Sixteen Pedals: A Tour Through Guitar's Most Exciting New Gear
In one of the most chaotic gear demos you're likely to ever see, Josh Scott walks through sixteen pedals that have landed on his desk — and the result is a masterclass in how weird and wonderful modern guitar effects have become.
The Heavy Hitters
Universal Audio's Dumble-style pedal has been making serious waves. The company pulled off what few expected: a genuine boutique overdrive that actually delivers. Scott demoed the UD (Universal Dumble), noting it's shockingly small — roughly half the size of the original — while sounding remarkably close to the legendary amp tone it's modeled after.
"This is one of the most anticipated pedals in pedal history."
Supercool Pedals brought their signature playful branding with the Willy Wonka — a highly dynamic drive pedal featuring smooth, bright tone that brings out the best in your guitar. The packaging alone makes it worth grabbing.
Warm Audio's C1 clone made an appearance, and Scott pulled it from his drawer after avoiding it for years. The original analog chorus hasn't lost its magic — it's still the signature vibrato sound behind countless Spoon records.
The Multi-Effects Era
Wampler's Catacombs represents a new wave of multi-effects design: true stereo with reverb and delay in one compact unit. It's not a full multi-effect but focuses on those two elements with surprising depth. The digital pedals from Wampler are insanely powerful while remaining small enough to avoid accidental foot damage.
Walrus Audio showed their new Silt pedal — a chunky, thick, heavy tone machine that Scott describes as "versatile" ironically: it's not versatile at all, and that's its strongest point. The Contour switch adds aggressive tonal character.
The Weird Ones
Danelectro delivered the Spring King Jr, which literally contains an actual spring reverb tank inside. It's enormous — too big for a standard pedalboard setup — but the spring sound is genuine. Scott called it "the cleanest 250 I've almost ever played."
Behringer's Rockman came up, originally invented by guitarist from Boston. It's an all-in-one effects processor from the 80s that recreates that iconic Boston guitar tone.
The most unusual enclosure of the year went to Danelectro's Cicada — a pedal so small the adapter is bigger than the effect itself.
The Fuzz Frontier
A standout moment involved the Tone Bender with germanium transistors adding midrange presence. At sixty dollars, it's radically accessible compared to similar circuits.
The Octave pedal from JHS (the one Scott won't fully explain yet) represents what he calls "the craziest octave pedal ever made." It handles every octave configuration, envelope, and panning option imaginable — truly nuts according to Scott.
Bottom Line
This tour through sixteen pedals reveals something important: the pedal world has never been more creative or more diverse. The days of boring, serious black-levered stompers are gone. Brands like Supercool and Danelectro are actively resisting that aesthetic while delivering seriously good tones. The biggest vulnerability? Some of these are prototypes not yet ready for production — but the anticipation itself signals where guitar innovation is heading.