guitar pedal review

Smooth, articulate germanium and silicon overdrive that respects your tone and style—and your budget.

Smooth, articulate overdrive that respects the character of your tone and playing. Germanium and silicon options, with nice surprises on the silicon side. Great price!

Fans of higher-gain germanium circuits may be disappointed in quiet germanium side. No setting for blending the germanium and silicon diodes.

$99

Earthquaker Devices Special Cranker
earthquakerdevices.com

4
4
5
5


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It’s the ’80s in a box—just add hair spray.

A portable, user-friendly path to tri-stereo chorus sounds. Presets make it easy to find ’80s guitar tones. Good analog BBD-style chorus tones. Sensitive controls allow for refined tweaking.

Dual-control knobs make it difficult to visualize settings.

$299

Eventide TriceraChorus
eventideaudio.com

5
4
4
4

The 1980s were a decade of big hair, big amps, and big guitar tones. But while those stacks of cabinets certainly made things louder, behind-the-scenes rackmount chorus and in particular, the tri-stereo chorus units available under various names such as Dyno-My-Piano, Dynotronics, and Songbird, did a lot to make ’80s guitar sound bigger still. Once these rackmount units reached the rigs of guitarists such as Michael Landau and Steve Lukather, pop radio didn’t stand a chance.

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With its burly build, tiny footprint, and super-reasonable price, this may be the ultimate modeling/IR option for space-conscious players on a budget.

Impressive amp, cab, ambience, and miking sounds, with just enough studio-style tweakability. Super-rugged build.

Built-in tuner and “spring” reverb would rule. USB cable not included.

$399

Boss IR-200
bossinfo.com

4.5
5
4.5
5

If you’ve been lusting after Kemper, Fractal, or Line 6 amp modelers but fear they’d be overkill for your brain or wallet, the Boss IR-200 is among the most stacked—yet relatively simple and straightforward—alternatives you could consider.

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