gear giveaway

Distortion Pedals

MXR Rockman X100 Stereo Preamp

In 1982, Tom Scholz of Boston fame unveiled the Rockman X100, a headphone amplifier that encapsulated the soaring, chorus-drenched guitar tones of 1980s arena rock. The sound of that device is reborn in the MXR Rockman X100—a compact, modern homage to Scholz’s design based on the same MN3007 bucket brigade…Click on the title for more

MXR Rockman X100 Stereo Preamp

Jam Pedals Rattler Mk.2 Distortion

The Jam Pedals Rattler Mk.2 is an updated version of the company's highly regarded RAT-style distortion pedal. While Mk 1 featured the legendary (and now almost impossible to find) LM308 chip found in the vintage RATs, for this new version the Jam team designed their own custom op-amp that delivers…Click on the title for more

Jam Pedals Rattler Mk.2 Distortion

Whimsy Machines Sweet Tooth Distortion + EQ

The Whimsy Machines Sweet Tooth, whose prototype was seen at our 2024 Brooklyn Stompbox Exhibit, is a distortion pedal as peculiar as the name of its maker. In a few words, it's a LED-induced distortion that can do all sorts of things from subtle to radical (including wavefolding!), followed by…Click on the title for more

Whimsy Machines Sweet Tooth Distortion + EQ

New Pedal: Rare Buzz Invidia Distortion

Featuring Pieter van der Heyden’s iconic Seven Deadly Sins artwork, premium components, and relay switching, the Rare Buzz Invidia is a distortion pedal that combines a tone-shaping boost, dynamic active tone control, and classic op-amp clipping for rich, responsive distortion. It's named after the Italian word for "envy" because that's…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Rare Buzz Invidia Distortion

Karma Machine Shop Dual Overdrive

Juxtaposing and integrating two entirely different dirt box circuits, the fully analog Karma Machine Shop is a dual-overdrive pedal that lets guitarists craft a wide range of tones, from subtle boost, to transparent overdrive, to searing high-gain distortion. The ODR side, inspired by the Nobels ODR-1, provides smooth, transparent overdrive,…Click on the title for more

Karma Machine Shop Dual Overdrive

Audio Cultivation Project Fourth Distortion

The Audio Cultivation Project Fourth is an overdrive/distortion pedal that combines a hybrid transistor and op-amp design, blending hard clipping and op-amp saturation to emulate the distortion produced by the sought-after vintage solid-state amps of the '70s like the Music Man 112 RD, Epiphone Studio 10s, and Silvertone 1464. Initially…Click on the title for more

Audio Cultivation Project Fourth Distortion

New Pedal: Fowl Sounds Concrete Cliffs Distortion

The Fowl Sounds Concrete Cliffs is a distortion pedal with a separate, foot-switchable Boost featuring a range of intuitive controls designed to offer extensive tonal shaping. The clear knobs set the Gain and Volume for the base distortion and the number of decibels for the Boost, which can either increase or decrease…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Fowl Sounds Concrete Cliffs Distortion

Using Distortion Pedals with Drum Machines and Synths

Synth enthusiasts often overlook the effects falling under the "Distortion" or "Saturation" umbrella. Truth is, these are effects that can do a variety of things to any sound they are fed, and have a powerful and almost unique secret weapon: they create harmonics of the upper kind, as exemplified in…Click on the title for more

Using Distortion Pedals with Drum Machines and Synths

Cosmodio Instruments Gravity Well

Handmade in Massachusetts by a promising up-and-coming builder, the Cosmodio Instruments Gravity Well is an analog tremolo and wavefolder pedal that combines two effects into one unit. It features a tremolo on one side and a wavefolder on the other, with the option to combine them into a unique modulation…Click on the title for more

Cosmodio Instruments Gravity Well

Updated Pedal: Red Panda Bitmap 2.1 Stereo Bitcrusher

Among the (not easy to navigate) content of Believe in Music 2021, we somehow missed that Detroit's experimental pedal maker Red Panda had released version 2 of their Bitmap, a Stereo bit crusher with fractional bit reduction and sample rate modulation. The new version features one extra footswitch, an entirely…Click on the title for more

Updated Pedal: Red Panda Bitmap 2.1 Stereo Bitcrusher

New Pedal: Krozz Devices Royalbreaker Distortion

Krozz Devices is a rather young pedal company from Brazil that turned heads in the early '20s with two intriguing analog modulation pedals and a compressor. The Royalbreaker is their first foray into the realm of dirt boxes, a 2-voice distortion with a wide tonal range that can also deliver…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Krozz Devices Royalbreaker Distortion

Frost Giant Soma V2 Heavy Fuzz

The Frost Giant Soma V2 is the new, updated, and improved version of this fuzz pedal made for Doom and Metal aficionados, a variant of the company's popular Massif Fuzz. Within a smaller case, now in the classic compact size, this new circuit packs more volume and more bass for…Click on the title for more

Frost Giant Soma V2 Heavy Fuzz