Updated Mar. 3, 2021 | by Paolo De Gregorio

Trending Guitar Pedals

The time for our February 2021 StompBuzz has come! Let’s check out the list of trending guitar pedals on our site in the previous 30 days period.

February has been a relatively quiet month as far as new releases are concerned, and because of this we have a list very similar to the January one, but with a few surprising new entries: the rather revolutionary Benson Germanium Fuzz jumped directly into second position challenging the hype of another fuzz inspired by a vintage circuit, the BOSS TB-2W. Two popular boutique pedals released in late 2020 by Pedal Pawn and DemedQash FX squeezed in to take the last two slots in the chart.

Also, it’s worth noting that the Hologram Microcosm is some kind of Michael Jackson of guitar pedals – it’s been in this chart since its first edition in May 2020!

The gallery below lists the stompboxes that had the most searches in the Month of February 2021*.  It features brief descriptions about each pedal (mouse-over or first tap) and video demos (on click or second tap).

3108634164
Boss TB-2W
$800+ used | With the help of Sola Sound, the originators of the Tone Bender, BOSS has created a faithful replica of a vintage Mark II model (serial number 500) as part of their Waza craft series. The TB-2W brings the Bender into the modern era with switchable buffered / true bypass, and a voltage switch that allow you to select 7v for starved gated fuzz, the standard 9v, or 12v for more headroom.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
617696430
Benson Germanium Fuzz
$299 | Nothing short of a game changer. This fuzz automatically regulates its own internal temperature to ensure that the bias of the famously unstable germanium transistors is always set at an appropriate level. In addition to its reliability, the pedal comes with a buffer and passive pickup simulator, which allow it to be placed anywhere in your signal chain, even next to a wah.
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
813755050
Hologram Microcosm
$449 - A multi-mode granular looper/phrase looper/delay filter and reverb. Offers 11 unique granular and looping effects with 44 preset variations, Stereo In/Out, Expression In mappable to many controls, MIDI, 60 sec. Phrase Looper, Stereo Reverb, “Hold” function to freeze effects and patterns, pitch modulation, Resonant Lowpass Filter, presets, trails and Tap Tempo.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
2874677572
Chase Bliss Zvex Bliss Factory
$450+ | ZVEX’s classic gets the Chase Bliss treatment. All the controls of the original are here, plus a new resonant low pass filter knob, and two three-way toggles for fattening up the tone and setting auxiliary knob functions. Any parameter can be saved to a preset, and controlled by midi or expression pedal using the dip switches on the back. Not cheap but super-versatile.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
3131393970
Way Huge Atreides
$199 - Inspired by the 1980's EHX mini-synthesizer keyboard, like the original it only features sliders, and works as an envelope-controlled synth-fuzz pedal with a sub-octave and a phaser. Internal trim pots allow you to go as deep as two octaves and fine-tune a few other settings.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
More
Reverb Amazon
3238238184
Earthquaker Devices Astral Destiny
$199 | A spacey, creative, multi-mode, modulated Reverb with 8 preset slots featuring a pitch shifting engine that can deliver upper and lower octaves and fifths and also ascending/descending bending pitch effects. The Stretch footswitch doubles the length of the reverb while adding an adjustable pitch-bending effect.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
More
Reverb Amazon
https://amzn.to
Strymon Nightsky
$429 - A stereo “reverberant synthesis workstation” that combines reverb, pitch-shifting, a resonant filter, modulation with multiple waves shapes (which can be routed to pitch, reverb or filter), and even a step sequencer! Three footswitches allow several functions including preset storage/recall, sequencer control and momentary effects.
Sweetwater | Reverb | Amazon
394227213
Chase Bliss Audio + Meris CXM 1978
$899 | A collaborative pedal adaption of the venerable (1978) Lexicon studio reverb, built on the moving-fader format of Chase Bliss Audio's Automatone series and featuring three algorithms (Hall, Room, Plate). Also features a LoFi Mode for vintage digital sounds and Adjustable Decay Crossover for fully shapeable reverb tail
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
3058577132
Walrus Audio R1 Mako
$349 - A Stereo, multi-mode reverb with deep functionality hosted in a compact case, with up to 9 presets. It boasts 6 modes (Spring, Hall, Plate, BFR, RFRCT (Refract), and Air) with deeply editable parameters thanks to Decay, Swell and Mix controls and two 3-mode knobs (Tweak and Tune) giving access to 6 more controls including Rate, Depth and Predelay.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
More
Reverb Amazon
3023155856
Keeley Hydra
$249 - A compact Stereo Reverb + Tremolo with 3 modes (Spring, Plate or Room) and tap-tempo enabled Harmonic, Vibrato, or Sine Wave Tremolo. Each effect has its own footswitch and can be placed first in the chain. Dual function knobs are accessible by holding the Color knob, ( black fonts for Tremolo, white fonts for Reverb).  Includes Trails, remote switching compatibility, Expression and Tap-Tempo inputs.
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
More
Reverb Amazon
254466008
Pedal Pawn Texan Twang
$259 - Inspired by a steady aural diet of Steve Ray Vaughan, this combo boost/overdrive is a two-knob device built to interact with your guitar and amp, cleaning up nicely at low guitar output. The right knob is a three-way rotary switch that produces glassy and bite on the Hi setting, tube-like warmth in the Mid setting and punchy growl in the Lo one.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
1561447242
Demedash T-120 V2
$220 | An echo with a character voiced after the lo-fi sound of VHS tapes. The Tape Quality knob exacerbates the lo-fi aspect, while Depth and Speed control the modulation. V2 adds soft switching, momentary activation, and 2 added 'secondary' parameters (Glide & Randomize).
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon

Here is the text version of the chart highlighting variations compared to last month. Click on the links below to read our coverage and video aggregation.

  1. (+9) BOSS TB-2W
  2. (NEW) Benson Germanium Fuzz
  3. (=) Hologram Microcosm
  4. (+5) Chase Bliss Audio + Zvex Bliss Factory
  5. (-5) Way Huge Atreides
  6. (-5) EarthQuaker Devices Astral Destiny
  7. (-1) Strymon Nightsky
  8. (-3) Chase Bliss Audio/Meris CXM 1978
  9. (-5) Walrus Audio R1
  10. (+1) Keeley Hydra
  11. (NEW) Pedal Pawn Texas Twang
  12. (NEW) Demedash T120 V2

*The search data was collected from our Google Search Console and Google Trends.

—

Related Delicious Audio Posts: