gear giveaway

Effect Type

Deep Trip Hellbender Fuzz

Most fuzz pedal manufacturers can nail the vintage sound of the ‘60’s and ’70’s if they use the right increasingly rare high-quality components and simple circuit designs. Unfortunately, many of these pedals are pretty ponies of the one-trick variety: an expensive addition to your board that only serves to produce…Click on the title for more

Deep Trip Hellbender Fuzz

Pedal Review: Rocktron Deep Blue Chorus Pedal

There are numerous chorus pedals on the market today, and with so many options available, it can seem overwhelming trying to determine the best one for your needs. There is definitely no best chorus pedal, but there are multiple great ones to choose from, and if you ask five different players…Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: Rocktron Deep Blue Chorus Pedal

Pedal Review: Hardwire RV-7 Reverb

The Hardwire line of Guitar Effect Pedals is made with the touring musician in mind. They are solidly built and full of useful extras (see upcoming full review of the full set for details). The promotional materials for the company's reverb pedal RV-7 regularly and enthusiastically tout Hardwire’s partnership with…Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: Hardwire RV-7 Reverb

Pedal Review: Fulltone GT-500

Every effect manufacturer, from tiny boutique companies to huge multinational conglomerates, makes at least one distortion pedal. So when Fulltone announced the GT500, my first question was: "why?" Why are they competing with their own product line--which already contains some great distortions, overdrives, and fuzzes--in a market that could already…Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: Fulltone GT-500

DigiTech Hardwire TR-7 Tremolo

Hardwire has generated quite some buzz recently with their high quality, sturdy lineup of stomp boxes, including a Reverb unit that employs venerated Lexicon algorithms. The manufacturer has recently released a new addition to this set, the TR-7. This is a true stereo tremolo, rotary, and vibrato pedal, offering effects…Click on the title for more

DigiTech Hardwire TR-7 Tremolo

Oldies but Goldies: BBE Freq Booster

The now discontinued BBE Freq Boost is an interesting proposition for the vintage crowd: How far will you go to recreate the sound of the 1960s and 1970s? First a little background: The Freq Boost is a treble booster, which is essentially a precursor to the now-ubiquitous overdrive pedal. Guitarists…Click on the title for more

Oldies but Goldies: BBE Freq Booster

TC Electronic Polytune: a dream comes true.

We finally managed to put our hands on a TC Polytune - people at the Winter NAMM show back in January were pretty excited about this little white box. What makes this tuner truly revolutionary is the fact that it is poly-chromatic, providing the ability to tune all strings concurrently:…Click on the title for more

TC Electronic Polytune: a dream comes true.

Maxon OD-820 Overdrive

The Maxon OD-820’s color—vibrant pea green—announces right off the bat that this pedal is from the same neighborhood as the classic Tube Screamer. But the DNA runs even deeper than that. Maxon pedals come from the same factory that made the original Tube Screamers, which Maxon sometimes built for Ibanez.…Click on the title for more

Maxon OD-820 Overdrive

Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Boy

The classic Electro Harmonix Memory Man series pedals are simply some of the best sounding analog delays ever made. The only problem is that they are HUGE, occupying about a third of the space of an average pedal board! The Memory Boy took a step back by removing level/gain knob,…Click on the title for more

Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Boy

Upcoming from Tech 21: Red Ripper for Bass

Tech 21 just unveiled a new distortion pedal for bass called Red Ripper, here's a quick peek at how it sounds + some details about the specks. • All-analog bass distortion with aggressive tones and vintage filter-style effects, • The R.I.P. knob, in conjunction with the drive, can create a range…Click on the title for more

Upcoming from Tech 21: Red Ripper for Bass

Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone & Aria Disnortion Reviews

Obsessed with extending the expressive range of the guitar, I compulsively investigate gear that claims it can. I put Pigtronix, a company obsessed with ensuring a future of enhanced guitar expressiveness, to the test with their budget conscious Aria Disnortion overdrive+3 band EQ, and the Philosopher's Tone compression/sustain synthesizer pedals.…Click on the title for more

Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone & Aria Disnortion Reviews

Pedal Review: Line 6 FM4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJJL175iL4Q Line 6 excels at packaging the best elements from a collection of vintage analog effects into a single digital stompbox. Their classic "green delay pedal" (DL4) is one of the most versatile delay modelers/loopers available. While the FM4 Filter Modeler is not as user-friendly or universally appealing as the…Click on the title for more

Pedal Review: Line 6 FM4