guitar pedal reviews

Easy on the wallet, with an abundance of fun tones.

Growly low-gain voice. Punchy. Sounds great at wide open tone settings.

Might be too compressed or too high gain for some tastes.

$79

Fender Hammertone Overdrive
fender.com

4
4
4
4

Fender’s most important gift to the effects cosmos is spring reverb. That legacy, however, tends to obscure other high points in the company’s effects history, which is dotted with a few classics—if not runaway commercial hits.

At appealing prices ranging from $79 to $99, the new Fender Hammertone pedals could easily be huge sellers. But what makes these effects extra attractive is that they don’t have the functional or operational feel of generic entry-level pedals. Most have a strong, even distinctive, personality—at least compared to other inexpensive effects. They each come with extra features and voices that stretch the boundaries of the foundational tones. And if the voices aren’t always the most refined or lush when compared to more expensive analog equivalents or expensive digital units, they are fun and prompt a lot of musical sparks.

Read MoreShow less

An overachieving overdrive that gets way bigger than its name suggests.

Sweet balanced crunch tones. Dynamic. Sparkling, full, and clean at attenuated guitar volume. High-quality build.

Pretty expensive.

$249

Great Eastern FX Small Speaker Overdrive
greateasternfx.com

5
4.5
4.5
4

Overdrive pedals don’t often set my world alight—even great ones. But I’ve spent a month with the England-built Great Eastern FX Small Speaker Overdrive, and it remains attached to the other end of my coil-y cable. Ostensibly, the Small Speaker is meant to be a variation on the tweed-Fender-Champ-in-a-box theme. However, both the pedal’s name and the Champ associations fail to do justice to how large and alive it sounds and feels tethered to a bigger amp.

Read MoreShow less

Chorus, vibrato, and easy-to-program presets in an elegantly simple design.

Deep and varied chorus and vibrato sounds that are easy to manipulate and access via presets. Nice presence in top end.

Switching between chorus and vibrato can sometimes feel a touch clumsy.

$239

NativeAudio Pretty Bird Woman
nativeaudio.com

4.5
4.5
4.5
4

NativeAudio’s Pretty Bird Woman chorus and vibrato makes for a nice study in economical design. There are just two knobs for modulation rate and depth, a footswitch that saves and scrolls presets, and a bypass switch that doubles as a vibrato/chorus switch when you hold it down for a few counts. These simple functions govern two very rich and varied modulation voices. And it only takes a little time to see, hear, and feel how the PBW’s design economy and intuitive controls would make it invaluable in a live setup.

Read MoreShow less