ao link
Filter content by area of interest
Amps
Boost and Overdrive
Delay
Distortion
Fuzz
Guitars
Modulation
Pitch
Reverb
Utility
All
All

Guitar Pedal Directory - Favourite Pedals by Preferred Pedal-Makers

Alexander PedalsBasic AudioBearfoot FXBossCatalinbreadChase Bliss AudioDigiTechDr ScientistDunlop EffectsEarthQuaker DevicesEffects Pedal MakersElectro-HarmonixEmpress EffectsFeaturedFoxpedalFredric EffectsFulltone EffectsGuitar Gear RetailIbanezJackson AudioJHS PedalsKeeley EngineeringKuro Custom AudioMad Professor EffectsMooerMu-TronMXROneControlOrigin EffectsPigtronixSkreddy PedalsSolifGoldFXSpaceman EffectsStone Deaf EffectsStrymonSubdecay EffectsTC ElectronicThorpyFXVFE PedalsWamplerXotic EffectsZvex+-
Share to TwitterShare to Facebook
2021GPXPedalMakers700.jpg

This essentially started as a companion piece to the previous / associated ’More Pedal Chain Delight’ article. I’ve since tagged on a whole heap of additional pedals which are of interest to me by those brands/makers already covered in my blog posts - these may or may not be universally acclaimed to be the best by said maker - they are purely my own preferences. I have a sort of ongoing dynamically adjusting wishlist where I log potential acquisition targets and weigh them up against everything else that is out there - in terms of tone, feature set, versatility, practicality, form-factor, availability and price. These things change on pretty much a daily basis - and are definitely highly influenced by price and availability as well as forthcoming pedal introductions. I am also very amenable to second-hand, as long as said pedals are in pretty pristine condition and as long as someone is not trying to fleece me at 2 or 3 times face-value.

 

The following listing is alphabetical by Pedal Maker Brand - with over 2,000 pedals covered across more than 160 key brands / makers.

 

Last updated March 2019.


ADA Amps : Dave Tarnowski : Concord, California, USA

adaamps.com

 

The Amps in the title is actually more Pre-Amp pedals, as that is the bread and butter for this outfit really - with the PBF Flanger (Pedal-board friendly) their one product of note for me:

  • A/DA PBF Flanger .

Adventure Audio : Christian Terjesen : Rochester, NYC, USA

adventurepedals.com

 

I know Christian's company mostly through its smart Whateverb and Dream Reaper pedals. There were initially just 5 pedals in the collection when I first checked - 3 medium, one regular compact and one sort of mini - all are worthy of consideration and all do one or more things outside typical norms, a smart up-and-coming pedal-builder. Many more pedals have been added since!

  • Adventure Audio Again Vintage Style Modulating Delay
  • Adventure Audio Demogorgon V3 Trem-Verb/Fuzz
  • Adventure Audio Dream Reaper Fuzzy Feedback Modulation (+Dream Reefer Sp Ed)
  • Adventure Audio Fuzz Peaks / Fuzz Peaks II (Russian Muff)
  • Adventure Audio Glacial Zenith Overdrive V2
  • Adventure Audio Lunger Warble-y Chorus
  • Adventure Audio Outer Rings Ring Mod
  • Adventure Audio Power Couple Boost
  • Adventure Audio Thaw 2-knob Gated/Octave Fuzz
  • Adventure Audio Whateverb V2

Aleks K Production : Aleks and Nazar Kovalevskyy : New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada

alekskproduction.com

 

This Father and Son -run Canadian outfit makes beautiful hand-built Super-Strat style Guitars as well as a small range of 5 pedals. These used to be available on Reverb.com but were removed from that store at the end of last year - so you need to go direct nowadays. Devin Townsend has famously been using the Maple Leaf Royal Overdrive in his main rig for a number of years. I really like the look/sound of the Maple Leaf and Red Scorpion in particular - these pedals have plenty of textural and harmonic content - with just the right degree of sizzle that so appeals to me:

  • Aleks K Honey Moon Sweet Overdrive 2 .
  • Aleks K Hot Ice Sweet Distortion
  • Aleks K Maple Leaf Royal Drive .
  • Aleks K Red Scorpion Mega Distortion 2 .
  • Aleks K Sun Beam Magic Drive

Alexander Pedals : Matthew Farrow : Garner, North Carolina, USA

alexanderpedals.com

 

I have the La Calavera Phaser from this company, but am interested in 5 others. Alexander specialises in slightly quirky but really clever compact-design digital pedals - which all sound great and typically achieve some wonderful variation of tone not found elsewhere - pedals of note are listed below:

  • Alexander Pedals Colour Theory 8-Step Spectrum Sequencer
  • Alexander Pedals Defender Stargate Drive
  • Alexander Pedals F-13 Neo Flanger
  • Alexander Pedals Hot Pink 80's Drive/Distortion .
  • Alexander Pedals La Calavera Phaser .
  • Alexander Pedals Jubilee Silver Overdrive .
  • Alexander Pedals Magnolia Vintage Overdrive
  • Alexander Pedals Marshmallow Pitch Shifter / Modulator
  • Alexander Pedals Quadrant Audio Mirror Delay
  • Alexander Pedals Radical Delay II+
  • Alexander Pedals Radical Delay DX
  • Alexander Pedals Sky Fi Delay + Reverb
  • Alexander Pedals Sky 5000 Reverb + Delay
  • Alexander Pedals Space Race Reverberation
  • Alexander Pedals Superball Kinetic Modulator
  • Alexander Pedals Super Neo-Matic Modulator / Delay
  • Alexander Pedals Syntax Error Glitch
  • Alexander Pedals Wavelength High Bandwidth Digital Modulator

Amptweaker : James Brown : Cumming, Georgia, USA

amptweaker.com

 

James Brown is something of an amp-making legend having worked with Eddie Van Halen to create the very first 5150 amp circuit while at Peavey. Amptweaker is his own pedal company, and is most notable for its very highly featured 'Pro' pedals. Recent innovations have seen miniaturisation of those into compact 'Jr' enclosures, and I have the Tight Fuzz and Tight Metal Jrs on my shopping list. There are a number of pedals of note here, particularly if you are a fan of high gain - where the Tight Metal Pro has established a pretty decent reputation.

  • Amptweaker Big Rock Pro
  • Amptweaker BluesFuzz Jr Germanium Fuzz
  • Amptweaker Curveball Jr 3-Band EQ
  • Amptweaker DepthFinder Resonance + Presence Mini
  • Amptweaker FatMetal Pro
  • Amptweaker PressuRizer Compressor
  • Amptweaker SwirlPool Jr Tremolo/Vibe
  • Amptweaker TightDrive Jr
  • Amptweaker TightFuzz Jr
  • Amptweaker TightFuzz Pro
  • Amptweaker TightMetal Jr
  • Amptweaker TightMetal Pro / II
  • Amptweaker Tight Rock Jr

Analog.Man : Mike Piera : Garner, Bethel, Connecticut, USA

buyanalogman.com

 

'King of Tone' Mike Piera is extremely well known within boutique pedal-making circles (circuits!) - and his library and inventory of rare and amazing transistors and other vintage components is legendary. The most significant disincentive though it that near enough everything is hand-made one-at-a-time in the USA (waiting list) and only available direct from Analog.Man - so these can be difficult to come by for UK customers - not many turn up on Reverb.com either. Importantly though, prices here are pretty reasonable. The most famous Piera pedal is the celebrated King of Tone - based on an early Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal with additional boost - I personally prefer the more compact Prince of Tone - which foregoes the boost options, but gives you more gain in the highest setting. Pretty much all of Mike's pedals are excellent - many rate his vintage analogue delays too, but I'm really only properly interested in the following three:

  • Analog.Man ARDX20 Dual Analog Delay
  • Analog.Man Astro Tone Fuzz .
  • Analog.Man Bad Bob Boost
  • Analog.Man Beano Boost (Treble Booster)
  • Analog.Man Bi-Chorus
  • Analog.Man Bi-Chorus Mini
  • Analog.Man Block Logo Envelope Filter
  • Analog.Man King of Tone (+JHS 4-Star Mod) .
  • Analog.Man Mini Bi-Comp
  • Analog.Man Mini Chorus
  • Analog.Man Peppermint Fuzz
  • Analog.Man Prince of Tone
  • Analog.Man Sun Bender Fuzz MK 1.5
  • Analog.Man Sun Face Red Dot NKT Fuzz (fully loaded)
  • Analog.Man Sun Lion Fuzz Booster

Anarchy Audio : Johannes 'JC' Chuah : Perth, Australia

anarchyaudioaustralia.com

 

A diminutive Boutique Australian pedal-builder that's been going for a little longer than you might credit. I first came across them while doing research for HM-2 Clones (Deadwoods Fuzz), and then reinforced by an appearance of the Baa Bzz Fuzz on That Pedal Show - I of course had to have both, but not necessarily in that order. There is several years of pedal innovation here and lots of discontinued pedals along the way. These are generally gloriously richly textured pedals - and I particularly like the various shades of dirt on offer here. I've already snagged my two favourites, but there are several other interesting ones on offer besides:

  • Anarchy Audio Baa Bzz Fuzz (Roland Bee Baa Fuzz) .
  • Anarchy Audio Chaos Star Oscillator/Envelope Filter
  • Anarchy Audio Deadwoods Square Wave Chainsaw Fuzz .
  • Anarchy Audio Flutterby Optical Tremolo
  • Anarchy Audio Gain of Tone Dual Channel Overdrive (Bluesbreaker/KOT)
  • Anarchy Audio Gold Class Germanium Overdrive
  • Anarchy Audio Hereafter Dual Mode Ambient Echo Delay and Chorus/Vibrato
  • Anarchy Audio Reignmaker High Gain Distortion
  • Anarchy Audio Spring Driver - Real Spring Tank Reverb

Anasounds : Alexandre Ernandez, Magali Goullet, Thery : Nice, France

anasounds.com

 

Nice, France Boutique-made pedals best known for their wooden facias and green plexi logo LEDs. Some interesting pedals in the range typically featuring simple facia controls and more internal trim-pots for fine-tuning, which isn't always my preference. I feel I have acquired two of the best pedals they have to offer - the limited Crankled 4-pot version of the fantastic Bitoun Fuzz, and the Triple-clipping Cerberus Custom Overdrive. Their new Element True Spring Tank combination looks like an inspired choice too - in particular for purveyors of that surf-rock sound.

  • Anasounds Ages Analog Harmonic Tremolo
  • Anasounds Bitoun Fuzz (Feed Me/Fuzz-Face + Super Fuzz)
  • Anasounds Bitoun Fuzz Crankled Ltd Edition (Super Fuzz) .
  • Anasounds Bumper Micro Buffer
  • Anaounds Cerberus Custom Overdrive .
  • Anasounds Element True Spring Tank Reverb in 3 sizes - Le Bon, La Brute, & Le Truand
  • Anasounds FX Teacher Ego Driver (DIY or Assembled)
  • Anasounds FX Teacher Sliver Optical Tremolo (DIY or Assembled)
  • Anasounds Feed Me Fuzz (Fuzz Face)
  • Anasounds Freq Up Custom Boost/Overdrive
  • Anasounds High Voltage (Plexi)
  • Anasounds Lazy Comp Compressor
  • Anasounds Phase Lag Phaser
  • Anasounds Savage (Klon)
  • Anasounds Spinner - Fidget-Spinner Expression Controller
  • Anasounds Utopia Analog Modulated Delay

Animals Pedal / Nine Volt / LEP International Corp : Yoshikazu Kawamura : Tamaki-cho, Hanamaki-shi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan

animalspedal.jp

 

I've come across these whimsical pedals quite frequently really, and I find their cutesy Jonas Claesson designed graphics somewhat endearing. Mostly of late I've been encountering the Skreddy Pedals and Wren and Cuff collaborations - in particular the Rat-style Tioga Road Distortion. I'm also always intrigued by 'metal' circuits, so will check out the Skateboarding Bear too at some stage:

  • Animals Pedal 1927 Home Run King Compressor
  • Animals Pedal Bath Time Reverb - Hall/Spring/Room
  • Animals Pedal Car Crush Chorus/Vibe
  • Animals Pedal Firewood Acoustic DI Cab Sim
  • Animals Pedal Fishing Is As Fun As Fuzz (Civil War Muff)
  • Animals Pedal I Was A Wolf In The Forest Distortion (Marshall Stack)
  • Animals Pedal Major Overdrive (Plexi - Marc Ahlfs Skreddy Pedals collaboration)
  • Animals Pedal Relaxing Walrus 1250ms Analog Delay (Yamabiko Effect style)
  • Animals Pedal Rover Fuzz (MKII- Marc Ahlfs Skreddy Pedals collaboration)
  • Animals Pedal Rust Rod Fuzz (70's Ram's Head Fuzz - Marc Ahlfs Skreddy Pedals collaboration)
  • Animals Pedal Skateboarding Bear Metal Distortion
  • Animals Pedal Surfing Bear Overdrive (TS808+)
  • Animals Pedal Tioga Road Cycling Distortion (Rat-style - Matthew Holl Wren and Cuff collaboration) .
  • Animals Pedal Vintage Van Driving Is Very Fun Smooth Overdrive/Boost

Banana Effects / Noht Co Ltd : Atsushi Tomofuji : Osaka, Japan

banananaeffects.com

 

Japanese brand which is mostly famous now for its Chiquita style Banana yellow and blue Mini range of Mini Pedals. Right now there are just 5 pedals actively in the range, and these have significantly improved from earlier models featuring numerous mini dials and switches within their diminutive format. They seem to be settling down into a cool format of 8-mode / multi-effect mini pedals with all the current mini pedals appealing to me - yes even the Bass Synth one!:

  • Banana Effects Abracadabra 8-Mode Psychedelic Reverb Mini
  • Banana Effects Aurora 8-Mode Pitch Shift Delay Mini
  • Banana Effects Beaaam! Guitar Synth Mini [discontinued]
  • Banana Effects The Bomb Bass Fuzz [discontinued]
  • Banana Effects Growl 567 Ring Modulator Mini [discontinued]
  • Banana Effects Mandala 8-Mode Glitch Pedal Mini
  • Banana Effects Matryoshka 8-Mode Bass Synth Mini
  • Banana Effects Nirvanana Guitar Synth Generator [discontinued]
  • Banana Effects Pororoka Photosensor Wah Fuzz Mini [discontinued]
  • Banana Effects Shootin At The Moon Oscillating Fuzz / Noise Machine [discontinued]
  • Banana Effects Tararira Arepggiator
  • Banana Effects Wormhole Photosensor Delay Mini [discontinued]

 


Basic Audio : John Lyons : Fayetteville, West Virgina, USA

basicaudio.net

 

I really got into Basic Audio for my 2018 Year of Fuzz research. John has an extensive selection of mainly fuzz pedals, all are great quality and I've ended up with two of his. The lovely full-throated sounding Gnarly Fuzz - which overlaps Maestro and Tone Beneder tones, and the much celebrated Scarab Deluxe which is one of the most powerful / versatile Tone Bender style fuzzes out there with 3 different type of Tone dials - Tone, Bias and Fat! The Tri/Ram Muff is also excellent, and would be my most likely next acquisition here, but then again I have plenty of Big Muffs, including the 6-voices Muffuletta from JHS.

  • Basic Audio 386 Distortion (Sonic Titan Distortion)
  • Basic Audio Alter-Destiny Hybrid Fuzz (All-Rounder Big Muff) .
  • Basic Audio Bass Nas-T Fuzz (Synthy Octave Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Beeb-Ah Fuzz (Roland Bee Baa Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Blender Fuzz (Fender Blender)
  • Basic Audio Buzzin' Sound fuzz (Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround)
  • Basic Audio Buzztone Fuzzy-Drive (Drive/Fuzz/Selmer Buzz Tone)
  • Basic Audio Bye-Bias 4-knob Silicon Fuzz (Dual Bias/Synthy/Zippery Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Bye-Bias 5-knob Germanium Fuzz (Softer, Mis-biased, Starved, Crumbling Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Clean Octave Blend Fuzz (Prescription Electronics C.O.B.)
  • Basic Audio Distortion Booster (Vox Distortion Booster)
  • Basic Audio Dot Fuzz (Hybrid Silicon/Germanium Fuzzrite)
  • Basic Audio Double Beat Fuzz (Roland Double Beat Fuzz Wah)
  • Basic Audio Drive Over Intermod (Modulated Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Duplex Fuzz (Dumble ODS)
  • Basic Audio Eeque High/Low/Band Pass Filters + Resonance & Q Peak
  • Basic Audio Ef-Zee-Won Fuzz (Gibson Maestro FZ-1)
  • Basic Audio Expand Aura Fuzz/Drive/Distortion (Bixonic Expandora)
  • Basic Audio Foxey Lady Fuzz (Guild Foxey Lady Muff + Mids)
  • Basic Audio Foxton Octave Fuzz (Foxx Tone Machine) .
  • Basic Audio Futureman Fuzzy-Drive (Colorsound Powe Boost/Overdriver) .
  • Basic Audio Fuzzmondo Fuzz (Fuzzrite-ish Silicon Fuzz based on 2-knob Foxey Lady) .
  • Basic Audio Fuzz Mutant Silicon Fuzz (Os Mutantes Regulus VII) .
  • Basic Audio Fuzz Right (Fuzzrite)
  • Basic Audio Fuzzstainer Fuzz (Sam Ash Fuzzstainer)
  • Basic Audio Gnarly Fuzz (Maestro / Tone Bender / Shin Ei Fy-2) .
  • Basic Audio Gypsy Fuzz (KR Musical Product The Gypsy Fuzz) .
  • Basic Audio Jumbo Tonebender Fuzz (Colorsound Jumbo Tone Bender Big Muff)
  • Basic Audio Kay Fuzz (Kay Fuzz Tone Octave Up Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Knight Fuzz (Knight KG-389 Fuzz Box)
  • Basic Audio Low Volt Fuzz (Tortured Germanium Zippy Fuzz with Extras)
  • Basic Audio Lucky Number Fuzzstortion (Fuzz/Overdrive/Distortion)
  • Basic Audio Marq Won Germanium Fuzz (Tone Bender MKI) .
  • Basic Audio Messenger Fuzz (Grand Funk Railroad)
  • Basic Audio Nonts 5-knob Fuzz (Silicon Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround) .
  • Basic Audio Orpheum II Germanium Fuzz (4-knob Germanium Fuzz Face+) .
  • Basic Audio Overtdrive Overdrive (Medium Gain Overdrive)
  • Basic Audio P-Fuzz (Gretsch Contro-Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Pale Rider Fuzz (Spaghetti Western 60's Style Fuzz/Fuzzrite)
  • Basic Audio Peak Freq. Fuzz (Filter Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Pep Fuzz (WEM Rush Pep Box)
  • Basic Audio PFOD / Professor Fuzz Overdrive (Hofner Buzztone/Fuzzy Overdrive)
  • Basic Audio Pirk Fuzz/Distortion (InterFax HP-1 Harmonic Percolator)
  • Basic Audio Professor Fuzz Blend Unit
  • Basic Audio Right Fuzz (Germanium Fuzzrite)
  • Basic Audio Screamer Overdrive (TS808)
  • Basic Audio Scarab Deluxe Fuzz (All-Rounder Silicon Tone Bender) .
  • Basic Audio Shore Bird Fuzz/Distortion (ProCo Rat) .
  • Basic Audio Solar Myth Fuzz (3-knob + High/Mid Cut Silicon Fuzz Face)
  • Basic Audio Spooky Tooth Fuzz (Silicon sort of Orpheum/Fuzzrite/Super Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Squarewave+ Fuzz (Univox Squarewave)
  • Basic Audio Standard Fuzz (Ibanez Standard Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Sunn Buzz Fuzz (Maestro FZ-1 Variation)
  • Basic Audio Supa (Germanium Marshall Supa Fuzz + Fat)
  • Basic Audio Supa Fuzz (Marshall Tone Bender Supa MKI predecessor?)
  • Basic Audio Supa MKI Fuzz (Marshall Supa Fuzz / Tone Bender MKI with Mids push) .
  • Basic Audio Supa Tweak (Sag version of Supa MKI)
  • Basic Audio Super Fuzz (Univox Superfuzz)
  • Basic Audio Texsur Fuzz (Hybrid Germanium/Silicon Jordan Bosstone)
  • Basic Audio Tri-Dirty Booster (Honer Tri Dirty Booster Muff)
  • Basic Audio Throbby Tremolo (Sine Wave Amp-style)
  • Basic Audio Tri/Ram Muff Fuzz 5-knob (Triangle + Ram's Head Big Muff) .
  • Basic Audio Warp Fuzz (Pearl Vorg F-502 Warp Sound)
  • Basic Audio Wildcat Fuzz (Super Fuzz-ish Wall-of-Sound Fuzz)
  • Basic Audio Zippy Fuzz (Shin Ei Fy-2/Reedy Saxophone/Horn Fuzz) .
  • Basic Audio Zonk Fuzz (John Hornby Skewes Zonk Machine / Tone Bender MKI)

BearFoot FX : Donner Rusk : St Louis, Missouri, USA

bearfootfx.com

 

Another Björn Juhl connection here - this is another pedal-maker which puts out BJFe sound-designed pedals (alongside Mad Professor and OneControl) - both as the USA distributor for BJFe, also as a manufacturing partner which makes for instance - one of my favourite Vox Top Boost types - the Emerald Green Distortion Machine (originally by BJFe). Both the EGDM and the Emerald Green Overdrive (its successor) have now been discontinued owing to a lack of available components (the specific transistors used). Bearfoot is renown for its range of very amp-like pedals, both in their dynamics and output richness and harmonics. I have come across several of these on and off, but the first one to really stuck / struck was the EGDM. There are quite a few more desirables though:

  • Bearfoot FX Bone Bender MKI Fuzz
  • Bearfoot FX Candiru Fuzz 5K Germanium / Silicon .
  • Bearfoot FX Candy Apple Fuzz Gold (Germanium)
  • Bearfoot FX Dyna Red Distortion (JTM45)
  • Bearfoot FX Emerald Green Distortion Machine (Silicon) .
  • Bearfoot FX Emerald Green Overdrive (Germanium)
  • Barefoot FX Gnarwhal 2 Channel Fuzz (Burgundy BossHorn)
  • Bearfoot FX Honey Bee Overdrive
  • Bearfoot FX Uber Bee Overdrive
  • Bearfoot FX Model G+ (Early Gibson Amp)
  • Bearfoot FX Model Hs (HiWatt / Dumble) .
  • Bearfoot FX Pink Purple Fuzz
  • Bearfoot FX Silver Bee OD (Silvertone Amp)
  • Bearfoot FX Sparkling Yellow Overdrive 3 .

Beetronics FX : Filipe + Daniel + Cristal + Camilla Pampuri : Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, USA

beetronicsfx.com

 

A proper family affair - Brazilian brothers Filipe and Daniel Pampuri and their wives Cristal and Camilla - who are now settled in Los Angeles. The business originally started as a collaboration with NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood. Beetronics initially started off making very much custom pedals, and they still have a custom line. More recently though they have developed a compact but perfectly formed range of Bee-themed pedals with lots of hand-finished effects and really smart and detailed hexagonal circuit boards and details inside and out. The earlier pedals have a sort of weathered / relic'd look to them, while the newest models - the Buzzter and Royal Jelly are more pristine. When I saw and heard the Royal Jelly I knew I had to have one - was just waiting for the August sales to hit and one is on it's way now. These are all really cool pedals - although I'm not sure how many I will add over and above the Royal Jelly flagship:

  • Beetronics FX Babee Fatbee Overdrive
  • Beetronics FX Buzzter Boost/PreAmp
  • Beetronics FX Octahive High Octave Fuzz .
  • Beetronics FX Overhive Overdrive
  • Beetronics FX Royal Jelly Overdrive/Fuzz Blender .
  • Beetronics FX Swarm Harmonizer PLL Fuzz .
  • Beetronics FX Whoctahell Low Octave Fuzz

Big Joe Stomp Box Company : Paul & David Christian : Shelton, Connecticut, USA

bigjoestompbox.com

 

My initial introduction to Big Joe was courtesy of Phillip McKnight - who demo'd the Empire Dual-PreAmp and Lithium Power Box. I've considered the Empire before and it sort of moves in and out of the wishlist, while the new Freakshow Fuzz was an instant hit for me. I already have the Germanium one and will probably get the matching pair at some stage!

  • Big Joe B-308 Compbox Optical Compressor
  • Big Joe B-312 Freakshow Fuzz Silicon
  • Big Joe B-313 Freakshow Fuzz Germanium .
  • Big Joe B-502 Empire Dual-PreAmp
  • Big Joe PB-107 Power Box Lithium Rechargeable Power Supply

Big Tone Music Brewery / BTMB < BYOC : Keith Vonderhulls : Moses Lake, Washington State, USA

buildyourownclone.com/collections/bigtonemusicbrewery

 

This is Keith Vonderhulls' fully assembled boutique sister brand to BYOC. And is currently best known for its range of EQ'd Vintage Series pedals - which all consists of 6 dials (2 regular + 2 dual-concentric), then Bass, Treble, Parametric Mids, Level, and Gain/Fuzz/Sustain depending on pedal type. I'm already a huge fan of BYOC, and I'm aware of BTMB - but it sometimes slips my mind. There are several pedals here actually that I'm interested in - and I will continue to stalk Reverb.com in hopes of some fine opportune prices on these.

  • BTMB EQ'd Vintage Series American RamFuzz (Ram's Head Muff)
  • BTMB EQ'd Vintage Series American TriangleFuzz (Triangle Muff)
  • BTMB EQ'd Vintage Series British Overdrive - Vintage/Crunch (Marshall Blues Breaker)
  • BTMB EQ'd Vintage Series Classic Distortion - Vintage/Turbo (Rat / LM308)
  • BTMB EQ'd Vintage Series Classic Germanium Fuzz (AC127 Fuzz Face)
  • BTMB EQ'd Vintage Series Classic Gray Box Overdrive - Vintage/Dist+ (U741CP DOD250/MXR Distortion+
  • BTMB EQ'd Vintage Series Classic Overdrive - Vintage/Crunch (TS808/TS9/OD-1/SD-1)
  • BTMB EQ'd Vintage Series Classic Silicon Fuzz (BC109C Fuzz Face)
  • BTMB EQ'd Vintage Series Golden Pony Overdrive - Vintage/Smooth (Klon)
  • BTMB Maggie Stereo Vibrato (Magnatone 280 Vibrato)
  • BTMB MOSFET Overdrive & Boost - Class A/AB
  • BTMB Phase Royale Phaser
  • BTMB QuadBoost 2-band Booster - MOSFET/JFET/Silicon/Germanium
  • BTMB Royal Beaver Variable 3-Gain-Stage Multi-Muff
  • BTMB Six of Swords Multi-Drive/Distortion

BJFE : Björn Juhl : Stockholm Sweden

bjornjuhl.com

 

The original Mad Professor of Tone - and the force behind BJFE/BJFe (Björn Juhl Förstärkarelektronik), Bearfoot FX, Mad Professor and OneControl pedals. After something of a fallout with Bearfoot - he now works mostly in collaboration with Japan's OneControl - where he continues to make derivations of his somewhat pricey but legendary pedals. To date I have several of each of the derivative brands, but nothing from the original collection - which has mostly ceased manufacture, also particularly as Bearfoot FX manufactured most of the official BJFE examples recently - plenty on the second hand market - with all variations of the Honey Bee and Mint Green Vibe in particular being collectible :

  • BJFE 109 Fuzz
  • BJFE Arctic White Fuzz 3-Knob
  • BJFE Aqua Marine Wonder Machine 5-Knob
  • BJFE Baby Blue Boosted 1-Knob
  • BJFE Baby Blue Overdrive 4-Knob
  • BJFE Baby Pink Booster 1-Knob
  • BJFE Black Night Delay
  • BJFE Bone Bender MKI (Tone Bender MK I) 2-Knob
  • BJFE Bone Bender MKII 4-Knob
  • BJFE Buzz Bender (Buzzaround)
  • BJFE Big Purple Chorus
  • BJFE Candy Apple Fuzz
  • BJFE Cliffhanger II Distortion 3-Knob
  • BJFE Dyna Red Distortion 3-Knob (Marshall-style)
  • BJFE Dyna Red Distortion 4-Knob
  • BJFE Dynamic Orange Compressor
  • BJFE Emerald Green Distortion Machine 3-Knob
  • BJFE Emerald Green Distortion Machine 4-Knob
  • BJFE Folk Fuzz 3-Knob
  • BJFE Fuzz 66 (Purple Fuzz Face)
  • BJFE Gold Flake Fuzz
  • BJFE Honey Bee Overdrive 3-Knob
  • BJFE Honey Bee Overdrive 4-Knob
  • BJFE Honey Bee Overdrive Deluxe 4-Knob, Dual Footswitches
  • BJFE Honey Bee Overdrive Deluxe 4-Knob, 3-Toggles, Dual Footswitches
  • BJFE Little Green Wonder Overdrive 3-Knob (Tube Screamer)
  • BJFE Marigold Overdrive
  • BJFE Might Green Minivibe
  • BJFE Mint Green Minivibe
  • BJFE Model G (Early Gibson Amp)
  • BJFE Model H Drive 3-Knob (HiWatt)
  • BJFE Model H Custom 5-Knob
  • BJFE Model R Distortion 3-Knob
  • BJFE Model R Distortion 4-Knob
  • BJFE Payphone Green Overdrive/Distortion
  • BJFE Pine Green Compressor 4-Knob
  • BJFE Pink Purple Smooth Fuzz 3-Knob
  • BJFE Poppy Red Distortion
  • BJFE Purple Compressor 5-Knob
  • BJFE Purple Fuzz - 4-Knob (Fuzz Face)
  • BJFE Purple Humper Mid Booster
  • BJFE Sea Blue EQ 3-Knob
  • BJFE Sea Blue Mini Vibe Deluxe
  • BJFE Silver Lawn Overdrive 3-Knob
  • BJFE Sparkle Face Fuzz
  • BJFE Sparkling Orange Distortion Machine
  • BJFE Sparkling Yellow Overdrive 3-Knob
  • BJFE Super Fuzz Custom
  • BJFE Vintage Controlled Filter VCF Envelope Filter
  • BJFE Yellow Saffron Tremolo

Black Arts Toneworks / BAT : Mark Wentz : Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA

blackartstoneworks.com

 

Most will know Black Arts Toneworks by its signature flagship Pharaoh Multi-Clipping Muff Fuzz pedals - I have the compact Son of version which of course I love. Mark tends to go towards the noise and more gainey side of the Big Muff circuit for a number of rather more extreme pedals inspired and influenced by this earlier circuits. Most of these pedals are Medium to Large enclosure - while I would be delighted if Mark introduced more Son of / Jr compact versions of some of his classics - could really do with a compact LSTR!

  • Black Arts Toneworks Black Forest Fuzz (Colorsound Power Boost / Overdriver+)
  • Black Arts Toneworks Black Sheep Menacing Sludge Fuzz!
  • Black Arts Toneworks Coven Dual Channel Fuzz - Pharaoh + Black Forest
  • Black Arts Toneworks Crown of Horns OpAmp Fuzz (OpAmp style Muff)
  • Black Arts Toneworks Destroyer One Knob Dual Footswitch High Gain Fuzz - Ritual Fuzz + Oath Fuzz
  • Black Arts Toneworks Fnord Octave Fuzz
  • Black Arts Toneworks LSTR Low-End Doom Fuzz ('BAT'LSTR = Battlestar!)
  • Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh Flagship Multi-Clipping Muff Fuzz
  • Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh Supreme 6-way Clipping Variable PreInput/Saturation Fuzz
  • Black Arts Toneworks Quantum Mystic 3-Band EQ Germanium Clipping Overdrive
  • Black Arts Toneworks Rabid Mammal High Gain Fuzz + Boost Matt Pike Signature pedal
  • Black Arts Toneworks Revelation 3-Step PreAmp/Boost
  • Black Arts Toneworks Sarcophagus Dual Channel Fuzz - Pharaoh + LSTR
  • Black Arts Toneworks Skyboost Full Range Gritty Treble Boost/Fuzz
  • Black Arts Toneworks Son of Pharaoh Compact Pharaoh Fuzz with all features intact .
  • Black Arts Toneworks Tres Diablos Ruidados Triple Independently Switchable Gainstage Overdrive/Distoriton
  • Black Arts Toneworks Witch Burner Mid-Pushed Overdrive

Black Country Customs / Laney Amplification : Lyndon Laney : Halesowen, West Midlands, UK

laney.co.uk/products/collection/black-country-customs

 

I've featured the Black Country Customs Tony Iommi Signature Boost on the site a couple of times and I still intend to acquire at some stage. BCC have added three further cool new pedals to the range this year - as below:

  • Black Country Customs Monolity Harmonic Distortion
  • Black Country Customs Secretpath Reverb (Spring/Plate/Shimmer)
  • Black Country Customs Spiral Array Chorus (Analog/Stereo Tri Chorus/Dimension D)
  • Black Country Customs Steelpark Boost
  • Black Country Customs Tony Iommi Signature Boost (Range Master)

Blackhawk Amplifiers : Brooks Blackhawk : Portland, Oregon, USA

blackhawkamplifiers.bigcartel.com

 

Cool under-the-radar sort of high gain specialist with Viking runic overtones. I'm particularly impressed by the Balrog Distortion, and Svarog and Valhalla Fuzzes - will likely be adding some of those to the collection at some stage.

  • Blackhawk Asgard Bass Fuzz/Drive
  • Blackhawk Azoth Handwired Baxandall (2-band) EQ Compact
  • Blackhawk Balrog V2 High Gain Distortion Compact
  • Blackhawk Svarog 3 x Germanium Transistor Fuzz Compact (Marshall Supafuzz)
  • Blackhawk Uruk-Hai Deluxe High Gain Drive/Fuzz/Distortion (Valhalla V3 + Vakyrie V3)
  • Blackhawk Valhalla Handwired Fuzz Deluxe
  • Blackhawk Valhalla V3 High Gain Compact Deluxe Fuzz
  • Blackhawk Valkyrie V3 OpAmp Drive Compact
  • Blackhawk Volume IV (VIV) Handwired Treble Booster Compact (Rangemaster)

Blackout Effectors : Kyle Tompkins : Leicester, North Carolina, USA

blackouteffectors.com

 

I was aware of Blackout through a variety of pedal videos, including the recent Cavavernous V2 Reverberator and various iterations of the Musket Fuzz. For me Blackout Effectors is mostly associated with Fuzz Pedals - they do some pretty awesome lagrge-scale ones too, which alas are over-sized for my needs, although I do include the superb Cavernous Reverb in my list. Most likely acquisitions here are the Blunderbuss and Fubär Fuzzes.

  • Blackout Effects Blunderbuss Fuzz (Musket Hybrid Silicon/Germanium) .
  • Blackout Effectors Cadavernous V2 Reverberator
  • Blackout Effectors Crystal Dagger Octave Fuzz/Phaser/Ring Modulator
  • Blackout Effectors Fix'd Fuzz Deluxe
  • Blackout Effectors Fubär Fuzz (Tone Bender MKII + Octave) .
  • Blackout Effectors Mantra Overdrive
  • Blackout Effectors Musket Fuzz V2 (Multi-Muff Fuzz)
  • Blackout Effectors Sibling Compact Analog Phaser
  • Blackout Effectors Special Twosome Deluxe Blunderbuss Version
  • Blackout Effectors Twosome Dual Fuzz (Fix'd Fuzz + Musket)
  • Blackout Effectors Whetstone V2 Analog Phaser

BluGuitar : Thomas Blug : Saarbrücken, Germany

bluguitar.com

 

I've known about Thomas's Amp 1 for a long time - but had acquired my principal amps really before that time. Now in its Mercury Edition and sounding better than ever this NuTube powered amp is a great modern solution to amplification. I just think I would prefer it if he created a combo amp with the amp built in - less power-leads, cabling etc. and more handy for me - although I can see how it would complicate his product offering too. It's certainly still up for consideration - and I may adopt this way of doing things eventually - time will tell.

  • BluGuitar Amp 1 Mercury Edition 4 Channel Floor Amp / PreAmp / Drive
  • BluGuitar Amp X Neural-Analog-PreAmp
  • BluGuitar BluBOX Impulse Response Speaker Emulator
  • BluGuitar Remote 1 Extension Footswtich for Amp 1
  • BluGuitar Speaker - NanoCab/FatCab/TwinCab

Bogner Amplification : Reinhold Bogner : North Hollywood, California, USA

bogneramplification.com

 

Reinhold Bogner is a phenomenal sound-designer and engineer and builds some of the most capable full-range / high distortion amps available anywhere. He is obsessed with quality and detail, and all his amps and pedals follow the same strict regime. I only have one so far - the superb Rupert-Neve-transformer-loaded 'Burnley' distortion - with luxury Bubinga top-plate - I fully intend to get the 'Wessex' overdrive from the same range, as well as the higher gain Red-Channel derivation from the Ecstasy amp. I might even consider the superb 'Plexi' clone which is 'La Grange'. There is no weak one amongst these, although the Uberschall could do with more tone-shaping options, as the Ecstasy Red greatly exceeds it in range and tweakability. I would also be interested in acquiring the Oxford Fuzz if Reinhold could squeeze its width down to the same size as the Burnley and Wessex.

  • Bogner Burnley Distortion (Rupert Neve) .
  • Bogner Ecstasy Blue Drive
  • Bogner Ecstasy Blue Drive Mini .
  • Bogner Ecstasy Red Distortion .
  • Bogner Ecstasy Red Distortion Mini
  • Bogner Harlow Boost & Bloom (Rupert Neve) .
  • Bogner La Grange Distortion (Plexi)
  • Bogner Lyndhurst Compressor (Rupert Neve)
  • Bogner Oxford Fuzz (Rupert Neve) .
  • Bogner Uberschall Distortion
  • Bogner Wessex Overdrive (Ruper Neve) .

Bondi Effects : Jon and Anna Ashley : Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia

bondieffects.com

 

A small boutique Australian pedal-making team based just outside Sydney Australia - I guess they are the Dr Scientist as such of Australia. They only have 3 pedals on offer - but all are great - the most recent Breakers Overdrive is a an evolution from the Del Mar which was based around a Tubescreamer Circuit. My favourite here is the really smart 2026 Blackmer VCA-based compressor - which I wish could be reduced to a mini form-factor. Lots of players love and 'sport' all of these.

  • Bondi Effects 2026 Compressor (Blackmer VCA)
  • Bond Effects Art Van Delay (Analogue)
  • Bondi Effects Breakers Overdrive (Trans)
  • Bondi Effects Del Mar (Blues Breaker + Tube Screamer)
  • Bondi Effects Sick As Overdrive (Klon)

Boss : Yoshi Ikegami : Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (< Roland Group)

boss.info

 

Boss is an interesting case - they largely pioneered the modern 'compact' pedal format which is the standard size now - back in 1977. And they maintain almost exactly the same latched-switch-plate design today, which does have certain inherent limitations - cv Chase Bliss, Dr Scientist, Foxpedal, and JHS now. That said, this is one of the 2 most legendary pedal companies in terms of creating long-lasting classics - with Electro-Harmonix being the other. EHX to my mind still does too many over-sized enclosures, and both companies could benefit with a degree of modernisation. That said - Boss has come strong of late with its Waza range, 500 range, Katana Amps and latest JB-2 Angry Driver pedal - which are all excellent. Much of this is super modern, but the compact pedals still look the same as they've always done, although currently they're made in Taiwan versus the Japan of old, and some have lesser quality components for a variety of reasons. That said, there are a tonne of Boss pedals that I'm still very much interested in - including all of the following:

  • Boss FRV-1 '63 Fender Spring Reverb [discontinued]
  • Boss AC-3 Acoustic Simulator
  • Boss DA-2 Adaptive Distortion [discontinued]
  • Boss JB-2 Angry Driver .
  • Boss AW-2 Auto Wah [discontinued]
  • Boss AW-3 Dynamic Wah [discontinued]
  • Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Keeley Freak Fuzz Mod . [discontinued]
  • Boss BD-2w Blues Driver Waza Craft
  • Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble
  • Boss CE-2w Chorus Waza Craft
  • Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
  • Boss TU-3S Chromatic Tuner Ultra Compact
  • Boss TU-3w Chromatic Tuner Waza Craft
  • Boss BC-2 Combo Drive (Vox AC)
  • Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer
  • Boss CP-1X Compressor
  • Boss DM-2w Delay Waza Craft (Analog)
  • Boss DD-3 Digital Delay Alchemy Audio Tap-Tempo Mod
  • Boss DD-7 Digital Delay
  • Boss DD-200 Digital Delay Workstation .
  • Boss DD-500 Digital Delay Workstation
  • Boss MZ-2 Digital Metalizer Distortion [discontinued]
  • Boss DSD-3 Digital Sampler/Delay [discontinued]
  • Boss DC-2w Dimension C Waza Craft (Chorus)
  • Boss DS-1 Distortion .
  • Boss DS-1 Distortion JHS Synth Drive Mod .
  • Boss DS-1X Distortion .
  • Boss SD-2 Dual OverDrive [discontinued]
  • Boss DN-2 DynaDrive [discontinued]
  • Boss FT-2 Dynamic Filter [discontinued]
  • Boss AW-3 Dynamic Wah
  • Boss ES-5 Five Loop Effects Switching System
  • Boss ES-8 Eight Loop Effects Switching System
  • Boss GE-7 Equalizer Alchemy Audio Mod .
  • Boss GE-20 Equalizer 10-band, programmable/presets
  • Boss EQ-200 Equalizer 10-band, dual channel, presets
  • Boss FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster [discontinued]
  • Boss BF-2 Flanger Alchemy Audio Mod . [discontinued]
  • Boss BF-3 Flanger Stereo
  • Boss FZ-3 Fuzz . (Fuzz Face) [discontinued]
  • Boss FZ-5 Fuzz . (Fuzz Face/Maestro/Octave)
  • Boss DD-20 Giga Delay [discontinued]
  • Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal Alchemy Audio Mod [discontinued]
  • Boss HF-2 Hi Band Flanger [discontinued]
  • Boss OD-200 Hybrid Drive
  • Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz . (Super Fuzz) [discontinued]
  • Boss PS-6 Harmonist Harmonizer
  • Boss LS-2 Line Selector
  • Boss RC-1 Simple Loop Station
  • Boss RC-3 Loop Station Looper
  • Boss RC-30 Twin Pedal Loop Station
  • Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion Alchemy Audio Mod
  • Boss ML-2 Metal Core
  • Boss MT-2 Metal Zone Keeley Twilight Zone Mod .
  • Boss MT-2w Metal Zone Waza Craft
  • Boss MD-200 Modulation Workstation
  • Boss MD-500 Modulation Workstation .
  • Boss MS-2 Three Loop Multi Effects Switcher
  • Boss MO-2 Multi Overtone
  • Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor Alchemy Audio Mod .
  • Boss OD-1 OverDrive (40An BoxSet)
  • Boss OD-1X OverDrive
  • Boss OD-1w OverDrive Waza Craft
  • Boss OD-3 OverDrive
  • Boss OD-200 Hybrid Drive Workstation
  • Boss OS-2 OverDrive/Distortion
  • Boss PQ-4 Parametric Equalizer [discontinued]
  • Boss PH-1 Phaser (40An BoxSet)
  • Boss PH-1R Phaser . [discontinued]
  • Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter
  • Boss SY-300 Polyphonic Guitar Synth
  • Boss PW-2 Power Driver [discontinued]
  • Poss ST-2 Power Stack (JCM800)
  • Boss RV-6 Reverb
  • Boss RV-500 Reverb Workstation .
  • Boss RT-20 Rotary Ensemble
  • Boss SL-20 Slicer
  • Boss SG-1 Slow Gear Auto Volume Swell [discontinued]
  • Boss RE-20 Space Echo
  • Boss SP-1 Spectrum 1-band Parametric Equalizer / Frequency Enhancer (40An BoxSet)
  • Boss CH-1 Super Chorus
  • Boss DF-2 Super Feedbacker & Distortion [discontinued]
  • Boss OC- 3 Super Octave
  • Boss SD-1 Super OverDrive
  • Boss SD-1w Super OverDrive Waza Craft
  • Boss SY-1 Synthesizer .
  • Boss SY-1000 Synthesizer Workstation
  • Boss TE-2 Tera Echo
  • Boss TR-2 Tremolo Alchemy Audio Double Speed Mod .
  • Boss TW-1 T Wah Touch Wah [discontinued]
  • Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion
  • Boss OD-2/R Turbo OverDrive [discontinued]
  • Boss VB-2w Vibrato Waza Craft
  • Boss VO-1 Vocoder
  • Boss PX-3 Wah
  • Boss Waza Air Surround Sound Immersive Katana Modelling Headphones
  • Boss XT-2 Xtortion Extreme Distortion [discontinued]

Buffalo FX : Steve Painter : France

buffalo-fx.com

 

I'm a huge fan of the sound of the Butler Tube Driver pedal - which uses an actual 12AX7 valve and comes in a pretty sizeable enclosure - funnily TC Electronic have just recently released their own sort of version of this - 'Tube Pilot' which is similarly loaded with a 12AX7 loaded into a regular enclosure, but with no tone stack - just volume and gain. The Buffalo FX TD-X gives you the same sort of sound from transistors alone - using a cleverly tuned analogue circuit. The TCE Tube Pilot is only £49 - so I'm actuall tempted to try that one too!

  • Buffalo FX Carrera Overdrive
  • Buffalo FX Evolution Overdrive
  • Buffalo FX Germanium Fuzz V3
  • Buffalo FX M1 Fuzz (Big Muff Ram's Head)
  • Buffalo FX M-1 Fuzz (Stacked Ram's Head)
  • Buffalo FX Patriot Fuzz MKII (Big Muff Civil War)
  • Buffalo FX Power Booster (Colorsound PB / OD)
  • Buffalo FX Propeller Boost/Buffer
  • Buffalo FX Reticon Flanger
  • Buffalo FX Supa Driver (Power Booster+)
  • Buffalo FX TD-X Overdrive (Tube Driver)

BYOC / Build Your Own Clone : Keith Vonderhulls : Moses Lake, Washington State, USA

buildyourownclone.com

 

I'm not really into building and soldering my own pedals yet - but if I were I would start here. I have one of these pedals already (Lil' Mouse [Rat]) - assembled by Johnny Balmer of Alchemy Audio, and the Crown Jewel multi-drive is high up on my wishlist. BYOC specialise in making very high quality clone kits - based on the exact same components of those source models. They do a variety of different sizes - including lots of really decent mini pedals. They also have a number of these available pre-built - which is how I prefer to acquire them!

  • BYOC Classic Fuzz (Fuzz Face)
  • BYOC Crown Jewel Multi-Drive .
  • BYOC Echo Royal Tap-Tempo Delay
  • BYOC Lil' Mouse (Rat) .
  • BYOC Mouse (Rat) [discontinued]
  • BYOC Overdrive 2 (Tubescreamer+) [discontinued] .
  • BYOC Parametric Overdrive (Pearl OD-05)
  • BYOC Silver Pony (Klon + Clipping)

Carl Martin : Søren Jongberg : Grenaa, Denmark (< East Sound Research)

carlmartin.com

 

Compared to size of country, there really are quite a lot of really good Danish pedal brands - and they sort of split into Vintage and Modern - with Carl Martin, Nordvang Custom and T-Rex sitting mostly in the vintage effects category, while Emma Electronic, Lunastone and TC Electronic tend toward the more modern side. Carl Martin make universally excellent sounding pedals, but I have the same issue with them as I have with EHX - in that the vast majority of their pedals are in medium or above size enclosures. In several cases there is good cause for the medium enclosure as a number of these have dual footswitches - and this is something Carl Martin is very well known for - dual compression, dual chorus etc. I don't know why they can't take a leaf out of Chase Bliss's, Dr Scientist's and Foxpedal's playbook and adopt more compact size enclosures - even with dual footswitches as those do. The Greg Howe Lick Box is excellent though - yes it is oversized, but it does combine Boost, Overdrive and Distortion. I also really like the sound of the DC Drive, but would much prefer it in a smaller enclosure.

  • Carl Martin Ampster Tube Guitar Amp-Speaker Sim DI
  • Carl Martin Atlantic Chorus V2
  • Carl Martin Axis Flanger
  • Carl Martin Comp/Limiter V2
  • Carl Martin DC Drive V2
  • Carl Martin Greg Howe Lick Box
  • Carl Martin Ottawa Vintage Optical Envelope
  • Carl Martin Panama (Hot Modded Plexi / EVH)
  • Carl Martin PlexiRanger Plexi Drive + Treble Booster
  • Carl Martin Purple Moon Vintage Fuzz 'n Vibe V2
  • Carl Martin Surf Trem V2
  • Carl Martin Tone Tweake 12 dB Boost & 3 Band EQ

Caroline Guitar Company : Philippe Herndon : Columbia, South Carolina, USA

carolineguitar.com

 

Philippe Herndon's business is split neatly into sort of two divisions - Lo-Fi Time-Based and Modulation effects, and powerful and dynamic Drive and Fuzz Pedals. Initially I was slightly put off by the slightly over-sized medium enclosures, but have warmed up to a number of these pedals - including the Hawaiian Pizza Fuzzy-Drive, Haymaker Dynamic Drive, Shigeharu Octave Fuzz and Wave Cannon MK II SuperDistorter - with the last mentioned the most likely acquisition. Overall though I pretty much like the whole range - these are all quality pedals, I just wish they could be more compact:

  • Caroline Guitar Company Hawaiian Pizza Sweet and Savoury Fuzzy-Drive (D-Style)
  • Caroline Guitar Company Haymaker Dynamic Drive
  • Caroline Guitar Company Kilobyte Lo-Fi Delay
  • Caroline Guitar Company Megabyte Lo-Fi Delay Computer
  • Caroline Guitar Company Météore Lo-Fi Reverb
  • Caroline Guitar Company Parabola Solid State Tremolo
  • Caroline Guitar Company Shigeharu IC Fuzz + Octave
  • Caroline Guitar Company Somersault Lo-Fi Modulator Chorus/Vibrato
  • Caroline Guitar Company Wave Cannon MK II SuperDistorter (Rat)

Catalinbread Effects / Mechanisms of Music : Nicholas Harris RIP & Howard Gee : Portland, Oregon, USA

catalinbread.com

 

I used to know Catalinbread best for its delay pedals - Adineko, Belle Epoch, Csidman, Echorec, Topanga etc., but I've become more familiar with their drive pedals of late - after I did copious research for a Vox AC30 Treble Boost pedal. I obviously ended up buying the Galileo, and have a mind to get the RAH and Sabbra Cadabra too sometime, while I've always been a huge Marshall fan too, so will most likely check out the Dirty Little Secret also eventually. I was for a while considering the Echorec also, but really want my delays and reverbs to be stereo these days.

  • Catalinbread Adineko Oil Can Delay
  • Catalinbread Antichthon Tremolo Fuzz .
  • Catalinbread Belle Epoch Compact Tape Delay (Exhoplex)
  • Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe Tape Delay (Echoplex)
  • Catalinbread Bicycle Delay
  • Catalinbread Callisto Chorus/Vibrato
  • Catalinbread Coriolis Effect - Sustainer/Wah/Filter/Pitch-Shifter/Harmonizer
  • Catalinbread Csidman CD Glitch/Skip Delay
  • Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret (Marshall Super Lead Distortion)
  • Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret 2019 Red Mod (Marshall Super Lead Distortion) .
  • Catalinbread Echorec Tape Delay
  • Catalinbread Epoch Boost PreAmp/Buffer
  • Catalinbread Epoch Pre (Echoplex PreAmp)
  • Catalinbread Formula 5F6 (Fender Tweed Bassman)
  • Catalinbread Formula No.55 (5E3 Tweed Deluxe)
  • Catalinbread Fuzzrite Fuzz (w/ Moseley) .
  • Catalinbread Galileo (Queen Vox + Treble Boost Distortion) .
  • Catalinbread Giygas Fuzz/EQ
  • Catalinbread Karma Suture Germanium Fuzz (Fuzz Face)
  • Catalinbread Karma Suture Silicon Fuzz (Fuzz Face)
  • Catalinbread Katzenkonig Fuzz (Tonebender + Rat inspired) .
  • Catalinbread Naga Viper (Rangemaster Treble Booster)
  • Catalinbread NiCompressor
  • Catalinbread Octapussy Octave-Up Fuzz
  • Catalinbread Perseus Octave-Down Fuzz
  • Catalinbread RAH (Zeppelin Hi-Watt + Treble Boost Distortion)
  • Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra (Sabbath Laney + Treble Boost Distortion)
  • Catalinbread SFT (Ampeg SVT)
  • Catalinbread Talisman Plate Reverb
  • Catalinbread Teaser Stallion Oscillating Distortion .
  • Catalinbread Topanga Spring Reverb
  • Catalinbread Valcoder Tremolo - 60's Valco-style
  • Catalinbread Zero Point TZF Flanger

Chase Bliss Audio : Joel Korte : Anoka, Minnesota, USA

chaseblissaudio.com

 

These to me are the jewels of the pedal world really - seeing how much amazing functionality Joel Korte can squeeze into a regular compact enclosure is just a marvel of engineering - and these sound as beautiful as they look - they're pricey mind you. I've only just recently acquired my 5th Chase Bliss pedal - the Warped Vinyl Chorus/Vibrato, just to find out that there is an updated model coming out at the end of this month - the Warped Vinyl HiFi with a Lag dial instead of Volume and a totally different tone circuit - so that one goes on the wishlist too. I'm still kind of undecided about the Tonal Recall RKM - no doubt it's an excellent pedal, but very steep at £500 and mono output only - so I would have to squeeze it into the chain at an odd location. I'll probably wait for the sales to come around again.

  • Chase Bliss Audio Automatone CXM 1978 Reverb - in collaboration with Meris
  • Chase Bliss Audio Automatone PreAmp MKII - in collaboration with Benson Amps
  • Chase Bliss Audio Blooper Bottomless Modulating/Glitching Looper .
  • Chase Bliss Audio Brothers Analog Gain Stage .
  • Chase Bliss Audio Condor Analog EQ + Pre + Filter
  • Chase Bliss Audio Generation Loss (Cooper FX) VHS Tape Degenerator .
  • Chase Bliss Audio Gravitas .
  • Chase Bliss Audio MOOD Two Channel Granular Micro-Looper / Delay .
  • Chase Bliss Audio Spectre MKII .
  • Chase Bliss Audio Thermae Analog Delay + Pitch Shifter
  • Chase Bliss Audio Tonal Recall RKM
  • Chase Bliss Audio Warped Vinyl MKII .
  • Chase Bliss Audio Warped Vinyl HiFi
  • Chase Bliss Audio Wombtone MKII .
  • *Abracadabra Audio Ayahuasca Trem-Fuzz (Chase Bliss Collaboration) .

Chase Tone : Kyle Chase : Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA

chasetone.com

 

I first came across Chase Tone courtesy of That Pedal Show - specifically the '68 Red Velvet Fuzz which of course I jumped straight on - just before they got sold out for a while. I've since also acquired its predecessor - the Roadster Fuzz - which has a slightly difference character but same BC183 Transistors as far as I'm aware. One of Kyle Chase's key knacks is getting fantastic Germanium style tones out of Silicon Transistors - which obviously I appreciate in duplicate here. Kyle is principally a fuzz specialist yet a number of his signature pedals have been discontinued over the years, and his current active offering consists of the '68 Fuzz, Golden Scripture Wah and Secret PreAmp.

  • Chase Tone '68 Red Velvet Fuzz (BC183C) (Fuzz Face) .
  • Chase Tone BC108C Fuzz Fella Silicon Fuzz (Fuzz Face) .
  • Chase Tone 1970s Metallic Blue Stardust Hi-Octave Fuzz (2n3906)
  • Chase Tone Black Stardust Fuzz (BC109C)
  • Chase Tone Blue Stardust Fuzz (BC108C)
  • Chase Tone Golden Scripture Wah
  • Chase Tone Purple Stardust Hi-Octave Fuzz (BC549B + 2n3906)
  • Chase Tone Roadster Fuzz (BC183?) .
  • Chase Tone Secret PreAmp (JFET)
  • Chase Tone Red Stardust Germanium (Unspecified NOS Transistors)
  • Chase Tone Silver Stardust (BC183/2L)

Coda Effects : Benoit Meijer : Paris, France

coda-effects.com

 

One of the most open and friendly pedal builders around - Benoit offers up complete plans and even components for all his pedal builds - of which there are 3 official excellent ones to date, and of which I have 2! - The Black Hole Sunn T PreAmp and Dolmen Muff Style Fuzz,

  • Coda Effects Black Hole Sunn Model T PreAmp .
  • Coda Effects Dolmen Fuzz (Big Muff) .
  • Montagne Tap-Tempo Tremolo

Cooper FX : Tom Majeski : Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

cooperfx.com

 

Tom first came to my notice and most others with the launch of his Generation Loss pedal - a sort of ambient signal degradation effect based on VHS Tape Wear. The work on the Generation Loss then informed his collaboration with Joel Korte on Chase Bliss Audio's Dark World Reverb pedal - for the 'Dark' side of the pedal and 'Black' mode in particular. There are just three pedals in the range to-date - with the latest magic pitch-shifting workstation - Moment Machine really moving the ergonomics and usability of these pedals on another step. He has a number of really cool pedals and V2s coming down the line - the Moment Machine in particular is high on my wishlist - and I fully intend to get the Chase Bliss Audio Dark World Reverb too - which features 3 of Tom's algorithms - Modulate, Shimmer and Black. I feel Tom should produce a workshop style pedal with all his effects in the same format at the Moment Machine - with perhaps a few more controls to accommodate fully hands-on parameter manipulation.

  • Cooper FX Generation Loss VHS Tape Style Signal Degradation Lo-Fi Texturiser
  • Cooper FX Moment Machine Polyphonic Pitch-Shifting Engine with 16 Step Sequencer
  • Cooper FX Outward II Digital Delay and Time Stretching Sampler
  • *Chase Bliss Audio Dark World Reverb collaboration with Joel Korte for Modulate, Shimmer and Black algorithms

Crazy Tube Circuits : Christos Ntaifotis : Athens, Greece

crazytubecircuits.com

 

With Crazy Tube Circuits, Jam Pedals, Side Effects and Tsakalis - Athens seems to be a hotbed of pedal-makers these days. CTC is likely best known for its Splash and White Whale Reverbs and Starlight Liquid Fuzz - amongst many great sounding ones. I'm not always in love with the oversized enclosures, but look forward to acquiring the Muffuletta-like Constellation Fuzz - which does similar things for Face Fuzz and Tone Bender styles.

  • Crazy Tube Circuits Black Magic Overdrive/Distortion
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Constellation Multi Fuzz (Face Fuzz + Tone Bender + Range Master) .
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Cyclone Analog Tap Tempo 4-Mode Phaser
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Deranged Envelope Filter
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Echotopia Delay
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Falcon PreAmp/Overdrive (5E3 Tweed Deluxe / 6G2 Brownface Princeton)
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Golden Ratio Compressor
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Killer V Libra-Drive (Magnatone)
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Limelight Fuzz (Maestro/Tone Bender MKII)
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Magnifier Boost/Buffer +20dB
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Phi Golden Ratio Compressor
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Pin Up Fuzz (MOSFET Fuzz)
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Planet B Plus Stoner Drive
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Space Charged II Tube Overdrive
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Splash MK3 / MK4 Compact Reverb
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Splash Stereo Reverb
  • Crazy Tube Circuits SPT Swirly Phaser/Vibe
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Stardust Blakface Amp Drive
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Starlight Fuzz (Fuzzy-Drive) .
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Stoned Hz Waveform Modulation Factory - Chorus/Flanger/Rotary/Tremolo/Vibrato
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Time - Tape / Magnetic Drum Echo/Delay
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Vyagra Boost MK2 Clean Boost
  • Crazy Tube Circuits White Whale Spring Trem-Verb
  • Crazy Tube Circuits Ziggy V2 Overdrive/Distortion (Plexi)

Cusack Music : Jon Cusack : Holland, Michigan, USA

cusackmusic.com

 

I have a passing acquaintance with Jon Cusack and Cusack Music - I know he's worked with JHS Josh Scott on a number of pedals - including the Bonsai, and is collaborating with ProAnalog Devices / Scotty Smith for the production of those pedals. I understand he also has a hand in Mojo Hand FX which seems to have a very similar address! In terms of Jon's own Cusack Music line - he's probably best known for his various medium-sized tap-tempo / tremolo infused effects - 'Tap-A-Delay' 'Tap-A-Fuzz' etc. I as a fuzz-fanatic am obviously keen on his various fuzz flavours, and recently snapped up one of the limited edition Germanium Screamer Fuzzes. Jon also does a number of really cool diminutive Always-on or Never-Off effects as he calls them. Certainly some cool pedals here, but not sure how many more will be added to the collection.

  • Cusack Music Delay + Modulation
  • Cusack Music MetaPlexi Plexi Drive + Boost
  • Cusack Music More Leader Clean Boost + Buffer
  • Cusack Music Orthos Distortion + Boost
  • Cusack Music Resound Digital Programmable Reverb
  • Cusack Music Reverb
  • Cusack Music Scream Never-Off Screamer
  • Cusack Music Screamer V2 Overdrive (Clean/Transparent Overdrive)
  • Cusack Music Screamer Fuzz
  • Cusack Music Screamer Fuzz Germanium (51 Ltd Edn) .
  • Cusack Music Scruzz Never-Off Screamer Fuzz
  • Cusack Music Sub Fuzz Sub-Octave Fuzz
  • Cusack Music Tap-A-Delay + Modulation
  • Cusack Music Tap-A-Delay Deluxe + Float Switch
  • Cusack Music Tap-A-Fuzz + Tremolo
  • Cusack Music Tap-A-Scream Overdrive + Tremolo
  • Cusack Music Tap-A-Whirl Analog Tremolo
  • Cusack Music Tiny Tap Delay Never-Off Delay
  • Cusack Music Tiny Verb Never-Off Reverb
  • Cusack Music Tremolo
  • Cusack Music Twirl Never-Off Tremolo

Custom Tones : Robbie Hall : Charlotte, Vermont, USA

customtonesinc.com

 

Robbie Hall's outfit is best known for making various versions of a very faithful Dumble-style PreAmp pedal under the Ethos product name - there are various types at various sizes, with the Ethos Overdrive being the fully loaded version. However amazing that pedal is, it's huge obviously but I've always wanted a slice of the Ethos action - which I can now acquire in the shape of the new Ethos TWE-1 - which has nothing to do with the Dumble, but is in fact a pedal made after the celebrated custom Trainwreck Express Amp. I will certainly be ordering a TWE-1 very soon - it has wonderful versatility and an enormous range of rich and harmonic drive tones.

  • Custom Tones Ethos Clean-Fusion II PreAmp
  • Custom Tones Ethos Overdrive PreAmp
  • Custom Tones Ethos TWE-1 PreAmp .

DanDrive Pedal Solution : Daniel Querner : Bremen, Germany

www.dandrivepedal.com (Forthcoming)

 

I only came across DanDrive pedals very recently - courtesy of a Joey Landreth appearance on the most Recent That Pedal Show episode. I absolutely loved what I heard of the Secret Weapon Fuzz demo'd there - Dan's take on the Zonk Machine Fuzz. Both the Secret Engine and Secret Weapon Fuzz are based on the Zonk (itself a sort of Tone Bender MKI) - where the latter I believe has the extra Bias Knob for more tone-tweaking. Dan is obviously a master of the Fuzzy arts - with 7 pedals currently to his range as far as I can tell - offered in both Standard rawer enclosure and Cloth Deluxe - with beautiful swirling paint-jobs! These are very high quality pedals, meticulously made with premium components, and typically extended features - and the high prices reflect that. I have already put in an order for a Secret Weapon - and we'll see where we take it from there!:

  • DanDrive Aequitas NKT275 4-Knob Fuzz (Germanium Fuzz Face)
  • DanDrive Austin Blender 3-Knob Octave Fuzz (Prescription COB)
  • DanDrive Austin Pride 4-knob Transistor Switching Fuzz (Texas Square Face)
  • DanDrive Equilibrium BC183 4-Knob Fuzz (Silicon Fuzz Face)
  • DanDrive Osiris Hot Rodded Austin Pride Fuzz
  • DanDrive Praeclarus PreAmp Echoplex Style Boost
  • DanDrive Secret Engine 2-Knob Fuzz (Zonk Machine)
  • DanDrive Secret Machine 3-Knob Fuzz (Hot-Rodded Zonk Machine)
  • DanDrive Secret Weapon 3-Knob Fuzz (Zonk Machine) .
  • DanDrive Tweedy 3-Knob Tweed Drive
  • DanDrive Veritas BC108 4-Knob Fuzz (Silicon Fuzz Face)

Darkglass Electronics : Douglas Castro : Helsinki, Finland

darkglass.com

 

Darkglass is obviously world-renowned as a purveyor of quality Bass gear - so most of their pedals are tuned into the thicker lower octave vibrations of basses. Yet there are still a couple of pedals that can be used to great effect by us regular guitar players - the brand new Hyper Luminal Hybrid Compressor (has Guitar mode), as well as the rumbling Duality Dual Fuzz Engine. Lots of guitar players like to use the Bass Big Muff - and this occupies similar territory.

  • Darkglass Duality Dual Fuzz Engine
  • Darkglass Hyper Luminal Hybrid Compressor

Dawner Prince Electronics : Zoran Kraljevic & Jelena Znaor : Zmijavci, Croatia

dawnerprince.com

 

I've known about Dawner Prince for a while now - mainly because of their excellent Binson Echorec delay simulation pedal - the Boonar. The only issues I have with that is it's odd landscape / horizontal orientation - I'm sure Zoran could fit this into a vertical style enclosure - like Zvex are now starting to do with their pedals, also I could really do with this being output in stereo - via TRS cable if need be - so that one is on my radar, but I'm not currently in any hurry to acquire. The RedRox distortion is another matter entirely - having a really crisp and crunchy Marshall-esque tonal profile - I'm looking to get that one quite soon. Other pedals from Dawner that I'm interested in include the larger Diktator OD+Distortion and the Viberator Stereo Vibe - they also do a pretty cool Tremolo.

  • Dawner Prince Boonar Delay (Echorec)
  • Dawner Prince Boonar Tube Deluxe (Echorec)
  • Dawner Prince Diktator Dual Drive
  • Dawner Prince RedRox Distortion
  • Dawner Prince Starla Tap Tempo Tremolo
  • Dawner Prince Viberator

Death By Audio : Oliver Ackermann : Ridgewood, New York, USA

deathbyaudio.com

 

I've featured a number of these pedals on a number of my category articles - including Echo Dream 2, Evil Filter and Reverberation Machine. Death By Audio is quite the specialist boutique pedal-maker and has a number of unique and unusual designs in its selection. Notably including the much loved Supersonic Fuzz Gun as used by U2's Edge for many years now. All of these are rather specialist for me, and most are somewhat oversized compared to my preferred compact pedal enclosure size, but I could see myself owrning an Absolute Destruction Fuzz at some stage, and even an Evil Filter here follow my own picks:

  • Death By Audio Absolute Destruction Fuzz
  • Death By Audio Apocalypse Overdrive/Fuzz/Distortion
  • Death By Audio Deep Animation Envelope Filter
  • Death By Audio Echo Dream 2 Modulated Delay
  • Death By Audio Echo Master Lo-Fi Analog Tape-style Delay
  • Death By Audio Evil Filter Envelope Filtering Octave Fuzz
  • Death By Audio Fuzz War
  • Death By Audio Interstellar Overdriver Cranked 50's Tube Amp Drive
  • Death By Audio Interstellar Overdriver Deluxe - Double Interstellar
  • Death By Audio Micro Dream Modulated Delay
  • Death By Audio Micro Harmonic Transformer Fuzz
  • Death By Audio Reverberation Machine
  • Death By Audio Robot Pitch-Shifting Bitcrusher Synth
  • Death By Audio Rooms Stereo Reverb
  • Death By Audio Soundwave Breakdown Screaming Octave Fuzz
  • Death By Audio Supersonic Fuzz Gun
  • Death By Audio Total Sonic Annihilation 2 Feedback Looped Modulator
  • Death By Audio Waveformer Destroyer Distortion
  • Death By Audio Waveformer Destroyer MK2

Decibelics : Guillem Vilademunt : Barcelona, Spain

decibelics.com

 

Guillem Vilademunt's life's work has been to replicate Bill Finnegan's legendary Klon Centaur pedal in more compact formats using the same premium components, but significantly miniaturising and compacting the overall circuit and format. Although he also does larger size enclosure pedals for sister brand BNK Audio. Decibelics is all about the Golden Horse Mini Pedal - which is Guillem's faithful take on he original, and which many Klon aficionados swear sounds near identical at a much reduced footprint size. Up until this point my favourite 'Klone' has been the Tumnus - both Mini and Deluxe - I have now ordered one of these - so it will be interesting to compare and contrast. Obviously the Tumnus has a slightly different frequency profile with more accentuated bass frequencies. My issue with several 'Klones' has been that they were a touch 'thin' sounding - I'm expecting this one to be a little better proportioned and more full-bodied overall!

  • Decibelics Angry Swede Distortion (HM-2 clone) .
  • Decibelics Golden Horse Mini Overdrive (Klone) .
  • Decibelics Little Big Klone

Defects FX : Tomas Jandak : Prague, Czech Republic

defectsfxpedals.cz

 

Henning Pauly introduced me to this brand via the really smart Tacked Octa-Fuzz - which reminds me of a beefed up version of the Shift Line Termofuzz - and goes straight onto my fuzz wishlist. There are several further interesting fuzzes here besides - including the Total Havoc Fuzz which also intrigues me:

  • Defects FX Atmosphere 2 Modes Reverberation
  • Defects FX Blasting Booster Multi-Switching Fuzz
  • Defects FX Destruction 6 Channels Fuzz
  • Defects FX Dirty Filter Fuzz with Active Filter
  • Defects FX Fuzz Fight Classic Massive Fuzz
  • Defects FX Heavy Motivation Envelope Filter
  • Defects FX Masterly Delay Lo-Fi Vocal Delay
  • Defects FX Sunlight Reverb Synthetic Reverberation
  • Defects FX Superlative Fuzzing Handgun Two Modes Fuzz
  • Defects FX Tacked Variable Octa-Fuzz
  • Defects FX Thee Fuzzing Warrior Massive Fuzz and Treble Booster
  • Defects FX Total Havoc Extreme Fuzz

Demon Pedals : Matthias Bauer and Peter Knechtel : Mainaschaff, Bavaria, Germany

demonpedals.com

 

I've known about Demon Pedals for a while - I've encountered their Ganesh Drive and Kijo Fuzz pedals several times, but it wasn't until they released their Kondo Shifuku D-Style drive pedal that I was fully interested. The Kondo is currently my Dumble-style pedal of choice and hits just the right tone and texture for what I was looking for - considering I already have 3 dedicated Dumble pedals and double that number of multidrive pedals that can happily get me into that territory. The range is currently compact but pretty perfectly formed - I of course have a preference for compact enclosure pedals - but they do a couple of decent medium enclosure pedals too:

  • Demon Pedals Ganapati Drive + Boost (Ganesha + Vahana) .
  • Demon Pedals Ganesha Dynamic Overdrive/Distortion
  • Demon Pedals Kijo Germanium Fuzz .
  • Demon Pedals Kondo Shifuku D-Style Drive .
  • Demon Pedals Parvati Fuzz (Russian Big Muff) .

Diezel Amplification : Peter Diezel & Peter Stapfer : Bad Steben, Germany

diezelusa.com

 

Legendary High Gain Amps hand-made in Germany - of those the most legendary is the 4-Channel VH4 - so Diezel initially launched the VH4 pedal featuring Channel 3 from the amp. The recent updated MKII version include Channel 4 also - so you get the best of the VH4s distortion channels in a single pedal - and it sounds awesome, although the EQ control is not particularity expansive. The Herbert pedal with dual footswitch - to activate Mid-Scoop is forthcoming later this year.

  • Diezel Herbert
  • Diezel VH4 .
  • Diezel VH4-2 .

DigiTech / DOD : Bill Clayton : Stamford, Connecticut, USA (< Lexicon < Harman < Samsung)

digitech.com

 

I feel DigiTech are a little unsung of late - where I feel they are kind of the American equivalent of TC Electronic - constantly trying to innovate within the digital compact pedal enclosure, and their relatively recent modernisation should give Boss an example how it can update its range while still maintaining the same level of interest. There have been a number of really innovative pedals recently - The Trio/+, Dirty Robot, Whammy Ricochet, FreqOut and Sdrum amongst others, and the bread-and-butter time-based and modulation pedals are all exceptional too within the compact enclosure format. I have three of these pedals already and have many more on my wishlist.

  • DigiTech Dirty Robot .
  • DigiTech FreqOut
  • DigiTech Nautila Chorus/Flanger
  • DigiTech Sdrum
  • DigiTech Trio+ .
  • DigiTech The Drop .
  • DigiTech Ventura Vibe Rotary/Vibrato .
  • DigiTech Whammy Ricochet .
  • DOD Boneshaker Distortion .
  • DOD Carcosa Fuzz
  • DOD Gunslinger Mosfet Distortion
  • DOD Looking Glass FET Overdrive
  • DOD Overdrive Preamp 250
  • DOD Rubberneck Analog Delay

DLS Effect : David Sestito : Rochester, New York, USA

dlseffects.com

 

DLS Effects have featured a few times on this site - including for their RotoSim Rotary and Versa Vibe pedals. They have a compact but neat range of medium- and large-sized modulations and drives. They're a little under the radar for many - and have very limited UK distribution - only a single solitary discontinued EchoTap pedal in stock there - so not a lot of opportunity for Brits to trial - but these are really decent sounding pedals if you can get your hands on them.

  • DLS Boost-Gain-Sustain Drive
  • DLS Chorus~Waves Swirling Stereo Chorus
  • DLS Reckless Driver Overdrive/Distortion
  • DLS RotoSim Rotary (Large)
  • DLS RotoSpin Rotary (Medium)
  • DLS Tremolo Stereo Tap Tremolo
  • DLS Ultra Chorus II Stereo Chorus
  • DLS Versa Vibe

Dr. No Effects : Roel Aben : Eindhoven, Netherlands

drno-effects.com

 

I've already written an article about Roel Alben, at which time I had not estanlished the alter-ego identity. Roel is a real artist, making exceptionally smart analog musical pedals with some of the most interesting design details out there. I already have a Dr. No Mini Turd, and would not mind owning some of these others - in particular the multi-function 4-footswitch Moon Canyon. Some of these pedals though are a touch larger and unusually shaped, yet they look as amazing as they sounds. Not all are pedalboard friendly mind.

  • Dr. No Alain Johannes Fuzz + Filter 11:11
  • Dr. No Ford Falcon Fuzz
  • Dr. No Ruben Block 'Colossus' Booster + Octavia Fuzz
  • Dr. No Sarah Lipstate / Noveller 'Moon Canyon' Drive + Loop + Delay + Reverb
  • Dr. No More Gary Drive
  • Dr. No Art Skulfuzz Black Edition
  • Dr. No Mini Turd Fuzz .
  • Dr. No Troy van Leeuwen 'Raven' Filter + Booster
  • Dr. No Turd Fuzz

Drolo FX : David Rolo : Dion, Namur, Belgium

davidrolo.com

 

I started seeing a few pedalboards with David's Molecular Disruptor and this obviously got me intrigued and on the case. I now have the latest V3 version of that loaded up with the mostly glitch patches / algorithms - although I will probably acquire at least one more module of 8 patches at some stage. I am also interested in his Stamme[n] Tap Tempo Micro Looper which does some of the same things but with a more snappy control mechanism:

  • Drolo Giant Hogweed Octave Up/Down Fuzz
  • Drolo Iketara Iku Dual EQ
  • Drolo Molecular Disruptor V3 DSP Multi-Effect Glitch Workstation .
  • Drolo Moon Rabbit Tap Tempo Envelope Phaser
  • Drolo Stamme[n] V3 Tap Tempo Micro Looper
  • Drolo Stretch Weaver 2 Interactive Channel Multi-FX
  • Drolo Twin Peaks Tap Tempo Harmonic Tremolo

Dr Scientist : Ryan & Tanya Clarke : Summerland, British Columbia, Canada

www.drscientist.ca

 

I find Dr Scientist pedals uniformly brilliant - this Husband & Wife team always have a clever angle on their type of effect, and without exception they all sound phenomenal. Of the current release there is a trifecta of brilliance in the BitQuest, Frazz Dazzler and The Elements. I think the Heisenberg Molecular OD is clever, but somehow does not quite resonate to me, the same could be said of the Reverberator and Tremolescence. I feel I have the best of Dr Scientist and would happily recommend these 3 smart pedals to everyone:

  • Dr Scientist Atmosphere Reverb
  • Dr Scientist BitQuest .
  • Dr Scientist Dusk Multi Mode Low Pass Filter
  • Dr Scientist The Elements .
  • Dr Scientist Frazz Dazzler .
  • Dr Scientist Heisenberg Molecular Overdrive
  • Dr Scientist Tremolessence Tremolo

DryBell Musical Electronic Laboratory : Zvonko Suhodolcan : Krapina, Croatia

drybell.com

 

One of two pedal-makers I know based in Croatia - the other being Zoran Kraljevic of Dawner Prince. This company is similar to Origin Effects (Compressors) in that it only really has one type of pedal - a Univibe style Chorus/Vibrato pedal with a heap of hidden secondary functions - hopefully V-3 will have stereo outputs for a more faithful Rotary sound. I'm not aware of any Vibe pedal that has more internal features than this one.

  • DryBell The Engine Foundation PreAmp
  • DryBell Unit67 Parallel Compressor/EQ/Boost
  • DryBell Vibe Machine V-2 (+Footswitch F-1L)

Dunlop : Jim Dunlop. Jeorge Tripps : Benicia, California, USA

www.jimdunlop.com

 

Jim Dunlop Group is actually a collection of around 10 brands or so - which include CryBaby (Wah), Dunlop (Volume / Expression), Echoplex (simulated tape delay), Fuzz Face (Fuzz), Heil (Talk-box), Jimi Hendrix (Various Signature Pedals - Fuzz, Vibe, Wah), Rotovibe (Vibe) - and MXR and Way Huge - the latter two which I have separated out into the larger listing here. I have a preference for the CryBaby and Dunlop mini pedals - I don't like the larger full-size ones, I also don't really like the disc shape Fuzz Face Fuzzes - I prefer them as Jimi Hendrix specials in regular MXR-style enclosures. I may get the Echoplex pedals eventually - possibly some or all of the Jimi Hendrix Specials - but will only get a RotoVibe - if they make it as a mini variety.

  • Authentic Hendrix '69 Psych Series Band of Gypsys Fuzz
  • Authentic Hendrix '69 Psych Series Fuzz Face Distortion
  • Authentic Hendrix '69 Psych Series Octavio Fuzz
  • Authentic Hendrix '69 Psych Series Uni-Vibe Chorus/Vibrato
  • CryBaby Mini Wah .
  • CryBaby Mini Wah 535Q .
  • Dunlop Billy Gibbons Siete Santos Octavio Fuzz
  • Dunlop CSP-030 CryBaby Q-Zone Fixed Wah .
  • Dunlop Volume (X) Mini Volume + Expression .
  • Echoplex EP101 Preamp
  • Echoplex EP103 Delay
  • Jimi Hendrix JHM9 Cry Baby Mini Wah
  • Jimi Hendrix JHM5 Fuzz Face
  • Jimi Hendrix JHM8 Gypsy Fuzz
  • Jimi Hendriz JHM6 Octavio Fuzz .
  • Jimi Hendrix JHM7 Univibe

Dwarfcraft Devices : Benjamin & Louise Hinz : Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA

www.dwarfcraft.com

 

I know Dwarfcraft best because of its Pitch Grinder and Happiness Filter pedals - both of which have featured in previous articles here, and the former of which is now discontinued. I am delighted to see that Dwarfcraft is doing more compact pedals and in the current collection of 8, there are 5 I really like the look of:

  • Dwarfcraft Devices ARF - Attack, Release, Filter
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Body Mod Chorus/Flange/Octave
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Dark Arts Necromancer
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Eau Claire Thunder Fuzz
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Ghost Fax Phase Computer
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Gold Standard Eau Claire Thunder Fuzz
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Grazer Granular Repeater
  • Dwarfcraft Devices The Great Destroyer Fuzz
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Happiness Filter
  • Dwarfcraft Devices HAX 2 RingMod/EnvelopeFollower/Filter
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Necromancer Fuzz (Superfuzz)
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Reese Lightning Octave/Feedback Fuzz
  • Dwarfcraft Devices She-Fuzz
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Treeverb Tremolo-Reverb
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Witch Shifter Pitch-Shifter
  • Dwarfcraft Devices Wizard of Pitch (compact + simplified Pitch Grinder)

EarthQuaker Devices : Jamie Stillman : Akron, Ohio, USA

earthquakerdevices.com

 

EarthQuaker is a brand that I'm hugely impressed with, but peculiarly I've not acquired a single one of their pedals as of yet. I really like the look of their 2 single-dial pedals - the Acapulco Gold Drive and Erupter Fuzz. I also have the Bit Commander, Data Corrupter and Spacial Delivery in sight. There's no doubt that EarthQuaker is one of the most innovative pedal makers out there - but so far there's always been another pedal higher up the wishlist than one of these. Note that wishlists can be fairly fluid - depending on what you get exposed to - pricing, availability and new pedals. There are some pedals you gravitate more towards, and others you kind of somehow miss and overlook. So I definitely rate EQD highly and will undoubtedly have some of their pedals at some time fairly soon.

  • EQD Acapulco Gold Drive (Sunn Model T)
  • EQD Afterneath Otherworldly Reverberator V3
  • EQD Aqueduct Vibrato
  • EQD Arpanoid Polyphonic Pitch Arpeggiator
  • EQD Arrows Pre-Amp Booster
  • EQD Avalanche Run Stereo Reverb and Delay
  • EQD Bellows Fuzz Driver
  • EQD Bit Commander Analog Octave Synth
  • EQD Black Ash Fuzz .
  • EQD Cloven Hoof Fuzz Grinder
  • EQD Data Corrupter Frequency Filter and Oscillator
  • EQD The Depths Analog Vibe
  • EQD Disaster Transport SR Advanced Modulated Delay and Reverb
  • EQD Dispatch Master Digital Delay and Reverb
  • EQD Dunes Mini Mega Ultimate Overdrive (TS+)
  • EQD Erupter Fuzz
  • EQD Ghost Echo Vintage Voiced Reverb
  • EQD Grand Orbiter Phaser
  • EQD Gray Channel Dynamic Dirt Doubler (DOD250)
  • EQD Hoof Hybrid Fuzz
  • EQD Hoof Reaper Double Fuzz with Octave Up
  • EQD Hummingbird Repeat Percussions Tremolo
  • EQD Interstellar Orbiter Dual Resonant Filter
  • EQD Leviathan Reverberation Machine
  • EQD Night Wire Harmonic Tremolo
  • EQD Organizer Polyphonic Organ Emulator
  • EQD Palisades Mega Ultimate Overdrive (TS++)
  • EQD Park / Colby Fuzz Sound Vintage Germanium Fuzz (Tone Bender MKIII)
  • EQD Pyramids Stereo Flanger
  • EQD Rainbow Machine Polyphonic Pitch Mesmerizer
  • EQD Sea Machine Super Chorus
  • EQD Space Spiral Modulated Delay
  • EQD Spacial Delivery Envelope Filter
  • EWD Speaker Cranker Overdrive
  • EQD Spires Fuzz Doubler
  • EQD Sunn 0))) Life Pedal (Rat + Boost + Octave)
  • EQD Sunn 0))) Life Pedal V2 (Rat + Boost + Octave) .
  • EQD Swiss Things Pedalboard Reconciler/Switcher
  • EQD Tentacle Analog Octave Up
  • EQD Tone Job EQ & Boost
  • EQD Transmisser Resonant Reverberator
  • EQD The Warden Optical Compressor
  • EQD Westwood Translucent Drive Manipulator

Electro-Harmonix : Mike Matthews : Long Island City, New York, USA

ehx.com

 

I already mentioned when I wrote about Carl Martin that I tend to gravitate towards compact / regular-sized enclosure pedals - if they are medium or over-sized they need to have a lot of features onboard - like Empress, Stone Deaf, Strymon, and those bigger box workstations do. I see both Carl Martin and EHX as somewhat old-fashioned, and in need of a degree of modernisation. EHX definitely seems to have taken that to heart with some of its newer more innovative pedals occupying compact enclosures - like the Canyon and Pitchfork.

  • EHX 720 Stereo Looper
  • EHX 1440 Stereo Looper
  • EHX 22500 Dual Stereo Looper
  • EHX 45000 Multi-Track Looping Recorder
  • EHX 95000 Performance Looper
  • EHX Attack Decay Tape Reverse Simulator
  • EHX B9 Organ Machine
  • EHX Bad Stone Phase Shifter
  • EHX 1973 Violet Ram’s Head Big Muff Pi (JHS Mod?)
  • EHX Big Muff Pi Green Russian JHS Moscow Mod JHS Mod .
  • EHX Big Muff Pi OpAmp JHS Pumpkin Patch Mod JHS Mod .
  • EHX Big Muff Pi Nano JHS Mod .
  • EHX Big Muff Pi Triangle JHS Mod .
  • EHX Big Muff Pi Hardware Plugin / Controller
  • EHX Blurst Modulated Filter
  • EHX C9 Organ Machine
  • EHX Canyon Delay & Looper
  • EHX Cathedral Stereo Reverb
  • EHX Cock Fight Cocked Talking Wah
  • EHX Cock Fight Plus Talking Wah & Fuzz
  • EHX Crayon Full-Range Overdrive
  • EHX Deluxe Big Muff Pi
  • EHX Deluxe Electric Mistress XO
  • EHX Deluxe Memory Boy
  • EHX Deluxe Memory Man
  • EHX Deluxe Memory Man 550-TT
  • EHX Deluxe Memory Man 1100-TT
  • EHX Doctor Q Envelope Filter
  • EHX Double Muff Fuzz/Overdrive
  • EHX East River Drive Overdrive (TS808)
  • EHX English Muff'n Tube Distortion/PreAmp
  • EHX Epitome Multi-Effect Octaver/Flanger/Reverb (POG+Electric Mistress+Holy Grail Plus)
  • EHX Flanger Hoax Phaser/Flanger Modulator
  • EHX Flatiron Fuzz (Rat) (JHS Mod?)
  • EHX Freeze Sound Retainer
  • EHX Germanium 4 Big Muff Pi
  • EHX Grand Canyon Delay & Looper
  • EHX Graphic Fuzz EQ/Distortion/Sustainer
  • EHX HOG2 Harmonic Octave Generator
  • EHX Holy Stain Distortion/Reverb/Pitch/Tremolo Multi-Effect
  • EHX Hot Tubes Nano Overdrive
  • EHX Hot Wax Dual Overdrive
  • EHX Key 9 Electric Piano Machine
  • EHX Lester G Deluxe Rotary Speaker
  • EHX Mel 9 Tape Replay Machine
  • EHX Metal Muff Distortion Top Boost
  • EHX Mod Rex Modulation Workstation
  • EHX Mono Synth
  • EHX Nano Bass Big Muff Pi
  • EHX Nano Pog Matthews Effects Mod*
  • EHX Oceans 11 Reverb
  • EHX Oceans 12 Dual Stereo Reverb
  • EHX Operation Overlord Allied Overdrive
  • EHX Pitch Fork Polyphonic Pitch Shifter
  • EHX Pitch Fork+ Polyphonic Pitch Shifter
  • EHX Platform Stereo Compressor/Limiter
  • EHX POG2 Polyphonic Octave Generator
  • EHX Q-Tron Plus Envelope Filter with Effects Loop
  • EHX Ravish Sitar Emulator
  • EHX Riddle Envelope Filter for Guitar
  • EHX Ring Thing Single Sideband Modulator
  • EHX Satisfaction Fuzz JHS Mod .
  • EHX Silencer Noise Gate/Effects Loop
  • EHX Soul Food JHS Mod .
  • EHX Sovtek Deluxe Big Muff Pi
  • EHX Stereo Memory Man With Hazari Digital Delay/Looper
  • EHX Stereo Polychorus Analog Chorus/Flanger/Slapback Echo
  • EHX Super Pulsar Stereo Tap Tremolo
  • EHX Superego Synth Engine
  • EHX Superego+ Synth Engine/Multi Effect
  • EHX Synth 9
  • EHX Tone Corser Analog Compressor
  • EHX V256 Four Party Harmony Vocoder
  • EHX Worm Analog Wah/Phaer/Vibrato/Tremolo

Elektron Music Machines : Daniel Hansson, Anders Gärder & Mikael Räim : Gothenburg, Sweden

www.elektron.se

 

Swedish Drum Machine and Synth specialists Elektron made a very credible large format Anlogue Multi-Drive Pedal - with no less than 8 separate analogue circuits including 2 fuzzes. The pedal mostly sounds pretty great - the fact that it has presets is amazing, but boy is it huge, and none of the near sound-alike circuits sound quite as good as the dedicated pedals I already have for those sounds. So the idea was to be able to swap out some of my existing pedals, but instead, I was encouraged to simply acquire more, and the bulky Analog Drive was relegated from the pedal chain - it very occasionally puts in an appearance - there is nothing wrong with it really, but there is not a single circuit on it unfortunately that I would choose over any of my existing pedals - and it's large size makes it tricky - just to slip it in and out of any pedalboard or chain.

  • Elektron Analog Drive .

Emma Electronic : Jan Behncke : Århus, Denmark

emmaelectronic.com

 

The second Danish brand to get a mention uses still more classic / vintage mid-size enclosures, but fills them with very modern effects. I particularly like the DiscumBOBulator and Okto-Nøjs - but would infinitely prefer them to be in a smaller enclosure. For instance when I bought my Chase Bliss Modulation pedals I could have gone the Strymon route - which is stereo and actually lower cost than the Chase Bliss pedals largely - yet I chose to go with Chase Bliss for a variety of reasons, including the more compact form factor - reasoning that my now Boss MD-500 provides the digital stereo effects while it's OK for the analogue versions to be mono! Even though I quite like all the following Emma Electronic pedals, their size is still somehow something of a turn-off.

  • Emma Electronic DiscumBOBulator Envelope Filter
  • Emma Electronic Navigator Hybrid Delay
  • Emma Electronic Okto-Nøjs Octave Fuzz
  • Emma Electronic OnoMATOpoeia Boost/Overdrive
  • Emma Electronic PisdiYAUWot Metal Distortion
  • Emma Electronic ReezaFRATzitz Distortion
  • Emma Electronic StinkBug Overdrive
  • Emma Electronic TransMORGrifier Analog Compressor

Empress Effects : Jason Fee & Steve Bragg : Kanata, Ontario, Canada

empresseffects.com

 

I frequently think of Empress as sort of the Canadian Strymon - very high quality smart pro pedals. With the EchoSystem currently being one of the all-round smartest pedals currently out there - it is a sheer delight to operate - with its amazing 36 algorithms, dual effect playback and 35 presets et al. I currently have 3 Empress pedals - and I would be seriously tempted if they brought out a dual-simultaneous effect Reverb in the same style as the EchoSystem. Their Multidrive and Heavy pedals are exceptional too, as are all their modulation pedals and Parametric EQ. With regard to the individual modulation pedals - Empress is probably 3rd in line behind Chase Bliss and Strymon for me - but overall its fairly compact pedal selection is immense.

  • Empress Buffer+
  • Empress Buffer+ Stereo
  • Empress Compressor (medium enclosure)
  • Empress Compressor V2 Compact
  • Empress Distortion
  • Empress EchoSystem .
  • Empress Fuzz
  • Empress Germ Drive
  • Empress Heavy .
  • Empress Multidrive .
  • Empress Nebulus
  • Empress ParaEQ
  • Empress Phaser
  • Empress Reverb
  • Empress Tape Delay
  • Empress Tremolo 2 / 10th Anniversary
  • Empress Zoia Modular Synthesizer / Multi-Effects-Sequencer
  • Empress Zoia Euroburo Eurorack Module Modular Synthesizer / Multi-Effects-Sequencer

Eventide Audio : Stephen Katz,Richard Factor & Orville Greene : Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA

eventideaudio.com

 

I believe Eventide was the first really successful digital pedal brand - with its 4 magnificent workstation pedals - ModFactor, PitchFactor, TimeFactor and Space. Then the Strymon 'Stryfecta' came along and stole its thunder - Mobius, TimeLine and BigSky - I was more tempted by Strymon than Eventide for whatever reason. And now Boss has tried to one-up both its forerunners in this area - with its MD-500, DD-500 and RV-500. Eventide has a further ace up its sleeve in the form of its H9 Max Stompbox - which contains all the Eventide workstation effects and them some - in a single medium size enclosure. I have it in mind to acquire the H9 Max at some stage - simply because Eventide still makes some of the very best effects, and there are several you cannot get anywhere else. The downside though is that you pretty much need another control-box to be able to easily and elegantly control the H9 and switch presets easily on the fly. Which makes it a more incidental box for me than a regular part of the chain. I feel that Empress and Source Audio are really pushing the smart innovation in this area currently - going for more compact more easily accessible solutions - and I feel that overly relying on an iPad app (as the H9 does) is not necessarily the best way forward.

  • Eventide H9 Max Stompbox .
  • Eventide ModFactor Modulation Workstation
  • Eventide PitchFactor Pitch Workstation
  • Eventide Rose Bit Bucket Brigade Modulated Delay
  • Eventide Space Reverb Workstation
  • Eventide TimeFactor Delay Workstation

EWS : N/A : Tokyo, Japan (< Xotic < Vintage Raw < Prosound Communications)

ews-us.com

 

This Japanese sister-brand to Xotic is likewise probably best known for its mini pedals. And while I think the Little Brute Drive is pretty OK, the Little Fuzzy Drive is actually quite fantastic - and for such dimintive size gives you far more variety and oomph than you would have expected - one of the best mini fuzz pedals out there:

  • EWS Arion SCH-Z Stereo Chorus/Vibe Modified Edition
  • EWS Little Brute Drive .
  • EWS Little Brute Drive II
  • EWS Little Fuzzy Drive .

Expresso FX : Sof Tebboune : Manchester, UK

expressofx.com

 

Now a firm friend - Sof Tebboune is my favourite Transistor Wrangler of all those I know - making exceptionally fine sounding hand-crafted fuzzes from the finest quality properly transparently reference components - and at an exceptionally Scandinavian price point - these are the highest quality fuzzes which he could easily charge twice as much for if he so desired. But like me he is more interested in delivering quality at a fair price. All his pedals are exceptional - hand-wired and calibrated by ear - using a rig which includes power conditioning - to ensure ultimate consistency and fidelity. I will most likely own the whole range at some stage - currently I am sort of picking them off one-by-one and by year-end 2020 I should likely be up to 7 or 8!

  • Expresso FX Buzzabout (Burns Buzzaround)
  • Expresso FX Fuzz Bender (Tone Bender MK II)
  • Expresso FX Fuzz Bender MK I (Tone Bender MK I) .
  • Expresso FX Fuzz Bender MK I.V (Tone Bender MK I.V)
  • Expresso FX Germanium Boost OC44 (RangeMaster / Treble Booster)
  • Expresso FX Germanium Fuzz CV7005 (Germanium Fuzz Face)
  • Expresso FX Il Signor Bender CV7005 + CV7007 (Vox Tone Bender)
  • Expresso FX Silicon Fuzz BC183 (Silicon Fuzz Face)
  • Expresso FX Tup Fuzz BC239X (Ram's Head Muff)

 


F-Pedals : Francesco Sondelli : Los Angeles, California, USA / Napoli, Italy

f-shoponline.com

 

I've been following F-Pedals for a few years - conceived and designed by Franco Sondelli in LA, and then manufactured in Napoli, Italy. I really like quite a significant number of these, and have had the mind to acquire a few over the years - although that has not happened yet as distribution is still very limited, and even tough made in Italy, there seem to be vary few on this side of the pond.

  • F-Pedals Damn 10 Distortion Mini
  • F-Pedals DarkLight Distortion Mini Dual Gain Distortion
  • F-Pedals EchoBandit Gold Mini Analog Tape style Delay with Mid Push/Gain
  • F-Pedals EchoBandit Silver Mini Analog Tape style Delay - warm and smooth
  • F-Pedals Edstortion Mini Eddie Kramer Signature Distortion
  • F-Pedals Lorion Semi-Driven Boost Mini
  • F-Pedals Matterix Heavily-Driven Boost Mini
  • F-Pedals Nikaos Distortion - Nikolas Farmakalidis Signture Mini
  • F-Pedals PhazeVibe Mini - Phaser/Uni-Vibe/Wha-Wha-Vibe/Leslie
  • F-Pedals PunQmonk Dynamic Envelope Filter Mini
  • F-Pedals RobotHolic Mini Drive/RingMod/Filter Modulator
  • F-Pedals SynthFuzz Mini - Fuzz + Envelope Filter
  • F-Pedals Tremolon Mini Dual Tremolo
  • F-Pedals Yurei Buffer/Clean Boost Mini

Fairfield Circuitry : Guillaume Fairfield : Hull, Québec. Canada

fairfieldcircuitry.com

 

I've featured Fairfield Circuitry a number of times on this site - slightly leftfield typically, but very smartly crafted effects in neat minimalist industrial boxes. Their flagship pedal as such is probably still the Shallow Water K-Field Modulator - a sort of liquid swirly chorusey type effect which is well loved by several pros and features on quite a significant number of pedalboards.

  • Fairfield Circuitry The Accountant Mini Compressor
  • Fairfield Circuitry The Barbershop Millennium Overdrive
  • Fairfield Circuitry Four Eyes Crossover Fuzz
  • Fairfield Circuitry Meet Maude Analogue Delay
  • Fairfield Circuitry Modèle B Always On Barbershop Boost/Overdrive
  • Fairfield Circuitry Randy's Revenge Ring Modulator
  • Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water K-Field Modulator
  • Fairfield Circuitry The Unpleasant Surprise Experimental Fuzz/Gate

Foxpedal : Todd Billow : Richland, Washington State, USA

foxpedal.com

 

I'm a huge fan of this young brand, but am sad to report that it seems to have ceased operation now. A few weeks ago I noticed that the website had been wiped, and the various social media - Facebook, Instagram etc, completely gone - which is of course a crying shame. I own 3 of these pedals - Defector Fuzz, The City Overdrive and Wrath Distortion. I had, in fact still intend to scoop up a V2 Kingdom Combo at some stage, and the mighty The Wave is an exceptional Tape Delay pedal plus reverb, which might have benefited from a stereo update. These pedal are beautifully designed, and sound great, and there were a couple of really sleek looking delay and tremolo pedals due any day (Novaplex & Quiver). I do hope that something here can be saved and recovered, as a fellow business-owner its always devastating to see a business go down. I reckon I will still try to sweep out a few more of these - the Refinery compressor is really cool too.

  • Foxpedal The City V2 Overdrive .
  • Foxpedal Defector Fuzz .
  • Foxpedal Ebenezer Boost
  • Foxpedal K-Buffer
  • Foxpedal Kingdom Combo V2 Overdrive .
  • Foxpedal Magnifica Deluxe Reverb
  • Foxpedal Novaplex Tap-Tempo Delay with Presets (Still forthcoming)
  • Foxpedal Quiver Tap-Tempo Harmonic Tremolo with Presets (Still forthcoming)
  • Foxpedal Refinery V2 Compressor
  • Foxpedal The Wave Tape Delay + Reverb
  • Foxpedal Wrath V2 Distortion (Rat) .

Fredric Effects : Tim Webster : High Barnet, Hertfordshire, UK

fredric.co.uk

 

I haven't always been the biggest fan of the look of Tim Webster's Fredric Effects even though I know the internal electronics are sound - but obviously the range has stepped up recently, and the new compact wedge-shaped pedals are pretty stellar all-round. These include the Dresden Synth Fuzz, Nouveau Super Unpleasant Companion, Utility Perkolator MKII and Verzerrer Distortion - I also quite like the Regent 150 PreAmp and Square Wave Fuzz amongst others - those all work well for me and my aesthetic appreciation as well as tonal sensibilities.

  • Fredric Effects The Accomplished Badger Germanium PreAmp / Boost
  • Fredric Effects BugCrusher Analogue Sample Rate Reducer
  • Fredric Effects Deeply Unpleasant Companion (Shin-Ei FY-2 Companion Fuzz)
  • Fredric Effects Demon Fuzz Crunchy Distortio-Fuzz
  • Fredric Effects Do The Weasel Stomp! (Systech Harmonic Energizer)
  • Fredric Effects Dresden Synth Fuzz Parallel Synth Fuzz
  • Fredric Effects Foxrite Fuzz (Silicon Mosrite Fuzzrite)
  • Fredric Effects Golden Eagle Klone
  • Fredric Effects Green Russian Fuzz (Muff)
  • Fredric Effects Grumbly Wolf Octave Ring Mod Distortion
  • Fredric Effects Harmonic Percolator (InterFax HP-1)
  • Fredric Effects ICBM 78 Fuzz (OpAmp Muff)
  • Fredric Effects King of Klone Dual Klone
  • Fredric Effects Mutant Fuzz (Os Mutantes Regulus VIII)
  • Fredric Effects Nouveau Super Unpleasant Companion
  • Fredric Effects Pocket Weasel MKII (Systech Harmonic Energizer)
  • Fredric Effects Regent 150 PreAmp (Vermona Regent 150K)
  • Fredric Effects Square Wave Fuzz (Shin-Ei Square Wave Fuzz)
  • Fredric Effects Standard Fuzz Machine (Ibanez Standard Fuzz)
  • Fredric Effects Super Unpleasant Companion (Shin-Ei FY-2 Companion Fuzz + Shin-Ei FY-6 Superfuzz)
  • Fredric Effects Unpleasant Companion MKII (Shin-Ei FY-2 Companion Fuzz)
  • Fredric Effects Utility Perkolator MKII (InterFax HP-1)
  • Fredric Effects Verzerrer Distortion (Bohm Trickverzerrer)
  • Fredric Effects Warp Sound Filtered Distortion (Vorg Warp Sound)
  • Fredric Effects West Germany Vintage Tremolo
  • Fredric Effects Zesty Comp Compressor (Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer)
  • Fredric Effects Zombie Klone Overdrive
  • Fredric Effects Kl*n Buffer
  • Fredric Effects Scrambled Brainz Octave Fuzz (Ampeg Scrambler)
  • *Fredric Effects / Cloak Audio Jackdaw Esoteric Synth Fuzz

Free The Tone : Yukihiro Hayashi : Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

freethetone.com

 

Japan has no shortage of its own boutique pedal makers, and 'Free The Tone' is a great example of analogue innovation - in particular the Flight Time Delay - which has a smart microphone to automatically beat-match the timing (tap-tempo) to the rhythm it senses. Several pro players swear by its Chorus and Reverb too, and this maker produces a slew of great Overdrives and Distortion pedals.

  • Free The Tone Ambi Space AS-1R Reverb Workstation
  • Free The Tone Fire Mist FM-1V Overdrive
  • Free The Tone Flight Time FT-2Y Delay Workstation
  • Free The Tone Future Factory FF-1Y RF Phase Modulation Delay
  • Free The Tone Gigs Boson GB-1V Overdrive
  • Free The Tone Iron Forest IF-1D Distortion
  • Free The Tone PA-1Q Series Programmable Analog 10 Band EQ
  • Free The Tone Programmable Analog 10-Band EQ
  • Free The Tone SOV-2 Overdrive
  • Free The Tone String Slinger SS-1V Overdrive
  • Free The Tone Tri Avatar TA-1H Multi-Dimensional Chorus

Friedman Amplification : Dave Friedman : Huntington Park, California, USA (< Boutique Amps Distribution)

friedmanamplification.com

 

Dave Friedman started out modding Marshall amps, so it's not suprising his own amp-rage has a significant Marshall influence, as to his 2 best loved pedals. I already have the BE-OD and fully intend to get the Dirty Shirley after the Christmas Holidays. The Buxom boost is a really versatile pedal too, and I might have consider it seriously if I did not already have the truly superb Jackson Audio Prism.

  • Friedman BE-OD .
  • Friedman BE-OD Deluxe
  • Friedman Buxom Boost
  • Friedman Dirty Shirley .
  • Friedman Gold-72 Wah
  • Friedman Golden Pearl Boost/Overdrive
  • Friedman Power Grid 10 Port Power Supply 10 x 350mA .
  • Friedman Sir-Compre Compressor
  • Friedman Small Box Plexi-Style Drive/Distortion/PreAmp

FTelettronica : Valerio Tersigni : Isola Del Liri, Lazio, Italy

ftelettronica.blogspot.com

 

I first came across Valerio Tersigni's brand when researching Schumann PLL style pedals - and FTelettronica make probably the finest replica currently of that revolutionary though complext pedal. We have an enormous library of different pedals here, my preference is of course for the more unusual and unique ones, but FTelettonica pretty much covers all bases. I'm not sure which of these if any I will ever possess - some of them have significant real-estate footprints. But there are several here I really like the look and sound of.

  • FTelettronica ABsynthE Guitar Analog Synth
  • FTelettronica Catastrophizer Distortion
  • FTelettronica Echo Maniac Kid Modulated Delay
  • FTelettronica Envelope Filter
  • FTelettronica Heisenberg Fuzz Meth
  • FTelettronica Naked Lunch Tap Tempo Tremolo
  • FTelettronica RF-20 Resonant Filter
  • FTelettronica Schumann Pll
  • FTelettronica Sonic Dream Analog Delay
  • FTelettronica Zero-sum Game Filter Fuzz
  • FTelettronica Zeroth Law Lo-Fi Pitch Transposer/Fuzz

Fulltone Musical Products : Michael Fuller : Marina Del Rey, California, USA

fulltone.com

 

Mike Fuller is another one of the legendary pedal-makers - everything he puts out is excellent and worthy of consideration. I already have and love the OCD pedal, and have been intending to get the Plimsoul for the longest while - it just keeps getting pipped by a more pressing priority. At one stage also I was aiming to get an Octafuzz pedal - which bothered my slightly because of its reverse polarity, but since I'm all with isolated supplies it should not matter really, but I worry about inadvetent damage to pedals when you swap things around. In the end I decided to get the TCE Sub 'N' Up and just use that on my existing fuzzes. Although soon after I ended up with a Malekko Omicron Fuzz which just happens to be an ocatave fuzz - so that's covered for now. Fulltone has both regular and custom divisions and does some marvellous larger enclosure drive pedals too, alongside the Deja-Vibe and Supa-Trem tremolo. As with all my rocker pedals - I really make it a requirement that they need to be Dunlop pedal small, which unfortunately disqualifies the Deja-Vibe 3.

  • Fulltone 2B Mini Clean Boost
  • Fulltone '69 MKII Fuzz
  • Fulltone 70-BC Fuzz
  • Fulltone Catalyst Boost / Fuzz / Distortion .
  • Fulltone Custom Shop Mini Dejà-Vibe MKII
  • Fulltone Custom Shop Mini Dejà-Vibe 3 V2 rocker
  • Fulltone Custom Shop Ranger OC75 Boost (RangeMaster Treble Booster)
  • Fulltone Custom Shop Robin Thrower Overdrive
  • Fulltone Custom Shop Supa-Trem 2 Stereo
  • Fulltone Custom Shop Wah Full Fixed Wah
  • Fulltone Full-Drive 1
  • Fulltone Full-Drive 2 V2
  • Fulltone Full-Drive 3
  • Fulltone Mas Malo Fuzzstortion .
  • Fulltone OCD Drive .
  • Fulltone OCD V2 Drive .
  • Fulltone OCD Ge Germanium Drive .
  • Fulltone Octafuzz
  • Fulltone Plimsoul Drive .
  • Fulltone Secret Freq Fixed Wah
  • Fulltone Soul-Bender Fuzz
  • Fulltone Supa-Trem Jr

Function F(x) : Dave Friesema, Forrest Whiteside & Brian Aldsworth : Elk Grove Village, Illinois, USA

function-fx.com

 

Most famous for its Clusterfuzz - Function F(x) is a rather unique collaboration of the 3 gentlemen listed above - with Dave Friesema as the main circuit designer / sound engineer. Function F(x) has been on my radar for years and had gained more traction recently via Dave's Pickdropper Instagram page - which has featured some exceptional mini pedals as I classify them - or micro as Dave refers to them. I am in the process of commissioning a number of said mini fuzz pedals - and will publishing the results of that interaction in a forthcoming feature. Plenty here of notable interest :

  • Function F(x) Accufunkture Envelope Fitler
  • Function F(x) The Cannon Dual Fuzz
  • Function F(x) Clusteffuzz Multi-Clipping Fuzz
  • Function F(x) Clusterfuzz Jr Multi-Clipping Fuzz
  • Function F(x) Clusterfuzz Micro Multi-Clipping Fuzz
  • Function F(x) Custom Bluesbreaker Mini
  • Function F(x) Custom Clusterfuzz + Octave
  • Function F(x) Custom Face Bender (Fuzz Face + Tone Bender MKIx)
  • Function F(x) Custom Hive Mind Micro (Buzzaround)
  • Function F(x) Custom The Horsebender MKIII - Tone Bender III + Klon
  • Function F(x) Custom The MacGuffin Bluesbreaker + Klon
  • Function F(x) Custom MicroFracture Overdrive
  • Function F(x) Custom MiniTaur Klone
  • Function F(x) Custom MKIII + MKI.V (Tone Benders)
  • Function F(x) Custom Octavia Mini
  • Function F(x) Custom Professional MKIII (Tone Bender)
  • Function F(x) Custom RangeBender (RangeMaster + Tone Bender MKIII)
  • Function F(x) Custom RangeMaster Mini
  • Function F(x) Custom Reverse Centaur Mini
  • Function F(x) Custom Tardis Digital Delay Mini
  • Function F(x) Custom Violet Ram's Head Fuzz
  • Function F(x) Custom Zen Mini
  • Function F(x) Custom Skeleton Rat Mini 4-Knob
  • Function F(x) Gate Crasher Octave Fuzz
  • Function F(x) Parallax Tremolo + Phaser
  • Function F(x) The Third Rail Dual Overdrive

 


Fuzzrocious Pedals : Ryan Ratajski : Mount Laurel, New Jersey, USA

fuzzrociouspedals.com

 

Another very indie / leftfield Boutique pedal maker who produces very unique and distinct pedals. Rob Chapman introduced me to the Feed Me Tone-Shaper, but the others I have discovered myself - plenty to intrigue here, and definitely for more experimental players. I will almost certainly acquire at least one of these when the mood is right!

  • Fuzzrocious 420 Quad OpAmp Fuzz with Clean Blend
  • Fuzzrocious Afterlive V2 Reverb with Controllable Decay
  • Fuzzrocious Anomalies PT2399 Delay
  • Fuzzrocious Baby Furnace Compact Gated Fuzz
  • Fuzzrocious Baxstabber Boost/EQ/PreAmp/Tone-Shaper
  • Fuzzrocious Blast Furnace Gated/Mid-Scooped Fuzz
  • Fuzzrocious Cat King King-Sized Cat Tail High Gain Distortion/Fuzz (Rat)
  • Fuzzrocious Cat Tail Regular High Gain Distortion/Fuzz (Rat)
  • Fuzzrocious Cicada V5 Tremolo-Fuzz
  • Fuzzrocious The Demon Regular High Gain Drive/Distortion
  • Fuzzrovious Demon King King-Sized High Gain Drive/Distortion
  • Fuzzriocious Egg Sack Boost/Drive/Distortion
  • Fuzzrocious Feed Me V2 144 variations EQ/PreAmp/Tone-Shaper
  • Fuzzrocious Greyfly Blackfly Reverb + Grey Stache Fuzz
  • Fuzzrocious Grey Stache Fuzz (Civil War Muff)
  • Fuzzrocious Heliotropic Fuzz + Octave Jawn - Dirty Fuzz with Polyphonic Octaver
  • Fuzzrocious Knob Jawn Analog Up and Digital Up/Down Octaver
  • Fuzzrocious LunaReclipse 12-position rotary Overdrive/Distortion Clipper
  • Fuzzrocious Maggator Baby Furnace Gated Fuzz + Electro-Faustus Blackfly Spring Agitator
  • Fuzzrocious M.O.T.H + Octave Jawn - Multi Overdrive Tremolo Hex with Polyphonic Octaver
  • Fuzzrocious Playing Mantis Natural Boost/Drive/Distortion/Pitched-Oscillaiton
  • Fuzzrocious Wicked Jawn Model FET Drive/Distortion + Digital Octave Up and Down
  • * Fuzzrocious + Electro-Faustus Greyfly Spring-Loaded Grey Stache Fuzz

GFI System : Henry Widjaja, Yonas Darja & Jesse Darja : Jakarta, Indonesia

gfisystem.com

 

I only came across this Indonesian pedal maker half-way though this year, but they're off to a real winner with their Combined Delay + Reverb Specular Tempus. And while it cannot compete fully with the more powerful dedicated workstations - like Boss's new RV-500 - which will give you simultaneous dual reverb plus dual delay, it makes up for that with some of the lushest time-based algorithms you will ever hear. I am definitely adding this pedal to the collection - for occasional swap out with the RV-500. Maybe not in the next round of 10, but probably in the one thereafter - and especially if I can get a good price on one of these. Pricing always matters to a significant degree, and if you can get one of your target pedals at a significant discount, then that usually elevates it on the wishlist.

  • GFI System Cabzeus Simulator + DI
  • GFI System Clockwork Delay V3
  • GFI System Jonassus Drive 2 Channel Multidrive
  • GFI System Specular Reverb V3
  • GFI System Specular Tempus Delay + Reverb
  • GFI System Synesthesia Dual Channel Modulation Workstation .

Goosoniqueworx : Ravi (Tha) Goose : Singapore

gworx.wordpress.com

 

No idea what this fella's real name is - he calls himself variously Ravi, Ravi Goose and Ravi (Tha) Goose - some of those may be stage names or all even potentially. He specialises in his own custom hand-built high gain dual-distortion pedals, of which he currently has 2 models to his name. They both sound great, although my focus is more on the slightly higher gain Kult version. This was high up on my High Gain / Metal pedal wishlist before I acquired the Empress Heavy, and its currently being pipped by the MI Audio Megalith Delta!

  • Goosoniqueworx 7thvn
  • Goosoniqueworx Kult

Greer Amplification - Nick Greer - Athens, Georgia, USA

greeramps.com

 

Greer is probably currently best known for its Lightspeed Organic Overdrive pedal - which is high on my wishlist of course (acquired actually). Yet it has numerous other excellent pedals that occasionally slip my mind - it is as well I have this list here to remain aware of these great options:

  • Greer Amps Black Fuzz
  • Greer Amps Black Tiger Delay Device
  • Greer Amps Ghetto Stomp (Tweed/Valco)
  • Greer Amps Gorilla Warfare MKII (Rat)
  • Greer Amps Lamplighter Optical Compressor
  • Greer Amps Lightspeed Organic Overdrive .
  • Greer Amps Moonshot Germanium Treble and Mids PreAmp/Booster (AC128)
  • Greer Amps Royal Velvet Class-A British Drive & PreAmp
  • Greer Amps SOMA 63 Vintage PreAmp
  • Greer Amps Soul Thrust Fuzz Unit - Custom Shop
  • Greer Amps The Southland Harmonic Overdrive .
  • Greer Amps Special Request D-Style PreAmp
  • Greer Amps Supa Cobra High Gain Overdrive
  • Greer Amps Super Hornet Octave Fuzz
  • Greer Amps TarPit Fuzz
  • Greer Amps Tomahawk Deluxe Drive (Tweed Drive)

Hamstead Soundworks : Peter Hamstead : Royston, South Cambridgeshire, UK

hamsteadsoundworks.com

 

I've known about Peter Hamstead's company for a long while now - because of his superb cream-coloured Artist Series amps. I am not currently in the market for a Hamstead Amp - they lack the power-scaling I need for home-use. Hamstead do however make 2 amazing pedals - the Signature Analogue Tremolo which has been out for a while, and the brand new Odyssey Intergalactic Driver which came out just before Christmas and I had to have - a wonderfully versatile and great sounding driver pedal with a vast range of sounds. Everything about the Odyssey is great, including the so slick OptoKick footswitch licenced from Daniel Steinhardt's TheGigRig.

  • Hamstead Soundworks Odyssey Intergalactic Driver .
  • Hamstead Soundworks Signature Analogue Tremolo V2
  • Hamstead Soundworks SubSpace Intergalactic Driver (with Parallel Blend)
  • Hamstead Soundworks Zenith (?TBC)

Highwind Amplification : Jordan Gale : Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

highwindamplification.bigcartel.com

 

I've come across Jordan's pedals a few times now - particularly the Maelstrom and the Direwolf - the latter of which is already on my wishlist:

  • Highwind Direwolf MKII Overdrive / High Gain Distortion
  • Highwind Maelstrom Overdrive
  • Highwind Monument Overdrive
  • Highwind Phalanx Noisegate
  • Highwind Voidcaller Reverb

Hudson Electronics : Michael Hudson : Hutton, East Yorkshire, UK

hudsonelectronicsuk.com

 

I've been aware of Michael Hudson's boutique pedal company for a while, in particular the 'Broadcast' - which I particularly like in its Dual Broadcaster version. But it's not really until recently that I've become fully switched onto the pervasive hight quality of the range. I had a smidge of a larger-size-enclosure phobia for a while, but I've mostly overcome that now! Michael produces a brilliant but compact range of highest quality Germanium transistor pedals - mostly fuzzes - but the superb Sidecar overdrive too. He has various pedals discontinued too now - pretty much everything with the Hudson Electronics badge on it though is of the highest quality and well worth having - I've been trying to get my hands on a Dual Broadcaster for a while now - hopefully it will happen this month. I will also definitely acquire the Sidecar at some stage, in the meantime I will make do with the recently discontinued (MKIV) 'Fuzz'.

  • Hudson Electronics Broadcast Fuzz-Drive
  • Hudson Electronics Broadcast 24V Edition Fuzz-Drive
  • Hudson Electronics Broadcast 24V-FS Dual Broadcast Fuzz-Drive
  • Hudson Electronics Broadcast-AP Ariel Posen Stripped Down Version
  • Hudson Electronics Dual Broadcast Fuzz-Drive .
  • Hudson Electronics Full Range Bomb Fuzz
  • Hudson Electronics Fuzz (MKIV) .
  • Hudson Electronics Gospel Bomb Treble Boost (RM)
  • Hudson Electronics Sidecar Germanium Clipping Overdrive . (Tube Screamer +)
  • Hudson Electronics Stroll On Fuzz (MKII) .
  • Hudson Electronics White Heat Fuzz (Vox TB) .

Ibanez : Kimihide Hoshino : Nagoya, Japan (< Hoshino Gakki Group)

ibanez.com

 

Ibanez, apart from being responsible for many an amazing guitar is also behind the world's best-known and most-copied overdrive pedal - the Tube Screamer. It also has an excellent line of mini pedals now, alongside the unusal slider-controlled Echo Shifter and Paul Gilber Signature Airplane Jet Flanger.

  • Ibanez 850 Fuzz Mini
  • Ibanez AF2 Paul Gilbert Airplane Flanger [discontinued]
  • Ibanez Analog Delay Mini
  • Ibanez Chorus Mini
  • Ibanez Echo Shifter Delay Reissue
  • Ibanez Flanger Mini
  • Ibanez No. 59 Standard Fuzz [discontinued]
  • Ibanez NTS Nu Tube Screamer
  • Ibanez Super Metal Mini .
  • Ibanez Tremolo Mini
  • Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini .
  • Ibanez TS808
  • Ibanez TS80840TH
  • Ibanez TSV808 Tube Screamer / Vemuram Jan Ray collaboration
  • Ibanez TS9 Gold
  • Ibanez WH10V3 Wah Pedal

Iron Ether : Taylor Livingston : Lafayette, Louisiana, USA

ironether.com

 

Iron Ether is particularly loved by bass players, although most of its pedals are great for both bass and guitar. The most popular pedal here seems to be the FrantaBit bitcrusher - and it's the one that's been on my wishlist for quite a long while now.

  • Iron Ether Divaricator Crossover/Exciter
  • Iron Ether FMeron FM Synthesizer
  • Iron Ether FrantaBit Bitcrusher Sample Rate/Bit Reducer
  • Iron Ether Nimbus SE Deep Expressive Reverberator
  • Iron Ether Polytope Quad-Voice Detuner
  • Iron Ether QF2 Multiband Distortion [discontinued]
  • Iron Ether Xerograph Lowpass Filter
  • Iron Ether Xerograph Deluxe Envelope Filter

Jackson Audio : Brad Jackson, Nigel Hendroff & Juan Kyle : Keller, Texas, USA

jackson.audio

 

I've had this for around a couple of months now, and it has to be the best boost currently on the market - it does so much within its compact enclosure, the only thing I think they could add really to improve it would be an additional Mid Frequency / Contour EQ dial to complement the existing High / Tone and Low / Body frequency dials.

  • Jackson Audio Bloom Compressor / EQ / Boost .
  • Jackson Audio Broken Arrow Programmable 4 Mode Overdrive + 4 Mode Boost (TS/DS-1/Timmy/Plexi) .
  • Jackson Audio El Guapo 4 Mode Drive/Distortion + 4 Mode Overdrive (JCM800 + Tube Screamer+)
  • Jackson Audio Golden Boy Joey Landreth Signature 4 Mode Overdrive + 4 Mode Boost (Blues Breaker)
  • Jackson Audio Modular Fuzz - Modern Fuzz + Octave with Swappable Analog Fuzz Circuit Cards
  • Jackson Audio Prism Booster / Buffer / EQ / Overdrive / Pre-Amp .

JAM Pedals : Jannis Anastasakis : Athens, Greece

jampedals.com

 

I've been aware of JAM Pedals for a while and have featured a few on this site - they are best known for their highly expressive dynamic analog effects with bright simple primary colour graphics. They do a number of excellent fuzzes and are revered for their highly articular Delay Llama Supreme and Retrovibe MK2 Univibe-style pedals in particular. These pedals tend towards simplicity - which is often the antithesis of what I'm looking for - but I can't fault them for their quality of tone - and their legions of fans show that they are most definitely doing things right.

  • JAM Pedals Big Chill Tremolo (2 Speed Tremolo with Choppiness)
  • JAM Pedals Delay Llama Supreme (Ultimate Modulated Analog Delay with Tap Tempo and Presets)
  • JAM Pedals Delay Llama Supreme (Modulated Analog Delay with Tap Tempo)
  • JAM Pedals Double Dreamer Dual Overdrive (Lucydreamer + Tubedreamer)
  • JAM Pedals Eureka! Fuzz (Silicon Hybrid Fuzz Face/Muff)
  • JAM Pedals Fuzz Phrase (Germanium Fuzz Face)
  • JAM Pedals Lucydreamer / Supreme Overdrive (Klone)
  • JAM Pedals Rattler Distortion/+/Ltd (Rat)
  • JAM Pedals Red Muck MK2 Fuzz/Distortion (Silicon Civil War/Red Army/Triangle Muff)
  • JAM Pedals Retrovibe MK2 (Analog Univibe)
  • JAM Pedals Ripply Fall Chorus/Vibrato/Phaser
  • JAM Pedals Tubedreamer Overdrive (TS808)
  • JAM Pedals Waterfall Analog Chorus/Vibrato

JHS Pedals : Josh Scott : Kansas City, Missouri, USA

jhspedals.com

 

Josh Scott is one of the three best-known pedal modders alongside Mike Piera of Analog.Man and Robert Keeley of Keeley Electronics. In some ways he's slightly more similar to Robert, as they both have somewhat larger and broader pedal collections than Mike - Mike though offers up more variations of each of this pedals. All still continue to release exceptional modified pedals too, and as stated previously - started off modding Boss pedals, specifically Blues Drivers. It's kind of fitting that Boss celebrated the 40th anniversary of its original compact pedals by collaborating with Josh and combining their Blues Driver circuit with Josh's Marshall-esque Angry Charlie in a single enclosure which allows you to stack those circuits in series and parallel. The Angry Charlie and the Andy Timmons @ variation are probably still the best-known and best selling of Josh's pedals and I of course love my Muffuletta Fuzz, Angry Driver and modded EHX Soul Food. Lots of people also love the transparent overdrive of the Morning Glory and the toggle-switch tweakable overdrive of The Kilt.

  • JHS All American Distortion/Fuzz (Rat)
  • JHS Astro Mess Fuzz (Silicon Kay Fuzztone) [discontinued]
  • JHS Angry Charlie Drive V3 (JCM800)
  • JHS @+ (Andy Timmons) Drive
  • JHS Bonsai Multi-Overdrive (9 x Tubescreamers) .
  • JHS Bun Runner Dual Fuzz (Astro Mess + Tone Bender MKI) [discontinued]
  • JHS Calhoun V2 Overdive/Fuzz (Tone Bender Fuzz + Twin Twelve/Silvertone)
  • JHS Charlie Brown Drive V4 (JTM45)
  • JHS Cheese Ball Fuzz (Lovetone Big Cheese) .
  • JHS The Clover PreAmp/EQ/Boost (Boss FA-1 FET)
  • JHS Colour Box V2 Rupert Neve style Studio PreAmp/EQ
  • JHS Crayon PreAmp Compact Colour Box Jr
  • JHS DinoDrive (TBC)
  • JHS Double Barrel V4 Dual Overdrive (Moonshine/TS808 + Morning Glory/BB)
  • JHS Emperor V2 Chorus
  • JHS Firefly Fuzz (Tone Bender MKIII) [discontinued] .
  • JHS Foot Fuzz V2 Mini
  • JHS Haunting Mids EQ/PreAmp
  • JHS The Kilt Overdrive V1/V2
  • JHS Kodiak Tap Tremolo
  • JHS Lucky Cat Digital/Tape Delay
  • JHS Milkman Amps Signature Delay + Boost
  • JHS Moonshine V2 Overdrive (TS808)
  • JHS Morning Glory V4 Overdrive
  • JHS Muffuletta Multi-Fuzz .
  • JHS Panther Cub V2 Analog Delay
  • JHS PG-14 Paul Gilbert Signature Parametric Mids Distortion
  • JHS Pollinator Fuzz .
  • JHS Prestige Mini Boost/Buffer
  • JHS Pulp 'N' Peel Compressor/PreAmp
  • JHS Ruby Red Butch Walker Signature 2-in-1 Overdrive/Fuzz/Boost
  • JHS Space Commander - Boost/Chorus/Reverb
  • JHS Spring Tank Reverb
  • JHS Summing Amp / Parallel Connector
  • JHS SuperBolt V2 Overdrive (Supro Thunderbolt)
  • JHS Sweet Tea V3 Dual Overdrive (Moonshine/TS808 + Angry Charlie/JCM800)
  • JHS Tidewater Tremolo Mini
  • JHS Twin Twelve V2 Overdrive (Silvertone 1484 Twin Twelve Amp)
  • JHS Unicorn V2 Uni-Vibe .
  • JHS Whitey Tighty Mini Compressor
  • *JHS - Analog.Man King of Tone 4-Star Mod [discontinued] .
  • *JHS - Boss DS-1 Synth Drive
  • *JHS - EHX Big Muff Pi Green Russian Mod .
  • *JHS - EHX Big Muff Pi Nano Mod .
  • *JHS - EHX Big Muff Pi OpAmp Mod .
  • *JHS - EHX Big Muff Pi Triangle Mod .
  • *JHS - EHX Big Muff Pi V2 Violet Ram's Head Mod
  • *JHS - EHX Flatiron Fuzz Mod
  • *JHS - EHX Satisfaction Fuzz Mod .
  • *JHS - EHX Soul Food Mod (Meat + 3 Veg) .
  • *JHS - Ibanez TS-9 Tri-Screamer [discontinued]
  • *JHS - Klon KTR Shamrock Mod [discontinued]
  • *JHS - ProCo Rat Pack Rat Mod .
  • *Boss / JHS JB-2 Angry Driver .

Joe Doc Music / JDM Pedals : Joe Dochtermann : Berlin, Germany

joedocmusic.com

 

When I came across the Amptweaker Tight Fuzz Jr - I thought it was ingenious that said pedal combined both the essential fuzz transistor types - Germanium and Silicon, and I thought I should check to see if I could find any similar pedals - which is how I ran across the website of this Berlin-based multi-talented guitarist who seems to have more revenue streams than Oprah - including his own boutique pedal operation, and within that - the very reasonably priced Union Fuzz - which also contains Germanium and Silicon transistors that you can switch between - he argues that he has 2 separate circuits - rather than just a diode clipping like most of these sorts of pedals do. The holy grain in that same category for me is the discontinued / sold-out Spaceman Gemini III - which not only contains Germanium and Silicon transistors, but allows you to mix the those two circuits together - unfortunately that pedal is now only available extremely sporadically on the second-hand market and retails for nearly £1000! - which put it out of most people's reach. Hopefully something similar will be available soon at a more reasonable outlay.

  • JDM Pedals Blue Dream Overdrive (Ibanez ST-9)
  • JDM Pedals Cascade Tremolo
  • JDM Pedals Elektrika Germanium Fuzz-Tone
  • JDM Pedals Fuzz 292 Silicon Fuzz Face - Red/Blue
  • JDM Pedals Green Meanie Bass Fuzz/Distortion
  • JDM Pedals Humdinger Silicon Fuzz + Octave
  • JDM Pedals Little Steamer Overdrive (Harmonic Percolator)
  • JDM Pedals OC Boost Germanium Boost / RangeMaster
  • JDM Pedals Red Roaster Germanium Overdrive
  • JDM Pedals Tonemaster Germanium Fuzz / Boost
  • JDM Pedals Union Germanium + Silicon Switchable Fuzz

JPTR FX : Chris Jupiter : Wilhelmshaven, Germany

jptrfx.com

 

I've stated before that I find JPTR FX to be something of a Soul-brother to Death By Audio - in that they both generate very interesting noise makers which stand out significantly form the mainstream. There are aspects of their aesthetics which are vaguely similar - too - using stark monochromatic graphics with larger more vintage styled knobs. I've always been intrigued by these pedals, and while the best known here is likely the Fernweh Delay unit, my interest as usual is with the various Fuzz pedals. I will surely have one or two of these in the collection eventually - it's just tricky to know where to start!:

  • JPTR FX Add Violence Planetary Disorder Unit Two-Mode Digital Gated Fuzz (Super-Fuzz)
  • JPTR FX Apokalypse Bi-Channel Tube PreAmp
  • JPTR FX Anti Wave Twin Distortion
  • JPTR FX Drumthing Deluxe Percussive Amped Triple Spring Box
  • JPTR FX Eternal Youth Dual Channel Drive
  • JPTR FX Feedback Fucker Passive Feedback Looper
  • JPTR FX Fernweh Multi Echo Module Delay
  • JPTR FX Gainsaw Distortion - One Knob High Gain Distortion .
  • JPTR FX Jive Reel Saturator Boost/Enhancer
  • JPTR FX Kaleidoscope Multi Reflector Unit Modulated Reflective Reverb
  • JPTR FX Ramrod Waveform Transformer Dual Filter Guitar Synth
  • JPTR FX Roygbiv Tape Quality Manipulator Dual PT2399 Chorus
  • JPTR FX Slibermaschine Vintage Style Twin Parallel Gain Stage Fuzz (Face Fuzz / Tone Bender Hybrid)
  • JPTR FX Super Weirdo Glitch Super Fuzz Time Modulation Unit
  • JPTR FX Tesla Wolf Overdrive (Rat?)

J Rockett Audio Designs / JRAD : Jay Rockett & Chris Van Tassel : Brentwood, Tennessee, USA

rockettpedals.com

 

Jay Rockett is best know for his Silver and Gold version Archer Klon clones - my preference is really for the new Steve Stevens Signature Rockaway EQ version of that pedal - it was right at the top of the wishlist until the Wampler Tumnus Deluxe came along. Also, when I acquired the Mad Professor Simble - it was kind of running neck-and-neck with J Rockett's The Dude - I got a better price on the Simble which is in part why I went for that choice - I still find The Dude excellent in sia category, but am also tempted to try the Mojo Hand FX Extra Special.

  • J Rockett .45 Caliber (JTM45)
  • J Rockett The Animal OD (1968 Plexi)
  • J Rockett APE Analog PreAmp Experiment with built-in Delay
  • J Rockett Archer (Silver Klon)
  • J Rockett Archer Ikon (Gold Klon)
  • J Rocker Archer Clean (Low Gain Klon)
  • J Rockett Boing Spring Reverb
  • J Rockett Blue Note Overdrive
  • J Rockett The Dude (Dumble ODS)
  • J Rockett GTO (Nobels ODR-1)
  • J Rockett The Hooligan (WTF Fuzz / Rat)
  • J Rockett Hot Rubber Monkey (HRM) Fat Modded Dumble Style
  • J Rockett Lenny (Dumble Steel String Singer)
  • J Rockett The Majestic (Marshall SLP)
  • J Rockett Monkeyman Gritty Reverb
  • J Rockett Mr Moto Tremol & Reverb
  • J Rockett Tranquilizer Phase/Vibe
  • J Rockett Jet Series Immortal Echo Delay
  • J Rockett Jet Series Squeegee Compressor
  • J Rockett Jet Series Steampunk Boost/Buffer
  • J Rockett Jet SeriesTouch Overdrive
  • J Rockett Pro Series Blue Note OD
  • J Rockett Q Series IQ Compressor (6-band EQ)
  • J Rockett Q Series Melody EQ/Drive (6-band EQ)
  • J Rockett Q Series Rockaway Archer (6-band EQ)
  • J Rockett Signature Series Allan Holdsworth Overdrive+Boost [discontinued]
  • J Rockett Signature Series Tim Pierce Overdrive & PowerAmp

Keeley Electronics : Robert Keeley : Edmond, Oklahoma, USA

robertkeeley.com

 

Robert Keeley needs no introduction really - he's best known as the 'King of Compressors' and for a long while has done very well out of that pedal category. Both his 4-knob versions and larger enclosure Compressor Pro have long been the industry standard, although I feel Origin Effects has somewhat encroached on that in the compact category, and Empress in the larger form factor. Yet Robert has quite a few more tricks up his sleeve - his Pink Floyd inspired Dark Side and Hendrix inspired Montery are simply genius, as are his medium sized Delay and Super Mod Workstations. I'm also looking to score a Filaments drive pedal at some stage. Considering how many great pedals Keeley has, its surprising that so far I've only got its Tube Screamer -modded style Red Dirt Mini. If I were to go for a compact compressor, I would currently most likely go for the 6-dial Cali76 Deluxe from Origin Effects. All the other pedals below I am hoping to get at some stage.

  • Keeley 30ms Double Tracker
  • Keeley 1962x Overdrive (Marshall Blues Breaker)
  • Keeley Abbey Chamber Verb Vintage Reverb - 2.7k/3.5k/10k
  • Keeley Aria Compressor + Drive
  • Keeley Aura Reverb - Hall/Plate/Room
  • Keeley BubbleTron Filter/Phase/Flange
  • Keeley Caverns Delay+ Reverb V2 - Shimmer/Spring/Modulated
  • Keeley Compressor Plus
  • Keeley Compressor Pro
  • Keeley Dark Side (Pink Floyd in a box) - Fuzz/Flanger/Phaser/Rotary/Uni-Vibe/Delay
  • Keeley DDR - Drive, Delay, Reverb
  • Keeley Delay Workstation Delay + Reverb
  • Keeley D&M Drive - Boost + Overdrive
  • Keeley DynoMyRoto - Tri-Chorus/Rotary/RotoFlange
  • Keeley DynaTrem - DynamicRate/DynamicDepth/Harmonic Tremolo
  • Keeley Eccos Vintage Tape Flanged Delay
  • Keeley El Rey Dorado Overdrive (Plexi)
  • Keeley Filaments High Gain Distortion .
  • Keeley Fuzz Bender Three Transistor Hybrid Fuzz
  • Keeley Germanium Ecstasy Treble Booster 2018 Ltd
  • Keeley Gold Star Reverb 60's Style Spector Reverb
  • Keeley Hooke Spring Reverb
  • Keeley Katana Clean Boost
  • Keeley Katana Clean Boost Mini
  • Keeley Limiting Amplifier GC-2 Compressor
  • Keeley Loomer Stoner/Shoe-Gaze Wall-of-Fuzz + Reverb Wash
  • Keeley Magnetic Echo Modulated Tape Echo
  • Keeley Memphis Sun Lo-Fi Reverb/Echo/Double-Tracker
  • Keeley Monterey (Jimi Hendrix in a box) - Fuzz+Harmonic Wah+Rotary+Vibe
  • Keeley Neutrino Envelope Filter
  • Keeley Nocturner Reverb - Reverse/Hall/Shimmer
  • Keeley Omni Reverb Simple Reverberator - Room/Spring/Plate
  • Keeley Oxblood / Germanium (Klon)
  • Keeley Realizer Reverberator - Soft Focus/Reverse/Hall
  • Keeley Red Dirt Germanium Overdrive
  • Keeley Red Dirt Mini Drive .
  • Keeley Retro Super Germanium Phat Mod .
  • Keeley Rotten Apple OpAmp Fuzz
  • Keeley Seafoam Plus Chorus - ADT/Seafoam/Dual-Chorus
  • Keeley Super Phat Mod (Blues Driver)
  • Keeley Super Mod Workstation
  • Keeley Synth-1 Reverse Attack Synth Wave Generator
  • Keeley Tone Workstation - Compression+Boost/Drive+Drive
  • Keeley Verb o Trem Compact
  • Keeley Verb o Trem Workstation
  • Keeley Vibe o Verb - Harmonic Tremolo/Vibrato/Phaser
  • Keeley White Sands Luxe Drive Asymmetric Clipping Overdrive

Keyztone : Ambroise Périn : Nîmes, France

keyztone.com

 

I've already featured the ExChanger pedal on the site - so far a one pedal company - but a really cool idea with plenty of potential. I feel it can probably be refined further still - and made a little more upgradeable - but I will very likely still acquire the V1 this year. I am largely a one guitar kind of player - and a million pedals - so if I can get all the tones out of my favourite single guitar so much the better!

  • Keyztone ExChanger Pickup Remodeler .

KHDK Electronics : Kirk Hamnett & David Karon : Paducah, Kentucky, USA

khdkelectronics.com

 

I had read some mixed reviews of the KHDK pedals in their earlier days and had somewhat discounted them back then. Yet upon further exposure and more research, some of the criticism was probably levelled at the distinct direction KHDK has taken with its pedals. The No.1 Overdrive is about as vanilla as they get, they largely though do slightly different takes on accepted pedal norms. Thus their Ghoul (Tube) Screamer, goes much beyond the scope of your typical 808 style pedal and is all the better for it. The most likely acquisition for me here in the near future is the Ghoul Jr, although there are several that I like:

  • KHDK Abyss Bass Overdrive
  • KHDK Dark High Gain Blood Distortion
  • KHDK / Dark Matter Unicorn Blood Octave Fuzz
  • KHDK Ghoul Screamer OD (Tube Screamer+)
  • KHDK Ghoul Jr OD (Mini Tube Screamer+)
  • KHDK No.1 Overdrive
  • KHDK No.2 Clean Boost
  • KHDK Paranormal Gary Holt Parametric EQ Overdrive Ltd Ed.
  • KHDK Scuzz Box Fuzz

King Tone Guitar / Effects : Jesse Davey : Orange, California, USA

kingtoneguitar.com

 

Jesse Davey, of The celebrated British blues band 'The Hoax' gained a reputation for influencing the evolving tone of such greats as Albert King, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. King Tone Guitar seems to have started our as a side project to harness many of the key elements of those signature tones, and one of the most significant devices created was the King Tone Switch with Vaughan (SRV), Albert (King) and BB (King) - tone modes. There is also a number of critically acclaimed pedals - of which 'The Duellist' is probably the best known, but I am more interested in the Mini Fuzzes (compacts), in particular the Mini Germanium and Mini Octaland:

  • King Tone Blues Power Boost/Overdrive
  • King Tone The Duellist Dual Overdrive
  • King Tone Minifuzz Germanium Fuzz .
  • King Tone Minifuzz Silicon Fuzz
  • King Tone Splitter Box
  • King Tone The Octaland Octave Fuzz
  • King Tone The Octaland Mini Octave Fuzz
  • King Tone Vibe - 1968
  • King Tone Vintage Fuzz

KMA Machines : Enrico Preuß : Berlin, Germany

kma-machines.com

 

Young German brand KMA does some really innovative pedals - the 3 I really like the look of are the Astrospurt Phaser, Tyler Frequency Splitter and the Fuzz-edged High Gain Distortion called Wurm. This selection is all medium enclosure or above, which lessens my likelihood of acquisition. As I've said previously, I don't mind my Modulation, Delay and Reverb workstation pedals being large - If I did I could always shift a range - down to Source Audio Nemesis & Ventris + Eventide H9; or TCE Dreamscape, Flashback and HOF at the compact level. What I'm unwilling to do though is sacrifice a lot of pedalboard real-estate to an overly large pedal which is not a core regular use pedal, and does not have several functions.

  • KMA Astrospurt Phaser
  • KMA Belfry Buffer Mini
  • KNA Cirrus Spatial-Temporal Modifier Digital Delay
  • KMA Dead Stag Fuzz/Distortion (Multi-Muff) .
  • KMA Fuzzly Bear Silicium Fuzz (Jordan Boss Tone)
  • KMA Horizont Stereo Multispatial Phaser
  • KMA Logan Transcend Drive with Expressionable Parametric Mids
  • KMA Minos Germanium Fuzz (Tone Bender MKII)
  • KMA Moai Maea Analog Octaver
  • KMA Queequeg Subgenerator Octave Down Fuzz
  • KMA SAM Supply Aid Machine Dual Voltage Doubler/Converter
  • KMA Strokkur Germanium Treble Booster
  • KMA Sweet Sinner Germanium Treble Boster
  • KMA Tyler Frequency Splitter
  • KMA Wurm Distortion / Fuzzstortion (HM-2)

Kuro Custom Audio : Giulio Git : Livorno, Tuscany, Italy

kurocustomaudio.com

 

One of my favourite Italian builders of recent times - Giulio has a long history of doing pedal modifications, while his business Kuro Custom Audio only became fully properly established in 2018. And while there are several pedals still listed on the website - Giulio is just concentrating on his superb flagship trio for now - Akuma Fiery Fuzz, P.h.A Boost/Overdrive/PreAmp and T120 Matamp-style PreAmp - all exceptional extended-range pedals hand-made from the finest components available :

  • Akuma Fiery Fuzz .
  • P.h.A. Boost/Overdrive/PreAmp .
  • T120 Matamp-style PreAmp

Lastgasp Art Laboratories : Hirofumi Uchino : North Narrabeen, NSW, Australia

lalweb.com/effects-e.html

 

I really love the innovation of Hirofumi Uchino - nearly all his pedals are unique and artistically and creatively inspired. I have featured a number of the fuzzes on this site before - and I will surely acquire a few of those before long - the Gomorrah, Lluna, Octavella, Sooper Fuzz and Super Oscillo Fuzz in particular - I'm also intrigued by the Deviltail!:

  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Angelring Clean Boost
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Cyber Psychic Parametric Oscillo Filter
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Deviltail Deathtortion High Gain Distortion
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories FLIKRRR Flickering Tremolo
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Gomorrah Input Sensitive Subharmonic Fuzz
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Green Monster Septic Break-Up Fuzz [discontinued]
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Hachihachi Shiki Kebadate Kizumaseki SUPER OSCILLO FUZZ
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Lluna Oscillo Fuzz Drive with Voltage Dropper
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Misty Cave Analog Resonance Echo
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Multi Noise Processor 2
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Octavella Upper Octave Feedback Fuzz
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Sandstorm Envelope Noise Generator
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Sick Pitch King Jr Oscillo Ring Modulator
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Steroid O.D. Overload Unit Switchable Overdrive [discontinued]
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Thunder Box Donsharizer Simultaneous Low and High Frequency Booster
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Tone Axe Frequency Divider + Manual Jetlizer & Fuzz with Gate
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Tone Mosaique Envelope Pixelizer
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Toxic Plant Disharmonic Distortion
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Transroom Analog Modulation Reverb
  • Lastgasp Art Laboratories Yontoku Shiki Kebadate Hizumaseki SOOPER FUZZ

Lawrence Petross Design (LPD) : Lawrence Petross : Mesa, Arizona, USA

lawrencepetrossdesign.com

 

Like many others I was introduced to Lawrence Petross and his pedals courtesy of Phillip McKnight of Know Your Gear fame. Phillip often proclaims the Sixty 8 is favourite Marshall style drive pedal - while he is of course partial to the Lovepedal Zendrive too. Lawrence has a large number of Mini Boost pedals, but his mainstay is the Sixty 8 and Eighty 7 pedals - I also like the look of the Modern Classic OD. To date I have acquired the Eight 7, while I would prefer the Sixty 8 deluxe with 3-band EQ. If you're interested in the compact format - try to hunt down the V1 sixty 8 which has the 2-way gain toggle onboard - while the later V2 models do not.

  • LPD Anasazi Clean Boost
  • LPD Cholla Overdrive Boost
  • LPD Eighty 7 PreAmp .
  • LPD Javelina Overdrive Boost
  • LPD Kokopelli Overdrive
  • LPD Modern Classic Overdrive
  • LPD Palo Verde Boost Fuzz
  • LPD Phoenix Fuzz
  • LPD Saguaro Overdrive Boost
  • LPD SEP Field Generator Compressor
  • LPD Seventy 4 PreAmp (1974 Marshall Super Bass?)
  • LPD Sixty 8 Deluxe Overdrive
  • LPD Sixty 8 Drive V1
  • LPD Sixty 8 Drive Mini
  • LPD VRMN Distortion (Rat)

Lone Wolf Audio : Joe Anastasio : Austin, Texas, USA

lonewolfaudio.bigcartel.com

 

My first exposure to Lone Wolf Audio was via its highly celebrated Left Hand Path/Wrath line of superior HM-2 clones. I've always associated Joe's company with high gain distortion - but there is plenty more besides on the roster - covering most effect types. Joe's operation is sort of an ongoing sound-lab - so there are always prototypes in development and a vastly changing range on offer with some pedals discontinued and others on the way in. I'm comfortable with the medium enclosure pedals here, have already acquired the compact F.O.A.D. distortion and will likely add some sort of Left Hand Wrath and Iron Fist 2 before long - even though it looks like the latter is already discontinued!

  • Lone Wolf Audio '83 Retrowave 3-mode Delay
  • Lone Wolf Audio クマキラ ODS100 Preamp distortion (Kuma Kira Dumble Style PreAmp)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Acetylene Nirvana Pre VCF/Sample Hold Ultra
  • Lone Wolf Audio Black Mesa High Gain Distortion
  • Lone Wolf Audio Bulldozer Fuzz (Fuzztone Style Fuzz)
  • Lone Wold Audio Crucifier Distortion (Providence Stampede SDT-1 Clone)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Dictator Distortion (One Knob Left Hand Wrath)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Domintator Octave Fuzz (Hyper Modded FZ-2 Clone)
  • Lone Wolf Audio F.O.A.D. Signature Darkthrone Distortion (Fur Overdrive and Distortion) .
  • Lone Wolf Audio Grim Ripper CMOS Drive V2 (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Hellblaster Fuzz/Reverb
  • Lone Wolf Audio Insider Harmonic Overdrive
  • Lone Wolf Audio Iron Fist 2 Fuzz (Big Muff Ram's Head Clone)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Large Marge Octave-Oscillator-Filter Fuzz
  • Lone Wolf Audio LWA-209 Dual Mosfet Overdrive
  • Lone Wolf Audio Left Hand Path High Gain Distortion (Standard HM-2 Clone)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Left Hand Wrath High Gain Distortion (Enhanced HM-2 Clone)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Left Hand Wrath Deluxe High Gain Distortion (Advanced HM-2 Clone)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Necronomicon Annihilation Machine V2 High Gain Fuzz
  • Lone Wolf Audio Outer Heaven V2 Demolition Gated Fuzz
  • Lone Wolf Audio Outsider V2 Lead Boost Sub Harmonic Energizer (Systech Harmonic Energizer Clone)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Overdose Overload Extreme Octave Fuzz
  • Lone Wold Audio Panzerwolf Dual Assault Distortion
  • Lone Wolf Audio The Plague / Plague Rat Distortion (Standard Rat Clone)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Plague Doctor (Advanced Rat Clone)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Shagohod Nuclear Option Dual Modified Dominator Distortion (Modded FZ-2 + HM-2 Clones)
  • Lone Wolf Audio Short Circuit Bass/Guitard Analog Synth with Optical Tremolo + Reverb
  • Lone Wolf Audio Trollslayer HighGain Distortion
  • Lone Wolf Audio The Upside Down Reverb
  • Lone Wolf Audio VHS Sample Rate Reduction Delay
  • Lone Wolf Audio Xenomorph Delay+Reverb

Lovepedal : Sean Michael : Edmond, Oklahoma, USA

lovepedal.com

 

Lovepedal is a pretty long-standing brand by now, of course associated with Hermida's Zendrive Dumble overdrive, Kalamazoo, Church of Tone, Tchula Overdrive, Mini Bonetender Fuzz (Tonebender) and Purple Plexi Marshall-style pedal. For the Klon sound my favourites are the Wampler Tumnus or J Rockett Rockaway Archer, and I have various overdrive pedals still on my wishlist way above anything produced by Lovepedal - actually scratch that - I still also like the Lovepedal Amp Eleven - if we could have that in a vertical enclosure please. In fact, the only active one of these which is currently on my wishlist seems to be the fairly recently discontinued Bonetender fuzz. I would snap up an Amp Eleven if it came in a more PBF enclosure.

  • Lovepedal 5E3 Deluxe (Tweed)
  • Lovpedal 200 Lbs of Gold Fuzz-Drive
  • Lovepedal Amp Eleven Natural Overdrive - White/Gold
  • Lovepedal Amp 50 Overdrive Mini
  • Lovepedal BBB13 OC76 Fuzz (Germanium Fuzz Face)
  • Lovepedal BeardsMan Bi Chorus
  • Lovepedal Bonetender Mini Fuzz .
  • Lovepedal Bullnose Billet Octave Fuzz (Octavia)
  • Lovepedal Champ One Knob Overdrive (Fender Champ)
  • Lovepedal COT Etern Stack
  • Lovepedal COT50 Raw Overdrive
  • Lovepedal Custom Twin Sixty Dual Clean Boost
  • Lovepedal DL-1 Vintage Style Delay
  • Lovepedal Echo Baby Mini
  • Lovepedal EchoPlexi - Plexi + Echoplex!
  • Lovepedal EPH-3 Tape-style Delay (Echoplex)
  • Lovepedal ET-ST (Dual Eternity Stack)
  • Lovepedal Eternity D Mod Overdrive
  • Lovepedal Hermida Dover Drive (BK Butler Tube Driver)
  • Lovepedal Hermida Mosferatu Low Gain Sustaining Overdrive
  • Lovepedal Hermida Reverb 3 High-End Spring Reverb
  • Lovepedal Hermida Rotary Reverb
  • Lovepedal Hermida Unimos Ruby Overdrive/Distortion
  • Lovepedal Hermida ZenDrive
  • Lovepedal Hermida ZenDrive Zen II Dual Channel Drive
  • Lovepedal Hi Volt Mid-to-High Gain JFET Drive
  • Lovepedal HSR-3 Multi Reverb - Hall/Shimmer/Modulation
  • Lovepedal JTM Drive (JTM45)
  • Lovepedal Jubilee (Marshall Silver Jubilee)
  • Lovepedal Kalamazoo Overdrive
  • Lovepedal Kanji Eternity Overdrive
  • Lovepedal Les Lius Overdrive (Tweed)
  • Lovepedal MK12 Red High Gain Distortion
  • Lovepedal OD 11 Transparent Organic Overdrive
  • Lovepedal Pickle Vibe Mini
  • Lovepedal Purple Plexi / SE Distortion
  • Lovepedal Rubber Chicken Old School Envelope Filter
  • Lovepedal Shampoode Trem o Verb
  • Lovepedal Silicon Fuzzmaster (Fuzz Face)
  • Lovepedal Superlead Distortion (Marshall Super Lead Plexi)
  • Lovepedal Super Sic Tone Fuzz with 3-way clipping
  • Lovepedal Super Six Stevie Mod (SRV Blackface Fender)
  • Lovepedal Tchula Overdrive White/Gold
  • Lovepedal Tiki Drive
  • Lovepedal Tru FET Buffer Mini
  • Lovepedal Vibronaut Vibe
  • Lovepedal Vintage Modern COT50 + Purple Plexi
  • Lovepedal White Dragon Fuzz (Fuzz Face/Tone Bender)

Lunastone Pedals : Steen Grøntved : Valby, Denmark

lunastonepedals.com

 

A fairly young Danish pedal brand known for its signature Soren Andersen Three Stage Rocket drive pedal and its 2 newer cascaded gain stage TrueOverDrive 1 & 2 pedals. If they were being really clever here, they should find a way to combine both TOD1 & TOD2 into the same compact enclosure - possibly with a second footswitch to either toggle between the two circuits or stack them!:

  • Lunastone Big Fella 2 Channel Smooth to Crunchy Drive+Boost
  • Lunastone Blue Drive 1 (Blues Breaker)
  • Lunastone Boost 18 Mini
  • Lunastone Distortion 1
  • Lunastone Dynamic Delay
  • Lunastone Red Fuzz 1 (Fuzz Face)
  • Lunastone Smooth Drive 1
  • Lunastone Stage 1 True OverDrive
  • Lunastone Three Stage Rocket - Boost / OD1 / OD2
  • Lunastone TrueOverDrive 1 (Bright)
  • Lunastone TrueOverDrive 2 (Deep)
  • Lunastone Wise Guy 2 Channel Crunchy to Distortion Drive+Boost

Mad Professor Amplification : Björn Juhl & Harri Koski : Turenki, Finland

mpamp.com

 

At one stage I had 3 of these in my active pedal chain - I still really like them, but they've all been pushed aside by more versatile pedals now. I've long aimed to get a Sweet Honey Overdrive Deluxe and may too still get a Snow White Auto Wah Envelope Filter at some stage:

  • Mad Professor 1 (JCM800/EVH) .
  • Mad Professor Albert's Overdrive
  • Mad Professor Amber Overdrive with hint of Fuzz .
  • Mad Professor Big Tweedy Drive
  • Mad Professor Bluebird Overdrive + Delay [discontinued]
  • Mad Professor Deep Blue Digital/Analog Delay
  • Mad Professor Double Moon Chorus/Flanger/Vibrato
  • Mad Professor Dual Blue Delay
  • Mad Professor Dual Royal Blue Overdrive
  • Mad Professor Electric Blue Chorus
  • Mad Professor Evolution Orange Underdrive
  • Mad Professor Fire Red Fuzz
  • Mad Professor Forest Green Compressor
  • Mad Professor Golden Cello Overdrive [discontinued] .
  • Mad Professor Kosmos Reverb
  • Mad Professor Little Green Wonder High Headroom Overdrive
  • Mad Professor Little Tweedy Drive [discontinued] .
  • Mad Professor Loud'N Proud AIAB (Vintage Marshall)
  • Mad Professor Mellow Yellow Tremolo
  • Mad Professor Mighty Red Distortion
  • Mad Professor Royal Blue Overdrive
  • Mad Professor Ruby Red Booster
  • Mad Professor Silver Spring Reverb
  • Mad Professor Simble Overdrive (Dumble ODS) .
  • Mad Professor Simble Predriver (Dumble PreAmp)
  • Mad Professor Sky Blue Handwired Overdrive
  • Mad Professor Snow White AutoWah
  • Mad Professor Stone Grey High Gain Distortion
  • Mad Professor Super Black Blackface Fender style + Boost
  • Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive Deluxe .
  • Mad Professor Tiny Orange Phaser
  • Mad Professor Twimble Overdrive (Predriver + Simble)

Magnetic Effects - Christian Livingstone - London, UK

magneticeffects.net

 

Kiwi Christian Livingstone of the band The Datsuns has been settled in London for a while now and making pedals for the last 6 years or so. He's currently best known for his 2 standout fuzzes - The White Atom, and Solar Bender - the former of which I have had my eye on for a while. As a touring musician - Christian's fuzzes are particularly pedalboard-friendly with low noise floors and suitable for placing anywhere in the chain. Magnetic Effects regularly produce limited editions which disappear very quickly - the equally wallet-friendly price-point of mostly £109 makes it all that sweeter.

  • Magnetic Effects Black Moon Fuzz (Fuzz Face) .
  • Magnetic Effects Buzzer Fuzz (Burns Buzzaround) .
  • Magnetic Effects Buzzkill Germanium Fuzz [discontinued] .
  • Magnetic Effects Double Feature Modulated Fuzz Compact V2 Edition (2014)
  • Magnetic Effects Dual Drive Rat + Tube Screamer
  • Magnetic Effecs Electrochop Tremolo (Vox Repeat Percussion)
  • Magnetic Effects Lonely Robot Fuzzstortion (Rat) .
  • Magnetic Effects Midphoria Fixed-Wah
  • Magnetic Effects Sändare Overdrive/Booster V2
  • Magnetic Effects Solar Bender Fuzz (Tone Bender MKII) V3 .
  • Magnetic Effects Sonic Tailor Germanium Overdrive [discontinued]
  • Magnetic Effects Tonebender MKI [discontinued]
  • Magnetic Effects Vortex Boost with Echo [discontinued]
  • Magnetic Effects White Atom Fuzz V2 .
  • Magnetic Effects Zola Clean Boost

Malekko Heavy Industry Corporation : Josh Holley & Paul Barker : Portland, Oregon, USA

malekkoheavyindustry.com

 

Malekko have an excellent line of high quality Omicron mini pedals from which I acquired the Octave Fuzz. I also have my eye on the superb Scrutator BitCrusher. Beyond that they have a number of fairly quirky compact enclosure pedals which have largely yet to pique my interest really.

  • Malekko B:assmaster Harmonic Octave Analog Distortion/Fuzz
  • Malekko Combover Spectral Processor Comb Filter Sequencer
  • Malekko Charlie Foxtrot Digital Pedal/Granular/Pitch Modulator
  • Malekko Diabolik Justin Meldal-Johnsen Signature Fuzz
  • Malekko Downer Wavefolder/Saturation/Octave/Filter
  • Malekko Ekko 616 MKII 650ms Analog Delay
  • Malekko Ekko 616 MKII Dark 650ms Analog Delay
  • Malekko Ekko 616 MKII LoFi 650ms Analog Delay
  • Malekko Fetish MKII Wolftone Analog Overdrive/Fuzz
  • Malekko Goatkeeper 2-Stage Sequential / Polyrhythmic Analog Tremolo
  • Malekko Helium MKII Analog Octave Distortion
  • Malekko Omicron A.D. - Variable Volume Ramp
  • Malekko Omicron Bit - Bitcrusher
  • Malekko Omicron Chorus
  • Malekko Omicron Comp
  • Malekko Omicron E.Filter
  • Malekko Omicron Fuzz (Super Fuzz) .
  • Malekko Omicron Phase
  • Malekko Omicron Spring/Chicklet - Reverb
  • Malekko Omicron Trem
  • Malekko Omicron Vibrato
  • Malekko Scrutator BitCrusher
  • Malekko Sloika MKII Wolftone Analog Multi-Band Distortion
  • Malekko Sneak Attack - Volume Attack/Decay + Tremolo
  • Malekko Thicken Multi-Tap Delay/Chorus
  • Malekko Unity MKII Wolftone Analog Fuzzcompressor

Matthews Effects - Rick Matthews - Richland, Washington, USA

matthewseffects.com

 

Rick Matthews is probably best known for his Architect Klon-clone overdive and distinctly versatile Whaler Fuzz. His Multi-Modulation Chemist and Conductor Optical Tremolo are well regarded by many - as are his slightly out of the ordinary reverbs. As far as I'm concerned he has at least 4 pretty great pedals:

  • Matthews Effects Architect V3 Foundational Overdrive/Boost (Klon) .
  • Matthews Effects The Artistocrat MOSFET Boost Mini [discontinued]
  • Matthews Effects The Astronomer V2 Celestial Reverb - EchoVerb/Hall/Chamber
  • Matthews Effects The Astronomer V2 Arcade Celestial Reverb - EchoVerb/Hall/Chamber
  • Matthews Effects The Cartographer Parametric Overdrive [discontinued]
  • Matthews Effects The Chemist V2 Chorus/Vibrato,Phaser,Octaver
  • Matthews Effects The Conductor V2 Optical Tremolo
  • Matthews Effects Cosmonaut V2 Delay/Reverb - ModulatedReverb/ReflectivePlate/TapeDelay
  • Matthews Effects The Futurist Midi Controller
  • Matthews Effects The Ghoul Phantom Fuzz [discontinued] .
  • Matthews Effects The Harbinger Parametric Distortion (Rat) [discontinued]
  • Matthews Effects The Pocket Drive Mini Overdrive [discontinued]
  • Matthews Effects The Scoundrel - Architect + Pocket Drive [discontinued]
  • Matthews Effects The Surgeon Digital Delay - DarkTape/AnalogVoice/FilterSweep [discontinued]
  • Matthews Effects The Technician - Astronomer + Cosmonaut
  • Matthews Effects The Whaler Fuzz .
  • Matthews Effects The Whaler V2 Fuzz
  • *EHX Nano Pog Matthews Dual Octave Mod

Maxon Guitar Effects / Nisshin Onpa : Kichiro Suyama, Masahiko Saito : Tokyo, Japan

maxonfx.com

 

Everyone knows by now that Maxon famously OEM'd a number of Ibanez's early pedals - including the seminal TS808 Tube Screamer. The Maxon OD808 is Maxon's own-badge version of that overdrive classic. There is much more here besides, but I often view Maxon, Ibanez and Boss all having vaguely similar aesthetics to a degree - and a distinct Japanese commonality. Maxon nowadays mostly sail under the radar of most players, but they are still putting out these same high quality pedals all these years later. Another one of their well-received series is the Fuzz Elements - which recreate a number of those classic circuits in standard format and with additional single band parametric EQ:

 

  • Maxon Ambient Analog Delay - AD10
  • Maxon Ambient Stereo Chorus - ASC10
  • Maxon Analog Delay Pro - AD9Pro
  • Maxon Analog Delay Vintage - AD999
  • Maxon Analog Delay Pro Vintage - AD999Pro
  • Maxon Apex 808 Overdrive
  • Maxon Auto Filter - AF-9
  • Maxon Compressor - CP101
  • Maxon Compressor/Limiter - CP9Pro+
  • Maxon Distortion and Sustainer - D&S
  • Maxon Distortion and Sustainer II - D&S II
  • Maxon Distortion Master Vintage - DS830
  • Maxon Dual Booster - DB10
  • Maxon Flanger FL-9
  • Maxon Fuzz Elements Air - FA10 (Shin-Ei/Univox Super Fuzz)
  • Maxon Fuzz Elements Earth - FEA10 (Ram's Head Muff / Gilmouresque)
  • Maxon Fuzz Elements Ether - FE10 (Super Fuzz + Parametric EQ)
  • Maxon Fuzz Elements Fire - FF10 (Roland Bee Baa Fuzz)
  • Maxon Fuzz Elements Void - FV10 (Fat Super Fuzz)
  • Maxon Fuzz Elements Water - FWA10 (Early 70's Ram's Head Muff + Parametric EQ)
  • Maxon Fuzz Elements Wind - FW10 (Vox Tonebender)
  • Maxon Graphic Equalizer - GE601
  • Maxon Organic Overdrive - OOD-9
  • Maxon Overdrive - OD808
  • Maxon Overdrive - OD-9
  • Maxon Overdrive 40th Anniversary - OD808-40
  • Maxon Overdrive Extreme - OD808X
  • Maxon Overdrive Pro Plus - OD-9Pro+
  • Maxon Overdrive Pro Vintage (OD820)
  • Maxon Overdrive-Soft Distortion - OSD-9
  • Maxon Phase Tone - PT999
  • Maxon Pro Plus Phase Shifter - PT-9Pro+
  • Maxon Pure Analog Chorus - PAC-9
  • Maxon Real Tube Compressor - RTC600
  • Maxon Real Tube Overdrive RTO700
  • Maxon Real Tube Overdrive-Distortion - RDT800
  • Maxon Sonic Distortion - SD-9
  • Maxon Stereo Chorus - CS-9Pro
  • Maxon Vintage Stereo Chorus Vintage - CS550
  • Maxon Super Metal - SM-9Pro+
  • Maxon Super Tube Pro Plus - STS9Pro+
  • Maxon True Tube Booster-Overdrive - TBO-9
  • Maxon True Tube Overdrive - TOD-9
  • Maxon Vintage Jet Riser - VJR-9
  • Maxon Vintage Overdrive Pro - VOP-9

 

 


Menatone : Brian Mena : Ontario, California, USA

menatone.com

 

Brian's first and major breakthrough pedal was his still well-loved transparent low-gain overdrive the Red Snapper (1996) - which does not always get the support it should have. It's possibly the most open / least compressed of all the transparent overdrives and beautifully tuned for even frequency response - it's lack of availability in the UK obviously does it no favours and most don't get to compare it to a Timmy! Other well-loved Menatone pedals include the slightly more gainey/compressed Blue Collar Overdrive (essentially higher gain Snapper), Simplexity Low Gain Germanium PreAmp/Boost, The King (of Britains) Marshall in a Box, Top Boost in a Can (Boosted Vox), Fish Factory Dual Overdrive (Red Snapper + Blue Collar), Dumbstruck Dumble-Style Overdrive and Wreck'T (Train Wreck Express). A proper Red Snapper is twice the price of a Timmy, so that may have a say - for my taste I'm interested in the Snapper, The King and the Dumbstruck - and would be more interested in the Fish Factory and TPIAC if Brian followed Zvex and put those into vertical compact enclosures.

  • Menatone Blue Collar Medium Gain Overdrive Custom PTP
  • Menatone Blue Collar Mini Overdrive
  • Menatone The Dirty B Overdive (Fender Blonde-Face)
  • Menatone Dumbstruck Overdrive/PreAmp (Dumble)
  • Menatone Fish Factory Dual Drive (Red Snapper + Blue Collar)
  • Menatone Fish Factory Vertical Dual Drive (Red Snapper + Blue Collar)
  • Menatone Fryzzl Fuzz Mini (Boss Tone)
  • Menatone Hindenburg Drive Mini (Supro Thunderbolt)
  • Menatone The King (of Britains) (Marshall in a Box - 60s/70s/90s) .
  • Menatone The King of Britains + Boost Vertical Dual Footswitch (Marshall in a Box - 60s/70s/90s) .
  • Menatone Law Bender Fuzz Silicon or Germanium (Tone Bender)
  • Menatone Mail Bomb Envelope Filter Mini
  • Menatone MenaWatt Overdrive (Hiwatt)
  • Menatone Ms Foxy Brown Drive Mini (Fender Brown-Face)
  • Menatone None More Black High Gain Distortion (Diezel-esque)
  • Menatone The PiG Overdrive PreAmp (Mick Ronson Marshall 200 Amp Tone)
  • Menatone Red Snapper Low Gain Transparent Overdrive Custom PTP (4 Knob)
  • Menatone Red Snapper Overdrive 3K Mini
  • Menatone Shut Up and Drive Mini (Mini The King)
  • Menatone Simplexity Germanium PreAmp/Boost Custom PTP (AC128)
  • Menatone Simplexity Germanium Mini
  • Menatone Top Boost in a Can (Boosted Vox/Brian May)
  • Menatone Top Boost in a Can Vertical (Boosted Vox/Brian May)
  • Menatone Wreck'T Drive/Distortion (Train Wreck Expess)

Meris : Terry Burton + Jinna Kim + Angelo Mazzocco : Ventura, California, USA

www.meris.us

 

2017 was an amazing year for Meris - who were originally known for rack-style effects. But within a year they had released three highly unique and amazing pedals - first the Ottobit Jr Bitcrusher and 6-step Sequencer, then the Vangelis Blade-Runner inspired Mercury 7 ambient reverb, and finally the super-modulated Polymoon ambient delay. All share identical smart controls - 6 dual-use dials with Alt/Hold button to access alternative functions and 2-mode selector which gives you 3 modes via either or, or both together, you then finally have dual footswitches too - all within a Strymon-style medium enclosure. In the USA they are priced the same as the medium Strymons (£299) but in the UK they are slightly more. All are fantastic at what they do, but more specialist choices than all-rounders really. For both the Reverb and Delay you only have a 2 or 3 core algorithms - where all the magic is in the smart modulation - so no Spring, Room, Plate, Hall etc. a la Strymon and most of the other big players. Each pedal has a limited number of presets available - 4 I believe, with more accessible via midi. To my mind these are exceptional ambient style pedals - with the Ottobit a touch more specialist than that - for most players probably like a second sportscar for the weekends - vs the everyday runaround. I cannot see the Polymoon and Mercury 7 really replacing my Empress EchoSystem and Boss RV-500 - but they would make exceptional sometime swap-outs. So currently all 3 are nice to have extras rather than everyday essentials - probably something for the future for me - well worth consideration if you are primarily an ambient player though.

  • Meris Enzo Multi-Voice Synthesizer
  • Meris Hedra 3 Voice Rhythmic Pitch Shifter .
  • Meris Mercury 7 Reverb
  • Meris Ottobit Jr Bitcrusher/Sequencer
  • Meris Polymoon Delay
  • * Chase Bliss Audio Automatone CXM 1978 Digital Reverb (Lexicon 224) collab with Meris

MI Audio / MI Effects : Michael Ibrahim : Sydney, Australia

miaudio.com

 

Michael Ibrahim is best known for creating very high gain amps, and his pedal creations initially evolved out of that - including his most famous and very aptly named Crunch Box series. I have and love the new V2 Super Crunch Box - never was there a crunchier Marshall-esque pedal, and it does an excellent Brown Sound. Based on the great experience I have had with that pedal I am looking to acquire the Blues-Driver-esque Super Blues Pro as well as the Super High Gain Megalith Delta Distortion at some stage.

  • MI Effects Blue Boy Deluxe Overdrive V1 [discontinued] .
  • MI Effects Boost 'N' Buff
  • MI Effects Classic Distortion [discontinued]
  • MI Effects Compressor [discontinued]
  • MI Effects Cross Over Drive V2 .
  • MI Effects GI Fuzz V1 [discontinued] .
  • MI Effects Lo-Fi Delay V2
  • MI Effects Megalith Delta High Gain Distortion .
  • MI Effects Neo Fuzz V1 [discontinued] .
  • Mi Effects Pollyanna Octave V1 [discontinued] .
  • MI Effects Super Blues Pro Overdrive
  • MI Effects Super Crunch Box V2 .
  • MI Effects Tube Zone Overdrive [discontinued]

NOTE - For a number of the MI Audio pedals, now discontinued - I much prefer the more compact earlier V1 versions!


Mojo Hand FX : Brad Fee : Holland, Michigan, USA

mojohandfx.com

 

This lesser-known pedal maker still has several great pedals to its name - I really like the look of at least 4 of the collection - right across the range - spring reverb, overdrive, fuzz and envelope filter, and the one I'm mos likely to acquire is the Extra Special Dumble-esque one.

  • Mojo Hand FX 442/443 Analogue Filter [discontinued]
  • Mojo Hand FX 1978 Compact Fuzz (OpAmp Fuzz) [discontinued]
  • Mojo Hand FX 1979 Fuzz (OpAmp Fuzz)
  • Mojo Hand FX Bayou Amp-style Tremolo
  • Mojo Hand FX Bluebonnet (Billy Gibbons Texas Boogie)
  • Mojo Hand FX BMP-1 / BMP-2 Fuzz (Russian Muff)
  • Mojo Hand FX C-1 Buffer Mini
  • Mojo Hand FX Clementine One Knob Compressor [discontinued]
  • Mojo Hand FX Colossus Mother of Fuzz (Russian/Civil War Big Muff) .
  • Mojo Hand FX Crosstown Fuzz (Fuzz Face Hybrid)
  • Mojo Hand FX Dewdrop Spring Reverb
  • Mojo Hand FX DMBL Overdrive (Dumble ODS)
  • Mojo Hand FX El Guapo Fuzz
  • Mojo Hand FX Extra Special DMBL+ (Dumble ODS)
  • Mojo Hand FX Iron Bell Gilmour-esque Muff Fuzz
  • Mojo Hand FX Magistrate Distortion (EVH Brown Sound)
  • Mojo Hand FX Magpie Transparent Overdrive (Bluesbreaker/Klone)
  • Mojo Hand FX Mirror Ball Analog Delay with Modulation
  • Mojo Hand FX Nebula IV Phaser [discontinued]
  • Mojo Hand FX Nebula Redux One Knob Phaser [discontinued]
  • Mojo Hand FX Odessa Overdrive Combo - Rook + Magpie
  • Mojo Hand FX One Ton Bee Fuzz
  • Mojo Hand FX Park Theatre Delay and Reverb
  • Mojo Hand FX Recoil Analog 550ms Delay [discontinued\
  • Mojo Hand FX Rook Drive (Tubesceamer/OCD)
  • Mojo Hand FX Rook Royale PreAmp/Overdrive Combo
  • Mojo Hand FX Rounder Fuzz (Burns Buzzaround) .
  • Mojo Hand FX RVT - Combination Reverb/Vibrato/Tremolo
  • Mojo Hand FX Sacred Cow Gold Standard Overdrive (Klon)
  • Mojo Hand FX Socrates Distortion (Rat / LM308) [discontinued]
  • Mojo Hand FX Speakeasy PreAmp (Echoplex PreAmp)
  • Mojo Hand FX Superlative Overdrive (Supro-style) [discontinued]
  • Mojo Hand FX Villanova UniVibe Chorus [disconinued]
  • Mojo Hand FX Wonder Filter Enveloper Filter
  • Mojo Hand FX Zephyr Overdrive Fuzz

Monsterpiece Fuzz : Richard Coibion : St Charles, Missouri, USA

monsterpiecefuzz.com

 

I came across this Fuzz specialist when doing my recent research on Fuzz pedals, and boy does Richard Coibion have a great ear for tone. I have two of his pedals already near the top of my wishlist - namely the MK I (Tonebender) and PNP DLX (Silicon + Germanium) - as well as various others I love the sound of:

  • Monsterpiece Angry Dick 2000 (Bosstone Fuzz)
  • Monsterpiece Classic Fuzz 2k (2 Transistor Germanium Fuzz Face - GT308/AC125/SFT3652)
  • Monsterpiece C.O.D. Overdrive (CS Overdriver / Power Boost)
  • Monsterpiece Double D Black & Tain Distortion (Chanute Tan Ross Distortion)
  • Monsterpiece GE Fuzz 4k (2 Transistor Germanium Fuzz Face - GT308/AC125/SFT3652)
  • Monesterpiece Italian Stallion V82-18 Fuzz (Vox TB)
  • Monsterpiece MK I Fuzz (TB MKI)
  • Monsterpiece MK I.5 Fuzz (TB MKI.5)
  • Monsterpiece MK II Pro Fuzz (TB MKII)
  • Monsterpiece NPN Fuzz (2 Transistor Silicon Fuzz - BC108/109/183)
  • Monsterpiece PNP DLX Fuzz (Silicon Fuzz Face)
  • Monsterpiece Scratchy Snatch Fuzz 6k (2 Transistor Silicon Fuzz - BC108/109/183) .
  • Monsterpiece Sea Monster Dual Germanium Fuzz/Boost
  • Monsterpiece Stud Overdrive (Klon)
  • Monsterpiece Tone Booster Germanium Boost (Rangemaster Treble Boost)

Montreal Assembly : Scott Monk : Montreal, Quebec, Canada

mtlasm.blogspot.com

 

Montreal Assembly / Scott Monk are rightly lauded and most celebrated for their excellent 'Count to Five' granular delay pedal. When you think of 'granular delay' it's usually the Count to Five, or the Red Panda Particle that are in the frame, and the Montreal Assembly one is half the real-estate and comes with two footswitches. It's been on my wishlist for a while, even though I run a stereo rig, and really need Stereo Delays to fit in properly, and as far as that goes, there is nothing currently better than my Empress EchoSystem. There is also a lot of excitement about Montreal Assembly's forthcoming Schumman PLL clone - the PurPLL - although I possibly prefer the FTelettronica take on that. I have also mentioned the Puhzing Ring Modulator within my feature about that category. No doubt that the Conunt to Five here is the main object of affection.

  • Montreal Assembly 856 for Zellersasn Looper and Sample Sequencer
  • Montreal Assembly Count to Five Granular Delay .
  • Montreal Assembly Positive Overdrive (Crowther Hotcake)
  • Montreal Assembly Puhzing Ring Modulator
  • Montreal Assembly PurPLL Oscilating Harmonizing Synth Fuzz (Schumann PLL Clone)
  • Montreal Assembly Your and You're Gated Fuzz

Mooer (Shenzhen) Audio Co : N/A : Shenzhen, China

mooeraudio.com

 

Mooer is quite obviously King of Mini Pedals - with a larger and broader selection of minis than anyone else - I already did the 16 great Mooer pedals article and there are probably quite a few more than that I like the look of. For now, I have 4 of these, with probably twice as many fairly high up on my wishlist. These pedals are always great for adding a single flavour / texture or two where space is tight. For the longest time the Blue Mood was my favourite mid-gain pedal, until the Boss JB-2 Angry Driver came along with both Blues Drive and JHS Angry Charlie - giving me more versatility and range, but lacking the 'fat' toggle of the Blues Mood, which has meant a tweak to the ensuing EQ pedal. The Mooer's almost always sound really great, but they can rarely match the tone or versatility of a larger compact-size pedal.

  • Mooer 7 A7 Ambient 7 Mode Ambient Delay + Reverb Mini
  • Mooer 7 D7 Delay 7 Mode Mini
  • Mooer 7 E7 Polyphonic Guitar Synth pedal 7 Mode Mini
  • Mooer 7 R7 Reverb 7 Mode Mini
  • Mooer 7 Tone Capture GTR 7 Mode Re-Amping Mini
  • Mooer Akoustikar Acoustic Simulator (Boss AC-2)
  • Mooer Ana Echo (Boss DM-2)
  • Mooer Black Secret (ProCo Rat) .
  • Mooer Blade Distortion (EHX Metal Muff)
  • Mooer Blue Faze (Dallas Arbiter/Dunlop Silicon Fuzz Face)
  • Mooer Blue Comp (Boss CS-2)
  • Mooer Blues Crab (Marshall Blues Breaker MKI)
  • Mooer Blues Mood (Keeley-Phat-modded Boss BD-2) .
  • Mooer Cruncher (MI Effects Crunch Box V1)
  • Mooer Echolizer Digital Delay (Maxon AD999)
  • Mooer EchoVerb
  • Mooer E-Lady (EHX Electric Mistress)
  • Mooer Ensemble King (Boss CE-2)
  • Mooer Expline Expression Pedal
  • Mooer Flex Booster (Xotic AC Booster)
  • Mooer Funky Monkey Auto Wah (Boss AW-2)
  • Mooer GE 150 Modelling & Multi-Effects
  • Mooer GE 200 Modelling & Multi-Effects
  • Mooer GE 250 Modelling & Multi-Effects
  • Mooer GE 300 Modelling & Multi-Effects
  • Mooer Green Mile Overdrive (Ibanez TS808)
  • Mooer Grey Faze (Dallas Arbiter/Dunlop Germanium Fuzz Face)
  • Mooer Groove Loop Drum Machine and Looper
  • Mooer Hustle Drive (Fulltone OCD) .
  • Mooer Jet Engine Flanger
  • Mooer Leveline Volume Pedal
  • Mooer Liquid Phase Pedal
  • Mooer LoFi Machine (Malekko Omicron Bit)
  • Mooer Micro Drummer
  • Mooer Mirco PreAmp 005 Brown Sound III (EVH)
  • Mooer Micro PreAmp 008 Cali MK III (Mesa)
  • Mooer Micro PreAmp 011 Cali-Dual (Mesa)
  • Mooer Mirco PreAmp 012 US Gold (Friedman BE)
  • Mooer Micro PreAmp 015 Brown Sound (EVH)
  • Mooer Micro Power S12 Isolated Power Supply
  • Mooer Mod Factory MKII
  • Mooer ModVerb Modulated Reverb
  • Mooer Ninety Orange (MXR Phase 90)
  • Mooer Noise Killer Noise Gate
  • Mooer Ocean Machine - Dual Delay, Reverb & Looper
  • Mooer Pitch Box (Boss PS-5)
  • Mooer PreAmp Live
  • Mooer Pure Boost (Xotic RC Booster)
  • Mooer Pure Octave (Boss OC-3)
  • Mooer Radar Cab Simulator
  • Mooer Rage Machine Distortion (DigiTech Death Metal Distortion)
  • Mooer ReEcho Delay (Boss DD-2)
  • Mooer Rumble Drive (Hermida Zen Drive)
  • Mooer ShimVerb (Strymon BlueSky Shimmer)
  • Mooer Slow Engine (Boss SG-1)
  • Mooer Solo Distortion (Suhr Riot)
  • Mooer Soul Shiver
  • Mooer Trelicopter (Demeter Tremulator) .
  • Mooer Triangle Buff (EHX Triangle Muff)
  • Mooer Ultra Drive MKII (Keeley-Ultra-modded Boss DS-1)
  • Mooer Wahter Wah
  • Mooer Yellow Comp (Diamond Compressor)

Mu-Tron / Mu-FX : Mike Beigel & Rand Anderson : Cardiff, California, USA

mu-tron.com

 

This celebrated vintage effects company has relatively recently been revived by Mu-Tron original Mike Beigel, and now technology partner Rand Anderson of Randtronics. I caught up a touch late with the newly compacted Micro-Tron III, and I believe I was in the second round of manufacturing for that. Just recently I noticed that they had revived the Octavider also in this new sleek compact form factor, so of course I had to have that too. These are my favourite kinds of pedals - sleek compact vintage-lineage analogue effects in modern packaging as such. I'm not sure if the significantly larger forthcoming Mu-Tron Bi-Phase appeals to me as much. I also see that there are limited editions available in black, while I really prefer the standard colourways of blue and green for easier visual separation!

  • Mu-Tron Bi-Phase Dual Analog Stereo Phaser
  • Mu-Tron Boostron
  • Mu-Tron Micro-Tron III Envelope Filter .
  • Mu-Tron Micro-Tron IV Envelope Filter
  • Mu-Tron Octavider Octaver .
  • Mu-Tron Octavider+ Octaver
  • Mu-Tron Phasor III

MWFX : Matt Warren : Taunton, Somerset, UK

mwfx.co.uk

 

I've been tracking Matt and his alter ego MWFX for a while now - still intending to get at least is full-size Judder glitchy stuttery type of pedal. There have been signs for a while of new pedals coming down the line - but we've not seen much movement of late. The small range of pedals available currently is all neat and perfectly formed really - part of me is not fussed, but I think I prefer the steel enclosure to the wood - while I really like the look of the wooden Glitch pedal too.

  • MWFX Glitch Wood
  • MWFX Judder Full-Size Steel/Wood .
  • MWFX Mini Judder (compact)
  • MWFX Tremolo Amplitude Modulation Wood

MXR : Jim Dunlop / Jeorge Tripps : Benicia, California, USA (< Dunlop)

jimdunlop.com/category/products/electronics/mxr.do

 

MXR (part of Dunlop) is one of those leading pedal makers with a formidable range, and sort of right up there with Boss and EHX in terms of range and depth of pedals. For my liking - Boss has the pedals nearest to my own preferences, while beyond the single MXR Phase 95 pedal I have, there aren't too many MXR pedals that truly appeal to me for whatever reason. They're certainly the appropriate form factor, but largely I feel other pedal makers seem to have more of an edge on a comparison level in most cases. I'm guessing that the standard Carbon Copy analogue delay is probably their best-seller here, but it really does not do that much for me. I have frequently considered the EVH 5150 Overdrive pedal alongside the Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe - so that's a likely candidate. I also may acquire a Uni-Vibe at some stage, but there are plenty of very impressive competitors to that too - like the DryBell Vibe Machine and Dawner Prince Viberator.

  • MXR MC401 CAE Boost/Line Driver
  • MXR MC402 CAE Boost/Overdrive
  • MXR CSP026 '74 Vintage Phase 90
  • MXR CSP027 Timmy Overdrive Mini
  • MXR CSP033 Il Torino Overdrive (Carlo Sorasio Designed)
  • MXR CSP035 Shin-Juku Drive (Dumble ODS-style Shin Suzuki Designed)
  • MXR CSP036 Il Diavolo Overdrive (Carlo Sorasio Designed)
  • MXR CSP101SL Script Phase 90 LED
  • MXR CSP102SL Script Dyna Comp Compressor
  • MXR CSP105 '75 Vintage Phase 45
  • MXR CSP202 Custom Comp
  • MXR CSP203 La Machine Fuzz
  • MXR CSP204 Custom Comp Deluxe
  • MXR DD11 Dimebag Darrell Dime Distortion
  • MXR DD25 Dookie Drive Signature Billie Joe Armstrong Dual Mixed Drive
  • MXR DD25V2 Green Day Dookie Drive V2
  • MXR DD25V3 Green Day Dookie Drive V3 Unicorn
  • MXR EVH30 5150 Chorus
  • MXR EVH90 Phase 90
  • MXR EVH117 Flanger
  • MXR EVH5150 5150 Overdrive
  • MXR ILD101 ILOVEDUST Phase 90
  • MXR ILD169 ILOVEDUST Carbon Copy Analog Delay
  • MXR M68 Uni-Vibe Chorus/Vibrato
  • MXR M75 Super Badass Distortion
  • MXR M76 Studio Compressor
  • MXR M77 Custom Badass Modified O.D.
  • MXR M78 Custom Badass '78 Distortion
  • MXR M101 Phase 90
  • MXR M102 Dyna Comp Compressor
  • MXR M103 Blue Box Octave Down Fuzz
  • MXR M104 Distortion+
  • MXR M107 Phase 100
  • MXR M108S Ten Band EQ
  • MXR M109S Six Band EQ
  • MXR M115 Distortion III
  • MXR M116 Fullbore Metal Distortion
  • MXR M117 Flanger
  • MXR M132 Super Comp
  • MXR M133 Micro Amp
  • MXR M134 Stereo Chorus
  • MXR M135 Smart Gate Noise Gate
  • MXR M148 Micro Chorus
  • MXR M152 Micro Flanger
  • MXR M169 Carbon Copy Analog Delay
  • MXR M169A Carbon Copy Analog Delay 10th Anniversary Edn
  • MXR M193 GT-OD
  • MXR M195 Noise Clamp
  • MXR M222 Talk Box
  • MXR 225 Sub Machine Fuzz
  • MXR M228 Dyna Comp Deluxe Compressor
  • MXR M233 Micro Amp+
  • MXR M234 Analog Chorus
  • MXR M236 Super Badass Variac Fuzz
  • MXR M238 Iso-Brick Power Supply
  • MXR M239 Mini Iso-Brick Power Supply
  • MXR M250 Double-Double Overdrive
  • MXR M264 FET Driver
  • MXR M267 Octavio Fuzz
  • MXR M269SE Carbon Copy Bright Delay
  • MXR M281 Thump Bass Preamp
  • MXR M290 Phase 95 Mini
  • MXR M291 Dyna Comp Mini Compressor
  • MXR M292 Carbon Copy Deluxe Analog Delay
  • MXR M294 Sugar Drive Mini (Klon)
  • MXR M296 Classic 108 Fuzz Mini
  • MXR M300 Reverb - Plate/Sprin/Epic/Mod/Room/Pad
  • MXR SF01 Slash Octave Fuzz
  • MXR ZW38 Zakk Wylde Black Label Chorus
  • MXR ZW44 Zakk Wylde Berzerker Overdrive

Mythos Pedals - Zach Broyles - Nashville, Tennessee, USA

mythospedals.com

 

Rob Chapman is big into Mythos Pedals - which are about to release a Chappers signature pedal - otherwise Zach specializes in creating pristine homages to classic circuits - with his take on the Klon being particularly popular, while I'm a big fan of the Golden Fleece - which is marked out for imminent acquisition.

  • Mythos Pedals Argo Octave Fuzz
  • Mythos Pedals Cestus Clean Boost
  • Mythos Pedals Chupacabra Overdrive/Fuzz
  • Mythos Pedals Daedalus Overdrive (BluesBreaker) [discontinued]
  • Mythos Pedals Erlking Overdive (Nobel ODR-1+) [discontinued]
  • Mythos Pedals Golden Fleece Fuzz / Drive Mini .
  • Mythos Pedals Herculean V2 Overdrive (TS808)
  • Mythos High Road Mini Silicon Fuzz .
  • Mythos Pedals Lark Kalamazoo PreAmp + Tremolo
  • Mythos Pedals Mjolnir Overdive (Klon)
  • Mythos Pedals Mjolnir Overdrive Wildwood Edition (Klon)
  • Mythos Pedals Rhinestone Overdrive (Daedalus MKII)
  • Mythos Pedals Susmaryosep! Drive + Boost + Delay
  • Mythos Pedals Titan (Mjolnir +) [discontinued]

Neo Instruments : Guido Kirsch : Fulda, Germany

neo-instruments.de

 

Guido Kirsh is another one of those single category specialists - providing the industry-standard Leslie / Rotary speaker pedal in both regular (large) and mini (medium) varieties. I ended up picking the TEC 21 NYC Roto Choir for my needs, but it was between that, the Ventilator Mini and Strymon Lex in the end. If I were to decide to go for a larger pedal, I would no doubt go for the full-size Ventilator, but for now I'm plenty happy with the Roto Choir which has most of the settings you need and plenty of dynamics.

  • Neo Instruments 16 Micro Vent Rotary Simulator - Fender Vibratone
  • Neo Instruments 122 Micro Vent Rotary Simulator - Leslie
  • Neo Instruments Drive In Overdrive
  • Neo Instruments Ventilator II
  • Neo Instruments Ventilator Mini II

Neunaber : Brian Neunaber : Orange, California, USA

neunaber.net

 

Neunaber is best known for its 'Wet' modulation effects - reverbs and delays, and first came to my attentions courtesy of the excellent Immerse Reverberator pedal - now in MKII version. Thus far I've always found preferred pedals at other vendors, while the Immerse, Inspire Try-Chorus and new Neuron Gain Intelligence PreAmp have all been high on my wishlists.

  • Neunaber Echelon Echo
  • Neunaber EXP Controller
  • Neunaber Expanse Programmable Effect Pedal
  • Neunaber Iconoclast Speaker Emulator
  • Neunaber Immerse Reverberator MKII
  • Neunaber Inspire Tri-Chorus Plus
  • Neunaber Neuron Gain Intelligence Drive, Compressor, Cab Simulator
  • Neunaber Seraphim Shimmer Reverb
  • Neunaber Wet Reverb

Nobels : Bernhard Kurzke : Hamburg, Germany

nobels.de

 

This pedal is much beloved in Nashville, and many tend to associate it with the Tube Screamer, although the ODR-1 has a slightly different frequency profile and timbre. Several players consider this their secret weapon, as the masses haven't really latched onto it yet. I will certainly acquire one of these at some stage - just as a cool and useful alternative to a Tube Screamer.

  • Nobels AB-1 IMP Active Selector A/B Box
  • Nobels ODR-1 Natural Overdrive
  • Nobels ODR-1 Natural Overdrive with Bass-cut
  • Nobels ODR-Mini Natural Overdrive
  • Nobels ODR-S IMP Overdrive Special
  • Nobels PRE-1 IMP PreAmp/Booster

NRG Effects : Neil R. Grimes : Eastbourne, UK

nrgeffects.com

 

Like many others my introduction to NRG was courtesy of That Pedal Show - for various versions of the Purrer and Roarer. NRG does two different looks - full colour with twin eye LEDs and a more subtle raw monochrome variety of minis. I have yet to acquire one of these but I do find them intriguing - great production values here too.

  • NRG Barker Overdrive/Distortion
  • NRG Buffer
  • NRG Ducker Analogue Tremolo & Tonal Modulator
  • NRG Forker / Forker+ Switcher
  • NRG Gnawer-308 Mini Modified Vintage Style Distortion (Rat)
  • NRG Humper 4558 Midrange Focussed Clean Boost Mini
  • NRG Kicker 5457 JFET Booster & Tone Enhancer Mini
  • NRG Linker
  • NRG Monochrome Double - Pumper 072 + Purrer Mini
  • NRG Monochrome Double Parallel - Roarer Mini + Gnawer 308
  • NRG Monochrome Triple - Pumper+PurrerMini+Humper
  • NRG Passer Mini Switcher
  • NRG Poker BC107 Vintage Style Frequency Booster Mini
  • NRG Pumper 072 High-Headroom Full-Range Booster Mini
  • NRG Purrer Overdrive
  • NRG Purrer Kitten Overdrive
  • NRG Purrer-Mini Overdrive
  • NRG Purrer Dual Gain Channel Overdrive
  • NRG Rawer Roarer Fuzz/Distortion
  • NRG Roarer Fuzz/Distortion
  • NRG Roarer-Mini

Occvlt Pedals : Adrian Czarnecki : Namysłów, Poland

instagram.com/occvltpedals

 

Compact and bijoux range of cool mostly fuzz pedals made by Adrian Czarnecki in Poland. I have the Amethyst Dope Fuzz already, and there is significant appeal in the Old Hag - if the enclosure could be slimmed down somewhat.

  • Occvlt Pedals Amethyst Dope Doom Fuzz .
  • Occvlt Pedals Delay
  • Occvlt Pedals Dope V2 Doom Fuzz
  • Occvlt Pedals Furious Dope Doom Fuzz .
  • Occvlt Pedals Old Hag Germanium Fuzz/Distortion
  • Occvlt Pedals Pills Chorus
  • Occvlt Pedals Purple Wolf Distortion
  • Occvlt Pedals Sonic Ravager
  • Occvlt Pedals Vintage Octave Fuzz
  • Occvlt Pedals Wraith Reverb

Old Blood Noise Endeavors : Brady Smith & Seth McCarroll : Norman, Oklahoma, USA

oldbloodnoise.com

 

I know Old Blood Noise Endeavors best for their Haunt velcro-style fuzz which is right up there on my wishlist - I've had it in mind to get that for a while now. Typically OBNE make slightly unusual / quirky but very usable pedals - including the Procession Reverb and the very new hybrid Excess pedal which combines Distortion with Chorus and Delay.

  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors 3 Band EQ + Buffer
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Alpha Haunt Fuzz .
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Black Fountain Delay
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Pad Reverb
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dweller Phase Repeater
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Excess Distortion + Chorus + Delay
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Expression Slider
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Flat Light Textural Flanger
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Fault / V2 Overdrive/Distortion
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Headphone Amp
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Haunt Fuzz .
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors MAQ XLR Pedal
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Minim Reverb Delay and Reverse
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Mondegreen Delay
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Procession Reverb
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Reflector Chorus V3
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Signal Blender
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Visitor Parallel Multi-Modulator
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors Whitecap Asynchronous Dual Tremolo
  • *Datachoir x Old Blood Noise Endeavors Rêver Reverse Delay and Reverb

OneControl : Björn Juhl : Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan (< LEP International Corporation)

one-control.com

 

This is another collaboration with Finnish sound-design genius Björn Juhl - this time mostly mini pedals which are made in Japan. I already have 5 of these and am probably looking to add a few more at some stage - including the Golden Acorn and Rebel Red Distortion. Big news of late is that Björn has terminated his relationship with Bearfoot FX, and now all the specialist BJFe-type pedals look likely to be reissued by OneControl instead - already Honey Bee OD and Baby Blue OD forthcoming - those two in compact versus normal OneControl mini size.

  • OneControl Anodized Brown Distortion Mini (EVH Brown Sound).
  • OneControl Baby Blue OverDrive (Compact)
  • OneControl Baltic Blue Fuzz Mini (Triple-Muff) .
  • OneControl Caiman Tail Loop Five Loop Switcher with 150 Presets
  • OneControl Cranberry OverDrive Mini (Low Gain Strawberry)
  • OneControl Crocodile Tail Loop Ten Loop Switcher with 70 Presets
  • OneControl Dimension Blue Monger Chorus/Flanger Mini
  • OneControl Dyna Red Distortion
  • OneControl Fluorescent Orange Amp In A Box Mini (Orange RockerVerb Amp)
  • OneControl Golden Acorn OverDrive Special Mini (Dumble ODS)
  • OneControl Granith Grey Booster High Headroom Boost
  • OneControl Honey Bee OverDrive (Compact)
  • OneControl Jubilee Red Amp In A Box Mini (Marshall Jubilee)
  • OneControl Lemon Yellow Compressor Mini (Diamond Compressor)
  • OneControl Lingonberry Overdrive Mini (High Gain Strawberry)
  • OneControl Little Copper Chorus Mini
  • OneControl Little Green Emphaser Dynamic Boost
  • OneControl Pale Blue Compressor
  • OneControl Persian Green Screamer OverDrive Mini (TS808) .
  • OneControl Prussian Blue Reverb Mini
  • OneControl Purple Humper Mid-Range Booster Mini
  • OneControl Purple Plexifier Distortion Mini (Marshall Plexi) .
  • OneControl Raspberry Booster Vintage Boost/Overdrive Mini
  • OneControl Rebel Red Distortion Mini (BJFE Dyna Red Distortion)
  • OneControl Rocket Gray Fuzz
  • OneControl Sea Turqoise 600ms Analog Delay Mini
  • OneControl Silver Bee Overdrive
  • OneControl Sonic Blue Twanger (Fender Blackface Amp)
  • OneControl Strawberry Red Overdrive Mini (Enhanced TS Flagship) .
  • OneControl Super Apricot Overdrive Amp In A Box Mini (Supro Thunderbolt)
  • OneControl Tiger Lily Tremolo Mini

Origin Effects : Simon Keats : Tiddington, Thame, Oxfordshire, UK

origineffects.com

 

There are a few single category makers listed here - DryBell (Vibe), Neo Instruments (Rotary), Nobels (Overdrive), and Origin Effects specialises in Compressors. Their Cali76 Compact DLX is now the professionals' compression pedal of choice - seemingly having ousted some of the Wampler Egos and Diamond and Keeley compressors that used to rule to roost. I'm certainly considering this as a replacement for my Wampler Mini Ego - which still has served me well - with its 3 dials and 2 toggles. The Cali76 DLX allows you to exercise even more control over your signal output and sustain.

  • Origin Effects Cali76 Compact DLX
  • Origin Effects Cali76-TX Reissue Compressor
  • Origin Effects Cali76-TX-L Reissue Compressor
  • Origin Effects RevivalDRIVE .
  • Origin Effects RevivalDRIVE Compact
  • Origin Effects RevivalDRIVE Hot Rod Edition
  • Origin Effects RevivalTREM Bias Tremolo
  • Origin Effects SlideRIG Compact

Paul Trombetta Design (PTD) : Paul Trombetta : San Francisco, California, USA

paultrombettadesign.com

 

I forget how I first came across Paul Trombetta - probably some thread on The Gear Page - where users were discussing the best fuzz pedal builders of all time. When I saw/heard his Bone Machine GTX Fuzz - I knew I wanted one - problem is he no longer takes orders - he just makes what he wants - one at a time with long intervals sold on his website, and he only ships within mainland USA - so getting hold of his pedals in the UK is problematic - hence Reverb.com is your only option really - and waiting for one of his pedals to appear at a sufficiently reasonable unreasonable price point. So when you see something you have to be super-quick as near enough all his pedals are something special and still very much in demand. I lucked out at the start of the year - and probably paid a little over the odds for my Bone Machine GTX - but it is most definitely one of my favourite fuzzes ever. As for the others in the range - it's just a waiting game - for the right one to appear at the right price on Reverb.com.

  • PTD Bone Machine GTX Fuzz .
  • PTD Copper Penny Germanium Overdrive/Fuzz
  • PTD Deuxplex Twin Plexi PreAmps
  • PTD Kush Bassman Style Overdrive
  • PTD Mini-Bone GeSi Fuzz
  • PTD MK1.8V Vintage Germanium Fuzz
  • PTD PlexiBender - Copper Penny + Hi&Lo Plexi PreAmp
  • PTD Plexi-Kush - Kush plus Dual Plexi PreAmp
  • PTD Plexi-Kush 4Plex - Kush plus Quad Plexi PreAmp
  • PTD Poquitoplex Mini Single Plexi PreAmp
  • PTD RotoFace 72 combination mega Fuzz Face
  • PTD Rotobone Boost/Overdrive/Fuzz/Octave/RingMod
  • PTD RotoPlex - Rotobone +Hi&Lo Plexi PreAmps
  • PTD Tornita! KS2 Feedback Fuzz
  • PTD Velocitine - Mega Tornita with 72 combinations including dual Germanium or Silicon Transistors or each way in serial hybrid arrangement

Pettyjohn Electronics : Stephen Pettyjohn & Chris Hoff : Albany/Sisters, Oregon, USA

pettyjohnelectronics.com

 

I've come across Pettyjohn pedals just a handful of times really as their distribution is rather minimal in the UK - just one dealer - Guitar FX Direct - and not a lot of promotion on this side of the pond. Funnily it's the two larger pedals I see most in evidence on pedalboard - the PreDrive Studio PreAmp, and the Flagship Dual PettyDrive pedal. I've also seen a few appearance from the Filter EQ and Lift Buffer/Boost. While I personally am most interested in the Fuze Distortion + Fuzz and Golden Plexi-style Distortion which I include in my recent Compact Marshall Pedals overview:

  • Pettyjohn Chime MKII Overdrive (Vox-Style)
  • Pettyjohn Crush VCA Compressor
  • Pettyjohn Filter Deluxe Semi-Parametric EQ
  • Pettyjohn Fuze Dual Circuit Distortion + Fuzz
  • Pettyjohn Gold Distortion / MKII (Plexi-Style)
  • Pettyjohn Iron Overdrive / MKII (Classic American Amps Tones)
  • Pettyjohn Lift Buffer/Boost / MKII
  • Pettyjohn PettyDrive V2 Dual Overdrive (Chime + Iron)
  • Pettyjohn PreDrive Studio Buffer/PreAmp
  • Pettyjohn Rail Full-Range Fuzz Machine
  • Pettyjohn Shift Buffer/Boost/Transformer / Tone Conditioner

PigDog Pedals : Steve Williams : New Haw, Surrey, UK

pigdogpedals.com

 

My favourite of the 3 Fuzz Lords - including Stu Castledine and David Main (D*A*M) - has the perfect mix of properly referenced vintage components and builds within modern, beautifully designed enclosures (mostly). The most consistent of the 3 for me, where Stu is very traditional, David somewhere in-between and Steve somewhat more modern generally - at least in aesthetics. I only really like the Compact enclosures - of which alas there aren't too many - for my own twisted purposes I only list my preferred choices here! PigDog pedals tend to get made in limited batches of 10 and colourways and designs can change with every iteration! Note that I've included and noted slightly over-sized 1590P1 enclosures here too! :

  • PigDog The Dirty Mac 2-Knob Boost (RangeMaster)
  • PigDog Electric Eye Fuzz (Tone Bender MKI) [1590P1]
  • PigDog Headly Grange Fuzz (Tone Bender MKIII) [1590P1]
  • PigDog JuJu MKIII Fuzz (Tone Bender MKIII) .
  • PigDog Loony II Fuzz (Tone Bender MKI)
  • PigDog Low Pro MKII Fuzz (Tone Bender MKI)
  • PigDog Monkey Finger Fuzz (Tone Bender MKII)
  • PigDog Moonshot Fuzz (Headley Grange MKIII Proto) [1590P1]
  • PigDog Omni-Drive (Univox Unidrive) [1590P1]
  • PigDpg Omolon Fuzz (Buzzaround) [1590P1]
  • PigDog Party Favor Fuzz (Buzzaround)
  • PigDog Peace Fuzzbender (Fuzz Face)
  • PigDog Solid State 1.8 Fuzz (Tone Bender MK I.V) [1590P1]
  • PigDog Space Face Electric Overdrive 2-Knob (Fuzz Face)
  • PigDog The Destruction Department (Tone Bender MK IV) [1590P1]
  • The Williams Supa Fuzz (Marshall MKI Supa Fuzz) [1590P1]

Pigtronix : David Koltai : Port Jefferson Station, New York, USA (< Absara Audio)

pigtronix.com

 

David Koltai's company has always been highly innovative, and several of their products are popular pro choices - like the Echolution 2 Ultra Pro Delay and Infinity Looper. And Pigtronix have totally hit it out of the park with their new Mothership 2 Synth pedal - which shrinks down to one third of its former size and pretty much keeps all the key settings - via 5 dual-concentric dials = 10. The only Pigtronix pedal I have to date is the really cool mini Disnortion - I would be quite happy to acquire all these other ones too - they're all excellent:

  • Pigtronix Bob Weir's Real Deal
  • Pigtronix Class A Boost Micro
  • Pigtronix Distortion Overdrive+Fuzz+Octave
  • Pigtronix Disnortion Micro Fuzz/Drive .
  • Pigtronix Echolution 2 Ultra Pro Delay Workstation
  • Pigtronix Envelop Phaser Workstation
  • Pigtronix Gatekeeper Micro
  • Pigtronix Infinity Looper
  • Pigtronix Infinity 2 Double Looper
  • Pigtronix Mothership 2 Analog Synthesizer .
  • Pigtronix Octava Micro Octave Fuzz
  • Pigtronix Philospher's Tone / Germanium Micro
  • Pigtronix Quantum Time Modulator Time Stretcher
  • Pigtronix Resotron Tracking Filter / Synth
  • Pigtronix Ringmaster Analog Multplier Ring Modulator
  • Pigtronix Rototron Rotary Speaker Simulator
  • Pigtronix Tremvelope Tremolo with Envelope Filter

Pladask Elektrisk : Knut Olai : Bergen, Norway

pladaskelektrisk.com

 

A Norwegian maker I only really got familiar with in the second half of last year - Knut is the author of the now celebrated Fabrikat and Form 2 pedals - specialising in more left-field glitch style pedals. I was very lucky to get in on the recent limited batch release of the gold facia Fabrikat pedal, and this is likely to be pride of place in my newly appointed glitch slot of the pedal chain.

  • Pladask Elektrisk Backvendt Compact Granular Synthesizer masquerading as a Reverse Delay
  • Pladask Elektrisk Draume Artificial Reverb
  • Pladask Elektrisk Fabrikat V3 Granular Synthesizer/Sample Playback .
  • Pladask Elektrisk Form 2 Time Stretch/Granular Synthesis/Sample Hold (Typically only available via BandOrg DIY Course)
  • Pladask Elektrisk Kniv Feedback Looper & Routing Utility
  • Pladask Elektrisk Matrise V2 Four Input Matrix Audiomixer with 16 levels of adjustment
  • Pladask Elektrisk Romferd Resonant Ambience Modulation Machine
  • Pladask Elektrisk Täken Asynchronous Dual Head Delay with Random Modulation
  • Pladask Elektrisk Vortex Noise Synthesizer

PLBR Effects : Darko Vajda : Zagreb, Croatia

plbreffects.com

 

I came across PLBR (Polarbear) Effects first on 'Pedal of the Day' - where I was captivated by the tones of the new Narwhal Fuzz pedal. Based on a Big Muff style circuit this has a number of clipping options to give you a wide range of overdrive, fuzz and fuzzstortion tones. As reported previously - it's the compact enclosure format I'm most comfortable with, and while the PLBR Maritimus pedal is even more versatile - with a couple more tone-shaping options and a second 'Feedback' footswitch - it's likely that I will hold to the Narwhal for now. These pedals are very recently priced though, and there's every chance I will add the Maritimus soon enough too!

  • PLBR Drowner Fuzz-Crusher-Reverb
  • PLBR Floral Green Overdrive (TS)
  • PLBR Maritimus Distortion Fuzz .
  • PLBR Narwhal Distortion Fuzz Black Vintage .
  • PLBR Narwhal Distortion Fuzz White Modern .
  • PLBR Pizza Crusher Fuzz Bitcrusher .
  • PLBR Effects Young Heart Lo-Fi Delay

ProAnalog Devices : Scotty Smith : Merriville, Indiana, USA

proanalogdevices.com

 

I've only come to know Scotty's ProAnalog Devices fairly recently really and mostly through That Pedal Show. Their Klon-alike Manticore pedal sounds fantastic, but is a little over-sized for my liking. I so much liked the MKIV fuzz thought that I've recently acquired one via Reverb.com. I am less familiar with the MKII, Ascension and Lady Evil pedals, but Scotty is for sure a brilliant sound engineer.

  • ProAnalog Ascension Octave Fuzz
  • ProAnalog Lady Evil Fuzz
  • ProAnalog Manticore V2 Overdrive (Klon)
  • ProAnalog Manticore Constellation
  • ProAnalog MKI Fuzz
  • ProAnalog MKII Silicon Fuzz
  • ProAnalog MKIII Fuzz
  • ProAnalog MKIII 5k Fuzz
  • ProAnalog MKIV Germanium Fuzz (Vintage) .
  • ProAnalog MKIV Silicon Fuzz (Modern) .
  • ProAnalog Power Driver V2 (CS PB)
  • ProAnalog Scary Face
  • ProAnalog Strident VTB Booster
  • ProAnalog Supa Fuzz
  • ProAnalog Supa-Quack Wah

Rainger FX : David Rainger : London, UK

raingerfx.com

 

David Rainger is the epitome of the mad scientist pedal-maker. All his pedals look like they've come straight out of the lab, and are all very much an acquired taste. His most famous pedal to date is the original Dr Freakenstein Fuzz with its highly apt power lever. My preference is for the incredible mini Dr Freakenstein Dwarf Bleep version - which if anything makes the output sound even crazier, and gives you really smart control via different ports and a Touch-pad foot-controller named 'Igor'. David is one of the 3 most exciting pedal creators in the UK in my opinion - alongside Simon Keats of Origin Effects and Luke Hilton of Stone Deaf. The other UK pedal maker who has made a real name for himself is Adrian Thorpe of ThorpyFX - although for now, his slightly over-sized pedals have failed to make a suitable impact on me - there's something still a bit too old-fashioned about those enclosure for my taste. But those 4 together are the cream of UK pedal-makers for now.

  • Rainger FX Air Space Invader 2 Synthy Overdrive Mini
  • Rainger FX Air Traffic Controller White Noise/Filter
  • Rainger FX Bleep Fuzz (& Igor) Mini
  • Rainger FX Deep Space Pulsar Throb Modulation Mini
  • Rainger FX Dr Freakenstein Chop Fuzz
  • Rainger FX Dr Freakenstein Fuzz DRFF-3LE .
  • Rainger FX Drone Rainger Digital Delay
  • Rainger FX Echo-X Digital Delay (& Igor) Mini
  • Rainger FX Igor MK2 Expression Control Pad
  • Rainger FX Minibar Liquid Analyser Overdrive
  • Rainger FX Reverb-X Digital Reverb (& Igor) Mini
  • * Colorsound Freakenbender Rainger FX Tone Bender

Ramble FX - Tim Krueger - Hastings, Minnesota, USA

ramblefx.com

 

I came across Tim Krueger and Ramble when doing my most recent research into Marshall-type pedals. The Ramble FX Marvel is already on its 3rd incarnation and it sounds great and has a lovely authentic aesthetic feel to it too. Tim also does and excellent twin voicing Tone Bender style pedal, and has a clever Analogue Amp-like overdrive and distortion pedal called Kismet imminent any day soon.

  • Ramble FX Kismet Analog Overdrive/Distortion
  • Ramble FX Marvel 3 Drive (Marshall)
  • Ramble FX Twin Bender (Tone Bender MK1.5/MKII)

Rat Distortion | RHC Audio | ProCo : N/A : Jackson, Missouri, USA

ratdistortion.com

 

I'm a big fan of the original Rat pedal, but prefer it with a little more grunt and more volume - as many of the modded version have had. I actually have several rat-alikes - the BYOC Lil' Mouse, Dr Scientist Frazz Dazzler, Foxpedal Wrath and Mooer Black Secret. I feel the slightly over-sized medium enclosure could easily be shrunk down to compact size, as many other pedal-makers have managed to do. If I had to buy a genuine Rat I would go for the 'Fat' variety, for the moment though my favourites are the Frazz Dazzler and the Wrath.

  • ProCo Deucetone Rat
  • ProCo Fat Rat
  • ProCo Rat 2
  • ProCo Solo
  • ProCo Turbo Rat
  • ProCo You Dirty Rat
  • *ProCo Rat2 JHS Pack Rat Mod .
  • *ProCo Rat2 Kinnatone White Ikebe Mischief Mod .

Redbeard Effects : Mike Demus, Adrian Thorpe : Farthinghoe, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

redbeardeffects.com

 

Collaboration between Skindred Lead Guitarist Mikey Demus and Adrian Thorpe of ThropyFX who designs and manufactures the circuits at the same Farthinghoe workshop. Two for two so far with a couple of really inspired creations.

  • Redbeard Effects Honey Badger Sub-Octave Fuzz
  • Redbeard Effects Red Mist MKIV Distortion - Mikey 'Skindred' Demus Signature .

Red Panda Lab : Curt Malouin : Detroit, Michigan, USA

redpandalab.com

 

I've touched on the Particle Granular delay several times in my blog posts, as well as the Bitmap, and most of the pedals mentioned below are fairly well known by now, albeit they are rather on the specialist side, and I would much prefer them if they had inhabited smaller compact enclosures. As it is, they are mostly in the larger medium enclosures, while the Tensor is significantly more slimline, but still not exactly 'compact'. All the pedals mentioned here are excellent and have unique combinations of effects - they are just a little oddly shaped for my rig, or don't give me the whole solution - i.e. not a full workstation pedal as such. All of these offer significant appeal to me, in particular the aforementioned two, but in each case I would probably prefer to go with something smaller - like the Montreal Assembly Count to Five instead of the Particle, and the Iron Either Frantabit in place of the Bitmap! They are all though still up for consideration.

  • Red Panda Bitmap Bitcrusher
  • Red Panda Context V2 Reverb + Delay
  • Red Panda Particle V2 Granular / Pitch-Shifting Delay .
  • Red Panda Raster Pitch and Frequency -Shifting Delay
  • Red Panda Tensor Tape Stop Effects, Pitch-Shifting, Time Stretching and Hold

Red Witch Pedals : Ben Fulton : Paekakariki, New Zealand

redwitchpedals.com

 

I am most familiar with Red Witch for its Deluxe Moon Phaser and Synthotron Synth pedals - which I've both featured on this site, as well as the recent mini (did not realise until I got it) Fuzz God III - which has a vast range of tones inside it via 6 fiddly internal dip-switches - I would have preferred something along the lines of what Xotic Effects had done with its 2 newest boost pedals - and placing said dip switches on the exterior - otherwise very fiddly to tweak and test - although it does deliver great tones - will probably also get the Fuzz God II - which has all its setting on the outside! I also really like the look of the dual parallel circuit Famulus Overdrive/Distortion. Red Witch also has a now 9 pedal strong range of mostly 2-knob mini pedals which are decent, but I'm less interested in - apart from the new Fuzz God III of course.

  • Red Witch Concordia 4 FET Phaser Limited Edition (66)
  • Red Witch Deluxe Analog Moon Phaser
  • Red Witch Empress Analog Chorus/Vibrato
  • Red Witch Eve Tremolo Mini
  • Red Witch Factotum Bass Suboctave Drive
  • Red Witch Famulus Dual Parallel Circuit Overdrive/Distortion (LM308+4558)
  • Red Witch Fuzz God
  • Red Witch Fuzz God II
  • Red Witch Fuss God III Mini .
  • Red Witch Fuzzotron
  • Red Witch Grace Compressor Mini
  • Red Witch Ivy Distortion Mini
  • Red Witch Lily Clean Boost Mini
  • Red Witch Medusa Analog Chorus Tremolo
  • Red Witch Ophelia Germanium Fuzz Limited Edition (33)
  • Red Witch Pentavocal Analog FET Tremolo
  • Red Witch Phoenix 12 Stage Phaser
  • Red Witch Ruby Fuzz Mini
  • Red Witch Scarlet Overdrive Mini
  • Red Witch Synthotron II Analog Synth/Samplehold/EnvelopeFilter
  • Red Witch Titan Triple Delay
  • Red Witch Violet Delay Mini
  • Red Witch Zeus Bass Fuzz Suboctave

Retro-Sonic : Tim Larwill : Ottawa, Canada

www.retro-sonic.com

 

Tim Larwill's company lives under the the banner of 'Vintage Vibe' where he creates evolutions / derivations of the best loved classic early effects pedals. Most recent release was the very close to Electric Mistress - Flanger - which really does not have much competition in the compact flanger stakes for fidelity - while up a size format you have the Buffalo FX Reticon and ThropyFX Camoflange.

  • Retro-Sonic Analog Delay (DM-2)
  • Retro-Sonic Chorus Stereo Edition (CE-1)
  • Retro-Sonic Compressor (Ross)
  • Retro-Sonic Distortion (Rat)
  • Retro-Sonic Flanger (Mistress)
  • Retro-Sonic Overdrive (808)
  • Retro-Sonic Phaser (Script 90+)
  • Retro-Sonic PreAmp (FA-1 FET Pre)

 


Retroman Music : Joe Wolf : New Berlin, Wisconsin, USA

retroman-music.com

 

Another sort of under the radar brand of late aka Joe Wolf of New Berlin - best known to me for his Uber Vibe pedal, but there is plenty more in his range to pique interest. Certainly some interesting fuzzes to be had here - and his Kopy Kat delay is well loved by many professionals still.

  • Retroman Beano Germanium Boost
  • Retroman Dum Box Overdrive (Dumble)
  • Retroman Hi Octane Germanium + Octave Fuzz (1/2 Sybil + Octavious)
  • Retroman KopyKat Analog Dual Delay
  • Retroman Lolo Fuzz (Tone Bender MKII)
  • Retroman Nu Fuzz Germanium
  • Retroman Octavious Octave Fuzz
  • Retroman Scram Fuzz (Ampeg Scrambler)
  • Retroman Sybil Hybrid Germanium+Silicon Fuzz
  • Retroman Tone Zilla (Tone Bender MKII+)
  • Retroman Uber Vibe
  • Retroman Wolf Tone Machine Fuzz (Foxx)

REVV Amplification : Dan Trudeau, Derek Eastveld & Scott Eastveld : Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

revvamps.bigcartel.com

 

I've known about Canadian Revv Amps for a while, they're much loved by a number of the guitar gurus I follow on YouTube - with the Generator 120 being their most celebrated amp, yet a little too loud for my own purposes. In fact none of the Rev Amps is really suitable for my setup, although I love their feature set and thick, tight distortion sound in particular - but also of course featuring pretty sparkling cleans. I really need onboard power-scaling though which takes you down to 5 Watts - which is not currently an option. It's just as well then that Revv's first pedal - the Purple G3 replicates the 3rd Channel of the great G120. It has a 3-way gain-stage selector for ramping up the degree of distortion, and it has full 3-band EQ. Although not exactly the same thing, this has bumped by Friedman BE-OD down to secondary position in that slot, with this being my preferred / primary / principal current active option - alongside the Empress Heavy, MI Audio Megalith Delat and Diezel VH4-2 for my more metal / heavier tones!

  • REVV Amplification G2 Crunchy Drive .
  • REVV Amplification G3 Distortion Pedal .
  • REVV Amplification G4 Distortion Pedal .

Rockfabrik Effects : Furkan Torlak : Istanbul Turkey

rockfabrik-effects.com

 

This fledgling Turkish maker is a great example of just how widespread and nebulous boutique pedals have become. Furkan has just 3 pedals so far to his name - the Aqua Lung OD, Buffy Coat Buffer, and my favourite - the Mind Abuse High Gain Distortion. Alongside its typical 5 tone-sculpting dials, it has a 3 way voicing toggle for Modern, Classic or Vintage tone. You've most likely seen me mention this a couple of times previously on this site - an excellent sounding and very versatile pedal. The only thing that really holds it back currently is its lack of distribution. You can buy it direct from Turkey which is outside the EU though - so custom taxes will apply, and on Reverb.com you get a listing from its Australian distributor - which is even further away. I'm hoping Thomann or Andertons or similar - possibly Musik Produktiv even will pick it up some day soon.

  • Rockfabrik Effects Aqua Lung Overdrive
  • Rockfabrik Effects Buffy Coat Buffer
  • Rockfabrik Effects Kuek Touch Sensitive Dynamic Tremolo
  • Rockfabrik Effects Mind Abuse Distortion V2
  • Rockfabrik Effects Scraper Booster with Low-End 'Mass' Switch

Shift Line : Oleg Barinov : St Petersburg, Russia

shift-line.com

 

The super-versatile Termofuzz is one of my favourite fuzzes and gets a lot of rotation in my rig, and I've long had my eye on the versatile yet alas mono only A+ Astronaut V2 Reverb. While the next most likely acquisition here is the cool Force Mini Freeze pedal.

  • Shift Line A+ Astronaut III Reverb
  • Shift Line A+ CabZone LE Assembled FIR CabSim
  • Shift Line A+ Everest M Reverb-Delay
  • Shift Line A+ Paradox X-Fi Delay [discontinued]
  • Shift Line A+ Prism-9 Filter Pad Pedal [discontinued]
  • Shift Line Force Mini Freeze [discontinued]
  • Shift Line Raxxla MKII Chorus [discontinued]
  • Shift Line Termofuzz [discontinued] .
  • Shift Line Twin MKIIIS Valve PreAmp with CabSim

Shin's Music : Shinichi Suzuki : Tokyo, Japan

shinsmusic.com

 

This Japanese boutique maker specializes in Dumble clone pedals - some with an addition of boost footswitch and in a high variety of colourways. Shinichi Suzuki is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on Dumble amps, so his pedal reproductions are considered highly desirable by many pro-players. Obviously they are a little over-sized for my liking, and more than a little pricey - coming in Regular, Boost and 2-Channel versions. The last mentioned retailing typically at £700+. One for the connoisseurs I suppose - I'll probably just stick to my Wampler Euphoria and Mad Professor Simble for now - and I would frankly be more likely to add a Mojo Hand FX Extra Special than one of these - but it's nice to know these exist too - if you have some kind of windfall!

  • Shin's Music Dumbloid Special Boost Overdrive
  • Shin's Music Dumbloid Twin 2-Channel Overdrive

Side Effects : Dimitris Pagonas : Athens, Greece

reverb.com/uk/brand/side-effects

 

Looks like this pedal-maker started up in 2016 making mostly custom clone pedals on a one-by-one basis - it's my favourite of the many Athens-based boutiques. There are scant details on who this key individual is, but they certainly know how to assemble really high quality at really very reasonable cost. There are currently 4 pedals listed on their Reverb.com store - the Mocking Bird Delay, Il Mostro Overdrive-Distortion, a compact Zvex Woolly Mammoth 7 clone and an Oscillator Fuzz - so 3 original circuits out of 4, and I know Side Effect has also built clones of DBA Reverberation Machines in the past. For my purposes I love the sound of the Il Mostro, which I would think would make a pretty decent deputy for my Dr Scientist The Elements - and I'm also thinking how much I would love to have a decent clone of the Woolly Mammoth so both of those go on the wishlist.

  • Side Effects A Fuzz Supreme
  • Side Effects Bug Elektrik Tremo-lo-Ring Modulator
  • Side Effects Il Mostro Overdrive-Distortion .
  • Side Effects Il Mostro Double Overdrive-Distortion
  • Side Effects Mocking Bird Delay
  • Side Effects Oscillator Fuzz
  • Side Effects Woolly Mammoth 7 Clone .

Sinvertek : Wu Nan : Beijing, China

sinvertek.com

 

Sinvertek is that rare thing - a Chinese Boutique Pedal Maker - aka Mr Wu Nan, whose main line of pedals currently consists solely of two models - the Fluid Time MKII Delay and the forthcoming Drive N5. I have relatively recently acquired the excellent No. 5 Distortion, so I am not clear if the N5 is simply a redesignation of the No. 5 Distortion, or whether it is voiced altogether differently. Sinvertek is also the parent of CKK pedals which has a 15 pedal range right now - sort of the DigiTech of China I would say. Both of the Sinvertek pedals are innovative and of interest. And there are some decent picks within the CKK range too, but just focusing on the parent brand for now:

  • Sinvertek Fluid Time MKII Delay
  • Sinvertek No.5 Distortion .
  • Sinvertek N5 Drive .
  • Sinvertek N5 Drive Plus .

Sitek Guitar Electronics : Andrzej & Hania Sitek : Gdynia, Poland

sitek.rocks

 

I actually first came across Sitek courtesy of Joss Allen / Guitar Bros Demos - I liked what I heard, and I liked what I saw - I'm a huge fuzz fan, and the Pandora is a superbly articulate and versatile fuzz with a sort of high gain Fuzz Face tone and upper octave harmonics if you crank it just right. Just recently they've released the Marshall-esque but slightly fuzzier Wuffy Distortion - which Pete Honoré did a superb demo of - so much so I acquired that one too!

  • Sitek Caffeine Booster
  • Sitek Cocoa Overdrive/Distortion .
  • Sitek Fuzzie Fuzz
  • Sitek Nudist Signal Buffer
  • Sitek Nursie Booster
  • Sitek Pandora Fuzz .
  • Sitek Sirena Digital Delay
  • Sitek Vixen Germanium Booster .
  • Sitek Wuffy Distortion .

Skreddy Pedals - Marc Ahlfs - Carson City, Nevada, USA

skreddypedals.com

 

I've been aware of Marc Ahlfs and Skreddy Pedals for quite a while now - I long considered the Screw Driver Mini Deluxe back when I acquired the Dr Scientist Elements - it was kind of a 3-way between the Keeley Filaments, Dr Scientist The Elements and the Screw Driver - since that time the Screw Driver had somewhat receded from memory, but since my recent Fuzz research and subsequent Skreddy BC109 find - it's right back in the picture (in fact recently added). There are two more pedals which make up the Skreddy 5-dial trifecta - the Hybrid Fuzz Driver and Lunar Module Fuzz. They both do fairly similar things with the Lunar Module engineered more for SC pickups and the Hybrid Fuzz Driver more for HBs - while I have both!

  • Skreddy Pedals 1971 Fuzz (Original EHX Muff Pi)
  • Skreddy Pedals BC109 Fuzz (Fuzz Face) .
  • Skreddy Pedals BC239 Fuzz (Ram's Head Muff Fuzz) .
  • Skreddy Pedals Bloody Knuckle (Maestro) [discontinued]
  • Skreddy Pedals Cephalopod II One Knob Octave Up Fuzz
  • Skreddy Pedals Cognitive Dissonance MKIV Fuzz (Original EHX Muff Pi)
  • Skreddy Pedals Dynamic Mids Enhancer
  • Skreddy Pedals Echo Delay
  • Skreddy Pedals General Pig Fuzz (Lower gain P19)
  • Skreddy Pedals Hybrid Fuzz Driver .
  • Skreddy Pedals Hybrid Medium Gain Overdrive
  • Skreddy Pedals Kusanagi Germanium 3-Transistor Fuzz (AC127 Thick Germanium Fuzz) [discontinued]
  • Skreddy Pedals Little Miss Sunshine One Knob 1970's Phaser
  • Skreddy Pedals Lunar Module Fuzz .
  • Skreddy Pedals LZ-129 Vintage Dirty Boost
  • Skreddy Pedals Major Overdrive (Plexi)
  • Skreddy Pedals Mayo Fuzz [discontinued]
  • Skreddy Pedals Mayonaise MK II Compact Fuzz (discontinued).
  • Skreddy Pedals Mayonaise MK III Fuzz [discontinued]
  • Skreddy Pedals P19 Fuzz (Gilmour Ram's Head Muff Fuzz) .
  • Skreddy Pedals Pig Mine (P19 Predecessor)
  • Skreddy Pedals Pink Flesh (Pig Mine Predecessor)
  • Skreddy Pedals Rover Fuzz (Tone Bender)
  • Skreddy Pedals Rubber Soul Cleanish PreAmp (Beatles Vox)
  • Skreddy Pedals Rust Rod (70's Ram's Head Muff)
  • Skreddy Pedals Screwdriver Mini Deluxe OD/Distortion .
  • Skreddy Pedals Swirl One Knob 1960's Watery Vibey Phaser
  • Skreddy Pedals Top Fuel Silicon High Gain Distortion .
  • Skreddy Pedals Twangophile Cleanish Preamp (Fender Blackface)
  • Skreddy Pedals Zero High Gain 4-Silicon Transistor Fuzz

SolidGoldFX : Greg Djerrahian : Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada

solidgoldfx.com

 

When I was doing the Octave Fuzz pedals head-to-heads, the big winner was the 76 Fuzz which I acquired in its cool Custom Shop Weathered Rust Enclosure. I also recently came across the more recent Rosie Germanium Limited Edition which too sounds wonderful to my ears and was one of the winners in my Maestro sweep-around - although it possibly rather straddles that Maestro / Tone Bender divide. Greg makes exceptionally musical Fuzz pedals, I think I've got two of his best, and may add one or two more at some stage!

  • SolidGoldFX 76 Custom Shop Octave Fuzz .
  • SolidGoldFX 76 Plus with Additional Filter Section
  • SolidGoldFX Agent 13 High Gain Silicon Fuzz .
  • SolidGoldFX Apollo II Phaser
  • SolidGoldFX Athena 2 Stage Asymmetric Phaser
  • SolidGoldFX Boost BC108
  • SolidGoldFX Boost BC183
  • SolidGoldFX Boost BC549
  • SolidGoldFX Boost Limited Copper Germanium Mini
  • SolidGoldFX Communication Breakdown 1.5 + II Tone Bender Style Fuzz
  • SolidGoldFX Counter Current Reverb/Momentary Feedbacker
  • SolidGoldFX Elektroman MKII Modulated Delay
  • SolidGoldFX Funk-Lite Envelope Filter
  • SolidGoldFX Funkzilla Ultimate Envelope Filter
  • SolidGoldFX High Octane Overdrive
  • SolidGoldFX Horizon Optical Compressor [discontinued]
  • SolidGoldFX If 6 was 9 BC108 Silicon Fuzz (Fuzz Face) .
  • SolidGoldFX If 6 was 9 BC183 Silicon Fuzz (Fuzz Face) .
  • SolidGoldFX If 6 was 9 Limited Copper Germanium Fuzz (Fuzz Face) .
  • SolidGoldFX Imperial BC183 Fuzz (Big Muff)
  • SolidGoldFX Imperial Germanium Fuzz (Big Muff) .
  • SolidGoldFX Lysis Polyphonic Octave Down Fuzz Modulator
  • SolidGoldFX Nitro Boost [discontinued]
  • SolidGoldFX Polyphonic Octave Down Filter Modulator Prototype X (To be Named)
  • SolidGoldFX Rosie Silicon Fuzz (Maestro/Tone Bender)
  • SolidGoldFX Rosie Limited Copper Faced Germanium Fuzz (Maestro / Tone Bender) .
  • SolidGoldFX Sasori Fuzz (Shin-Ei FY-2)
  • SolidGoldFX Sasori Fuzz Copper Limited Edition .
  • SolidGoldFX Stutter-Lite MKII Tremolo
  • SolidGoldFX Superdrive Custom Shop Ltd Reissue (DOD250/MXR Distortion+)
  • SolidGoldFX Surf Rider II Spring Reverb
  • SolidGoldFX Zeta DLX Overdrive/PreAmp
  • SolidGoldFX Zeta MKII JFET Overdrive
  • * Tone Mob Model 001 Germanium Edition SGFX Collaboration .

Sonic Research : Marty Jensen : Carson City, Nevada, USA

turbo-tuner.com

 

Sonic Research is another single category pedal maker - in this case high-precision true strobe tuners - available in regular compact and mini size enclosures. These tune one string at a time, so lack the quick and easy ability of polytonic tuners like TCE's PolyTune. Unless you are incredibly short-sighted, I don't really see the advantage of the larger pedal format - I would go mini in this category every time, and if I ever decided to swap out the TCE PolyTune Mini Noir, it would be for one of these.

  • Sonic Research ST-300 Strobe Tuner
  • Sonic Research ST-300 Strobe Tuner Mini

Source Audio : Roger Smith & Jesse Remignanti : Boston, Massachusetts, USA

sourceaudio.net

 

Source Audio make exceptional digital pedals - particularly the recent mid-sized Nemesis Delay and Ventris Dual Reverb - which I've long had under consideration. I was about to pull the trigger in that direction just before Empress released its EchoSystem, and Boss surprisingly launched its MD-500 and RV-500. As it is right now, I am very happy with my current trio of end-of-chain pedals and am convinced they are my best choices presently. As I've noted previously, if I wanted to go smaller I could go with the Nemesis, Ventris and possibly an Eventide H9 to cover off what I already have. I may also be tempted by an Empress Reverb if they launch a dual effect version similar to their amazing EchoSystem. I've also long considered the Programmable EQ - with its clever presets, although it's a lot more fiddly to set up than manual sliders. And Source Audio also does an amazing multi-device expression pedal - which is though just a touch too larger for my desires.

  • Source Audio Aftershock Bass Distortion
  • Source Audio C4 Synth
  • Source Audio Collider Delay + Reverb
  • Source Audio EQ2 Stereo Programmable Equalizer
  • Source Audio Gemini Chorus
  • Source Audio Kingmaker Fuzz
  • Source Audio L.A. Lady Overdrive
  • Source Audio Lunar Phaser
  • Source Audio Mercury Flanger
  • Source Audio Nemesis Delay
  • Source Audio Programmable EQ
  • Source Audio Reflex Universal Expression Controller
  • Source Audio Spectrum Intelligent Filter / Octave / Synth
  • Source Audio True Spring Reverb
  • Source Audio Ventris Dual Reverb .
  • Source Audio Vertigo Tremolo

Spaceman Effects : Zak Martin : Portland, Oregon, USA

spacemaneffects.com

 

Zak Martin's Spaceman Effects is a curious operation - which makes boutique pedals in very limited editions. Unlike Analog.Man Mike Piera who does not artificially constrain limits - where the limit is merely on the waiting list and how long it takes to build pedals by hand. Zak does very strictly limited runs for specific colourways - and then that pedal type is discontinued. This means the only way you can get your hands say on a Gemini III or Sputnik I is second-hand via Reverb - at often twice or 3 times the original price. Pretty much all the pedals sell out eventually so it's a route that obviously works for Spaceman Effects. They are beautifully designed in a sort of 60's Space Age / NASA style - very solidly built, with sharp graphics and smart features. I particulalry like the Gemini III as it allows you to mix together the output from both Germanium and Silicon transistors. You will by now know how I really prefer the compact pedal enclosure - and Spaceman does a number of really great compact fuzzes. The modulation pedals are decent too albeit in larger enclosures. There are pedal collectors who collect these like stamps - which kind of makes sense from an investment perspective. I don't mind paying boutique prices - I do though mind having to pay twice or three times that

  • Spaceman Effects Aphelion Harmonic Overdrive [discontinued] .
  • Spaceman Effects Apollo VII Overdrive
  • Spaceman Effects Atlas III PreAmp Booster
  • Spaceman Effects Explorer Deluxe 6 Stage Optical Phaser [discontinued]
  • Spaceman Effects Gemini III Dual Fuzz Generator [discontinued]
  • Spaceman Effects Gemini IV Dual Fuzz Generator .
  • Spaceman Effects Mercury III Harmonic Boost [discontinued]
  • Spaceman Effects Mercury IV Germanium Harmonic Boost [discontinued] .
  • Spaceman Effects Mission Control Expressive Audio System (Expression Command Centre)
  • Spaceman Effects Nebula Fuzz / Octave Blender .
  • Spaceman Effects Orion Genuine Spring Tank Reverb [discontinued]
  • Spaceman Effects Polaris Resonant Overdrive .
  • Spaceman Effects Rumblefuzz Fuzzstortion [discontinued]
  • Spaceman Effects Saturn V Harmonic Booster [discontinued]
  • Spaceman Effects Saturn VI Harmonic Booster
  • Spaceman Effects Spacerocket Intermodulation Fuzz [discontinued] .
  • Spaceman Effects Sputnik I Germanium Fuzz [discontinued] .
  • Spaceman Effects Sputnik II Deluxe Germanium Fuzz [discontinued]
  • Spaceman Effects Titan II Fuzz Machine .
  • Spaceman Effects Voyager I Optical Analog Tremolo [discontinued]
  • Spaceman Effects WOW Signal Alien Fuzz Communicator [discontinued]

Stomp Under Foot : Matt Pasquerella : Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA

stompunderfoot.com

 

To be fair, Matt Pasquerella had somehow passed me by until I heard the Dirt Preacher quite recently. Further research yielded another 'King of Fuzz' - particularly within the Muff spectrum. The pedals I fancy here are generally the 4-knob (+ Mids) iterations - Civil Unrest, Red Menace, Supa Dirty Rooster and Violet Menace, while I also really like the Dirt Preacher, Hellephant (already acquired) and Skinner box. The range fluctuates quite a bit, but there are generally enough of these in the wild, and they are reasonably priced. I've not decided exactly which of these I will add to the collection, but I expect there will be a fair few eventually - per those mentioned already.

  • Stomp Under Foot Alabaster Boost/Fuzz (Green Russian + Boost)
  • Stomp Under Foot Amherst (1976 Ram's Head)
  • Stomp Under Foot Astoria (1973 Gilmour Ram's Head)
  • Stomp Under Foot Black Russian (Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Civil Unrest (Civil War + Mids)
  • Stomp Under Foot Civil War (Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Demogorgon (Punchier Russian Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Dirt Preacher (Tweedy Fuzz) .
  • Stomp Under Foot Exciting Fuzz (BC109B Low Gain Silicon Transistor Fuzz Face)
  • Stomp Under Foot Full Powered Halo Overdrive/Distortion (JTM45/JCM800)
  • Stomp Under Foot Green Russian (Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Halo Bender Distortion (JTM45/JCM800)
  • Stomp Under Foot Hellephant (Silicon Fuzz Face) .
  • Stomp Under Foot Iron Tusk (Silicon Fuzz Face / Hellephant MKII)
  • Stomp Under Foot La Scatola Nero Fuzz + Octave
  • Stomp Under Foot Pumkin Pi (OpAmp Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Ram's Head (Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Red Menace (Green Russian + Mids)
  • Stomp Under Foot Rhinosaur (Colorsound Bass Fuzz)
  • Stomp Under Foot The Shag (Tonebender MKIII)
  • Stomp Under Foot Skinner Box (Rat)
  • Stomp Under Foot Son of a Bee (Roland Bee Baa Fuzz)
  • Stomp Under Foot Sonic Generator (Velcro/Stoner Fuzz)
  • Stomp Under Foot Sonic Warfare (One Knob Silicon BC109 Fuzz Face)
  • Stomp Under Foot Supa Dirty Rooster (Muff/Tonebender + Mids)
  • Stomp Under Foot Tri Dirty Booster (Triangle/Ram's Head Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Tri-Muff
  • Stomp Under Foot Vintage 1973 Ram's Head (Gilmour Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Vintage 1975 Violet Ram's Head (Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Vintage Civil War (Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Vintage Green Russian (Muff)
  • Stomp Under Foot Vintage Shag MKII (Tone Bender)
  • Stomp Under Foot Violet Menace (Ram's Head + Mids)

Stone Deaf FX : Luke Hilton : Shaw, Oldham, UK

stonedeaffx.com

 

Luke Hilton is one of the most creative pedal-makers out there at the moment - all his pedals offer up something quite different to the norm and I have a number of them in my sights. I already have the exceptional Tremotron Dual Tremolo, and I'm likely to go for the Fig Fumb pretty soon too. These are an exceptionally controllable selection of overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals - which though relatively large in form factor make up for it through their extended feature sets - all pretty reasonably priced too.

  • Stone Deaf Fig Fumb Paracentric Fuzz
  • Stone Deaf Kliptonite
  • Stone Deaf PDF-1X Paracentric Distortion
  • Stone Deaf PDF-2 Paracentric Distortion
  • Stone Deaf Syncopy Analogue Delay
  • Stone Deaf Trashy Blonde Paracentric Drive
  • Stone Deaf Tremotron Tremolo .
  • Stone Deaf Warp Drive Paracentric Distortion

Strymon : Pete Celi, Gregg Stock & Dave Fruehling : Westlake Village, California, USA [formerly Damage Control]

strymon.net

 

In many ways this is still my favourite pedal company, even though I've just fairly recently relegated the Stryfecta - Mobius, TimeLine and BigSky from my active chain. I still use the Riverside and Sunset pretty regularly though, and would be very happy to own pretty much everything in this collection - with the possible exception of the OB.1 Compressor + Boost, and the Brigadier dBucket Delay. All of these pedals are digital with an analogue dry signal path - Strymon also do excellent power supplies. Everything about this company speaks quality - the website, guides, references etc. Only Empress really matches Strymon in its quality outlook - those two currently stand head and shoulders above all others and provide an example that all should really follow. I'm often disappointed with how poor Boss's manuals and references are in comparison to these two. The 2 pedals that have been on my wishlist for the longest time are probably the Flint and the Lex - they're still right up there even though they have been pipped by other pedals along the way.

  • Strymon BigSky Reverberation Workstation .
  • Strymon BlueSky Reverberator
  • Strymon Brigadier dBucket Analog-style Delay
  • Strymon Deco Tape Saturation & Doubletracker
  • Strymon DIG Dual Digital Delay
  • Strymon El Capistan sTape Echo
  • Strymon Flint Tremolo & Reverb
  • Strymon Iridium Amp & IR Cab
  • Strymon Lex Rotary Speaker Emulator
  • Strymon Mobius Modulation Workstation .
  • Strymon OB.1 Optical Compressor & Clean Boost
  • Strymon Ojai 5 Port Power Supply - 5 x 500mA .
  • Strymon Ojai R30 5 Port Power Supply - 5 x 500mA (2 Adjustable)
  • Strymon Ola sBucket Chorus Vibrato
  • Strymon Orbit dBucket Flanger
  • Strymon Riverside Multistage Drive .
  • Strymon Sunset Dual Overdrive .
  • Strymon TimeLine Delay Workstation .
  • Strymon Volante Magnetic Echo Machine .
  • Strymon Zuma 9 Port Power Supply - 9 x 500mA (2 Adjustable) .
  • Strymon Zuma R300 Low Profile 5 Port Power Supply - 5 x 500ma (1 Adjustable)

Subdecay Effects : Brian Marshall : Newberg, Oregon, USA

subdecay.com

 

This pedal-maker is best-known for smart digital pedals, particularly its Deluxe modulation pedals - Prometheus, Quasar and Starlight, as well as some clever fuzz / synth variations, and the odd drive pedal. I have yet to acquire any of the following, but do have designs on all of them - I'm not sure any of these would necessarily be my first choices, but they would all make exceptional occastional and momentary swap-outs.

  • Subdecay M3 Monophonic 3 Oscillator Guitar Synth
  • Subdecay Blackstar Distortion with Girth [discontinued]
  • Subdecay Echobox V2 Delay with Modulation
  • Subdecay Harmonic Antagonizer Fuzz Oscillator .
  • Subdecay Liquid Sunshine MKIII Classic Overdrive (Tweedy JFET style Overdrive)
  • Subdecay Octasynth Synthesizer
  • Subdecay Octave Theory Octave Mod/Synthesizer
  • Subdecay Prometheus DLX Deluxe Envelope Filter
  • Subdecay Proteus Sample Hold Filter V2
  • Subdecay Quasar DLX Deluxe Phaser
  • Subdecay Quasar Phase Modulator V4
  • Subdecay Siren Pitch Vibrato [discontinued]
  • Subdecay Starlight DLX Deluxe Flanger [discontinued]
  • Subdecay Starlight V2 Flanger
  • Subdecay Super Spring Theory Reverb
  • Subdecay Supernova 3-band EQ Drive
  • Subdecay TremCoder Stereo Panning Digital Tremolo / Sequencer
  • Subdecay Vagabond Harmonic & Bias Tremolo
  • Sundecay Variac Overdrive (Variac / JCM800) [discontinued]
  • Subdecay Vector 11 Channel PreAmp/Multi-Drive .
  • Subdecay Vitruvian Mod Ring Modulator
  • Subdecay Vocawah Vowel Shift Filter [discontinued]

Suhr Effects : John Suhr : Lake Elsinore, California, USA

suhr.com

 

John Suhr is best known for his Fender-style guitars, but he has build up a respectable pedal collection at the same time. Many rate his Marshall-esque Riot Distortion, but I'm more impressed by his slightly larger form factor Alexa and Eclipse pedals.

  • Suhr Alexa Multi-Wave Dual Channel Analog Chorus/Vibrato
  • Suhr Dual Clean Boost
  • Suhr Eclipse Overdrive+Distortion Pedal (Galaxy Edtn.) .
  • Suhr Jack Rabbit Analog Tremolo
  • Suhr Kiko Loureiro Signature Shiba Drive Reloaded
  • Suhr Koji Compressor
  • Suhr Koko Boost
  • Suhr Koko Boost Reloaded
  • Suhr Riot Distortion .
  • Suhr Riot Distortion Mini
  • Suhr Riot Reloaded Distortion
  • Suhr Rufus Fuzz
  • Sure Rufus Reloaded Fuzz
  • Suhr Shiba Drive
  • Suhr Shiba Drive Reloaded
  • Suhr Shiba Drive Reloaded Mini .

Supro < Pigtronix : Bruce Zinky / David Koltai : Port Jefferson Station, New York, USA (< Absara Audio)

suprousa.com/pedals

 

Originally owned and run by Bruce Zinky, but went bankrupt some years ago - to be rescued relatively recently by David Koltai's Absara Group - aka Pigtronix. There's a small but growing range of pedals made by those same excellent Pigtronix engineers - and all these pedals sound fantastic. I have the Supro Fuzz - which is pretty meh at 9V, but stellar at 18V - possibly that applies across the range. I am definitely getting a Supro Drive pedal too at least at some stage:

  • Supro Analog 600ms Delay
  • Supro Clean Boost
  • Supro Drive / Class-A PreAmp
  • Supro Fuzz (Muff Bender Hybrid) .
  • Supro Harmonic Tremolo

Swindler Effects : Drew Swindle : Birmingham, Alabama, USA

swindlereffects.com

 

Swindler Effects have been on my radar for a while - mostly because of the Red Mountain Stereo Tremolo, but latterly also The Gulf Analog Chorus - some of these pedals are really smart - but need to keep innovating to keep up with the industry, The Magic City Delay was once category leading - but is now lagging behind say Keeley Eccos and Walrus Audio Mako D1 :

  • Swindler The Gulf BBD Analog Chorus V2
  • Swindler Iron Drive V2 (808)
  • Swindler Magic City Delay V2 (PT2399)
  • Swindler Mineshaft Reverb V2
  • Swindler Nexus_4 V2 Programmable 4 Channel Looper
  • Swindler Red Mountain Stereo Tremolo V2
  • Swindler Workers Comp V2 Compressor (Ross)

Tate FX : Stuart Tate : Slough, Berkshire, UK

tatefx.co.uk

 

Slough pedal-builder Stuart Tate is best known for his raucous single-knob Raise the Dead Fuzz, and more recently his refined/expanded take on the TS style overdrive - the Antares. I will certainly be acquiring a Lime Green version of the Raise the Dead any day soon, and may consider the Antares at some later stage. The iconic fuzz is definitely the flagship and standout offering here - although there are many fans of the Antares now too.

  • Tate FX Antares Burr Brown OpAmp Overdrive (TS808+)
  • Tate FX BMB OP07 IC Overdrive/Distortion (Rat)
  • Tate FX Booster JFET Clean Boost
  • Tate FX Raise The Dead One Knob Germanium Transistor Fuzz
  • Tate FX Raise The Dead One Knob Silicon Transistor High Gain Fuzz (Lime/Orange Fuzz Face) .

TC Electronic : Tore Mogensen : Risskov, Denmark (< Behringer < Music Group)

tcelectronic.com

 

Even though Boss is of course still strong I see this in many ways as the natural heir to Boss's compact pedal dominance / leadership. TC Electronic has taken everything one step further with its TonePrint and now MASH footswitch technologies - where it's significantly the leading innovator in the digital pedal space. No one crams quite as much into its pedals and makes them stereo in and out. Where you would typically have gone for a Boss or MXR pedal previously, you will now likely find that TC Electronic has a slightly more feature-rich equivalent pedal - whether Delay, Reverb, Harmonizer or Tremolo - there is so much more tone-sculpting you can acheive with the applicaiton of TonePrint presets. TC has in effect 3 ranges - standard, mini and low-cost. Initially I had not seen a lot of worthwhile pedals in the low-cost range, but more and more are coming though which provide decent alternatives - both the 3rd Dimension Corus and Tube Pilot are really clever at that price - of course the former would benefit by being stereo like its original inspiration.

 

Note - I'm not particularly happy with how Behringer have mixed up their own re-packaged line in with TC Electronic's Premium pedal line - I've split it out in my listing as TC Electronic 'B' for Behringer / B-line (27) - with the Premium line (43) listed fist

  • TC Electronic Aeon Sustainer (not pedal!)
  • TC Electronic Alter Ego V2 Vintage Echo
  • TC Electronic Alter Ego X4 Vintage Echo
  • TC Electronic Arena Reverb
  • TC Electronic Brainwaves Polyphonic Pitch Shifter .
  • TC Electronic Corona Chorus
  • TC Electronic Corona Chorus + Tri-Chorus
  • TC Electronic Corona Mini Chorus
  • TC Electronic Dark Matter Distortion .
  • TC Electronic Ditto Jam X2 Looper
  • TC Electronic Ditto Looper .
  • TC Electronic Ditto Stereo Looper
  • TC Electronic Ditto X2 Looper .
  • TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper
  • TC Electronic (John Petrucci) The Dreamscape Chorus/Flanger/Vibrato .
  • TC Electronic Flashback 2 Delay
  • TC Electronic Flashback 2 Mini Delay
  • TC Electronic Flashback Triple Delay
  • TC Electronic Flashback X4 2 Delay
  • TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 Reverb
  • TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 Mini Reverb
  • TC Electronic Hall of Fame X4 Reverb
  • TC Electronic Helix Phaser
  • TC Electronic Hypergravity Compressor
  • TC Electronic Hypergravity Mini Compressor
  • TC Electronic Mimiq Doubler Double-Tracker .
  • TC Electronic Mimiq Mini Doubler Double-Tracker
  • TC Electronic MojoMojo Overdrive .
  • TC Electronic ND-1 Nova Delay
  • TC Electronic Pipeline Tremolo
  • TC Electronic PolyTune 2 Mini Noir Polytonic Tuner .
  • TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Polytonic Tuner
  • TC Electronic Quintessence Harmonizer .
  • TC Electronic Sentry Noise Gate
  • TC Electronic Shaker Mini Vibrato
  • TC Electronic Shaker Vibrato
  • TC Electronic Spark Booster
  • TC Electronic Spark Mini Booster .
  • TC Electronic Sub 'N' Up Mini Octaver
  • TC Electronic Sub 'N' Up Octaver .
  • TC Electronic T2 Reverb
  • TC Electronic Trinity Reverb
  • TC Electronic Viscous Vibe
  • TC Electronic Vortex Flanger
  • TC Electronic Vortex Mini Flanger
  • TC Electronic Wiretap Riff Recorder
  • TC Electronic 'B' 3rd Dimension Chorus
  • TC Electronic 'B' Afterglow Analog Chorus
  • TC Electronic 'B' Blood Moon Phaser
  • TC Electronic 'B' Choka Tremolo
  • TC Electronic 'B' Cinders Overdrive
  • TC Electronic 'B' Crescendo Auto Swell
  • TC Electronic 'B' Drip Spring Reverb
  • TC Electronic 'B' Echobrain Analog Delay
  • TC Electronic 'B' El Camo Overdrive
  • TC Electronic 'B' Eyemaster Metal Distortion (HM-2)
  • TC Electronic 'B' Fangs Metal Distortion
  • TC Electronic 'B' Fluorescence Shimmer Reverb
  • TC Electronic 'B' Forcefield Compressor
  • TC Electronic 'B' Gauss Tape Echo
  • TC Electronic 'B' Grand Magus Distortion
  • TC Electronic 'B' Honey Pot Fuzz
  • TC Electronic 'B' Iron Curtain Noise Gate
  • TC Electronic 'B' June-60 Stereo BBD Chorus
  • TC Electronic 'B' Nether Octaver
  • TC Electronic 'B' Rush Booster
  • TC Electronic 'B' Rusty Fuzz
  • TC Electronic 'B' Skysurfer Reverb
  • TC Electronic 'B' Tailspin Vibrato
  • TC Electronic 'B' The Prophet Digital Delay
  • TC Electronic 'B' Thunderstorm Flanger
  • TC Electronic 'B' Tube Pilot Overdrive
  • TC Electronic 'B' Vibraclone Rotary

 


Tech 21 NYC : Andrew Barta : New York, USA

tech21nyc.com

 

Tech 21 first found fame with its Analog SansAmp pre-amp style pedals and combination FlyRigs. It's also built up a sizeable range of more individual effects pedals - in a medium enclosure. I feel they have faded somewhat from popularity of late, I only came across them when doing research on Rotary pedals, and as luck would have it, the Tech 21 Roto Choir was the pedal which best met my requirements. It's by no means wholly perfect - as it lacks a brake function or a slow-speed setting. Yet it has 2 very clever button switches which give you an incredible range of dynamics. As I've said previously, I did not want to sacrifice real-estate for a large format pedal, so in the end it came down to a 3-way between the Roto Choir, Lex and Ventilator II Mini.

  • Tech 21 NYC American Woman Randy Bachman Signature Overdrive
  • Tech 21 NYC Boost DLA Analog Delay Emulator with Clean Boost and Tap Tempo
  • Tech 21 NYC CS Blonde PreAmp (Fender Blonde-Faced amp style)
  • Tech 21 NYC CS British PreAmp (Marshall JTM45/Plexi amp style)
  • Tech 21 NYC CS California PreAmp (Mesa MK Series amp style)
  • Tech 21 NYC CS Leeds PreAmp (Hiwatt amp style)
  • Tech 21 NYC CS Liverpool PreAmp (Vox AC amp style)
  • Tech 21 NYC CS Oxford PreAmp (Orange amp style)
  • Tech 21 NYC CS U.S. Metal PreAmp (Mesa Rectifier amp style)
  • Tech 21 NYC Hot-Rod Plexi Drive
  • Tech 21 NYC OMG Richie Kotzen Signature Overdrive
  • Tech 21 NYC Q\Strip EQ/PreAmp
  • Tech 21 NYC Roto Choir .
  • Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Brit Fly Rig5
  • Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Cali Fly Rig5
  • Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Classic PreAmp Modeller
  • Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Fly Rig5 Original
  • Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Fly Rig5 Plexi
  • Tech 21 NYC SansAmp G2 PreAmp Modeller
  • Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Para Driver DI
  • Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Paul Landers Signature Fly Rig
  • Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Richie Kotzen RK5 Fly Rig

ThorpyFX - Adrian Thorpe - Farthinghoe, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

thorpyfx.com

 

Adrian is a great home-grown pedal-making genius / sound engineer who machines and engraves some of the most distinct pedal enclosures anywhere - in his workshop. I wasn't initially overly enamoured with the slightly over-sized enclosures but I've been won over to the tune now that I have 8 Thorpy productions currently!

  • ThorpyFX The Bunker Intermodulation Distortion (Brown Source)
  • ThorpyFX Camoflange Analog BBD Flanger (Dan Coggins of Lovetone collaboration) .
  • ThorpyFX The Chain Home Tremolo [discontinued]
  • ThorpyFX The Dane Overdrive and Boost (Pete Honoré Signature)
  • ThropyFX Deep Oggin Analog Liquid Chorus (Dan Coggins of Lovetone collaboration)
  • ThorpyFX Fallout Cloud Fuzz V2 (Muffroom Cloud/Triangle Muff) .
  • TheoryFX Field Marshal Gated Fuzz (Big Cheese)
  • ThorpyFX The Fat General Parallel Compressor V2
  • ThorpyFX Gunshot Overdrive V2 (Plexi) .
  • ThorpyFX Heavy Water Dual Boost .
  • ThorpyFX The Peacekeeper Low Gain Overdrive V2 (Transparent/Klon-ish but not) .
  • ThorpyFX Team Medic Buffer, Active EQ & Boost/PreAmp
  • ThorpyFX The Veteran Fuzz Germanium V1 + Boost (Fuzz Face) [discontinued]
  • ThorpyFX The Veteran Fuzz Silicon V2 + Boost (Fuzz Face) .
  • ThorpyFX Warthog Distortion V2 (Rat) .
  • *Redbeard Effects Honey Badger Sub-Octave Fuzz
  • *Redbeard Effects Red Mist MKIV Distortion - Mikey 'Skindred' Demus Signature .

Tomkat Pedals : Tom Kogut : Brooklyn, New York, USA

tomkatpedals.com

 

I first came across Tomkat Pedals when I was researching Echoverb pedals for my feature on the Best Ambient Delay + Reverb Pedals. The then original Day Dreamer just missed the cut where its spot went to the Quiet Theory Prelude - while when I do the next overview the Tap-Tempo augmented and enhanced Super Day Dreamer will certainly make the cut. As with many individual builders, the early majority of Tom's pedals were fuzzes, while his most interesting pedal is the very recent Cloudy Digital Multi-Effect which is most certainly the next acquisition here, and for which I intend to do an in-depth overview of when I get my hands on one.

  • Tomkat Bender Fuzz (Tone Bender MKII)
  • Tomkat Cloudy 6-Mode Granular Synthesis Digital Multi-Effect (Mutable Instruments Clouds Adaptation with Stereo output)
  • Tomkat Killer Fuzz (Fuzz Face)
  • Tomkat Ripper Octave Fuzz (Ibanez Standard Fuzz)
  • Tomkat Super Day Dreamer Tap-Tempo Echo-Reverb
  • Tomkat Violet Muffer Fuzz (Ram's Head Muff)
  • Tomkat White Muffer Fuzz (Civil War Muff)

Toneczar : Ed Rembold : Anza, California, USA

toneczar.com

 

Toneczar Ed Rembold has fallen somewhat under the radar of late - he's still very much in business - taking orders for his pedals on his website - with up to a 2 year waiting list - particularly for his much-in-demand Echoczar Analog Delay. Prices are really pretty high $275 - $875 - especially for us based in the UK which need to pay significant delivery costs and import / customs duties. I personally am more interested in his High Gain pedals - the Openhaus Distortion and Vault Fuzz which start from around $400 - so it's Reverb.com and the waiting game again for me!

  • Toneczar Angel Chorus Analog Stereo String Ensemble
  • Toneczar Dove Low to Medium Gain Distortion
  • Toneczar Echoczar Analog Delay
  • Toneczar Halophaze Two Speed Multi-Stage Analog Phase Shifter
  • Toneczar Openhaus High Gain Distortion
  • Toneczar OTP Fuzz (Big Muff)
  • Toneczar Stereo Powerglide Photocell Tremolo
  • Toneczar Vault High Gain Fuzz .

True North Pedals : Sheldon Ens : Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

truenorthpedals.ca

 

I had been tracking Sheldon Ens's True North Pedals on Facebook for a while before I hit the trigger - I do like to do my due diligence. He makes one of The best Tweed Amp style pedals around in his suitably tweed-wrapped Tweed Drive masterpiece. Glorious sounding and full-range - and I look forward to seeing what comes next. He also produces exceptional custom pedals if you're looking for something special and know what you want.

  • True North Northern Lights Germanium Boost
  • True North Rocky Mountain Fuzz .
  • True North Tweed Drive .

Truetone : Bob Weil : Spring Hill, Tennessee, USA [formerly Visual Sound]

truetone.com

 

Best known for its 1 Spot power-supplies, this brand nonetheless has a formiddable yet compact range of multi-drive and multi-modulation pedals - in fact just 4 of them. They're all pretty decent for sure, but the one that stands out for me is the Jekyll & Hyde.

  • Truetone 1 Spot Pro CS-12
  • Truetone H20 Chorus/Vibrato/Delay
  • Truetone Jekyll & Hyde Multi-Drive / Distortion .
  • Truetone Route 66 Multi-Drive / Overdrive
  • Truetone VS-XO Dual Overdrive

Tsakalis Audio Works : Chris Tsakalis : Nikea, Greece

tsakalisaudioworks.com

 

Before the launch of the recent Six Booster/Overdrive/Distortion I was most familiar with Tsakalis for their Phonkify EnvelopeFilter/Wah/Octaver pedal. There's a handful of pedals here that pique my interest, but the one I'm most likely to acquire is the new 'Six' multi-drive pedal introduced at NAMM 2019.

  • Tsakalis Crown Overdrive (Plexi/Vox)
  • Tsakalis Experience Octave Fuzz
  • Tsakalis Galactic Phaser/Univibe/Vibrato/Rotary/Chorus/Flanger
  • Tsakalis Gravity Spot All Tube Dual Overdrive/Distortion
  • Tsakalis Hubble Fat +20dB Mosfet Booster
  • Tsakalis MultiCab MKII Analog CabSim
  • Tsakalis Never MKII Amp Like Dual Distortion
  • Tsakalis Ocean Reverb - Spring/Shimmer/Hall
  • Tsakalis Phonkify EnvelopeFilter/Wah/Octaver
  • Tsakalis Riff Raff MKII Dual Overdrive
  • Tsakalis Six Booster/Overdrive/Distortion .
  • Tsakalis Tilay 650ms Tape Analog Delay
  • Tsakalis Tremmatic Sine/Square Wave Optical Tremolo
  • Tsakalis Zipper MKII Optical Compressor

TWA / Totally Wycked Audio / Godlyke Inc. : Kevin Bolembach and George Schwab : Clifton, New Jersey, USA

godlyke.com

 

I first came across TWA courtesy of its Great Divide Octaver pedal which I featured on this site within the Octaver category overview. I'm probably more interested in the Fuzz Pedals here - which include the Dynamorph, Krytical Mass and Minimorph. I really like the look of the last mentioned - the Minimorph and that will most likely be added to the collection before long.

  • TWA Dynamorph Envelope-Controlled Harmonic Generator
  • TWA Great Divide 2.0 Analog Synth Octaver
  • TWA Hot Saké Overdrive/Distortion
  • TWA Krytical Mass Octave Up/Down Filtered Fuzz
  • TWA Little Dipper 2.0 Envelope Controlled Vocal Formant Filter
  • TWA Microchasm Octave Box Fuzz
  • TWA Minimorph Dynamic Waveshaper - Envelope-Filtered Fuzzy-Drive .
  • TWA Side Step Universal Variable State LFO
  • TWA Triskelion 2.0 Harmonic Energizer / Synth
  • TWA Wahxidizer Envelope Controlled Fuzz
  • TWA WR-3 Wah Rocker Envelope filter

Vemuram Custom Pedals : Shingo Hirano : Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan (< Tri-Sound Inc.)

vemuram.com

 

Seriously pricey brass-enclosure custom boutique pedals from Japan - mostly fuzzes and overdrives. The one that gets most of the hype is the Timmy-alike Jan Ray - at a good twice the price and then some - they all seem to be around £350/£400 which you could say is not much different from Chase Bliss, but these have nowhere near the technicality and feature set of those. That said, there are a couple of pedals here I really like the sound of - the Budi Boost and Shanks 4 Knob Fuzz. They occasionaly drop in price for sales, but are rarely seen much below £300. They're obviously built like tanks, and sound great, but they are undeniabley expensive - unless that's your thing.

  • Vemuram Analog Delay (TBC)
  • Vemuram Budi Super Clean Boost
  • Vemuram Dual BF Delay (Lexicon PCM42) (TBC)
  • Vemuram Galea Medium Gain Overdrive
  • Vemuram Jan Ray High Headroom Overdrive (Nobels OD-1)
  • Vemuram Jan Ray Mateus Asato Signature Drive (Nobels ODR-1)
  • Vemuram Karen Overdrive/Distortion (Marshall Plexi)
  • Vemuram Myriad Fuzz Josh Smith Signature Fuzz
  • Vemuram Myriad Fuzz Josh Smith Signature Deluxe Fuzz with Loop and Dry-Mix
  • Vemuram Neoplex Boost with TIS58 JFET (Maestro Echoplex EP-3) [discontinued]
  • Vemuram Oz Fuzz Signature Oz Noy Fuzz
  • Vemuram Rage e Overdrive/Distortion with Boost
  • Vemuram Shanks II 2 Silicon + 1 FET Fuzz Signature John Shanks Fuzz
  • Vemuram Shanks 3K Fuzz Signature John Shanks Fuzz (Rangemaster/Tonebender MKII) [discontinued]
  • Vemuram Shanks 4K Germanium Fuzz Signature John Shanks Fuzz
  • Vemuram Shanks ODS-1 Signature John Shanks Overdrive (Nobels ODR-1)
  • Vemuram V-tron+ (Envelope Filter?) (TBC)
  • *Ibanez/Vemuram TSV808 Overdrive (Tube Screamer + Jan Ray)

VFE Pedals - Peter Rutter - Tacoma, Washington, USA

vfecustom.com

 

I was quite a bit late to the party on this one - having come across various VFE pedals before, but only truly properly switching onto them after they had been mostly discontinued! Peter is putting most of his focus into the recently Kickstarter-funded Klein Bottle Multiband Mixer/Looper pedal - which is ingenious but I have little use for it alas. The one here I really want to get my hands on is the Smooth Rat-style LM308 circuit Alpha Dog which is a really versatile and cleverly tuned version of the Rat with 4 different clipping options. I've contacted Peter directly, and all the legacy pedals are all gone now (i.e. all but one of the below listed) - fully out of stock. I find it slightly strange that the best-selling VFE pedal of all time - the Alpha Dog has been discontinued - but such is the pedal game sometimes - I will just need to keep a very careful eye on Reverb.com and Ebay - for any and all of the following:

 

Note - all VFE pedals are now discontinued:

  • VFE Alpha Dog Vintage Distortion (Rat) .
  • VFE Blueprint Analog-voiced Delay
  • VFE Blues King Overdrive (Bluesbreaker) .
  • VFE Bumblebee Compressor + Swell
  • VFE Choral Reef Analog Chorus
  • VFE Dark Horse Hard-Edge Distortion (DS-1+)
  • VFE Distortion 3 (MXR Distortion+, DOD 250, MXR Micro Amp) .
  • VFE Dragon Dynamic Overdrive
  • VFE Dragon Hound (Vomit Hound, Crown Jewel) Overdrive + Distortion (Alpha Dog + Pale Horse) .
  • VFE Fiery Red Horse Fuzz (Muff) .
  • VFE Focus Ultimate Mid Boost
  • VFE Fuzz Duo Germanium/Silicon Hybrid Fuzz
  • VFE Ice Scream Mid-Boosting Overdrive
  • VFE Klein Bottle Multiband Mixer/Looper
  • VFE Merman Transparent Overdrive (Klon) .
  • VFE Mini Mu Envelope Filter
  • VFE Mobius Strip Dual Delay
  • VFE Old School Vintage Tremolo
  • VFE Pale Horse Dynamic Overdrive (TS+)
  • VFE Pinball Tilt Equalizer
  • VFE Rainbows, Unicorns, Puppies Multiband Distortion
  • VFE Rocket EQ 3-Band EQ + Clean Boost
  • VFE The Scream Classic Overdrive (TS808)
  • VFE Springboard Echo-Verb
  • VFE Standout Mid Booster
  • VFE Tractor Beam (Enterprise) Analog Phaser
  • VFE The Triplet Dan Armstrong Trio - Orange Squeezer Compressor + Green Ringer Octave + Blue Clipper Distortion
  • VFE Triumvirate Multiband Distortion
  • VFE White Horse Optical Compressor
  • VFE Woodchipper Bass Octave Fuzz (Octave Down) / Hydra Custom Clone .
  • VFE Yodeler Delay-Verb

Vick Audio : Mike Vickery : Gilbert, Arizona, USA

vickaudio.com

 

Mike Vickery is highly regarded by Gimourish's Bjørn Riis and I consider him part of the Gilmour triangle as such alongside Pete Cornish obviously and Steve Painter of Buffalo FX. I've featured a number of these on the site to date, but have yet to get really going on the Vick Audio acquisition trail - where the Lucky 13, Black Russian, Tree of Life, V-2, and Violet Ram's head would be my first targets :

  • 73 Ram's Head Fuzz
  • 1861 Fuzz (Civil War)
  • Black Russian Fuzz
  • Civil Muff Fuzz
  • Classic Rat Distortion
  • Fuzz Box (CS Fuzz Box)
  • Fuzztache
  • Hypocenter Delay
  • Llama Drive
  • Lotus Overdrive
  • Lucky No. 13 One Knob Fuzz
  • Midnight Sun Fuzz
  • MosFUZZ (Fuzzrite)
  • Mount Pleasant Overdrive (Blues Breaker)
  • Overdriver (CS Power Boost)
  • R-Comp Compressor (Ross)
  • Silverback Overdrive/Distortion
  • Tree of Life Overdrive (Zen + OCD)
  • V1 Triangle Fuzz
  • V-2 Distortion (PC G-2)
  • V-Vibe
  • Violet Ram's Head Fuzz

Walrus Audio : Colt Westbrook : Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

walrusaudio.com

 

I've featured several Walrus pedals on my pedal category overviews - in fact mainly the medium to large enclosure ones - the Descent Reverb, Janus Fuzz, Luminary Octave and Monument Tremolo pedals. The most interesting pedals here for me though are the 2 compact dual-footswitch ones - the Arp-87 Delay and new Fathom Reverb.

  • Walrus Audio 385 Overdrive
  • Walrus Audio Arp-87 Multi-Function Delay
  • Walrus Audio Deep Six Compressor V3
  • Walrus Audio Descent Stereo Reverb/Octave
  • Walrus Audio EB-10 PreAmp/EQ/Boost
  • Walrus Audio Fathom Multi-Function Reverb
  • Walrus Audio Janus Fuzz/Tremolo
  • Walrus Audio Julia V2 Analog Chorus / Vibrato
  • Walrus Audio Kangra Filter Fuzz
  • Walrus Audio Iron Horse Distortion V2
  • Walrus Audio Jupiter Multi-Clip Fuzz V2 .
  • Walrus Audio Lillian Multi-Stage Analog Phaser
  • Walrus Audio Luminary Quad Octave Generator
  • Walrus Audio Mako Series D1 Hi-Fidelity Stereo Delay
  • Walrus Audio Messner X Overdrive
  • Walrus Audio Monument Harmonic Tap Tremolo
  • Walrus Audio Red High Gain Distortion [discontinued]
  • Walrus Audio SLÖ Multi Texture Reverb
  • Walrus Audio Warhorn Mid-Range Overdrive

Wampler Pedals : Brian Wampler : Martinsville, Indiana, USA (< Boutique Amps Distribution)

wamplerpedals.com

 

For me Brian Wampler is really the King of Drive Pedals - no one has as wide a range of consistently great overdrive and distortion pedals and with that dynamic feel. I have acquired 4 Wamplers to date - the Mini Tumnus and Ego, then the Euphoria and Dracarys. Alas Dracarys's reign in the chain was rather short as it has limited versatility and that slot was take over by the Empress Heavy. Brian doesn't just make fantastic drive pedals - he makes excellent compressors and delays too, as well as a pretty decent Fuzz and Tremolo. For right now I have my eye on a Plexi Deluxe, Sovereign and Tumnus Deluxe.

  • Wampler Black '65 (Fender Black-Face Amp) [discontinued]
  • Wampler CataPulp (Orange Amp Distortion) [discontinued]
  • Wampler Clarksdale (TS808+)
  • Wampler dB+ Boost / Buffer
  • Wampler The Doctor LoFi Tap-Tempo Ambient Delay
  • Wampler Dracarys Distortion (Ola Englund Chug) .
  • Wampler Dual Fusion Drive Tom Quayle Signature V2 (Euphoria + Paisley Drive)
  • Wampler Ego Compressor
  • Wampler EQuator Parametric EQ
  • Wampler Ethereal Reverb & Delay
  • Wampler Euphoria (Dumble ODS) .
  • Wampler Faux Analog Echo [discontinued]
  • Wampler Faux Tape Echo V2
  • Wampler (Faux) Talent Booster (April 1 Spoof)
  • Wampler Fuzztortion Octave Fuzz
  • Wampler Hot Wired V2 Drive Brent Mason Signature (Clarksdale + Plexi-Drive)
  • Wampler Latitude Deluxe Tap-Tempo Tremolo
  • Wampler Latitude Standard Tremolo [discontinued]
  • Wampler Leviathan Fuzz [discontinued]
  • Wampler Mini Ego Compressor .
  • Wampler Mini Faux Spring Reverb
  • Wampler Mini Tumnus (Klon) .
  • Wampler Paisley Drive Brad Paisley Signature (TS808+)
  • Wampler Paisley Drive Deluxe Brad Paisley Signature (Paisley Drive + Underdog (Nobels ODR-S))
  • Wampler Pantheon Overdrive (Blues Breaker) .
  • Wampler Pinnacle Drive (EVH Brown Sound / JCM800) .
  • Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe V2 (+Boost & 3-band EQ)
  • Wampler Plexi-Drive (Marshall Plexi)
  • Wampler Plexi-Drive Deluxe (+Boost & 3-band EQ)
  • Wampler Plextortion (Marshall Plexi Distortion) [discontinued] .
  • Wampler Reflection Spring/Plate Reverb
  • Wampler SLOstortion (Soldano SLO-100 Amp) [discontinued]
  • Wampler Sovereign (Marshall-esque Super Crunch Machine) .
  • Wampler Terraform Stereo Modulation Workstation
  • Wampler Thirty Something (Vox AC 30) [discontinued]
  • Wampler Triple Wreck (MESA/Boogie Triple Rectifier) [discontinued] .
  • Wampler Tumnus Deluxe (Klon) .
  • Wampler Tweed '57 (Fender Tweed Amp) [discontinued]
  • Wampler Underdog Overdrive (Nobels ODR-S) [discontinued]
  • Wampler Velvet Fuzz
  • *Abasi Concepts Pathos Overdrive .

Way Huge : Jeorge Tripps : Benicia, California, USA

jimdunlop.com

 

Jeorge Tripps is Senior Engineer / Head at Dunlop Electronics Division - which includes Cry Baby, Hendrix, MXR and of course his pet project Way Huge. There are some great sounding pedals within the range, but their medium+ enclosures have always struck me as somewhat oversized, it's just as well then that Jeorge has woken up to that fact and started introducing more compact versions of the existing classics - i.e. 'Smalls' version which currently number 3, but hopefully most will eventually transition across - including the Havalina Fuzz and Saucy Box OD. The only ones I would ever consider acquiring would be the 'Smalls' versions:

  • Way Huge Doubleland Special
  • Way Huge Smalls Havalina Fuzz (TBA)
  • Way Huge Red Llama 25th Anniversary Overdrive
  • Way Huge Smalls Aqua-Puss Analog Delay
  • Way Huge Smalls Blue Hippo Analog Chorus
  • Way Huge Smalls Overrated Special Overdrive
  • Way Huge Smalls Russian Pickle Fuzz
  • Way Huge Smalls Supa-Lead Overdrive MKIII (Plexi)
  • Way Huge Smalls Swollen Pickle MKIII Jumbo Fuzz (V6 Muff)
  • Way Huge Supa-Puss Analog Delay

Wilson Effects : Kevin Wilson : Guilford, Indiana, USA

wilsoneffects.com

 

Kevin Wilson is largely a Wah specialist but has built up quite a significant range of stomp boxes too - mostly overdrives and fuzzes. Most of those come in oversized enclosures as far as I'm concerned and I don't really see anything which suitably matches up with my parameters. The Wilson Mini Q-Wah though is a different story, and is probably the most full-featured mini-wah currently available. I'm not saying I don't still love my Dunlop Mini Wah - it's always nice to have some extra versatility.

  • Wilson Effects Dual Lotus Drive
  • Wilson Effects Meat Grinder Fuzz
  • Wilson Effects Mini Q-Wah
  • Wilson Effects Octave Up Fuzz
  • Wilson Effects Ultimate Overdrive

WMD Devices : William Mathewson : Denver, Colorado, USA

wmdevices.com

 

WMD are most famous for their Geiger Counter series of crazy feature-rich bitcrushers - and we're all awaiting the arrival of the pro version of that. It also has an amazing large format super-tweakable distortion pedal in the Acoustic Trauma and extreme envelope filter in the Protostar. However, the WMD device that is most likely to be added to my chain is the Utility Parametric EQ - which I could occasionally swap out with the Boss GE-7.

  • WMD Acoustic Trauma Analogue Distortion Machine
  • WMD Arcane PreAmp
  • WMD Geiger Counter Bitcrusher
  • WMD Geiger counter Civilian Issue Bitcrusher
  • WMD Geiger Counter Pro Bitcrusher / Ltd Edn
  • WMD Protostar Envelope Filter
  • WMD The Goldilocks Planet Distortion
  • WMD Utility Parametric EQ

Wren and Cuff : Matthew Holl : Newbury Park, California, USA

wrenandcuff.com

 

Wren and Cuff is one of those rather unsung Fuzz pedal specialist with a really decent current range of 20 or so pedals. I have featured several on this site before - including the Ace Octave, Eye See Pi/'78, Hangman-2D, Two Five 25V Drive, Your Face 70's and most recently the De La Riva - which is the one to date that I've acquired. As with much of the pedal world there are so many different options for each type so you go with pedals which have more features, are more affordable, more compact, more individual etc. It just so happens that for a great many of the Wren and Cuff pedals I have other alternatives that I have acquired instead / in preference.

  • Wren and Cuff Ace Octave Fuzz (Acetone Fuzz)
  • Wren and Cuff Caprid Small Foot Fuzz (Ram's Head Muff)
  • Wren and Cuff Caprid Small Foot Fuzz Custom (Ram's Head Muff) .
  • Wren and Cuff De La Riva BM20-Ultra Fuzz (Multi-Muff) .
  • Wren and Cuff Elephant Skin Troy Sanders Signature Fuzz (Tall Font Russian Custom Muff)
  • Wren and Cuff Eye See '78 Dual Op-Amp Distortion (OpAmp Big Muff)[formerly Eye See Pi]
  • Wren and Cuff Gold Comp Germanium Compressor/PreAmp
  • Wren and Cuff Hangman-2D Distortion (Boss HM-2)
  • Wren and Cuff Irkalla Manifest Dynamic Fuzz with High and Low Pass Filters
  • Wren and Cuff Small Foot Box of War Fuzz (Civil War Muff)
  • Wren and Cuff Sonder Analog Chorus-Tremolo
  • Wren and Cuff Super Russian Fuzz (Russian Big Muff)
  • Wren and Cuff Suppa Phat Phuk Germanium/JFET Booster
  • Wren and Cuff Tall Font Russian Fuzz (Green Russian Muff)
  • Wren and Cuff Trie Pie '70 Fuzz (Triangle Muff)
  • Wren and Cuff Two Five 25V Drive Boost/EQ/PreAmp
  • Wren and Cuff White Elk Small Foot Fuzz (Elk Super Fuzz 'Sustainar' sic. Muff)
  • Wren and Cuff Your Face 60's Fuzz (Germanium Fuzz Face)
  • Wren and Cuff Your Face 70's Fuzz (Silicon Fuzz Face)

Xotic Effects : Toshio Horiba : Los Angeles, California, USA (< Prosound Communications)

xotic.us

 

The sister brand to EWS also makes its own excellent vintage-inspired line of guitars. For me it's all about the mini pedals - the EP Booster, SL Drive and SP Compressor - I have all three in both original and Alchemy Audio modded versions, and the EP and SL have been part of the chain for the longest time - the former only recently having been ousted by the Jackson Audio Prism. Xotic is mostly known for its Booster / Overdrive pedals, and there are 3 which I like the look of - as well as Xotic's rather sleek Wah - if only that was available in mini-size too.

  • Xotic Effects AC+ Dual Boost/Overdrive/PreAmp
  • Xotic Effects AC Booster (Clean/Smooth Boost/Overdrive)
  • Xotic Effects BB+ Dual Channel PreAmp
  • Xotic Effects BB PreAmp (TS+ with Baxandall EQ)
  • Xotic Effects BB PreAmp BBP-AT (Andy Timmons) Ltd Edition
  • Xotic Effects AC/RC OZ Noy Signature [discontinued]
  • Xotic Effects EP Booster (Alchemy Audio Mod) Mini .
  • Xotic Effects RC Booster V2 Transparent Boost + Gain Channel
  • Xotic Effects Robotalk Ultimate Envelope Filter
  • Xotic Effects SL Drive Mini (Alchemy Audio Mod) .
  • Xotic Effects Soul Driven Creamy Boost and Overdrive with Subtle Compression
  • Xotic Effects SP Compressor Mini (Alchemy Audio Mod) .
  • Xotic Effects Super Clean Buffer Mini
  • Xotic Effects Super Sweet Booster Mini
  • Xotic Effects X-Blender Dry/Wet Mixer
  • Xotic Effects Xotic Wah

Xvive Audio : Howard Davis, Darius Mostowfi, Ray Heasman & Thomas Blug : Pasadena, California, USA

xviveaudio.com

 

A mini pedal company where pedals are designed in the USA by pedal industry legends and then built in China. Xvive are also responsible for manufacturing the new EHX MemoryMan bucket brigade chips - which can be found in their own homage to that - the E1 Echoman. I already have the excellent EVH Brown Sound - Golden Brownie, and would not mind acquiring an Echoman as well.

  • Xvive D1 MaxVerb Reverb Mini - Spring/Plate/Hall
  • Xvive D2 Sound Freezer Reverb Mini - Reverb Wash [discontinued]
  • Xvive D3 Duet Stereo Out Looper Mini
  • Xvive E1 Echoman Delay Mini (Mini Memory Man style analog BBD delay)
  • Xvive Mike Acoustic EQ Pedal Mini - 19 position variable EQ
  • Xvive O1 Tube Squasher Overdrive Mini (TS808)
  • Xvive O2 Sweet Leo Overdrive Mini (Thomas Blug Signature)
  • Xvive PT-05 Tuner Mini
  • Xvive T1 Golden Brownie Distortion Mini . (EVH)
  • Xvive T2 Dynarock Drive Mini
  • Xvive V01 Classic Rock Distortion Mini (Plexi) [discontinued]
  • Xvive V02 Distortion Mini - High Gain Distortion [discontinued]
  • Xvive V03 Metal Distortion Mini - Scooped High Gain Distortion [discontinued]
  • Xvive V04 Fuzz Screamer Mini (Fuzz Face) [discontinued
  • Xvive V05 Delay Mini - Digital Delay
  • Xvive V06 Phaser King Mini [discontinued]
  • Xvive V07 Tube Drive Mini (TS808)
  • Xvive V08 Chorus Vibrato Mini
  • Xvive V09 Lemon Squeezer Compressor Mini
  • Xvive V10 Amp Litone Boost Mini
  • Xvive V11 Noise Gate Mini
  • Xvive V12 ABY Mini A/B Switcher
  • Xvive V13 Mini DI CabSim
  • Xvive V14 Metal Head Distortion Mini (HM-2) [discontinued]
  • Xvive V15 Tone Shaper EQ Mini - 2-band EQ/Boost
  • Xvive V16 Undulator Stereo Tremolo Mini
  • Xvive V17 Singing Autowah Mini
  • Xvive V18 Multi Voice Distortion Mini [discontinued]
  • Xvive V19 Power Supply Mini - 8 Output : 7x9V, 1x18V
  • Xvive V20 Electry Fire Acoustic PreAmp [discontinued]
  • Xvive W1 Wave Phaser
  • Xvive W2 Overdrive Fuzz
  • Xvive W3 Memory Analog Delay (BBD Memory Man style delay)

Zander Circuitry : Alex Millar : Benfleet, Essex, UK

zandercircuitry.co.uk

 

I included Zander in my Best of British Pedal Builders Overview - and on a different day it would have made it into the top 9 in place of SSD Devices - overall Zander has a more impressive range, while I really liked a couple of the SSD pedals - here I am intrigued by most of the pedals on offer. I'm a huge fan of Fuzz and Distortion and there are several pedals here that really appeal to me - these are all medium enclosure, 2 and 3 footswitch types - largely vertical format, and use the real-estate really well with tonnes of additional clipping/voicing options which is bang up my street - I will add at least a couple of these to the collection at some stage - it's just a question of where to start really:

  • Zander American Geek 4-Filter, 6-Way Clipping High Gain Fuzz
  • Zander Avalanche Crunch+Drive+Fuzz Harmonic Clipping Trifecta
  • Zander Cafetiere Dual Gain, 6-Way Clipping Distortofuzz
  • Zander Cranium Dual Gaint, 6-Way Clipping Distortion
  • Zander Exosphere Dual Atmospheric Reverberator
  • Zander Foxxton Woods 6-Way Clipping Upper Octave Fuzz Generator
  • Zander Junipero Aqueous Modulator
  • Zander SiClone Silicon Chaos Initiator Fuzz
  • Zander SiClone Silicon Chaos Initiator Fuzz Compact
  • Zander Sono Bass Distortion Compact
  • Zander Surplus Dual Channel, 6-Way Clipping Elemental Overdriver
  • Zander Tape Deck Modulated Lo-Fi Delay

Zvex : Zachary Vex : Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

zvex.com

 

Zachary Vex has to be the King of the Fuzz Pedal - I've been listening to a lot of St Vincent of late, and she use Zvex fuzzes quite a lot, as do numerous notable bands looking for that super edgy fuzz sound. There's two flagship pedals with really rare transistors - the Fuzz Factory 7 and Woolly Mammoth 7 which have a very high ticked price, everything else is around $200/£200. I've never liked the landscape / horizontal format of most of the Zvex pedals, so it's good news that Zachary has started bringing out standard vertical formats too starting with the regular Fuzz Factory. In terms of my own pedal preferences - I would really like a Fat Fuzz Factory and Mastotron in the vertical format - and the mini Fuzzolo has been on my wishlist for a while - I'll snap it up once it goes back under £100. The Loog Gate is another really smart Zvex pedal that I have my eye on, but I'm not sure I would use yet!

  • Zvex Box of Metal
  • Zvex Channel 2 Boost Mini
  • Zvex Distortron Distortion
  • Zvex Double Rock Distortion
  • Zvex Fuzz Factory 7
  • Zvex Fuzz Probe
  • Zvex Fuzzolo
  • Zvex Inventobox Custom Multi-Effect
  • Zvex Jonny Octave Octaver
  • Zvex Lo-Fi Loop Junky
  • Zvex Loop Gate
  • Zvex Machine Fuzz
  • Zvex Mastotron Fuzz
  • Zvex Octane 3 Fuzz
  • Zvex Orangesicle Distortron Distortion
  • Zvex Russian Fuzz Factory 7
  • Zvex Sonar Tremolo
  • Zvex Super Duper 2-in-1 Boost
  • Zvex Super Hard On Boost
  • Zvex Super Ringtone Step Sequencer
  • Zvex Super Seek Trem Step Sequencer
  • Zvex Super Seek Wah Step Sequencer
  • Zvex Trem Probe Volume
  • Zvex Vertical '59 Sound
  • Zvex Vertical Box of Rock
  • Zvex Vertical Fuzz Factory Germanium .
  • Zvex Vertical Fuzz Factory Hybdi Si/Ge
  • Zvex Vertical Fuzz Factory Silicon
  • Zvex Vertical Fat Fuzz Factory (TBC)
  • Zvex Vertical Instant LoFi Junky
  • Zvex Vertical Mastotron Fuzz (TBC)
  • Zvex Vertical Vibrophase .
  • Zvex Vertical Woolly Mammoth (TBC)
  • Zvex Wah Probe
  • Zvex Woolly Mammoth 7

Personal Most-Loved Pedal-Makers (by Pedal Mentions) February 2019

So the following is simply a list of which pedal-makers got the most mentions - i.e. who have the greatest number of pedals currently on my lists. I include everyone with 5 mentions or more.

 

This used to be numbered and arranged by pedals that I was solely interested in for myself, but I've broadened the scope since to include any pedals I deem to be of worthiness or merit - regardless of whether they actually appeal directly to me and my pedal-chain/rig requirements. I had previously discounted a lot of the larger pedals - but I've corralled the key important ones this time around! Generally there is significant correlation between size of pedal ranges and appearances on the list - but not always - there are still some personal idiosyncrasies to be found here...

 

Mentions in (parenthesis) = [rough numbers as this post is constantly updated]:

  • (92) Boss [Japan]
  • (71) TC Electronic + TCE Behringer [Denmark/Germany]
  • (69) Electro-Harmonix [USA]
  • (65) MXR [USA] < Jim Dunlop
  • (59) Basic Audio [USA]
  • (55) Mooer [China]
  • (48) JHS Pedals [USA] (inc. Mods)
  • (47) Keeley Engineering [USA]
  • (46) Lovepedal / Hermida [USA]
  • (43) Maxon Guitar Effects [Japan]
  • (41) EarthQuaker Devices [USA]
  • (41) Wampler [USA]
  • (35) Zvex [USA]
  • (33) Xvive Audio [USA]
  • (31) Lone Wolf Audio [USA]
  • (31) Mad Professor [Finland]
  • (31) Mojo Hand FX [USA]
  • (31) SolidGoldFX [Canada]
  • (31) Stomp Under Foot [USA]
  • (31) VFE Pedals [USA]
  • (30) Catalinbread [USA]
  • (30 Fredric Effecst [UK]
  • (27) OneControl [Japan]
  • (25) J Rockett (JRAD) [USA]
  • (25) Malekko Heavy Industries [USA]
  • (25) Skreddy Pedals [USA]
  • (22) Crazy Tube Circuits [Greece]
  • (22) Tech 21 NYC [USA]
  • (21) Menatone [USA]
  • (20) Cusack Music [USA]
  • (20) Lastgasp Art Laboratories [Australia]
  • (20) Strymon [USA]
  • (20) Subdecay [USA]
  • (18) Fulltone [USA]
  • (18) Fuzzrocious Pedals [USA]
  • (18) Death By Audio [USA]
  • (18) Vemuram [Japan]
  • (18) Wren and Cuff [USA]
  • (17) Black Arts Toneworks [USA]
  • (17) Spaceman Effects [USA]
  • (16) Empress Effects [Canada]
  • (16) Pigtronix [USA]
  • (16) Suhr Effects [USA]
  • (16) Xotic Effects [USA]
  • (15) Big Tone Music Brewery / BTMB [USA] <BYOC
  • (15) JPTR FX [Germany]
  • (15) Matthews Effects [USA]
  • (15) Monsterpiece Fuzz [USA]
  • (15) Paul Trombetta Design [USA]
  • (14) Alexander Pedals [USA]
  • (14) Animals Pedal [Japan]
  • (14) Bearfoot FX [USA]
  • (14) DigiTech /DOD [USA]
  • (14) F-Pedals [USA/Italy]
  • (14) Magnetic Effects [UK]
  • (14) Tsakalis Audio Works [Greece]
  • (14) Walrus Audio [USA]
  • (13) Amptweaker [USA]
  • (13) Greer Amps [USA]
  • (13) Ibanez [Japan]
  • (13) MI Effects [Australia]
  • (13) NRG Effects [UK]
  • (13) Old Blood Noise Endeavors [USA]
  • (13) ProAnalog Devices [USA]
  • (12) Anasounds [France]
  • (12) Banana Effects [Japan]
  • (12) Chase Bliss Audio [USA] (inc. Abracadabra Audio + Automatone)
  • (12) Dunlop [USA] < Jim Dunlop
  • (12) JAM Pedals [Greece]
  • (12) Mythos Pedals [USA]
  • (12) Source Audio [USA]
  • (11) Blackout Effectors [USA]
  • (11) Bogner [USA]
  • (11) Dwarfcraft Devices [USA]
  • (11) Free The Tone [Japan]
  • (11) FTelettronica [Italy]
  • (11) Rainger FX [UK]
  • (11) ThorpyFX [UK]
  • (10) Analog.Man [USA]
  • (10) Foxpedal [USA]
  • (10) KMA Machines [Germany]
  • (10) Lunastone [Denmark]
  • (09) Caroline Guitar Company [USA]
  • (09) Dr. No Effects [Netherlands]
  • (09) Neunaber [USA]
  • (09) Pettyjohn Electronics [USA]
  • (09) Sitek Guitar Electronics [Poland]
  • (09) TWA / Totally Wycked Audio [USA]
  • (09) Way Huge [USA] < Jim Dunlop
  • (09) Zander Circuitry [UK]
  • (08) Anarchy Audio [Australia]
  • (08) Buffalo FX [France]
  • (08) BYOC [USA]
  • (08) DLS Effects [USA]
  • (08) Fairfield Circuitry [USA]
  • (08) Emma Electronic [Denmark]
  • (08) Friedman Amplification [USA]
  • (08) KHDK [USA]
  • (08) Pladask Elektrisk [Norway]
  • (08) Red Witch Pedals (New Zealand)
  • (08) Shift Line [Russia]
  • (08) WMD Devices [USA]
  • (07) Adventure Audio [USA]
  • (07) Carl Martin [Denmark]
  • (07) Hudson Electronics [UK]
  • (07) Occvlt Pedals [Poland]
  • (07) Side Effects [Greece]
  • (07) Stone Deaf [UK]
  • (07) Tomkat Pedals [USA]
  • (07) Toneczar [USA]
  • (06) Beetronics [USA/Brazil]
  • (06) Dr Scientist [Canada]
  • (06) Drolo FX [Belgium]
  • (06) Eventide [USA]
  • (06) Iron Ether [USA]
  • (06) King Tone Guitar / Effects [USA]
  • (06) Montreal Assembly [Canada]
  • (06) Retroman Music [USA]
  • (05) Aleks K Production [Canada]
  • (05) Big Joe Stomp Box [USA]
  • (05) Bondi Effects [Australia]
  • (05) Buffalo FX [France]
  • (05) Dawner Prince [Croatia]
  • (05) Demon Pedals [Germany]
  • (05) GFI System [Indonesia]
  • (05) Lawrence Petross Design [USA]
  • (05) Meris Effects [USA]
  • (05) Nobels [Germany]
  • (05) Red Panda Lab [USA]
  • (05) Supro [USA]
  • (05) Wilson Effects [USA]

THE TONE LIBRARY - Top Pedal Brands by Ownership - February 2019

So largely by happenstance, not really by design - and attributed to several random factors of course, the most numerous pedals I have acquired are from the following brands (prevalence, then alphabetical, 2 or more)

  • Boss (27)
  • Basic Audio (15)
  • JHS (15*) *note mostly JHS Mods [8]
  • TC Electronic (11)
  • Wampler (11) inc. Abasi Pathos
  • Chase Bliss Audio (9) inc. AA Ayahuasca
  • SolidGoldFX (9) inc. Tone Mob Model 001 Germanium
  • Spaceman Effects (8)
  • Strymon (8)
  • MI Effects (7)
  • Skreddy Pedals (7)
  • ThorpyFX (7)
  • VFE Pedals (7)
  • Bogner (6)
  • Catalinbread (6)
  • DigiTech/DOD (6)
  • Electro-Harmonix (6)
  • Fulltone (6)
  • Mad Professor (6)
  • Magnetic Effects (6)
  • Dunlop (5)
  • Hudson Electronics (5)
  • OneControl (5)
  • Bearfoot FX (4)
  • Demon Pedals (4)
  • Expresso FX (4)
  • Fjord Fuzz (4)
  • Foxpedal (4)
  • Mooer (4)
  • PLBR Effects (4)
  • Sitek Guitar Electronics (4)
  • Aleks K Production (3)
  • Alexander Pedals (3)
  • Anasounds (3)
  • Beetronics FX (3)
  • BYOC (3)
  • Dr Scientist (3)
  • EarthQuaker Devices (3)
  • Empress Effects (3)
  • Friedman (3)
  • Jackson Audio (3)
  • Keeley (3)
  • Matthews Effects (3)
  • REVV Amplification (3)
  • Sinvertek (3)
  • Suhr Effects (3)
  • Xotic Effects (3)
  • Anarchy Audio (2)
  • Blackout Effectors (2)
  • Chase Tone (2)
  • Coda Effects (2)
  • Crazy Tube Circuits (2)
  • DanDrive Pedal (2)
  • Decibelics (2)
  • Diezel (2)
  • EWS (2)
  • Greer Amps (2)
  • Ibanez (2)
  • Mojo Hand FX (2)
  • Mu-Tron (2)
  • Mythos Pedals (2)
  • Occvlt Pedals (2)
  • Old Blood Noise Endeavors (2)
  • Pigtronix (2)
  • ProCo / Rat Distortion (2)
  • Side Effects (2)
  • Stomp Under Foot (2)
  • Subdecay Effects (2)
  • Zvex (2)

Note that I currently have 40 slots / placements in my active pedal chain, and I do frequently swap around / rotate pedals in each slot - e.g. Wah / Fixed Wah / Whammy Ricochet etc. - so the designated slot is of key importance - which is the principal / primary pedal, which the secondary and which the alternative deputies / understudies!

Stefan Karlsson
Posted by Stefan Karlsson
PopularCommentsRSS FeedContent Subscriptions
Share to TwitterShare to Facebook
Add New Comment
You must be registered and logged in to comment
Profile
Stefan Karlsson
Stefan Karlsson
Guitar Pedal X
News Navigation






















































Paul Smith
9 of the Best Mid-Size Fuzz Face+ Pedals
"Don't know if you would count this, but I "...
7 days ago
Richard kupisz
Oneder Effects' Onederbolt is a beautifully textured distortion with 4 gears of operation
"Stefano, have you considered signing up to one of "...
12 days ago
Paul Smith
Expandora extracts the Forbidden Fuzz Mode for a standalone extended-range Fuzz
"Bit of a bump here, but having just attended to "...
15 days ago
Jet Hasie
Robert Keeley Boss Mods Trifecta
"Hey Stefan, that freak fuzz seems so cool thank "...
17 days ago
Cyril Demaegd
2024 February Pedal-Chain Update - Episode II - Triple Tremolo Flutter
"As usual very inspiring. I'd be curious to "...
18 days ago
Waiting