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10 Pedals to Satisfy Delicious Tone Cravings
Players can find tons of different guitar effects stompboxes out there. From amp-based to multi-effects to individual pedals, the sheer volume of options guitarists have is continuously growing. This massive variety can be intimidating, especially for newbies. Effects pedals are classified into various categories that perform different things. Among the more essential effects pedals are tuner, distortion, delay, and looper. Some players have a soft spot for pedals that are more playful, creative, and catchy, so several pedal creators have been raising their game. These brands try to enhance the pedals’ appearance by embellishing them with sleek graphics, paint job, or packaging them in unique looking enclosures. Meanwhile, others choose food-inspired names to tantalize the appetites of players. Below are several pedals that will make any pedalboard more tasty and delicious-sounding.
JHS Pedals Cheese Ball
The Cheese Ball by JHS Pedals serves up a whole pedalboard’s worth of fuzzy distorted tones. It recalls an iconic distortion/fuzz pedal from the 1990s, which was utilized by My Bloody Valentine, Wilco, U2, Radiohead, and Jimmy Page, among others. Versatile does not even begin to describe the Cheese Ball. This stompbox is capable of achieving virtually any fuzz tone imaginable, from spitty grind to red-hot buzz to violin-esque sustain. The Cheese Ball is a meticulous and accurate reproduction of the original unit’s circuit. It is a homage to one of the most captivating fuzz stompboxes of all time. It carries Tone, Volume, and Gain controls that deliver loads of tone-shaping power as well as a four-position knob that unleashes all the pedal’s schizophrenic personalities. “In the Off position, the pedal’s Tone knob is disengaged, for a bright, trashy fuzz. Position 1 serves up a mid-scooped, Muff-style sound. Position 2 conjures a cutting, mid-boosted sound. Position 3 delivers a spitty, gated fuzz sound — if this fuzz pedal is cheese, then position 3 is of the Swiss variety.”
Way Huge Pork & Pickle Bass Overdrive & Fuzz
Way Huge’s first-ever bass stompbox, the Pork & Pickle Bass Overdrive & Fuzz, dishes out a perfectly balanced diet of gnarly tones for bassists who love to get down and dirty. This delectable dish mixes the rich, fatty tones of the Russian-Pickle Fuzz and the warm, soft-clipping tones of the Pork Loin Overdrive within one package. Those who enjoy tenacity in their bass tone will love the Pork & Pickle Bass Overdrive & Fuzz pedal. They can toggle between two highly popular Way Huge pedals with the OD/Fuzz switch, blend in their clean tone to preserve low-end power and punch, and fine-tune their sound using the Clean Tone knob. “This pedal has the Pork Loin Overdrive’s distinct sauced up clean channel from the Pork Loin Overdrive—a modified classic British style preamp—but it can be used with either mode. That means that, for the first time, you can run the Russian-Pickle Fuzz signal alongside that super sweet sounding clean channel,” Way Huge details. The Pork & Pickle Bass Overdrive & Fuzz also features internal controls that provide more ways to tune the unit for the user’s bass rig. It is highly recommended for imparting some dirt to a bass tone.
**Way Huge Fat Sandwich Harmonic Saturator **
Place Way Huge’s Fat Sandwich Harmonic Saturator between an amp and a guitar to discover how fat distortion tones can be. This distortion pedal delivers loads of crunchy distortion when necessary, plus, its Volume knob provides enough output oomph to excessively drive the amp’s front end. The Fat Sandwich Harmonic Saturator also consists of a Tone dial that interacts with presence (high frequency) and resonance (low frequency) adjustments for convenient tone-shaping. To get “under the hood,” simply open up the pedal and tweak additional controls.
The Fat Sandwich Harmonic Saturator is a beautiful-sounding pedal no matter what the user is playing through. Configured to make an amp tone even better, Way Huge describes this unit as a “versatile and over the top-the consummate distortion pedal for any genre or playing style.” Besides carrying on the Way Huge tradition of sturdy construction, exceptional tone, and quirky names, the Fat Sandwich Harmonic Saturator offers plenty of crunchy distortion goodness through its sophisticated multi-stage clipping circuit. Thoroughly designed from the ground up, the Fat Sandwich Harmonic Saturator’s passive tone stack has been tuned to unleash the “sweet spot” with any amp and guitar combo. Additionally, the Fat Sandwich Harmonic Saturator features two internal mini controls—Sustain for adjusting the gain of the final distortion stage and Curve for fine-tuning the overdrive filtering’s corner frequency.
Aguilar Grape Phaser
Credits to its intuitive, dual-knob layout, the Grape Phaser by Aguilar serves up lush, analog phase shifting. It is the perfect choice for those seeking a bass phaser that is convenient to use and will not zap the low end. This toneful two-knobber is capable of dishing out fat, funky filter effects and liquid-y movement on the fly. The Grape Phaser is so well thought out it has no unusable setting. The Grape Phaser carries a Color knob that sends a portion of the affected signal back through the phase-shifting circuit’s second stage to yield an almost auto-wah-esque effect, evocative of the ’70s slap-and-pop affectations. Rolling back the Color control and slowing the rate adds focal points and texture to solos and melodies. As with other Aguilar effects, the Grape Phaser features a four-stage circuitry that maintains the low-end, so users will not have to worry about root notes popping through. Created by bassists for bassists, Aguilar Amplification products are the choice of world-famous bassists, including Paul Turner (Jamiroquai), John Patitucci (Chick Corea), and Adam Clayton (U2). Each product is designed to provide users with the best experience possible, whether they are recording in the studio or playing out live.
Alexander Pedals Marshmallow Artificial Sweetener
Alexander Pedals is part of a new wave of pedal brands aiming to innovate guitar effects. The Marshmallow Artificial Sweetener pedal is certainly experimental. This sophisticated stompbox boasts dual pitch shifter engines capable of generating wild modulated pitch-altered trails—entirely revolutionizing tones. “‘Marshmallow?’ That’s a silly name for a pedal, we know. But it totally fits. Sweet, fun, and probably best consumed in small doses, our Marshmallow makes weird gooey sounds with your favorite instruments,” Alexander Pedals detailed, adding: “At its heart, Marshmallow is a pair of pitch shifters that we combine and modulate in interesting ways with a variety of magic tricks. Want smooth chorus? No problem. How about juicy organ tones? Yup. Maybe you want your stuff to sound like a cat on helium? Yes, we do that too. Basically, Marshmallow is a quick way to start at normal and end up at ‘what was that?!’ We hope you like it as much as we do.” The Marshmallow Artificial Sweetener is part of Alexander Pedals’ Neo series. It has two pitch-shifters with six pitch-shifting modes, which can be blended, modulated, and combined for virtually infinite sonic possibilities. The modes include mod, arpy, rand, ring, dyna, and cloud. This powerful, multifaceted pitch-shifting machine consists of controls for voice, two, mix, and mod.
Tom’sline Cream Distortion
Experience the iconic fuzz tone of the sought-after Electro-Harmonix Big Muff pedal loaded into a box that fits in the palm of your hand, with the Cream Distortion from Tom’sline. The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff is the stompbox that started it all. It is the go-to distortion pedal of innumerable musicians, including the likes of Santana and Jimi Hendrix, due to its rich, creamy, violin-esque sustain. This timeless piece has been defining the sound of rock guitar for over three decades. Despite its nano-size (just ⅔ of small iPhone size), the Cream Distortion pedal boasts a big sound. It features a classic rich and creamy fuzz sound. The Cream Distortion sports a slip resistance bottom and chic case design that looks like a cherish jewelry. It comes equipped with controls for sustain, volume, and tone to enable users to capture their ideal effect sounds. The Tom’sline Cream Distortion pedal is convenient to use, absolutely true bypass, and works with any 9V, negative tip effect pedal power adapters.
Danelectro DJ Series
Danelectro is known for its musician-friendly prices as well as unique- and quirky-looking stompboxes. Its DJ Series lineup consists of food-style effects pedals such as the T-Bone Distortion, Pepperoni Phaser, Black Licorice Beyond Metal, Chili Dog Octave, BLT Slap Echo, Hash Browns Flanger, Grilled Cheese Distortion, Black Coffee Metal Distortion, Milkshake Chorus, Surf & Turf Compressor, Rocky Road Spinning Speaker, PB&J Delay, Tuna Melt Tremolo, Pastrami Overdrive, French Toast Octave Distortion, Corned Beef Reverb, Fish & Chips 7 Band EQ, French Fries Auto Wah, Chicken Salad Vibrato, and Bacon & Eggs Mini Amp Distortion.
The Danelectro Fish & Chips seven-band EQ is among the most famous EQ pedals available in the market. It is an ultra-versatile and seriously hardworking EQ pedal. The seven EQ bands, which range from 100Hz to 6.4kHZ and incorporate as much as 15 decibels of boost or cut, load quite the tone sculpting punch, dishing out sound-sculpting functions comparable to pricier effects units. The Fish & Chips might be the smallest EQ available. It features smooth adjustable sliders, level control for boost or cut, as well as a seven-band graphic EQ for studio or stage use.
The Chili Dog Octave is a tasty pedal that provides users with their choice of two octaves. This seriously musical unit is capable of producing up to two extra octave tones, each with a separate control knob. The OCT1 serves up a clear and more treble-focused tone an octave down from the instrument signal, while the OCT2 is a more natural-sounding and heavier tone that is also a single octave down.
JHS Pedals Steak & Eggs
Acclaimed boutique guitar stompbox company Keeley Electronics has teamed up with JHS Pedals to build a pedal that houses two essential circuits plus some delectable surprises. The Steak & Eggs pedal serves up the perfect combination of compression and overdrive.
Per the press release, “The Steak & Eggs is a pair of modified essentials by Josh Scott (JHS Pedals, Kansas City USA) and Robert Keeley (Keeley Electronics, Edmond OK). The right side is a modified classic Keeley compressor and the left side is a modified JHS Pedals Morning Glory overdrive. Each of these modded circuits can only be found in this package!” For years, JHS Pedals enthusiasts have been clamoring for a higher gain variant of the Morning Glory that maintains the character of the circuit while also providing more power. In 2012, the company released a limited run of the State Line pedal, which incorporated a customized version of the Morning Glory. But the Steak & Eggs circuit’s high gain modification is entirely new and re-thought from the ground up. For JHS, it is the perfecting component for the already prestigious Morning Glory, giving it dirt, power, and punch at the flick of a switch. The Steak & Eggs pedal features classic Morning Glory dynamics and tones but with more gain. An order toggle allows the users to decide which circuit comes first in their signal chain, while an internal pickup selector switch lets them select between a humbucker and single-coil settings, whichever is suitable for their guitar. Other features include true bypass switching and top-mounted input/output jacks.
Electro-Harmonix Turnip Greens
Electro-Harmonix loads some of its most epic hits into the Turnip Greens pedal. This versatile combo stompbox with classic vintage tones boasts the Soul Food overdrive on one side and the Holy Grain Max reverb on the other. The player may utilize both effects in tandem or simultaneously, with a toggle switch to determine the order. The Turnip Greens is a portable multi-effects unit that dishes out transparent sounds beginning with a clean boost and progressing to extreme overdrive. It features four meticulously crafted reverbs—Reverse, Hall, Spring, and Plate. It also includes an internal switch that allows the user to choose from a buffered bypass or true bypass for the Soul Food section. “In true bypass mode, when the Turnip Greens is set to bypass, the input jack is connected directly to the amp jack and nothing else. In buffered bypass mode, the bypass signal passes through a high-quality buffer circuit before it is output from the Amp jack,” Electro-Harmonix elaborated.
