7 Limited Blackout Black Friday Pedals for 2023 - 6 part of Reverb.com's Blacked Out Series, 5 of which are brand new, plus Beetronics Blackout Nectar!
So back in 2019 - Reverb.com coordinated Black Friday Limited Blacked Out Editions across 17 Brands and 19 Pedals - and by and large it was a resounding success - a lot of those sold out very quickly - and overall pretty much every special pedal maid was sold in fairly short order.
I always thought it a little surprising that this exercise wasn’t repeated more often as I kind of expected it to be an annual or biennial thing following on from the 2019 event. While we’ve had to wait 4 years for a repeat performance. Where the number of brands participating in this year’s Blacked Out Event are somewhat fewer than before - while the selection is a lot fresher / newer than 2019’s variants.
For 2023 there are 6 brands participating in Reverb.com’s Blacked Out Event where all but one are pretty brand new. And where I’ve also tagged the Beetronics FX Blacked Out Nectar Tone Sweetener to this selection as it is the same kind of thing - while Beetronics is not part of the Reverb.com thing. I tried to cast the net wider - but these were the only Blacked Out editions I found relatively easily - for sure there are one or two more that I’ve overlooked!
My own Custom Shop Beetronics Nectar lands tomorrow in theory, and I fully intend to get my hands on an EQD Zoar at some stage. While the most intriguing one of the bunch is Walrus Audio’s new Meraki Analog Delay - which is Full Stereo In and Out - in something of a first. Not as feature-rich as Boss’s DM-1 - and no ’Pattern Delay’ to compete with my favourite there - but while it uses the same amount of BBD’s as Boss (8) it divides them across two Full In & Out Stereo Channels - while the Boss is Mono In > Stereo Out.
The Walrus Meraki therefore definitely goes on my wishlist. The Death By Audio Space Ensemble is for Vocals - which is alas not me, the JHS Oil Can Delay is a touch specialist. And I’ve yet to make my mind up about the OBNE BL-52 Phase Repeater. And oh yeah - the DL4 is kind of an outlier for me - but I may consider it again at some stage.
So likely 3 of these 7 will end up in the reference collection. 6 of them can be purchased on the Reverb.com Blacked Out Store, while you need to get yourself to the Beetronics Webstore to get the Blacked Out Nectar edition. Further details below! :
Beetronics FX Nectar Tone Sweetener Overdrive + Fuzz - $199
Controls - Mode : Drive / Fuzz, Volume, Honey (Gain), Taste (Tone).
This was reviewed a little under a month ago - and it took 3 batches of Custom Shop Editions for me to find my perfect one - that should land the same time this article goes live or thereabouts. It's a sort of Tweed Amp adjacent versatile gain pedal with plenty of verve and dynamics - split out into both Drive and Fuzz Channels. A really neat format - albeit strange that they have abandoned the dual-function footswitch for the sake of a less handy manual toggle switch - you can't argue with it's stellar output though - I just hope it has plenty of volume on tap!
Death By Audio Space Ensemble SE-1 Vocal Processor - $300
Controls - Chorus Speed, Mix : Dry > Wet, Reverb Time.
A cool Vocal Effects Pedal which adds Depth and Dimensionality via Chorus and Reverb, and an FX-Loop. I'm sure there will be plenty of takers for this - but it's not something I'm looking to get into! Pricing looks a little high for me for the feature set / degree of functionality - I guess I'm missing something obvious here which totally justifies this pedal's being and purpose - and price - it's just not for me - at least not at this precise moment! Looks cool though!
EarthQuaker Devices Zoar Discrete Transistor Distortion - $129
Controls - Level, Weight (amount of low end frequencies let into the circuit), Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble.
Recently reviewed Transistor Distortion with fairly unique Weight control - to give this pedal as much heft as you might wish to muster. Definitely on the cards for me - not sure if it's this year or early next - still plenty on the wishlist to get sorted!
JHS Oil Can Delay - $99
Controls - Mix, Speed, Feedback, Mode : +/- Modulation Intensity.
Hitherto you've had to make do with Catalinbread Adineko, OBNE Black Fountain, and Morley Oil Can Delays. Actually I believe there was a later update for the Empress EchoSystem which also delivered an Oil Can variety delay. For sure a cool and unique delay sound - and I like having it as one of many flavours - not sure I would necessarily get a stand-alone pedal for just that flavour. But hey if you're looking for one - there's now this $99 3-Series variety. All the JHS 3-Series pedals have been pretty decent and if you're looking to dip your toes into this particular flavour of delay - it makes good sense to start with a really decent budget offering.
Line 6 DL4 MKII Delay Workstation - $330
Controls - Mode : 15 Core Delays / 15 Extra Delays / 15 Extra Reverbs / Looper, Alt / Legacy Button, Time / Subdivision, Repeats, Tweak, Tweeze, Mix, A Footswitch / Record / Dub, B Footswitch / Play / Stop, C Footswitch / Play Once, D Footswitch / Tap / 1/2 Speed / Reverse.
Readers will know that I've always been a little conflicted about the DL4 - it's just a touch too large for me, and has so many secondary and tertiary features and voicings now that you could actually really do with some sort of display to let you know where you're at - since simply glancing down at the controls won't always tell you what settings you're on. It certainly has lots of flavours onboard and few can compare for feature set - Price also is pretty decent. It's really mostly about the format for me currently - but I'm open to persuasion!
OBNE BL-52 Phase Shifter - $179
Controls - Mix (Dry > Wet), Volume / Output, Clock : Diffused Delay > Faster Repeats / Flutter, Feedback (Trails / Decay).
Just reviewed earlier today - and I've not really made my mind up on this one yet. It would be quite nice to have at least one of the OBNE Clock Sider Series - while I'm not convinced it would necessarily be this one - I think the very 1st BL-44 simple Reverse Effect one is still my frontrunner. Again open to persuasion if anyone has some particular insights on the broader usage scenarios for these!
Walrus Audio Meraki Stereo Analog Delay - $600
Controls - Feedback Left, Mix (Repeats Level), Feedback Right, Mod Depth (+Bypass is Mod Rate), Time : 80ms - 1200ms, Tone (Tilt EQ), Divisions Left : Quarter / Dotted Eighth / Eighth | Mod Shape (+Bypass) : Sine / Square / Random, Feedback Path : Parallel / Ping-Pong / Series, Mod//Time : Sync / Left / Right, Divisions Right : Quarter / Dotted Eighth / Eighth | Phase (+Bypass) : 0 / 90 / 180, Bypass Footswitch, Tap/Oscillation Footswitch.
This is surely the most intriguing one here in this particular selection - and a definite first as far as I'm aware - in being a genuinely full stereo in and out analog delay. The Boss DM-101 has been so far ahead of this category until this point - and it now has a genuine contender. This is not quite so feature rich as the Boss one - nor as complex in its patterns. But boy - it has full stereo ins and outs - with means I can easily slot it in anywhere in the stereo part of the chain - while the DM-101 has to go right at the front of that - which is not totally ideal.
The Walrus Meraki is for sure pricey as you would expect - but there are some really cool features onboard which make it a likely favourite for me.
This year has been so busy that I've really had no time to catch my breath. And for some pedals I've largely just paid them lip service to a degree as they've been so quickly in and out of my chain. Moreover I'm still not at 100% for my Eventide H90 which I've had since before last Christmas - but am already considering temporarily at least swapping it out for the Hologram Electronics Chroma Console in the new year!
In any case - I'm most keen here on the Beetronics Nectar, EQD Zoar and this Walrus Meraki - those should for sure make the collection - albeit I'm thinking probably next year most likely for the two I don't have yet!
What about you dear readers - anything here take your fancy?
Demos
12 Degrees of Saturation 2023 Compact Edition
