Updated Sep. 1, 2023 | by Paolo De Gregorio

Best New Pedal Releases | August 2023

August is traditionally a slow month in pretty much any sector except for tourism, but the pedal realm was an exception this year, with a fair amount of notable announcements.

Numerically speaking, there weren’t a lot of new releases, but there were certainly some intriguing ones, in particular the announcement of three pedal lines by Universal Audio, JHS, and TC Electronic.

like a Chase Bliss/Empress collaborative delay, EarthQuaker’s first foray into multi-mode reverb territory, a phaser pedal by Fender designed together with a country legend, and a couple of real spring reverb pedals. Also some new klones and fuzztortions!

You can browse through the releases in the interactive galleries below.

Please use the links with the blue icon when ready to buy

Best New Pedal Lines Released in August 2023

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Universal Audio UAFX Compacts
$219 | a new more affordable and compact line of streamlined digital effects each featuring expanded vocing through a 3-way toggle switch. The 1176 is a compressor, the Orion a tape delay, while the Evermore and the Heavenly are both reverbs, the former an '80s-style, 3-mode reverb with modulation, the latter a plate reverb.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
177646896
ross pedals via JHS
$189 each | a reissue of all the vintage and now discontinued pedals in the Ross line, released by JHS in partnership with the Ross family, and comprising Distortion, Compressor, Fuzz, Phaser, and Chorus.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
2721884113
tc ampworx
$149 | a trio of new amp–in-a-box pedals, following the launch of the series with the first three earlier in 2023. They are voiced after the Peavey 5150, a Dual Rectifier, and a Marshall 800 amp, offering an array of valuable features, including dual channel, 5db boost via separate footswitch, Celestion 4×12-inch G12M Creamback Cab Sim and headphone out.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon

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Best New Non-Gain Pedals Released in August 2023

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chase bliss Chase Bliss Reverse Mode C
$399 | a collaboration with Empress: an expanded version of the Octave Tap mode found in the ECanadian company's old Superdelay pedal. It's an "echo composed of multiple distinct voices that move in different directions - forward, backward, and up - that you can blend, isolate, and sequence, all glued together by some very colorful modulation."
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
335429369
earthquaker Devices Ledges
$199 | a quality 4-knob reverb with Room, Plate, and Hall modes, and a Damping knob that lets you tame the reflections' high-end for warmer ambiance. It lets you store 6 presets through a rotary knob, and features an Expression in that allows remote control (also via CV) of Length, Damping or Mix. Different EXP assignments can be saved in each preset.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
2487550513
Fender Waylon Jennings Phaser
$129 | a signature analog phaser designed with Outlaw Country's hero Waylon Jennings. It recreates his rich sound through a design inspired by Fender’s original 1970s-era 4-stage phaser circuit, switchable here to 2- or 6-stages. The “Sweet” toggle locks your tone into the phaser’s sweet spot while transforming the Feedback knob into a blend control.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
825568777
Electro-Harmonix Pico Platform
$119 | the mini, mono version of the (much bigger) Platform. only four knobs controlling Attack, Sustain, Volume and Blend - the latter useful for parallel compression. A 2 Compression Mode button on the top of the pedal offers Hard and Soft knee options, for smoother or more dramatic compression styles. It works as well on guitar and bass.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
3352617172
Echo Fix EF-P2
$349 | an Australian real spring reverb by a company known for making a high-end replica of the Tape Echo. It can be used as a stompbox or a studio reverb, and has four knobs for Spring Drive, Bass, Treble and Reverb Volume, and two displays: an illuminated window showing the springs at work and a VU Meter displaying the amount of volume sent to the springs via the Drive control.
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
932227717
LoFiMind Effects Reverberador
~$499 | inspired by a vintage spring reverb mixing console, it features a real spring inside the case and also features a separate boost using 6 germanium transistors. These impart a very warm character without compromising brightness and definition. The boost section can produce saturated tones. Mix and Tone knobs let you tweak the reverb amount and color.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
378087696
Mooer Purer Octave
$TBA | an octave pedal with 15 different modes, accessible via the big rotary knob in the middle, including all possible combinations of single and double -1, +1, -2 and +2 octaves, and also some triple octave options, plus a Detune mode. It lets you fine-tune the volume of the Sub and Upper octaves via the two smaller knobs on the top, and to store two presets.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

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Best New Fuzz Pedals Released in August 2023

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Way Huge Stone Burner Sub Atomic Fuzz
$169 | a lower-octave fuzz that lets you go either one or two octaves lower through the flick of a (toggle) switch. This, in conjunction with the quartet of knobs governing Volume, Tone, Sub, and Fuzz, unfolds a spectrum of tones ranging from the refined to the raw and gritty.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
3225700016
collision Devices TARS
$390 | a tweakable fuzz interacting with a resonant filter that can produce a range of tones from warm-to-piercing fuzz to synthy sounds. The two effects can work either in series (fuzz into filter) or in parallel (both routed to the output, with the LPF Volume knob setting the level of the filter). In series mode a toggle lets you add an extra fuzz after the filter. The Expression input accepts CV.
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
565548208
Dirty Sock Effects Transistoriser
$150 | a modern fuzz inspired by silicon fuzz designs of the late ’60s/early ’70s like the Shin Ei FY-2 and the Mosrite Fuzzrite. The Fuzz and Texture knobs work interactively to produce a variety of tones, with the latter blending in an extra transistor stage for an extra layer of gain that emphasizes the upper harmonics. The Thin/Thick switch changes the tone’s lower-end content (tighter/bassier)
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
3007628502
Loe Sounds Germanium Blow
$150 | a take on the classic Super Fuzz. Sporting carefully selected vintage transistors and Germanium diodes, the pedal features a tone knob instead of the original’s mid-scoop switch, and a more usable gain range through the Expander (gain) knob, that can take you from overdrive territory all the way to the circuit’s signature fuzz apocalypse.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
396913837
Reeves Electro Darlington
$390 | a fuzz with two very different voices both leveraging a different silicon transistor. Via the toggle switch on the right, you can select a 1979 Motorola MPSA013 Darlington transistor for a smooth and compressed sustain, or an early ’70s Micro Electronics ME4003 for a more open, gritty tone with a slightly gated character.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
4139276826
Tark Audio Squidink
$199 | a multi-octave fuzz pedal consisting of a fuzz and an analog Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) circuit with two blendable octave channels (-2 or -1 octaves and +1, or +2). The resulting signal is fed through a Voltage Controlled Amplifier modulated by the envelope of the input signal, adding amplitude articulation to the octave signal. The two circuits (fuzz and octaves) can then be blended to taste via the Mix knob.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

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Best New Gain Pedals Released in August 2023

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thorpy the dane mkII
$387 | a flexible low gain overdrive + boost pedal. The new MkII condensates the same circuit into a compact, black anodised aluminium enclosure, adding a bonus feature: a toggle switch that lets you switch from the original clipping (labeled “DP” as in Danish Pete) to Heavier Clipping (HC), similar to the second channel of the company’s Heavy Water, delivering extra grit.
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
2689357252
Origin Effects Halcyon Gold
$309 | a Klon evolution with expanded voicing. The Adapt switch toggles two modes of a circuit that delivers more consistency to the driveb tone based on the input's dynamics. A Dry knob allows control of the clean signal's level, while a MOD switch gives you a standard voice and another one with a mid hump and a softer, more compressed clipping character.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
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Reverb Amazon
3157661546
Jackson Audio Golden Boy Mini
$179 | a streamlined version of the super-transparent, Blues Breaker-inspired Golden Boy drive, without boost and presets. It retains the most sought-after features of the original: its tone, the flexible 3-band Baxandall-style EQ, and the most popular two clipping options: LED and Asymmetrical, selectable via a toggle switch.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
More
Reverb Amazon
2671636986
Missing Link Audio Superb Reverb
$229 | a Fender Black Face in a box, spring reverb included (with separate footswitch). Replicating the crisp and articulate tone and the slightly scooped voicing of the original, it offers a wide range of amp-like tones through the interaction between your guitar’s volume and the Gain and Master knobs. A 4-way EQ section (Bass, Mids, Treble + Presence) matches the one found in the original.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
3047905026
homenoise more or less boost
$199 | a boost with two modes, switchable via an internal switch. In Boost mode it pushes your signal up to 22db (via the more knob) with an extra treble control (+/- 22 dbs via the less knob); in Toneshaping Mode it becomes a Bass/Treble EQ pedal, pushing or taming frequencies on the edge of the guitar frequency range.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
1165106115
oneder Onederwall
$249 | a dual channel, routable pedal merging a Russian-flavored Muff circuit with a distortion. While the fuzz offers a variety of modes and intensities within the Ram’s Head/Russian Muff territory, the distortion can act as a boost, overdrive, or distortion, conjuring up a wide sonic palette when the two channels are used separately or together.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
791665915
Atomic Tone Saturation Triptych
$219 | a hybrid dirt box with three modes via the centrally located toggle switch: 1. distortion to full fuzz; 2. overdrive with fuzz blend; 3. boost to mild overdrive. The four knobs for Volume, Treble, Bass, and Saturation allow for a variety of tones from clean boost to amp-like saturation to wall of fuzz.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
3832170108
Vaderin Pedals Radio Dirtman Fuzz/Drive
$129 | v2 of an existing circuit featuring an expanded Tone control that’s more useable, wide-ranging, and sweet-sounding, in particular on the lower end of the frequency spectrum. This is at its heart an overdrive circuit that can be turned into a sputtery/velcroy fuzz when the Bias control (which starves the circuit) is set to lower levels.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

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