gear giveaway

High-Gain Distortion

2024 Best Plexi Pedals & Marshall-Style Distortions: a Buyer’s Guide

(Almost) everyone familiar with the electric guitar loves the sound of a cranked Marshall amp. From Eric Clapton and Angus Young to Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads, Plexi amp and their later, higher gain reincarnations from the JCM series have been used by many guitar players over the years…Click on the title for more

2024 Best Plexi Pedals & Marshall-Style Distortions: a Buyer’s Guide

Empress Heavy Menace Distortion

At first glance, the Empress Heavy Menace seems like a pedal that might win the contest for "most tweakable distortion pedal in a compact case." Also, it looks very cool, notwithstanding its demonic references! An evolution in compact case of the company's popular Heavy pedal, the Heavy Menace could be…Click on the title for more

Empress Heavy Menace Distortion

2024 UPDATE! The Best Distortion Pedals | A Buyer’s Guide

This regularly updated page gathers a list of what can be considered the best distortion pedals on the market according to a list of reputable online sources and reviews. Together with fuzz and overdrive, distortion stompboxes fall under what electric guitarists commonly refer to as the "dirt box" umbrella. If…Click on the title for more

2024 UPDATE! The Best Distortion Pedals | A Buyer’s Guide

Updated Pedal: Holy Island Tides V2 Reverb > Distortion

Built in Wales, the Holy Island Tides is an atmospheric pedal featuring a reverb followed by two gain stages, creating over-the-top fuzzy walls of sound sprinkled with interesting harmonics and sonic artifacts. Each gain stage can be activated through a toggle switch: Gain I is a low gain, opamp-based overdrive…Click on the title for more

Updated Pedal: Holy Island Tides V2 Reverb > Distortion

Fuzzrocious Lil Fella Overdrive/Distortion

Fuzzrocious is not only the pedal company with the best name out there, but also a family-run business with a mission to explore new ways to distort guitar (and bass) tone in new and inspiring ways. Their new release Li'l Fella continues this tradition with a circuit that updates their…Click on the title for more

Fuzzrocious Lil Fella Overdrive/Distortion

Horrothia FX TEETH Discrete Low-Gain Overdrive

From the descriptions of its pedals, UK's Horrothia FX clearly devises its creations as tools for solving very specific sonic problems, coming from a distinct recording engineering angle. The company's discrete low-gain overdrive Teeth, a 9 transistor design, all analog design, using no IC opamps, was imagined as a necessary…Click on the title for more

Horrothia FX TEETH Discrete Low-Gain Overdrive

Old Blood Noise Excess V2 Distortion + Modulation

The Old Blood Noise Excess V2 updates the '80s-flavored (pink) modulated distortion pedal by the Oklahoma company with a case that's 1/2 the size of the original unit and updated features, including a selectable harmonized fifth mode (which was there but "hidden" in V1) in the modulation channel. This is a…Click on the title for more

Old Blood Noise Excess V2 Distortion + Modulation

New Pedal: Blammo! + Dirty Haggard Deth Pedal Distortion

Boutique pedal creators BLAMMO! and Dirty Haggard have joined forces to forge a foot-operated, limited edition device inspired by EQD's Life pedal, known as...the DETH PEDAL! Much like the original, this pedal combines a Rat distortion with an analog octave up circuit, featuring a blend control and a separate footswitch…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Blammo! + Dirty Haggard Deth Pedal Distortion

Frost Giant Electronics The Mountain V2

We had the pleasure to host Texan pedal builder Frost Giant Electronics at our NAMM 2020 Stompbox Booth, and we are therefore excited to see it get some coverage on YouTube. The Mountain V2 is a Rat-inspired pedal that can deliver many flavors of distortion, from overdrive to fuzz, thanks…Click on the title for more

Frost Giant Electronics The Mountain V2

JPTR FX Warlow Fuzz

Built by German boutique pedal maker, the JPTR FX Warlow is a high-gain Op-amp Muff perfect for a low-end-heavy '90s grunge and alt-rock. Using high-grade IC chips and germanium clipping diodes, the Warlow comes in an appropriately large enclosure for its equally huge tones. We added this pedal to our article…Click on the title for more

JPTR FX Warlow Fuzz

New Pedal: Catalinbread Carbide Distortion

The Catalinbread Carbide is the Portland company's take on the "Chainsaw-style Distortion," an effect used and abused by some metal bands who downtune their guitars to add a sense of dread to their tone. Unlike other pedals going for this sound, the Carbide keeps things simple, at least on the…Click on the title for more

New Pedal: Catalinbread Carbide Distortion

Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter

The Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter, as you may have guessed, is not a pedal for the gentle electric guitarist. Catering to the metal crowd (those who use their 6-string to "melt" stuff), this stompbox is a love letter to the "chainsaw" tone made popular by a string of Swedish Death Metal…Click on the title for more

Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter