Updated Mar. 3, 2022 | by Paolo De Gregorio

Best New Pedals of 2022 | February Edition

Time for our monthly appointment with the best pedals releases of the previous 30 – or rather, 28 in this case – days. If you are interested in this list you may also want to check out our Year-End Best Pedals of 2021 Aggregate List, and the previous monthly list of the best pedals released in January 2022.

February, this year, was a weird month for pedal releases. We had hardly any digital releases, probably due to the prolonged issues related to semi-conductors? Just one reverb, no digital delays, no modulation pedals, mostly just dirt boxes. Some pretty darn cool ones for that matter!

Because of this, we decided to separate, in our interactive galleries, fuzz pedals from drives and distortions. Dig in  – previous monthly articles like this one can be found here.

As usual, mouseover or first tap on the thumbnails will open a description of the pedal, while a click or a second tap will open a video of the pedal.

Best New Drive and Distortion Pedals released in February 2022

2602215623
jhs Overdrive Preamp Pedal
$179 | a simple two-knob circuit inspired by the DOD 250 and featuring both gray and yellow versions, accessible through a switch. The builder’s notes say its primary voice is based on a prototype of the DOD 250 from the ’70s found by JHS owner Josh Scott, while the second mode “alters the pedal’s clipping arrangement, unlocking a whole alternate set of tones.”
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
More
Reverb Amazon
2375168686
blammo Electronics Blues Blaster
$154 | A Blues Breaker clone that fixes all the known limitations of the vintage unit (like size, lack of buffer, poor power filtering). The sonic treat here comes in the shape of a small push button that adds a fair amount of gain and puts "the Blues Blaster well into distortion territory [...] highlighting its penchant for effortlessly summoning sweet, musical feedback.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
2127157024
Browne Amplification Carbon
$219 | A Blues Breaked clone designed to provide the player with a wide array of tonal options with just three knobs. Your tone will sound brighter the higher you have the gain set, due in part to the circuit’s massive output potential. A Tone knob lets you fine-tune the low/high frequency balance to complement your pickup/amp combo.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
1220649222
Electronic Audio Experiments Limelight
$229 | A heavy modded Blues Breaker-inspired drive with a front-end 0-21dB boost that allows it to be more versatile and aggressive than the original. The Tone knob is an adjustable lo-pass filter, while the Focus toggle cuts low frequencies in the drive section, adjusting the amount of chime and midrange presence.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
4293098929
Carl Martin Ampster
$299 | An analog, tube power amp with cab simulation, with a British flavor when overdriven. Featuring a set of control identical to the ones found in many cabinets (Gain, 3 knob EQ, Presence and Master), it adds two footswitches for Mute and Cabinet, which switches the Cab simulation from a 2×12 Open Backed Cab (Red LED) to a 4×12 Closed Back Cab (Green LED).
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
833151405
Vntage Tone Bifurcator
$259 | a dual overdrive comprising os the Klon-style Prometheus and the VT 4558 Screamer. The Klon-style side (first in chain, right channel) adds a Body control to the original’s classic 3-knob layout, for extra tone shaping, while the TS side features a Hot switch to push extra gain. The two circuits have dedicated footswitches and can be stacked on top of each other.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
3149849765
Music Box Pedals Klone
$189 - A high end Klon clone built in NJ, USA, with top mount jacks using quality components that comes in three different case/knob combinations.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

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Best New Fuzz Pedals released in February 2022

1455611540
Big Ear Slice of Pie
$199 | A collaboration with guitar podcast The Tone Mob is a Muff-style fuzz with a unique and innovative twist: it looks like a slice of pepperoni OR cheese pizza, (deep pan style, to fit the circuit). The two versions differ only in their looks. The three knobs do what you expect them to do: Gain sets the amount of distortion; Tone brightens or darkens the distorted signal; Volume controls the output level.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
4202843568
Silktone Fuzz
$249 | A Germanium Fuzz Face-inspired circuit with a Bias knob (aka "Active Bias Monitor"), that allows the player to precisely set the voltage the circuit is fed, which opens up a wide range of classic fuzz tones (from Gated, to Vintage to Fat and Sticky). A Classic/Raw toggle changes the bias ratio and bass filtering , delivering fatter tones in Raw mode. The cleanup knob cleans up the tone for overdrives or clean boost sounds.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
78913519
Tampco All-Bender
~$250 | a multi-voiced fuzz that recreates the tone of the first four versions of the Tone Bender (Mk 1, 1.5, 2 and 3). A rotary knob selects the version. Each mode has its own gain knob on the top row, with MkIII also featuring a Tone knob. MkI is the more compressed of the lot, while MkI.V has more low end; MkII has a treble boost quality to it, while MkIII, because of the Tone control, is the most flexible of all.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
524512155
Tape Audio Co. ONE
$199 | this fuzz’s extreme but tweakable sonic character doesn’t closely match any of the classic circuits, and neither does its control layout. Master controls the overall output, which can feed extra volume into your amp, while Comp sets the compression characteristics of the clipping section. The switch gives you two EQ flavors for standing out (light) or blending in the mix as a driving force (dark).
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
2594102355
Anasounds Feed Me Mk3
$150 ($100 as a kit) | A Fuzz Face evolution that does also gated fuzz tones with the Crack toggle on. The Smash control alters the supply voltage from 0 to 3.8V, for spitty, supercompressed, "dying battery" tones. The Bass toggle will slightly tame the low end. Internal trim pots allow to fine-tune the bias of the transistors and the gain of the fuzz, from creamy to raw fuzz tones.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
626867147
CMC Triple Octave Manipulator
$375 | a 3-octave, monophonic fuzz offering a wide range of octave gnarl thanks to its three separate signals for Upper, Root and Lower octave, each with controls for volume and gain. A 4-way rotary knob selects the wave shape of the lower octave, including two Square Wave selections, on with an extra sub octave and one without.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
3159785203
Malaise Forever Vicious Bastard
$150 | an unforgivingly loud and angry two-stage fuzz inspired by the classic D*A*M* Meathead circuit. Heavy in the mid-low frequencies with a light mid-scoop, and enough high-end to cut through the mix. A secondary gate footswitch engages a heavy gate, which will – to say it with the builder – “trash up your tone significantly.”
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
3410213912
BSRI Audio Hydrazine Fuzz
$229 | a modern take on the Harmonic Percolator with NOS germanium and silicon transistors, and germanium diodes found in the vintage unit. Tailored mods improves clarity and punch. The Tone knob delivers basic sculpting, while Texture allows to vary the clipping threshold, for a wide range of tones between transistor overdrive and compressed full diode clipping distortion.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

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Best New Non-Gain Pedals released in February 2022

https://amazon.to
TC Electronic Bucked Brigade Delay
$39 | A rather standard but very affordable mini analog delay with a modulation switch and four knobs for depth, volume, delay and feedback (the modulation's speed can be controlled through a trim pot on the bottom of the case). The delay's repetitions can go up to 600ms, while the modulation can deliver chorus or flanger effects.
Sweetwater | Reverb | Amazon
3544518666
KMA Machines Pylon
$219 | a VCA-based noise gate with FX loop and two detection settings linked to the Threshold knob, for finding the exact sweet spot for gating. Plus an Boost with up to 30dB of gain with a Cut knob that will tighten the low end when needed. A 3-way toggle sets the EQ configuration, which can be left off or on all the time (even when the gate is bypassed), or can be turned on only when the gate is on (Synch mode).
Alt Seller | Reverb | Amazon
https://amazon.to
TC Electronic Impulse IR Loader
$129 | a mini Cab simulator with 25 factory presets (12 curated by Celestion) and room for another 74 Impulse Responses. An A/B mode can be set by holding the footswitch. Pressing the two preset browse buttons at the same time gives access to a two-band EQ with high (at 10kHz) and low-shelving (at 100Hz).
Sweetwater | Reverb | Amazon
1963948739
zander Templo
~$400 | A full-fledged, stereo, 8-mode reverb with 5 presets by a very boutique UK builder. 2 classic modes (Spring, Room), two modulated (Cave and Whirl) and 4 edgy ones (Lo-Fi, Granular, Solid State, and Spectral - the last two are BBD-style reverb and one with hi and low octaves). A tap allows switching between short, medium, and long decay. The other footswitches are kill dry switch and momentary max decay.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

Enjoy and see you next month!

The Folks at Delicious Audio

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