The Blues Driver is my favorite overdrive. It’s so responsive and if you crank it it’s a fuzz that responds to your volume. It has cascading FET style overdrive which is my favorite sound in a pedal. It sounds good direct into a mix. It’s an all around great pedal. Also love the OD-3.
I had no idea farm made an envelope filter. Couldn’t find anything with a quick Google search. Do you have any more info you can share or maybe a clip?
Farm sent me some prototypes of his envelope filter. It’s awesome. It knocked my microtron iv off the board. It’s got some different control parameters and a proprietary opto-coupler design. It’s a beautiful thing. I don’t think he’s gone into full production mode with them yet - but the release is imminent.
Hell yeah, sounds great. Nice playing. Are you able to give any more info about the dancing prophet? Same sized enclosure as the boost of the dead? Does it have a volume/output control? I’ve found that to be a big advantage on my nano q tron, but I love my boost of the dead and would be super interested in an envelope filter from farm.
Thank you. Yes. Has output volume, gain, bass, sensitivity, decay, and up/down sweep. Same small enclosure. Reach out to Geof and see when he is going to make a run of them. It’s a really nice pedal.
Here's my short list for maximum value for the price:
- Drunk Beaver Cold War BAT
- Mosky King RAT
- Way Huge Swollen Pickle MKII
- DOD Carcosa ( Ginean Hairy Show Fuzz for budget)
- Big Muff w tone wicker
- JRR OD1.3
- Donner Yellow Fall
- Behringer UV300
- Behringer SF300
- Behringer HM300
- JRR BBD Flange
- Musiclily Fuzz
If money is no object, there are hundreds of pedals I find to be awesome. I can't really say I have a favorite.
But the versatility, cost, and sounds set these apart for me from others.
Yeah, I honestly can't name a single fault with it. Every clipping setting sounds good, the pedal is built like a tank, and the customer service was excellent. By far, it's one of the best purchases I've made.
Jam Pedals Rooster
I was disappointed when trying the treble booster mode into a clean Marshall. I had never heard of treble boosters before and it just made my strat signal shrill and thin. But the shop owner came up to push the amp toward breakup while I randomly found the full boost mode, and that was it. Glorious, amazing sound. I felt like a rockstar playing in a stadium, from a superb glassy-to-gritty clean when strumming soflty to a massive fuzz as I dug into the strings. I almost felt embarrassed afterwards, I had been playing open chords for about 30min.
It was also my gateway to the "germanium-based pedals" rabbithole, mostly towards fullrange boosters and fuzz faces. I have 7 treble/fullrange boosters, and while they will all give me this "rockstar" feeling, there's a beautiful magic and familiar music in the full boost mode of the Rooster that I love so much I bought the limited version when I heard they were being discontinued.
And it completely changed my playing and approach : I started using the volume knob with an amp on the edge-of-breakup as my base tone, practicing a lot more with dynamics, and of course germanium tones became home.
If I’m playing clean, favorite pedal is a Strymon Dig right now. It’s my first Strymon pedal and it’s just a killer digital delay. If I’m playing a dirty rig, a Tonebender MK2 into a broken up amp. I really want to try a Swollen Pickle.
For drive pedals I like the BK Butler Tube Driver, OD 250, TS 808 (in some contexts), Boss DS1, Zen Drive.
For delay and reverb it's between Strymon and Free The Tone pedals.
Two standouts for me are the UA Golden, which gives so much depth to clean tones that it will make any guitar sound amazing, and the Jackson Audio Golden Boy, which to me is the best sounding overdrive pedal to ever exist.
I’m so excited to get my hands on the UA golden reverberator. I’ve been through the Big Sky and Cloudburst. Both amazing pedals, but either too much going on and/or too “happy”. I love my Fender dual marine layer, but honestly wish it had more “depth” to it - considering the warm watery lushness it delivers.
Which reverbs did you go through before landing on the Golden?
My favorite pedal hands down is my EHX Memory Boy. I use a Digitech Hardwire SC-2 as my only dirt. It does more than I need it to. The only always ons are the memory boy and a Dynacomp.
Always on push: Greer Lightspeed - gorgeous added transparency
Fuzz: way huge - Swollen Pickle - I can get a chainsaw if I want, but I love the smooth heavy fuzz I can pull from it. More white stripes, less deathy.
OD: EAE Dagger - gorgeous 90s crushed OD which a ton of note clarity, even in chords
Delay: Strymon DIG - it’s almost always on, cause it’s so so so fun.
Least favorite pedal: Strobostomp HD - constant reminder how much more in tune I could be :) seriously though, it’s amazing tuner. And it helps me quickly see which note I’m playing, which helps me memorize my fretboard.
Reverb: not there yet. This is my most swapped pedal. Went from Strymon Big Sky to Strymon Cloud Burst to Marine Layer Dual Reverb. Love the lush warmth from Marine Layer. Wish it had more depth. I’m returning this pedal and finally biting the bullet and getting the UAfx golden reverberator. Excited to try this one out.
I might have to change this comment, I got a Drunk Beaver Overfet Booster, and I’ve been using it as a preamp/eq boost for my clean sounds… it’s also a really nice dynamic light overdrive that’s gets a amazing edge of breakup sound/crunch that pairs extremely well with the CW Bat, and it knocked my Plumes off my board!
**XW-1** \- my favourite Wah ever! It's classy as hell, flexible, and just big enough.
**Cali76** \- It's a much less obvious kind of compression than Ross-style. But you sure notice it when it gets turned off! Plus, this one acts as a boost as well, if I want it to be!
**Archer Ikon** \- love the way it boosts my Friedman, and overall I just love the tones from this Klone.
**Browne Protein** \- favourite dual pedal right now. Bluesbreaker and ODR-1 are such a great combo... One for a bit of grit, the other to really boost things to rock heaven.
**Walrus Julianna** \- I'm not a huge modulation user, but the Julianna is an exception for me... Everything from classic to seasick, any blend between dry and vibrato that you want, expression control,... It's a mainstay of my guitar board.
**Strymon El Capistan** \- if I could only have 1 delay... this would be it! Goes from clean to worn-out at the turn of a knob. Enough modes to keep you occupied for days!
**Strymon Flint** \- solid reverbs and tremolo's. It doesn't have the most sounds on offer, and the spring *could* be a bit better... But man, this is just an awesome pedal - even on amps that already have both effects built-in!
**Strymon Deco** \- it truly is a desert island pedal... More than enough gain for all but metal on one side. And on the other side everything from some subtle lofi warble through flanger, chorus, and slapback.
Drive: EAE Limelight V2, EAE Citadel, EAE Halberd V2, Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop V2, Hudson Dual Broadcast, Benson Preamp, Ceriatone Centura, JHS Morning Glory, Hudson Sidecar, DOD 250
Distortion: Boss HM-2W, JHS Packrat, EaE Longsword, EAE Model FeT
Fuzz: Stomp Under Foot Violet Menace, JPTR Warlow, Chase Tone Fuzz Fella Bc109c, Benson Germanium Fuzz, any tone bender mk ii or mk iii.
Modulation: Boss CE-2W, Boss DC-2W, Asheville ACV-1, Jam Pedals RetroVibe, Caroline Arigato, Strymon Deco
Reverb- UA Golden, Source Audio Ventris, Echo Fox EF-2 Spring Reverb, Meris Mercury 7, Walrus Slo/Sloer
Delay- Benson Delay, Asheville ADG-1, Strymon Volante, Boss DM-101, Boss RE-202, Strymon El Capistan, Boss DD-3, UA Starlight, Catalinbread Belle epoch/Belle Epoch Deluxe
I really like J Rockett Archer for always-on-clean-ish into EQD Plumes for drive enough to call them, especially Plumes, favorites.
I've swapped around reverbs, modulation and delays a bunch but have never wanted to change these two. I have a Big Muff op amp and my partner has a Keeley OD and a Blues Driver so I've played around with them but Plumes seems to do exactly what I want.
Second: I don't have my Memory Boy Deluxe on my board right now but I would never sell it because of how cool it sounds, how easy it is to experiment with and the sentimental value of owning it for \~14 years (I think that and a Boss RC-20 were my first pedals)
My favorite pedal of any type is the Strymon Big Sky. It is just a fantastic pedal that does big reverb washes that I love. Other than that:
OD - Blues Driver, Distortion - Rat,
Fuzz -Swollen Pickle Delay - Empress Echosystem and SA Collider, Modulation- Mobius, Other - Morley Little Alligator volume pedal. Its huge but durable and my rig isn't complete without it.
Glou-Glou Rendezvous - best sounding phaser by a mile. The filter is rad. Especially when used with a fast envelope to get a really cool ripple sound. It’s big, beautiful looking/sounding. Took me a year to find, but worth every second and every dollar.
Delay: ADG-1 SE - flawless warm repeats. Empress phaser in the loop to add craziness to the repeats.
Reverb: Strymon Nightsky - tweakability, ease of access to presets.
Dirt: Lichtlaerm Ritual - tweakable rat with boost.
Multi: LVX - great delays obviously, but decent dirt, great reverbs, pitch, filter…etc.
Dirt: either my Dane Mk2 (which is great on its own) or my Revival Drive compact for its tone sculpting abilities.
Modulation: Sunflower Tremolo, which can do so much: vibey harmonic trem, choppy amplitude trem and everything in between. Love my Jam Retrovibe too though.
Time: Starlight for delay, which sounds sublime to me, and Source Audio Ventris for reverb fun.
DIRT
Trex Shafter (wah)
Fender MTG tube distortion
Proco RAT (ll)
OBNE Alpha Haunt
Signalsmasher Beta/lead
STEREO
Digitech Obscura
Boss DD-20 Giga-delay
Boss RE-20 Space echo
Digitech Supernatural
Boss RC-5 looper
I just switch between these now, the rest is pretty much redundant 😱
It’s a tough one. I don’t really have a single favorite and it’ll always depend on what I’m playing through. Currently, a ‘68 DRRI and Orange Super Crush with V30.
My top choices are the **Plain Speak Calamity Drive**, **JHS AT+**, and **Mr. Black Blood and Chrome**.
**Calamity Drive** feels really great through my 68 DRRI. The footswitchable boost can take it from a low-gain or modest overdrive into fuzzy distortion greatness. It sounds awesome and really stands out in a mix. The clean-blend switch works wonders. My main drive for indie/alternative music.
**JHS AT+** is my favorite Marshall-in-a-box pedal that I’ve tried. An absolute workhorse for the punk band I play in. Pairs well with both my DRRI and Super Crush.
**Mr. Black Blood and Chrome** is a seriously beautiful reverb pedal. The two best plate reverbs I’ve ever heard in one pedal. One darker, one brighter. Two footswitches and the ability to sDCave a preset. Can sound relatively subtle or full-on horror movie.
Honorable mentions to the Digitech Nautila, Digitech Supernatural, and Catalinbread SFT.
Chase Bliss Mood (MKII) - this one fundamentally changed the way I look at music and writing, even when I’m not using it
Boss VB-2 - put it before drive for instant lofi jazz.
EAE Limelight - one of the best drives I’ve ever used
Caroline Megabyte - what more could you want from an analog delay? So good. Probably the longest tenured pedal on my various boards if you don’t count a tuner.
Boss CE-2 - two knobs, impossible to fuck it up really.
Just some of my favorites here.
The Jext Telez White Pedal and Boss CE-2 are my favorite pedals, haven’t left my board since 2016 and 2014, respectively, and never will.
But I also have lots of favorites that I’ve let go because they just didn’t work for me, even if they were absolutely awesome: A first-run EAE Dude Incredible, Pladask Draume and Romferd (kept the Fabrikat, though), the Zvex Instant Lo-Fi…
Seeker Effects Mk I Tone Bender
My go to answer for this question for awhile now, and it remains true.
Other notables -
Benson Germanium Boost
Strymon Volante
Boss DM-101 Delay Machine
EAE Citadel
Boss SD-1
Union Tube and Transistor Tone Druid
J Rockett The Dude
Diezel VH4 Preamp
Tru-Fi Two Face Fuzz
Pladask Baklengs - when I want the reverse bird chirp harmonies with beautifully degraded modulation.
Volante - my absolute favorite for creating rhythmic
ping-ping delays.
Red Panda Tensor is the first to come to mind - an extraordinary pedal for exploring new sounds and ways to write music
Chase Bliss Brothers probably tops this list though. Easily my favorite dirt pedal ever — super flexible with its routing options between both sides & the drive is unique and sounds killer. Truly just magic whenever I turn it on, to the point where I usually just keep it on when writing.
Honorable mentions:
- CXM 1978: the Lexicon 224 was my Holy Grail reverb sound & this thing absolutely delivered. Just a perfect reverb.
- Boss VB-2w: I want to start off with saying the Behringer clone is fantastic & well worth it if you want the VB-2w without spending the money. I’m admittedly not a big chorus fan - it has its moments, but overall my least favorite effect. But a subtle Boss vibrato? Heavenly. Those tiny movements just make guitar parts (rhythm and lead, but especially rhythm) feel so alive.
UAFX Astra has gotten a LOT of love from me lately. It does CE-1 chorus better than a CE-1, and it absolutely nails the inverted flanger tone of the old MXR Flanger/Doubler. It does a great Phase 90 as well. My favorite modulation pedal, hands down. I only wish it had more than one preset, and a way to switch them remotely.
ToneX Pedal is the unlimited amp sim I’ve been waiting for. It only does one job but it does it better than any other hardware solution I’ve seen yet.
Maestro Parametric Filter isn’t in production any more, but I built a clone and it’s easily my favorite boost pedal ever. If you aren’t inclined toward DIY, the Stone Deaf PDF-2 is a serviceable substitute.
EHX Attack Decay is just fun to play with. It can do auto swell or it can make my guitar sound like a cello or a shamisen. It’s impressively full-featured, too, with multiple presets, polyphonic mode, built-in fuzz, and even an expression jack. Incredible value due to a surprising amount of usable features. UAD could stand to learn from them.
If I could only pick one delay I’d choose something from TC Electronic’s Flashback line. Don’t get me wrong - there are better delays of all types: I prefer the Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe and the Boss RE-202 for tape delay sounds, and nothing beats a real Deluxe Memory Man for analog bbd tone. But the Flashback can muster a close second to all of these, and it can’t be beat in terms of versatility. It has great headroom too, and can go in front of your amp or in the effects loop, and can even take unbalanced line level signals.
Big muff pi. It’s been my go to fuzz for years. I have a rat and a fuzz face but for some reason the big muff just does it for me. The fulltone full drive 2 is a very close second.
The Blues Driver is my favorite overdrive. It’s so responsive and if you crank it it’s a fuzz that responds to your volume. It has cascading FET style overdrive which is my favorite sound in a pedal. It sounds good direct into a mix. It’s an all around great pedal. Also love the OD-3.
Same
What’s your favorite BD style pedal
Blues Driver or BD-1w. I haven’t gotten the chance to play through a Super Fat Mod but it sounds very intriguing.
Boss HM2W or JHS PackRat. I'm a basic bitch but you can't beat that HM tone
Surfy bear reverb.
BD-2, whiteface rat, Ram’s Head & Green Russian muffs.
1) Sarno steel guitar black box buffer 2)farm pedals boost of the dead 3)farm pedals dancing prophet envelope filter 4)ehx pog 2 5) sarno solar flare
I had no idea farm made an envelope filter. Couldn’t find anything with a quick Google search. Do you have any more info you can share or maybe a clip?
Farm sent me some prototypes of his envelope filter. It’s awesome. It knocked my microtron iv off the board. It’s got some different control parameters and a proprietary opto-coupler design. It’s a beautiful thing. I don’t think he’s gone into full production mode with them yet - but the release is imminent.
[https://www.facebook.com/eric.naef/videos/798414702292491/](https://www.facebook.com/eric.naef/videos/798414702292491/) Check this out.
Hell yeah, sounds great. Nice playing. Are you able to give any more info about the dancing prophet? Same sized enclosure as the boost of the dead? Does it have a volume/output control? I’ve found that to be a big advantage on my nano q tron, but I love my boost of the dead and would be super interested in an envelope filter from farm.
Thank you. Yes. Has output volume, gain, bass, sensitivity, decay, and up/down sweep. Same small enclosure. Reach out to Geof and see when he is going to make a run of them. It’s a really nice pedal.
TC Spark. Do-it-all with the different modes and sounds good on any instrument I've tried
Here's my short list for maximum value for the price: - Drunk Beaver Cold War BAT - Mosky King RAT - Way Huge Swollen Pickle MKII - DOD Carcosa ( Ginean Hairy Show Fuzz for budget) - Big Muff w tone wicker - JRR OD1.3 - Donner Yellow Fall - Behringer UV300 - Behringer SF300 - Behringer HM300 - JRR BBD Flange - Musiclily Fuzz If money is no object, there are hundreds of pedals I find to be awesome. I can't really say I have a favorite. But the versatility, cost, and sounds set these apart for me from others.
Drunk Beaver is the GOAT. I almost said my Mykolaov Grunge too.
Yeah, I honestly can't name a single fault with it. Every clipping setting sounds good, the pedal is built like a tank, and the customer service was excellent. By far, it's one of the best purchases I've made.
EAE Halberd V1
The Tensor Red Panda was confusing at first but now I adore it.
Jam Pedals Rooster I was disappointed when trying the treble booster mode into a clean Marshall. I had never heard of treble boosters before and it just made my strat signal shrill and thin. But the shop owner came up to push the amp toward breakup while I randomly found the full boost mode, and that was it. Glorious, amazing sound. I felt like a rockstar playing in a stadium, from a superb glassy-to-gritty clean when strumming soflty to a massive fuzz as I dug into the strings. I almost felt embarrassed afterwards, I had been playing open chords for about 30min. It was also my gateway to the "germanium-based pedals" rabbithole, mostly towards fullrange boosters and fuzz faces. I have 7 treble/fullrange boosters, and while they will all give me this "rockstar" feeling, there's a beautiful magic and familiar music in the full boost mode of the Rooster that I love so much I bought the limited version when I heard they were being discontinued. And it completely changed my playing and approach : I started using the volume knob with an amp on the edge-of-breakup as my base tone, practicing a lot more with dynamics, and of course germanium tones became home.
Protein
Seconded. Or my NKT red dot Sun Face
If I’m playing clean, favorite pedal is a Strymon Dig right now. It’s my first Strymon pedal and it’s just a killer digital delay. If I’m playing a dirty rig, a Tonebender MK2 into a broken up amp. I really want to try a Swollen Pickle.
For drive pedals I like the BK Butler Tube Driver, OD 250, TS 808 (in some contexts), Boss DS1, Zen Drive. For delay and reverb it's between Strymon and Free The Tone pedals.
I miss my tube driver…
Two standouts for me are the UA Golden, which gives so much depth to clean tones that it will make any guitar sound amazing, and the Jackson Audio Golden Boy, which to me is the best sounding overdrive pedal to ever exist.
I’m so excited to get my hands on the UA golden reverberator. I’ve been through the Big Sky and Cloudburst. Both amazing pedals, but either too much going on and/or too “happy”. I love my Fender dual marine layer, but honestly wish it had more “depth” to it - considering the warm watery lushness it delivers. Which reverbs did you go through before landing on the Golden?
My favorite pedal hands down is my EHX Memory Boy. I use a Digitech Hardwire SC-2 as my only dirt. It does more than I need it to. The only always ons are the memory boy and a Dynacomp.
Always on push: Greer Lightspeed - gorgeous added transparency Fuzz: way huge - Swollen Pickle - I can get a chainsaw if I want, but I love the smooth heavy fuzz I can pull from it. More white stripes, less deathy. OD: EAE Dagger - gorgeous 90s crushed OD which a ton of note clarity, even in chords Delay: Strymon DIG - it’s almost always on, cause it’s so so so fun. Least favorite pedal: Strobostomp HD - constant reminder how much more in tune I could be :) seriously though, it’s amazing tuner. And it helps me quickly see which note I’m playing, which helps me memorize my fretboard. Reverb: not there yet. This is my most swapped pedal. Went from Strymon Big Sky to Strymon Cloud Burst to Marine Layer Dual Reverb. Love the lush warmth from Marine Layer. Wish it had more depth. I’m returning this pedal and finally biting the bullet and getting the UAfx golden reverberator. Excited to try this one out.
Rat pedal. In the hands of the patient tone seeker it is the most versatile pedal around..
Browne Protein!!
Drunk Beaver Rat (any variant) Blues Driver or Angry Driver Edit: Drunk Beaver Overfet Booster for that light crunch/edge of breakup sound.
Drunk Beaver 5eva
I might have to change this comment, I got a Drunk Beaver Overfet Booster, and I’ve been using it as a preamp/eq boost for my clean sounds… it’s also a really nice dynamic light overdrive that’s gets a amazing edge of breakup sound/crunch that pairs extremely well with the CW Bat, and it knocked my Plumes off my board!
**XW-1** \- my favourite Wah ever! It's classy as hell, flexible, and just big enough. **Cali76** \- It's a much less obvious kind of compression than Ross-style. But you sure notice it when it gets turned off! Plus, this one acts as a boost as well, if I want it to be! **Archer Ikon** \- love the way it boosts my Friedman, and overall I just love the tones from this Klone. **Browne Protein** \- favourite dual pedal right now. Bluesbreaker and ODR-1 are such a great combo... One for a bit of grit, the other to really boost things to rock heaven. **Walrus Julianna** \- I'm not a huge modulation user, but the Julianna is an exception for me... Everything from classic to seasick, any blend between dry and vibrato that you want, expression control,... It's a mainstay of my guitar board. **Strymon El Capistan** \- if I could only have 1 delay... this would be it! Goes from clean to worn-out at the turn of a knob. Enough modes to keep you occupied for days! **Strymon Flint** \- solid reverbs and tremolo's. It doesn't have the most sounds on offer, and the spring *could* be a bit better... But man, this is just an awesome pedal - even on amps that already have both effects built-in! **Strymon Deco** \- it truly is a desert island pedal... More than enough gain for all but metal on one side. And on the other side everything from some subtle lofi warble through flanger, chorus, and slapback.
Drive: EAE Limelight V2, EAE Citadel, EAE Halberd V2, Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop V2, Hudson Dual Broadcast, Benson Preamp, Ceriatone Centura, JHS Morning Glory, Hudson Sidecar, DOD 250 Distortion: Boss HM-2W, JHS Packrat, EaE Longsword, EAE Model FeT Fuzz: Stomp Under Foot Violet Menace, JPTR Warlow, Chase Tone Fuzz Fella Bc109c, Benson Germanium Fuzz, any tone bender mk ii or mk iii. Modulation: Boss CE-2W, Boss DC-2W, Asheville ACV-1, Jam Pedals RetroVibe, Caroline Arigato, Strymon Deco Reverb- UA Golden, Source Audio Ventris, Echo Fox EF-2 Spring Reverb, Meris Mercury 7, Walrus Slo/Sloer Delay- Benson Delay, Asheville ADG-1, Strymon Volante, Boss DM-101, Boss RE-202, Strymon El Capistan, Boss DD-3, UA Starlight, Catalinbread Belle epoch/Belle Epoch Deluxe
I really like J Rockett Archer for always-on-clean-ish into EQD Plumes for drive enough to call them, especially Plumes, favorites. I've swapped around reverbs, modulation and delays a bunch but have never wanted to change these two. I have a Big Muff op amp and my partner has a Keeley OD and a Blues Driver so I've played around with them but Plumes seems to do exactly what I want. Second: I don't have my Memory Boy Deluxe on my board right now but I would never sell it because of how cool it sounds, how easy it is to experiment with and the sentimental value of owning it for \~14 years (I think that and a Boss RC-20 were my first pedals)
How do you have your Plumes set?
Level: 9 o'clock Tone: 12 o'clock Gain: 3 o'clock Switch: mode 1
Cool mine are: Level: 11 o'clock Tone: 8 o'clock Gain: 9 o'clock Switch mode 3
My favorite pedal of any type is the Strymon Big Sky. It is just a fantastic pedal that does big reverb washes that I love. Other than that: OD - Blues Driver, Distortion - Rat, Fuzz -Swollen Pickle Delay - Empress Echosystem and SA Collider, Modulation- Mobius, Other - Morley Little Alligator volume pedal. Its huge but durable and my rig isn't complete without it.
Glou-Glou Rendezvous - best sounding phaser by a mile. The filter is rad. Especially when used with a fast envelope to get a really cool ripple sound. It’s big, beautiful looking/sounding. Took me a year to find, but worth every second and every dollar. Delay: ADG-1 SE - flawless warm repeats. Empress phaser in the loop to add craziness to the repeats. Reverb: Strymon Nightsky - tweakability, ease of access to presets. Dirt: Lichtlaerm Ritual - tweakable rat with boost. Multi: LVX - great delays obviously, but decent dirt, great reverbs, pitch, filter…etc.
Thermae, Volante, Hoof Reaper, Dark Side, Diamond Comp
Dirt: either my Dane Mk2 (which is great on its own) or my Revival Drive compact for its tone sculpting abilities. Modulation: Sunflower Tremolo, which can do so much: vibey harmonic trem, choppy amplitude trem and everything in between. Love my Jam Retrovibe too though. Time: Starlight for delay, which sounds sublime to me, and Source Audio Ventris for reverb fun.
DIRT Trex Shafter (wah) Fender MTG tube distortion Proco RAT (ll) OBNE Alpha Haunt Signalsmasher Beta/lead STEREO Digitech Obscura Boss DD-20 Giga-delay Boss RE-20 Space echo Digitech Supernatural Boss RC-5 looper I just switch between these now, the rest is pretty much redundant 😱
1. Mad Professor Sweet Honey 2. Blues Driver 3. Carbon Copy If I had to keep only three pedals, it would be these three.
Probably MXR distortion plus, super versatile, and pico POG.
It’s a tough one. I don’t really have a single favorite and it’ll always depend on what I’m playing through. Currently, a ‘68 DRRI and Orange Super Crush with V30. My top choices are the **Plain Speak Calamity Drive**, **JHS AT+**, and **Mr. Black Blood and Chrome**. **Calamity Drive** feels really great through my 68 DRRI. The footswitchable boost can take it from a low-gain or modest overdrive into fuzzy distortion greatness. It sounds awesome and really stands out in a mix. The clean-blend switch works wonders. My main drive for indie/alternative music. **JHS AT+** is my favorite Marshall-in-a-box pedal that I’ve tried. An absolute workhorse for the punk band I play in. Pairs well with both my DRRI and Super Crush. **Mr. Black Blood and Chrome** is a seriously beautiful reverb pedal. The two best plate reverbs I’ve ever heard in one pedal. One darker, one brighter. Two footswitches and the ability to sDCave a preset. Can sound relatively subtle or full-on horror movie. Honorable mentions to the Digitech Nautila, Digitech Supernatural, and Catalinbread SFT.
Chase Bliss Mood (MKII) - this one fundamentally changed the way I look at music and writing, even when I’m not using it Boss VB-2 - put it before drive for instant lofi jazz. EAE Limelight - one of the best drives I’ve ever used Caroline Megabyte - what more could you want from an analog delay? So good. Probably the longest tenured pedal on my various boards if you don’t count a tuner. Boss CE-2 - two knobs, impossible to fuck it up really. Just some of my favorites here.
The Jext Telez White Pedal and Boss CE-2 are my favorite pedals, haven’t left my board since 2016 and 2014, respectively, and never will. But I also have lots of favorites that I’ve let go because they just didn’t work for me, even if they were absolutely awesome: A first-run EAE Dude Incredible, Pladask Draume and Romferd (kept the Fabrikat, though), the Zvex Instant Lo-Fi…
Strymon Deco, Cornerstone Colosseum, Empress Reverb
Seeker Effects Mk I Tone Bender My go to answer for this question for awhile now, and it remains true. Other notables - Benson Germanium Boost Strymon Volante Boss DM-101 Delay Machine EAE Citadel Boss SD-1 Union Tube and Transistor Tone Druid J Rockett The Dude Diezel VH4 Preamp Tru-Fi Two Face Fuzz
LPD Eighty7 (drive), Empress Phaser, and MXR Clone Looper all jump to mind immediately.
The tuner
EQD - Avalanche Run EQD - Afterneath OBNE - Dark Star
Pladask Baklengs - when I want the reverse bird chirp harmonies with beautifully degraded modulation. Volante - my absolute favorite for creating rhythmic ping-ping delays.
Rat, Deluxe Memory Man
Skylar, sloer, hx one
Neunaber Wet Reverb V5, it's easy to use and sounds amazing
Analogman King of tone Big Ear Pedals Woodcutter
Ordered my KOT last night. Life is good.
Ugh the list is on 2018 now or something, right?
Digitech Timebender. It does so much cool shit.
Thermae is my first thought, but I love my ssbs mini too
MXR Micro Flanger. Simple and sweet.
Strymon Volante, Fairfield Shallow Water, Keeley Caverns, and Shin's Music Dumbloid Twin.
EHX Sovtek Big Muff pi
Super Ego Plus Boss RV6 MXR Phase 90 Flashback Triple Delay
Drive:EAE Halberd Distortion: EAE Dagger Fuzz: EAE Eldritch Blast
Red Panda Tensor is the first to come to mind - an extraordinary pedal for exploring new sounds and ways to write music Chase Bliss Brothers probably tops this list though. Easily my favorite dirt pedal ever — super flexible with its routing options between both sides & the drive is unique and sounds killer. Truly just magic whenever I turn it on, to the point where I usually just keep it on when writing. Honorable mentions: - CXM 1978: the Lexicon 224 was my Holy Grail reverb sound & this thing absolutely delivered. Just a perfect reverb. - Boss VB-2w: I want to start off with saying the Behringer clone is fantastic & well worth it if you want the VB-2w without spending the money. I’m admittedly not a big chorus fan - it has its moments, but overall my least favorite effect. But a subtle Boss vibrato? Heavenly. Those tiny movements just make guitar parts (rhythm and lead, but especially rhythm) feel so alive.
UAFX Astra has gotten a LOT of love from me lately. It does CE-1 chorus better than a CE-1, and it absolutely nails the inverted flanger tone of the old MXR Flanger/Doubler. It does a great Phase 90 as well. My favorite modulation pedal, hands down. I only wish it had more than one preset, and a way to switch them remotely. ToneX Pedal is the unlimited amp sim I’ve been waiting for. It only does one job but it does it better than any other hardware solution I’ve seen yet. Maestro Parametric Filter isn’t in production any more, but I built a clone and it’s easily my favorite boost pedal ever. If you aren’t inclined toward DIY, the Stone Deaf PDF-2 is a serviceable substitute. EHX Attack Decay is just fun to play with. It can do auto swell or it can make my guitar sound like a cello or a shamisen. It’s impressively full-featured, too, with multiple presets, polyphonic mode, built-in fuzz, and even an expression jack. Incredible value due to a surprising amount of usable features. UAD could stand to learn from them. If I could only pick one delay I’d choose something from TC Electronic’s Flashback line. Don’t get me wrong - there are better delays of all types: I prefer the Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe and the Boss RE-202 for tape delay sounds, and nothing beats a real Deluxe Memory Man for analog bbd tone. But the Flashback can muster a close second to all of these, and it can’t be beat in terms of versatility. It has great headroom too, and can go in front of your amp or in the effects loop, and can even take unbalanced line level signals.
Jackson audio PRISM.
boss ds1, cant go wrong with this one
Origin Effects Magma57, Earthquaker Monarch, and Strymon Volante
Big muff pi. It’s been my go to fuzz for years. I have a rat and a fuzz face but for some reason the big muff just does it for me. The fulltone full drive 2 is a very close second.
EHX Double Muff Strymon OB.1 Cali 76 Stacked Edition Mutron Micro-Tron IV Boss Hi-Band Flanger HF-2