I recently spoke at a webinar with pedal rental service Buy or Borrow. The topic I submitted was, “Can the dirt pedal market ever be oversaturated?” I thought it would be fun to approach the subject like a debate, take the dissenting position, and present my argument. I’d like to explore this same question here. Now, since this column isn’t an in-person debate against an opponent, there won’t be a back-and-forth dialogue and I won’t be constructing and presenting a syllogism. I’ll be keeping it more casual and outlining talking points with supporting information and examples.
Here are some reasons I believe the dirt pedal market will not become oversaturated.
Classics that transcend generations
These are the industry staples—pedals that transcend trends and feel almost like part of the public domain. They originate from large manufacturers whose advanced production capabilities and buying power enable them to scale efficiently and keep costs low, resulting in affordable, player-friendly options ideal for those just starting their pedal journey. Classic examples include the Fuzz Face, Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Pro Co RAT, and Boss DS-1.
New versions
Brands that become well known for one or several dirt pedals will inevitably and subsequently release new versions with updated and/or added features. These releases help carry the lineage forward and keep it in the public eye. A classic example is the Big Muff Pi, with more contemporary counterparts like the JHS Morning Glory, Fulltone OCD, and Way Huge Green Rhino.
Brand loyalty
Customers looking for a specific dirt circuit or tonal style tend to seek out their preferred brand’s take on it. For instance, if you’re after a Tube Screamer and happen to be an EarthQuaker Devices fan, you might reach for a Plumes.
Tweaks that appeal
This category centers on the appeal of both subtle and significant tweaks to well-known circuits. Take the Tube Screamer, for example: Voodoo Lab’s Sparkle Drive adds a simple but beloved clean blend, while EarthQuaker’s Palisades takes the classic three-knob overdrive to extremes with seven knobs, two toggles, and three footswitches.
The newest thing/hype
The gear market is perpetually chasing the next new thing. Online buzz can fuel hype around both familiar formats and groundbreaking designs alike. On the classic side, there’s the 1981 DRV; on the innovative end, the Chase Bliss Automatone Preamp MKII.
“The gear market is perpetually chasing the next new thing. Online buzz can fuel hype around both familiar formats and groundbreaking designs alike.”
Artist versions
Musical artists could be categorized as the original “influencers.” For decades, they’ve partnered with guitar and amp makers, and in recent years, those collaborations have expanded into the pedal world. Fans of these artists often gravitate toward the gear that bears their name. Notable examples include the Wampler Paisley Drive with Brad Paisley, the EarthQuaker Gary with Lee Kiernan of IDLES, the Union Tube & Transistor Bumblebuzz with Jack White, and Horizon Devices, founded by Misha Mansoor of Periphery.
Collaborations
Just as artists collaborate with brands, we’ve also seen pedal companies team up with one another. These partnerships create double the exposure and broaden awareness for both brands. Notable examples include the JHS/Boss Angry Driver, Chase Bliss/Analog Man Brothers AM, Spruce Effects/Pelican Noiseworks Pelitaur GE, and MXR/Fuzzrocious Bass Distortion.
2-in-1 combos
Most brands offer multiple dirt pedals in their lineup, and many include 2-in-1 or dual-drive options. These are a great way to save space, power, and money—all while expanding tonal flexibility.
Limited editions (or colors)
Limited-edition models—and even limited finishes of standard models—have become commonplace in today’s gear world. Larger manufacturers have taken note of this boutique trend and joined in. Examples include Ibanez’s hand-wired 808 with its metal enclosure, MXR’s gold-finished Phase 90, and even JHS’s Germanium Boost.
Legacy reissues
When a brand has been around for a decade or more, it often builds a loyal fanbase that knows its entire catalog, past and present. To honor that history, some manufacturers release small-batch reissues of legacy models. Recent examples include EarthQuaker’s Dirt Transmitter and White Light, the original-format JHS Morning Glory, and the iconic EHX Ram’s Head.
Same model, different size
Whether driven by manufacturer design or consumer demand, some brands offer a “family” of a particular model. This approach provides options to suit a wide range of needs. Two companies that do this especially well are Analog Man, with the Duke, Prince, and King of Tone, and Wampler, with the Mini, Standard, and Deluxe Plexi Drive.
Multiple on boards
Simply put, dirt is an effect category that often appears multiple times on a single pedalboard. It’s not uncommon to see a setup featuring a boost, an overdrive, a distortion, and a fuzz all together.
Cost friendly and artisan
From a purely financial standpoint, boost and fuzz pedals typically have fewer components, allowing them to be sold at very appealing prices. An $80 boost that does its one job effectively solves a problem while remaining low-risk for the buyer.
At the other end of the spectrum are companies operating on a “beyond artisan” model. These makers produce small batches using rare, vintage, or unique components, often built on stripboard, tagboard, or even point-to-point wiring—a meticulous and impressive approach that draws enthusiasts. Notable examples include Reeves Electro, Elephant Pedals, and R2R Electric.
This is the condensed version of the argument, but I still find it compelling in supporting the idea that the dirt pedal market is unlikely to become oversaturated. Do you find it convincing?
The offset twins get a makeover that lends stability and a streamlined sensibility while enhancing the guitars’ classic ,’60s, surfy essence.
The American Professional Classic Jazzmaster: Under the hood, vintage-inspired Coastline ’65 Jazzmaster pickups deliver depth, punch and sparkle while the sleek Modern “C” neck provides exceptional comfort and playability. Fender Staggered ClassicGear™ tuners deliver classic looks and precise tuning stability. Boasting custom-faded vintage and signature Fender finishes, this professional-grade instrument looks as good as it sounds. From studio to stage, The American Professional Classic Jazzmaster All the soul of a golden-era Fender, evolved for today’s player. Options include Rosewood Fingerboard in 3-Color Sunburst, Faded Firemist Gold, Faded Sherwood Green Metallic and Faded Dakota Red.
The American Professional Classic Jaguar: Under the hood, vintage-inspired Coastline ’65 Jaguar pickups deliver depth, punch and sparkle while the sleek Modern “C” neck provides exceptional comfort and playability. Fender Staggered ClassicGear tuners deliver classic looks and precise tuning stability. Boasting custom-faded vintage and signature Fender finishes, this professional-grade instrument looks as good as it sounds. From studio to stage, The American Professional Classic Jaguar All the soul of a golden-era Fender, evolved for today’s player. Options include Rosewood Fingerboard 3-Color Sunburst, Faded Sherwood Green Metallic and Faded Firemist Gold as well as Maple Fingerboard in Faded Lake Placid Blue.
Moth Electric has introduced their first modulation pedal, the M. stellatarum Tremolo, adding to their existing lineup of four dirt pedals.
The M. stellatarum is a multi-mode optical tremolo featuring an all-analog signal path, tap tempo with four subdivisions, an on board boost and a total of 32 sonic combinations between its four modes of operation and eight waveforms.
Features:
Four distinct modes of operation. Classic amplitude tremolo, harmonic tremolo, bass only modulation and treble only modulation.
Eight waveform selections provide a wide variety of textures, from classic to experimental. Sawtooth, Reverse Sawtooth, Square, Triangle, Sine, Hypertriangle, Reverse Hypertriangle, Random level generation.
Tap tempo with four subdivisions allows for hands free rate manipulation while playing live. Subdivisions include ½ notes, ¼ notes, ⅛ notes and 1/16 notes.
Dedicated tone knob to dial in your preferred sweet spot in each mode or to tame overly harsh or boomy amps.
Onboard pre-amp boost adds warmth without overly coloring your sound. Enough gain on tap to push your amp if desired.
Get ready to dive into the gear-head dream: we teamed up with our friends at eastside music supply and pedal-wizard Blair White to build a pedalboard inspired by Queens of the Stone Age. From fuzz to filter sweeps, octaves to tape echo, we traced the band’s signature sound and then assembled a stacked board you could win. Whether you’re chasing heavy riffs or sculpting atmosphere, this one’s for pedal lovers and riff monsters alike.
The groundbreaking DC7 has a one-inch (25,4mm) profile and weighs 1.1 pound (500 grams) thanks to the pure 2-stage switch-mode technology inside. The profile may be low but the power ratings are certainly not – the DC7 puts out a maximum of 48W and allows the user to connect multiple high-current effects such as devices from Effectrode, Line 6 and Eventide without noise of any kind.
The Whammy Ricochet lets you bounce your playing up or down in pitch in controlled or crazy shifts. A momentary switch and customizable independent rise and fall time ballistics, allow you to get the Whammy action you know and love without the use of a treadle. Just hold your foot on the footswitch and let the Ricochet do the rest. Seven pitch selections – 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, Octave, Double Octave, and Octave+Dry, as well as a toggle to select up or down for the selected pitch.
The Whammy Ricochet also has latching footswitch mode so you can rise or fall to pitch and stay there, and an LED ladder that shows your shift trajectory at all times.
All these controls combine to create classic Whammy pitch-shifting as well as new sounds never heard before.
We've brought back the most sought after Parametric EQ pedal with groundbreaking updates. We kept everything people loved about the original ParaEq and added more fidelity and control.
In late 2023, we had a cool idea for a compact pedal, based on a recording technique pioneered in the 1950's… This radical, yet deceptively simple technique elevated great recordings to downright incredible, enhancing the depth, character and tonality through a process called Double Tracking. This simple, yet elusive concept was initially executed by recording a track twice and overlaying the two [nearly] identical takes on top of each other.
Fast forward 70-some years and we can now create "double-tracked" sounds in real-time, delivering the full, rich and complex intensity that was once only possible by employing slick studio tricks during a session!
The 2023 compact DoubleTracker was an instant hit, and we received a ton of feedback and praise regarding the pedal, but there was a reoccurring theme within…
Make it STEREO!!
Well, it wasn’t easy, but we are VERY proud to say: we did it! And it sounds marvelous. (Literally marvelous, as in something one will marvel at/about.)
XPND is the pedalboard that adapts to you. With its patented telescoping technology, XPND lets you instantly change the size of your board and number of pedals – forever expanding your sonic potential. XPND also features a unique cable management system and comes fitted with loop Velcro, keeping everything neat, while making swapping pedals super easy. XPND 1 is built to accommodate one row of pedals and is expandable from 14" to 24" and XPND 2 is built to accommodate two rows of pedals and is expandable from 17"to 31".
D’Addario’s Custom Series Flat Patch Cables optimize pedalboard space by allowing you to place pedals closer together while accurately transferring all the subtle details of your playing. Utilizing the latest in high-quality instrument cable manufacturing technology, these cables feature an oxygen-free coaxial copper conductor with two layers of noise-rejecting shielding, formulated for extremely low capacitance and handling noise. The lower cable capacitance allows your instrument’s brilliance, presence and character to be transmitted with the utmost transparency. The Flat Patch Cable plugs feature the patented Geo-Tip™, ensuring a secure connection in any instrument, pedal, or amplifier. Additionally, encapsulated soldering points and molded strain relief combine to deliver the ultimate long lasting, high-performance patch cable.
A warm grittiness to the warble, a rippling, wooshing, bubbling irregularity to the modulation and a dynamic response to your picking are all hallmarks of the true vibe experience.
Thicker and chewier than any chorus, earthier than any phaser and uniquely magical in front of a driven amp, the perfect vibe pedal moves you to dig in and play without inhibition.
This feeling has been difficult to find outside of large and expensive fully-analog boutique units, but the search for that elusive experience is now over.
Delivering vintage vibe tone that’s second to none with simple and powerful controls for instantly obtaining a rich variety of captivating sounds, UltraViolet is the vibe pedal you’ve been looking for.
The StroboStomp Mini™ delivers the unmatched 0.1 cent tuning accuracy of all authentic Peterson Strobe Tuners in a mini pedal tuner format. We designed StroboStomp Mini around the most requested features from our customers: a mini form factor, and top mounted jacks.
Introduced in 1974, the Roland RE-201 Space Echo stands among the most legendary and sought-after effect units ever produced. This tape-based classic remained in production for over 14 straight years, and its distinctive rhythmic echo sounds, warm character, and highly playable sonic quirks still inspire musicians, producers, and audio mixers over four decades on.
Backed by intensive R&D and our latest innovations, the RE-202 faithfully delivers the authentic sound and behavior of the Space Echo like never before. Built by the company that designed the original, this advanced pedal captures the RE-201’s magic in flawless detail, from the magnetic tape and motor properties to the vibrant spring reverb and colorful preamp circuit. And to take things even further, we’ve expanded the vintage Space Echo experience with lots of new features tuned for today’s music.
The Dispatch Master is a hi-fi digital Delay & Reverb Device that combines independent delay and reverb effects into one space-saving enclosure, so you can keep deep ambient echoes (or just a quick slapback) on speed-dial.
The best-selling EarthQuaker Devices pedal just got bester [sic] with new Flexi-Switch® Technology! Want to dip into ambient delay and reverb sounds for just one note? Press and hold the footswitch for as long as you use the effect, release it when you’re finished, and resume your regularly scheduled dry sound. To use the Dispatch Master as a normal effects pedal, press the switch once to activate and again to bypass.
Yesterday Effects Private Military Auditor - Eastside Exclusive
The Private Military Auditor is a collaboration between Yesterday Effects and us, your favorite real life music store in the whole world, eastside music supply.
What we got here is a highly tuned, 2-in-1 fuzzstortion + filter. One knob a piece, with the optional expression port out to sweep the frequency of the filter if you should choose to do so!
Left side of the pedal is the fuzz, the knob controls the volume. That's all you need because this baby is DIALED. Harmonically rich, with great note definition and insane sustain. The volume cleanup is killer and reminiscent of how fuzz faces feel. Plays well with every pickup combo we've thrown at it. And gives a surprisingly large amount of tonal variation depending on your pickup/volume/tone situation. Just a really great fuzz/distortion on it's own.
Right side of the pedal is the filter, the knob controls the sweep of the frequency. Kick this baby on when you're ready for your leads to stand out, or just to give yourself that gnarly parked wah tone.
this is an analog preamp inspired by the Decade practice amp, which was the secret to the bassist of Stone Temple Pilot‘s tone. Get that on your board and secure the crunch for whatever you run through it! Works with 9v or 18v (for a more amp-like response).
Packed with knobs that let you control everything from tight, radically fuzzy sounds that gate off instantly when you stop playing, to intermodulating oscillations that fight for control of your guitar as your notes decay, to shortwave radio sounds, ripping velcro and octave-like fuzz. Includes an on/off LED and center-negative DC power jack.
The Argonaut is a no frills pedal offers a clean-ish octave up sound. Using it alone offers you a gnarly, ring mod-esque sound that is pretty funky. The fun begins when you combine it with your favorite overdrive or fuzz pedals. Once combined all the iconic octave tones we know and love begin to jump out of your signal. It’s very touch responsive, weird, and fun all rolled into a small little package. The Argonaut uses a pair of Hand matched NOS Germanium Diodes, this gives the most prevalent octave up effect that is present all over your guitar neck. Unlike traditional octave pedals the octave effect can be heard up and down the guitar neck, so get ready to get weird once you add this bad boy to your setup.
We like the Argonaut after a fuzz pedal but before an overdrive. Like all things though, your mileage may vary and there is no right answer with guitar tones. Experiment and you’ll find what works best with your setup and hands.
he Echodriver Limited-Edition Reissue has been the core distortion sound of Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age), delivering a harmonically rich, mid-scooped voice with the clarity and power to cut through any mix over his last few years of touring.
The tone stack uses a notch-style filter, similar to classic fuzz circuits, offering a broad sweep of EQ flexibility. The Tone control scoops mids at center, rolls off low end when turned down, and rounds off highs when pushed up—letting you shape the pedal’s response to your guitar and amp with surgical precision.
Clipping is handled by a dynamic combination of MOSFET and NOS Germanium diodes, producing warm, touch-sensitive gain. A right-side toggle engages Silicon clipping for a more aggressive, compressed response. The left toggle bypasses the tone stack completely, delivering a full-range, unfiltered drive straight to your amp.
D’Addario announces the John Lennon Art Series Signature Collection, a limited-edition lineup of instrument straps and picks, all honoring the imagination of a legend.
About the Series
The Collection includes two unique strap designs and two pick assortments, each featuring Lennon’s original animal illustrations, as well as drawings inspired by the life and love he shared with Yoko Ono. From playful sketches to bolder, more intimate designs, every item in this Collection honors Lennon’s vision while giving players unique, premium tools they can rely on, all backed by elite D’Addario craftsmanship. The Collection also includes the Imagine Animals small instrument strap, perfect for
kid-sized instruments or adult ukuleles and mandolins, with matching collectible picks.
Highlights
Secure & Reliable Straps. Each strap features durable leather ends for long-lasting security. That means a comfortable and dependable fit for every player.
Premium Picks for Superior Playability. Crafted from high-quality celluloid, these picks deliver a smooth feel and warm tone that’s perfect for players at any level.
Exclusive Collectible Items. These limited-edition designs put Lennon’s visual artwork on a new canvas, making them not only perfect tools for players, but one-of-a-kind stocking stuffers for collectors and fans.
D’Addario Celebrates Lennon’s Legacy “John Lennon’s art was as imaginative and honest as his music,” said Cassie Meloy, Accessories Product Manager. “This Collection celebrates Lennon’s creativity for players of all ages and introduces D'Addario’s first strap designed for kids, perfectly inspired by his playful Animals artwork.”
Availability & Pricing The John Lennon Art Series is available now through daddario.com and authorized retailers. Pick packs are priced at $7.99, with straps starting at $16.99.
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