Along with their many more complex, labyrinthine and occasionally dark and twisted effects pedals, EarthQuaker Devices not long ago unveiled a line of Utility Pedals that deliver simple routing, mixing and buffering functions at pocket-friendly prices. The latest addition, the Easy Listening pedal, retains the simplicity of the range while offering what I’d call a greater depth of purpose.

Despite having just a single (and unlabeled) volume knob and one input and output on its miniature 3.65 by 1.5 by 1.25–inch enclosure, the Easy Listening is an all-in-one analog amp simulator, designed to replicate the familiar tone of a 1965 Fender Deluxe combo, speaker and all.

EQD bills this little box as both the ideal late-night practice solution for electric guitar players and a dead-simple recording tool. You plug a guitar and any desired effects pedals in on one side, connect a set of headphones, or run D.I. to a recording interface into your DAW from the other, and Bob’s your uncle: You get rich, round, clear tone reminiscent of the most popular 1x12 combo of all time.

In discussing the impetus for the design, EQD founder, president and head designer Jamie Stillman told me, “My main goal was just to make a small and affordable analog headphone amp for our demo boards, but I’m personally not a huge fan of the do-it-all multi-effects and modeling amplifiers that some people have gravitated towards. Even the best modelers cannot replace the immediacy of an amplifier. There is always some element of space they try to impart on the signal.

“I’ve always felt that layering guitar parts with a modeling amplifier starts to sound hollow when the tracks stack up, like they are missing samples and the added ‘space’ is never quite aligned right. I’m not saying that Easy Listening is superior to these super computers, but I am saying that it has more of an immediate sound.

“It’s more-in-your-face, without the elements of an imagined space cluttering everything up. I’m also not a menu diver. Nothing drives me crazier than having to sit and dial up a bunch of parameters when all I’d rather be doing is playing guitar with what little free time I have.”

Keen-eyed readers will have already noted that the Easy Listening provides no means to EQ, gain stage or perform other sonic tweaking — and that’s the idea. It’s intended to replicate the sound of a black-panel Deluxe combo speaker and all, before the point of clipping, at its most universally appealing tone settings, with a single knob to govern the output volume.

That’s it. Connect headphones with a 1/4-inch stereo plug to the output and it sums both sides to the mono signal; or, connect a standard guitar cord to a single channel of your interface or a TRS cable with splitter at the other end to two multiple-mono channels for tracking to your DAW.

Obviously, capturing the tone of one of the world’s most desirable vintage combos in a pocket-sized box must have had its challenges. So did Stillman employ any complex analog-modeling algorithms or mystical tone-emulating techniques?

“Nope. I didn’t even use the schematic of the amp,” he tells GP with a laugh. “I just know that sound. I’ve been using that amp during development for years and I like the response it gives. I also use a Kemper with a model of the ’65 on my bench for headphone listening, so over the years I feel like I’ve learned what I do and don’t like about the models, too.

“I just tried to get as close as I could to the sound I am used to hearing while using as few parts as humanly possible so I could fit it in a small package and not take up a bunch of pedalboard real estate.”

I tested the Easy Listening with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson Les Paul, using a selection of pedals between them, and found plenty of utility indeed in this simple headphone-jam and home-recording tool. The unit reacted well to a Wampler Tumnus Deluxe, an Ibanez TS10 Tube Screamer and an EQD Hoof fuzz, as well as a selection of reverb, delay and modulation pedals used in front of it, proving much the pedal equivalent of the “pedal platform” amp that has become popular in recent years.

It makes sense to have the gain preset to the shy side of clipping, since you’ll get that from anything you stack in front of it. While the overall EQ of the pedal is also very well-judged, however, I’d find something like a simple two- or three-way voicing switch handy, but add a little more high-end sparkle or low-end thump now and then. But that’s just a personal thing, and not so much a fault with the design, which is intentionally minimalist.

All in all, the Easy Listening easily justifies its name and is likely one of the most broadly appealing all-round “amp” tones I’d expect to encounter at this price. It’s also an extremely handy member of the toolbox by any measure. One might argue that it doesn’t sound exactly like a vintage ’65 Deluxe, but we might also reply “which ’65 Deluxe?” I’d say it’s close enough for rock and roll, and if the real thing, better reissues, and more complex digital modeling solutions arguably come closer, well, they all cost a lot more than $99.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT Earthquakerdevices.com

PRICE $99 street

CONTROLS Volume

FEATURES Input, headphone/DI output, center-negative 9V input (no space for internal battery)

SIZE 3.65"x1.5"x1.25"

ASSEMBLED USA

PRO An affordable, compact, and well-designed take on one of the most popular guitar-amp sounds of all time.

CON None as intended, although some simple form of basic voicing might be handy.

EarthQuaker Devices and Death By Audio have updated their fan-favorite Time Shadows pedal, making it widely available for the first time. 

First created in 2020 and limited to just 1,000 copies, the original has since become a cult classic, with prices on the second-hand market growing exponentially. 

The two experimental pedal makers came together after featuring in Reverb’s full-length documentary, The Pedal Movie, with the Time Shadows – a split-personality pedal that comprises an EQD-made pitch-morphed fuzz delay on one side, and a DBA-designed multi-delay filter on the other – the result. 

Death By Audio founder Oliver “Ollie” Ackermann described the original pedal as delivering “an insane synth buzz bazooka sound,” and a “multi-intertwined delay filter remorphinator of cosmic waves,” on the EQD and DBA sides respectively. 

Four years later, the pedal has been treated to key revisions ahead of a full production run. EQD’s President, Founder, and Product Designer, Jamie Stillman noted the “bonkers” prices the originals were fetching on Reverb and wished to respond. 

The updated pedal features three “wildly different modes,” starting with the original duo of EQD’s envelope-controlled sub-octave filter delay, and DBA’s multi-delay regenerating filter. 

However, they’re now joined by a third mode in the form of a dual delay “where each repeat simultaneously shifts up and down with each regeneration.”  

Those three modes, though very different in character, have been sculpted to be “completely complementary and suitable for every style and genre of music.” 

Other additional features allow user-assignable expression control, and for users to save up to six presets.    

“We felt it was high time to bring the Time Shadows back into production and get it in the hands of sonic explorers everywhere, without the collector’s price tag,” says Ackermann.  

“I’m very happy we are now putting this in permanent rotation,” Stillman echoes. “The prices for the original Time Shadows are bonkers and this updated version with the additional mode, presets, and a super useful assignable expression control, really opens up a whole dimension in tone mangling.” 

While the full-scale production no longer makes the pedal’s dark tonal magic ultra-exclusive, the firms couldn’t resist a special edition version of Time Shadows 2.0. 

A Cyberpunk version, housed in a black enclosure and emblazoned with Ackermann-created graphics is limited to 500 copies. It will be available exclusively on the EarthQuaker Devices Reverb store.  

The standard edition of the pedal costs $199, and is available today. 

Head to EarthQuaker Devices to learn more. 

Considering how so many reverb pedals today feature no fewer than five or six varieties of the effect, it’s refreshing whenever someone comes out with a stomp box that keeps the number down to just a few essentials.

Consider EarthQuaker Devices’ new Ledges Tri-Dimensional Reverberation Machine, which offers Room, Hall and Plate reverbs. What, no spring reverb, you’re probably thinking? I figure the omission is fine since guitarists who use spring reverb will probably already have it in their amp.

But EarthQuaker’s uncommon approach goes beyond its choice of ambience effects, because Ledges’ three reverb modes are interconnected to deliver the effect’s full spectrum. Room’s longest setting is Hall’s shortest, while Hall’s longest setting is Plate’s shortest.

Within each mode’s range are infinite options, from boxy at Room’s shortest setting, to endlessly reverberating at Plate’s longest setting.

A handful of controls make dialing in your preferred sound easy. Mix controls the dry-to-wet balance, length controls the size of the reverb, and damping dials down the high-frequency content of the reverb to tame reflections.

There’s also a preset knob with six user-definable settings. The preset button lets you save and recall your favorites, and it indicates if Ledges is in Live mode, by glowing green, or Preset mode, by glowing red.

In addition, Ledges has a ¼-inch TRS expression input on its right-hand side, and expression control can be mapped to length, mix or damping and saved in each preset. There’s also a buffered bypass with tails, so reverb tails will continue even when you’ve switched off the pedal.

As EarthQuaker users would expect, Ledges features Flexi-Switch Technology, the company’s silent true-bypass relay-based foot switch.

EarthQuaker has plenty of experience making great-sounding reverb pedals, and Ledges is no exception. The sounds on tap here have realism, depth and plenty of liveliness that lend guitar tones a three-dimensional quality.

The reverbs cover the full spectrum by design, but you’ll be missing a lot if you just think of them as progressively “larger” reverbs, as each has its own unique sonic character, with plenty of variety available.

Room delivers everything from tiny crackerbox ambience to slapback at the far right of the knob. Hall is usually not one of my favorite reverb algorithms, but I found Ledges’ style of the effect extremely likable and usable. With length at a minimum and mix at noon, it adds a nice moody presence. Turn up length and you’re rewarded with loads of reflections and subtle modulations that evoke grand cathedral settings.

Plate reverb is one of my favorite varieties for its smooth sheen, and while it’s tempting to crank up length and enjoy those endless beds of pure unwavering reverb, I found this mode perfect for most styles with length set at minimum and mix and damping at noon.

Of course, being able to store six presets, along with expression control assignments, is a great benefit. I also enjoyed mapping expression to the length control in Hall mode and using an expression pedal to create dramatic swells of reverb.

Ledges sounds great and is a breeze to use. It should make a great addition for guitarists who want a versatile reverb that doesn’t hog pedalboard real estate or come packed with algorithms they don’t need.

Specifications:

• CONTROLS: Length, mix and damping knobs. Mode switch (Room, Hall and Plate), six-position user-definable preset knob, preset save/recall with indicator to show operating mode (green: Live; red: Preset)
• I/O: 1/4” TS input and output, 1/4” TRS expression input
• OTHER: Buffered bypass with tails, silent relay-based switching with Flexi-Switch Technology
• POWER: 9-volt DC, 75 mA
• DIMENSIONS: 5 x 2.625 x 2.125” (LxWxH)
• WEIGHT: 9.85 oz
• BUILT: USA

Visit EarthQuaker Devices for more information.

Many seasons ago, Akron-based effects maker EarthQuaker Devices rocked guitarists’ world with a little box called the Speaker Cranker. Featuring just one knob, labeled “More,” it could push your speaker to the edge of breakup without dramatically coloring your tone or affecting transparency.

The result was thicker, crunchier power chords and singing leads that bloomed with rich harmonics and an almost full-frequency response.

The Speaker Cranker is out of production, but in its place EarthQuaker presents the Special Cranker, a pedal that builds upon the Speaker Cranker with more controls and clipping diode options.

The Special Cranker continues where the Speaker Cranker left off. It’s a medium-gain overdrive that delivers more saturation without altering your amp’s organic nuances or character. It’s as spongy, dynamic and touch sensitive as its predecessor but with more gain, twice the output volume (via the level knob) and a tone control.

It also has, notably, two flavors of gain courtesy of a small toggle: Si (silicon diode), which offers the asymmetrical silicone diodes of the original for a brighter edge and higher output; and Ge (germanium), for a darker tone and a softer response.

The tone control comes in handy here for managing treble frequencies. Turning it counterclockwise tames the high end – useful with Si mode selected – while a clockwise spin delivers a slight boost to help brighten the Ge side. Park it at three o’clock for flat response.

Level, meanwhile, takes your volume from zero to nearly double, with unity gain between 10 and 12 o’clock, depending on which diode is selected.

The More control adjusts the bias of the transistor, so it’s normal to hear some noise as the knob is turned, although this varies depending on your pickups and their output.

Tested with humbucker- and single-coil-equipped guitars through a Fender ’68 Custom Princeton Reverb tube amp, the Special Cranker was a real treat, especially since I’m admittedly not fond of extreme overdrive.

Aside from a slight decrease in bass response, the pedal let my electric guitar’s tone come through, adding saturation and sustain and enriching harmonics to make everything I played sound livelier, thicker and crunchier.

Obviously, what you get from the Special Cranker has a lot to do with your pickups, but the bottom line here is that the pedal behaves like it’s part of your amp, helping you home in on the frequencies you want while delivering warm, tube-like crunch that increases in complexity as you turn the More knob clockwise.

Having both silicon and germanium diode options only adds to the pedal’s usefulness.

Granted, if you’re accustomed to high-gain germanium tones, you may find the Special Cranker’s medium-gain overdrive more polite than you’re used to.

On the other hand, the silicon side is bright and robust, with a gorgeous bloom. The low mids sound fatter than on the germanium side, but chords remained distinct, without becoming muddy.

As you might expect, the Special Cranker features EarthQuaker’s Flexi-Switch foot switch that allows both momentary and latched switching. I especially like that the pedal can be operated from nine to 18 volts for increased headroom, one more impressive feature on a pedal that has enough to begin with.

If you’re not a player who wants or needs tons of overdrive, or if you just want a versatile medium overdrive that sounds like an extension of your amp, the Special Cranker deserves a look.

Specifications

• CONTROLS: Level, tone, More. Ge/Si toggle switch to select germanium or silicon diodes
• EXTRAS: Input and output, true-bypass, Flexi-Switch switching, LED indicator, center-negative 9V DC adaptor input. Pedal runs on 9 to 18 volts
• SIZE: 5.75” x 3.25” x 3.25”
• BUILT: Assembled in USA

Visit EarthQuaker Devices for more information.

The Sunn Life Pedal is a collaboration between Akron-based effects manufacturer EarthQuaker Devices and the Seattle ambient metal band Sunn O))).

It effectively reproduces the sound created when the group’s guitarists slam their multiple stacks of vintage 100-watt Sunn amps with excessive fuzz, overdrive, octave and boost, creating a demonic wall like no other.

Now in its third incarnation, the Life Pedal has been modified to re-create the analog octave effect from a vintage Shin-Ei FY2 fuzz and FY6 octave-fuzz into a white-face RAT distortion, with a MOSFET booster following, to allow plenty of amp slamming from a single pedal.

The controls can be a hair confusing, since, in the spirit of many old pedals, they don’t follow a logical right-to-left order.

Amplitude, far left, is the output for the distortion side, while distortion is rather obviously the gain/drive for that stage, and filter is a RAT-like EQ.

A three-way rotary switch labeled clip selects between op amp, asymmetrical and symmetrical clipping.

Octave blends in the octave fuzz, and magnitude is the boost.

With all this in mind, the three foot switches for amplitude, octave and magnitude become self-explanatory, though it’s worth noting that they are soft-touch true-bypass, using EarthQuaker’s proprietary Flexi-Switch Technology. Hit and release them for traditional on/off, or hit and hold for momentary on.

The single input and output are on the pedal’s front face, along with an expression pedal jack for remote control of the octave blend, and a standard center-negative jack for your nine-volt DC supply.

The Life Pedal V3 comes in a rugged, black textured metal enclosure that’s not overly huge considering all it contains.

I don’t happen to have a 100-watt Sunn full stack on hand, but a silverface 50-watt Fender Bassman head and 2x12 cab stood in well for testing, played with a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Jazzmaster.

As such, with the Life Pedal engaged and dialed in, I can’t imagine better or more immediate access to doomy, droney art-metal escapades.

The pedal still sounds eviscerating and appropriately menacing even at lower volumes, but the full-bore experience requires big decibels to approach the band’s fully transcendental sonics.

With the Bassman’s volume wound up beyond one o’clock, the pedal delivered with thick, chewy endless sustain and willing feedback. It’s mayhem in a box, and a wild ride, for sure.

The voicing and character of the distortion side are quite familiar, yet EQD has rendered them with impressive girth, texture and relative clarity, and the three-way clipping option is a cool bonus. It’s subtle, but definitely effective at zeroing in on the dirt of your dreams.

As with any traditional analog octave effect, this one is most prevalent playing higher up the fretboard with the neck pickup selected, where it functions for single-note runs only. But it can add oddity and interest to other settings and playing positions too, and makes a cool addition to your dirt arsenal.

Hitting the magnitude (boost) switch can slam the amp as intended, but it’s also great when used subtly, adding not only a perceived volume lift for soloing but enhancing articulation in the process.

And while the Life Pedal excels at foundation-rumbling excess, it also proved a great multifunction distortion pedal into my 1x10 Princeton combo, easily converting it into a proto-metal rig for the small stage, so don’t rule it out if you’re shy an earth-quaking, big-bottle stack.

Specifications

• CONTROLS: Amplitude, filter, distortion, clip, octave, magnitude; foot switches for amplitude, octave, magnitude
• EXTRAS: Input and output, Exp jack (Octave control), true-bypass, Flexi-Switch switching, LED indicator for each foot switch, center-negative 9V DC adaptor input
• SIZE: 5.75” x 5.25” x 1.5” (excluding feet and knobs)
• BUILT: Assembled in USA

Visit EarthQuaker Devices for more information.

The Sunn Life Pedal is a collaboration between Akron-based effects manufacturer EarthQuaker Devices and the Seattle ambient metal band Sunn O))).

It effectively reproduces the sound created when the group’s guitarists slam their multiple stacks of vintage 100-watt Sunn amps with excessive fuzz, overdrive, octave and boost, creating a demonic wall like no other.

Now in its third incarnation, the Life Pedal has been modified to re-create the analog octave effect from a vintage Shin-Ei FY2 fuzz and FY6 octave-fuzz into a white-face RAT distortion, with a MOSFET booster following, to allow plenty of amp slamming from a single pedal.

The controls can be a hair confusing, since, in the spirit of many old pedals, they don’t follow a logical right-to-left order.

Amplitude, far left, is the output for the distortion side, while distortion is rather obviously the gain/drive for that stage, and filter is a RAT-like EQ.

A three-way rotary switch labeled clip selects between op amp, asymmetrical and symmetrical clipping.

Octave blends in the octave fuzz, and magnitude is the boost.

With all this in mind, the three foot switches for amplitude, octave and magnitude become self-explanatory, though it’s worth noting that they are soft-touch true-bypass, using EarthQuaker’s proprietary Flexi-Switch Technology. Hit and release them for traditional on/off, or hit and hold for momentary on.

The single input and output are on the pedal’s front face, along with an expression pedal jack for remote control of the octave blend, and a standard center-negative jack for your nine-volt DC supply.

The Life Pedal V3 comes in a rugged, black textured metal enclosure that’s not overly huge considering all it contains.

I don’t happen to have a 100-watt Sunn full stack on hand, but a silverface 50-watt Fender Bassman head and 2x12 cab stood in well for testing, played with a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Jazzmaster.

As such, with the Life Pedal engaged and dialed in, I can’t imagine better or more immediate access to doomy, droney art-metal escapades.

The pedal still sounds eviscerating and appropriately menacing even at lower volumes, but the full-bore experience requires big decibels to approach the band’s fully transcendental sonics.

With the Bassman’s volume wound up beyond one o’clock, the pedal delivered with thick, chewy endless sustain and willing feedback. It’s mayhem in a box, and a wild ride, for sure.

The voicing and character of the distortion side are quite familiar, yet EQD has rendered them with impressive girth, texture and relative clarity, and the three-way clipping option is a cool bonus. It’s subtle, but definitely effective at zeroing in on the dirt of your dreams.

As with any traditional analog octave effect, this one is most prevalent playing higher up the fretboard with the neck pickup selected, where it functions for single-note runs only. But it can add oddity and interest to other settings and playing positions too, and makes a cool addition to your dirt arsenal.

Hitting the magnitude (boost) switch can slam the amp as intended, but it’s also great when used subtly, adding not only a perceived volume lift for soloing but enhancing articulation in the process.

And while the Life Pedal excels at foundation-rumbling excess, it also proved a great multifunction distortion pedal into my 1x10 Princeton combo, easily converting it into a proto-metal rig for the small stage, so don’t rule it out if you’re shy an earth-quaking, big-bottle stack.

Specifications

• CONTROLS: Amplitude, filter, distortion, clip, octave, magnitude; foot switches for amplitude, octave, magnitude
• EXTRAS: Input and output, Exp jack (Octave control), true-bypass, Flexi-Switch switching, LED indicator for each foot switch, center-negative 9V DC adaptor input
• SIZE: 5.75” x 5.25” x 1.5” (excluding feet and knobs)
• BUILT: Assembled in USA

Visit EarthQuaker Devices for more information.

Along with an abundance of hooky grooves and catchy vocal lines Warpaint’s signature sound is defined by six-string twins Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman, whose ethereal guitar tones render the band immediately identifiable.

The pair are known for using mainly Fender offset electric guitars – Kokal a ’66 Olympic White Jaguar gifted to her by John Frusciante, and Wayman a '66 Dakota Red Mustang. 

Recently, however, Wayman has also taken to using a Jaguar, something she says she hopes will expand her sound even further.

Earlier this month, Guitar Player caught up with the co-frontwoman while the band was on the road in Europe promoting their new album, Radiate Like This.

Here, Wayman gives us the scoop on her current touring rig as she continues to evolve her unique sound…

Guitars

Usually, I’d play with my Fender Mustang, but I started playing this Jaguar and it’s been really interesting. There’s just so much you can do with the different pickup options and the tone switch. 

I basically decided to go with a Jaguar because I have a lot of single note lines and I was thinking it would have a more rounded sound than the Mustang, but also the ability to get a stronger attack in the high end.

I miss the Mustang, so maybe I’ll bring that out as well for the next tour.

I want to try experimenting with thicker strings on the Jaguar. Maybe a set of .011s would be a really good way to go. We got it set up, but this one doesn’t have the Mastery Bridge [Kokal's has been fitted with a Mastery Bridge.] 

I've realized I don’t like having the whammy bar there because if I want to jump around the thing just starts moving about and it’s really annoying.

Also, there were a few dead frets that needed sorting out. Emily said she had the same thing with her Jaguar.

Amps

I’m splitting my signal using a Radial unit into two different amps to try and broaden the tones. There’s been a lot to wrangle but it’s been really fun.

Having that versatility is great because there’s more I can do, although I feel like I’m just scratching the surface. At first it took more concentration to be dialed in but once I got into the flow of it it’s been so much more satisfying.

I’m excited to keep honing the tone. I’ve been finessing the combination of the amps. I wanted to create a really thick sound that has a lot of layers of character, but also definition.

The idea was to have a decent attack along with some length with the reverb, and a little bit of a delay too, so it almost sounds like there are two guitar players playing the same part.

I wanted to use a Fender Princeton Reverb as my second amp along with a Vox AC30, but I ended up with a Deluxe Reverb instead. And it’s actually really nice. I’ve always liked the tone of those Fender amps and I’m really enjoying what’s happening there. I have more effects hitting that amp. It seems to handle the pedals really well.

Pedals

I have a couple of pedals – a compressor and a distortion – that hit both of the amps (placed before I split the signal.) It’s an old peach colored Ibanez compressor. I was looking for something to help with sustain and I found that in a shop in Manchester [U.K.] 

That Ibanez compressor pedal works really well in combination with the [Electro-Harmonix] Holy Grail reverb, which I love. Right now, I’m thinking I might want one on both sides, but I don’t want to be too reverbed out.

My Boss [DS-1] Distortion pedal is really, really cool. I use that with the Jaguar bridge pickup to get a cool kind of wiry sound. 

I’m also using an EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master. You can use it in a subtle way or you can go really extreme with it but it always sounds good.

I’ve also got a couple of Boss Digital Delay pedals – a DD-6 and a DD-7. One I use to extend the sound and the other [the DD-6] I use for a reverse effect. 

One of my favorite pedals at the moment is a hand-built fuzz called the Classy Jen [by GlenCo] that was made by a guy from L.A. I use that on “Hips.” It’s so powerful. But I use it in a subtle way because Warpaint’s not really a crazy fuzz pedal band. [laughs]

Order Warpaint's latest album, Radiate Like This, here.

A vintage Japanese Elk BM Sustainar pedal has been the source of the bombastic electric guitar tone that Wata gets in the experimetal band, Boris!, and the new Hizumitas pedal is the result of Earthquaker’s efforts to re-create it.

The story goes that after testing different versions of the Elk BM and finding – no surprise – that they all sounded different, Earthquaker’s designers realized the only way to reproduce the tones that Wata wields was to get their hands on her actual pedal.

Amazingly, she sent it to them to evaluate, and they discovered that it indeed possessed a special circuit that produced heavy saturation and had a gritty edge and massive bottom. Yet it also had a clear and dynamic presentation, with plenty of mids and top-end bite.

Our review model has a silvery metal enclosure emblazoned with purple jackalopes and lightning bolts, like a coat of arms. The compact pedal has sustain, tone and volume controls, top-mounted jacks and a bypass foot switch that is relay controlled and requires nine volts DC to operate.

The circuitry is laid out on a glass-epoxy PCB, and it’s nice that you can see the components when the bottom plate is removed. However, battery power is not an option with this pedal, nor is an adapter provided.

Plugged into Fender Deluxe Reverb and ’66 Vibro-Champ tube amplifiers for studio playing – and pummeled with an Epiphone Lazarus Les Paul and a Reverend Gristlemaster T-style guitar – the Hizumitas churned out gritty distortion tones, with gobs of singing sustain available via the knob marked “S”.

The tone control delivers everything from huge low end when turned clockwise to skinnier textures when spun the opposite direction. Setting the knob around two o’ clock produced a killer tone with rich midrange color and a clear, articulate top end.

Small control adjustments let you home in on slim single-coils or meaty humbuckers, and the pedal is dynamically responsive and cleans up quite well when you lighten up on the attack and/or turn down the guitar volume.

It also has a lot of output so you can easily overdrive amps or pedals and get that combination of juice from the Hizumitas and whatever it’s driving into.

A superb grind machine that walks the line between distortion and fuzz, the Hizumitas is a Godzilla for heavy styles, although it can be deployed for pretty much anything where beefy, dynamic crunch is the order. Well done!

Specifications:

• CONTROLS: Volume, tone, sustain
• FOOT SWITCHES: Relay based true-bypass
• POWER SUPPLY: 9VDC (adapter not included)
• BUILT: USA

Despite the ongoing pandemic 2021 was a fabulous year for gear. With many exciting and innovative products appearing over the last 12 months we guitar players have been spoilt for choice. 

Here are some of the top picks from team GP…

Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab Les Paul, ES-335 and ES-355 Guitars

A revitalized Gibson introduced its Murphy Lab extension of the Custom Shop early in 2021, and that thrillingly accurate backward glance proved one of the more exciting new developments from a big-name maker in quite some time.

Tom Murphy has long been recognized as a leading practitioner of the art of aging Gibson guitars, and if someone had told us the 1959 Les Paul Heavy Aged, 1959 ES-355 Light Aged, and 1961 ES-335 Ultra-Light Aged we were sent for testing were rare under-the-bed vintage finds we wouldn’t have thought twice.

And not only did they look great, but Custom Shop build quality ensure they also played superbly and sounded authentic. Stellar stuff. DH

Orange Acoustic Pedal

This is an ideal preamp and flexible D.I. for acoustic guitar rockers after an amp-like tone. It simply makes any acoustic-electric guitar sound bigger and bolder without having to fuss with a bunch of complicated controls.

The main event is the very sculptable midrange along with the requisite bass and treble controls. Tweak them a bit for different applications or instruments, but most players can probably pretty much set ’em and forget ’em.

I was miffed about no mute or bypass button at first but needed a mutable tuner in line anyway. Once the ample-sounding Orange Acoustic Pedal tone colors the signal chain, going without it sounds black and white. JL

Reverend Gristle 90

Guitarist Greg Koch went off-road when creating a follow-up to his signature Tele-centric Gristlemaste, and the result is the Gristle 90, a mashup of Fender and Gibson attributes that features a korina body that’s chambered under the pickguard and has a Firebird-style raised center section, and a three-piece korina set-neck topped with a 24 3/4-inch scale, 22-fret ebony fingerboard.

Steering things further into Gibson territory, the Gristle 90 has a Bigsby vibrato and a Tune-o-matic bridge, and it sports a pair of P-90 pickups – specifically, Fishman Fluence Gristle 90s, which were voiced by Koch and crew for this guitar. They feed volume and tone controls – the latter with a push-pull switch for a Peter Green-type out-of-phase sound – along with a pushbutton midrange boost and a three-way selector.

The Gristle 90 is a great playing and superb sounding guitar that combines classic and cutting-edge technologies to create a T-styler like no other. AT

Mesa Badlander

Derived from a long line of high-gain Mesa Rectifier amplifiers, this EL34-powered two-channel 100-watt head (also available in combo, rack-mount and 50-watt versions) delivers an astounding range of tones courtesy of Mesa’s 3 Mode Channel Cloning system that provides independent switching of the Clean, Crunch and Crush modes on each channel, each of which offers different gain and voicing options.

Dialing in righteous clean and overdriven tones is facilitated by the independent gain, master and EQ controls, and there’s a front-panel switch to select 100-, 50- or 20-watt operation (all class A/B), a tube-buffered series FX loop, a trio of speaker jacks and a bias switch to configure the amp for EL34 or 6L6 power tubes.

The features are extensive, but one of the most significant is the Cab Clone IR, a cab-simulator/reactive load with eight Mesa miked-cabinet IRs that can also be loaded with IRs of your choice. It adds up to a magnificently well-endowed amp that’s also an amazing deal. AT

Epiphone USA Casino

This updated and revitalized USA Casino – the first built in the U.S. since 1971 – absolutely nails what makes the iconic hollow-body Casino great: from big, bold British jangle and punch to sexy, syrupy P-90 jazz guitar and blues guitar tones.

The solid mahogany, 22-fret, rounded-C neck is topped with an Indian rosewood fingerboard, and with its three-ply maple/poplar/maple top, Gibson ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge and thinline trapeze tailpiece, it’s a contoured classic in either Royal Tan or Vintage Sunburst nitro finishes.

While it may cost a pretty penny compared to the Asia-made Epiphone Casinos of even a few years ago, the USA Casino is worth the investment, bringing the model back to the premium U.S.-made dream machine it was always meant to be. JVR

Boss OC-5 Octave

The OC-5 builds on the legacy of the OC-2, introduced 40 years ago, with a spot-on re-creation of the original monophonic pedal as well as a Poly mode that delivers the OC-3’s chord-loving goodness.

It ups the ante with a +1 octave control that adds definition and chime to guitar lines, and a -2 octave that in Poly mode becomes a range control for the -1 octave, allowing you to place the sub on just the root of the chord or over all the notes being played.

Boss’s latest tracking technology delivers lightning-fast, glitch-free performance, producing a natural sound and feel even on bends and vibrato. Better still, its suboctave sounds more natural than that of its predecessors. CS

Eventide Micropitch Delay

The MicroPitch Delay is a stereo delay with controls to independently adjust pitch for the left and right channels, as well as pitch-modulation capabilities courtesy of an LFO, and an envelope that responds dynamically to your playing.

The little red box is awesome for delay, chorus and doubling effects, but that is just the tip of this iceberg. The secondary mod parameter lets you choose from three types of pitch modulation: via LFO, via envelope to raise pitch, and via envelope to lower pitch. These last two methods are great for creating dynamically responsive pitch shifts.

It’s also terrific for creating syrupy chorus and ascending and descending delays via picking dynamics. I found that, at its core, the MicroPitch Delay is a fantastic “always-on” sonic enhancer in my signal chain. CS

Fender American Professional Jazzmaster II

If you’re like us, you’ve wanted a Jazzmaster for years. What held you back was those notoriously wonky vibrato tailpieces and the humpy 7.5-inch neck radius. Well, the American Professional II is for you, with a redesigned Panorama tremolo system that gives you all the bending room of a Strat, updated V-Mod II pickups, and – finally! – a more comfortable rounded-C neck shape, with a modern 9.5-inch neck radius. Hallelujah!

The V-Mod II single-coil pickups kick indie ass, too: clear, punchy and articulate, with a coil-tap option for a beefier sound out of that previously thin bridge pup in most Jazzers. With the American Professional II, Fender has given us all the Jazzmaster’s cool character, with absolutely zero trade-offs. JVR

Epiphone “Inspired by Gibson” Hummingbird

Comparable in nearly every detail to its much-pricier U.S.-made Gibson counterpart, the new made-in-China Epiphone Hummingbird features that classic square-shouldered dreadnought shape, a solid Sitka Spruce top, solid-mahogany back and sides, Indian Laurel reverse-belly bridge with bone saddle, tortoise shell pickguard with Hummingbird and floral graphics, a glued-in, tapered dovetail neck joint, quarter-sawn spruce bracing, ivory-and-black six- and four-ply binding and an Aged Gloss finish.

Specs aside, it just plays and sounds great, with a 24.72-inch-scale mahogany neck with rounded-C profile, a 12-inch radius, and a lovely Indian laurel fingerboard. Finally, a Hummingbird for the rest of us. JVR

ESP MH-1000 Deluxe Evertune

An Editors’ Pick Award mysteriously went missing from this review when it appeared in the November 2021 issue, but the MH-1000 Deluxe Evertune certainly earned one.

This beautifully made guitar offers righteous playability thanks to its three-piece set-thru maple neck with a thin U shape and a 25.5-inch-scale Macassar ebony fingerboard carrying 24 mirror-polished, stainless-steel frets. The guitar swings a pair of active EMG pickups – a 60T W-R in the neck position and an 81 in the bridge slot – and the tone knob pulls for split-coil action.

As the name denotes, this version of the MH-1000 Deluxe features an Evertune bridge that provides rock-solid tuning stability and unprecedented intonation accuracy, and can be easily adjusted for the desired string-bending response. The Evertune is a game changer and the MH-1000 Deluxe an ideal platform to showcase its abilities. AT

Orange Terror Stamp

Perfect for mounting on a pedalboard, this potent little amplifier is a hybrid design that uses a 12AX7 tube in the preamp driving a 20-watt solid-state power section. A single foot-switch toggles between volume 1 and volume 2 controls, and there’s a Shape knob for EQ-ing sounds and a master gain control. The speaker output can handle 8- and 16-ohm loads, and there’s an FX loop and a cab-simulated output for recording, headphones or feeding a FOH mixer.

The Terror Stamp has a wide gain range and its British-flavored distortion is killer for everything from blues guitar to hard rock. It’s a great pedal to keep in the gig-bag in case your main amp goes down, or as a full-time amplifier for players who want to reduce the amount of gear they carry to the gig. AT

Neural DSP Quad Cortex Floor Modeler

When it comes to the industry-leading amp modelers, guitarists have stopped debating whether they sound like the real thing and just started using them. In doing so, many have developed strong loyalties to their DSP delivery unit of choice, which led to some ruffled feathers and muddied waters when plug-in designer Neural DSP unveiled this Quad Cortex floor unit.

Boasting an extremely intuitive interface with touch screen and combination rotary-knob-foot-switch gizmos and the ability to capture and reproduce any amp, drive pedal or cab you throw at it, the main takeaway is that the Quad Cortex simply sounds astoundingly good, immediately establishing it as a serious contender for anything out there. DH

Origin Effects RevivalDrive Compact

When you notice that your pals have the same new overdrive pedal on their boards, you know something is up. With its amp-like circuit design and chewy, touch-responsive sag and bloom, the original RevivalDrive caused a massive stir a few years back, but it’s a big pedal. The RevivalDrive Compact packs that same spongy saturation into a fly-rig-approved form factor, and does it sound good.

Is it the “tube amp-style signal path with Class A preamp”? Or maybe the “long-tail pair phase inverter” or the “reactive overdrive design”? It’s those things, plus EQ options for single-coil or double-coil pickups and a wet/dry control so you can blend your amp’s preamp gain with the RevivalDrive’s tailored gain structure.

Put away your ideas about what an overdrive pedal sounds like, and pull out your wallet. JVR

EarthQuaker Devices Astral Destiny Reverb

EarthQuaker’s line of out-of-this-world ambience pedals grew this year with Astral Destiny, a mind-blowing box that serves up eight types of ambience with and some without octave effects. These huge-sounding reverbs include chorus modulation that makes them sound ethereal or haunting, shimmer effects for upper and lower octaves, and high and low octave effects.

All this, plus a regenerating tail for creating reverbs of extended length at pitch or fifth above, as well as upward and downward pitch bending. Astral Destiny is a welcome new tone enhancer and an inspiring effect for guitarists who seek uncommon reverbs. CS

K-Line Springfield

Just when you concluded that everyone and his or her second cousin is making reproduction S-style, bolt-neck, 25.5-inch-scale guitars, along comes one to remind you how magical this 67-year-old recipe can still be when cooked up very, very well.

Chris Kroenlein’s Springfield model wowed us for its superb playability, authentically played-in feel, resonant and lightweight woods, lusciously aged nitro Lake Placid Blue finish (non-aged available), and trenchant tones.

From the archetypally Stratty mix of bright, glassy, snappy, and quacky, to muscular, rich, and multi-dimensional, it’s the compelling and inspiring performer many players believe they’ll find only in a vintage example costing much, much more. DH

L.R. Baggs Voiceprint Acoustic D.I.

Released in fall 2020 with a significant firmware update in 2021, the Voiceprint D.I. is one of the most innovative products released during the pandemic era. Using Impulse Response signal processing and harnessing the power of an iPhone or Apple Watch via the AcousticLive app, Voiceprint conjures a custom filter designed to augment/replace the pickup signal based on a quick demo performance, essentially creating the best version of your favorite instrument for amplification.

That “Voiceprint” then lives in the pedal and can be further sculpted using the app to adjust EQ or volume, reduce feedback or vary the blend. Store up to 99 Voiceprints for an entire acoustic guitar arsenal. JL

Fender Acoustic Junior GO

This little bugger sounds surprisingly toneful and does pretty much anything a troubadour might imagine. The GO’s got a bevy of effects including a built-in looper, plus Bluetooth connectivity that comes in handy for pumping backing tracks or simply rocking out to tunes sent over from a phone.

Dual guitar/vocal channels with identical setups are easy to understand and operate. A perfectly portable compact brown box housing a powerful rechargeable lithium-ion battery is the GO’s coup de grace.

Robust enough to turn any patch of nature into a stage, it was even the main amplifier for all of the acoustic instruments and even some of the electric ones at our Burning Man camp! JL

Epiphone Alex Lifeson Les Paul Standard Access

Here’s an all-around axe if there ever was one, and it’s attainable to practically anyone serious about acquiring a total tone machine. First, it’s a gorgeous, utterly playable and ergonomically excellent Les Paul with push/pull coil-tap capability on both humbuckers. Second, it’s got a piezo pickup in the Floyd Rose-style, whammy-friendly locking Graph Tech Ghost Tremolo Bridge, and that signal can either be separated via a second output jack, or summed with the magnetic signal in the primary output.

Remarkably, Epiphone and Lifeson realized this dream machine for under a grand. AT

Matchless Laurel Canyon Reverb 1x12

California amp maker Matchless has been at the forefront of the boutique scene since 1989, but the Laurel Canyon and its sibling Coldwater Canyon are the first production models it has released with 6V6 output tubes – to which we say it’s about time!

Announced prior to this past year but put on hold review-wise due to pandemic-related constraints, the Laurel Canyon quickly proved that the high-quality, point-to-point Matchless formula applies equally well to American-voiced designs, while also establishing a new 20-watt club combo to beat.

 From lush blooming chime, to biting mid-rich twang to snarling lead tones, all with outstanding reverb slathered over, it’s impressively versatile and a real joy to play. DH

Way Huge Atreides Analog Weirding Module

Atreides is a stellar reimagination of the short-lived but influential 1980 Electro-Harmonix Mini Synthesizer that Eddie Van Halen used to great effect on Fair Warning tracks like “Sunday Afternoon in the Park” and “One Foot Out the Door.”

A guitar synth, envelope filter, fuzz circuit, phaser, and sub-octave device all in one, pimped out with seven satisfying sliders for sensitivity, brightness, phaser rate, and more, it’s sure to help evoke the hallucinogenic “spice” that brings visions and messianic dreams to its Dune namesake, Paul Atreides. JVR

Carr Super Bee

Dressed in natty two-tone covering and designed to deliver three different flavors of blackface-Fender tone, the Super Bee has a rotary Sting switch that selects “64” (based on Steve Carr’s personal ’64 Deluxe Reverb), “68” (a classic Super Reverb) and “72” (a blackface circuit modded for extra overdrive).

Powering this point-to-point wired amp is a pair of 6BM8 tubes that combine a high-gain triode and a power pentode in one glass package. The pair produce 10 watts, which can be throttled down to two watts via the attenuator switch or all the way down to a whisper with the attenuator knob. Two 12AX7s and a 12AT7 handle the EQ (treble, bass, middle) and drive/recovery duties for the lush and enveloping reverb.

The Super Bee offers a cool selection of sounds that range from rich Deluxe Reverb flavors to midrange-forward Super Reverb clean and overdriven tones to gnarly distortion from the 72 setting that’s so dynamic and touch responsive you could play an entire gig on this mode alone. AT

Taylor Grand Theater 811E & K21E

Depending on your perspective, these are either two of the best little big guitars or big little guitars of 2021. Taylor notched out a nice niche between a short scale travel-sized axe and a full scale small-bodied instrument, then made it super playable by lowering the string tension for a remarkably relaxed feel that’s perfect for the beach, the boat or the back porch. C-Class cantilevered bracing helps the Grand Theater’s tone belie its diminutive box, and onboard ES2 electronics make it truly gig-worthy. JL

Damian Probett SG-Teor Guitar

With a diverse background in carpentry and joinery, aircraft tool making and the building of engines for racing motorcycles, London-based luthier Damian Probett shouldn’t have much trouble pulling off a meticulously well-crafted electric guitar – and he most definitely did not on evidence of the SG-Teor that graced GP’s New & Cool pages early in 2021.

Partly inspired by a “what if?” wish list from American guitarist Matte Henderson, Probett captured the spirit and overall sound of a vintage SG in a single-cutaway design that improved balance, eliminated neck-dive and “rubber neck” tuning-wobble issues, and enhanced sonic stability and sustain in the process. The result is a stunning performance tool that’s all the more versatile thanks to stealthy split-coil pickup switching. DH

There is a new sound seeping into the world of country guitar. Drenched in slap-back delay, fuzz, reverb and tremolo, it displays more mood than chops but is firmly grounded in serious technique. Records by Lee Ann Womack, Aubrie Sellers, Andrew Combs and Elizabeth Cook feature guitar sounds closer to Daniel Lanois, Neil Young or even Sonic Youth than to Brent Mason or Dan Huff.

At the forefront of this wave is Ethan Ballinger, whose edgy work on the Womack and Combs records grabs the ear, provoking a WTF reaction and the question, “How does he get away with that?” Taking a seat in his East Nashville kitchen, Ballinger attempts an answer.

“My parents played in a bluegrass band called the Cluster Pluckers, so I never had a shot at being normal,” he explains. As it turns out, his raising was assuredly atypical. Not many guitarists’ parents hosted picking parties attended by the likes of Chet Atkins, John Hartford and Roy Acuff. “There’s a picture of me at three years old with a little toy banjo, jamming with Chet,” he says.

That kind of upbringing would normally lead to childhood playing bluegrass festivals, but at age five Ballinger became obsessed with his older brother’s music. “I was a grunge kid, and electric guitar was my true love,” he explains. Still, bluegrass called him back. “As a teenager, I stole my mom’s mandolin and got way into it. It was then that we started playing together, and now we tour and play as the Ballinger Family Band.”

While bluegrass helped him hone his considerable chops, his own music swerves in a different direction. “I’ve always tried to expose myself to a wide variety of things,” Ballinger explains. “Old country and bluegrass is in my blood, but rock and roll is also my roots. They both feel like home to me.”

He describes his 2012 recording, Don’t Lose It, as a meeting of Elliott Smith, Paul Simon and Pink Floyd. For his 2019 EP, Misery Hill (Bandcamp), he explains. “I was trying to be as melody driven as possible and less chordal. These goals are what make me wake up in the morning. I want to keep writing and exploring sounds.”

If there is a thread that binds Ballinger’s records to his studio guitar work, it’s a deep affinity for the way those sounds create emotions. On the aforementioned recordings, and 2015’s Tennessee Spring, feelings are evoked by the layering and processing of guitars, as much as by lyrical content.

“I’ve been obsessed with movies since I was a kid, which probably plays into it,” he says. “I think of music as organized sound instead of as a set of strictly regimented notes. I’ve always responded more emotionally to sound than to Western harmony.”

To that end, outboard pedals and effects play a big role in Ballinger’s guitar work. On Tennessee Spring, he signal-processed everything, even his acoustic instruments. As an example, he points to the solo on the track “ldky.” 

“I played that on a Gitane Selmer-style guitar, like the one used by Django Reinhardt,” he reveals. “I play in a gypsy swing band called Hot Club Time Machine, and I find you can dig into that guitar in a way you can’t on an electric. I played the solo on the Gitane and ran it through a bunch of effects after the fact.

Ballinger brings his love of sonic experimentation to his session work, as well. When the solo arrives in “Heart of Wonder,” a track on Andrew Combs’ Americana-based Canyons of My Mind record, his guitar explodes in a wash of fuzzy noise, culminating in some screaming bends. Apparently, more than letting him get away with it, the producers with whom he works actively encourage it.

“I would have an idea and they would push me to make it weirder. We’d arrive at something I never would have thought of,” he says. “We did that record at Battle Tapes Studio in East Nashville, where they have many pedals. It’s fun to try gear you’ve never used before; it can make you react and respond in different ways. I was trying different combinations of fuzz pedals. I can’t even remember what guitar I played on that. It was all recorded pretty quickly.”

A similar philosophy was at work during the sessions for Lee Ann Womack’s The Lonely, the Lonesome, & the Gone. “The only direction producer Frank Liddell would ever give is ‘Don’t do anything obvious,’” Ballinger says.

The resulting solos on “Sunday” and “Wicked” are more Hendrix than Hank, played on a three-pickup Silvertone 1454 semi-hollow strung with a D’Addario .010–.046 set. “That was my main axe for years. I played that guitar exclusively because it’s versatile,” he explains. “I also have Tele- and Jaguar-style Danocasters.”

Ballinger’s taste in amps and effects are influenced by his love of ambience. “I used my Gibson Falcon amp from the ’60s. I was going through a solid-state Echoplex, which warmed up the amp. The reverb and tremolo on that amp is special. I’m a pretty big reverb whore. I love amp spring reverb. It is darker and more saturated. I will use a short subtle delay or have a long delay as a wash underneath everything.”

On Ballinger’s road board, his signal path is tuner, volume pedal, DigiDelay, EarthQuaker Devices Spires double fuzz, Walrus Audio Julia chorus/vibrato, EarthQuaker Devices Palisades V2 overdrive and Strymon Flint tremolo and reverb.

“It’s relatively simple and allows me to get a good range of sounds,” he says. “For the studio, I bring my whole bag of goodies. I recently got a Maestro Phase Shifter, which I used on Aubrie Sellers’ new record. When you have new gear, it keeps you fresh, so I’m always acquiring things that sound weird.”

Ethan Ballinger is forging a career as a studio player, producer and solo artist by combining “weird” with a solid, but not obsessive background in traditional technique.

“I feel blessed that anyone would ever call me to mess up their record,” he says. “There’s a place for perfect, clean chicken picking. I spent a lot of time as a teenager chasing the technical things. But I wanted to do too many other things to pursue the virtuoso path. Also, I realized that most of the guitar players I liked weren’t the guys who could do anything. I think your style comes more from your limitations than from being able to play every style perfectly.”

EarthQuaker Devices has made uncommon reverbs a specialty of its extensive pedal line. Yes, you can opt for an amp-like spring reverb with the company’s Ghost Echo, or hi-fidelity digital delay and reverb with the Dispatch Maker. 

But, I’ve also been drawn to EQD pedals like Afterneath, which uses a multitude of short digital delays to create everything from scattered, rhythmic echoes to cavernous reverbs with multiple reflections, and Levitation, which lets you regenerate the higher frequencies of the trails to create harmonic ringing reverbs.   

Astral Destiny is the latest reverb pedal in the company’s line. It serves up eight types of ambience, some with, and some without, octave effects. As you might guess from the name, these are big-sounding reverbs, with chorus modulation that can make them sound ethereal or haunting.   

The eight varieties – selected with the rotary mode control – include Abyss, a large reverb with no octave effect, which is the most “normal” variety of ambience here. The ever-popular Shimmer adds reverb one octave higher to the tail, Sub puts it one octave lower, and Sub Shimmer appends upper and lower octaves.

Astral adds upper and lower octaves, combined with a regenerating tail for reverbs of extended length. Ascend produces upward pitch bending, Descend creates downward pitch bending, and Cosmos adds a regenerating reverb pitched a fifth above the original note.

As explained in the manual, these last three reverbs work best on sustained notes and chords. The length knob sets the tail’s duration, and the preset control lets you select from eight included presets, all of which can be edited or overwritten.

Four smaller rotary controls govern the chorus effect’s depth and rate, the treble setting (boost to the right, cut to the left), and the dry-to-wet mix. In addition to the Activate foot switch, Astral Destiny has a Stretch foot switch that doubles the length of decay and adds a temporary change in pitch.

Tapping it creates an immediate pitch change, and holding it produces an upward or downward pitch-bend effect whose speed can be adjusted by holding down Stretch while turning the length control.

So far, so good, but EQD has also included an expression input that gives you pedal control over the length, depth, rate, tone, or mix settings, and each preset can be saved with a different expression assignment.

Swapping between Tails and Full Bypass modes is achieved with a simple maneuver using the power cable and the Activate switch. Working left to right through the mode control, the reverbs start with the octave-less Abyss setting – a pleasant and all-around useful reverb – and get progressively otherworldly.

Shimmer does the familiar upper-octave thing, while Sub adds a bit of warm, shadowy heft one octave below. Sub Shimmer and Astral are both great for wide, sky-and-Earth-cracking reverbs, and Astral’s long, slithery tail gave single notes a symphonic-like sustain.

I especially liked the lush Cosmos setting, with its regenerating fifth, which imparted a glimmering, celestial effect to sustained notes and chords. For expansive, heavenly reverbs, this is hands down one of my favorites. With any of these modes, the chorus modulation can add everything from subtle richness to cyclonic undulations.

I’ll admit, I was initially at a loss to make good use of the Ascend and Descend modes, as the reverbs are pitched, respectively, about a semitone above and below that of your original signal.

However, once I connected an expression pedal and assigned it to the mix control, I was able to bring the effect in and out at will, adding clouds of sonic menace that made sustained chords more interesting. Similarly, the pitch-bending effect available on the Stretch foot switch delivers a fun vintage video arcade–style effect that’s perfect for punctuating solos or adding out-of-this-world sonic flourishes.

Overall, Astral Destiny is a welcome new flavor in EarthQuaker’s lineup, and an inspiring effect for any guitarist looking for modulated octave reverbs combined with a wide range of sonic-stretching capabilities.

Specifications

• PRICE: $199 street
• CONTROLS: Preset, length, mode (Abyss, Shimmer, Sub, Sub Shimmer, Astral, Ascend, Descend, Cosmos), mod depth and rate, tone, mix. Stretch and Activate foot switches 
• I/O: Input, output, expression input
• DIMENSIONS: 4.65” x 3.65” x 2.25”
• POWER: 9 volts DC (not included)
• BUILT: USA
• CONTACT: EarthQuaker Devices

EarthQuaker Devices has debuted its new Astral Destiny modulated octave reverb pedal.

Adorned with decidedly celestial artwork, the Astral Destiny comes loaded with eight reverb types – Abyss, Shimmer, Sub, Sub Shimmer, Astral, Ascend, Descend, and Cosmos – and eight presets.

The eight reverbs operate as follows: 

• Abyss: A massive reverb with no octave effect
• Shimmer: Adds an upper octave to the reverb tail
• Sub: Adds a lower octave to the reverb tail
• Sub Shimmer: Adds an upper and lower octave to the reverb tail
• Astral: Adds an upper and lower octave plus a regenerating tail
• Ascend: Allows for upward pitch bending
• Descend: Allows for downward pitch bending
• Cosmos: Adds a regenerating fifth to the reverb tail

The pedal features an assignable expression pedal control, while its Stretch feature doubles the reverb length while adding an adjustable pitch bending effect. Depth and rate controls, meanwhile, allow for full control of the pedal’s chorus modulation.

Other features on the Astral Destiny include buffered bypass switching with tails/no tails operation, and an all-analog dry signal path for keeping track of your original tone.

The EarthQuaker Devices Astral Destiny reverb pedal runs on 9V DC power, and is available now for $199.

For more info on the pedal, stop by earthquakerdevices.com.

Afterneath, EarthQuaker’s “otherworldly reverberation machine,” has become a favorite ambience tool for guitarists since its release in 2014. It creates its effects using multiple delay lines that can be drawn tightly together to create traditional reverb styles, or scattered to produce a cascade of intriguing delays. The key is the pedal’s drag control, which uncoils the delay machine concealed within.

A set of familiar controls govern the pedal. Length sets the reverb’s decay rate, while diffuse adjusts its spread, from a tight focus at full counterclockwise to washy ambience clockwise. Dampen adjusts the tone of the reverb tail. At full counterclockwise, the tail is bright, as if the sound is reflecting off hard surfaces, while winding it clockwise creates a darker top end, as heard in a room with some sound absorption.

Reflect is a feedback control that alters the effect’s depth and regeneration, increasing and adding echoes to the wash as you turn the knob clockwise. At full right, Afterneath blossoms into a resonant droning oscillation.

The drag control is where the pedal’s magic comes together. At full clockwise, it pulls the delay lines together for a reverb-like effect. As you turn it counter-clockwise, those lines begin to separate and spin outward, scattering the echoes into a wash of delays. Last up is the mix control to balance the dry and wet signals.

All these features were standard on previous versions of Afterneath, including V2, which saw it receive EarthQuaker’s FlexiSwitch soft-switching technology that allows momentary and latched switching. The latest version, V3, adds three new features. The first is an expression input to sweep drag with an expression or control-voltage (CV) pedal.

The second is the modes control, a small centrally located knob that works in tandem with drag and the expression/CV input. There are nine modes that govern how drag functions — and how the resulting reverbs and delays sound — when you control it via expression or CV.

These include three Unquantized, or stepless, modes that, when swept via expression, create a response similar to turning the rate control on a delay pedal or the varispeed knob of a tape recorder. Quantized options include Chromatic, Minor, Major (Lydian) and Pentatonic scale modes that tune the delays and reverb to those scales when you sweep the drag control.

I especially liked the Octaves & Fifths mode, which repitched the delays to ear-friendly tonic, octave and fifth pitches, and the Octaves mode, which did the same without the fifths. Appropriately for such a sonically colorful pedal, Afterneath’s LED changes colors to show which mode you’re in.

The final, and third, new feature is Tails/No Tails operation. Afterneath ships in Tails mode, but it can easily be changed to or from No Tails switching by holding down the foot switch and inserting the power cable. The LED will flash three times to indicate the mode has been changed.

Though exotic sounds are its forté, Afterneath has a range of expression that makes it versatile for alt-rock, alt-country and surf guitar styles, as well as ambient music. To that end, the dampen control is great for shaping the effect’s character and tone.

As for the new features, they make the Afterneath even trippier than before. With an expression pedal connected, I created rubbery pitch sweeps and melodic modulated reverb. The Minor, Major and Pentatonic modes were fantastic for making tuneful, synthesizer-like arpeggiations out of the delays, while the stepped Chromatic mode conjured up magical-sounding, bell-like sweeps.

I also swapped out the expression pedal for TWA’s Side Step tap-tempo LFO (low-frequency oscillator) pedal, which we reviewed here last month. The Side Step provides a CV source that can sweep the drag control at a constant rate with a variety of LFO waveforms, and act as a tap tempo control. Feeding its steady rhythmic pulse into the expression input gave a range of precision and modulation that was inspiring and showed how CV control takes Afterneath to an entirely new level.

All in all, this is a solid and worthy revision of a pedal that has already found a devoted fanbase. If you seek a haven from traditional reverbs and delays, Afterneath V3 offers a realm of otherworldly delights.

Specifications

CONTACT earthquakerdevices.com
PRICE $199 street

CONTROLS Length, diffuse, dampen, reflect, drag, mix, mode
I/O Input, output and expression jacks, power jack for 9-volt DC supply (not included)
BUILT USA