First launched in 2014 - the BitQuest Multi-FX / Multi-FX-Fuzz / Fuzz-Modulator - quickly became Dr Scientist’s most popular and best-selling pedal - and has held the line ever since - despite fierce competition from my other Frazz Dazzler Fuzz favourite! According to Ryan- there are only 2 core models of this pedal - the one which originated in 2014 - which holds all the way through to 2020 - while there are some circuitboard variations along the way too. Before 2020 you first move the Fuzz/...

The original BigSky was a total game-changer in 2013 and ushered in the era of pristine pro studio level reverb workstation pedals. When I got stuck into pedals properly around 10 years ago, the Strymon Stryfecta of BigSky, Mobius and Timeline was one of the first major investments I made!

Since then I’ve had a number of different Reverb Workstations (around a dozen) on that particular #41 slot (I love and retain all of those) - which slot is currently fabulously occupied by the Poly Verbs ...

It’s been quiet a while since Boss completed its Digital Delay Range Revamp with the DD-3T and DD-8 - back in September of 2019 - that selection is fully rounded and up-up-to-date still - with each of the 4 pedals at the top of its respective game - DD-3T, DD-8, DD-200, and DD-500!

We had to wait an age for the RV-200 to arrive - where the DD-200  was part of the original June 2019 200-Series quartet. The current generation of compact Boss Reverb is the RV-6 - which was released as long ago...

The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!

So we featured 120 pedals across the 5 Genre categories this year - as you’ve witnessed over the last 5 days, and those have been whittled and distilled down to these 27 Magnificent and Exceedingly Flavoursome candidates.

Picking out the very best of those is obviously a slightly subjective exercise while based on a series of exacting criteria - including innovation, versatility, practicality, variability, playability, quality of manufacture, quality of output and sheer enjoyment.

Here ...

And so to the final category - where competition is extremely fierce this year. No doubt some of your favourites will have missed the cut here - but hopefully this selection is fully representative of the best of the year. Obvious I lean more towards immersive stereo effects - mono doesn’t really do it for me so much - while there is a smattering of mono pedals in here too. Price, format, versatility and practicality - everything counts!

Of the 23 featured in the selection - I own around ...

Readers will know that I’m a huge fan of Boss’s 200 series - particularly the SY-200 and DD-200 units. For the size and price - the DD-200 really is my go-to Delay - with the absolute perfect mix of Algorithms. And Boss has exactly repeated that magical formula for the RV-200 - delivering the perfect mix of algorithms, features and functions - with one really cool entirely new one - the Arpverb (Arpeggiated Reverb).

It’s probably best to jump right into the algorithms, where it initially ...

We all knew this was in the works - it was just a question as to when this inevitable follow-up to the Meris LVX Modular Delay would materialise - and that time is now evidently! This is another one of those supreme Sound Designer style pedals - and is somewhat reminiscent of Strymon’s NightSky ’Design-a-Reverb’ as I kind of referred to it at the time. Both have lots of hidden secondary features, parameters and functions - while the Meris Mercury X of course goes a few steps further in its ...

Walrus Audio certainly seem to be on an innovative roll these days with another cool experimental pedal based on the same template as its Lore Reverse Delay and Reverb.

You have the same number of controls but with somewhat different parameters and a new set of 5 smart Modes / Programs.

At its core there are Dual Analog Feedback Paths controlled in turn by the Feedback and Regen knobs, and then loaded with granular delay algorithms - which also combine Modulation, Pitch-Shifting and ...