Walrus Audio’s Qi Etherealizer is my favorite signature artist stompbox of the year. It's now $90 cheaper at Sweetwater's Black Friday sales event

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The dream pedal of math-rock guitarist Yvette Young, the Qi Etherealizer is a multi-effect machine that takes your instrument to new sonic spaces

A photo of Walrus Audio’s Qi Etherealizer
(Image credit: Courtesy Walrus Audio)

Of all the stompboxes I tried this year, Walrus Audio’s Qi Etherealizer was the most exciting. Crafted in collaboration with guitarist Yvette Young, it’s a multi-effects collage of effects that opens the door to expansive and enveloping atmospheric textures.

If you haven’t pulled the trigger on it yet, now is the time. Sweetwater is taking $90 off during its Black Friday sales event, bringing the price down to just $359.99.

Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer
Save $90
Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer: was $449.99 now $359.99 at Sweetwater Sound

The Qi Etherealizer gives you a choice of two types of chorus — a rich, triple-voiced Tri Chorus and a classic Stereo Chorus — plus two granular effects that add unique sonic anomalies to your sound, There’s also a pristine digital delay that offers up to two seconds of delay, with a tap tempo button that can send the delay into self-oscillation when held down. It all feeds into a global section that includes a digital reverb and a low-pass filter to sculpt the effect’s tone. Run each effect into the other in serial fashion, or in parallel as three separate effects summed at the master section. Along with various parameters and five playback modes, there’s plenty here to make every session a new experience. 

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If you’ve had your fill of standard effects, the Qi Etherealizer will be a game changer. Yvette Young said her goal was to inspire guitarists “to sound a little less guitar-y and more…magical!” and she succeeded. I’ve repeatedly returned to Qi Etherealizer for sonic experimenting or to bring something new to my effects palette. I love how it can take my guitar to new extremes or simply add a bit of sonic interest, depending on the job at hand. Yvette calls this her dream pedal, and I can see why. It's a sonic playground like no other.

Check out more Sweetwater Black Friday deals.

Christopher Scapelliti
GuitarPlayer.com editor-in-chief

Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of GuitarPlayer.com and the former editor of Guitar Player, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.