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The Year in Gear 2019

The 60+ guitars, amps, pedals, basses, and accessories that stood out from the crowd and earned our coveted Premier Gear Award this year.

Magnetic Effects Lonely Robot


After a period of relative neglect, we see many more pedal builders having a stab at the venerable and, in some quarters, unappreciated RAT. The lonely Robot is certainly among the cleverest of these—using bass, treble, EQ, and clipping threshold controls to expand its menu of available colors beyond what the RAT’s filter tone can deliver. The result: a punchy RAT-flavored pedal that delivers rich low-gain tones to clear-and-raging high-gain sounds.

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$165 street, magneticeffects.net

Plus! December Premier Gear Award Winners!
Read the full reviews on the pages indicated below!

1. Peavey Invective.MH$699 street, peavey.com
2. Chase Bliss Dark World$349 street, chaseblissaudio.com
3. Comins CGS-16 $2,399 street, cominsguitars.com
4. Ernie Ball Music Man Short-Scale StingRay$1,999 street, music-man.com
5. EBS MicroBass 3$349 street, ebssweden.com


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