
This article is built on and updated from the 2022 original - with further additions and categories, and a different current--appropriate covershot
The 5 x 5 visual above is not necessarily definitive, but surely largely representative of the best demoers active today - spiralling out from the 3 OG Elder Statesmen / Godfathers of Demos in the centre (Andy, Brett and Mike) and covering 25 of my own favourite demoers. The selection features most of the big names along with many of my own personal favourites - while I tried to make it as broad as possible too. Apart from the 3 in the middle - there is no specific order to these - and no significance as to where those channels appear in the listing - all are equally important - with the central 3 / trifecta just a tiny bit more so, they are as follows - simply per this balanced arrangement! :
Hopefully Emily and Russ will be pleased this time around - as they use missed out on the top 25 listing on the previous roundup - Emily was still up-and-coming at that time, and not yet with the full body of work that has defined her so well!
The top 25 is somewhat changed from the 2022 arrangement as many of those active back in 2022 when I did the original - are no longer actively engaged in demos - for instance Scott ’Knobs_Demos’ Harper only makes the occasional demo for Chase Bliss now - for whom we works - he’s not made demos for other brands since he joined Chase Bliss a few years back! Approximately 7 slots in the top 25 have been changed out!
The full Longlist below numbers over 200 (alphabetical), while there are many more demoers even than those referenced on this site in general. And where the top 25-30 are really responsible for the lion’s share of demos that are out there. I selected demoers for the list based on how many times they had been referenced onsite and how often they had positively influenced me towards a particular pedal.
And while he may or may not have been the actual very first one to record and drop an official pedal demo video - Andy Martin is very much the central fulcrum of this discipline - having cut his teeth with the Tone Report and Pro Guitar Shop Demos since 2007, and now obviously central to Reverb.com - he has amassed an unenviable collection of super high quality video demos - numbering in the thousands now - just an extraordinary archive of pedal development and innovation. And all interpreted via Andy’s inimitable expressive and dextrous finger-style playing. I’m proud to say that Andy is also a friend.
At the core of the demo discipline and my visual we have the 3 stalwart and all-rounder OG Elder Statesmen of guitar pedal demos - Andy Martin of course, Brett ’Burgs’ Kingman and Mike Hermans. Funnily those 3 have overall been the most influential for me too over the years - having contributed most often towards the demos which swung it for me for a particular pedal - i.e. most persuaded me to get in a particular pedal. I did an exercise a few years back - in gauging who were the most influential demoers specifically for me - and this is the order I ended up with then - where I was a little surprised to see Mike Hermans as the top entry (I expected it to be Andy, but Mike had it by a whisker (obviously significantly dependent too on the actual pedals they demoed - which often did not overlap), while there was no surprise that the OG3 were in the Top 3!
Note that from the above list - a lot of those are no longer fully active - including GearMannDude : Eric Whorton, Scott ’knobs_demos’ Harper, Dennis Kayzer, Rabea Massaad, Living Rroom Gear Demos : Eirik Stordrange, BestGuitarEffects.com : Gabriel Tanaka and Jake Behr, Shnobel / Shnobel Tone : Roman Belonozhko.
I still feel this is a pretty decent gauge - even though some of those demoers are no longer quite so active or prominent. it’s a big job - going through each and every pedal you acquired (I’m up to 1400 now give or take) and recalling who or what it was that pushed you across the line. This article is already massive - while I may do the same exercise again in a year or two - obviously pending the right mood and attitude!
I used to be a massive fan of BestGuitarEffects.com and leading proponent Gabriel Tanaka - those were my own early years of pedal exploration - where that was probably my most useful website resource alongside the Effects Database and Kit Rae’s Big Muff Pi Page! Gabriel was also the driving force behind the Abracadabra Audio collaboration with Chase Bliss Audio - and the resultant Ayahuasca Trem-Fuzz. The demise of that once essential resource still saddens me as that was likely one of my own most significant inspirations.
Eric Whorton / GearMannDude seems to be in semi-retirement from pedal demos currently - so he’s alas not so influential these past few years - and while some disparage him a touch - he has nevertheless been responsible for winning me over to a large number of pedals. Roman Belonozhko seems to be increasingly focusing on his own Shnobel Tone pedal developments these last couple of years too - meaning a lot less demos, and less influence recently. All the others feature in my select 25 main visual at the top of this article!
It seems that Aaron Miller, owner of the now long since defunct Pro Guitar Shop and Andy Martin's first proper industry boss - was the first to realise that more and more customers were wanting to sample audio equipment from the comfort of their own homes - rather than tracking into the store every time a new pedal was released.
There are so many pedals out there all over the world - that it's impossible to keep track of them all by yourself - as well as different diminution deals resulting in diverse dealer networks - where there's no way you could or would want to test out every single pedal in person (you could not sample them all in the one store - and no not even Sweetwater carries all the best brands - so Demo Videos are the perfect proxy for checking out a new pedal or pedals - making it far easier to engage in that activity. My Guitar Pedal X website then helps you to further rationalise your choices - in order to come to the right decision in the fewest moves!
Demos are absolutely essential for my blog - as timings and manufacturing limitations and other concerns often get in the way - meaning that you often cannot get the actual physical pedal in time for launch - so you need to rely on another professional's appraisal really!
There's a real knack to wringing out every ounce of tone from a pedal and properly 'sampling' and representing its full range of capabilities. A clever demoer can do all that in the quickest time and by the fewest amount of moves as such!
Interestingly all of the OG Trio - Andy Martin, Brett 'Burgs' Kingman and Mike Hermans cut their teeth at the Pro Guitar Shop - while Andy was really the mainstay there and the long-term face for the operation and featured on the largest selection of pedals. I've included the earliest Pro Guitar Shop demo I could find : the TC Electronic Nova Series Reverb - featuring Andy of course - and dating all the way back to 8th December 2007. On that Pro Guitar Shop YouTube Channel there are 1.897 uploaded videos in total!
You can view the first of Andy's official demos via the above video!
One demo is rarely enough on its own - if you're trying to get a feel for a pedal remotely - you ideally need at least 3 videos to compare and contrast - so you can sum up and figure out the most typical output and exactly how said pedal is mostly impacting. Fidelity of output is the essential thing to gauge here - i.e. what is the core character and timbre of the pedal - where some demoers can be overly smooth and cover up some facet of the pedal's true output or function. That's why you need to be able to aggregate across a few - so that you can be sure how reproducible those actual tones are. For our purposes here I have selected 3 really decent King of Tone demos - which each give you a distinct facet of that pedal's range.
I've developed an unerring knack over the years to be able to discern all kinds of minutiae from a semi-decent demo - where I can really get quite a solid grasp as to what the pedal is about - even from as little as one decent example. It will wholly never replace the impact of sampling the pedal live and direct - but when needs must - it's a methodology that really works for me and overall it's a touch more practical and helps you come to a decision that more rapidly!
I've rarely made a mistake in years with this methodology* - and pretty much all pedals acquired from this process wholly live up to my projected expectations. In fact it's been years now since I actually went to a guitar shop to physically try out a pedal. Instead I rely on a network of experts who in many ways do some of my due diligence for me by proxy!
*= The only think that still catches me out is volume drop / degree of output volume. Most demoers simply run a single pedal though a single amp - so you're not aware of the interaction of that pedal with other pedals in the chain - for things like capacitance, impedance, and other sensitivities. Normally it's not an issue for me - as I have so many inline boosts in my chain - but it can occasionally lead to disappointments - like the recent Keeley Rotary pedal - which I've dropped of with Hello Sailor Joe - as it's output is way too low - and well below unity for me - that was a disappointment for me - while the Boss RT-2 is so perfect for my needs that it somewhat made up for it - and instantly became my favourite Rotary Effect. It's a pet peeved of mine that most pedal builders don't test there pedals within the context of a typical pedalboard. Many advise that said pedal is freely placeable anywhere along the chain - but frequently that is not the case - and has not been properly tested!
You soon come to realise which demoers are nearest to your own appreciations and sensibilities - and come to rely on them for their particular take on those kinds of pedals. All the people I follow most closely are of that ilk - while I still need to be aware of their own musical preferences and how they themselves like to dial things in - which will rarely exactly match with those settings that you choose yourself.
You can always tell from my reviews - whether they're first-hand or triangulation observations. The Triangulation Methodology is really critical to my own research and pretty much the major part of my entire acquisitions methodology! As mentioned - I've not tried a pedal in a shop for years - in fact I probably would not anyway - as it would not sound anywhere near as good as it does in my chain - I've so evolved the tone-enhancement components - which then result in richer and more harmonic textures - for me to make any proper verdict or recommendation - I will have to have tried the pedal out on the board. While this pedals I select for the board are always going to be defined by the triangulartion method - particularly as I operate right across the world!
For references here I've included two of my all-time favourite demos and pedals - where those demos were entirely instrumental in my acquiring those pedals in the first instance - pretty much on their own! At the time both were very limited - one Spanish, the other German - so no easy way to actively 'sample' or 'trial' those.
On the back of those two demos I did not just warm up to the talents of Alberto Barrero, but I ended up being really good friends with both the makers - Guillem Vilademunt of Decibelics, and Pete and Matthias at Demon Pedals. Those two above demos are the absolute perfect examples of an Ultimate Demo - where I could have picked any number from some of my other favourites. Where I've not necessarily gone on to be good friends with all the builders or demoers I feature - while I do recommend them a lot to each other, In fact only relatively recently have I been actively asked to liaise with demoers on behalf of certain builders - while weirdly some of those builders then went on to betray me in one way or another!
The art and science of a demo is to extract all the essence of that pedal into a musical tapestry which best showcases and accentuates the distinguishing and finer points / parts of that pedal. The very best demoers are often 'Composers' where they create the perfect soundtracks or precision hewn pieces of music - with just the right riffs and grooves - to really get the character of the pedal across - along with some of its most likely usage scenarios.
I have evolved 5 key characteristics which I deem essential to this process :
The very best demoers have amazing musicianship and a singular skill in being able to craft just the right sort of music to represent that pedal in a wholly pertinent and standout fashion.
An ultimate demo requires no triangulation - it is wholly stand-alone in its efficacy as you are very rapidly be swayed and won over by the best of that ilk. By contrast a poor demo leaves you somewhat undecided at the end! You could say that a good demo is a 'Convincer' / 'Persuader'!
As a builder looking for someone to demo your pedal - you need to be aware that there is a hierarchy out there of various cliques and affiliations. Several of these guys and gals are touring or session musicians - so you will need to fit in with their expansive schedules.
And several demoers are actually affiliated with certain brands, dealers or distributors - which is why you see some demoers covering all the same pedals from the same makers. In some ways there are gladiatorial stables of musician demoers - so they're not all always fully available to you!
Moreover there is a steep hierarchy of pricing from around $200 and equivalent to around $2000 equivalent. A lot of that is negotiable and a lot depends on how appealing your pedal is to that musician. The thing is unless you're one of the giants of the industry - it means you can't always get who you want to as a first choice - to demo the pedal at the right time. As there's often a long queue of demos already scheduled for he next few months. For someone like Andy Martin - you need to book him at least 3-4 months in advance. Based on how busy he is at the time.
Also some routes are more closed than others - That Pedal Show - for instance is notoriously hard to get into - that's largely about networking and being associated with the right people - or at least someone who knows someone - who can put in a good word for you. It has a lot to do with timing, patience, your own personal connections, and of course luck!
I'm often bemused by how controlled this environment can be - and how difficult it is for new brands to get involved. Also note that while some demoes have incredibly high professional values and quality control - others can be more variable in their output - and don't always treat the new fledgling brands with adequate respect.
A great demo can really make a pedal - while an average or mediocre one can sink it! So a lot of this is based on long-term performance records and meticulous tracking of players' quality of output - where it's really gold dust when you find someone that you have access to and which syncs with your own musicality and direction.
Obviously the more well-known demoers are often booked up month in advance - and you have to bribe them with some kind of 'care package'. Part of the aim of this very article - is to give you more options - so you can best find the right sort of demure for your pedals. Some of those professionals are beyond reproach and always deliver the right results - while others can be a little more varied in their output.
I've long talked about the need to properly creatively brief those demoers - about what aspects of your pedal you would like them to focus on - whether specific functions or sounds. You can't be too prescriptive though - as they need to have enough room to apply the full force of their creativity - while some pointers will almost always help ensuring a better quality of demo. The real pros - like Andy Martin et al - will already know what questions to ask you in order to best gauge the type of demo needed. While not everyone has that level of consummate professionalism. So a little handy broad brush-stroked guidance is almost always required - one way or another!
Very few demoers are wholly all-rounders and generalists - rather most of them have particular specialisms and individual skills which make them better suited to some genres and devices over others.
A lot of what I do is advising pedal builders which demoers are the most ideal for creating an ultimate demo for a particular type and genre of pedal - so you really need to know your oats here as such as to who would be the most likely to deliver for the genre of pedal you're wanting to showcase.
My tracking all these demo's for all these years has led to my recognising various patterns and idiosyncrasies - so that I'm pretty handy when it comes to suggesting the most suitable candidates and alternatives.
Here follow a few samples of such groupings - where I try hard not to give away all of my secrets - but several of them do get aired to a degree. After those sample selections, we then have the full list of 200+ demoers whose work I have featured on this site. There are several key criteria as to who gets listed, but like I said in the intro - it is largely about how many times I have referenced each demoer - which is the most significant.
Note that most times when I list out demos on articles - I do them in my order of preference. That is not possible every time - as some of these launches are very much 11th hour and rush-released. While you will find that whenever I feature said pedal again - I always select one of my favourite demos to accompany that feature. Sometimes I rotate a few suitable ones - while on rare occasions there is just one ultimate demo necessary!
Note that each selection is not definitive as such - in that further demoers can / could likely be added to some of those categories - rather these are those for me who are the most obvious shoe-ins as part of my current mindset!
So here follow a few example groupings with one or two or so pertinent demos for each selection.
I have added a few more and updated the selections for this 2025 Edition!
As mentioned in the intro - these three gentlemen are really the heart and soul of this movement - and over the duration (and since 2007) they have been my most significant influencers and persuaders. Each of these very much does their own thing - and all 3 of them are exceptional. They have an excellent all-round aptitude for near enough most every genre of pedal - and near enough always deliver sterling work. I have selected a video from each where I was influenced by that to get each of those pedals or else be convinced by its merits (note that II actually had the Thorpy Camoflange significantly before that video was released - while the video was for me said pedal's perfect encapsulation!) :
There are several other all-rounders - including my good friend SpiralCaster Cohen Hartman, The JHS Show, Mark Johnston, Pete Thorn, That Pedal Show, Andertons, EyschPi42, Gilmourish Bjørn Riis, The Pedal Zone Stefan Fast, collector//emitter Ian Pritchard, and quite a few more!
Each of these is well known for creating a bespoke and specific composition / piece of music - in order to best showcase the various facets of said pedal. These guys for me are always the superior deal in getting to the authenticity / fidelity / core character and purpose of the pedal! I've selected one of Cohen Hartman's best for these purposes :
Note that I've decided to mostly limit the selections to 10 or so most typical candidates - otherwise some of these categories might become overly long!
There are certain YouTube brands which have transcended beyond the more typical gear review format - to become bona fide entrainment channels in their own right! These include numerous guest appearances and Skits and Sketches even!
These include :
I've always been in awe of Scott Harper - with whom I am kind of on friendly terms these days, and its nice to see that while Scott takes more of a back-seat on demos, that Devon Blue Whitaker is coming more to the fore! Each of these has a unique visual style which sets them apart from the rest - while people were starting to copy Scott's approach. Devon Blue Whitaker is a magnificent auteur and film-maker with a superb imagination - and equal to his execution - these various demos really set a new benchmark and high water mark for creative demos and how to get the message across in new and interesting ways. These at their best are super-immersive audio-visual experiences :
Alas neither of these is still active, what they did was pretty unique - while they do have a decent body of work you can reference. I'm not sure Devon Blue is still and active demoer, and Scott Harper, as mentioned preciously as decamped to Chase Bliss - where he heads up mot of the marketing of that company - still involved in videos, but even more so in those excellent 'Field Guide' Manuals which he makes with super designed Eric Nyffeler. We have a great legacy here already - but we still need someone to take up the baton - and produce content at the same level as Scott Harper, and Devon Blue!
These are the guys that really get deep into the heart and soul of a pedal and spend inordinate amounts of time fully getting to grips with every ounce of that pedal's being. They produce incredibly detailed exposés of what makes these pedals work as much as how they sound and function :
These guys are all about wringing out every ounce and nuance of tone through superior dynamics and touch-sensitive playing. These can really make a pedal sing and do acrobatics with just tiny subtle movements of their digits. These are the guys you would want for an expressive low-gain overdrive for instance!
Fuzz is the black belt of the pedal martial arts and you need some serious chops to produce the very best tones with those devices. These are some of the very finest players of fuzz - which have just the right touch and playing styles to really get that individual fuzz's character to shine! :
The following 10 Artists have a singular knack for calling upon and creating supremely catchy riffs - which perfectly match the mood of the pedal concerned!
Extreme high gain pedal you say! Well there is knack to getting the very best out of those too! And these fine gentlemen are the likeliest candidates for that particular task :
This is largely about properly knowing your way around delays and reverbs - and being able to extract the most dreamlike sequences from them :
There are of course a myriad of nuances and far more categories than I care to mention here. Also I typically tried to limit players just to a maximum of 2 or 3 of the above groups. Of course there are other suitable candidates too - these are just my main front-of-mind ones, and the most obvious shoe-ins for each task - of course in accordance with my own preferences!
So this is the current roster of likeliest suspects and of course including all my own favourite Demoers. The previous 2022 Edition had 100 listed YouTube Channels, and this one doubles down on that number. I tried to cast as wide a net as possible - and included a full A-Z - covering as many different continents and countries as I could - with a number of the most interesting of the smaller channels.
I worked my way reverse-chronologically through my articles - and stopped when I got to around 200 featured YouTube Channels. I then added one more, and will add further examples as they come to my attention. If you feel I've left out any channels of note - to let me know - so that I can add them to this master list. There may be longer lists of Demoers out there, while I very much doubt there are any as broad in their scope!
List is purely alphabetical by first name / channel name, numbers are for reference purposes alone :
(Note also that I don't have all the individual 'names' despite best endeavours - some of these people are obviously 'on the run' as their personal details are wholly obscured from the internet!)
I have assigned YouTube Channel links to each of these :
Do let me know if you feel I've overlooked any channel that you feel should be in contention here also!

Even though this is quite a long and involved article it's actually rather a summary of all those key points - and just features a sample selection of categories ( a little expanded for 2025) - but still only a relatively small part of the whole thing. As every pedal and genre has its ideal demo representatives - I can't give away all my secrets!
The one aspect I did not really touch on so much is the art of the 'creative brief' - and what guidance you should give to a demoer when you commission them. The same pretty much works for design briefs too - as you should always typically reference what kind of thing you're looking for with respect to their previous works. That can be aa simple as possible - in that you need only highlight one or two of your favourite demos of theirs and say you would like something in a similar vein. Some demoers require very little guidance - while it's helpful for others to provide a rudimentary frame of reference. The skill is always to set out what kind of thing you like - without unnecessarily stifling the creative process!
I would imagine this would be a pretty handy guide for most builders - while some already have the advantage of having their own specific affiliated roster of demo artists!
A demo isn't the entirety of your marketing arsenal - written reviews are also most helpful. While a demo can really make or break a particular release. This is why I typically advise builders to have at least one decent demo in the bag when they launch a new pedal. A lacklustre demo will just poison your prospects and lessen the launch impact. A great demo really can be the lion's share of the marketing impact - but it should not be seen as an isolated activity - you still need to have proper write-ups, text references and further persuasive collateral.
I do hope you like this new / updated resource and are able to put it to good use. Would be nice to hear your own insights and experiences and which your own favourite demoers are and why!
