Need a new Stompbox? Find your next effect in this month's Gear Finds!
TriceraChorus
Inspired by the classic Tri-Stereo Chorus and stompbox choruses of the 1970s and early 1980s, the TriceraChorus pedal pairs rich Bucket Brigade-style chorusing with Eventide’s legendary MicroPitch detuning for a lushness that rivals the jungles of the late Cretaceous Period. TriceraChorus features three chorus voices and three unique chorus effects which can be used to create a wide stereo spread with pulsing waves of modulation. The innovative “Swirl” footswitch adds psychedelic flanging, phasing, and Univibe-style tones. It has never been easier to dial in syrupy smooth, deep modulation on guitar, bass, synths, strings, vocals, and more.
Maestro Original Collection
To be called “legendary” is to have shaped music as we know it. From the Rolling Stones to the Raconteurs. From Pete Townshend to George Harrison and from Clapton to Frampton. They strived to coax the truest expression from their instruments - the sound they heard in their heads and their hearts. Their signature sound - so uniquely shaped by effects that it changed everything. It’s the Fuzz-Tone FZ-1 that fuels the groundbreaking riff in the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and the funky wah filter that anchors the “Theme from Shaft.” While the impact they had on the lineage of music is also unique, many have one thing in common—Maestro. So, while not everyone has heard of Maestro, everyone has heard Maestro.
Maestro, the “Founder of Effects,” is back with an all-new line of effect pedals - the Maestro Original Collection. Five new pedals, designed, voiced, and styled for the musician looking to shape their unique sound. A tribute to the sound and style of the brand’s much-beloved classic models of the 60s and 70s, with modern features, expanded versatility, and advanced tone-tweaking capabilities. Each function as an innovative “two-in-one” pedal, with a single toggle that switches between two distinct modes. Each features a straightforward three-knob setup, true bypass switching, and an ergonomic, pedalboard-friendly wedge profile.
It doesn’t matter what you play. As long as there are sounds being made, new legends will emerge. Maestro is back to help you SHAPE YOUR SOUND.
Electro-Harmonix Intelligent Harmony Machine
The EHX Intelligent Harmony Machine instantly creates matching harmonies to what you play. It’s like having one – or even two – guitarists jamming with you at the same time and always in perfect sync. The Intelligent Harmony Machine opens a door to the music of great multi-lead guitar bands and multi-part harmonized solos. Plus, its ability to apply harmonies ranging from simple to sophisticated will totally transform what you play. Of course, it also boasts EHX’s renowned impeccable tracking and genuine musical tone.
MESA/Boogie Drive Pedals
MESA® Drive Pedals are built by the same artisans that create the award-winning Mark Five™ and the legendary Dual and Triple Rectifier® amps. They stand ready to serve up all rock genres with cut and aggression while retaining much of the signature warmth and organic sonic quality found in our amplifiers. Ranging from high to lower gain applications, including classic rock or howling blues, we have a drive pedal that will help you achieve the sounds that so many artists have employed in our amps to create the world’s heaviest guitar tones!
Progressing along the gain spectrum, the transparent boost/overdrive CLEO™ is joined by the vintage-inspired, medium gain DYNAPLEX™ and the higher gain GOLD MINE™. The CLEO is a transparent boost/overdrive design focusing on vintage-inspired low to medium gain overdrive sounds packed with dynamic nuance, lively attack, and a wide variety of essential clip sounds. Moving on to medium gain, the DYNAPLEX is all about the “British Crunch” style with classic mid punch, chirping harmonics, and the chime players desire for classic rock sounds and beyond. Progressing to the higher end of the gain spectrum, the GOLD MINE is focused on mid to high gain sounds, classic heavy chunk, and rich gain with harmonic complexity, soaring single note sounds, and the liquid gain and girth that gain lovers expect from MESA.
Like every MESA product, our pedals are built using the same quality components, craftsmanship, and inspiring performance as our custom amplifiers...all hand-built in Petaluma, California, USA!
Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork+ Polyphonic Pitch Shifter
Dual engine pitch shifting with nearly endless possibilities and expansive control options! The EHX Pitch Fork®+ features two independent pitch shifting engines with full control over each. Both will transpose your pitch up or down over a +/- three octave range and detune +/-99 cents. With rock solid tracking, an organic, musical tone and extensive control, it’s your ultimate harmonizer.
Pedal Pad CUSTOM PEDALBOARDS : BUILT TO ORDER!!
Pedal Pad pedalboards are hand-built for YOU in Coatesville, Pennsylvania! Our boards feature an ALL-IN-ONE solution where the board is also the case. Just pop the top and PLAY! Our ordering interface allows you to configure any board with a plethora of options. More options or requests? Just email or call and we'll make it happen! Most custom orders ship within 2-3 weeks!
Electro-Harmonix Nano Big Muff Pi Fuzz
EHX took the Big Muff Pi circuit and simply shrunk it without changing its rich, creamy, violin-like sustain and sound. The EHX Nano Big Muff Pi works and sounds identical in every way to our classic NYC Big Muff Pi. Get a piece of the pi for yourself!
Valeton GP-200
Implementing the HD digital modeling technology accumulated throughout years of the Valeton team's diligent efforts, the GP-200 delivers hundreds of re-editions of tones from world-classic amplifiers and stompboxes with a comprehensive upgraded algorithm. Combining 140 legendary amplifiers and cabinets simulations and 100 renowned stompbox effect pedals, plus 20 factory cab IR slots, the GP-200 will guarantee your consistently great sound on stage.
Electro-Harmonix Ravish Sitar Emulator
Transform your electric guitar into a sitar! Very few instruments offer as much harmonic and dynamic flexibility as a sitar. Electro-Harmonix has streamlined the essence of the sitar into a compact enclosure that offers a polyphonic lead voice and tunable sympathetic string drones that dynamically react to your playing. With the EHX Ravish Sitar Emulator, you can create your own custom scales for the sympathetic strings while you set the decay time for the lead voice.
Two expression pedal inputs allow you to bend the pitch of the lead voice and control the volume of the sympathetic strings simultaneously. These unique controls offer the player the ability to program the Ravish to become a totally unique and organic instrument unto itself.
The Ravish is truly a design with the flexibility to be a crossover tonal wonder.
VOX Valvenergy Pedals: Mystic Edge
Iconic amp sounds for your pedalboard. The Valvenergy series valve distortion pedals offer the warmth and harmonics of amp distortion in a compact pedal format. The all-analog signal path and Nutube allow for genuine overdrive and distortion tones with the feel of a real tube amp, while internally boosted voltage gives greater headroom and dynamics. Three output modes allow you to use this as a standard pedal, a line-level preamp, and a direct amp-sim using the built-in analog cabinet simulator.
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Acorn Amplifiers F#%k Face Fuzz
The F#%k Face is a triple gain stage fuzz with thick and meaty sustain that sounds huge in front of a slightly cranked tube amp. Baseball card collectors from the late 80’s will immediately recognize the infamous ‘error card’ graphics of the same name. The circuit is based on the legendary Fuzz with a different Face, but with an additional silicon transistor gain stage and voiced to retain more useable and dynamic fuzz tones all along the sweep of the two controls. In the front of your pedal chain, the F#%k Face will add dynamic interactivity to the volume controls on your guitar which enable a sweep from slight grit to full ripping-velcro breakup.
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Blackstar Amplification Dept. 10 Pedals
Brought to you by Blackstar’s R&D division responsible for blue-sky innovation and design, Dept. 10 are the most advanced valve pedals in the world. Meticulously designed and engineered by a team of musicians for musicians. At the heart of each Dept. 10 pedal is an ECC83 triode valve, running at more than 200V internally like a valve amp, which allows them to deliver organic tone, dynamics and break up. Dual Drive and Dual Distortion include Cab Rig, our next-generation DSP speaker simulator that reproduces the sound and feel of a mic’d up guitar cab in incredible detail. Deep-dive using our free software and capture the incredible tones via low latency USB, XLR D.I. out or headphones. Choose from Boost, Dual Drive or Dual Distortion to help you craft your perfect tone.
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Nobels ODR-mini
The ODR-mini delivers creamy, natural overdrive – Everything from pushed clean amp tones to gain filled stacks! It has the same tones as its legendary brother – the ODR-1. You‘ll love the warm mid-gain tones for rock and blues, and the screaming hard rock sounds from the ODR-1 Mini. Plus the mini features true-bypass switching, the SPECTRUM pot with mid-click, fluorescent pointers on the “GitD“ – knobs (Glow-in-the-Dark). Guaranteed to be a BIG part of your sound while a small part of your pedal board.
Effect-Type: Overdrive
Analog
Mono/Stereo: Mono In, Mono Out
Control: Drive, Tone, Level
Bypass Modus: True Bypass
9-18 Volt, center negative
Consumption 25 mA
Dimensions (WxLxH / mm): 42 x 93 x 50
Weight: 175 gr
Country of origin: China
Solid metal housing
Low current consumption
Requires stabilized power supply 9-18 Volt DC, with min 100 mA, 2.1 mm plug, center negative, (not included)
Hear Audio
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Darkglass Electronics Alpha Omega Photon
Versatility, empowerment, limitless options, and ever-demanding tools at the disposal of every musician and composer are today on demand. A call for inventive devices continues to make musicians more inspired, clever and connected. The Alpha·Omega Photon combines Darkglass' signature Alpha·Omega parallel distortion with the versatile format of the Aggressively Distorting Advanced Machine. In addition to powerful distortion and studio-quality compression, the Alpha·Omega Photon is capable as an audio interface via USB-C or an amp replacement using cab sim IRs and XLR DI output.
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George L's Effects Cable Kits
Enhance the tone and clarity of your pedalboard with award winning sound.
The George L’s effects kit.
The kit comes with 10’ of cable, 10 right angle plugs and 10 stress relief jackets.
Available in black, vintage red and purple.
As easy as 1, 2, 3 no soldering!
Cut, poke and screw your way to 47 years of sound excellence.
SurfyBear Metal Reverb Unit
The Holy Grail of guitar reverb effects, the Fender®-style spring reverb, has been finally revisited with modern features!
Try it and discover why most surf guitarists and the truly reverb addicted are turning to SurfyBear.
★ exclusive SurfyPan type-4 spring reverb pan by Accutronics® and Surfy Industries
★ aluminium body with removable feet on the bottom side for better positioning on pedalboards
★ clean boost to adjust the volume when the effect is on
★ innovative dual-LED on/off button
★ true bypass functionality to keep your signal intact when the effect is off
★ external footswitch possibility though the dedicated 1/4" jack (footswitch not included)
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PG contributor Tom Butwin demos the AirSonic W. Reverend Founder Joe Naylor has been on a quest to meld a solidbody’s sustain and attack with the rich, big tone of a semi-hollow. Naylor’s sonic dream is now a reality.
Reverend Airsonic W Solidbody Electric Guitar with Rosewood Fingerboard - Periwinkle Burst
Radically thinner wings and thru-body f-holes allow the body to resonate intensely, while a thick center ridge establishes solid sustain. Harmonics shimmer, single notes sing, and power chords ring like a bell at stage volume. Add in overdrive, and the controllable feedback is a thing of beauty. With the forearm and stomach contours, this guitar is light and comfortable. The Airsonic W has Railhammer Humcutters that capture the clarity and dynamics of a P-90 without the hum. A Wilkinson WVS50 IIK Tremolo in the bridge rounds out the package. If you’re ready to make a unique visual and sonic statement, the Airsonic W is for you!
Three brawny, chiming British amp voices, and a million colors in between, shine in an immaculately conceived and constructed 16-watt, EL84 combo that roars and sweetly sings.
Oodles of Brit tones that sound fantastic at low, or shockingly loud, volumes. Built like an old Benz. Touch-responsive and dynamic. Deep, addictive tremolo.
Expensive!
$3,240
Carr Bel-Ray
carramps.com
Playing the 16-watt, EL84-driven Carr Bel-Ray is, at times, flat-out, ecstatic fun. It’s alive, reactive, responsive, dynamic, and barks and chimes with a voice that spans a siren’s song and a firecracker. It lends snap and top-end energy to humbuckers, can turn a Telecaster bridge pickup lethal, or make a Rickenbacker 12-string brash and beautiful at once. It can also make you forget stompboxes exist. Most of my time with the Bel-Ray was spent without a pedal in sight.
Carr Bel-Ray Amp Demo | First Look
As the EL84 power section suggests, the Bel-Ray offers many paths to British amp tonalities. Three different voices—V66, H73, and M68, accessed via a 3-way switch—approximate Vox, Hiwatt, and Marshall sounds, respectively, and each genuinely, sometimes uncannily, evokes its inspiration. The three voices are only jumping-off points, though. The superb onboard attenuator enables huge sounds at civilized volumes, and the creative preamp section and volume-taper toggle can recast each voice profoundly. So can the flexible EQ, which shifts and morphs the Bel-Ray’s many tone colors in elegant and painterly ways. The tremolo, by the way, is rich, thick, and luxurious.
The Bel-Ray’s delectable tone-tasting menu is high-end stuff. Prices start at $3,240 for the combo and $3,150 for the head. But the Bel-Ray’s bold palette is unusually expansive, which can make a lot of amps very redundant. Compact, handsome, lovingly crafted, multifaceted, and way louder than its dimensions suggest—the longer you delve into the Bel-Ray’s potential the more the price tag makes sense.
Immaculately Executed
The Bel-Ray isn’t expensive for its hip sounds alone. We’ve raved about Carr quality before in Premier Guitar, and the Bel-Ray suggests Steve Carr’s standards are as high as ever. I’ve seen pricey custom furniture put together much less exactingly. And the substantial amp chassis and the circuit, handwired on terminal strip, almost suggest a kind of virtuous overbuilding—the variety that makes old Volvo and Mercedes-Benz engines go a half-million miles.
The Bel-Ray’s tube complement is nearly identical to those found in 18-watt Marshalls, AC15s, and Watkins Dominators, which are the Bel-Ray’s most obvious design touchstones. But rather than use three 12AX7 preamp tubes like those circuits, the Bel-Ray trades one 12AX7 for a pentode EF86. It adds a lot of pop and kinetic energy to the basic voice. It also works with a partial master volume, situated just after it, to lighten the load on the power tubes when you use the amp in the volume-taper toggle’s less-aggressive low position. An EZ81-based tube rectifier adds a welcome touch of contour to the Bel-Ray’s often hot and toppy response and widens the amp’s touch responsiveness spectrum. The Fane F25 12" ceramic speaker also helps broadcast the Bel-Ray’s fiery side while smoothing the toppiest peaks. Carr’s excellent attenuator enables operation between zero and 2 watts, or you can use the wide-open 16-watt mode. In both modes, and at virtually any setting, the Bel-Ray dazzles with its power, many personalities, and electric presence.
Warning! Explosives on Board
If you’re accustomed to vintage Fender, Gibson, Ampeg, and other American amps in this low-mid-wattage power category, you might be startled at how loud and feral the Bel-Ray can be. At 16 watts, it sounds and feels as loud and feisty as some 30- and 50-watt combos. At 2 watts it sounds just as full bodied and full of fangs, just quieter. Only when you spin the attenuator to the noon position (presumably about 1 watt) does the amp start to sound considerably thinner.
“There aren’t many guitars the Bel-Ray won’t love or illuminate in the most flattering light.”
Each setting on the voice switch, which affects the EQ section only, effectively reroutes the tone stack through three completely different sets of circuit values, shifting frequency emphasis and pass-through gain. The individual voices vary in gain (the Vox-y V68 is lowest, the Marshall-y M66 is highest) and can sound completely distinctive with many, many tone shades between them. As a result, there aren’t many guitars the Bel-Ray won’t love or illuminate in the most flattering light. PAF humbuckers, and their thick overtone profile, predictably blur some differences between the voices, but also generate dynamite, white-hot, and throaty tones and push the Carr to bellowing volumes that sound nothing like 16 watts. Good humbuckers are also a great vehicle for exploring the Bel-Ray’s superb dynamism and touch sensitivity. I rarely used a pick with my SG and the Bel-Ray, because I could coax such clear-and-sweet-to-searing extremes via touch dynamics and my guitar’s volume knob alone.
Telecasters, which are a particularly tasty match for the Bel-Ray, come alive with the same dynamism, sensitivity, responsiveness to volume and tone attenuation techniques, and varied touch intensity—enabling travel between dew-drop-delicate bell tones and screaming, edgy Jimmy Page daggers. A Rickenbacker 12-string with toaster tops was among the most revelatory pairings. With a little extra midrange kick, overtones danced in kaleidoscopic light. Turn up the gain, though, and the Rick will roar.
While the Bel-Ray could happily live its long life without ever meeting a pedal, it sounds fantastic with them. There is plenty of air in the Bel-Ray’s many voices to accommodate and communicate overtone intricacies in reverbs and complex modulation effects. And fuzz paired with the Bel Ray is a psychotically hot combination that cannot be missed.
The Verdict
The Bel-Ray is an impressive and handsome piece of kit. It’s also a reminder that an amplifier is arguably the most important piece of your signal chain. Everything sounds awesome through this amp. Technical pickers will love its sharp precision, but it overflows with slashing punk energy and dynamism, has enough headroom to communicate the details of alternate tunings and odd effects, and sounds spectral, full, and fantastic at both ends of its impressive volume range. About the only thing you won’t get from the Bel-Ray is a wide range of blonde and black-panel Fender sounds, though you can get really close, if extra-zingy, approximations in a pinch.
The price is hefty. But depending on your music and the settings and spaces you create it in, the Bel-Ray opens up many more possibilities than any AC15 or 18-watt Marshall would offer on its own. Also, the sense of craft in this amp offers its own kind of enjoyment. It’s a thoughtful, clever, beautifully built thing to behold. It’s also fun. Fun enough to make you fall asleep at night smiling and giddy, grateful that electrified, amplified music exists.
Precision machined from solid brass, these saddles offer enhanced density and tonal qualities, delivering a sharper attack, extended sustain, and a warmer tone compared to stock thin pressed-steel or zinc block-style saddles.
Moreover, the roller mechanisms significantly minimize friction and binding, allowing the strings to effortlessly glide over the saddle surface. Not only does this advancement ensure a more precise string return during bends, but it also effectively minimizes the occurrence of string breakage on tremolo-equipped instruments.
The String Surfer kits come with brass roller saddles, height adjustment set screws, intonation screws, and intonation springs. Available now at AxLabsHardware.com and other online outlets!
Street price: $96 - $103
For more information, please visit axlabshardware.com.