Unusual Guitar Pedals Compared: Synths, Drones, Blenders and More

Not every pedal on a board is a drive, a delay or a reverb. Some of the most interesting boxes made in and around 2019 sit outside the usual categories: pedals that turn a guitar into a synthesizer, pedals that generate their own tones without any input at all, and pedals built to serve instruments other than guitar. This page compares three of them, side by side, using what their makers say and what published reviewers found.

The three pedals here do fundamentally different jobs. The Keeley Synth-1 is a synth pedal that converts your playing into synthesized waves. The Mattoverse Drone Tone MKIII is a drone synthesizer that lives on your pedalboard. The Donner White Tape Stereo Delay is a delay pedal that its maker points out also works with synthesizers and drum machines. None of them replaces a core pedal; each adds something a standard board does not have¹²³.

The three pedals side by side

The key difference between the first two is where the sound comes from. The Synth-1 needs your guitar: it is triggered by what you play, and because it is a single-note wave generator it is monophonic, so it tracks one note at a time rather than chords¹². The Drone Tone generates its own tone: a square wave oscillator whose pitch and rate you control, sitting on the board like any other pedal³. The Donner White Tape is the conventional one of the three, a delay, but its maker positions it as a crossover box that works as well with keyboards and drum machines as with guitar⁴.

Synth pedals: turning a guitar signal into synth sounds

A guitar synth pedal takes the signal from your pickups and uses it to drive synthesized tones, so the guitar becomes a controller for a synth voice rather than the sound itself. The Keeley Synth-1, released in 2019, is the example here. MusicRadar described it plainly²¹:

That "single-note" part matters for how you play it. Because the pedal is monophonic, it responds to one note at a time; lead lines and single-note riffs are the material it works with, not chords¹. Gearnews, covering the launch, made the same point about what the pedal is and how it behaves:

For a player weighing one of these against the alternatives, the comparison is with multi-effects units and dedicated synth pedals, both of which we cover separately in our guitar synthesizer pedals comparison. The Synth-1's approach is narrow by design: it is a guitar-triggered, single-note wave generator, meaning it is monophonic and handles one note at a time²¹.

What reviewers said about the Synth-1

Gearnews' verdict on the demo was positive:

That is a reviewer's view from the launch coverage, not a long-term test, but it lines up with MusicRadar's framing of the pedal as a way for guitarists to get synthesizer tones without putting the guitar down².

Drone pedals: a pedal that makes its own sound

A drone pedal inverts the usual relationship between guitar and pedal. Instead of processing your signal, it produces a tone of its own that you can run alongside or instead of your playing. Mattoverse Electronics describes the Drone Tone MKIII as exactly that⁵³:

In practical terms, that means two main controls over the drone: pitch, which sets where the tone sits, and rate, which shapes how it moves³. A square wave oscillator is the same basic building block used in classic analog synths, so the drone has that raw, hollow synth character rather than a guitar-like tone. Because the pedal generates its own signal, it can underpin a performance with a sustained note while you play over it, or be used on its own.

The crossover box: a delay for more than guitar

The Donner White Tape Stereo Delay rounds out the group from the other direction. It is a delay pedal first, a tape-style stereo delay with a transparent boost and true bypass⁴. What makes it unusual for this comparison is who Donner says it is for:

That positions it as a board piece for players who also own synths or drum machines, one box that serves both. If you are building around that idea, our effects pedals for synths and keyboards comparison covers the category more fully, and our delay pedals released in 2019 comparison places the White Tape among its contemporaries.

Who each pedal suits

• Keeley Synth-1: players who want synthesizer tones from the guitar itself and play single-note lines, since the pedal is monophonic and guitar-triggered¹². Gearnews called it one to check out for anyone intent on dabbling in non-standard guitar tones¹.
• Mattoverse Drone Tone MKIII: players who want a generated drone tone on the board, with control over pitch and rate, rather than a processed guitar sound³.
• Donner White Tape Stereo Delay: players who want a tape-style stereo delay that also serves synthesizers and drum machines⁴.

Questions