EarthQuaker Devices Arpanoid
The first dedicated, compact polyphonic pitch arpeggiator effect pedal for electric guitar!
The Arpanoid takes whatever you play and transforms it into an adjustable ascending or descending scal... read more
Recommend Related Items & Pairings

This is where you can recommend to readers an alternative - or gear that goes with - EarthQuaker Devices Arpanoid. What gear sounds similar, is less expensive, higher-end or boutique, etc.?
ADD YOUR RECOMMENDATIONDescription
The first dedicated, compact polyphonic pitch arpeggiator effect pedal for electric guitar!
The Arpanoid takes whatever you play and transforms it into an adjustable ascending or descending scale. It features 8 intuitive and expandable modes and will work on complex chords as well as single notes in any key. The Arpanoid has an all analog dry signal, all digital wet signal and true-bypass switching.
Controls
Wet- Level control for the effect signal. Unity is around noon.
Dry- Level control for the dry signal. Unity is around noon.
Rate- Adjusts the speed of the sequence.
Step- Selects how many notes there are in the sequence which determines the overall feel and timing.
Toggle Switch- Controls the direction of the sequence. All the way left is up, the sequence will continually repeat going up. In the middle is up/down, the sequence will continually repeat going up then back down. All the way right is down, the signal will continually repeat going down.
Mode: 8-position selector switch to choose the octave and key:
1: Major: -1 octave to root.
2: Major: root to +1 octave.
3: Major: -1 octave through +1
4: Major: Random pattern
5: Minor: -1 octave to root.
6: Minor: root to +1 octave.
7: Minor: -1 octave through +1
8: Minor: Random pattern
- Transforms what you play into an adjustable ascending or descending scale
- 8 Intuitive and expandable modes
- All analog dry signal
- All digital wet signal
- True-bypass switching
2 AVAILABLE FROM
* Product prices and availability are updated by Equipboard every 24hrs and are subject to change. Equipboard may receive compensation for purchases made at participating retailers linked on this site. This compensation does not affect what products or prices are displayed, or the order of prices listed. Learn more here.
33 Artists use this
Found 0 artists

This photograph comes from [MixOnline's](https://www.mixonline.com/recording/music-noel-gallagher-who-built-the-moon) article about recor... more

According to the Premier Guitar's interview, one of the pedals Summers is using is the Earthquaker Arpanoid. more

“I love my EarthQuaker Arpanoid pedal. There’s nothing else that knocks people out and gets people’s attention like that pedal. Every tim... more
Reviews
Trusted musician and artist reviews for EarthQuaker Devices Arpanoid
Based on 2 Reviews

If I was a better guitarist...it'd get four or five stars!
Aside from the more famous Rainbow Machine, this is Earthquaker's weirdest pedal. It's a pitch arpeggiator capable of tracking chords. It takes whatever note you play into it and transforms it into an adjustable ascending or descending scale. That's right; you play a single 'C', and if you're in Mode 1, it will play a C major scale from -1 octave to the note you've played. If you're in Mode 6, it will play a C minor scale from the note you've played to one octave above. There are wet-dry controls, a rate knob for adjusting the speed through which the scale plays, a step knob for adjusting how many 'steps' of the scale are played, from 'one' to all of them, and a toggle switch for adjusting whether the scale plays up, down, or does a palindrome.
Now, this is all very well and it's totally amazing! The pitch tracking and the smoothness of the scale interpolations are very good indeed.
But...
Well, to be honest, this is a pedal for those of us who are really shit-hot at music theory. The sort of people who know which Phyrigian or Locrian mode goes with which diminished 19th or whatever. Most of us will want to play chords on our guitars, and things are pretty involved playing just one single note on this thing. Things get even more complex throwing in a fifth. Add a third and you'd better be pretty sure whether that's a minor or major third you've got there! And then...your song changes key...argghh....
So, I'm not saying this is a bad pedal. It isn't. It's extremely clever and it sounds good. But to get the most out of it, don't expect instant gratification. It's one for really just sitting down and experimenting with, and you might find that it only fits with one passage of one verse or whatever. It's similar to a frequency shifter in that respect; you could spend years trying to master this pedal!
One thing which could be better: I wish it had MIDI or CV inputs, or even just a tap tempo, so that you could lock the speed of the arp to a beat. So far, I've found that it gives a pleasing effect when the number of steps of the arp are low (say, 2), and the rate of stepping through fairly high. Used like this, the pedal can give you a really quirky and unusual sort of 'pitched tremolo' effect, especially when used with a delay to smear the pitch changes a bit. Also, when there's only one step, it becomes a good-quality octave pedal or simple pitch-shifter.
Andy from Pro Shop guitars makes it sound amazing in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-N_Ar3xfak
But he knows what he's doing, of course!
5 Videos





Craziness
Its weird but there's so much you can do just requires time and patience