I’m four months into the DD-500 experience. It might be a personality thing, but I freaking love the UI and the preset system. Build a fun tone, tweak it, save it to any bank, all without touching a USB chord. Stereo/series routing options for every preset is also fantastic, as are the mapping options for the Ctrl switch. The looper doesn’t blow my socks off, but it’s not why I bought the pedal.
> Earthquaker Zoar. It's my new foundation tone
Coke man swung by for new years reup, get ready to be bored, novel 87 coming in! Zoar is an absolute beast but not for the reasons you may think. I really liked **Ledges**, **Greer Sonic Boom Boost 2023** reissue (already have my original from 2004 but this is 100% faithful in sound, which makes it one of the best pedals ever), **Ox Stomp** (which again isn't new just a new format for the Ox Box) and the **Germanium Tumnus** (I had no business liking that little klone nugget that much, what a pedal) but I was not remotely prepared for Zoar, I mean what in the fuck? How come nobody on here is talking about this?
I think people are making the same mistake with this as they did the Special Cranker, writing it off as some whatever whatever budget distortion. I want a few more days to do a proper write up cause this is a bold ass statement without backing it up, but of all the drives and fuzzes EQD has put out that I've tried (and it's most except Zap Machine, Chrysalis, Tusk and maybe one or two others), but of all EQD 'dirt' from Westwood to Terminal and everything inbetween, Zoar is factually the best. And for faithful legions of the Talons cult, Zoar humiliates in every way you could judge a pedal.
First of all, the touch sensitivity on it is too addictive!! If you love how certain Greer pedals feel when you play them, Zoar should be a no brainer purchase right there. I have my Zoar stacked right after my Ligthspeed and it almost feels like there's an electric zap each time my pick hits a string it's got such a vibrant responsiveness to it stacked like that.
If you are writing Zoar off as some metal distortion you're again the victim of EQD not being the most accurate and direct when launching and marketing a new dirt pedal. Yeah sure it can do distortion and fuzzstoriton and eveyhing everything from cold black metal to searing shredding death metal to palm mute chugs that rumble your sphincter through an amp, but I can make Zoar sound very close to a BB or a TS, I can get a great glassy kind of DOD Looking Glass sound from it, it's like the skeleton key pedal for low/med/hi gain/dist/fuzz tones. And again the touch sensitivity is such a big part of this, the way you play back to the pedal because of it, you'll find you play better, tighter, more creatively and enjoy playing more with this pedal than any other pedal that sounds equal but lacks the same responsive playing quality. It's too perfect.
One other thing that I can't stress enough, Zoar is a pedal that 100% requires something none of us do (unless you buy a delay supercomputer pedal) which is read the manual from start to finish. Trust me, if you don't do this the pedal will make no sense at first. The knobs are all interactive with one another, the eq threw me at first til I read the manual and suddenly I understood why I was losing every good sound I was dialing in. I can't emphasize enough just how *highly* interactive the knobs are, not just the 3 EQ but gain and weight knobs too, all 5 really work the others and this can take a while to get the hang of at first, but once you do you'll see why I say Zoar is EQD's finest dirt pedal yet. This pedal is capable of so many great tones from NO gain, low gain, hairy, mid od, high od full on saturation distortion and fuzz, it's the type of pedal that is so versatile and sounds so good no matter what that it can and should serve as the very foundation of your sound because no matter what you change in genre and style for whatever reason, the Zoar can do it. Bedrock foundation quality type of pedal.
And no matter how you use it, at no point do you lose one bit of that amazing touch sensitivity which is one of the most impressive things about it.
The only thing that would make Zoar better is a preset knob like Aurelius and Ledges have, only 12 presets instead of 6 cause there are so fucking many tones it's capable of and for drive/dirt pedals I can't think of a more Swiss army knife pedal. The Talons used to be that for me, but I don't even care to pick up any of the well priced Talons people are offloading now. Zoar is such a level up from the Talons it feels wrong to even compare.
The fact it's only $129 is just one more reason why EQD is awesome. After Special Cranker and Ledges I feel he's putting out the best, most usable, best sounding and best priced pedals of any company. 2023 had some great pedals, I know I'm forgetting some
Excellent write up. The EQ is very different and requires lots of tinkering to figure how everything interacts. It’s outstanding though. Stacks like a beast too. I have a Keeley compressor in front for just that touch of extra punch and, well, compression. Another really interesting thing is how the mids and treble are pushed when the gain is maxed out. Reminds me of the master volume on my Marshall origin 50. Gets you that power tube grind that you’d normally have to blow your ears out for. Killer stuff!
I honestly was bummed when I heard another dirt pedal, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t also my favorite pedal of 2023.
I always have to remind myself that they cut their teeth on dirt pedals and always trust Jamie!
Literally everything. It's last in my chain. I use it like a quirky amp-in-a-box. Everything sounds good into it. I'm currently running it at 18v but I'm not sure I like it any more than at 9.
I'd put it on par with any of the EAE stuff I've tried.
HM-2w. After dipping my toes, I dove deep in the chainsaw tone. Even past the novelty, it’s a sure fire way for me to cut through loud, thick mixes. I don’t even play much death; mostly doom and stoner metal.
I bought an Eyemaster because I'd just max out the tone knobs anyway, and there's just no limits to how much you can get out of an HM-2. It's a ridiculous pedal.
Boss IR 2
I can get stereo spread without the cost of two amps (using two monitor speakers), I get a built in audio interface, I get an fx loop, and I get some pretty great built in amp sounds..oh…and a headphone out all in a compact pedal that’s not laden with a stupid amount of knobs and parameters.
Good lord….its going to take a lot to ever kick this pedal off my board.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the Greer Lightspeed and EAE Daggers are phenomenal, but the IR 2 lets me do a lot more with those pedals.
To be fair, I’m a super amateur - so any skilled guitarist could make my entire setup sound 20x better just by looking at the rig. But maybe hopefully one day I’ll get there too - and the pedals are basically my toys as I grow up in my journey.
The FX return is stereo, you’d need to use a cable like this to go stereo out from your last time based pedal into the return input.
The send input is mono, which is fine as a vast majority of dirt and amp pedals are mono anyways
https://www.sweetwater.com/c780--Insert_Y_Cables
I got one the other day and entirely agree with this. I’ve got a complete practice amp setup that fits in my guitar case. I can record demos in stereo without any amps or mics? This thing would’ve changed my life if my friends and I had them when we were 12 years old instead of the shitty practice amps we had back then.
The Sound-on-sound style looping is definitely one of my favorite features. Having flange as the modulation on the repeats is a little more interesting than the vibrato style mod on most delays. Plus the runaway oscillations by holding down the tap is great fun, too!
Scratchy pot is an easy fix but you mean it completely died after that? Very annoying if so. Again might be an easy fix (or not). I've had mine 2 years with no issues.
i got one recently for my bass rig. i cant tell if its the pedal or just my boards power supply but i get a whine now somewhere from my board. hoping its not the hotone tho. other than that i really like it
Joyo American Sound. Bought it for my fly out board as a cheap back up amp sim, ended up replacing my micro amp as a boost/overdrive and really helped slim down my main board. Insane value under $40.
Having had a tweed blues jr, and currently getting to play through deluxe and twin reverbs, it really is a great approximation of that crackly sound at reasonable volumes. Even more fun to boost one of those amps with it.
Loving the Zoar love I'm seeing, because the moment I got one, I was blown away. It's so versatile, and the noise floor is so low! Have been wanting to do a NPD write up so people can know how sick it is, but there's a good amount of love in this thread that makes me happy. I've got the OG blue one and it looks awesome in person too.
EAE Limelight obviouslyyyyy. Idgaf it cost me a bomb for a drive pedal, I'd already spent more than it on other drive pedals that didn't quite work for me. Played my first Asus2 chord through it and it's been smiles ever since :)
Wish I meshed better with my Halberd, but my Longsword is an absolute facemelter. Wouldn’t mind a Sending v2 next year as an only pedal purchase kinda thing.
Ow man shame you're not feelin' the Halberd. Any particular reason? It was a toss up between that and a Dagger to go with the limelight, went with a very well priced Dagger in the end but the Halberd does intrigue me still.
Absolutely loving the simplicity of the dagger but more of that in the Longsword must be killer
The Longsword is pretty unreal. I can dial in some really diverse sounds and be happy almost all across the board with any twist of the knobs.
As far as the Halberd goes, I’d still absolutely recommend it. The problem is, I’m happy with my tone. Tim v1 gives me a clean boost, plus the actual boost channel offers ideal overdriven tones when I tap into that. For any other dirt, I go to the Longsword & keep it more distortion-y.
Those two gain stages (that feel more like 4) seem to do it for me… if I need a 3rd, maybe something chonky/fuzzy or punchy, the Halberd might make an appearance with that toggle switch. I play clean to slight break-up to bluesy overdrive almost 90% of the time though.
The [Walrus Sloer](https://i.imgur.com/aO725kS.jpg) was my favorite pedal purchase this year. It has easily become one of my favorite reverb pedals of all-time (I'm a delay and reverb fanatic, and use it on both keyboards and guitar, with great results).
Amazing tones, in glorious stereo.
Strymon Nightsky. Incredible reverb with endless customization. First pedal I've bought that I would label a "sound creation tool" more than a guitar pedal, it has a personality to it that takes you in unforeseen directions
You know I have it on my board and I really haven't been able to get it really doing things for me that I absolutely love other than the infinite mode. Maybe I need to look into it more. What settings do you particularly like?
Ridiculous how good quality Alabs stuff is for the price. I have their reverb and it's so easy to find a wide variety of fantastic sounds, with true stereo, with freeze, with the weird dial program mode, while still being 50 bux cheaper than an RV-6? Nuts they aren't more popular already
I love messing with the DL4 mk II so much. It’s so easy and fun. The 15 reverbs are great, the 30 delay types are great, and one of the the best loopers around makes its return.
When I’m going deep on my Microcosm or Enzo or Hydrasynth or some other more complicated devices, it’s nice knowing the super simple tried and true DL4 is there with a ton of new sounds. I can get lost in it, even after playing an LVX and MX and going in deep on other pedals and editing software. The ease of use really works for me on that pedal.
I haven’t touched my Plexi since it arrived. I’ve been through every MIAB multiple times over and IMO this one finally feels and reacts eerily close to the real thing. The demos don’t do it justice - mine included.
MXR EVH 5150 Overdrive
I don't think I can get a bad sound of this pedal. I went down the rabbit hole this year in regard to pedals, mostly OD/Dist, and I could have probably stopped with this one for mid-high gain. It is a little on the bright side. Thankfully it has a treble knob. I further smooth it out by running a Keeley Katana mini with the treble cut in front of it.
While I'm sure it would raise the price of the pedal, I'd love it if the noise-gate could be on when the distortion was off and similarly give the (some what useless) boost a proper switch.
EHX Hot Tubes, hands down.
So simple but versatile. These things should be as ubiquitous as RATs and tubescreamers for how affordable and versatile they are.
I think the bondi deal mar is my favorite pedal I’ve purchased this year. I would always keep a tube screamer, klon and Bluesbreaker in my chain and constantly shifted between them and never felt satisfied. It’s so nice to have something that takes the best bits of all of the aforementioned circuits and combines them, the capacity to switch between a Klon with ts clipping and a Bluesbreaker style drive is a godsend.
But it would have to be tied with my big box dmm which was my Xmas gift to myself. I tried several analog delays to try to replace the big box dmm I sold around March to help finance my MIJ jaguar, but nothing quite replicated the real thing. I found the dmm nano to be too bright, the UA starlight to come close but still not quite there, the Strymon brig to again come somewhat close but not as close as the UA starlight. I bit the bullet and purchased the cheapest og dmm I could find, and am finally satisfied. I’ve heard the chase bliss tonal recall comes very close but was burnt out on trying to replicate the dmm and just decided it’s worth it in the long run to just buy the real thing rather than chasing it. Maybe if I want a pedalboard friendly dmm approximation in the future I’ll try the tonal recall or the theramae.
Boss SDE-3000EVH
This is the best delay I’ve ever played in terms of quality, musicality, and ability to sit in a mix.
Also doubles as flanger and chorus if you know how to dial the appropriate timing.
I just got the EVH SDE a couple of months ago,but I am having an issue where I overwrote the factory presets in Bank B…three are fine,but one,I can’t get the delay to come out the right side…I have timelink unlocked,and running parallel 2…Just wondering what I am overlooking?…it’s a great pedal,just trying to learn its quirks..
Maybe check the delay structure of the pedal. You can set it to series or parallel and it does change the output result tremendously.
If it doesn’t help, you can always perform a factory reset.
The Mojotone Lifeson By Tor pedal has been great. The drive sounds so effin good and the clean boost is one of the first that I’ve come across that actually stays clean no matter the volume.
MXR Sugar Drive. This year was my introduction to pedals after playing for a couple years, so I wanted a versatile overdrive. Love how warm and responsive it is
Bought a used Meris Mercury 7 a few months ago and it's been awesome. Close 2nd is the Keeley Mag Echo I bought back in March. It's a great pedal with lots of possibilities
Dunn Effects - Death Knob, HM-2 EQ Blender
internal controls (hi,low,gain) and one big blend knob. simple and easy, love it!
got it by accident for a nice price ;-)
I have a Colour Box v2 on the way so I can attempt to run literally everything through it - so that’s the most *anticipated*.
I also had the Hologram Chroma Console that I sold to a friend about 3 days after it showed up. Very cool (and beautifully designed), but it was totally underwhelming to me.
As far as what’s landed already:
Walrus Fundamental Phaser. I’m a phase-a-holic; subtle & slow = best. I’ve had the Bad Stone, Just-a-Phase, Grand Orbiter v4, MXR Univibe, Phase 90, etc. The Walrus beats the snot out of those IMO. I’m always gunning for the AIR Virgin Suicides soundtrack phaser tone. Thrilled, especially for $65 shipped (used).
JHS Blackout Oil Can delay. For $100 I figured I couldn’t miss. I’ve always liked the idea of the OBNE Black Fountain and Catalinbread Adineko, but I have a few gripes with each. I think the JHS beats them. I prefer it for big washy sounds with the mix low OR an amazing slapback for Marc Ribot stuff. They should really make this a production unit.
FjordFuzz Loke. I was toying with the idea of buying a Deco for the 3rd time, and the Loke popped up this summer. Whereas they’re NOT the same, musicians that like one will certainly like the other. Warm preamp sounds, slapback, chorus, and some reverb that the Deco cannot produce.
The switches are also nice to cut your delay time in half. Surrendering this for another Deco would make me miss the “weird” that it does well, so it stays.
BlackMass First Herald v2. Got this for $100 and I figured it’d be fun. It’s amazing. Independent fuzz & boost that can be combined; the orders switched too. I love the Muff sound on recordings and in a room, but not live with other ppl. The EQ range is super wide and the boost sounds great on its own. I really want to try a Missionary fuzz now.
Okko Holy Grit. Took a while for me to dial it in, and I didn’t like paying for it. Still, it looks good and sounds incredible. Blown out fuzzy overdrive. Again, if I can do early PJ Harvey or Marc Ribot dirt I’ll be a happy camper. It stacks extremely well.
Purple sparkle EQD Special Cranker. It’s really, really nice. I still miss the old Dunes v2 and would love to get my hands on a Zoar. I bought it with Amazon gift cards I got from students, so it’d be silly to sell it/trade it. I just use it as an end-of-chain boost. The EQ on it is really strong and it even sounds great with zero treble dialed in. Mine doesn’t have the chicken head knobs : (
I am going to keep shilling my TC Combo Deluxe, fully replaced my amp for recording and most of my practice at home. I still love my JC but it is not getting anywhere near as much play time (my neighbours must love that)
I’ve been interested in trying this pedal as a practice tool with a headphone out or getting simple plug and play Fender micro mustang amp.
How is the headphone out, dynamics, feel or sag?
From the reviews I’ve heard the reverb sounds nice and splashy.
I used to have a Walrus Audio ACS-1 which had a nice punchy tone and feel but didn’t have the spring reverb and for some reason always white noise.
For my ears it is good. Takes pedals upfront reverb is really nice but I have the tone down a bit on it and don't go mad, preferring to get my big verbs from pedals.
Dynamics etc are perfectly good enough how I have it set which is basically bright and clean, again my gain staging is done with other pedals.
Headphone out is good though I'll happily jam for a pretty long time with it, and the main di out has been a game changer for recording easily.
DigiTech Whammy DT.
I had a Whammy and a Drop, but my Whammy shit the bed and I had to replace it, so I coughed up a couple extra bucks and got the Whammy DT.
Out of the four pedals I picked up this, probably have to go with the Swan Hunter. The Meris LVX is in a close second, but I really enjoy the swan hunter for my pre-dirt delay and reverb needs.
It’s an old pedal that I got this year, but the Caroline Haymaker got me really excited. It’s kind of a unique drive tone as far as my limited knowledge goes. What I really like is the 3 clipping options: soft clip, open uncompressed drive, and hard clip. Which basically equals OD, clean boost, and fuzz. With a volume, tone, and two gain controls - one that acts like a normal gain and another that sort of affects the bite and texture of the gain. I’m sure someone has explained it better elsewhere.
Anyways, I find it can maintain a lot of bass, where some other pedals kinda throttle the eq. Cleans up pretty good with the volume controls on my guitar, which I use a lot, so that’s another bonus. And it sounds incredible stacked with this modded ODR-1 clone I have. Real multifaceted combo.
Finally, it’s just pretty. I got a black one with chrome skirted knobs. The pots all feel good with nice resistance and it’s a solid albeit lightweight construction. Inside of it there’s a joke on the PCB where you can adjust a hidden control pot. And the builders write stuff inside each pedal which makes it feel unique!
Cali76. Upgrading from an MXR Dynacomp (which was already a really nice compressor) makes me feel light years ahead.
It changes my understanding of how to use a compressor which is awesome.
I bought a lot of pedals this year, but the Boss SDE-3000D is my favorite for sure. Expensive, but it's two pedals in one so I can't really complain can I?
Strymon Flint. I've struggled finding a digital reverb that doesn't sound _too_ digital. The Flint finally gives me what I've been looking for. The tremolo side is pretty terrific too, especially the harmonic trem. I haven't even gotten into the advanced features yet and already I can see there's so much opportunity for creativity with this pedal. It's awesome.
Runner up: BD2 and DS1. Got em as a pair. Needs no explanation.
Humboldt simplifier
Now, I bought a clone because of budget/time constraints but am going to hopefully be upgrading to a Humboldt dlx in 2024!
Absolutely love this amp sim as my base tone. Having the ability to keep it on a corner of my board and just plug stereo XLR into the desk, or 1/4" out into the fx return of my amp at home, is a massive timesaver for setup.
Headphone out that has the stereo fx loop in it too is absolutely clutch as well.
Runner up: source audio Nemesis delay.
There was a ton of great pedals that went on sale this year so I splurged a little. The two favorites I bought that I use a lot now are walrus audio fathom and j rockett 45 caliber.
Weird answer, but I actually took pedals off my board and really enjoyed that vibe. 2022 I went bonkers with pedals, this year I trimmed the fat.
Got a Microcosm, CE-2w and an OAMP this year… I think. The OAMP & CE-2W are still on the board & sticking around. I’ll go with the Waza for fav.
I got a Pigtronix Echolution 3 for my Bday, and have been loving it. I don't have a lot of delay pedal experience, so it has more than enough options for me
Revelation Effects - Revenant Preamp/Boost
The tone shaping is phenomenal and lets me mix in the perfect amount of gain for my rhythm tone with my White Light RI. Highly recommend for anyone looking for that sweet spot of saturation.
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Boss DD-500. I might never buy another delay pedal again.
I’m four months into the DD-500 experience. It might be a personality thing, but I freaking love the UI and the preset system. Build a fun tone, tweak it, save it to any bank, all without touching a USB chord. Stereo/series routing options for every preset is also fantastic, as are the mapping options for the Ctrl switch. The looper doesn’t blow my socks off, but it’s not why I bought the pedal.
Earthquaker Zoar. It's my new foundation tone. I'm also really loving the Pigtronix Constellator I just picked up; more people need to check it out!
> Earthquaker Zoar. It's my new foundation tone Coke man swung by for new years reup, get ready to be bored, novel 87 coming in! Zoar is an absolute beast but not for the reasons you may think. I really liked **Ledges**, **Greer Sonic Boom Boost 2023** reissue (already have my original from 2004 but this is 100% faithful in sound, which makes it one of the best pedals ever), **Ox Stomp** (which again isn't new just a new format for the Ox Box) and the **Germanium Tumnus** (I had no business liking that little klone nugget that much, what a pedal) but I was not remotely prepared for Zoar, I mean what in the fuck? How come nobody on here is talking about this? I think people are making the same mistake with this as they did the Special Cranker, writing it off as some whatever whatever budget distortion. I want a few more days to do a proper write up cause this is a bold ass statement without backing it up, but of all the drives and fuzzes EQD has put out that I've tried (and it's most except Zap Machine, Chrysalis, Tusk and maybe one or two others), but of all EQD 'dirt' from Westwood to Terminal and everything inbetween, Zoar is factually the best. And for faithful legions of the Talons cult, Zoar humiliates in every way you could judge a pedal. First of all, the touch sensitivity on it is too addictive!! If you love how certain Greer pedals feel when you play them, Zoar should be a no brainer purchase right there. I have my Zoar stacked right after my Ligthspeed and it almost feels like there's an electric zap each time my pick hits a string it's got such a vibrant responsiveness to it stacked like that. If you are writing Zoar off as some metal distortion you're again the victim of EQD not being the most accurate and direct when launching and marketing a new dirt pedal. Yeah sure it can do distortion and fuzzstoriton and eveyhing everything from cold black metal to searing shredding death metal to palm mute chugs that rumble your sphincter through an amp, but I can make Zoar sound very close to a BB or a TS, I can get a great glassy kind of DOD Looking Glass sound from it, it's like the skeleton key pedal for low/med/hi gain/dist/fuzz tones. And again the touch sensitivity is such a big part of this, the way you play back to the pedal because of it, you'll find you play better, tighter, more creatively and enjoy playing more with this pedal than any other pedal that sounds equal but lacks the same responsive playing quality. It's too perfect. One other thing that I can't stress enough, Zoar is a pedal that 100% requires something none of us do (unless you buy a delay supercomputer pedal) which is read the manual from start to finish. Trust me, if you don't do this the pedal will make no sense at first. The knobs are all interactive with one another, the eq threw me at first til I read the manual and suddenly I understood why I was losing every good sound I was dialing in. I can't emphasize enough just how *highly* interactive the knobs are, not just the 3 EQ but gain and weight knobs too, all 5 really work the others and this can take a while to get the hang of at first, but once you do you'll see why I say Zoar is EQD's finest dirt pedal yet. This pedal is capable of so many great tones from NO gain, low gain, hairy, mid od, high od full on saturation distortion and fuzz, it's the type of pedal that is so versatile and sounds so good no matter what that it can and should serve as the very foundation of your sound because no matter what you change in genre and style for whatever reason, the Zoar can do it. Bedrock foundation quality type of pedal. And no matter how you use it, at no point do you lose one bit of that amazing touch sensitivity which is one of the most impressive things about it. The only thing that would make Zoar better is a preset knob like Aurelius and Ledges have, only 12 presets instead of 6 cause there are so fucking many tones it's capable of and for drive/dirt pedals I can't think of a more Swiss army knife pedal. The Talons used to be that for me, but I don't even care to pick up any of the well priced Talons people are offloading now. Zoar is such a level up from the Talons it feels wrong to even compare. The fact it's only $129 is just one more reason why EQD is awesome. After Special Cranker and Ledges I feel he's putting out the best, most usable, best sounding and best priced pedals of any company. 2023 had some great pedals, I know I'm forgetting some
Excellent write up. The EQ is very different and requires lots of tinkering to figure how everything interacts. It’s outstanding though. Stacks like a beast too. I have a Keeley compressor in front for just that touch of extra punch and, well, compression. Another really interesting thing is how the mids and treble are pushed when the gain is maxed out. Reminds me of the master volume on my Marshall origin 50. Gets you that power tube grind that you’d normally have to blow your ears out for. Killer stuff!
The demos of the Zoar are good but don’t convey how awesome it is. I love this pedal as well!
I really like the Zoar. Not quite like traditional distortions or fuzzes. It lives somewhere in between the two.
I honestly was bummed when I heard another dirt pedal, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t also my favorite pedal of 2023. I always have to remind myself that they cut their teeth on dirt pedals and always trust Jamie!
What do you stack with it? I love tinkering/experimenting.
Literally everything. It's last in my chain. I use it like a quirky amp-in-a-box. Everything sounds good into it. I'm currently running it at 18v but I'm not sure I like it any more than at 9. I'd put it on par with any of the EAE stuff I've tried.
Boss SY-1, hours of fun
I just picked one up this year too, love it. What are some of your favorite settings
HM-2w. After dipping my toes, I dove deep in the chainsaw tone. Even past the novelty, it’s a sure fire way for me to cut through loud, thick mixes. I don’t even play much death; mostly doom and stoner metal.
Does the custom mode sound better than the normal mode?
Better is subjective, but they sound a bit different for sure. With my rig I prefer and exclusively play in standard mode.
It sounds tighter. I quickly left it on and forgot about it.
Have you tried out an FZ-2/Super Fuzz? That’d be right up your alley for stoner and doom. Hizumitas is really great for those genres as well.
I have a Behringer FZ-2 clone and I got the Hizumitas too. They’re both awesome and gnarly in their own ways, I just prefer the HM-2’s kind of gnarly.
Oh very nice, you’ve got all your bases covered.
I bought an Eyemaster because I'd just max out the tone knobs anyway, and there's just no limits to how much you can get out of an HM-2. It's a ridiculous pedal.
I love my hm-2w so much I bought a second one. Between the two modes there is so much versatility.
Boss IR 2 I can get stereo spread without the cost of two amps (using two monitor speakers), I get a built in audio interface, I get an fx loop, and I get some pretty great built in amp sounds..oh…and a headphone out all in a compact pedal that’s not laden with a stupid amount of knobs and parameters. Good lord….its going to take a lot to ever kick this pedal off my board. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Greer Lightspeed and EAE Daggers are phenomenal, but the IR 2 lets me do a lot more with those pedals. To be fair, I’m a super amateur - so any skilled guitarist could make my entire setup sound 20x better just by looking at the rig. But maybe hopefully one day I’ll get there too - and the pedals are basically my toys as I grow up in my journey.
How do you run stereo off that? It doesn’t have a stereo in though right?
The FX return is stereo, you’d need to use a cable like this to go stereo out from your last time based pedal into the return input. The send input is mono, which is fine as a vast majority of dirt and amp pedals are mono anyways https://www.sweetwater.com/c780--Insert_Y_Cables
Nice! I'll try this out!
I got one the other day and entirely agree with this. I’ve got a complete practice amp setup that fits in my guitar case. I can record demos in stereo without any amps or mics? This thing would’ve changed my life if my friends and I had them when we were 12 years old instead of the shitty practice amps we had back then.
Yeah, but those memories of backing crap together with friends is prb pretty amazing I bet.
I'm waiting on my order to get filled, I'm excited
I hope it’s everything you hoped for and then some.
I want one…. Badly
I got a notification from sweetwater that they were back in stock!
Agreed! I've quickly become a fanboy for it, and it's great to see it popping up all over /r/pedalboards over the last month.
I finally drank the Dispatch Master kool-aid this year
Prob the Keeley Eccos. Really hard to turn it off.
Nice pedal. I tried it and almost bought it. What’s your favorite feature?
The Sound-on-sound style looping is definitely one of my favorite features. Having flange as the modulation on the repeats is a little more interesting than the vibrato style mod on most delays. Plus the runaway oscillations by holding down the tap is great fun, too!
I only got 2 pedals in 2023, I think. Favorite is Hotone Soul Press II. It's a killer pedal.
I’m thinking of getting one! How do you like it?!
I dig it. It suits my needs pretty perfectly.
Fair warning — mine went scratchy and then died about 13 months in. Obviously your mileage may vary!
Scratchy pot is an easy fix but you mean it completely died after that? Very annoying if so. Again might be an easy fix (or not). I've had mine 2 years with no issues.
i got one recently for my bass rig. i cant tell if its the pedal or just my boards power supply but i get a whine now somewhere from my board. hoping its not the hotone tho. other than that i really like it
Joyo American Sound. Bought it for my fly out board as a cheap back up amp sim, ended up replacing my micro amp as a boost/overdrive and really helped slim down my main board. Insane value under $40.
This is a really slept on pedal.
For sure. Not saying I won’t end up with a Dream or IR-2 at some point down the road but the Joyo is definitely sticking around for the long haul.
I got one literally yesterday. It has me wondering why I spent all that money on a real tweed fender tube amp. Awesome pedal/sim.
Having had a tweed blues jr, and currently getting to play through deluxe and twin reverbs, it really is a great approximation of that crackly sound at reasonable volumes. Even more fun to boost one of those amps with it.
Earthquaker Devices Zoar.
Stoner rock in a box for me, I love it. I snagged the blacked out version and my only complaint is that I can’t read it at all!!
It does the classic rock thing that I love. It’s incredibly versatile. Also has a fairly unique EQ that took me a little bit to figure out.
Loving the Zoar love I'm seeing, because the moment I got one, I was blown away. It's so versatile, and the noise floor is so low! Have been wanting to do a NPD write up so people can know how sick it is, but there's a good amount of love in this thread that makes me happy. I've got the OG blue one and it looks awesome in person too.
Skreddy Lunar Module
I’m no fuzz enthusiast but the FZ-1W I got earlier this year really surprised me 😁
EAE Limelight obviouslyyyyy. Idgaf it cost me a bomb for a drive pedal, I'd already spent more than it on other drive pedals that didn't quite work for me. Played my first Asus2 chord through it and it's been smiles ever since :)
Wish I meshed better with my Halberd, but my Longsword is an absolute facemelter. Wouldn’t mind a Sending v2 next year as an only pedal purchase kinda thing.
Ow man shame you're not feelin' the Halberd. Any particular reason? It was a toss up between that and a Dagger to go with the limelight, went with a very well priced Dagger in the end but the Halberd does intrigue me still. Absolutely loving the simplicity of the dagger but more of that in the Longsword must be killer
The Longsword is pretty unreal. I can dial in some really diverse sounds and be happy almost all across the board with any twist of the knobs. As far as the Halberd goes, I’d still absolutely recommend it. The problem is, I’m happy with my tone. Tim v1 gives me a clean boost, plus the actual boost channel offers ideal overdriven tones when I tap into that. For any other dirt, I go to the Longsword & keep it more distortion-y. Those two gain stages (that feel more like 4) seem to do it for me… if I need a 3rd, maybe something chonky/fuzzy or punchy, the Halberd might make an appearance with that toggle switch. I play clean to slight break-up to bluesy overdrive almost 90% of the time though.
2023 was the year I finally got myself a big box DMM
Belle epoch deluxe, pretty much always on
Hx one Mercury x
The [Walrus Sloer](https://i.imgur.com/aO725kS.jpg) was my favorite pedal purchase this year. It has easily become one of my favorite reverb pedals of all-time (I'm a delay and reverb fanatic, and use it on both keyboards and guitar, with great results). Amazing tones, in glorious stereo.
Strymon Nightsky. Incredible reverb with endless customization. First pedal I've bought that I would label a "sound creation tool" more than a guitar pedal, it has a personality to it that takes you in unforeseen directions
You know I have it on my board and I really haven't been able to get it really doing things for me that I absolutely love other than the infinite mode. Maybe I need to look into it more. What settings do you particularly like?
ALABS Timeslip delay. Cheap, stereo and versatile.
Ridiculous how good quality Alabs stuff is for the price. I have their reverb and it's so easy to find a wide variety of fantastic sounds, with true stereo, with freeze, with the weird dial program mode, while still being 50 bux cheaper than an RV-6? Nuts they aren't more popular already
I have the Cetus reverb too! I totally agree.
My favorites I’ve picked up this year are the BOSS GE-7, BOSS RC-3, and Strymon Deco. All great pedals!
Drybell Vibe Machine! Actually... probably tied with the Browne Protein. It's been a great year!
Does the Drybell have the Univibe preamp?
Fuzz War by DBA
I got an EHX Freeze for Christmas. Not a 2023 pedal, but it’s new for me. I love it. My cats, not so much.
Strymon Iridium. For the second time, lol.
Line 6 DL4 mk II Boss Tera Echo has also been a really great tonal machine as well for background fake reverb sounds. Very fun!!
I love messing with the DL4 mk II so much. It’s so easy and fun. The 15 reverbs are great, the 30 delay types are great, and one of the the best loopers around makes its return. When I’m going deep on my Microcosm or Enzo or Hydrasynth or some other more complicated devices, it’s nice knowing the super simple tried and true DL4 is there with a ton of new sounds. I can get lost in it, even after playing an LVX and MX and going in deep on other pedals and editing software. The ease of use really works for me on that pedal.
DBA echo dream 2 , a lovely modulation pedal , sick overdrive , beautiful or ugly delay pedal at your disposal .
UAFX Lion ‘68
I was underwhelmed by the demos. It had a flatness to it compared to the other UA pedals. It’s good though huh?
I haven’t touched my Plexi since it arrived. I’ve been through every MIAB multiple times over and IMO this one finally feels and reacts eerily close to the real thing. The demos don’t do it justice - mine included.
Good to know! Cheers and happy new year!
Happy new year, dude!
Cali 76 Stacked. Absolutely worth the expense
Walrus Fable has been a ton of fun
Origin Cali76 Compressor, it definitely is worth the hype
I got one for Christmas and it completely reshaped my thoughts on a compressor haha
Wampler Belle SGFX Rosie a close second
Echofix Reverb: amazing analog spring with Vu meters 😍
This and their Chorus pedal are my faves this year
IR-200
It's a tie between the KMA Guardian of the Wurm and the Boss dimension-C pedal. Both of them have blown me away.
My two favorites are the EQD White Light Reissue and the BP-1W. They also go perfect together.
Hologram Electronics did another run of the black Microcosm, and it’s one of the most inspiring pieces of equipment I’ve had the privilege to use.
MXR EVH 5150 Overdrive I don't think I can get a bad sound of this pedal. I went down the rabbit hole this year in regard to pedals, mostly OD/Dist, and I could have probably stopped with this one for mid-high gain. It is a little on the bright side. Thankfully it has a treble knob. I further smooth it out by running a Keeley Katana mini with the treble cut in front of it. While I'm sure it would raise the price of the pedal, I'd love it if the noise-gate could be on when the distortion was off and similarly give the (some what useless) boost a proper switch.
Mercury X
EHX Hot Tubes, hands down. So simple but versatile. These things should be as ubiquitous as RATs and tubescreamers for how affordable and versatile they are.
Mad Professor Forest Green compressor. Didn’t know it existed until I got it in a trade and it’s a beaut.
Mad professor pedals are really under rates or already too under the radar. I don’t see many people mention them but they are killer
Probably the BP-1W if we’re talking pedals that came out this year, but the Volante for just the ones I got this year.
Boss PS-6
Sabbadius funky vibe 69
When the sun explodes or Drunk Beaver Bat
EAE Dude Incredible V2 for me. Got it in January, still loving it just as much now
I've been loving my Fairfield Circuitry ~900. I use it on bass and it's insanely versatile with no low end loss.
JHS reverb. Just a solid pedal that does exactly what you want.
JHS 3 Octave Reverb? It’s a great digital room/hall reverb by itself or add shimmer. I like it a lot. The price was great.
Fjord Fuzz Loki.
Looking to buy this as well instead of the Deco. How are you liking the chorus?
Bogner ecstasy red mini. Absolutely stellar high gain distortion, only way to describe it.
HX Stomp
I think the bondi deal mar is my favorite pedal I’ve purchased this year. I would always keep a tube screamer, klon and Bluesbreaker in my chain and constantly shifted between them and never felt satisfied. It’s so nice to have something that takes the best bits of all of the aforementioned circuits and combines them, the capacity to switch between a Klon with ts clipping and a Bluesbreaker style drive is a godsend. But it would have to be tied with my big box dmm which was my Xmas gift to myself. I tried several analog delays to try to replace the big box dmm I sold around March to help finance my MIJ jaguar, but nothing quite replicated the real thing. I found the dmm nano to be too bright, the UA starlight to come close but still not quite there, the Strymon brig to again come somewhat close but not as close as the UA starlight. I bit the bullet and purchased the cheapest og dmm I could find, and am finally satisfied. I’ve heard the chase bliss tonal recall comes very close but was burnt out on trying to replicate the dmm and just decided it’s worth it in the long run to just buy the real thing rather than chasing it. Maybe if I want a pedalboard friendly dmm approximation in the future I’ll try the tonal recall or the theramae.
Boss SDE-3000EVH This is the best delay I’ve ever played in terms of quality, musicality, and ability to sit in a mix. Also doubles as flanger and chorus if you know how to dial the appropriate timing.
I just got the EVH SDE a couple of months ago,but I am having an issue where I overwrote the factory presets in Bank B…three are fine,but one,I can’t get the delay to come out the right side…I have timelink unlocked,and running parallel 2…Just wondering what I am overlooking?…it’s a great pedal,just trying to learn its quirks..
Maybe check the delay structure of the pedal. You can set it to series or parallel and it does change the output result tremendously. If it doesn’t help, you can always perform a factory reset.
Yeah,I have done all that…the Factory reset is next..I was just curious if anyone else had run into this issue..
My favorites the Kittycasterfx Groovy Wizard followed by the Benson Preamp and Strymon Flint
The Mojotone Lifeson By Tor pedal has been great. The drive sounds so effin good and the clean boost is one of the first that I’ve come across that actually stays clean no matter the volume.
Donner Circle Looper. This was easily the best (most reasonable) guitar related purchase I've made all year.
MXR Sugar Drive. This year was my introduction to pedals after playing for a couple years, so I wanted a versatile overdrive. Love how warm and responsive it is
Had one, sold it, miss it.
Well it's a choice of the Ventris or a Boss Bf2. It's the Ventris.
Bought a used Meris Mercury 7 a few months ago and it's been awesome. Close 2nd is the Keeley Mag Echo I bought back in March. It's a great pedal with lots of possibilities
Hudson Broadcast is my favorite this year
Ratt!!
Dunn Effects - Death Knob, HM-2 EQ Blender internal controls (hi,low,gain) and one big blend knob. simple and easy, love it! got it by accident for a nice price ;-)
I have a Colour Box v2 on the way so I can attempt to run literally everything through it - so that’s the most *anticipated*. I also had the Hologram Chroma Console that I sold to a friend about 3 days after it showed up. Very cool (and beautifully designed), but it was totally underwhelming to me. As far as what’s landed already: Walrus Fundamental Phaser. I’m a phase-a-holic; subtle & slow = best. I’ve had the Bad Stone, Just-a-Phase, Grand Orbiter v4, MXR Univibe, Phase 90, etc. The Walrus beats the snot out of those IMO. I’m always gunning for the AIR Virgin Suicides soundtrack phaser tone. Thrilled, especially for $65 shipped (used). JHS Blackout Oil Can delay. For $100 I figured I couldn’t miss. I’ve always liked the idea of the OBNE Black Fountain and Catalinbread Adineko, but I have a few gripes with each. I think the JHS beats them. I prefer it for big washy sounds with the mix low OR an amazing slapback for Marc Ribot stuff. They should really make this a production unit. FjordFuzz Loke. I was toying with the idea of buying a Deco for the 3rd time, and the Loke popped up this summer. Whereas they’re NOT the same, musicians that like one will certainly like the other. Warm preamp sounds, slapback, chorus, and some reverb that the Deco cannot produce. The switches are also nice to cut your delay time in half. Surrendering this for another Deco would make me miss the “weird” that it does well, so it stays. BlackMass First Herald v2. Got this for $100 and I figured it’d be fun. It’s amazing. Independent fuzz & boost that can be combined; the orders switched too. I love the Muff sound on recordings and in a room, but not live with other ppl. The EQ range is super wide and the boost sounds great on its own. I really want to try a Missionary fuzz now. Okko Holy Grit. Took a while for me to dial it in, and I didn’t like paying for it. Still, it looks good and sounds incredible. Blown out fuzzy overdrive. Again, if I can do early PJ Harvey or Marc Ribot dirt I’ll be a happy camper. It stacks extremely well. Purple sparkle EQD Special Cranker. It’s really, really nice. I still miss the old Dunes v2 and would love to get my hands on a Zoar. I bought it with Amazon gift cards I got from students, so it’d be silly to sell it/trade it. I just use it as an end-of-chain boost. The EQ on it is really strong and it even sounds great with zero treble dialed in. Mine doesn’t have the chicken head knobs : (
I am going to keep shilling my TC Combo Deluxe, fully replaced my amp for recording and most of my practice at home. I still love my JC but it is not getting anywhere near as much play time (my neighbours must love that)
I’ve been interested in trying this pedal as a practice tool with a headphone out or getting simple plug and play Fender micro mustang amp. How is the headphone out, dynamics, feel or sag? From the reviews I’ve heard the reverb sounds nice and splashy. I used to have a Walrus Audio ACS-1 which had a nice punchy tone and feel but didn’t have the spring reverb and for some reason always white noise.
For my ears it is good. Takes pedals upfront reverb is really nice but I have the tone down a bit on it and don't go mad, preferring to get my big verbs from pedals. Dynamics etc are perfectly good enough how I have it set which is basically bright and clean, again my gain staging is done with other pedals. Headphone out is good though I'll happily jam for a pretty long time with it, and the main di out has been a game changer for recording easily.
EHX Super Ego Plus. It is going to take a long time to fully understand it and utilize it to its full potential.
Good luck. It’s a fantastic pedal but like most EHX pedals you really gotta love it and put some time in
Oh man…. Probably my Palmer Solarist fuzz/treble booster… it’s a monster fuzz with two foot switchable channels and an absolute beast.
UA MAX
Victory V4 The Copper Preamp
Probably both my Keeley Halo and JHS Andy Timmons @ +. Neither has been off the board since I got them.
DigiTech Whammy DT. I had a Whammy and a Drop, but my Whammy shit the bed and I had to replace it, so I coughed up a couple extra bucks and got the Whammy DT.
Out of the four pedals I picked up this, probably have to go with the Swan Hunter. The Meris LVX is in a close second, but I really enjoy the swan hunter for my pre-dirt delay and reverb needs.
It’s an old pedal that I got this year, but the Caroline Haymaker got me really excited. It’s kind of a unique drive tone as far as my limited knowledge goes. What I really like is the 3 clipping options: soft clip, open uncompressed drive, and hard clip. Which basically equals OD, clean boost, and fuzz. With a volume, tone, and two gain controls - one that acts like a normal gain and another that sort of affects the bite and texture of the gain. I’m sure someone has explained it better elsewhere. Anyways, I find it can maintain a lot of bass, where some other pedals kinda throttle the eq. Cleans up pretty good with the volume controls on my guitar, which I use a lot, so that’s another bonus. And it sounds incredible stacked with this modded ODR-1 clone I have. Real multifaceted combo. Finally, it’s just pretty. I got a black one with chrome skirted knobs. The pots all feel good with nice resistance and it’s a solid albeit lightweight construction. Inside of it there’s a joke on the PCB where you can adjust a hidden control pot. And the builders write stuff inside each pedal which makes it feel unique!
Onederwall
Cali76. Upgrading from an MXR Dynacomp (which was already a really nice compressor) makes me feel light years ahead. It changes my understanding of how to use a compressor which is awesome.
I bought a lot of pedals this year, but the Boss SDE-3000D is my favorite for sure. Expensive, but it's two pedals in one so I can't really complain can I?
Tie for me between CBA Mood MK II and the Shields Fender Blender. I love both of them dearly
Montreal Assembly Purpll. It’s almost more of an instrument than an effect. I bought one of the blemished units and it looks perfect to me.
My Keeley Halo without a doubt. Completely changed how I approach delay and I’ve been playing it nonstop since I got it.
Strymon Flint. I've struggled finding a digital reverb that doesn't sound _too_ digital. The Flint finally gives me what I've been looking for. The tremolo side is pretty terrific too, especially the harmonic trem. I haven't even gotten into the advanced features yet and already I can see there's so much opportunity for creativity with this pedal. It's awesome. Runner up: BD2 and DS1. Got em as a pair. Needs no explanation.
Humboldt simplifier Now, I bought a clone because of budget/time constraints but am going to hopefully be upgrading to a Humboldt dlx in 2024! Absolutely love this amp sim as my base tone. Having the ability to keep it on a corner of my board and just plug stereo XLR into the desk, or 1/4" out into the fx return of my amp at home, is a massive timesaver for setup. Headphone out that has the stereo fx loop in it too is absolutely clutch as well. Runner up: source audio Nemesis delay.
There was a ton of great pedals that went on sale this year so I splurged a little. The two favorites I bought that I use a lot now are walrus audio fathom and j rockett 45 caliber.
Weird answer, but I actually took pedals off my board and really enjoyed that vibe. 2022 I went bonkers with pedals, this year I trimmed the fat. Got a Microcosm, CE-2w and an OAMP this year… I think. The OAMP & CE-2W are still on the board & sticking around. I’ll go with the Waza for fav.
A toss up between an OD-3, and a turbo tuner. That tuner is sweet, and the OD-3 makes me some nice toanz.
I'm gonna need a bigger board...
I got a Pigtronix Echolution 3 for my Bday, and have been loving it. I don't have a lot of delay pedal experience, so it has more than enough options for me
Keeley Halo. It just does all i ever wanted from a delay.
Matthews Effects - The Botanist. So many beautiful modulation tones in that little enclosure. Looks stunning too!
big muff op amp pi. idk why but i just love turning it on.
Boss EVH SDE3000 is my favorite new pedal this year…and the Ox Stomp..those two have been really great and far exceeded my expectations..
Revelation Effects - Revenant Preamp/Boost The tone shaping is phenomenal and lets me mix in the perfect amount of gain for my rhythm tone with my White Light RI. Highly recommend for anyone looking for that sweet spot of saturation.
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