ludwik_jahn's Metal Pedalboard

It's the perfect mini-board. You can fit 5 or 6 pedals there. There's everything you need to make it work. I like the ability to extend the feet of the board, as to place a power supply down there, something which you can't do with similar Pedaltrain boards that are more expensive. I know it does not work for everybody but it definitely works for me: clean, practical, professional ... and cheap!

You don't come across many Crowther Hot Cake clones, even though that pedal is arguably as mythical as the Klon Centaur. I've been looking for one for quite some time. After all, it's the drive pedal of some of my favorite guitarists, including Jeff Parker and Nels Cline.

This affordable clone from the French-Canadian builders at GupTech was exactly what I needed to understand what all the fuss is about. What I like most about this pedal is how huge it sounds while still preserving much of the clarity and character of the guitar's clean signal. The dynamics is impressive - you can go from barely dirty to almost fuzzy and gnarly simply by changing your pick attack.

Legend has it that the original was conceived with Vox amps in mind. I've used this clone with Marshall and Fender amps as well, and it absolutely kills. Highly recommended.

The Rat Pack is a homemade Rat Clone. It has the original LM308 and offers three modes: Led clipping (Turbo), silicium clipping (Vintage) and clipping bypass (boost). In addition, there's a "sweep" knob which corresponds to the Ruetz mod: it adds bass and cleans up the distorton. This is practical if you want to use the Rat as an overdrive rather than a full-fledged distortion. I don't use this much, to be honest. I'm particularly in love with the Turbo mode. It has a lot of gain on tap while less compressed than the Vintage mode but as opposed to the latter it has a lot of headroom. As you can expect "filter" is quite wide-ranging and effective: from bees nest to a fuller, mid-heavy sound. I think it is best between 10 and 2 depending on the sort of distortion you want to have. You can play anything with this: from rock and alternative to metal. It is juicy and full of harmonics. I really love it. When you open the box, you see that it is really clean and well done with high quality components. Christophe, from CM Effetcs, has even designed the PCB. The only drawbacks is the absence of a battery location so you need to use an AC adapter (no problem for me as this will be on my board all the time) and that only a handful of units are produced. But for the price, 120 euros) I'd say it's a steal as this is really similar to the Walrus Audio Iron Horse which sells for 199 euros. Highly recommended

Sometimes you pay the big bucks for a pedal because it has tons of features, and sometimes because it has one sound that is unmistakably its own. The Boss VB-2 definitely falls into the second category. Along with the CE-2, it’s the reason Boss owned the '80s. A lot of sounds you would identify as "chorus" are actually coming from this thing—think Prince, Cocteau Twins, etc. It basically does two things: a "rotary" effect, which is perfect for modern jazz, or a "warped vinyl" sound. I prefer the second use, which I achieve by keeping the depth and rate quite low and the rise time in the middle. The effect is even more pronounced in "Custom" mode, which I also like very much. No wonder it was so sought after. Thank you, Boss, for reissuing it!

At first, you may think "who would want to buy a one-knob reverb in which almost everything is set for you so that you can only control the dry/wet blend?" and also "who would want to use that ridiculous flerb setting?". Answer to question 2 is "no one" and answer to question 1 is "well, pretty much everyone" because it's on all of your favorite artists' pedalboard. And for good reasons. "Spring" and "hall" are so perfect that you put the blend in between 10 and 1 o'clock depending on your taste and then prettty much forget about it. There are better and more complicated reverbs out there but none that are as simple and dependable as this one.

I've got Souldier straps on all of my guitars (acoustic or electric). They're of astounding quality. I love the textures, the design, the fact they're made from recycled car belts, the way they sit on my shoulder. They're more for people who love vintage guitar straps but there's a wide array of choice. I love the Wilco design with owls, those that look like tapestries, as well as one which has carps on it and looks East-asian. Highly recommended.