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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.

Crazy Tube

Crazy Tube Limelight


For all its historical importance, the original Maestro FZ-1 (the “Satisfaction” fuzz, if you forgot) is a relatively neglected circuit among the fuzz clone cult. The Limelight, however, reveals what a great baseline the FZ-1 can be for circuit exploration. The Limelight’s deviations from the original circuit are significant, but it retains the original’s honking voice while enhancing sustain and expanding its low-gain capabilities—a super-cool recipe.

Read the review
$209 street, crazytubecircuits.com

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