MI Pro

In researching this article, I came across no fewer than 40 different brands of effects pedals available on the market at present. A couple are direct sales from the US, another a German brand with little presence over here. That leaves 37 brands of guitar effects represented actively by UK suppliers.

In a niche market (with perhaps the exception of the good old overdrive unit) that means some pretty serious choices have to be made on a regular basis. And that is just brands. Multiply that by at least half a dozen and the list of pedals available for stocking becomes unwieldy to say the least.

It isn’t really a simple case of keeping the catalogue near to hand and ordering up models as and when a customer wants one, either (although that is certainly compulsory for some of the more esoteric boxes available on the market).

With the exception of guitars themselves, there is nothing the guitarist likes to spend hours dribbling over more than a good selection of pedals – and while the average semi-pro axe man has half a dozen guitars, he will most likely have twice as many effects units, whether he uses them or not.

It is a difficult area in which to achieve the right balance. The last thing you want is dozens of odd pedals cluttering up your displays or stock room, but catering to the seemingly perennial desire for overdrive units and having something a little leftfield to draw the eye of the guitarist means that stock holding is important.

This is why brands such as Boss, Digitech, Dunlop and Zoom tend to be found pretty much everywhere. The ranges are huge, the build quality is reliable, the prices are, at worst, reasonable and they have a track record of selling through quickly. Brand such as these have become their own self-fulfilling prophecy and you can’t really go wrong with them.

Talking to several retailers, it would appear that margins for guitar effects vary wildly between ten and 35 per cent, so while not being the biggest earners, there is certainly profit to be had.

There are four reasons why a pedal will be stocked. Either the rep sells well, it is seen at a trade show, magazine reviews rave about it, or a lot of customers ask after it, but whichever reason, the smaller the shop, the more difficult it will be to take on more than a handful of models.

As is often the case, the benefit the smaller, specialist shop has is its ability to develop good relationships with punters who are willing to listen to suggestions, making the more esoteric effects and brands (and there a lot of them) a viable option.

Guitarists love a good brand, like anyone, but there are those that eagerly seek out the exclusive – and a quirky effects pedal is as good as anything to start a conversation.

Boss (Roland)
There are a lot of guitarists out there for whom Boss is effectively the one-stop shop when it comes to guitar effects. A quick perusal of the Roland website’s guitar room shows why – some 36 compacts, ten multi-effects, eight twin pedals, two acoustic twins and four synth units… It is little wonder that Boss has made itself the number one selling effects brand.

Ten million compacts (and counting) sold since the first OD-1 overdrive in 1976, with Roland stepping into the guitar synthesizer market in the 80s and pretty much making it an exclusive fiefdom, as well as the hugely popular twin pedals and multi-effects – there simply isn’t anything else like it.

For an article such as this, however, it makes it impossible to know where to start, so, diving in almost at random…

The OD-1 is now long gone, but the OD-3 maintains the heritage and leads the way among an impressive selection of overdrive and fuzz boxes Boss has. A simple, functional unit, the OD-3 is based on a dual-stage design and offers variable drive and tone controls create overdriven sounds from mild to extreme with almost endless sustain.

There are also the OS-2 overdrive and distortion blender, the SD-1, which emulates the overdrive of a tube amp through asymmetric overdrive circuitry, thus remaining sensitive to picking styles, and going a step further the Dyna Drive makes it possible to get a transparent clean output sound by playing softly, or a powerful, heavy overdrive sound by picking aggressively.

As well as the panoply of standard overdrive, distortion, chorus, flange and digital delay, the compacts also include the Fender collaborations for the 59 Bassman and 68 Deluxe Reverb amp simulators, a mini loop station (RC-2), an auto wah (AW-3), a compressor sustainer (CS-3) and a whole lot more from effects through to eqs and line selectors.

On the twin pedal front there is the universally useful Space Echo (the RE-20) with its simulations of analog tape echo and reverb – with a lot of more modern sounds, too – and the ‘Fripp in a box’ DD-20 Giga Delay, whch provides up to 23 seconds of digital delay.

But the headliner at the moment is the new SL-20 Slicer – a kind of digital arpeggiator for guitarists that offers a huge selection of rhythmic and harmonic patterns to bring a whole new palette to axe wielders.

The Slicer is probably the only Boss effect that doesn’t feature in the array of multi-effects available from Boss (as yet), which each take the circuitry of the smaller pedals and package them in a sturdy floor unit (or, in the case of the GT-Pro, in a rackable box).

This opens up the capabilities of blended effects, the creation of user patches and all sorts of connection variations. Of particular note among these is the ME-50, now on the market for some years, but a real coup in terms of getting the most techno-phobic guitarist into multi-effects with its hands-on, real time knob control and simple on/off functions for the four effects banks included.

Special mention, though, has to go to the remarkable RC-50 loop station – a seven-pedal control unit that enables three independent, multi-layered loops with undo and redo function and a mass of connection possibilities that put a whole new angle on the one man band.

Dunlop
JHS offers a wide selection of guitar fx from the expansive catalogue, including the highly respected Jim Dunlop ranges. Dunlop’s line-up includes a number of variations on the legendary Cry Baby wah, with various signature wah pedals available from some of the biggest names in electric guitar, including Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Buddy Guy, Dimebag Darrell and Zakk Wylde.

Dunlop is also responsible for the acclaimed MXR series. This highly regarded range of pro pedals has been a stalwart of pedalboards for many years, providing definitive effects such as the Phase 90, Phase 100 and Distortion +. Newer additions to the range include the excellent Carbon Copy analog delay, the El Grande bass distortion unit and the Eddie Van Halen flanger.

Dunlop has also brought Jeorge Tripps’ reputable Way Huge brand back to the market.

These boutique-style overdrive pedals offer great tone and quality and the (as yet) unexplained food-based names, such as the Swollen Pickle MkII Jumbo fuzz, the Fat Sandwich harmonic saturator distortion and last but not least, the Pork Loin soft clip injection overdrive. Apple sauce, anyone? Or possibly a Shark Sandwich?

Dunlop continues to maintain a close and valued association with the Experience Hendrix estate and recently re-issued the most accurate representations to date of Hendrix's most famous pedals: the Wah, the Octavia and Fuzz Face.

Danelectro
Sticking with JHS, Danelectro's latest competitively-priced Cool Cat pedal series is already making a bit of a splash in the music scene.

Nine Cool Cat pedals with metal cases and true bypass operation cover many classic tones from the 60s (Vibe) to the present day (Metal II). A smart guitar case-styled pedalboard case holds five Cool Cats and comes complete with PSU and all patch and power leads, which is a great add-on for that extra sales push.

The Cool Cat range joins existing Danelectro pedal options, including the Fab units and, you will notice, more cryptically fast-food-themed mini pedals.

Tonebone
New to the Shure Distribution catalogue is Radial’s Tonebone series of effects – essentially a collection of boxes making the most of Radial’s high-end DI box and preamp technology.

The best place to start is the Tonebone Classic, a 12AX7 valve driven overdrive with true bypass, ultra-low noise and a very useful eq section.

The Classic is based on ‘vintage’ overdrive sounds and has a variable drive control from ‘slight’ to high-gain saturation and everything in between.
The benefit of valve overdrive is that turning the guitar down cleans up the overdrive naturally – and being Radial, there is no noise, hum or buzz and every note remains distinct at even the highest volumes.

Taking a leap forward from the Classic, the Trimode has everything its precursor has, but adds a rhythm distortion mode and a sustaining lead distortion mode – oh, and an effects loop I/O on the lead channel for good measure.

Trimode has three settings: true bypass for the natural guitar tone, rhythm mode with the unique ‘Interstage’ drive between the gain and volume to precision-tune the distorted mayhem, and solo mode with mid boost for ‘days of sustain’.

A step away from overdrive, but closer to Radial’s core is the Tonebone PZ Pre acoustic instrument booster and preamp. This is right up there with the best acoustic preamps and DIs, aimed at guitars, of course, but also banjos, mandos, violins, cellos, double basses – you name it. The magic of the PZ Pre lies in the combination of high performance discrete Class A piezo boosters, an ultra-quiet preamp that will adapt to any pickup system and a host of connectivity options.

A warm sounding semi-parametric eq and a host of feedback eliminating controls combine with independent input channels (for two instruments or tone blending) and three outputs, straight to amp, pre-eq XLR or post-eq XLR. If your acoustic doesn’t sound good with this, it’s probably time to buy a new acoustic.

Digitech
As with Boss, the Harman-owned Digitech brand has created a reputation as a universal guitar effects manufacturer, with compacts, twins and multis enough to create just about any sound combination that any guitarist could dream up.

Alongside the 20-odd compacts and the three ‘speciality’ pedals, Digitech spent much of 2007 launching the series of excellent modelling pedals, based upon the guitar sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Brian May and others. An ingenious idea, giving players access to precise ‘copy’ sounds, but also, being in the pedal format, the option to manipulate those tones for personal taste.

Apart from the signature pedals, there are also the CF-7 Chorus Factory, the DF-7 Distortion Factory, which model classic pedals in those categories, and the marvellous EX-7 Expression Factory, which combines overdrive and wah models, as well as some tasty flange, rotary speaker, vibrato and synth swells, all with ‘heel-toe’ switch variations.

2008, however, has been the year of the Hardwire series of compacts. Six pedals covering all of the stomp box bases, from a handful of overdrive and distortion pedals to a chorus, a delay/looper and a stereo reverb. Touting the new range as ‘extreme performance pedals’ the design of these (as with so many compact pedals around today) nod towards Boss, but the insides are pure Digitech.

More than sturdy craftsmanship, top-notch technology and clear innovation, the Hardwire range would appear to have got every detail right. All of them have true bypass and high voltage operation, as well as a slew of innovative attributes utilised with the guitarist very much in mind.

Digitech also excels in the area of multi-effects, from the rack unit GSP 1101, which is simply stuffed with models and effects, to the budget RP-50, which includes a quite staggering amount of processing and quality for a sub-£50 pedal.

Digitech has gone a step further than other pedal makers through its workstations, namely the GNX-4 and 3000, which take the multi-effects format and add mic inputs, an eight-track recorder and a programmable MIDI drum machine. Perfect for the bedroom player/composer, but also useful for the increasing number of solo performers around today.

Guyatone
Heading out to the leftfield (if you consider the US to be to the left) and some pedals little known outside Stateside from a small supplier called Godlyke.

Based on Guyatone’s award-winning Micro Series effects, the Mighty Micros offer exceptional sound quality in an ultra-compact, lightweight chassis that, the manufacturer assures us, is 33 per cent smaller and 50 per cent lighter than the average stompbox.

There are four pedals in the Mighty Micros series, the HDm5 Hot Drive with gain sculpting, the MDm5 Micro Digital Delay with 2.6 seconds of delay and a a hi-frequency roll-off control, the WRm5 Wah Rocker with a ‘dry blend’ control that makes the wah suitable for keyboards and/or bass, and the VTm5 Veri-Trem tremolo with a neat selectable sine/ triangle/square oscillator waveform.

For the low frequency pushers (or bassists to you and me) Godlyke offers its Chunk Systems Octavius Squeezer analog bass synthesizer. Godlyke is touting the Octavius as the world’s first analog/digital hybrid bass synth to be housed in a compact stompbox format.

With an analog audio path that features a variety of synth, octave, fuzz, and filter effects and a digital preset system that allows constant reconfiguration of the audio signal path and storage of parameter settings as well as an on-board tuner and tap-tempo metronome, the Octavius Squeezer is a pedal that could well be making ripples in 2009.

T-Rex
A cool two dozen pedals from the Danish effects maker that cover all the essentials for added tone value, but, as with a number of small, independent, pedal-only companies, the root of T-Rex’s success is in quality – whether in design, components or construction.

The phrase ‘bomb-proof’ is often used by PR and advertising agents (much to the chagrin of any self-respecting journalist) when describing electronics in metal boxes, but the ability of a T-Rex box to take the hammering of a hobnailed, clinically obese guitar man is nothing short of remarkable. These things are built to last.

Beyond that, the circuitry inside is nothing short of perfection, allowing stage-ready, studio-quality signals. These are specialised pedals that do what they say on the tin, thus the nine distortion/overdrive models, all tailored for specific functions.

As well as the grunt buttons, T-Rex has a great collection of modulators, compressors, delays and, most recently, a phase shifter designed together with Creed’s Mark Tremonti.

Tremonti was, we are told, looking for a phaser to add to his onstage arsenal, turned to T-Rex and the company did what it does best – delivered exactly what one would expect from a phaser and added a little extra. The Stage switch lets the user choose between a raw, vintage-sounding effect or a richer, more modern swirl. The ingenious Bite knob adds a sexy overdrive edge to any setting.

Morley
Morley, as with T-Rex, is distributed in the UK through Westside – and as with anything the Glasgow-based distributor takes on, you can be sure it is a world leader in its field.

While T-Rex concentrates on overdrive, modulation and delay, Morley has made its name with wah pedals. Interestingly, Morley, too, has a Mark Tremonti signature box, which is an interesting take on the traditional wah format. It uses electro-optical circuitry (as do all Morley wahs) to avoid that dusty-pot syndrome, is switchless – just put your foot on it and it activates – and it has up to 20dBs of boost.

One of Morley’s most popular pedals to date is the Steve Vai Bad Horsie model, with the same circuitry as the Tremonti wah, but instead of the boost control, the Bad Horsie has been designed together with Vai to maintain the exact tone Vai was after in his pedal and has a ‘clear tone’ buffer which maintains the signal level whether in bypass or activated.

The Pro Series II combo combines wah with volume and distortion. Wah and volume are alternate, while distortion control is independent with drive, level and tone controls. Morley pedals are hand-made in the US and, according to the PR are (ahem) bullet-proof.

Marshall
Marshall has eight classy pedals on the market, all with a stylish art deco design – and all utilising the valve and circuitry knowledge that has made it the world’s most famous amp manufacturer.

This is perhaps best illustrated with the Bluesbreaker II pedal, a combined overdrive and clean boost pedal. The ‘Blues’ overdrive mode is reminiscent of the old Marshall non-master volume control amps of the 1960s (such as the Bluesbreaker combo), while the boost section gives a clean
boost, which naturally overdrives the player’s amp. Both are delightfully natural sounds and can be as subtle or aggressive as the player wants.

For those after something even more aggressive, however (as with today’s hi gain junkies) the Jackhammer pedal contains the sounds of the most extreme overdrive of later Marshall amps. The Jackhammer also has a ‘contour’ section for scooping out the mid-range tones, making the creation of that elusive ‘personal voice’ all the easier.

The Marshall range also includes a flanger, a reverb unit, an analog echo and a compressor – all designed to add the most natural sounding colours to a guitar’s tone.

Seymour Duncan
Another eight pedals, this time from Seymour Duncan (distributed in the UK by Aria) and, like Marshall only different, the manufacturer has used its know-how in its core products to expand into effects – in this case, of course, pickups.

From the delightfully simple, yet extremely effective SFX-01 pickup booster – a pedal that works together with the pickups in a guitar to achieve optimum gain and resonance  – to the Lava Box
hi gain effect.

The Lava Box is another pedal that reacts (as with the Marshalls), to use of the guitar’s volume control.

Of note is Aria’s launch of the Seymour Duncan Stompbox Dealer Programme, which loans an authorised Seymour dealer a mains-powered demo board. Other benefits include increased dealer margins, point of sale catalogue, exclusive website listing, customer referrals and flexible opening order payment terms.

Damage Control
Relatively speaking, the new kid on the block still, despite the fact that the company is now owned by Peavey and thus gives it commercial clout and sales networks way beyond many of its competitors.

Damage Control was set up by a group of Line 6 engineers who wanted to get back to basics – and the results are pretty special. Being valve-based units (even the Time Line delay unit) the sounds are warm and ‘real’, but with the experience of putting together Line 6 products, there is a good knowledge of where the technology is today.

As well as the distortion units and the Time Line delay, there is the Glass Nexus modulation effect, with reverb, rotary effect, tremolo and, of course, chorus, this unit demonstrates the so-called Natural Number Processing Damage Control uses. This is natural sounding algorithims reproducing the organic feel of the desired effect.

For things like univibe and phaser, the company says, this means re-creating the analog warmth of vintage pedals, whereas for reverb, this means capturing the essence of a natural space without electronic artefacts – that’s modelling to you and me, but effective, nonetheless.