Electro-Harmonix reveals the full line of NYC DSP Series pedals. This series consists of a pack of nine pico-sized stompboxes that draw from some of the company's most iconic effects.
Pico Pitch Fork
Offering a total of 30 pitch shift options and expanded controls, the Pico Pitch Fork is the next evolution in pitch shifting from Electro-Harmonix. The Mode button selects between Pitch Up, Pitch Down, and Dual Modes, while the Volume and Blend knobs make for perfect multi-voice mixing. The new Sweep control adjusts the pitch sweep speed from instant to 4 seconds. The Pico Pitch Fork offers Latch and Momentary switching functions for bursts of bent tones or retuning capabilities for full songs.
Pico Oceans 3-Verb
The Oceans 3-Verb takes the ever-reliable Spring, Plate, and Hall reverbs from the award-winning Oceans 11 Reverb and offers them in petit package capable of conjuring huge ambient sounds. This pack of essential reverbs comes equipped with flexible controls including pre-delay, spring length, and tone. Additionally, Infinite Reverb can be accessed in an instant by maxing the time control or conveniently pressing and holding the footswitch for an ambient wash of swelling reverb.
Pico Canyon Echo
The Canyon Echo digital delay distills the original Canyon Delay and Looper’s simplicity and versatility into a no-nonsense echo effect with performance ready features and tone. At its foundation, the Canyon Echo is a pristine clean digital echo with up to 3 seconds of delay time. Then we added smart features that any musician can appreciate: Tap Tempo with 3 beat subdivisions, a FILTER knob that cuts treble or bass, switchable delay tails, and a new Infinite Repeats mode which acts as a looped tape machine.
Pico Deep Freeze
Meeting between the original Freeze and Superego pedals is the Deep Freeze Sound Retainer. With the ability to freeze a moment in sound, the Deep Freeze is capable of acting as a sustain pedal for holding chords and notes as backing for your playing or as a platform to manipulate your tone into new sounds impossible with a normal guitar. Features include Latch, Moment and Auto Modes, Speed/Layer, and Gliss controls, as well as 3 bypass topologies for enhanced performance options.
Pico Attack Decay
Known for producing volume and reverse swells, backward tape sounds, artificially short staccato notes, and bowed instrument effects, the Attack Decay reissue brought the vintage effect into the present. Now the Pico Attack Decay takes the signature Attack Decay filter effect and makes it even more pedalboard friendly. Featuring a simple control layout of Volume, Sensitivity, Attack and Decay controls, the Pico Attack Decay also offers the revolutionary Poly mode that gives each note its own attack envelope and makes playing arpeggios and fast leads lines effortless and unique.
Pico Triboro Bridge
The foundations of dirt include Overdrive, Distortion, and Fuzz and all 3 can be found in the new Triboro Bridge multi-mode drive pedal. Taking dirt algorithms from the Platform and Attack Decay, the Triboro Bridge connects the 3 drive styles with a simple and convenient control set of Volume, Gain, EQ controls plus a Gate for the fuzz. An additional Input Contour Mode applies additional EQ at the input for more modern tonal capabilities.
Pico Rerun Tape Delay
Based off the tape delay algorithm found in the Canyon Delay & Looper, the Rerun Tape Delay gives off vintage vibes with modern convenience. Three modes of Flutter and a Saturation knob bring a wide array of Tape Delay tones to this deceptively powerful unit. Cranking the Feedback knob or pressing and holding the footswitch creates runaway tape delay effects that are playable as their own instrument.
Pico Platform
The Pico Platform brings studio-style compression and limiting with advanced options to any pedalboard for a wide array of dynamic control. From subtle tone polishing to super squashed sustain, the Pico Platform offers a whole studio’s worth of compressor and limiter styles in a super-compact footprint.
Pico POG
The Pico POG takes the powerful and lightning-fast polyphonic octave algorithm from the EHX’s acclaimed POG line and packs it into a pico package. Octave Up adds pristine shimmer while the Sub Octave brings the thunder all with super tight tracking and perfect polyphony. Add the new TONE control with 3 filter settings and you get a fresh take on the world’s most popular octave pedal.
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Nineties-style high-gain heaviness that can be surgically tailored with a powerful EQ.
Excellent variations on high-gain modern distortion tones. Powerful EQ.
Not many low- or mid-gain sounds here.
$199
JHS Hard Drive
jhspedals.com
JHS makes many great and varied overdrive stomps. Their Pack Rat is a staple on one of my boards, and I can personally attest to the quality of their builds. The new Hard Drive has been in the works since as far back as 2016, when Josh Scott and his staff were finishing off workdays by jamming on ’90s hard rock riffs.
During these sessions, Scott’s go-to pedal was the Ibanez SM7 Smash Box. He realized that JHS had never offered anything along those lines, conferred with his then lead engineer, Cliff Smith, and the wheels were set in motion. Over several years of design, the Hard Drive evolved from an SM7 homage to a unique, original circuit.
JHS’ Hardest to Date
The Hard Drive’s control panel is streamlined, consisting of knobs for volume, mid frequency, drive, bass, middle, and treble. Driven by cascading gain stages, the Hard Drive can cop a wide range of modern distorted tones. Even at the lowest drive settings, the Hard Drive simmers, delivering massive bottom end on muted power chords. Nudging the drive up very slightly transforms the Hard Drive into a roaring Marshall JCM 900. And if you bring the drive all the way up, you’re in for all out chaos. Even with an amp set just louder than bedroom levels, the Hard Drive, with its volume at just 11 o’clock, is very loud and in-your-face. You don’t have to work hard to imagine how this could sound and feel like multiple stacks raging at Madison Square Garden in the context of a recorded track.
Even at the lowest drive settings, the Hard Drive simmers, delivering massive bottom end.
Zoning the Frequencies
Unlike some heavy pedals that concern themselves with mega-gain and little else, the Hard Drive’s EQ controls are very effective and powerful. Moving the treble knob from 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock changes the pedal’s tone and response characteristics completely, opening up and transforming the naturally relatively dark sound of my Fender Super Sonic amp. Turning the treble knob all the way off with the bass and mid knobs at noon gives me a vocal lead tone that’s creamy, warm, and still immediate and responsive.
The middle and mid frequency controls work in tandem. The mid control itself works as a cut or boost. The mid frequency control, however, lets you choose the specific frequency you cut or boost. I found these controls invaluable for sculpting tones that could leverage the copious gain without being abrasive. Meanwhile, adding more high midrange lends clarity to complex chords.
The Verdict
The Hard Drive is an unapologetically heavy pedal—if you’re looking for a dirt box that can double as a clean boost, well, the Hard Drive is not that. It’s meant to slay with gain, and it performs this task well and with a vengeance. There are countless dirt boxes on the market that deliver hot rodded, ’80s-style brown sound. Fewer cater to the subsequent generations of high-gain players that used the ’80s as a mere jumping-off point. The Hard Drive is very much voiced for this strain of heavy music. If that’s your jam, the Hard Drive is hard to beat.
Tailored for Yngwie Malmsteen's signature sound, the MXR Yngwie Malmsteen Overdrive is designd to offer simple controls for maximum impact.
Working closely alongside Yngwie, the MXR design team created a circuit that delivers clarity, expressive dynamics, and rich harmonics—all perfectly tailored for his light-speed arpeggios, expressive vibrato, and big, bold riffs. The control setup is simple, with just Level and Gain knobs.
"Want to sound like Yngwie? Crank both knobs to the max."
“This pedal is the culmination of 45+ years developing a sound that’s perfect in every possible way,” Yngwie says. “I present to you: the MXR Yngwie Malmsteen Overdrive. Prepare to be amazed.”
MXR Yngwie Malmsteen Overdrive highlights:
- Perfectly tailored for Yngwie Malmsteen's signature sound and style
- Simple control setup tuned for maximum impact
- Boost every nuance with superior clarity, expressive dynamics, and rich harmonics
- Dig into light-speed arpeggios, expressive vibrato, and big, bold riffs
The MXR Yngwie Malmsteen Overdrive is available now at $129.99 street/$185.70 MSRP from your favorite retailer.
For more information, please visit jimdunlop.com.
Voltage Cable Company's new Voltage Vintage Coil 30-foot guitar cable is now protected with ISO-COAT technology to provide unsurpassed reliability.
The new coiled cables are available in four eye-grabbing retro colors – Surf Green, Electric Blue, Orange and Caramel – as well as three standard colors: Black, White and Red. There is also a CME exclusive “Chicago Cream” color on the way.
Guitarists can choose between three different connector configurations: straight/straight plugs, right angle/straight and right angle/right angle options.
The Voltage Vintage Coil offers superior sound quality and durability thanks to ISO-COAT treatment, a patent-pending hermetic seal applied to solder terminations. This first-of-its-kind airtight seal prevents corrosion and oxidization, a known factor in cable failure and degradation. ISO-COAT protected cables are for guitarists who value genuine lifetime durability and consistent tone throughout their career on stage and in the studio.
Voltage cables are hand made by qualified technical engineers using the finest components available and come with a lifetime warranty.
Voltage Vintage Coil features include:
- Lifetime guarantee, 1000+ gig durability
- ISO-COAT treatment - corrosion & oxidization resistant cable internals
- Strengthened structural integrity of solder terminations
Voltage Vintage Coils carry $89.00 USD pricing each and are available online at voltagecableco.com, as well as in select guitar stores in North America, Australia, Thailand, UK, Belgium and China.
About Voltage Cable: Established in 2021, Voltage Cable Co. is a family owned and operated guitar cable company based in Sydney, Australia. All their cables are designed to be played, and built for a lifetime. The company’s ISO-COAT is a patent pending hermetic seal applied to solder terminations.
Featuring dual-engine processing, dynamic room modeling, and classic mic/speaker pairings, this pedal delivers complete album-ready tones for rock and metal players.
Built on powerful dual‑engine processing and world‑class UAD modeling, ANTI 1992 High Gain Amp gives guitarists the unmistakable sound of an original "block letter" Peavey 5150 amplifier* – the notorious 120‑watt tube amp monster that fueled more than three decades of modern metal music, from Thrash and Death Metal, to Grunge, Black Metal, and more.
"With UAFX Dream, Ruby, Woodrow, and Lion amp emulators, we recreated four of the most famous guitar amps ever made," says UA Sr. Product Manager Tore Mogensen. "Now with ANTI, we're giving rock and metal players an authentic emulation of this punishing high gain amp – with the exact mic/speaker pairings and boost/noise gate effects that were responsible for some of the most groundbreaking modern metal tones ever captured."
Key Features:
- A complete emulation of the early '90s 120‑watt tone monster that defined new genres of modern metal
- Powerful UAFX dual-engine delivers the most authentic emulation of the amp ever placed in a stompbox
- Complete album‑ready sounds with built‑in noise gate, TS‑style overdrive, and TC‑style preamp boost
- Groundbreaking Dynamic Room Modeling derived from UA's award-winning OX Amp Top Box
- Six classic mic/speaker pairings used on decades of iconic metal and hard rock records
- Professional presets designed by the guitarists of Tetrarch, Jeff Loomis, and The Black Dahlia Murder
- UAFX mobile app lets you access hidden amp tweaks and mods, choose overdrive/boost, tweak noise gate, recall and archive your presets, download artist presets, and more
- Timeless UA design and craftsmanship, built to last decades
For more information, please visit uaudio.com.