Red Witch Zeus
The chrome-clad Red Witch Zeus took a Premier Gear Award this year thanks to its split personality—part analog sub-octave, part silicone fuzz. The two completely stand-alone effects are impressive as solo beings, but run both simultaneously and you’ll summon thunderous sonic mayhem.
$299 street, redwitchpedals.com
Click here to read the full review
Jackson SLATXMGQ 3-6 Soloist
Stable, sonically potent, and ready to slay, this imported X-series Soloist impressed reviewer Joe Charupakorn with it’s buttery action, tuning-stable vibrato, and surprising versatility. These qualities make this metal-on-the-surface axe equally suited for blues, rock, and pop applications.
$699 street, jacksonguitars.com
Click here to read the full review
Faith FNCETB Neptune
The Neptune managed the ever-so-satisfying trick of sounding and feeling very expensive at a three-figure price. Using Indonesian trembesi wood for the back and sides, along with an Engelmann spruce top adds up to a simultaneously bright and bass-rich voice. And with versatile Shadow electronics, it’s a great stage-ready performer too.
$999 street, faithguitars.com
Click here to read the full review
Demeter Bass 400
Designer James Demeter has been handcrafting high-end pedals and amps to the delight of players for 30-plus years. With the Premier Gear Award-winning Bass 400, he paired his revered VTBP-201 tube preamp with a class-D power amp to deliver a rig that’s lighter on the back and pocketbook, yet remains plenty heavy in tone.
$999 street, demeteramps.com
Click here to read the full review
Reverend Descent H90 Baritone
Shawn Hammond ventured that the H90 might be the most versatile baritone electric on the market. With potent Railhammer pickups and sound-shaping features, including powerful tone and bass contour controls, it’s hard to argue against that assertion. The H90 is stout, affordable, and capable of sounds from fabulously fat to searing.
$999 street, reverendguitars.com
Click here to read the full review
Nace PRO-18 Tolex Combo
Our esteemed colleague Ted Drozdowski has done a gig or two in his time, so when he called the PRO-18 “a damn-near perfect gigging machine,” we figured this classy little EL84 tweedster had a thing or two going for it. And while Ted found the Nace capable of the rowdy brashness you’d expect from a Marshall-inspired circuit like this, he also found it capable of great nuance, and agreeable to guitars and pickups of every kind.
$1,799, naceamps.com
Click here to read the full review
DryBell Vibe Machine
Croatia’s DryBell did not dabble in half measures when they built this Shin Ei Uni-Vibe clone. The photocells at the heart of the pedal (a must for any real Uni-Vibe clone) are all carefully matched and tested. The extra work yields a fantastically rich and authentic Uni-Vibe-style stomp, complete with expression-pedal functionality.
$295 street, drybell.com
Click here to read the full review
Xotic RC-Booster SH
This groovin’ collaboration between fusion guru Scott Henderson and Xotic is a dual-channel version of the company’s flagship pedal, the RC Booster. Its two voices—a clear, warm transparent boost and a singing, saturated lead mode—both respond well to picking dynamics. The RCB-SH is ideal for players who are happy with their core tone, but seek a little extra kick to make their guitar stand out onstage.
$168 direct, xotic.us
Click here to read the full review
PRS SE 227 Baritone
We were not at all surprised when the PRS SE 227 turned out to be an exquisitely built and playable baritone electric—we’re used to that sort of thing from Paul Reed Smith. What really knocked us out was how sonically adaptable and varied the 227 turned out to be. With nuanced, low-output pickups that proved equally capable of delivering raging rock and softer, snappier fare, it’s one of the more multifaceted and value-packed baris we’ve run into in years.
$749 street, prsguitars.com
Click here to read the full review
MXR 5150 Overdrive
Promising any aspect of Eddie Van Halen’s tone in a box is tricky business. The dude is a magician and you don’t cop that kind of wizardry through circuits. But in terms of enabling the quest for Eddie-dom, it would be hard to find a more capable tool than the 5150 Overdrive. Sensitive, aggressive, and surprisingly tweakable, the feature-packed stomp offers a killer path to the brown sound and beyond.
$199 street, jimdunlop.com
Click here to read the full review
Ampeg PF-50T
The all-tube PF-50T might not be laden with bells and whistles, but this classic-looking head thoroughly impressed reviewer Steve Cook with its rich vintage warmth, handy dual DIs, and very attractive price for an amp of this caliber.
$899 street, ampeg.com
Click here to read the full review
Carr Lincoln
Joe Gore called Carr’s Lincoln a “freewheeling fantasia on Voxiness,” a description that’s not just reflective of the Carr’s design inspirations but also of its abundant color and personality. Like just about every Carr that’s crossed our transom, it’s beautifully built. But it’s the bounty of complex, rich, and rainbow-spectrum Brit-tones on tap that put us over the moon for the Lincoln.
$2,980 street, carramps.com
Click here to read the full review
Sire Marcus Miller V7
Sire stirred up more than a splash in the bass community with their sub-$500 Marcus Miller V7 this year. The tones, construction, and aesthetics impressed reviewer David Abdo so much that he bestowed very heavy praise: “In fact, it might be one of the best production J-style basses out there regardless of price.”
$499 street, sire-usa.com
Click here to read the full review
Catalinbread Katzenkönig
As Joe Gore pointed out in his review of the Katzenkönig, working with old circuits need not rule out creativity. The Katzenkönig proves the power of imaginative circuit DNA scrambling—mating the raw potency of Tone Bender MKII on the front end with the tone shaping power and thrust of a RAT on the output end. The result is tight, tough, explosive, surprisingly easy to wrangle, and above all refreshingly original.
$169 street, catalinbread.com
Click here to read the full review
RJM Mastermind PBC
On the surface, pedal switching seems like a very mechanical task, but RJM’s Mastermind PBC reveals how judiciously applied doses of digital functionality can expand the potential of an affordable switcher in really practical ways. With 768 possible presets, you’ll almost certainly run out of licks before you exhaust the compact RJM’s possibilities.
$999 street, rjmmusic.com
Click here to read the full review
Boss ES-8
Power, ease of use, and an accessible price. This wouldn’t be the first time we’d used this loose group of descriptors for a Boss product. But given all the ES-8 pedal switcher does (800 presets and deep programmability) and it’s affordability relative to the competition, the ES-8 is a great value and a killer foundation for any busy pedalboard.
$699 street, bossus.com
Click here to read the full review
Carl Martin Octa-Switch MK3
The Octa-Switch MK3 proved there’s still room for straightforward mechanical simplicity in the fast-evolving realm of pedal switching. With its intuitive operation, it’s especially suited to neophyte switcher users. And with a $427 price, it represents one of the best bang-for-the-buck propositions in the pedal switcher game.
$427 street, carlmartin.com
Click here to read the full review
Ernie Ball/Music Man St. Vincent
It’s no surprise that a guitarist as potent and delightfully irreverent as Annie Clark would help conceive an axe as potent and irreverent as her signature Ernie Ball/Music Man, the St. Vincent. The three mini-humbuckers add up to a multitude of possible voices, while the superb playability translates not just to comfort, but huge expressive possibilities.
$1,899 street, music-man.com
Click here to read the full review
Mesa/Boogie Subway D-800
Mesa’s highly anticipated entry into the lightweight class-D game did not disappoint reviewer Jordan Wagner, who was especially taken with the amp’s EQ. The smart-looking 800-watt powerhouse might weigh in at a slim 5 1/2 pounds, but as Wagner remarked, “Even with the input and master knobs conservatively set to 10 o’clock, the rig packed quite a wallop.”
$699 street, mesaboogie.com
Click here to read the full review
Dr. Z Z-Lux
In its all-gray-and-black guise, Dr. Z’s Z-Lux is an unassuming creature. But with 40 watts of quad-6V6 power, high headroom, versatile EQ, and onboard spring reverb and tube tremolo, it’s an ideal partner for modern players who love mid-’60s American amp vibe and lots of wiggle room for their effects.
$2,399 street, drzamps.com
Click here to read the full review
Dusky D₂O
The D₂O would probably walk away with the prize for “coolest-looking amp we tested all year.” But we discovered it also sounds every bit as killer as its pop-art look suggests. While the dual 6L6 power section suggests a blackface Fender clone, the D₂O delivered a Vox-like crunch that was fat with sustain, multifaceted, and delightfully full of surprises.
$1,500 street ($575 cabinet sold separately), duskyamp.com
Click here to read the full review
Thorpy FX Fallout Cloud
It’s a cliché to draw parallels between any English product and Her Majesty’s fave superspy, but in the case of the Thorpy Fallout Cloud (formerly known as the Muffroom Cloud), the mix of stylish tailoring, tough-as-nails build, and killer performance truly make it the 007 of Muff-inspired fuzzes. Indeed, Fallout Cloud sounds huge while maintaining a harmonic complexity and sophistication that’s worthy of Commander Bond himself.
$290 street, thorpyfx.com
Click here to read the full review
Chellee Odie Classic
The Odie Classic might be the Screamer-inspired overdrive for players who don’t like TS pedals. Reviewer Charles Saufley found it more open, oxygenated, and complex than his own vintage Tube Screamer (which he likes quite a bit). And at less than $150, it’s priced competitively with a lot of TS clones that can’t approach its wide-spectrum sonic profile.
$149 street, chellee.com
Click here to read the full review
Echopark F-1
David Von Bader called the F-1 “foolproof, musical, and explosive.” That’s good, given that there are only two knobs to control this primitive, but sonically cultivated little beast. But while the minimalistic F-1 may appear limited, it’s wildly adaptable. Gray it may be, but this Echopark is a fuzz for all seasons.
$230 street, echoparkguitars.com
Click here to read the full review
Korg Pitchblack Custom
Following in the footsteps of Korg’s successful Pitchblack tuner, the true-bypass Pitchblack Custom offers an improved detection range of +/- 0.1 cents, triple the battery life, a smaller enclosure, and a bigger display with four user-selectable meter modes. The Pitchblack Custom’s bright 3-D vertical strobe-like display instills confidence that this black box can handle its duties on the darkest stages.
$99 street, korg.com
Click here to read the full review
Tyyster Pelti 12-String
“Pelti” means sheet metal in Finnish, and that’s what luthier Ville Tyyster uses for the body of this immaculately built electric 12. If you love the crisp, jangly tones of classic 12-string electrics from Rickenbacker and Fender, the humbucker-equipped Pelti delivers in spades. But thanks to an internal contact mic, dual volume controls, and a stereo output, the Pelti offers exciting new sonic turf for hardcore jangle-holics to explore.
$4,570 street, sites.google.com/site/tyysterinkitarat/
Click here to read the full review
Bergantino Audio Systems B|Amp and HD112 & HD210 Cabinets
Already known for his standout bass cabinets, Jim Bergantino decided that the time was right to design his own amplifier. The resulting 700-watt B|Amp packs tons of tonal and operational features—most of which are governed by a quartet of knobs below the LCD display—into its 6 1/2 pound frame, and it received accolades aplenty from reviewer David Abdo for its loud, clean tone and sound-shaping ease. Paired with Bergantino HD112 and HD210 cabinets (also Premier Gear Award winners) that were praised for their “crushingly clean tone,” this rig proved to be the whole enchilada.
$1,399 street (B|AMP)
$729 street (HD112)
$829 street (HD210), bergantino.com
Click here to read the full review
Malekko Charlie Foxtrot
Borrowing elements of a sampler/looper, a delay, and a pitch shifter, Charlie Foxtrot almost defies categorization. Once you grasp how the controls interact, Charlie avails textures ranging from subtly warped pitch hiccups to beautifully bizarre 10-second loops. The pedal delivers the sort of delicious dementedness you can typically attain only through complicated digital gear, but in a functional format even numbskulls can grok.
$189 street, malekkoheavyindustry.com
Click here to read the full review
Line 6 Helix
An ambitious multi-effector with nearly 200 amp and pedal models, a built-in expression pedal, exceptional rear-panel connectivity, and large, bright, color-coded editing surfaces, Helix is an extraordinarily powerful recording and performing tool. Crafty guitarists might use it for composing and sound design, tracking to DAW via Helix’s quality convertors, gigging through a P.A., or bypassing Helix’s amp/cab simulations and playing through a conventional amp. Guitarists who like hanging out in the digital realm will be hard pressed to find a superior traveling companion.
$1,499 street, line6.com
Click here to read the full review
Boss VB-2W Waza Craft Vibrato
An enhanced version of the VB-2 Vibrato—a Boss pedal coveted for its relative rarity—the new VB-2W Waza Craft is a wonderfully quirky modulation device. Like the original, the VB-2W is an analog pitch wobbler, but it has a quieter circuit, a jack to control depth with an expression pedal, and two switchable voices. Those looking for unconventional sci-fi sonics will find them in the VB-2W.
$199 street, bossus.com
Click here to read the full review
BluGuitar Amp 1
A 100-watt, 4-channel amplifier that can be mounted on a pedalboard? Meet the Amp 1, an ingenious device that combines a tube-powered preamp with a solid-state class-D power amp. Amp 1’s tones range from darn good to ridiculously good, and the 3-band EQ section works beautifully in all modes. Though not dramatic, the digital reverb is rich, musical, and convincingly spring-like. Amp 1 is a triumph of both engineering and sound design.
$799 street, bluguitar.com
Click here to read the full review
Henriksen Bud
Jazz and fingerstyle players are likely to love this tiny (9" x 9" x 9") 135-watt, solid-state combo, but the dual-channel Bud has a lot to offer guitarists of almost any musical persuasion. The Bud’s flexible inputs and outputs, excellent reverb, potent 5-band EQ, and burly low end make it ideal for small gigs. Need a personal monitor, teaching-room tool, or micro-PA for a laptop or tablet? This Bud’s for you.
$1,099 street, henriksenamplifiers.com
Click here to read the full review
Strymon Dig Dual Digital Delay
With its two delays and flexible, interactive controls, Dig is a powerful echo-generating machine. It delivers the best of ’80s rack-device sounds, yet it feels as timeless as any echo unit out there. Triplet, eighth, dotted-eighth, and dotted-quarter settings let you dial in intriguing rhythmic repeats, and its three resolution settings and many “hidden” secondary functions means Dig adds up to more than meets the eye.
$299 street, strymon.net
Click here to read the full review
Fender American Elite Precision Bass
Reviewer Steve Cook discovered P-bass glory with the Fender American Elite model that’s outfitted with a noiseless P/J configuration and active electronics capable of covering a vast tonal landscape. Cook says, “Yes, plenty of basses are marketed as built for all styles of music, but the American Elite Precision can truly back this claim.” Superior tone, killer components, and an impressive build? That’ll seal the deal for a Premier Gear Award.
$1,799 street, fender.com
Click here to read the full review
3Leaf Audio Wonderlove
Players who dig the Mu-Tron III will adore Wonderlove, a potent envelope filter from Seattle’s 3Leaf Audio. It covers all the Mu-Tron III bases while adding controls to unlock sounds you can’t coax from a vintage unit. Well made and reasonably priced considering its quality hardware and design innovations—which include a built-in effects loop—Wonderlove nails expected envelope filter tones, plus many others.
$299 street, 3leafaudio.com
Click here to read the full review
Fender Bassbreaker 45
Early Marshall amps “borrowed” heavily from the Fender Bassman circuit, a point Fender underscores with their 2-channel Bassbreaker 45. The 45-watt 2x12 combo mates a vintage Fender-style circuit with a pair of EL34s to create a distinctly British flavor with lots of headroom. Equipped with powerful 70-watt Celestion G12s, a hefty transformer, an attenuator, and a clever scheme for connecting the dual channels in series, this amp delivers classic tones at a cost-conscious price.
$999 street, fender.com
Click here to read the full review
JColoccia ID
When you set the controls on the JColoccia ID overdrive at neutral positions, it’s a sonic dead ringer for a vintage Tube Screamer. But unlike most 808 clones, the ID delivers a genuinely useful, expanded EQ section that lets you dial in more air, more punch, and more radical tones than you’ll get out of any 3-knob Tube Screamer. This sonically flexible pedal offers a satisfying way to dirty up your world.
$169 street, jcolocciaguitars.com
Click here to read the full review
Mojo Hand FX Sacred Cow
Mojo Hand Sacred Cow is one of the best Klon-inspired pedals we’ve seen in recent years, and it’s more than a slavish copy of this well-codified sonic template. The Sacred Cow’s most obvious enhancement is its lean/fatty switch. Lean settings are “normal,” while fatty settings lend low-end heft that gives flexibility to players who switch between single-coils and humbuckers. For Klon tones at an accessible price, the Sacred Cow is tough to top.
$179 street, mojohandfx.com
Click here to read the full review
Taylor 562ce 12-Fret 12-String
The 562ce gushes gloriously rich tones and plays like a dream. Its mahogany Grand Concert body has an elegant Venetian cutaway that affords easy access to all 18 frets, despite the 12th-fret body joint. With its flawless workmanship and factory setup, low and fast action, hyper-accurate intonation, unreal sustain, and Expression System 2 electronics, the 562ce is an instrument of refined delicacy that makes fingerstyle playing an utter delight.
$2,699 street, taylorguitars.com
Click here to read the full review
Marshall JCM 25/50 2555X Silver Jubilee
Produced only in 1987, original Marshall Silver Jubilee amps now fetch ridiculous sums. Marshall has heeded the clamor with the new JCM 25/50 2555X Silver Jubilee. While the 2555X boasts several design changes, in most critical ways it’s a faithful recreation of the original. Powered by four EL34s, the amp delivers 100 watts in triode mode and 50 watts in pentode. It boasts responsive EQ controls, heavenly clean tones, and a hot-rodded JCM800 vibe.
$1,899 street (head); $1,299 street (cabinet), marshallamps.com
Click here to read the full review
Schroeder SA9+
While some may argue the potential effect of say, a single capacitor in an amp or pedal, the SA9+ reveals how good the sum of many great components and an inspired, well-executed build can sound. Powered by twin KT66s, the amp’s superior headroom means very sweet clean tones, but the 40-watt head also makes a very responsive blank slate for pedals ranging from modulation to the most aggressive fuzz.
$3,950, schroederamplification.com
Click here to read the full review
SolidGold FX Horizon
The beauty of the Horizon optical compressor? How it goes beyond basic compression. Yes, it can handle the most pedestrian compression tasks if you keep those attack and comp settings at the lowest levels. But the real treat is the swelling, super-squished, and downright psychedelic approximations of tape manipulation and studio-chain compression you can get via three knobs.
$175, solidgoldfx.com
Click here to read the full review
Ibanez Analog Chorus Mini
Ibanez’s Mini series has produced hit after hit so far, and with its warm, liquid modulations, the Analog Chorus Mini reveals how adept Ibanez designers have become at stuffing their best analog effects into petite packages. At 99 bucks, and with a footprint not much bigger than a Matchbox car, it’s one of this year’s price-to-performance ratio champions!
$99, ibanez.com
Click here to read the full review
Fender American Elite Telecaster
The Telecaster is nearing 70 years old. But it’s a long, long way from retirement. In fact, the American Elite Telecaster reveals not just how freaking perfect the Telecaster is as a guitar design, but how much wiggle room there still is for tweaking. Fast, comfortable, and overflowing with sustain, the American Elite is a bold proclamation of how the granddaddy of solidbody electrics remains alive and vital.
$1,799 street, fender.com
Click here to read the full review
Peavey Classic 30
The latest addition to Peavey’s Classic series, this all-tube 30-watt 1x12 combo has enough versatility to handle virtually any playing situation. With two foot-switchable channels and four EL84s, the Classic 30 covers a wide sonic territory, and its shared 3-knob EQ and spring reverb make it easy to dial in everything from sparkling surf to roadhouse rock. An effects loop and switchable boost are welcome additions to this affordable, rugged stage amp.
$699 street, peavey.com
Click here to read the full review
Alexander La Calavera Phaser
Though it’s digital, La Calavera sounds and operates like a great analog phaser. It’s no more difficult to use than a vintage Boss phaser, but its tonal range is far greater. La Calavera strikes a savvy compromise between power and simplicity, and all the controls offer deliciously musical ranges and tapers, which makes it incredibly easy to create compelling sounds in the pedal’s three operating modes. And hey, it looks rad too.
$189 street, alexanderpedals.com
Click here to read the full review
Source Audio Nemesis Delay
With seven knobs, two switches, two push buttons, two footswitches, and a raft of I/Os, the Nemesis digital delay may look imposing, but dialing in personal variations on classic and newfangled echo sounds is actually intuitive and fun. Nemesis can dish authentic slapback or perform precise sound-sculpting functions, and it’s a joy to explore the musical possibilities between those extremes. An easy-to-use editor app makes this powerful standalone delay even more versatile.
$299 street, sourceaudio.net
Click here to read the full review
EarthQuaker Devices Spatial Delivery
Don’t let Spatial Delivery’s simple layout fool you—this envelope filter is capable of countless cool tones. Thanks to a clever multi-mode filter, you can create new sounds in a fraction of the time required by more complex filter effects, and it’s easy to dial in just the right response to suit your touch. The versatile controls are beautifully calibrated, the sound quality is superb, and the price is right for a handmade pedal.
$195 street, earthquakerdevices.com
Click here to read the full review
Ibanez TSA5TVR Tube Screamer Amp
The 6V6-driven Ibanez TSA5TVR Tube Screamer amp—which, as you might have guessed, has an onboard Tube Screamer circuit—is a 5-watt, 1x8 combo that excels at blues-rock leads, grinding power chords, ’60s garage fuzz, and Led Zeppelin-style leads. And how about that two-tone vinyl that looks lifted from a ’57 DeSoto Fireflite? Throw in a subtle but lush Accutronics spring reverb and you have the perfect amp for recording or playing intimate club gigs.
$399 street, ibanez.com
Click here to read the full review
Come with us time travelers, as we revisit a year’s worth of axes, amps, stomps, basses, baritones, and other tools of our music-making trade—all deemed worthy of the Premier Gear Award. This year’s list is as diverse as ever: Classics revisited, shred machines made affordable, fuzzes refined and made more fiendish, amps that blast and purr, basses that boom, and time-warping delays and reverbs that mock astronomers’ notions about the cosmos. From manufacturers big and small, these delights await you in the pages ahead. Enjoy the voyage.
But bluster aside, the electric guitar is also infinitely malleable. Since the ’60s, when inexpensive effects hit the streets and made modifying your guitar signal possible, guitarists have been shaping, crafting, and modulating their tones. Those first pedals, like fuzz boxes and wahs, for example, were simple but effective tools that left guitar players pining for more. And more was to come, especially as technology improved and music went digital. But research, development, and production are expensive, so, for the most part, the big advances were made by well-funded companies and industry leaders. Like you’d expect.
Until now.
Parallel with the dawn of the new century is the democratization of pedal innovation. Basement tinkerers, experimenters, sonic misfits, and the curious set up small, one-man, mom-and-pop businesses. They developed new twists on old ideas, perfected old circuits, updated outdated technology, reinvented forgotten concepts, crafted newness from nothing, and radically altered the guitar-playing landscape.
In this roundup, we profile eight stompbox scientists. Their designs are different, sometimes unusual, and redefine what guitar pedals can do. Some are boutique treasures that emphasize appearances and look more like art pieces than guitar gadgets. Others are nondescript, but hide little monsters under the hood. All will transform your tone, challenge your assumptions, and afford you the tools to make better music.
Most of our builders are based in the U.S., although we went international and spoke with builders in Finland and Canada as well. We discussed their building philosophies, standout designs, popular pedals, the challenges and benefits of running a small shop, and the artists and new music their products make possible.
Are you ready? Make sure to take notes. Videos, manuals, demos, and reviews are already online for most of the pedals discussed. You might find your missing link—or multiple links you didn’t know you were missing.
The new Tonal Recall delay features a pair of reissued MN3005 bucket-brigade analog ICs, the same type used in
the classic Electro-Harmonix Memory Man.
Chase Bliss Audio
Based just north of Minneapolis in Anoka, Minnesota, Chase Bliss Audio is the brainchild of pedal builder Joel Korte. His pedals are notable for their kitchen-sink approach—analog guts, digital brains, multiple knobs and toggles, and a bevy of DIP switches—with no parameter left untweakable. “I’m really trying to exist in a space where others do not,” Korte says. “A lot of guitar pedals want to control the user experience—you can only turn the knobs so far so it sounds a certain way. But mine are the exact opposite of that. I don’t want to control the user experience at all. I want to give users a canvas to do whatever they want.”Korte’s first pedal was the innovative Warped Vinyl. “I had this idea to digitally create an LFO [low frequency oscillator] that provides a ton of control,” he says. “It’s called ModuShape and it lets you make any kind of shape you want. I wanted to hear that kind of LFO control applied to pitch vibrato.”
Chase Bliss chief Joel Korte at work.
It’s a concept he’s transferred to his other pedals as well. “You can control every parameter with an expression pedal individually or simultaneously, and also ramp any parameter individually or simultaneously. It’s like you have a little robot that can turn your knobs in a rhythmic way without you having to bend over. Some of that stuff sounds really interesting and musical, and some of it sounds insane. It’s up to the users to do what they want with it.”
Zack Warpinski sketches plans for world domination. Or perhaps a new circuit.
Korte’s newest offering, Tonal Recall, is a delay based on that same analog/digital concept, and it’s shaping up to be his biggest seller. “Ever since I started the company,” he says, “I’d hear, ‘Hey bro, you gotta make a delay.’” But Korte held off because the chip he wanted to use—the MN3005 bucket-brigade delay analog IC used in the old Electro-Harmonix Memory Man and Boss DM-2—had been discontinued. “It was hard for me to get excited about delay, because that particular chip wasn’t around. But last year the chip was reissued, so I decided to do it.”
Warped Vinyl—Korte's first pedal—uses a digital LFO to control pitch vibrato.
Korte’s pedals are making the rounds, but don’t expect him to name-drop. “I’d rather just not have an artist roster,” he says. “Obviously, I love it. I’m a music fan and if someone notable is using the pedals, I think that’s amazing. But at the same time, there are a lot of really talented people using our products who are undiscovered.”
Chase Bliss be chillin’: Holly Hansen, Zack Warpinski, and Joel Korte. “I’m really trying to exist in a space where others do not,” says Korte of his sonic vision.
The company’s backstory is inspiring, too. “It’s named in honor of my brother, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2007. I was going down the path of normal life—I was just going to exist and not do anything that was interesting for me. He was out in L.A. trying to be an actor, and his death really shook me. I realized I needed to pursue something I was passionate about. It really felt right to name the company after him and his approach to life.”
Click next or choose the pedal builder you want to learn about first:
Hungry Robot
Mantic Conceptual
Darkglass Electronics
Fuzzrocious
3Leaf Audio
Cusack Music
Union Tube & Transistor
The Wash is aimed at guitarists who typically use multiple delays and reverbs to create lush sounds. “I often see ambient players using two delays and two reverbs at a time to create their ambient wash tone, and I wanted to have
that all in one pedal,” says designer Eric Junge.
Hungry Robot
Hungry Robot Pedals offers deep tones with a streamlined interface. “I try to make the user experience as simple as possible,” says owner Eric Junge. “When you’re onstage, you don’t want a whole bunch of presets and hidden menus. Different parameters are great for the studio, but when it comes to a live setting, you want to focus on your playing and interact with the crowd.”Junge’s first pedals were overdrives—which he still builds—though lately he’s focused on ambient tones, as evidenced by his biggest seller, the Wash. “I wanted to simplify the ’board for someone who plays ambient stuff,” he says. “I often see ambient players using two delays and two reverbs at a time to create their ambient wash tone, and I wanted to have that all in one pedal. A lot of people mistake the Wash for just a delay and reverb, which it is at its core, but what makes it unique is the way those two interact with each other. There are different types of feedback loops built into the pedal, where the reverb goes back into the delay and that will go through the reverb again and then into a different part of the delay. You can’t do that with patch cables. I also wanted a tap-tempo delay that was able to engage the super lush ambient wash tone underneath the signal.”
Junge builds every Hungry Robot pedal in his basement.
Junge’s pedals don’t use a battery, which seems to be a trend in the industry. “I’ve probably sold close to 1,000 pedals and I’ve only had two people ask about batteries,” he says. “I think the general consensus is most people aren’t using batteries any more. A lot of my designs are very tight internally—I couldn’t even fit a battery into a couple of them. So my take is, ‘Am I going to make this pedal bigger for the 0.1 percent of the public that’s going to use a battery?’”
The Starlite reverb pedal offers tap tempo and modulation.
One tight design is the HG+LG (High Gain plus Low Gain), which consists of two overdrive pedals crammed into a single enclosure. The outside controls are simple, but inside 12 DIP switches let you make subtle changes depending on your guitar and amp combination. “I saw with a lot of different guitarists that the overdrive section of their board was constantly changing,” he says. “They would buy a pedal, play through it for one or two days, and put it up on Reverb.com. I wanted people to be able to customize their drive by tweaking the different diodes, tone signatures, and gains. My hope is that whatever types of guitars and amps they’re using, they’ll find a way to have everything mesh well.”
Junge’s MO is to produce deep tones with a streamlined interface. “When you’re onstage, you don’t want a whole bunch of presets and hidden menus,” he says.
Hungry Robot is a family affair and the pedals are built in-house. “It’s all in my basement right now,” Junge says. “I do all through-hole components—I don’t send it to a board house and have surface mount stuff slapped on there. I wire it all together. I do all the powder coating, all the drilling, all the PCB assembly, and final assembly. Even the artwork, my wife does that.”
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Mantic’s Caleb Henning (left) and Luis Etscheid. “Just hold still, Luis, this won’t hurt at all.”
Mantic Conceptual
Mantic Conceptual pedals are weird, and that’s a good thing. “I got into circuit bending, modding, building synth modules, and what-have-you,” says Luis Etscheid, Mantic’s co-owner and winner of the 2012 Moog Circuit Bending Championship. “It was a long-term organic evolution of things that brought us to a product.” Etscheid founded the Colorado company with his business partner Caleb Henning in 2013.—Luis Etscheid, Mantic Conceptual
The duo’s first pedal—and their closest to a clone—is the Density Hulk sub-harmonizer and low-frequency booster. “It’s based on the 1995 DOD Meatbox,” Etscheid says. “That’s what we started our company on. Other than that, they’re now all-original designs. We definitely like to put out stuff that’s unique and will lend players their own voice, and that can be pretty polarizing, I guess. People will either love it or not.”
The Mantic Flex Pro: part fuzz, part envelope follower, part synth-glitch generator.
The Mantic Flex Pro pushes those boundaries. Part fuzz, part envelope follower, part synth-glitch generator, the Flex Pro incorporates an added mix control, filter-range selector, and variable-speed LFO for tracking modulation. “The Flex started as an experiment,” says Etscheid. “We were messing around with a lot of different basic circuit principles, trying to come up with something that was reminiscent of a lot of circuit bent tones we were getting on old keyboards, but more controllable so that it could be used in a ‘musical’—quote unquote—context. It’s basically a variant of a phase-lock loop. We spent a lot of time on the interface. Actually, we had a 12-knob version at one point. We built a few of those as one-offs and sent them out to some of our friends—Simon Francis, Adrian Belew, and Nick Reinhart—to get some feedback. You put so many hours into something, you have to get some outside perspective.”
Winner of the 2012 Moog Circuit Bending Championship, Etscheid (right) has deep roots in synth modding.
Mantic Conceptual is small, and Etscheid and Henning want to keep it that way. “It’s just a two-man operation out of a garage,” Etscheid says. “It’s great staying small. We don’t have to waste too much of our time with management, and we can maintain a direct line of communication with our customers and our retailers. We both really like talking to and knowing the people who buy and use our stuff. It’s been really helpful for the development process as well.”
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Darkglass mastermind Douglas Castro takes measurements on his first amplifier, a top-secret M900 prototype,
which hadn’t been announced as of this writing.
Darkglass Electronics
Based in Helsinki, Finland, Darkglass Electronics builds effects pedals for bass players. “Our primary goal is to tell bass players, ‘Be heard and be noticed,’” says Darkglass CEO and founder Doug Castro. “All of our effects and preamplifiers are about taking the bass sound to the next level so bassists can reclaim a more predominant role in their bands.”Originally from Chile, Castro started playing bass at 13, but opted to focus on electronics after high school. “The first circuit I designed was the Microtubes B3K, which is now one of our best-selling products,” he says. “Once I designed that one, everything took off from there.”
The B7K is a preamp, overdrive, and 4-band EQ for bassists.
Darkglass’ flagship is the Microtubes B7K—a souped-up edition of the B3K that’s available in both standard and Ultra versions. “The B7K is a preamp, overdrive, and 4-band EQ,” Castro says. “The Ultra has basically the same preamps, but you control the distortion separately with a second foot switch. You also have two mid controls—low and high mid—and each mid control has a 3-way selector switch.”
Kiriaki “Kira” Pavlidi at work. “We could not imagine any of our products without Kiriaki’s neat
assembling and soldering,” says Castro.
Although headquartered in Finland, the company is truly international. R&D and manufacturing is done in Europe, marketing and sales are based in Chile, and artists relations is in the U.S. “We have a 200 square-meter shop, and all the effects are built here in Finland,” Castro says. “The metalwork, chassis, silk screening, and laser engraving is all done here. We try to keep it local. We get the circuit boards from a few suppliers in different EU countries, but all the final assembly and testing is done here.”
Party time in Helsinki! Although headquartered in Finland, the company has offices in Chile and the U.S.
Darkglass artists run the gamut from metal to pop, and include Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse), Tony Levin, Billy Gould (Faith No More), Dick Lövgren (Meshuggah), and Amos Heller (Taylor Swift). “I believe the product you make should work for different scenarios and should adapt to many requirements. We focus on products that can be used by anyone,” Castro says.
Enrique “Quique” Rangel solders a connection. All Darkglass effects are built in Finland in the company’s
200 square-meter shop.
But ultimately, it’s all about the bass. “I think bass players have always had a very shy role in bands for the most part—especially in rock and metal—and I would really like to see them take the lead a bit more.”
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Fuzzrocious pedals is a Ratajski family affair. Ryan handles electronics design and business, while Shannon (shown here) does the painting—sometimes with the help of their kids.
Fuzzrocious
Ryan Ratajski and family are Fuzzrocious pedals. “Everything has grown organically for us,” he says. “We make sure we’re helping bands out and making things people enjoy. My wife, Shannon, does all the hand painting. I do the designing, soldering, internet, and everything else. Even the kids get to help out—people commission them to make their art on the pedals.”—Ryan Ratajski, Fuzzrocious
Fuzzrocious pedals are customizable and some are variations on classic circuits. One example is Feed Me, an innovative take on multiple variations of the Big Muff. “The tone stacks in those old Big Muffs are different,” Ratajski says. “That’s why some people are like, ‘Civil War is the best,’ or ‘Black Russian is my favorite.’ I examined the components of 12 or 13 of the most popular Big Muff versions. We put those on rotaries and added some more as well, so you can dial in all the classic tone stacks. There are over 20,000 combinations you can get tone-wise.”
All Fuzzrocious pedals are built to order. “If you come to Fuzzrocious,” says Ryan, “you’re getting something that’s made for you. It is not coming off a shelf.”
Ratajski also enjoys collaborating. He teamed up with Electro-Faustus to create the Greyfly—a combination of his Grey Stache Fuzz with EF’s Blackfly. “We hooked up at NAMM last year,” he says. “A mutual friend brought us together. They loved how their Blackfly sounded through our Grey Stache Fuzz, and we agreed. You can pluck the springs, scrape them, twang them. You can tap the box and yell into it. It’s a piezo mic, so you can create noise with it. When you add that fuzz, it exacerbates everything that’s going on with your sound.”
“I examined the components of 12 or 13 of the most popular Big Muff versions,” says Ryan of the Muff-inspired Feed Me EQ/preamp/tone-shaper. “We put those on rotaries and added some more as well.”
Ratajski’s most extreme pedal was the Zuul, which is currently on hiatus. “That was an oscillator that was semi-blended with your clean signal into a drive circuit,” he says. “It went from super hummingbird speed to a super low click. When it went even faster it would get into crazy oscillation behind your signal and you could tune it to a pitch. That’s something we are going to bring back in the future in a new way.”
The Anomalies delay is based on a PT2399 chip. Each run of 25 features different artwork.
From his current line, the big seller is the Demon. “The Queens of the Stone Age guys embraced the pedal and talked about it a lot,” he says. “That was the impetus to really skyrocket the sales for that pedal. It’s by far our best-selling pedal.”
When you order a Fuzzrocious pedal, you have three options for artwork: painted by Shannon, painted by her kids, or both.
But regardless of how many they sell, all Fuzzrocious pedals are built to order. “If you come to Fuzzrocious, you’re getting something that’s made for you. We start production when your order comes in. It is not coming off a shelf. You are getting something from soup to nuts that’s been handmade just for you.”
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“Tone is totally subjective,” says Doren, “but my pedals definitely work best for the sounds I’m trying to get.”
3Leaf Audio
Seattle’s 3Leaf Audio crafts innovative variations on offbeat themes. “I have my own aesthetic in terms of the visual look and feel,” says founder Spencer Doren. “I usually think I can make something that sounds better—at least for my purposes—than other things on the market. Tone is totally subjective, but my pedals definitely work best for the sounds I’m trying to get. It turns out these pedals resonate with other people, too.”—Spencer Doren, 3Leaf Audio
Doren is self-taught and learned his craft tweaking older pedals. “I had this old pedal, the Lovetone Meatball, that existed in the ’90s,” he says. “I loved it because my musical heroes used it, but the pedal was really hard to use. I tried hacking it up. I tried to make it sound better, make it a little simpler, and that evolved into its own thing, which is how I got started.”
A selection of 3Leaf pedals, which are all built in Washington State.
One of Doren’s most intriguing pedals is the Octabvre, named for bassist Tim Lefebvre. “Tim is a really great bass player—he’s currently on tour with the Tedeschi Trucks band—but I’ve known him from before that gig,” Doren says. “I’d see him play at the 55 Bar in New York with Wayne Krantz, and they’d do this experimental, weird jazz. Tim’s tone was based around the old Boss OC-2, which is my all-time favorite octave sound. The original idea for my octave pedal was that I wanted something that would let Tim do his thing and be able to cut the dry signal without having to bend down to turn off the dry knob. I would see him do that live.” The pedal has a footswitch labeled “sub,” which cuts the dry signal. “The other idea behind the Octabvre is that one side of the tone knob is basically the Boss OC-2, and the other side is based around the Mu-Tron Octave Divider, which is my other favorite octave pedal. It combines these two tones from these two vintage effects into one unit.”
Named for session bassist Tim Lefebvre, the Octabvre is inspired by the Boss OC-2 and Mu-Tron Octave Divider—
Doren’s two favorite vintage octave pedals.
3Leaf’s most popular pedal is the Proton, which is one of two envelope filters he makes. “I get emails from people all the time asking, ‘Will this make me sound like Jerry Garcia?’” Doren says. “I think that’s more technique than anything else, but my pedal can certainly help.” Bootsy Collins is also a fan of the pedal. “At one point, Bootsy was using three of my Protons. But I don’t know what he is using at any particular time, because he goes through a bunch of gear. His original setup back in the day was three Mu-Trons chained together. He would split his signal into three parts and run each one through an envelope filter with different settings and then recombine them.”
Designed to respond to playing dynamics, the Doom fuzz produces sounds reminiscent of vintage synths.
3Leaf Audio is a small local shop, and outsourced work is kept in Washington State. “It makes it easier to communicate with these people when they are nearby,” he says. “They can ship stuff to me in a day, so it is really easy. I’ve got a shop here in Capitol Hill, where I do testing, final assembly, box everything up, and make sure it is good.”
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Based in Holland, Michigan, John Cusack and his team build pedals and guitar amps under the Cusack brand
and for other brands.
Cusack Music
Solid engineering, not tinkering and experimentation, is the foundation of Michigan-based Cusack Music. “When I first started, I used the phrase ‘reality in tone,’” says Jon Cusack, the company’s founder. “At the time—this was 2002—everybody was talking about carbon film resistors and that you had to have it handwired or it wasn’t going to sound right. As an experienced engineer, I was like, ‘95 percent of this is bull crap; it’s all marketing.’ My philosophy is that when I design something, I design it from an engineering standpoint. ‘Theoretically, what kind of resistor is going to work best in this circuit? What kind of capacitor is going to work best in this circuit? How am I going to get what I want for a sound out of this?’ When I’m doing the design process, I go through the theoretical first, then I lay out a circuit board.”Cusack doesn’t make clones, except for his first pedal, which was based on a Tube Screamer. “I did a clone as the very first one because I wanted to get a handle on everything else,” he says. “What enclosure am I going to use? What kind of power jacks? What kind of pots? What’s the drill pattern going to be? I was like, ‘The first go around, let’s worry about the mechanics of how this thing is going to be assembled.’ So I took one piece out of the equation, which was coming up with the circuit, because everything else was from the ground up. From that point on, everything else has pretty much been a from-scratch circuit.”
The Cusack crew at work.
Some circuits venture into the absurd. “The Tap-A-Scream was an April Fools’ joke,” says Cusack. “Somebody on a forum somewhere said, ‘When are you going to come out with a tap overdrive?’ So I built a prototype and announced it on April Fools’ Day thinking, ‘Okay, this will be funny because I actually built a prototype.’ But then I had a dealer order 10 of them. People who use it get what it does and they find some pretty cool applications for it.”
“My philosophy is that when I design something, I design it from an engineering standpoint,” says Cusack. “I go through the theoretical first, then I lay out a circuit board.”
Another innovation is the Never Off Series—pedals without on/off switches that are designed to work with loop systems. “I work with quite a few touring guys and they are always asking for smaller and lighter,” Cusack says. “Mark Lee from Third Day said, ‘I need a board that’s really small, one I can fly with as carry-on, and it’s got to fit on a Pedaltrain Mini.’ I thought we could start with our Pedal Board Tamer programmable pedal looper, and then take our individual pedals and put them in a tiny box without a bypass in them—because you already have the bypass in your loop system—and now we’ve saved all that space. With the Pedal Board Tamer and Never Off pedals, he now has a complete analog pedalboard, but with the digital aspect of having presets, too.”
One of Cusack’s innovations is the Never Off Series—tiny pedals without on/off switches that are designed to work with loop-switching systems. “You already have the bypass in your loop system and now we’ve saved all that space,” he says.
Cusack also has an outstanding track record partnering with other manufacturers, although lately he’s been pulling back. “What we realized is that we really love interacting with the other builders—they are all friends and we hang out at the shows—but it took the focus off our goal, which was the Cusack Music products. In the last three months, I had to learn to say no. I’m still helping people as I can, but I am not doing full-blown designs anymore for anybody. It had been three years since I released anything with my own name on it.” But that said, Cusack Music has a slew of new offerings on the horizon. “We released the Pedal Cracker a few weeks ago. It is going to be shipping in two weeks. We bought Mojo Hand FX and are planning to release new pedals under that brand. We paired up with AJ Peat Guitars and we’re releasing a whole pedal line for him. We’re still working on multiple brands, but they are brands that either we own or that are close friends who we have tight ties with.”
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Union Tube & Transistor
“I think of everything in the world of distortion and fuzz as being a spectrum,” says Union Tube & Transistor’s Chris Young. Photo by Mitka Alperovitz
Union Tube & Transistor
Hailing from Vancouver, BC, Union Tube & Transistor specializes in dirt. “I think of everything in the world of distortion and fuzz as being a spectrum,” says co-owner Chris Young. “You start off with a clean boost. From that you go to a micro amp and then to a Tube Screamer, overdrive, or a Klon or something. At the end of that spectrum is the beginning of the RAT spectrum. The end of the RAT spectrum is the beginning of the fuzz spectrum. I want to have stages, so I can go from mild amp-like characteristics into a better version of a Boss DS-1, a RAT, or a stack.”With business partner Kirk Elliott, Young builds a line of unique and virtually indestructible boxes. “That came out of my years of doing repairs,” Young says. “How can we make these as bulletproof as possible? We always color code our wires and we don’t mount switches or anything that has the possibility of breaking the circuit board onto the circuit board itself. That badge you see on the face of the pedal? The four screws that hold that badge in place secure the circuit board as well. The way our stuff is designed, you can step on the jack and break it, but you’re never going to hurt the circuit board.”
A pair of no-knob Bumble Buzz pedals—a collaboration with Jack White—share the bench with Swindle stomps, which occupy a sonic space between overdrive and fuzz. Photo by Mitka Alperovitz
Union Tube & Transistor is best known for their no-knob collaboration with Jack White’s Third Man Records. “We sent Jack a More pedal a number of years ago,” says Young. White used the pedal on “Sixteen Saltines” and for the vocals in “I’m Shakin’” on his 2012 Grammy-nominated release Blunderbuss. “Most people, when we send them stuff, we never hear anything. But Jack’s people started communicating with us right away. ‘Jack really likes this. Would you think about installing one of these in one of his guitars?’” After some discussion back and forth, Third Man Records flew Young to Nashville to discuss collaborating on a new pedal. “I brought a handful of things that we made and a handful of things that were ideas for new devices. He picked the sound of something he liked and the look of something else—it was a no-knob unit without any controls on it; only an on/off switch.” The result is the Bumble Buzz, an unorthodox, muscular octave fuzz that PG’s Charles Saufley called “the Howlin’ Wolf of fuzzes.”
This tidy workspace belies Young’s passion for aural dirt in its many variations. Photo by Mitka Alperovitz
Union Tube & Transistor have a few interesting ideas on the horizon, but for now their primary focus is distortion. “Everything has been gain stages and fuzzes,” Young says. “I’m not against doing other stuff, but the problem often becomes, ‘If it exists already, it is hard to do the me-too thing.’”
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