Updated Jul. 19, 2022 | by Paolo De Gregorio

Inspiring/Wild New Boutique Pedals

In the pedalverse we cover daily in this blog, small builders, often comprised of just one person or a family, represent the pulsating heart of circuit experimentation.

Unlike bigger operations with dozen of employees, these small enterprises don’t have the pressure to deliver devices that will sell in big numbers and are therefore free to come up with circuit ideas that are unusual yet intriguing – and very often very inspiring if not absolutely wild!

In the interactive gallery below we gathered a collection of recently released, very boutiqe pedals that we thought our more creative readers might find interesting.

We published two similar articles in 2021, here and here. Have fun!

 

4107273444
Collision Devices Nocturnal
~$350 - A 3-in-1 effect, designed in collaboration with artist Noli, combining Modulated Delay (DUSK, a vintage echo with wow & flutter reminiscent of tape echos), Dynamic Tremolo (NIGHT, which responds to the velocity of your playing by increasing in speed the harder you pick), and Shimmer Reverb (DAWN, whose tone can be tweaked using the Colour and Filter knobs).
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
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Beetronics FX ZZOMBEE
$349 | a creative effect that combines a fuzz, a filter, a low octave and a tremolo. It also offers a new kind of effect labeled "cross-tremolo," which - to quote the manufacturer -  "pulses between the fundamental and low octave." It also sports tap-tempo, cv control, external tap, expression out and can save presets.
Sweetwater | Reverb | Amazon
2335691831
Whimsy Machines Jeff V2
$229 | a quirky Muff-inspired fuzz for the tweakers. The 3 knobs in the center are a peculiar EQ section featuring "regular" Low and High knobs and a "Sweep" control that boosts a middle frequency of choice. The Oscillate Enable toggle turns on a pre-amp stage oscillation that will facilitate feedback, while Clipping Boost activates a clipping stage high-frequency boost.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
2235072585
MAS Effects Expanse
$229 | a creative tweakable harmonic tremolo + reverb/delay. The tremolo can be set to 3 modes through the Warp toggle, from classic and subtle to heavily filtered and resonant. Expanse has its own level knob and adds either ambient reverb or a echoing feedback, . The dry signal can be reintegrated through the Blend control. Two Epression ins allow for simultaneous control of Width and either Expanse or Velocity.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
2685263917
AC Noises Urla
$249 | an uber-tweakable, super-compressed CMOS fuzz in front of a dual resonant filter, with separate footswitches. A Blend knob lets you reintegrate some of the clean signal to bring back some dynamics. The filter is a replica of the analog one found in the Korg MS-20: an High Pass filter connected in series with a Low Pass one, both adjustable with their relative controls of Cutoff and Peak.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
4166129404
Hungry Robot The Collective
$250 | A tweaker's dream 3-in-one fuzzbox with plenty of external and internal controls! One conventional fuzz feeds a 2-band State Variable Filter and runs in parallel with two synth-like CMOS fuzzes, one of which is a sub-octave. The left footswitch triggers self-oscillation, the right one adds the sub-octave - they can both be set in momentary or latch-on modes. Pristine lets you reintegrate the clean signal.
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
712473950
Subdecay PixelWave
$199 | an intense phase distortion synth based on Casio's semi-obscure synthesis technology from the '80s. It tracks your signal to generate a variety of 12-bit sounds. Oscillators can be offset over four octaves by half-step increments and fine-tuning to concoct epic lead or harmonized sounds. It features 3 oscillators with 10 different modes each and one sub-oscillator. To each of these can be assigned one out of 11 waveforms.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
672809100
Wonderful Audio Ancient Echos
$225 | it sends your signal through lo-pass filter (Dampen) delay (Echo), Reverb (Resonance) and modulation (Rate + Depth). The Reflections knob controls the feedback loop within the delay line, producing different results depending on the Echo knob position, from traditional to droney and self-oscillating. The Summon footswitch momentarily turns the Reflection control all the way up.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
3091803617
Screwed Circuitz Irvine's Fuzz
$289 | an aggressive, creative lo-fi fuzz with a wide tone range and endless sustain. A second footswitch (Wobble) adds, before the fuzz circuit, a square tremolo/stutter modulation whose speed can be controlled through the Wobble knob. The fuzz sound is controlled by the classic Volume, Disto and Tone knobs, providing a wide palette of fuzz possibilities.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
586630677
Intensive Care Audio Recovery Phase/Tremolo
$279 | a dual phaser/tremolo with tap tempo, 8 waveforms per channel, and independent Depth and Frequency controls. While channel 1 is always a phaser, 2 can be either a phaser or a tremolo. There’s also a Dual Phaser + Trem mode! In Trem mode, the 2nd toggle lets you assign the LFO 2 to tremolo only or tremolo and secondary phase shifting.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
1370928124
Tone Charm Into The Waves
$245 | A unique modulated delay + distortion. The clever Dirt toggle can deliver a clean source signal with distorted delay, or a distorted signal with distorted delay. The modulation can be LFO or envelop-based. Two of the three footswitches are momentary effects increasing the delay's feedback and LFO speed. the Hpf toggle gives you two high pass filters to darken the repeats.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
4262868758
Audio Disruption Devices (ADD) LAG V2
$280 | Two delays with independent time and feedback that can be routed in series or parallel or a mix of the two. V2 adds a footswitchable multi-waveform pitch modulation assignable to one of them. Four LFO waveforms: square, triangle, random, or light controlled (based on the amount of light received by the embedded photocell).
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
1327106338
3Degrees Audio Bygones
$325 | a creative, stereo, "nostalgic" multi-effect with presets that adds all sorts of degrading effects to your tone. It has four effects in series with 3 knobs each (3 extra functions accessible when you hold the footswitch): Hi/Lo Cut filter with resonance, Noise producing pops, hiss and stutter, a multiple Pitch Modulator and a Delay at the end of the chain. Lookout for the Pro version, unveiled at NAMM '22.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
4171509900
KMA Machines Chief Disruptor
~$220 | a super-tweakable Muff-style fuzz with parametric footswitchable mids and three voices: Tight: modern Big Muff sound with tight lows, focused mids and a crisp top end; Vintage: Classy Muff Sound, low- to mid-gain distortion, balanced frequency response; Heavy: full blast Big Muff sound with massive low end and plenty of gain. Dry signal can be reintroduced pre or post gain.
Alt Seller | Reverb | Amazon
1138113760
Side Effects Mocking Bird
$180 | an updated version of this ambient modulated echo based on the PT2399 digital chip. Its six knobs let you create delays from 50ms to 1 second (with the tone degrading the longer the delay), and applying pitch-shifting modulation to it. A Tone knob lets you darken the tails for a warmer, tape-style sound. An extra footswitch triggers self-oscillation or a momentary delay effect.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

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More stompboxes of this kind can be found in our Creative Pedals Category. Check out also our article about the Best Creative Delays and Best Creative Reverb Pedals.

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