Best New Guitar Pedals of 2019

Great looking and sounding pedal from J. Rockett Audio. A recreation of the Dumble Amplifier sound. I have never heard a Dumble amplifier played live for comparison sake, but I love the sound of the J. Rockett Hot Rubber Monkey (HRM) pedal through my amplifiers. It has found a firm place on my pedalboard. This amplifier emulator is an excellent addition to the J. Rockett line of effects.Hot Rubber Monkey is a re-creation of the overdriven sounds of the legendary D style ODS amp but with the HRM EQ mod.

The Chase Bliss MOOD pedal was a collaboration between three companies. Chase Bliss: Body and soul. Old Blood Noise Endeavors: Reverb/Delay/Slip (Left Side) Drolo FX: Looping and Synthesizer (Right Side) The Chase Bliss MOOD sides work extremely well with each other to create crazy new sounds and effects. Like most synthesizer pedals, it is not something you are going to leave on all the time or gig with. It is a pedal to help you explore your sound and stimulate your creativity. The left side offers multiple styles of reverb, a clean digital delay and an octave +1/-1 that can be reversed. The right side loop duration can be controlled by the center clock and has three distinct sounds labelled Env, Tape and Stretch. Like all of the other Chase Bliss effect pedals, the Chase Bliss MOOD has dip switches on the back, giving the artist even more diversity.

With the astronomical success of the original Obsessive Compulsive Device pedal, Fulltone is trying to parlay the success into its next incarnation, the OCD Ge. Fulltone has added an additional germanium diode to its latest edition of the OCD. The original OCD was produced with (2) MOSFET and (1) Germanium diode. The end result was an overdrive pedal that really cut through muddle and accentuated each note musically. In the OCD Ge pedal, Fulltone added a second germanium diode to give the sound a more rich middle tone. Both of the OCD pedals the addition of the HP/LP switch lets the artist clip the lows or the highs. We found this very beneficial when we were changing between different amplifiers. Amplifiers that already produced heavy mids (Marshall) we switched to HP, and amplifiers that were very clean or had more treble, we switched to the LP to even out the tone. The OCD Ge is less aggressive than its predecessor, the original OCD. We used both the original OCD and the Ge for soloing, and both of them really cleaned up well when you backed off the volume control. The OCD Ge was warmer, richer, and rounder sounding.

The Synth-1 allows you to create fuzzed-out synth waves! Use the Filter and Blend controls to mix your guitar with the fuzz from the synth. Go from churning slow-gear reverse swells to sounding like a light saber. The Keeley Synth-1 is a guitar-triggered, single-note wave generator. You control the tone of the wave with the Filter Control. The lead-in time or swell of the note is controlled with the Attack knob. Then use the Blend control to remove the natural tone from your guitar as you slide through synth-sounding fuzz waves. Use an expression pedal to control the Filter, and now you have Wah-Wah-like control of the Synth-1.

Ibanez TS-808 tube screamer Clean low noise JFET op-amps. Earthquaker Devices has created a three-knob overdrive effect pedal rather than its previous overdrive the Palisades. This follows the KISS rule, no, not makeup and product placement, (Keep it Simple Stupid). The knobs are Level (Volume), Tone (Bass, Mids, Treble), Gain Knob (Drive). The additional Earthquaker “Flexi” switch lets the artist use a footswitch to prevent bypass. The three-way toggle lets the user choose between Symmetrical LED clipping – More Crunch and Compression, No clipping – Wide open Op-amp drive for clean boost, and Asymmetrical silicon diode clipping – More transparency with a loose feel. Beside the clipping toggle switch, the Earthquaker Plumes pedal also itself from a green tube screamer with its internal components. Instead of the 4558 IC and the classic BJT transistor buffers, the engineers at Earthquaker uses JFET Op-amps for cleaner sound and a raised input impedance of nearly 10 megaohms. This offers lower noise, better signal integrity and more chime in the high end. As always at Sugaree Licks, if they build it, we will buy it. Earthquaker Devices adds another amazing pedal to its collection.

The JAM Double Dreamer combines two of its top-selling overdrives; the Tubedreamer and the Lucydreamer. Use them independently or combine them to create truly unique overdrive tones that fit your play and style, The Tubedreamer (Left Side) is JAMs take on the legendary Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer with a carefully tuned mid-range frequency register delivering a warm and rich overdriven sound through any amp. The JAM Tubedreamer uses 3 diodes for asymmetrical clipping instead of symmetrical, enhancing the responsiveness of the pedal to fretting and picking nuances. The Tubedreamer also integrated the JRC4558D chip to deliver its classic sound, just like in the original, sought-after 808’s. The Lucydreamer (Right Side) is a Dry / Wet overdrive which has less of a mid hump than the Tubedreamer, and allows for more low end to come through. It can track every little nuance of your playing with a wide gain-stage spectrum, ranging from highly dynamic tube- amp-like break-up, all the way to full-bodied high-gain saturation with the assistance of the high-gain-stage footswitch, while effortlessly maintaining chord-voicing clarity! The “secret” chip it bases its sound on, along with its different clipping implementation compared to the TD, allow the Lucydreamer to pair perfectly with the TD adding layers of harmonic content on tap!

The DRIVE section gives you two styles of overdrive to choose from: Crunch or Lead. The Crunch Style gives you a gritty British tube-amp combo sound. The Lead Style gives you a warm and dark, mid-pushed overdrive. The WET side of the pedal gives you Delays and Reverbs. A Vintage/Modern Switch allows you to toggle between Spring & Plate reverb or Analog & Digital delay. Use the built-in effects loop to insert effects between Drive and Wet, or run it by itself as the only pedal you’ll need!

Boss has been building red loop station pedals since the debut of the RC-20 in 2001. With the increase of technology over the past 18 years, there have been several new features and presets. You can now add up to 99 phrase memories to the existing 280 preset rhythm styles and brand new transition fills and intro/outro fills. The Boss RC-10R two-track loop engine lets the user combine and capture independent song sections with unique rhythmic backing. The Loop engine features 32-bit AD/DA and 32-bit floating-point processing, providing audio performance that rivals the very best studio gear. The larger pedal footprint makes it easier to move through all of the different features and presets.

The circa-1980 Electro-Harmonix Attack Decay is a sought after prize among vintage pedal aficionados. Originally called a Tape Reverse Simulator, it’s known for producing volume and reverse swells, backward tape sounds, artificially short staccato notes and bowed instrument effects. The new Attack Decay reinterprets the classic and keeps its cool factor, but adds some modern features for convenience and enhanced functionality. It can produce a single volume envelope like the original, or, with Poly engaged, put separate volume envelopes on each note you play. The built-in Harmonix fuzz is now a fully controllable distortion with gain, tone and volume controls. The effects loop allows the musician or sound designer to place the volume envelope onto whatever signal is present at the Return jack. Expression pedal/CV input and three user presets give the user total control over their Attack Decay!

In 2019, JHS dropped the Ryan Adams VCR look and re-branded it for its new Space Commander Volume / Chorus / Reverb pedal. First of all, I loved the look of the previous JHS VCR. Growing up in the 1980s, the VHS tapes were loved and prevalent in our household. Not to be undone, JHS re-brands the VHS look to something I love even more, Galaga! In my opinion, the greatest arcade video game ever. Inexpensive and easy to play. Kind of like the new Space Commander. With the Space Commander, the artist gets three pedals in one, with three easy to use knobs: Boost, Chorus, and Reverb. Push your amp and increase your volume with an always-on boost. Compliment that with 80s style chorus and a hall-style reverb. Another great American made product by JHS.