The first Boss pedals all had looked like that. The Bee Gee fuzz and the first Chorus pedal had massive enclosures.
I’m eyeing up the HF-2. Never used one but I love the colour.
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I’ve got one - it’s great. DO it.
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In eurorack usually need a module for that I think. wouldnt be surprised if they exist in pedal format now though given what behringer/EH are up to
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Cable management could be better, but I’m happy with the sound. Haven’t changed or added anything for months now!
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just 1 more pedal bro I promise last 1 just 1 more
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oooh… now that’s a hell of question…
Hard to compare a fuzz to delay or something, so maybe my faves per category? 
Long post incoming!
The EAE/Science Mother is my direct-recording ‘amp’ so that’s its own thing here.
Fuzz/distortion/gain
- Black Mass 1312 (mega-rat with loads of clipping options)
- Holy Island Audio Spectral Fire (clangy preamp/distortion based on a blend of Marshall Bluesbreaker and Traynor TS50B)
- Mile End Effects Kollaps (updated Univox Super Fuzz thing)
- Blue Colander Small Fracture (lo-fi distortion based on - I think - the preamp from the old Boss CE-1 Chorus)
The Small Fracture has to be the winner here. It’s got a character that isn’t like any other gain pedal. Can properly go from gentle gain to all-out burn-it-to-the-ground destruction. Works brilliantly after reverb and stuff for shoegaze. Plus the ‘litter’ control adds in all sounds of weird noise and artefacts that sound really cool and unique.
Delay
- Eventide Rose (digital delay with analog companding and filtering. I use it for sound on sound looping as it has up to 50 seconds of delay time or something nuts like that)
- EAE Sending V2 (basically the ultimate analogue delay)
- Polarbear Effects Raposa (‘tape’ style delay with a big focus on the lo-fi side of tape delay, with controls for drop-outs/failure etc)
The Sending’s probably the winner here. Hugely flexible, can sound pristine or wrecked, loads of control, and also has a killer preamp built in which is good enough that it could probably be its own pedal.
Reverb
- Holy Island Audio Tides (moody reverb with a drive/distortion built in - can move the drive in front or behind - plus an effects loop for the reverb only)
- Pladask Elektrisk Draume (focuses on creating deliberately artificial reverbs rather than trying to recreate existing stuff)
- Chase Bliss Mood Mk2 (Looping? Reverb? Drone? Delay? All of the above)
The Draume wins here. The Mood is incredible, but it’s also sort of its own thing due to the fact that it’s a bunch of effects in one. As a reverb, the Draume is out there on its own. It can sound like lovely warm little room, or a giant metal box, or just floating grainy clouds of sound. It can do short slaps or drone forever with random glitches and interruptions and artefacts, and the combination of the clock and texture controls open up a bunch of sounds that wouldn’t exist otherwise.
Modulation and weird stuff
- Spaceman Meridian (analog chorus/flanger with lots of flexibility)
- Zvex Sonar (mega flexible tremolo with lots of waveshaping capabilities)
- Non-Human Audio/Benson Florist (weirdo modulation that responds to your playing dynamics - can do chorus, slapback, flanging and loads of unique stuff in-between)
- EAE Prismatic Wall (‘sympathetic string resonator’…)
Prismatic Wall is the winner here I reckon. Had it about a month and just scratching the surface. As far as I know it’s unique in the pedal world, though there are things like it in modular. It sort of mimics what happens when you use the cavity of a grand piano as a reverb, where the strings inside the piano resonate in sympathy with whatever sound is happening in the room. So you can get harmonised sounds that aren’t like shimmer reverb, or sitar like drones, or clanging metallic sounds. Hard to explain, but really cool.
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This isn’t helping my period of relative pedalboard stability.
I’d love a go on Prismatic Wall!
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I’LL DO IT! (In January!)
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is this just pedals-wise, or?
also: how much so?
Caveat with these are just my impressions and specifically talking about the ultra nerdy ‘boutique’ pedal thing rather than any other gear, but things seem to be moving a lot more slowly than they were a little while ago and therefore there’s more opportunity to get lucky with a bargain.
I’ve noticed there are plenty of people still advertising second hand stuff for close to the price of the thing when new, but then those pedals seem to sit there for ages without buyers.
I’ve grabbed a few things by watching an item I want even if it’s overpriced and just waiting. A few weeks later and the seller still doesn’t have any interest, sends an offer to people watching it and then I’ve either accepted or made a counter offer and negotiated.
I’d read that something similar had happened with the second hand guitar market in the past couple of years as well. Maybe some post-Covid adjustment after things were harder to come by, which pushed second hand prices up? No idea. Either way, a little bit of patience and knowing what I was after was helpful.
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Can’t quantify it specifically though, because different pedals/brands have very different levels of interest and demand.
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My pedalboard
(actually this is a lie, I’ve got a Big Muff and a Boss Space Echo pedal too. But the Space Echo is permanently patched into a send for the synth rack and the Big Muff is only used on the Moog because obviously that needs to be EVEN BIGGER; the HX Stomp is the one that gets deployed as-needed to do Various Jobs)
Eurorack market feels similar too. Stuff still sells, but not as quickly as before or for quite as much IME.
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quick summary of the stylophone theremin
It is a bit of a faff to set up at first, you turn this little dial to find the ‘null’ spot, then turn a big dial to control how close you need to be to the antenna to make a sound. but seems quite reliable now.
Seems to only be powered by 6 AA batteries which is weird. Has two oscillators one for the antenna one for the slide control. You can either hear one or the other or both, then you can also choose whether the slider modulates the antenna or vice versa or neither, the modulation is heard even if the oscillator isn’t. I guess it is using the frequency of one to ring modulate the other.
It has built in vibrato, but weirdly only works on the slider. I guess you can use your hand with the antenna to do vibrato but seems weird the quintessential theremin effect isn’t their for the antenna. can just put it through pedals though.
the delay sounds really good, really lofi sounds like an old radio but the ‘level’ knob is weird, if the repeats are loud the dry is quiet, so it is hard to get the most out of the old radio sound as to hear it you have to play with no dry signal so a lag. again, can just put it through pedals.
another weird thing is you can’t change the volumes of each oscillator, which is a shame as the slider on square wave is a lot louder, also think you could do more with the modulation if you could reduce the individual levels.
the slider can either be set to constant drone, or sound when the trigger pad is hit. so far i’m enjoying it most playing with the slider and using the antenna to modulate it. was hoping the slider could be used as volume for the antenna, as there isn’t a second antenna for the volume like a proper theremin
I guess for the money it was a decent purchase, but crying out for a more fully featured version
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Straight fight at the moment what’s going to happen 1st finally decorating this room or me finally changing this and finally getting at least the bigsky off the board
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Reel Echo so cool
bet they’ve gone up massively in price lately
Can pick one up one for £169 on reverb by looks of it.
I think it was £80 new in the mid 00’s. Amazed they haven’t shrunk it and reissued it, thought they would do after the reverse echo. The buttons (and they are definitely buttons) are absolute rubbish, really temperamental.
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but the sounds are good, right? right?
Oh yeah I think it’s the best echo tape pedal in existence that doesn’t have actual tape (never tried that t-rex tape pedal)
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You need an audio pitch to CV converter like the Behringer Pp1
Not sure of any standalone pedals that do it, so you’d need to rack the module
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