Every pedal we have an opinion on.

The classic dynamic blues overdrive — the pedal John Mayer used on Continuum-era tours.

Tone note: more dynamic than a Tube Screamer

Stacking gain stages without stacking pedals — the routing matrix on the front panel does the work.

Tone note: two-channel architecture is the actual feature

The $99 Tube Screamer that beats most $200 Tube Screamers — the entry-level pro-tier overdrive.

Tone note: Mode 2 (op-amp, no diodes) is the clean-boost killer mode

The transparent overdrive with the three-band EQ — the pedal you reach for when a Tube Screamer is too mid-heavy.

Tone note: three-band EQ is the actual selling point

Every Stevie Ray Vaughan record — the single most famous overdrive sound in electric guitar history.

Tone note: the canonical mid-hump — 720 Hz, +6 dB

The cleanest 'always-on' transparent overdrive on a modern pedalboard — the modern Bluesbreaker.

Tone note: transparent — keeps the amp's voice intact

Settling the 'which Tube Screamer is best?' argument in a single box.

Tone note: nine distinct mid-hump voices, all faithful

Inventing the 'transparent overdrive' category and creating the most absurd resale market in pedal history.

Tone note: transparent — adds gain without coloring the amp

The Led Zeppelin I lead fuzz — Page's 'Communication Breakdown' and 'Whole Lotta Love' solo tones.

Tone note: germanium transistors — temperature-sensitive but musical

The Boris guitar tone — Pink, Heavy Rocks, Akuma no Uta — boiled into a pedal.

Tone note: darker and woollier than a standard Big Muff

Every Gilmour solo from Animals onward — the canonical heavy-fuzz pedal of rock guitar.

Tone note: scooped midrange — chords sound enormous

The Comfortably Numb solo lead tone, packaged as a stompbox.

Tone note: long, violin-like sustain on bent notes

Every Jonny Greenwood record from The Bends onward — the most range-having distortion pedal under $100.

Tone note: filter knob is a low-pass — left for sludge, right for bite

The compact 'direct-to-FOH' rig — the pedal that made fly-dates possible without a backline.

Tone note: Plexi mode is the standout — Hendrix-y crunch on tap

Being the country/Americana session compressor — present on a lot of Nashville records.

Tone note: transparent compression — no pumping

The warm, dark BBD analog delay that ducks behind the playing — the canonical My Bloody Valentine delay tone.

Tone note: warm, dark, BBD repeats that decay into mud

Turning the delay pedal into a memory device — playing back what you forgot you played.

Tone note: reaches back two minutes into your past playing

The single-pedal answer to 'I need a long stereo delay with a long stereo reverb' — the canonical shoegaze pedalboard fixture.

Tone note: delay and reverb voiced as one continuous instrument

Modulated, drifting, two-headed analog-voiced delay — the pedal for the player who wants their delay to misbehave.

Tone note: two independent heads with cross-feedback

Being the canonical delay on every pro touring pedalboard — the pedal you don't have to think about.

Tone note: dTape is the canonical Echoplex emulation

The convincing tape-delay sound — the U2 slap, the Floyd Echorec — without the actual Echoplex.

Tone note: tape-age knob actually changes the character

The Echorec sound from Pink Floyd's Meddle and More — every multi-head delay sound in one box.

Tone note: four-head combinations create rhythmic patterns

Recreating the Lexicon 224 — the reverb behind every Steely Dan record and every '80s film score — in a stompbox.

Tone note: the actual 224 hall, not a 'lexicon-style' approximation

Defining the modern ambient-guitar reverb sound — every Justin Vernon shimmer chord runs through one of these.

Tone note: Shimmer is the canonical octave-up reverb

Generative ambient reverb — used by every Eurorack-curious guitar player.

Tone note: the pitch shifting is part of the reverb tail, not a separate effect

Sounding like a VHS dub of itself — the canonical lo-fi tape simulation.

Tone note: wow and flutter that breathe with the playing

The Andy Summers 'Walking on the Moon' chorus — every dreamy clean rhythm tone from 1980.

Tone note: warm, slightly dark, organic — the BBD sound

The Roland Dimension D — the chorus you can't hear, but you can hear when it's off.

Tone note: thickens without obvious modulation

Recreating Neve-style console saturation on a pedalboard — the Sgt Pepper's bass tone, on demand.

Tone note: transformer saturation when pushed hard

Turning the looper from a utility into an instrument — the ambient performer's most-used pedal.

Tone note: modifiers permanently alter the loop

The granular ambient pedal that defined a generation of post-rock looper performances.

Tone note: granular textures that drift away from the source