight, I don’t have any qualms about the readability of it.

Another plus is having the switchable bypass modes on a physical switch. These are often hidden inside the pedal or inside menus, so the ability to change at will is a nice feature. There’s a very slight sonic difference between the true and buffered modes. I can definitely sense a little less high-end on the true bypass mode, as the signal is running through a decent amount of guitar cable and several patch cables.

It’s not going to make a huge difference overall to your tone, but having the switch on the outside makes it very easy to check exactly what effect it’s having when you're rigging it up with a bunch of other pedals.

Verdict

My overall experience with the Fender Strobo-Sonic was a good one, and I think it has enough features to compete with the more established names like Boss, Peterson, and TC Electronic. I love the dual strobe/needle tuner mode, which combines super accuracy with quick convenience, and the price feels right for what it is, especially as strobe tuners, like those from Peterson, are generally a little pricier.

It’s a shame then that it doesn’t have some of the other quality of life options found on other tuner pedals, like an additional power out or the ability to be run on a 9V battery. I also think the side-mounted USB-C isn’t the best placement for powering the pedal, particularly if it’s going onto a tightly packed pedalboard.

Guitar World verdict: While admittedly difficult to get excited about, the Fender Strobo-Sonic Pro Tuner Pedal does its single job extremely well. It’s sensitive enough to cater to those who demand the utmost accuracy, while remaining simple enough to use that the gigging player will appreciate it. The switchable bypass and multiple tuning modes mean it will slot nicely into any pedalboard.

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Alex Lifeson’s Rush reunion pedalboard and live rig has been revealed, and it confirms that there are no tube amps on the Fifty Something tour.

The Canadian virtuoso had recently revealed to Rick Beato that his signature IK Multimedia TONEX pedal was to play a key role in his new live rig as he looks to recreate classic Rush tones throughout the set. Now we know exactly how he's doing that thanks to an Instagram post from his gear brand, Lerxst.

In Rush’s later years, Lifeson had ditched tube amps for a Fractal Axe-Fx amp modeler. However, the traditional modeler route, Lifeson told Beato, usually used the same cluster of tones shared between dedicated hot, dirty, and clean channels.

So, to see him doubling down and expanding his use of digital gear isn’t a surprise. The beating heart of Lifeson's new rig is his signature IK Multimedia TONEX pedal, which has captured some of his most prized amps and tones from across his career. Beyond that, he’s got a few other tricks up his sleeve.

Joining the 12-foot-strong Fractal FC-12 foot controller and his TONEX pedal is a Tech 21 wah pedal, a Paul Cochrane Timmy overdrive, and a TC Electronic Ditto X2 looper.

Rounding out the bunch is the Morley x Lerxst ATWAS, a wah-and-volume pedal in one. While its successor, the Blah Blah, was released in 2024, Lifeson is staying true to the two-trick pedal. It got used right off the bat, too, with – spoilers ahead – Lifeson and Geddy Lee donning double-neck guitars for their epic set opener, Xanadu, on opening night.

The ATWAS is likely being employed as a volume pedal here, with the Tech 21 catering to all of Lifeson’s wah-y needs.

Lifeson has been busy with Lerxst releases in the years between Rush’s apparent farewell 11 years ago and their triumphant comeback with Anika Nilles and Loren Gold. The firm has dropped the Limelight S-style guitar, a reimagining of his iconic Hentor Sportcaster; a pre-wired Limelight pickguard; CHI head and 1x12 cab; and the By-Tor drive and boost pedal, among others.

It’s perhaps a surprise, then, that only one piece of Lerxst-branded gear has made it onto his latest pedalboard, but it’s a high-powered ‘board all the same, and his guitar tones have been getting rave reviews so far.

In related news, Gibson Custom Shop Greeny has also made its way into his live rig, while Epiphone – its finger firmly on the pulse – has now reissued Lifeson’s ES-355.

Guitarist–meets-businessman-meets-pedal-wizard Mike Matthews’ company Electro-Harmonix is, undisputedly, one of the earliest pioneers of guitar pedals – converting the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, and Jimmy Page – into loyal fans. However, the company has faced its fair share of hardships and pivots to survive – and thrive – in 2026.

The ’70s were a particularly fruitful period for the company. After starting with just $1,000, a scrappy attitude, and a knack for innovation in 1968, EHX was grossing $5 million annually by 1978 and had offices in New York, Toronto, London, and Tokyo.

However, great success and great hardship can go hand in hand.

After a series of business decisions – coupled with an aggressive campaign by a trade union in New York that targeted EHX’s 200-something employees – caused one of the company’s potential lenders to pull its funds, Matthews was forced to file for bankruptcy. Even more heartbreaking, he had to sell the Electro-Harmonix trademark.

“I went bankrupt in ’82. I still tried to hang in there,” he recounts in an interview on The Zak Kuhn Show.

“Finally, the doors were shut. We brought in the generator to just keep the power on. I had loyal people that worked with me. But finally, in ’84, I was completely bankrupt, and it was very devastating, depressing.”

Matthews was forced to do a complete 180. His new plan and target market? The Soviet Union.

“I got involved with vacuum tubes because I was going to the Ministry of Electronics. Everything in Russia was centrally controlled,” he explains.

“In the ’70s, [I] was doing some business with communist countries, like with Hungary, which was communist-controlled. They came to my booth in Frankfurt and wanted to order about $1,000 worth of pedals. They picked out some stuff. I went back to them. I said, ‘Look, instead of ordering this and this and this, order this, because they'll sell better.’ And they said, ‘Okay, we'll take your advice.’”

“So the next year they came back and gave me a $2,000 order, and they said, ‘Mike, you pick out what we should buy.’”

Eventually, Matthews built enough rapport with the Eastern Bloc to secure an invitation to exhibit at the first consumer trade show open to Western countries.

“I jumped on it, and I got carried away. I took a whole band, and I took a guy to set things up… we would go on three times a day.”

This first introduction to the Soviet Union led Matthews down a path that would not only save the company but also secure its future – all under his new brand name, Sovtek.

“I got involved with the vacuum tubes. When we were in Russia, everybody wanted to buy our stuff, but they had no money. So I started thinking, well, ‘What can I buy from Russia, so they'll have money?’”

He continues, “At first, I was thinking of integrated circuits… so I went over to the Ministry of Electronics there… I saw, hanging on the wall, vacuum tubes. That's how I got into vacuum tubes.”

As the Cold War came to an end and the Soviet Union collapsed, another phenomenon was brewing in the guitar world.

“In the ’70s, we built tens of thousands of different pedals… the thing that puzzled me was that pedals that were built in the ’70s were selling for more than what they used to sell for when we had built thousands,” Matthews adds.

“This new vintage market developed, and so initially I started making them [the pedals] in Russia, because Russia collapsed, and they were desperately looking for work to survive.

“I hooked up with a very small military factory in St. Petersburg. They started making these pedals. That's how they came out with the first Electro-Harmonix pedals made in Russia.”

This Russian side quest eventually led to a full EHX comeback – and Matthews even managed to get the trademark back and restart Stateside operations.

The EHX founder's business learnings continue to guide him to this day – right down to his favorite pedal. “[It's] whatever sells, because I mean, it's a business. If I'm not focusing on business, I can't make more money, and if I can't make more money, I can't get more designers to design more products, especially in digital.”

In an exclusive Guitar World interview, Matthews looked back on the brand’s groundbreaking Hall of Science – a veritable candy store for audio pioneers that predated the likes of the Gibson Garage and Fender flagship stores by decades.

Fender has launched a new update for its flagship amp modeler, the Tone Master Pro, delivering a whopping 15 new effects and a assortment of fresh amps and cabs to boot.

The update – v1.8.45 – finds Fender leveraging its exclusive EVH brand endorsement, adding a 50-watt 5150 III combo to its roster. Three different models, covering their Green (clean), Blue (crunch), and Red (high-gain) tones, are included.

The rest of the amps are all from the Fender stock, with a ’57 Champ and ‘65 Twin Custom 15 offering some vintage loveliness, while two models from 1968 – a Deluxe Reverb and a Princeton Reverb – make their Tone Master Pro debuts. For bass players, a Rumble 800 adds another tone-sculpting option.

The eight new cabs strike a balance between matching the new heads and filling the void left by the above combos. The new cabs include a 1x8 ’57 Champ, 1x10 ’65 Princeton GB, 1x10 ’68 Princeton, 1x12 ’65 Deluxe GB, 1x12 ’68 Deluxe, 1x15 Twin Custom, 1x12 EVH 5150 G12H, and 4x12 British G12H.

But the real fun can be found in the effects department. Highlights included the Rockbox 100, which is Fender’s take on the Scholz R&D Rockman X100 headphone amp; the Grunt, designed for modern metal tones a la the Fortin Grind; and the Lightyear, a take on the Greer Lightspeed overdrive.

Two EarthQuaker Devices pedals, the Plumes overdrive and Blumes bass overdrive, are represented by the Pinions and Runes. At the same time, the Integrator Boost draws inspiration from the TC Electronic Integrated Preamp. Finally, the Seventy Sixer Compressor is a much-welcome impression of the Universal Audio 1176.

But there are Fender original effects to play with, too, including a Step Tremolo, Prismatic Delay, Spectral Reverb, and a Pitch Sequencer, which could be a whole world of fun.

Aside from those new toys, Fender has introduced a few handy quality-of-life tweaks in the update. A second page of footswitch button assignments, bumping the total up to 16 available footswitches per preset, is most welcome, and players can now switch between needle-mode tuning and strobe tuning.

The looper is also said to be improved so you can Ed Sheeran your heart out.

With fierce competition in the modeler world growing, every update helps Fender keep apace with its rivals and maintain its position alongside those at the very top of the table.

See Fender for more information about the update and how to download and install it.

In related news, Fender appears to have also scored a major victory by convincing Joe Bonamassa to test-drive a Tone Master modeling amp.

JHS Pedals is commemorating what firm founder Josh Scott has called “the biggest mistake of my career” by releasing the Fumble – an $89 boost based on an ultra-rare Dumble circuit.

The affordable standalone unit comes amidst overwhelming fan demand, after the clean boost circuit was mistakenly put in the V1 Notadümblë pedal last year.

As Scott explained at the time, the Notadümblë was meant to include the clean-boosting magic of John Mayer’s one-of-one A Box Later pedal, which was custom-built by the late Howard Dumble and later cloned by Scott.

Then, Scott realized he had made a huge mistake and, in a schematics mix-up, had actually used Mayer’s even-rarer preamp buffer, the Dumble BBC-1, instead.

Consequently, the Notadümblë was discontinued after the first batch – all of which contained the incorrect circuit – sold like hot cakes.

Moving forward, this is the only place the BBC-1 circuit will live, and the small, affordable pedal is as simple as it gets. With dials for its Input and Output, and true-bypass switching, the faithful recreation promises “enhanced clean tones.”

But while the Output is for your Master Volume, the Input isn’t actually a gain knob; it attenuates bass and input gain simultaneously at the front of the circuit. Rolling it off gives a thinner, tighter response. Doing the opposite makes it fuller and louder.

It can be used as a clean boost at the front of pedalboards, or to slam the front of overdrive pedals and dirty amps. Yet this pedal’s story has one more surprise up its sleeve.

While “digging through” the original unit’s history, JHS realized, “The BBC-1 isn’t really a Dumble circuit at all. It’s a JFET preamp lifted almost part-for-part from a Barcus Berry acoustic preamp made in the 1970s – the kind of small utility box that bridged piezo pickups into electric guitar amps in an era when nobody had a modern acoustic preamp.”

Howard Dumble had cloned the circuit and built a few pedals for LA-based players. JHS Pedals adds that “he then used the same JFET stage inside his amplifiers and called it the FET mode.

“Which means the legendary Dumble FET sound is a clone of a 1970s piezo preamp,” the company says.

So, the JHS Fumble is a clone of a clone of a clone, which once accidentally masqueraded as a different clone altogether. Anyone else's head hurting?

Scott has now revealed that the Notadümblë Mark II is on its way – presumably with the right Dumble inside it. But for those that want JHS’s Dumble BBC-1 recreation on its own, the Fumble is not to be, er, fumbled.

“I’m excited to commemorate my own failures,” says Scott.

Get one for just $89 from JHS.

Elsewhere, Scott has raised concerns that ChatGPT is erasing pedal history after an experiment with the AI platform.

The octave pedal (or ‘octaver’) is a mainstay of today’s bass pedalboards. It might not always be on, but many players will use theirs far more than you might expect. If you haven’t used one before, you should definitely give it a try; it might be exactly what your rig has been missing.

In brief, an octaver creates a replica of your instrument’s signal and pitch-shifts it down (or up) an octave, with this pitch-shifted signal heard alongside your original note. The effect is of two separate instruments playing the same note, an octave apart. For bass, the most commonly used setting is an octave below the normal signal – we’re talking about seriously low notes.

You’ll often hear (and feel) them at points when the bass needs to provide extra ‘oomph’ – think of a big chorus or the middle-8 of a pop or rock song. Many other songs and sections have had the sound as more of a feature in its own right.

Once upon a time, the octaver was a purely analogue device, but today’s market is quite diverse – there are probably more digital than analog models now, and these offer a wider range of sounds and capabilities. The major benefits are increased adjustability, and better pitch tracking – how quickly the pedal produces a reliable octave signal. Most current digital octavers will also boast ‘polyphonic’ settings, which means that they are designed to track multiple notes at once.

This is a short-list of some of the best octave pedals for bass in the current market, but it’s certainly not exhaustive – there are lots of great octavers out there, and there are many that could easily have ended up in this guide.

To kick things off, I've gone for the classic Boss OC-5 as my number one pick. It boasts the usual Boss build quality and is a mainstay of many bassist's pedalboards thanks to its top tier performance.

Below, you'll find more standout octave pedals for bass, alongside practical information and a FAQ section which should answer more of your questions.

For the guitarists out there, we have a dedicated best octave pedals guide for six-string players.

Best overall

The original OC-2 is octave pedal royalty, and Boss knows it. The famous brown box was launched in 1982 and is still a reference tone for a huge number of bassists seeking their own perfect octave sound.

The vintage pedal is specifically referred to in the product blurb for the OC-5, whose Vintage mode is intended to give a ‘spot-on recreation’ of those sounds. But there’s also plenty of emphasis given to everything else this modern, high-powered version can do. For the first time, it boasts an octave-up setting as well as down, and the newly-enhanced Poly mode tracks multiple notes at once – with a setting even allowing the octave to be isolated to the lowest note in a chord. A Direct Out jack allows the dry and wet signals to be sent to separate destinations, for blended sounds.

There are several reasons I've selected the OC-5 as the best overall – its feature set and price-to-performance ratio is superb, it sounds great and tracks superbly, and being a Boss compact pedal, it’s housed in a legendarily durable, practical and space-efficient enclosure. In many ways, it’s the obvious choice – but that’s not to say you shouldn’t also consider some of of the alternatives I've picked out below.

Best budget

TC's compact TonePrint form-factor is a bit of an institution in the pedal world at this point, having given us such classics as the Flashback delay and Hall of Fame reverb. The Sub n’ Up stuffs an awful lot of octave goodness into the format, offering (as the name suggests) both octave-down and octave-up sounds, with polyphonic capabilities too.

This is another pedal that’s equally pitched (no pun intended) at guitarists and bassists – but its digital engine is advanced enough that, even in the bass register, tracking is superb. And then, of course, there's the TonePrint feature. If you’ve used other TC pedals in the range, you’ll already know how impressive this is. You can load in external, often artist-developed settings, and the Sub n’ Up can take on amazing, synth-like modulated sounds, or a simple, perfectly dialled-in vintage octave tone, or anything in between. There’s a deep-editing facility for tweaking your own settings, too.

With all this considered, the Sub n’ Up punches well above its relatively small price tag (around $119 or £80). You can, of course, go cheaper still if you want – but why bother, when a pedal of this capability is available for this price.

Best for beginners

This is far from MXR's first octave pedal. Their history with the effect is longer than most – going all the way back to the barely-usable, robotic fart generator that was the Blue Box of the mid-1970s. In fact, the Bass Octave Deluxe is far from the only octave pedal in the company's current line-up, too – but it's the one to go for, especially if you value simplicity and usability without the learning curve that some other octavers can present.

This is an all-analog circuit, excelling at fat, chunky retro sounds, and the controls are easy to get to grips with. The two tone controls are ‘Girth’ and ‘Growl’, for the octave signal’s low-end and midrange respectively – in other words, they do what they say on the tin.

Of course, it offers a dry level control for the all-important signal blend and, finally, there’s a button labelled ‘Mid +’ – no prizes for guessing that this is a midrange boost, letting the MXR slam its way through a dense mix with a serious push at either 400Hz or 800Hz (adjustable internally).

Overall, it’s not over-burdened with complex controls, and it’s intuitive to dial in. It won’t take long to get the Bass Octave Deluxe to sound great.

Best value

Laney’s amps have accumulated generations of fans, but their Black Country Customs effects range is a newer phenomenon. There’s been a steady stream of very interesting circuits, however, and in a solid, compact MXR-sized enclosure with British build – at pretty sensible prices to boot. This, The 85, is the company’s take on the octave pedal, and has clearly had the same level of thoughtful design put into it.

The 85 always provides a sub-octave sound as the foundation of its tone, with its own separate volume control. There’s more, though – a central mini-switch controls the pitch of the second added interval in the signal. Two octaves down, one octave up or, interestingly, a 5th up.

One presumes, then, that the ‘8’ in the pedal’s name is for octave, and the ‘5’ is for that 5th-up setting, which will make for instant power chords on every note you play. It's probably not a setting you'll use all the time (unless you're in a Blink 182 covers band), but it certainly has a lot of potential as a writing tool, and nothing else on this list short of the larger, more expensive Bass Whammy offers the option.

They don’t get quite the same attention as the biggest hitters in the market, but don’t sleep on Laney’s BCC pedals.

Best premium

The Kaamos is the fruit of a collaboration between Darkglass and top-level session bassist Amos Heller – ‘fruit’ being the key word, owing to its punningly-named octave modes. ‘Sublime’, ‘Sublemon’ and ‘Subcitri’ offer three different voices, the latter being a polyphonic setting. Then, as befits a Darkglass product, we find a growling distortion circuit plucked directly from the well-liked Alpha Omicron drive pedal.

The octave can be set in series or parallel with the dry signal. The Kaamos even includes a built-in effects loop which can be shifted to different stages in the pedal’s circuit to allow for optimal positioning of different effects. Serious technical wizardry, then, but it’d be pointless if it didn’t deliver the sonic goods.

This is a Darkglass, though, so of course it does. All three modes have fantastic, defined and characterful sounds on tap, and there’s so much control over the octave signal that it’s practically impossible not to find the sound you’re after.

A serious investment but, in a slightly perverse way, one could look at the Kaamos as a value proposition. Overdrive and octave are two staples of most bass pedalboards, and here we find both in one reasonably-sized box. Add to that Darkglass's unfailingly accomplished quality in design and build, and it's really quite a package.

Most versatile

I was initially reluctant about including the Bass Whammy, as it's not strictly an octave pedal – but that's one of the sounds it does best, whether you want a traditional octave down, an octave up, or foot-controlled pitch-shifting madness. As wild cards go, they don't come much wilder than this.

Unlike other pedals in this guide, it doesn't have any form of blend control, the octave signal being blended in at a set level. For fully-wet effect sounds, though, you can scroll over to the pitch-shifting settings and enjoy the subterranean roar – and the expression pedal means that you can dive-bomb it down for effect, if you want. You can pitch your signal up to two octaves up or down, via useful scale intervals – 2nds, 4ths and 5ths.

It’s an absolute feast of possibilities, and with true bypass it doesn’t have the tone-coloration issues of older Whammy models. It also has a switch for ‘Classic’ or ‘Chords’ processing – the old, glitchy monophonic digital weirdness that became an early Whammy trademark, or a more modern and digitally-advanced polyphonic mode with excellent tracking.

With sturdy all-steel build quality, and a relatively sensible size and price for all its utility, it’s a compelling package.

How to choose an octave pedal?

If you’re in the market for an octave pedal but are new to the sound, think first about what sort of octave tones you like, and what will be the most useful to you. Have a listen to some well-known players or songs that use these effects, and get an idea of what you like and don’t like about the sounds.

From there, think carefully about how much you want to spend. Some players will use their octaver a lot, and some will find only limited uses for it – in the latter case, it’s probably not worth spending a fortune, unless you do have a very specific sound in mind that needs to be just right. At the same time, even if you’re leaning heavily on your octave sound, you may find that a relatively inexpensive pedal will do just fine.

As this round-up shows, you don’t have to break the bank to find an octave pedal that really does everything most players could ever need. Even the cheaper pedals here will be more than good enough for a pro-level board, with high-quality sounds and sturdy construction.

FAQs

How we test gear at Guitar World

Here at Guitar World, we're experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything guitar and bass related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our guides.

When choosing what we believe to be the best octave pedals for bass, we combined our hands-on experience, user reviews and testimonies and engaged in lengthy discussions with our editorial colleagues to reach a consensus about the top products in any given category.

First and foremost, we are musicians and music fans, and we want other players to find the right product for them. So we take into careful consideration everything from budget to feature set, ease of use and durability to come up with a list of what we can safely say are the best octave pedals for bass available right now.

Read more about our rating system, how we choose the gear we feature, and exactly how we test each product.

Why you can trust us

Guitar World boasts more than 44 years of expertise and stands as the ultimate authority on all things related to guitars. The magazine and website feature expertly written gear round-ups and top-quality, authoritative reviews penned by a team of highly experienced industry professionals.

Guitar World's inaugural print issue hit the shelves in July 1980, and ever since, it has been captivating players and enthusiasts with engaging lessons, insightful interviews with the biggest guitar heroes, and priceless buying advice for newbie players.

Furthermore, GuitarWorld.com continues this legacy online and serves as the hub of the world's foremost authorities on guitar playing. The site not only hosts content from Guitar World but also showcases articles from respected publications such as Guitarist, Total Guitar, Guitar Techniques, and Bass Player.

With a reach extending to 3.8 million players each month, GuitarWorld.com is a go-to destination for guitar fanatics globally.

Meet the expert

TONE3000 has unveiled the next generation of its open-source, free-to-use amp modeling technology, and it could represent a watershed moment for the digital modeling market.

The Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) Architecture 2 was built in partnership between TONE3000 and NAM creator Steve Atkinson. The company says, is the “most accurate and best sounding amp modeling technology in history”, yet curiously it runs a humble “$3 chip.”

It’s generally thought that top-level modeling tech – like what we get with the Line 6 Helix Stadium , Neural DSP Quad Cortex, and Fractal AxeFx – requires a top-dollar outlay. So how can the free-to-use A2 outstrip the competition?

Well, there are three important factors. Firstly, it’s open source, meaning any hardware or software maker can support A2 in their product, with a ton of resources freely available online to help players dive into capturing their gear, or pull from a massive library of pre-made captures.

Next, there are the results of “quantitative and blind listening tests” to consider. TONE3000 says in its A2 tests saw Neural DSP, Line 6, and IK Multimedia lose out “by a wide margin.”

Quantitative testing pitted A2 models against leading modelers and the real amps, pedals, and signal chains they were born to mimic. A total of 39 tones were covered, using bass and guitar amplifiers across a range of permutations involving different pedals, cabs, and signal chains, with a cranked Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier and a vintage Neve 1073 mentioned here.

Blind tests were large-scale and used the MUSHRA methodology, which TONE3000 describes as “the audio industry’s gold standard for evaluating perceived sound quality.” The BBC is among its advocates.

During these tests, over 1,000 participants listened to recordings of 37 different tonal combinations of real and modeled gear. With 100 being the best possible score. A2 Full clocked in at 100. By comparison, TONEX (91) and Neural DSP V2 (94) followed behind. Line 6 Proxy ranked with 77.

You can read the full results in TONE3000's blog post.

The third trump card is the growing list of products that support NAM, which currently includes Blackstar’s Beam Mini and offerings from Darkglass and Lava Music, right down to budget modelers accommodating the captures. That can make even the cheapest units extremely powerful, especially given that its library currently boasts over 350,000 different tones.

Both versions of A2 – Full is built for pro audio and now runs on less than 30-40% less CPU, and Lite is built for multi-effects pedals – are being heralded by their creators as “a turning point for the industry.”

“A2 captures feel more satisfying to play and sound virtually indistinguishable from the analog original,” TONE3000 says. “The bloom of a tube amp pushed into breakup, the sag of a fuzz pedal under a heavy chord, the snap of a transient through an analog compressor: A2 captures it all.”

Crucially, NAM’s algorithms work by listening to real analog gear before its neural network creates a dynamic capture of that gear, including the various bits of gear it might be paired with, be that head going through a specific cab, or pushed by an overdrive pedal, and so on.

It being free also means that many players get access to gear models they could never otherwise dream of playing.

See TONE3000 for more.

What is it?

Long before the boom in boutique pedals, the one company that could be relied upon for pushing the ‘quirky and weird’ envelope was Electro-Harmonix – and the New York maker is still in motion.

As part of the cute and pedalboard-friendly Pico range, the Atomic Cluster Spectral Decomposer is described by the company as “unlike any effect Electro-Harmonix has made before”.

Specs

• PRICE: $129 | £129 | €119
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Spectral Decomposer pedal 
• FEATURES: Buffered Bypass, T
  ap tempo
• CONTROLS: Volume, Speed, Blend, Atoms, Sharp/Smooth Mode button, bypass footswitch 
• CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
• POWER: 9V DC adaptor (supplied) 100mA
• DIMENSIONS: 50 (w) x 91 (d) x 47mm (h) 
• CONTACT: Electro-Harmonix

Build quality, usability and sounds

Falling into the broad category of synth and glitch pedals, the Atomic Cluster “breaks down your signal and interpolates it into a variety of musical and whimsical sounds,” says EHX.

This is done mostly via the Atoms knob, which reduces the frequency resolution of your guitar and generates resonant oscillations, the number of which reduces as the knob is turned anti-clockwise. This is best heard in Sharp mode where you get an instant transition of oscillations for a rhythmic effect.

Switching to Smooth mode produces a more diffused effect, with a nice fade between oscillations. The Speed knob sets how quickly the oscillations refresh. Any sound you dial in can be mixed in proportion with your dry sound with a Blend knob up to 100 per cent wet.

With the Atoms knob at maximum, the effect is bright and metallic with a chaotic undercurrent of glitchy burbling, but as you roll it back the brightness reduces and that burbling becomes more coherent, revealing itself in Sharp mode to be more like synth-style arpeggiation with distinct notes.

This is something that, when synchronised (you can use the footswitch tap tempo in place of the Speed knob), can add bubbly flavour behind fast strumming. Switching to Smooth mode, though, results in an effect that can be exploited with guitar dynamics as those distinct notes now fade into each other for a more undulating sound.

Play chords and you’ll get a sustained ambient pad sound, but with single notes the altered envelope of the generated sounds is akin to a backwards effect and it works particularly well if you dig in with a bit of dirt. Balancing Speed and Atoms yields plenty of variations on the theme for subtle blending with dry guitar or upfront prominence.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★☆

Guitar World verdict: The Atomic Cluster is niche and not the most predictable of effects. It’s unlikely to appeal to traditionalists, but if you like quirky and off-the-wall, it’s out there waiting to throw a spanner in the works of your guitar tone.

Hands-on videos

Electro-Harmonix

Pedal of the Day

• Best Electro-Harmonix pedals: We break down the very best EHX pedals available in all effects categories
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Integrated circuit technology advanced at such a rapid pace during the late ’70s and early ’80s that only seven years passed between the introduction of the first analog delay pedals in 1976 and the debut of the world’s first compact digital delay pedal – the Boss DD-2 Digital Delay – in 1983.

The Boss DD-2 was sort of a spin-off product of the larger and more expensive SDE-3000 rack-unit professional digital delay introduced that same year.

But although the DD-2 contained the same 63H101 CMOS gate array IC “long chip” as the SDE-3000, the pedal version was not an SDE-3000 in a stompbox like some have claimed, as the DD-2 lacked the 3000’s modulation section and had a shorter maximum delay time and lower frequency response of 10Hz to 8kHz (compared to the 3000’s 17kHz upper range), amongst several other feature differences.

Regardless of its spec deficits compared to its big brother rack unit, the DD-2 still sounded superb, with its exceptionally impressive low noise performance and longer delay times (12.5 to 800 milliseconds) than those offered by analog delay pedals.

Many guitarists also preferred the warmer sound of the DD-2’s delayed signal over that of the SDE-3000 thanks to the stompbox’s rolled off high frequencies above 8kHz. With only four knobs on its front panel (effect level, feedback, delay time, delay mode), the DD-2 made it easy for guitarists to dial in delay settings.

When the Hold mode was selected, the pedal would infinitely repeat a short section as long as the footswitch was held down, providing a primitive looper function. The DD-2 also included a pair of output jacks for a stereo setup where the stereo (right) jack output the original dry signal while the mono (left) jack automatically switched from a mixed output to the delayed signal only.

When the cost of the 63H101 chip dropped significantly, Boss changed the pedal’s name to DD-3 and reduced the list price, even though the DD-2 and DD-3 were otherwise completely identical. The decision was mainly a PR move to avoid upsetting DD-2 buyers who paid a lot more for the same thing.

Sometime during the very late ’80s the DD-3’s 63H101 chip was replaced by a smaller square IC that also offered improved bandwidth and audio specs. Further chip upgrades appeared in later iterations of the DD-3 up through 2014.

However, many guitarists feel that the darker, warmer qualities of the more “lo-fi” 63H101 chip sound more musical, so long chip versions of the DD-3 (identifiable by a cutout section on the bottom housing for mounting the old-style large power supply jack) now sell for premium prices.

Despite the fact that digital delay technology continues to expand and improve, many discriminating players like Joe Bonamassa, Nels Cline, Billy Duffy, David Gilmour, Eric Johnson, Tom Morello and Brad Paisley still keep their original DD-2 or long chip DD-3 delays on their pedalboards.

While most guitarists have moved on to more modern digital delay boxes (including the Boss DD-8 and upgraded DD-3T), it seems almost everyone who is anyone has used a DD-2 or DD-3 at some point in their careers. It’s a perennial pedal that simply sounds good and works for anything from rambunctious rockabilly slapback and crisp Edge-style dotted eighth note rhythms to trippy long repeating echoes.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

When Korn and Distortion Inc. teamed up last year to create a pedal that encapsulated Munky’s iconic early sound, it sold out in the blink of an eye. Now, in the wake of that success, his co-riffer, Brian “Head” Welch, is getting in on the action.

Drawing on the nu-metal giant’s 1990s Indigo Ranch sessions with producer Ross Robinson, all 500 of Munky’s $250 Indigo Sludge pedals sold out before Guitar World could even write a news story about it. We don’t expect this new run of limited-edition stories to be any different.

This new dual preamp and fuzz pedal is built for Head’s deliciously nasty tonal standards, and, like its counterpart, features the same breadth of controls to nail every aspect of those seminal early Korn albums.

On its top row are dials for the Master, Gain, Volume, and Distortion, with a three-band EQ and a separate Tone control beneath. Tone-tweaking versatility is complemented by Presence and Octave mini-switches to ensure this thing hits hard, as well as dedicated footswitches for both sides of the pedal.

Once more, the pedal’s preamp section draws on the high-gain preamp stages that were all over the band’s first few records, conspiring to unfurl a “tight, saturated crunch.”

At the same time, the fuzz marries sustain with hairy chaos, ideal for seven-string brutality, with Korn among the earliest advocates of extended-range guitars.

A nice, nuanced touch is that while both pedals sport the same self-titled record-inspired artwork, Head’s version of the Indigo Sludge pulls away from the red visage of Munky's, opting for a color scheme closer to the original album cover.

“This pedal isn’t ‘inspired by’ – it’s built on the same ingredients that forged the sound,” says Head.

Distortion Inc has also teamed up with PRVNZ to provide easy, secure digital authentication for all Korn pedals.

Head’s Indigo Sludge pedal is available to pre-order via Korn.

Elsewhere, Korn bassist Ra Díaz has used the power of community to recover 15 stolen basses. In contrast, original bassist, Fieldy, has finally lifted the lid on the reasons for his exit from the band.

Two historic guitar pedal brands, DOD and Morley, have united for the Wah-ocTo-Fuzz, an expression pedal with plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

The three-in-one stompbox, which builds off the classic Morley wah chassis, is like a supergroup of pedals. Covering the low end is DOD’s revered ‘80’s FX35 Octoplus sub-octave circuit, with Morley’s famed wah and fuzz circuits also getting in on the action.

The result, its makers say, “is a pedal that simply leaves players saying, ‘WTF!’” It’s a little shoehorned in, but we see what they’ve done there.

Designed for guitar, bass, and keyboards, the three effects can be run independently or in various combinations, giving them three reasons to find their way onto people’s pedalboards.

Expect the “captivating, glitchy essence of the 1980s” from the Octoplus side of the pedal. Dial in the dry signal input via the Direct Level control, and use the Tone Control to adjust its brightness, and the Octave Level to determine just how thunderous you need it to be.

Over to Morley’s double act, and the wah features the firm’s classic Electro-Optical design and switchless operation, with the effect in operation as soon as its glow-in-the-dark treadle is stomped on. Metallica’s Cliff Burton most famously used the Morley wah, and it has stood the test of time since its introduction in the 1970s.

For all things fuzzy, the collaborative pedal serves up Morley’s ‘70s era, velcro-like tonality, complete with a Level dial for the gain and a Fuzz Level dial for managing the wider signal.

The WTF is housed in a lightweight cold-rolled steel chassis, which should make it pretty bulletproof. A “premium Morley buffer circuit” that protects the pedal’s tone from “mischief” in the signal chain is also included, so it can better partner with a litany of other effects.

Beyond that, it’s business as usual: it has 1/4” in/output jacks and draws 9V of power via a plug or a battery, with the latter getting a quick clip battery door. It also comes with a one-year warranty.

The three-headed DOD and Morley Wah-ocTo-Fuzz is available now for $249.

See DigiTech for more.

What is it?

The basic premise for the ZEQD-Pre pedal is to introduce some valve mojo into a signal chain and add character.

The result of this collaboration between EarthQuaker Devices and Dr Z Amplification has been designed around an EF86 pentode valve coupled with three-band EQ for fine-tuning of the sound.

There are several scenarios for use, reflected in the available outputs, which can all be used simultaneously. There’s a jack for a standard signal chain, maybe directly in front of an amp or a modeller, an XLR direct output (with switchable cabinet emulation) that could be used to feed a mixing desk or audio interface, and a headphone output with cabinet emulation.

Complementing the standard bypass footswitch, a second footswitch bypasses the three-band EQ and delivers a full-range boost with level set by the Boost knob.

Specs

• PRICE: $399 | £399 | €499
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Valve-powered preamp pedal
• FEATURES: True bypass
• CONTROLS: Boost, Level, Bass (20Hz to 400Hz), Middle (400Hz to 2kHz), Treble (2kHz to 20kHz), Ground Lift, XLR Cab Bypass, Boost footswitch, Bypass footswitch
• CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output, XLR direct output, standard headphone output
• POWER: 9V DC adaptor (not supplied) 500mA
• DIMENSIONS: 96 (w) x 148 (d) x 66mm (h) 
• CONTACT: EarthQuaker Devices

Build quality, usability and sounds

The EF86 isn’t a valve that offers its own drive as such, but in its context here delivers a big open sound with clarity and great dynamic response, all tied in to the really classy EQ, which never gets out of shape.

Everything above about nine o’clock on the Level knob offers a boost for additional gain stage to push an amp’s front-end, with an extra kick up via the Boost footswitch as required.

Without an amp, the pedal could sit at the end of a pedalboard employing the XLR output direct to front-of-house or FRFR speaker cab as your main amplifier, if you have the pedals to get the sound you need. Likewise, it could be a useful tone conditioner with added dimension before or after a digital modeller.

With pedals, the ZEQD-Pre is also perfect for practice, as the headphone signal with speaker simulation gives you a comfortable sound that encourages you to play.

It’s also excellent as a DI box for recording clean guitar – we got great results with a Strat plugged straight in and the XLR output (speaker sim engaged) connected to an audio interface with compression added as a plugin on the DAW recording track.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

The best part of $400 may seem a bit steep for something that could be categorised as a widget, but the ZEQD-Pre is a very practical professional piece of kit with numerous uses for the guitarist.

Guitar World verdict: As a tone-sculptor and gain provider that is capable of sitting in a variety of signal chains, it is both an enabler and an enhancer.

Hands-on videos

EarthQuaker Devices

Reverb

Sweetwater

• “It’s like a Christopher Nolan movie in a pedal. Don’t think – feel”: EarthQuaker Devices Towers review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

The Coyote is a new octave fuzz pedal from JHS, based on the Moonrock Fuzz by G.S. Wyllie. If your reaction to that is "the what?" you're not alone.

According to JHS, after being around the music scene in the 1960s, Wyllie lived a reclusive life in North Carolina, "sandcast[ing] his own enclosures," and "etch[ing] his own boards," never mass producing the pedal.

That didn't stop it from ending up in the hands of famous musicians like Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and David Byrne.

Specs

• PRICE: $149 | £149 | €199
• TYPE: Octave Fuzz
• MADE: USA
• CONTROLS: Volume, Mode
• CONNECTIVITY: Input, Output, 9V DC in
• BYPASS: True
• POWER: 9VDC Centre-negative, 5mA
• DIMENSIONS: 65x40x120 mm
• WEIGHT: 0.5lbs/250g
• CONTACT: JHS Pedals

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The Coyote is a clean build, inside and out, housed in a tidy green enclosure.

The pedal has an unusual topology, using a transformer, but not in the normal way you'd expect for an octave pedal. The result is a very different voicing, particularly for the fuzz.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

Like any fuzz pedal, the Coyote is pretty user-friendly. It's a case of plugging it in to a Marshall half-stack, grabbing a guitar and twisting the two knobs. The flip side of this of course, comes from the unusual function of the second control.

JHS describe it as going from a swell when fully counter-clockwise, to a fuzz at 12 o'clock, and an octaver when turned further clockwise. It's a reasonable description, but the multi-function knob makes the pedal more complex. Still, with an analog pedal like this, it's basically unavoidable.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Of course, unless you're one of the handful of Moonrock owners, you've never heard this pedal before.

The real question is, have you heard anything like it? The answer to that question is, yes. It's got its own thing going on, but fundamentally, it sounds similar to other analog octave units.

At 12 o'clock, the level is a fair bit below unity volume on our test unit, with a range of pickups. A quick nudge to the right sorts everything out.

It's the second control that absorbs most of my attention. JHS describe it as a 'swell' when it's set counter-clockwise, but it's closer to a gate in character. Compared to say, a Boss Slow Gear, the Coyote is less predictable, and I didn't find it very useful.

Once it's into fuzz territory, we're on more stable footing. In some ways this is a little bit like a Fuzz Face, but smoother, more like a Big Muff in overall voicing.

Whatever pickups I used, I found it to be quite dark, and mid gain, so pushing it with a treble booster in front was necessary to get the most from it. If you play more low-gain styles of music, the saturation level might not be an issue, but the voicing may be.

The octave works best, like most octaves, on the neck pickup above the twelfth fret. Where it differs is that, like a Fuzz Face, but unlike most other Octave Fuzzes, it cleans up really rather nicely at the guitar. This lends it versatility for replicating hyper-specific recorded psychedelic guitar tones.

Verdict

Anybody who's been following the guitar pedal market for more than a few months will know that hype and marketing often come over sounds, not to mention originality.

Here would seem to be the exception. The Coyote is a strange and weird anomaly that stands apart not only from most known octave fuzz designs, but also from fuzzes full stop. The issue is, that as JHS themselves acknowledge, it's still not a pedal for everybody.

Guitar World verdict: If you're after an octave fuzz, and the usual suspects haven't done it for you, then the Coyote is worth a look. As a standalone fuzz, it's not the best option – players after a touch-sensitive fuzz are better off with a Fuzz Face, while for most others a Big Muff will do. The space cadets, as always, can try a Z-Vex or Death By Audio sonic destruction device.

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What is it?

Think of a classic recorded bass tone, then think about how it was created. The bass and its pickups, the amp, the mic or direct signal (or both), the environment in which it was captured, and of course, the small ingredient of the player themselves all contribute to the sound we’re hearing.

But there’s something we often overlook that’s omnipresent on our favorite recordings, and that’s the signal chain after it leaves the jurisdiction of our rig. Chances are, if the tone you’re imagining was made in a pro studio, then it will have run through some choice outboard or mixer-based preamps, adding significant qualities to the tone thanks to analog circuitry.

This is summed up in modern-day language with cliches such as ‘warmth’, ‘grit’ and ‘punch’. But they’re cliches for a reason, because what we’re really trying to describe here is the know-it-when-you-hear-it fattening-up of our sound thanks to harmonic distortion imparted by classic analog designs.

Two of the most famous names in the studio preamp game are Neve and API, whose aural fairy dust has been sprinkled on countless recordings.

Now, Walrus Audio has teamed-up with session bassist/bass educator/tone connoisseur, Ian Martin Allison (who most recently caused panic-buying with the MXR Bass Synth) to deliver the flavor of these elusive tonal radiators in a preamp pedal courtesy of transformers, stepped, preset EQ and ‘musical’ gain. Meet the Mantle.

Specs

• Launch price: $749.99 | £749 | €859
• Type: Bass preamp pedal
• Controls: Bass, Gain, Treble (11-step increments)
• Features: Active/passive switch, Ground Lift, custom Sapphire input and output transformers.
• Connectivity: Input (w Active/Passive switch), output, XLR output
• Bypass: N/A
• Power: 9V DC 500 mA (not included)
• Dimensions: 155mm x 120mm x 58mm
• Weight: 2.2lbs (962g)
• Options: N/A
• Contact: Walrus Audio

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

You’ve probably already clocked the Mantle’s $749 price tag, so you’ll be glad to hear that this pedal feels like a premium, luxury design.

The first thing you’ll notice is the weight, at 2.12lbs (962g), the Mantle clocks-in with substance, and it’s continued with the classy design. I’ve already established the ‘golden age’ reference to studio outboard gear, but there’s a definite air of simplistic confidence and consideration - the matte black powder coating meets the subtle gold lines and labelling, and another retro nod sees the Walrus/Mantle branding preserved under a raised plexi window. What’s more, it illuminates when switched on.

It all adds up to a pedal that looks like you’ve just unearthed a lost relic from Rupert Neve’s ‘to-do’ drawer, which could go some way to reassuring you of that outlay.

The high-end finishing continues with machined, knurled aluminum control knobs, outlined with more gold. But to place the romanticism aside for a moment, these are stepped to eleven positions, and held onto the pots via a grub screw.

The first turn indicates that there’s a little bit of give before each one moves and clicks into position, something I resolved with a quick tighten from an Allen key. With that addressed, they feel purposeful and expensive, and most importantly, like they’re going to remain where you put them.

On either side of the Mantle sit push buttons for applying a -10db Active/Passive pad and a Ground Lift. Their defaults are in the ‘out’ position (passive, ground connected), which seems a logical starting point for the majority of users.

However, this does mean that the (fairly thin) switches sit proud. I can’t help but wonder if a slider switch or reverse-wiring might have served these functions better, but with that said, if you intend to use the Mantle mounted on a pedalboard, it’s unlikely that they’re going to be vulnerable to damage.

Talking of ’board-mounting, the Mantle is juiced-up at 9v, 500mA. But, there’s no power supply included, so you’ll either need to use a dedicated supply, or free-up a 500mA output from your pedalboard power supply in order to get it fired up.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★

It’s a straightforward concept with the Mantle: you plug into the input, plug the ¼-inch (unbalanced) output into your amp or any other pedals, and you can use the balanced XLR socket to send your DI signal to FOH or an interface.

There’s no hidden functionality, no dual-pressing of buttons and no emulation. Your signal goes in, the mantle does its thing and it goes out to wherever you want to send it. But while you might think that three controls and some connectivity solutions makes this a simplified design, there’s a bit more going on with those stepped controls.

As mentioned, each control features eleven positions. Position six on all three gives you a flat sound, turning them counter-clockwise introduces a cut, while clockwise turns past the sixth position introduce boosts. In the ‘cut’ positions, the Bass and Treble controls introduce a -18dB per-octave hi-pass (Bass control) or low pass (Treble control) filter, which shifts the cutoff frequency as you cycle through.

The lower-numbered positions for each control introduce the most extreme cut, so in the case of the Bass control, you can select 120Hz, 100Hz, 80Hz, 50Hz and 30Hz from positions 1-5, while the Treble control does the same, ranging from 1kHz, 2kHz, 4kHZ, 6kHz and 8kHz.

When boosting, the center-frequency is fixed at 60Hz for the Bass knob and 4.9 kHz for the Treble control. They react in the same way, so cycling from positions 1-7 on the controls introduces a bell-curve EQ, the higher the setting, the narrower the Q becomes and more gain is applied ranging from a +3dB, wide-frequency boost on position 7, through to a narrowed +15dB bump on position 11.

If you’re thinking that all of that seems like quite a lot to remember, you’d be right. But in reality, it’s a lot more intuitive than that in operation.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

From the description of the controls in the previous section, it might be apparent to you that this is not your forensic, surgical EQ. Nor is it an amp/pedal-simulating overdrive unit. Instead, the order of the day with the Mantle is broad strokes.

Walrus helpfully includes a card with some of Ian’s favorite settings, which, after comparing a reference direct tone to the flat settings, I quickly delve into.

These range from problem solvers such as the Cab Filter (which smooths out the top end), Rumble Remover (you can guess) and Big & Bassy, which sees the Bass control dimed for a huge low end which I found worked particularly well with my flatwound-equipped Jazz Bass for big, weighty vintage tones.

The nature of the EQ circuit means that making relatively bold EQ moves is quick. Unlike a graphic or parametric EQ, you’re working within preset parameters, so rather than having to scrutinize your signal in detail, it’s a case of simply identifying what you want to do and selecting a position.

Too much mud? Turn the Bass control counterclockwise until you find a position that removes it, without killing your fundamental. Need more zing? Move the Treble control clockwise until you find it. And because the frequencies have been fixed at useful points, you can be confident that you will find it.

It’s a similar process with the Gain control. It’s not going to take you into all-out wooly mammoth territory, and it doesn’t claim to either. In some ways, the Gain control could have been renamed ‘harmonics’, ‘dimension’ or ‘vibe’, because that’s essentially what it’s adding.

If the EQ is capable of drastic cutting and boosting, then the Gain control should be viewed as more of a subtle enhancer. The Mantle is designed to be a set-and-forget, always on type pedal (you’ve probably noticed there’s no bypass switch), and as such does a great job of conditioning your tone, particularly if you’re using digital pedals too.

If you want to effectively remove it from the chain then you can just dial everything to noon. When you do you’ll realise that something’s missing, and that’s where Allinson and Walrus can claim success.

Verdict

It’s important (about three-quarters of $1000 important) to really understand what the purpose of the Mantle is in your chain. If you’re the type of player who likes to get into the weeds with micro-adjustments that forensically carve-out your tone, the Mantle isn’t really the solution.

Similarly, there are many preamps out there stocked to ape the front end of an amp while also delivering dynamics processing, a more zoomed-in parametric EQ and true bass-friendly overdrive. In terms of value, it’s hard to argue for the Mantle if those are the features you require. But again, that’s not what the Mantle is attempting to do. Instead, think of this as a gold-standard direct box with specific quality very much positioned over quantity.

There’s no magic bullet at play here, but feed it an already-great signal from a high-end instrument, and the Mantle will reward you with a veneer of studio polish. The analog cliches all apply here, and to end on another one, it’s the final 10% that’ll lift your signal from ‘decent’ to ‘damn!’.

Guitar World verdict: There’s no magic bullet at play here, but feed it an already-great signal from a high-end instrument, and the Mantle will reward you with a veneer of studio polish. The analog cliches all apply here, and to end on another one, it’s the final 10% that’ll lift your signal from ‘decent’ to ‘damn!’.

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What is it?

Whilst not everyone is on board with the digital guitar amplification thing, there is no escaping the fact that it is now an established part of the industry, in both professional and hobbyist realms. IK Multimedia’s Tonex line has done its fair share in helping the technology reach this point, with the Tonex Pedal and its tiny sibling, the Tonex One, leading the way in affordable, capture-based sounds.

It’s the latter of the two pedal amps that I am looking at, as it has received a bit of a glow-up in the form of the Tonex One+. The original is a mini pedal that squeezes the Tonex sounds into a tiny package.

The downside is that there is only one footswitch and four controls, so playing live could be a little awkward if you need more than one or two sounds from the pedal.

If the Tonex One had MIDI and Bluetooth connectivity, this issue would be heavily mitigated by allowing users to utilize a MIDI foot controller for live changes and a mobile app for editing. Unfortunately, this was not to be on the Tonex One, but I think you can see where this is going…

The Tonex One+ boasts exactly these two things, which, if they work as advertised, would drastically increase the utility of the pedal and therefore the number of rigs that it could be a viable addition to.

A bit of housekeeping before we get stuck in, the Tonex line works on captures, which IK Multimedia refers to as Tone Models. Captures differ from amp modeling in that they are a snapshot of the captured amp in its current state, rather than a complete model of the components of the amplifier – including its editable controls.

This means that any EQ changes are a generic, and often more subtle change than you might find on a model that reflects all the controls as they are on the actual amp. The upside is that you have thousands of captures to choose from, and, if you have the right gear, you can even capture your specific amp and take it on the road in digital form within the pedal.

Captures (or Tone Models) can’t be created on the Tonex One+ (this function is reserved for the pricier Tonex Pedal), but it can still run all the captures uploaded to Tone.Net, which is IK Multimedia’s library of free Tone Models uploaded by users across the world and also home to some paid collections from Tonex. Many more paid options are sold by third parties too.

So, in short, this is a potentially huge addition to an already significant product line.

Specs

• Launch price: $249 | £249 | €269
• Type: Amp capture and multi-effects pedal
• Controls: Bass, Middle, Treble, Gate, Comp, Reverb, Volume/Gain, Alt button
• Features: IK Multimedia Tone models and effects, Bluetooth app, MIDI connectivity
• Connectivity: 1/4" In and Out, Bluetooth, and 1/8" TRS MIDI in and through, USB-C
• Bypass: Buffered Bypass
• Power: 9v DC centre negative, 0.15A
• Dimensions: 48x94x53 mm/2.09" 1.89"x3.7"x2.09"
• Weight: 168g/0.37lbs
• Contact: IK Multimedia

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

We’ve reviewed a number of different models of the Tonex One on Guitar World, and the build in all cases is the same outside of the aesthetic, and this remains unchanged in the Tonex One+.

In summary, it’s a small, aluminium package with some reassuring heft that indicates a good build. The footswitch follows suit with a satisfying clunk, and the mini knobs offer enough resistance to inspire confidence in their longevity.

The bigger control is a little looser and doesn’t quite have the same premium feel, but not problematically so.

The aesthetic is similar to the original pedal, with a black chassis but gold text instead of silver. Being entirely subjective here, I prefer the Gold.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

To cram so many features into something so small is nothing short of astounding. Again, we have covered this in previous reviews as the Tonex One+ operates the same way as its prior iterations.

The short of it is that each of the controls for the three-band EQ and the main volume control has two functions, the second of which is accessed by holding down the Alt switch. Making for a total of eight parameters that are adjustable from the front panel.

There are three different modes - Dual, Stomp, and Browse. The first has the footswitch toggle between two presets, and the second features one preset with the switch turning the pedal either on or off. Browse mode changes the function of the three EQ controls from Bass, Mid, and Treble to preset A, B, and C. Turn the mini controls to change the preset each is assigned to, and toggle between the three of them with the footswitch.

The issue with having so much in something so small is that accessing some of these things requires memorizing button presses and/or knob turns. For example, changing between Dual and Stomp mode requires holding the Alt button for six seconds until its light turns blue, then turning the Bass EQ mini knob.

Methods like this feel a little convoluted, but it’s hard to imagine another way to do these things whilst preserving the miniature form factor. So, while it does take a bit of brain power, I find myself willing to figure it out.

But the big news with the Tonex One+ is the added MIDI and Bluetooth functionality. Starting with the MIDI, this allows the player to control preset changes and effects with a MIDI controller.

Unceremoniously demoting my Line 6 Helix Floor to a MIDI controller for testing, this works as expected with the addition of a ⅛” to five-pin DIN adapter, and will make the Tonex One+ a viable addition to many a pedalboard. Particularly if you are using a switching system like the Boss ES-8 or Gig Rig systems with built-in MIDI control.

Adding to the functionality is the Bluetooth and associated Tonex Control app, which changes the way we interact with the Tonex One+. No longer do we have to connect the device to a PC or Mac to edit presets, as it can all be done from the app. A pretty big improvement from the Tonex One.

The app itself is easy to use, with high-quality images of the signal chain across the top. The chain consists of a noise gate, amp, cab, compressor, followed by a choice of five modulation effects, two delays, and six reverbs (four of which are spring).

The parameters for adjusting each item are displayed via big knobs beneath the chain, along with the option to move the effects (apart from the gate) post or pre-amplifier. It’s all pretty straightforward, making editing feel seamless.

A simple metronome and tuner is always a plus, and included here, along with access to Tone.Net - IK’s library of Tone Models. There is a wider selection available in the browser version of ToneNet, and no way to test Tone Models with just the app and pedal (there is, however, with the desktop software), without overwriting a model within the hardware, so there is certainly some room to add utility here.

However, if you have a Tone Model from ToneNet you would like to add, it’s as simple as selecting it from the list, and then the app will add it into the current preset on the hardware. This is delightfully simple and much more straightforward than the process involved in the Desktop apps.

While the desktop apps have been improved over time, and they are certainly easier to navigate than they initially were, they still feel somewhat clunky.

You can download free, user-made Tone Models through the Editor app, but you will need to use a browser to view curated versions of the rather big list. And the only way I could find to download IK's Signature + collection was with a combination of both the Editor and Tonex app.

Companies like Kemper do a better job of having this all in one place, so IK still has some catching up to do. But, as I said, the company has already improved the apps from where they were upon release, so it is the kind of catching up that can absolutely be achieved.

And given the unit's budget credentials combined with the sheer number of features in such a diminutive size, I can see plenty of players finding it worth looking past these issues.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Since we last looked at the Tonex Line, IK has released the new V2 version of its capture software. This promises more accurate captures, faster AI training in the capture process, the ability to batch process Tone Models, and automatically deal with phase issues.

The Tonex One+ comes loaded with 20 presets consisting of these V2 tone models from the new Signature collection, which is free for all those purchasing the Tonex One+ The Signature collection totals 100 tone models, all accessible via the ToneNet.

Playing through the presets, what is immediately obvious is just how well they clean up on the volume control. As someone who has used and gigged the Tonex Pedal, it’s something that the line has always been good at, and that continues to be the case here.

The result is a set of dynamic sounds that react well to picking attack in a way that you can’t help but feel engaged with.

A quick favourite is the Big Hair 800 preset with it’s JCM800 flavoured tones. It’s a massive Marshall sound, perfect for that 80s rock thing. Another is the 51 chug, with a thumpy low end that you would expect from a 5150 Tone Model.

I find that some models can lean slightly on the edge of too much low end- The Slow Hand preset, for example. When I’m hitting a low note in a clean chord, there’s a bass frequency that tends to take over a little, disguising the rest of the chord in a way that is tricky to dial out.

To that end, there are plenty of third-party vendors that I would highly recommend having a look at. For example, I find some of the Studio Rats stuff to be free from that aforementioned low end and boast a few more of those tasty overtones than the pre-loaded sounds in the pedal.

I’ve spent a lot of time with the Tonex Pedal, having gigged it in the past, and the V2 Tone Models certainly feel a step up in terms of the dynamic response. Tonally, I suspect that it would be hard to tell which is more accurate outside of a controlled A/B test with the reference amp to hand, but the tech is impressive either way, as it is a joy to play.

The cab section can utilize captured cabs, a VIR cabinet emulation, or third-party Impulse Responses. Most of the time, I am leaning towards the captured cabs as they seem to provide a little more clarity when compared to the VIR.

When it comes to the effects, we have already reviewed them in previous bits of hardware, such as the Tonex One Joe Satriani. The Tonex One+ features the same suite of stomp boxes, but to summarise, what’s on offer is a simple but functional collection of essentials.

The chain begins with the gate, and that is particularly impressive when it comes to taming those high-gain sounds, managing to control the noise whilst not getting too much in the way when set properly. Next is the compressor, then a modulation which can be either a Chorus, Tremolo, Phaser, Flanger, or Rotary speaker, then a Digital or Tape delay, and lastly a Room, Plate, or four variations of a Spring reverb.

All feature simple but effective controls, for example, just Time, Feedback, and Mix for the delay sounds. If you're someone who wants to be tweaking for days, you may prefer a device with a bit more depth here.

Personally, I find that their straightforward nature allows me to speedily reach the good stuff, with effects like the delay providing either the crystal clear character of a digital delay, or the lovely flutter of a tape with enough control to keep either out of the way of the mix, or all encompassing if you need it.

The only one I would appreciate a little more control over is the Chorus, as it is a little dark on clean tones, making things a touch too heavy on the low end.

With all this, however, we have to remember the price point. This is around $249 in most places. Significantly cheaper than the competition, but with tones capable of holding their own on a pro-level pedalboard.

Verdict

For long-time Guitar World readers, most of what is written here won't be a surprise. We have reviewed the Tonex Pedal and the Tonex One previously, as well as others from the line, and they all run on the same tech.

What sets the Tonex One+ apart is the inclusion of MIDI and Bluetooth. MIDI significantly increases the pedal's utility on a pedalboard, bypassing the limited switching that its form factor necessitates, and the Bluetooth app makes editing presets a lot easier than on its older sibling.

Compared to other pedalboard-friendly digital solutions, the Tonex One+ doesn't have the relatively high power draw of something like a Nano Cortex or Fractal Am4, and the added functionality solves some of what made the Tonex One a compromise.

I often gig with analog pedals in a digital rig, and those considerations have meant I've never quite found the perfect solution before, but this could be it.

It’s worth noting here, however, that the Tonex One+ does not replace the standard Tonex One if your needs are streamlined. If you are someone who is just looking for one amp sound on the end of a pedal board, with effect duties covered by your favourite stomp boxes, then the MIDI is not needed, the App won't be quite as game-changing, and the best option for you may be the original.

For everyone else, this is a huge step up.

Guitar Word verdict: The already impressive Tonex One has just become a much more interesting proposition with this newest iteration. It’s the same stellar sounds and budget-friendly credentials, but with its limitations decreased and its usability improved. I expect that we are about to see the Tonex One+ on many a pedalboard.

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Is your pedalboard due for an upgrade before a busy summer of shows? We’ve uncovered a major effects pedal sale that’s worth checking out! Sweetwater is currently running one of the top pedal deals this year. Whether you perform on stage, play at home, or obsess over your tone, now is the ideal time to enhance your setup and explore new sonic possibilities.

Sweetwater's huge stompbox promotion features discounts up to 35% on a broad array of pedals, including classic overdrives, fuzzes, lush reverbs, delays, and advanced multi-effects units. No matter your style or musical genre, you'll find everything from nuanced tone tools to wild sound-shaping effects.

Been considering a Line 6 multi-effects unit, a DigiTech Drop, or the distinctive sounds from Keeley and Electro-Harmonix? Now’s your opportunity to score deals on renowned brands. There are also offers on boutique makers, letting you experiment with fresh tones at wallet-friendly prices.

Pedals aren’t the only items getting marked down. Sweetwater’s Gig Essentials event is a great opportunity for musicians preparing for festival season or summer performances, with up to 30% off a wide range of accessories. Whether you need new strings, sturdy cables, power supplies, pedalboard tape, or protective cases and stands, it’s the perfect moment to stock up on essentials for your live setup.

Okay, with so many pedals on offer, we know it can be overwhelming. So, here are a few of our highlights.

The Universal Audio Enigmatic ’82 pedal makes the legendary D-style amp sound accessible to everyone, capturing its dynamic overtones and revered overdrive tones. Modeled after vintage amps used by Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer, and Robben Ford, it offers flexible controls including Jazz/Rock modes, tone stack options, and FET preamp voicings. Studio-grade cabinet/mic combos and artist presets are included, plus expanded editing via the UAFX app. It’s a practical way to achieve iconic tones without a costly vintage amp. Save $100 off at Sweewater right now.

Next is the Maxon AD9Pro Analog Delay. Revamping one of Maxon’s most cherished designs, the AD9Pro is 100% analog with a quartet of MC4107 bucket brigade integrated circuits, and frankly, it sounds ace! Save a little over $100.

Next, you need to meet the Beetronics FX Larva. This is a wild, morphing phaser with two flavors, punchy saturation, and LED-lit ramping. This pedal not only looks cool but also sounds the business! Save $50.

Now, we have to shout out the brilliant DigiTech Drop in the Sweetwater-exclusive white finish. This handy little stomp transforms your tuning with the click of a footswitch, allowing you to explore deeper tones and even cover bass duties with any standard 6-string. This pedal’s nine polyphonic pitch-shifted settings give you the power to drop your tuning from 1–7 semitones, a full octave, or a distinct octave-down setting that blends in your dry signal for enhanced clarity. Save $30 at Sweetwater.

Of course, there is a lot more on offer, so we encourage you to take a look for yourself and see what goodies you can find.