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Pedals

A broad range of voices and a clever morph control unlock uncommon ambient reverb sounds that break the same-old-cathedral-verb mold.

Many unusual tonalities that defy affordable ambient reverb convention. High-quality controls. Morph control covers a lot of tones shifting without an expression pedal.

Setting up morph control can feel less than intuitive.

$219

Pigtronix Cosmosis
pigtronix.com

4
4.5
4
4

Pigtronix boss Dave Koltai is an energetic guy—particularly when you get him chatting about music. He loves the musical potential of the guitar. And while he seems to have an affection for every kind of guitar expression, from the rootsiest to the most experimental, his heart often seems to be very invested in the latter camp. Pigtronix pedals have always hinted at that affection for out-there modes of guitar thought, and the new Cosmosis stereo reverb definitely exists, in part, to serve those urges. Billed as an ambient reverb, the Cosmosis spans big-picture reverb profiles and more modest ones. And while it doesn’t necessarily achieve anything revolutionary, it features many unique sounds and a cool, practical morph control, which enables users to shift between very divergent settings using a footswitch instead of a space-hogging expression pedal. Together with the many spacious voices on tap, it helps make Cosmosis a varied and versatile time-warping device.

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Steve Albini in the control room at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago.

Photo by Kevin Tiongson

Words of wisdom from the legendary engineer, proprietor of Chicago’s Electrical Audio, World Series of Poker champion, and, in the band Shellac, the compass for brutal guitar aesthetics.

“All day every day, we’re grinding it out,” says engineer Steve Albini of his team at Electrical Audio, the Chicago studio he built and has run since 1997. “We’re constantly in session, constantly under fire.”

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Envelope control, cool, unusual waveforms, and deep, interactive controls add up to an impressive, expansive dynamic tremolo at a fair price.

A huge range of trad’ to trippy modulation textures. Cool interactivity between controls. Many useful applications of envelope control.

Controls can be less than intuitive at times.

$199

Dreadbox Treminator
dreadbox-fx.com

4.5
4.5
4
4.5

Few effects are as beautifully moody as tremolo. But the essence of the effect—modulating volume—generally leaves less room for picking dynamics. The beauty of Dreadbox’s smartly designed Treminator is that its functionality spans intense, smothering modulations and those that can be shaped with precision using envelope control. The Treminator isn’t the only dynamic tremolo out there. But its many waveform options, and the wide range and interactivity in its controls, can lead to many unusual or tastefully subdued tremolo variations.

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The octave fuzz section from the Atreides Weirding Module gets its own star turn in a buzzing bruiser that can be absurd and beautiful.

Unusually flexible and sustain-rich octave fuzz. Fat, rubbery synth-like sounds. White-hot fuzz. Versatile tone and fuzz and sub octave levels.

Can’t entirely remove fuzz or octave signal.

$169

Way Huge Stone Burner
jimdunlop.com

5
4.5
4.5
4.5

Way Huge’s Atreides Weirding Module is one of Jeorge Tripps’ great gifts to the world. It’s a gift that keeps giving, too. The Attack Vector phaser and envelope was its first offspring. But the newest, the Stone Burner Sub Atomic octave fuzz is a killer, maybe the coolest, and probably the most practical pedal from the Atreides family. It’s an unusually useful and forgiving octave fuzz that will generate up to two sub octaves, which feature more or less prominently depending on the sub level.

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Great tones in all settings. Practical design, High quality.

Recombined tones may not be better than the originals to some ears.

$199

Keeley Noble Screamer
robertkeeley.com

4.5
5
5
4.5

Robert Keeley marries the best of two beloved green machines in one smart box.

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