gear giveaway

Tone King Royalist Preamp

Following the success of last year's Imperial preamp, Tone King has unveiled the Royalist: a high-voltage tube preamp pedal that distills the sound of their Royalist MKIII amplifier into a compact, pedalboard-friendly format. Where the Imperial covered American cleans, the Royalist is a full-throated tribute to the golden age of…... Click for more

Tone King Royalist Preamp

Fish Circuits Astronomie Reverb

One of the most intriguing new pedal releases at NAMM 2025 came from a fellow Montrealese brand: the Fish Circuit Astronomie. It's a spring-style reverb/compressor circuit (in that order) with the company's signature chunky vintage look and very unusual controls. Notwithstanding the large footprint, the Astronomie doesn't have real springs…... Click for more

Fish Circuits Astronomie Reverb

Kinotone Ghost Chordal Resonator

Kinotone has quickly established itself as one of the most imaginative new makers in boutique effects, specializing in devices that recontextualize the guitar signal into something entirely new. Their flagship, the Ghosts, is the ultimate expression of this vision. Far more than a pedal, it’s a 6-voice physical modeling synthesizer and…... Click for more

Kinotone Ghost Chordal Resonator

JHS Double Dragon Lo-Fi Octave Pedal

After years of building all sorts of effects pedals (but mostly overdrives and fuzzes), JHS finally entered the octave game. The Double Dragon is their first dedicated octave pedal—and they built it on forty-year-old technology. MXR Blue Box. Boss OC-2. Electro-Harmonix Micro-Synth . Those circuits that predated digital precision, that…... Click for more

JHS Double Dragon Lo-Fi Octave Pedal

Polyend Step Drum Machine Pedal

Integrating a drum machine into a guitar pedal isn’t a new concept, but the Polyend Step elevates it to a whole new level, drawing on the Polish company’s expertise in synthesis rather than traditional guitar effects. The Step is a stereo, sample-based drum machine in pedal form, controlled via Tap…... Click for more

Polyend Step Drum Machine Pedal

Caroline Wave Cannon Zero Fuzzstortion

A revisitation of one of the South Carolina-based company's early unreleased prototypes, the Caroline Wave Cannon v2 is a bold distortion pedal that delivers everything from subtle crackles to heavy, chaotic, and even self-oscillating tones. Unlike pedals focused on subtle dynamics, the Wave Cannon v2 features intense gain and volume…... Click for more

Caroline Wave Cannon Zero Fuzzstortion

Mad Professor Royal Blue Overdrive

The Mad Professor Royal Blue is engineered to be more than a simple gain pedal; it’s an expressive amplifier-in-a-box designed for dynamic response. Unlike heavily compressed drives, its circuit allows your guitar’s natural character and playing dynamics to shine through. The amount of breakup is directly controlled by your picking…... Click for more

Mad Professor Royal Blue Overdrive

TC Electronic Bucket Brigade Delay

Judging from the fanfare of the intro video below, one could think that (once) Danish company TC Electronic (now owned by the Scrooge of the music gear world) just invented the BBD chip - which is pretty much the only chip you'll find in any analog delay pedal ever made.…... Click for more

TC Electronic Bucket Brigade Delay

Hudson Electronics Broadcast AP-II

The Broadcast preamp pedal from UK builder Hudson Electronics has a stellar reputation and made several best-of lists when it came out a few years ago. The AP version of it, recently updated to the dual version, named Broadcast AP-II, is an evolution of the original design engineered in collaboration…... Click for more

Hudson Electronics Broadcast AP-II

Tone King Imperial Tube Preamp Pedal

One of the most talked-about pedals to emerge from the 2025 NAMM Show was the Tone King Imperial Tube Preamp, a two-channel stereo preamp with tremolo and reverb voiced after the company's namesake amp, and based on a circuit featuring not one but three 12AX7 tubes. Just like in the…... Click for more

Tone King Imperial Tube Preamp Pedal

Normal Devices Decay Cascade

The Normal Devices Decay Cascade is a pedal that will make you step into a vortex of sonic alchemy, where reverb and analog amplification collide in a cosmic dance of texture and chaos. Inspired by the mind-bending idea of running reverb into distortion, it takes that concept and cranks it…... Click for more

Normal Devices Decay Cascade

Keeley Nocturne Reverb

The ongoing creative partnership between Keeley Electronics and revered guitarist Andy Timmons (a very active pedal collaborator!) has yielded some of modern guitar's most distinctive atmospheric tools, from the HALO Dual Echo onward. Their latest collaboration, the Keeley Nocturne, isolates and refines the expansive spatial component central to Timmons' signature…... Click for more

Keeley Nocturne Reverb