gear giveaway

Distortion Pedals

Pine Box Customs Motel Distortion

The Pine Box Customs Motel is a RAT-inspired circuit that aims at widening the palette of tones produced by that popular distortion pedal. It's also the first distortion pedal released by this Memphis-based company that mostly focuses on dirt boxes. The Motel's circuit features an internal voltage doubling circuit that…Click on the title for more

Pine Box Customs Motel Distortion

Pettyjohn Rous Distortion

The RAT Distortion belongs to that very exclusive pedal circuit "elite" that provides seemingly infinite inspiration to stompbox builders. We know something about it, since we've been working for over a year on a comprehensive article about RAT clones, and each and every time we try to finalize it we…Click on the title for more

Pettyjohn Rous Distortion

Bardic Audio Oathbreaker

Bardic Audio Devices is an emerging pedal builder run by a young, Michigan-based developer called Tim Novak. The man is really into D&D, so we shouldn't be surprised to find references to the role game both in the name of his company and products ("Bardics" were Celtic minstrels). The Oathbreaker…Click on the title for more

Bardic Audio Oathbreaker

Cascade Pedals Hosstortion

Cascade Pedals, out of Ashville, NC, builds hand-wired guitar effects and mods. Their latest release is the Hosstortion, a Mosfet Distortion voiced after the Ibanez MT-10 Mostortion, a short-lived pedal that was later rediscovered for its warmth and solid low end. The Hosstortion employs a modern BiMOS chip instead of…Click on the title for more

Cascade Pedals Hosstortion

BOSS OD-200 Hybrid Drive

Although many guitarists prefer to defer gain-related duties to traditional, "one function" analog stompboxes, the case for multi-mode, digital dirt boxes has become more and more compelling with the advancement of digital and DSP technology in the audio realm. The BOSS OD-200, with its powerful processor and 32-bit/96KHz sampling rate,…Click on the title for more

BOSS OD-200 Hybrid Drive

Fender Full Moon High Gain Distortion

2018 has seen guitar giant Fender aggressively enter the stompbox market with two "waves" of pedal releases, the latest of which included a trifecta of gain pedals, including the Full Moon Distortion, one of their most option-heavy effects. A high-gain distortion featuring an always useful boost with separate footswitch (delivering…Click on the title for more

Fender Full Moon High Gain Distortion

Engl Powerball Distortion Pedal

Based on the company's Lead2 channel of the Powerball II amp, the Engl Powerball Distortion Pedal recreates the gain stages of the amp. It's a high-quality analog distortion for the aggressive guitarist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jDnG1R0VaU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odlkSJTJgys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srhCZDMfUuI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNFQIji_dNY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rin0PPt5CRU The Powerball pedal is tonally based on the Lead2 channel of the Engl…Click on the title for more

Engl Powerball Distortion Pedal

Danelectro Roebuck Distortion

The Danelectro Roebuck is a recreation of the vintage and rare Ibanez Mostortion, a pedal that has many fans among session players because of its flexibility, being able to sound good at a variety of gain ranges and offering a three-band EQ for tone sculpting. Te Roebuck adds two extra…Click on the title for more

Danelectro Roebuck Distortion

Vaderin Pedals Tone Fox Overdrive Distortion

Vaderin Pedals is a new, Los Angeles-based builder specializing in dirt boxes. The Tone Fox is an overdrive/distortion "designed to shape your tone through a crisp-yet-warm tube-like gain stage featuring tight lows, thick mids and present highs." The Teeth knob behaves in a rather original way: clockwise for increased volume, symmetrical…Click on the title for more

Vaderin Pedals Tone Fox Overdrive Distortion

Skrydstrup DST1 Distortion

A spartan looking, sturdy and rather large device hailing from Hannover, Germany, the Skrydstrup DST1 is a three-knob, high-end level distortion pedal that delivers a range of tones from crancked plexi sounds to singing lead sounds with the dynamics of a tube amplifier. There isn't much to say about this…Click on the title for more

Skrydstrup DST1 Distortion

STOMPBUZZ ALERT! Jackson Audio El Guapo Programmable Distortion

The Jackson Audio El Guapo is available for sale from our favorite indie pedal store The Sound Parcel - buying it there you'll support our site as well! --- The Google searches for this pedal have gone through the roof in the last week, so we'd issue a StompBuzz Alert!…Click on the title for more

STOMPBUZZ ALERT! Jackson Audio El Guapo Programmable Distortion

Spun Loud Blister and Peel V2

Based in Seattle, Spun Loud Effects is a small builder with only two pedal designs in their roster, one of which is a limited edition flanger. Their main offering is the dual fuzz and distortion Blister and Peel Fuzz, which was recently released in its 2nd version. The pedal can…Click on the title for more

Spun Loud Blister and Peel V2