Top Ten Pedals of 2018
/With the dawning of 2019, it’s time to look back on the effects pedals in 2018 that we absolutely loved. This past year was a great year for effects pedals, but these are the pedals that we kept coming back to. Without further ado, here are Pedals and Effects top 10 pedals (in no order), of 2018.
Photo credit: Earthquaker Devices
Earthquaker Devices - Aqueduct
Earthquaker Devices are constantly outdoing themselves. Whether it’s blazing a new path in innovation, or a modern take on a classic, Earthquaker Devices are successfully pushing the boundaries on what effects pedals are capable of. With the Aqueduct, it’s a modern rejuvenation of a classic effect, vibrato. I love vibrato and for most of my career have sworn by the Boss VB-2 Vibrato, but I think the Aqueduct has taken it down a peg. My new favorite vibrato.
Photo credit: Chase Bliss
The Dark World may very well be the only reverb you could ever need. With an unlimited amount of combinations that you can seamlessly dial in, you can lose hours (and days) getting lost in the Dark World. Shimmer, plate, hall, spring, room, cavern, delayed reverb? It’s all there, come to the dark side.
Photo credit: Source Audio
Source Audio - True Spring Reverb
Quite possibly one of the most, if not the most faithful spring reverb sounds you can get. No need to worry about lugging that vintage reverb tank around, get the Source Audio True Spring reverb. It sounds just like, and reacts exactly like those old spring reverbs there without the fuss of all that additional hardware. There’s plenty of sounds under the hood to dig out.
Photo credit: Dunlop
This might be one of the most polarizing things I’ll say, but the MXR Vintage Bass Octave is my new go-to octave pedal. That classic Boss OC-2 sub sound? It’s all there in the MXR Vintage Bass Octave for a fraction of the price, and a fraction of the size. Don’t sleep on this one.
Photo credit: Rainger FX
We might be a little biased, this is a gated reverb that was admittedly inspired by Nick’s playing! What Nick had been doing, was activating and deactivating a reverb pedal live. What that does, was making the pedal latch onto the previously cut-off reverb trails. But what this pedal does, is accentuate what your playing through use of reverb trails and hard signal cuts. Shouts out to the Igor, the expression pedal that goes with it too!
Photo credit: Earthquaker Devices
Earthquaker Devices - Westwood
Earthquaker Devices take on transparent overdrive. No need to spend your life savings on an urban legend, the Westwood is all the overdrive you need. On guitar? BIG chords. On bass, tonal definition. Push your amp with the Westwood for some of the best textures around.
Photo credit: Boss
An incredible reissue of a classic pedal. Everything you loved about the DC-2 and more. Instant new wave 80’s chorus sound on guitar and bass.
Photo credit: Meris
This pedal became mainstays on both of our boards, and for good reason. While it’s labeled a “synth” pedal, it is capable of so much more. All of the weirdness of a Digitech Space Station, the massive synth sounds of the FM4, it’s all here and then some. Super special shout out to the preset attachment that let’s us switch between all of the weird sounds we love to come up with. You’ll hear me play it with Manson, and you’ll hear Nick play it with Tera Melos. It is diverse, it is musical, it is one of the best pedals of 2018.
Photo credit: Red Panda
We literally made a 40 minute video about this pedal. The Tensor can best be described as a modifiable sampler pedal. You play something, sample/loop it and then you manipulate as if you were working an old school tape deck. It’s one of the coolest pedals we’ve ever had the pleasure of playing with. Sampling, time warping/stretching, pitch shifting, reverse, sampling, overdubs, and tape stops. It gets weird and it still manages to be super musical even on its most random setting!
Photo credit: Malekko
Quite possibly my most “Instagrammed” pedal of 2018. Dirt, distortion, octave, filtering, and “Wavefolding” their own take on square/sine wave manipulation. Super dope with the expression pedal too. This one was such a pleasant surprise. Malekko hit me up and just said “we’re sending you a pedal” not knowing what to expect. I’ve brought it to sessions, and it is crazy gnarly on bass. I’ve had people at sessions buy it online right then and there. This one was a no-brainer for one of the best of the year.
It goes without saying 2018 set the bar incredibly high for 2019. We can’t wait to see what the new year brings for Pedals and Effects.
-Juan
