Updated Dec. 20, 2018 | by Paolo De Gregorio

December, for most people, is the month when big decisions are made about what stood out in the previous eleven months of our lives…

Stefan from The Pedal Zone just went through that difficult yet rewarding process to give birth to his “Best Pedals of 2018” video, a gift to all the pedal lovers out there! (You can also check out his 2017 picks here).

As usual we created an interactive chart featuring this top ten (or eleven if you include the PSU) in order of placement.

Get name and a brief excerpt about the pedal on mouse-over, and click on the thumbnails for the pedal’s video demo (of course, shot by The Pedal Zone themselves).

https://amzn.to
Meris Enzo
$299 | A guitar synth that can track mono or polyphonic parts, the Enzo also features a pitch-shifter, a deep filter section, a 2 tap delay, and ring modulation. It also works as a compressor or chorus in Dry mode.
Sweetwater | Reverb | Amazon
748884598
KMA Machines Horizont
$345 | With its 10 toggle switches, 8 knobs, two footswitch, and an envelop generator, this stereo phaser is able to deliver any phasey sound you may dream of. 8 waveforms: Ramp Up/Down, Sine/Triangle/Square wave, a sweeping waveform, Sample & Hold and a random slope waveform going from 20s down to 40ms.
Alt Seller | Reverb | Amazon
905136698
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dweller Phase Repeater
$199 | a unique “phase repeater" with a time stretching circuit that changes the delay time inside each phaser stage, delivering anything from familiar phase and vibe sounds to resonant random step filtering and warm delays. The two phaser voices (4-stage and 8-stage) and three wave shapes (sine, triangle, and random step) are controlled via Rate, Depth, Regen and Mix knobs.
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
1619502276
Chase Bliss Dark World Reverb
$349 | A feature-rich reverb with a “World” channel designed by Keeley that houses Hall, Plate, and Spring algorithms, and an edgier “Dark” channel designed by Cooper FX. The channels can be routed in 33 ways, creating a varied palette of reverb ranging from subtle, tasteful, and lush all the way to broken video cassette, glitch shimmer, and infinite freeze. Tweakers will enjoy the sonic options delivered by the 16 DIP switches on the back case, and the routing and expression pedal options are a nice extra.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
https://amzn.to/2WXmYgn
EarthQuaker Devices Pyramids Flanger
A creative stereo flanger with 8 modes, tap tempo, tap subdivision via the Rate & Tap mini-toggle, a multifunction Modify control, positive and negative Feedback, and a variable Mix control that lets you set the volume of the effect relative to your dry signal. It also lets you save five user-definable presets.
Sweetwater | Reverb | Amazon
60308717
Emma Navigator Delay
$259 - A lush sounding tap-tempo delay with modulation. The unique Second knob acts as a mix control between the main repeats and the “beat-split delay repeats,” i.e. the repeats that fall in between the main delay’s ones and whose timing is controlled by the Subdivision toggle switch.
Alt Seller | Reverb | Amazon
296779815
Neunaber Immerse Reverberator MkII
$225 - An organic, haunting multi-mode reverb redolent of a “choir of angels” housing eight stereo reverbs, including Wet, Hall, Plate, Spring, two varieties of Shimmer, Wet+Echo and Wet+Detune. Five controls for Effect Select, Effect Level, Reverb Depth, Tone (or Echo Time) and the effect-dependent Effect Adjust make it easy to dial up sounds on the fly.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon
2126205416
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Reflector Chorus V3
$199 | Version 3 of this chorus pedalfeatures three modes: Wrinkle gives you a Vibrato-esque warble chorus with the added option of pitch selection (octave up or down). Washed mode is a simple lush chorus, Modulate control adds in a wash of reverb (pre-chorus). Mirrors is a detuned chorus meets flanger in which the Modulate knob controls the depth of the flanger, while Rate affects both effects.
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
1833934778
EarthQuaker Devices Westwood Translucent Overdrive
$179 - Overdrive pedal with a powerful EQ section (“20dB of cut and/or boost at 80Hz and 2kHz”) designed to work with low wattage amps, pushing them – according to the description – “into anything from cutting, edge-of-breakup rhythm tones, all the way to articulate, singing lead tones stacked high with pleasing even-order harmonics and sweet sustain.”
Zzounds | Sweetwater |
More
Reverb Amazon
2190506127
Caroline Parabola Tremolo
A solid state tremolo with a preamp stage for added dirt and a Havoc footswitch. FM mode is a filter tremolo that lets through more dry signal, while AM delivers the classic tremolo sound. A speed switch lets you change the range of the speed knob. Havoc feature instantly makes your setting more extreme.
Perf. Circuit | Reverb | Amazon
2015576115
Cioks DC7 PSU
Thin, flexible and expandable this PSU puts out a max of 48W from its 9 outlets allowing to connect multiple high-current effects without noise of any kind. 7 isolated DC-outlets for effect pedals each with four selectable voltages. Each of the outlets can put out 6W which corresponds to 660mA of current at 9V. Additionally the DC7 has also a 5V USB outlet and an auxiliary 24V outlet.
eBay | Reverb | Amazon

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