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New Pedal: Spun Loud & Rare Buzz Phoezar

The Spun Loud & Rare Buzz Phoezar is a phase+fuzz circuit born out of an encounter of minds between two small US pedal builders, initiated by an Instagram comment posted back in 2021 which teaches us that a pedal can take much longer than 9 months to be born from…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Spun Loud & Rare Buzz Phoezar

New Pedal: Marshall ShredMaster

As implied by its name, the Marshall ShredMaster is a distortion pedal for guitarists with shredding tendencies, therefore of the high-gain variety. Released in the early '90s, it was one of the first pedals to target metal and hard rock guitarists. Marshall has reissued it in all its glory in…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Marshall ShredMaster

Wampler Tumnus V2 Overdrive

In the seemingly neverending competition to build the best Klon Centaur Klone, the Wampler Tumnus, with its mini format and tone remarkably faithful to the original, has been one of the most successful pretenders. There's also a Tumnus Deluxe version with extra sculpting options. Here are the demos of the…Click on the title for more

Wampler Tumnus V2 Overdrive

Lichtlaerm Audio Gehenna Metal Distortion/Preamp

The Lichtlaerm Audio Gehenna is an ambitious distortion pedal/preamp with 2 switchable gain stages created with the metal guitarist in mind. It aims at delivering tones ranging "from classic NWOBHM to early 2000s Core-music, from raw Black and Death Metal to super tight and modern Djent." It does so through…Click on the title for more

Lichtlaerm Audio Gehenna Metal Distortion/Preamp

Carl Martin Axis Flanger

The Carl Martin Axis Flanger is, in a few words, a reissue of the classic Carl Martin modulation pedal in a compact case and with simplified controls, a treatment the Danish builder has reserved to its most popular original stompboxes. This is a bread-and-butter flanger pedal with controls for Speed,…Click on the title for more

Carl Martin Axis Flanger

EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold V2

The EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold V2 is an authentic emulation of a Model T Amp from Sunn, a solid-state amp known for its loud and bassy tones manufactured by a Portland-based company founded in 1967 that was acquired by Fender in 1985 and unceremoniously terminated in 2002. The amp's dark…Click on the title for more

EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold V2

Bleak District Electric Rec Head Cassette Simulator

The Bleak District Electric Rec Head is a charming, seemingly permanently sold-out take on cassette tape emulation by a small UK builder. This compact pedal does all the things your old cassette tape did to your favorite music, but in this case applied to your tone: tape saturation, flutter, and…Click on the title for more

Bleak District Electric Rec Head Cassette Simulator

Best New Pedals 2023 | February Edition

If we were asked to describe the new trends in stompbox manufacturing in this second decade of the millennium, we'd be hard-pressed not to mention a noteworthy contraction of new pedal releases. February 2023 was one of the slowest months we experienced in a while, and the months prior to…Click on the title for more

Best New Pedals 2023 | February Edition

New Pedal: Marshall DriveMaster Reissue

The original Marshall DriveMaster was a Plexi-style pedal released in the early '90s and voiced after a JCM800 amp. It was intended to be the successor of the Guv'nor, the first amp-in-a-box inspired by the Marshall Plexi tone, but didn't reach the same popularity. To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Marshall…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Marshall DriveMaster Reissue

New Pedal: Rift Amplification Elysium Low-Gain Fuzz

The Rift Amplification Elysium Low-Gain Fuzz is a very simple fuzz pedal that's getting a lot of attention. It's built by hand by a UK-based amp manufacturer that uses a point-to-point technique for all their creations. The curious approach to this circuit is to have a fixed fuzz (i.e. no…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Rift Amplification Elysium Low-Gain Fuzz

Universal Audio UAFX Starlight Echo Station

The Universal Audio UAFX Starlight Echo Station belongs to the series of the first three guitar pedals ever released by the US company, a dominant force in the pro audio peripherals but also in the DSP-powered plugins market. That kind of expertise must have come in handy when working on…Click on the title for more

Universal Audio UAFX Starlight Echo Station

New Pedal: Spaceman Ixion Optical Compressor

The Spaceman Ixion is a stompbox take on the optical compressor circuit made famous in the studios all over the world by the legendary Teletronix LA2A rack unit. That device, with its two knobs for Gain and Peak Reduction (plus a switch to deliver compression or limiting), belonged squarely to…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Spaceman Ixion Optical Compressor