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Roundup 19 New StompBoxes
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 THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT GUITAR PLAYERS HAVE A HUGE ARENA
to play in when it comes to effects pedals. Never in the history
of electric guitar have there been so many companies—from
large corporations to one-man operations—devoted to creating
compact effects for what would appear to be an insatiable market.
It’s unusual to find an electric player who doesn’t have at
least a couple of stompboxes on the floor, and while not all are
as effects-centric as, say, Oz Noy or Omar Rodriguez Lopez, the
vast majority of guitarists making albums these days are taking
advantage of stompbox technology for their distortion,
modulation, and just plain whacked-out sounds.
The thing is that regardless of whether you’re a
seasoned pro or a guitar novice, the urge to try new
stompboxes is equally irresistible. You might start
out with a modest setup of distortion, modulation,
and delay boxes, but the lure to add
“spotlight” effects to spice up your set
will almost inevitably lead you down the road toward
larger and more sophisticated pedalboards. “Go big or
go home” seems to be the deal nowadays when it comes
to effects rigs—even many bass players are carrying boards
long enough to surf on—and judging by the number of new
pedals that arrive at our offices each month, stompbox makers
are definitely pushing out new designs as quickly as possible
to satisfy the demand.
We recently corralled 20 pedals and ran them though their
paces using various Danelectro, Fender, Fernandes, Gibson, and
PRS guitars. Our test amps included a Budda
Twinmaster combo, a Fender Deluxe
Reverb, a Kendrick 20th Anniversary
BadAssMan, an Orange Tiny Terror, a
Victoria VIC105, and four Blackheart
heads ranging in power from one to
100 watts...
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