All you ever wanted to know about the UK's Preeminent Independent Pedal Boutique - Joe's Pedals

Because of Joe's solid work at 'Vintage and Rare Guitars' he had cultivated strong relationships with most of those brands and so when Joe's Pedals was established, he was able to bring a lot of the more significant ones across with him and add a few more.

At the time when Joe's Pedals Web Store went live on 3rd February 2011 - there were 15 brands in stock :

• Black Cat Pedals
• Blackout Effectors (now defunct)
• D*A*M / David Main
• Death By Audio
• Devi Ever
• Dr Scientist
• Earthquaker Devices
• Homebrew Electronics (now defunct)
• J Rockett Pedals
• Lightfoot Labs (now defunct)
• Malekko Heavy Industry
• Skreddy Pedals
• Stone Deaf FX
• Subdecay
• Throbak Guitar Effects

In running a Boutique pedal store there are of course numerous factors which impact on which brands are supported and sold. Obviously certain brands come and go, others for whatever reason fail to gain traction - which is often a question of timing. While a significant factor for Joe is also competition with the bigger mainstream stores. This means for instance when other larger mainstream stores like say Andertons and GAK started stocking brands - let's say Earthquaker Devices for sake of a relevant example - then it became unviable for Joe to carry said brand/s - as any promotion would mean that sales more likely went to the bigger stores with a larger presence and bigger marketing budgets - so that when prospective customers searched for those pedals - Google would rather guide them to Andertons and GAK. This in turn meant that Joe has had to continually make strategic decisions along the way, and why for several brands he is the sole UK Dealer. By the end of 2011 - Joe had 28 brands in stock.

Over the years certain brands became unviable for the variety of reasons mentioned already and we saw brands like Blackout Effectors (Musket Fuzz), El Musico Loco (Wee Beaver Fuzz), Faustone (Fuzz Unit), Lightfoot Labs (Goatkeeper Tremolo), and PiggyFX (SchweineFleisch Fuzz) pass into history.

All the while Joe's Pedals has continued to expand and thrive and now covers circa 65 brands!

Joe is pretty unique in stocking the pedals of the 3 UK 'Fuzz Lords' as I call them - Stu Castledine, David Main / D*A*M / Emanating Fist Electronics and Steve Williams / Pigdog Pedals. And unless you're properly sharp you might not even be aware of the small-batch runs which appear and disappear almost immediately at fairly random intervals. Joe also stocks Ian Sherwen / Ghost Effects who is often associated with the more established big 3 Fuzz luminaries.

The Brand List as such therefore is constantly in flux - depending on what is in stock, what is incoming, and what is on the way out. Joe also deals with trade-ins, and there's a healthy Used Pedals section on the site. Joe also has a Reverb.com Store where he sells pedals that have been phased out from the main store.

So as of right about now there are around 65 or so brands with 360+ individual pedal varieties all-in-all.

I kind of break the brands down into a system of 3 tiers - Full-Range, Partial, and Selection - where Full-Range denotes by and large the complete current range is stocked as much as is possible, Partial means a significant part of the range is stocked, and Selection means just a few varieties.

Key Current Brands ordered by number of pedal varieties stocked and degree of range coverage :

• Skreddy Pedals - 21 (Full)
• BMF Effects - 19 (Full)
• Subdecay - 18 (Full)
• Fuzzrocious - 17 (Full)
• Greer Amplification - 17 (Full)
• Black Arts Toneworks - 15 (Full)
• Tru-Fi - 15 (Full)
• Malekko Heavy Industry - 12 (Full)
• ThorpyFX - 12 (Full)
• Hungry Robot - 11 (Full)
• Idiotbox - 11 (Partial)
• Stomp Under Foot - 11 (Partial)
• Death by Audio - 10 (Partial)
• Bearfoot FX - 9 (Partial)
• Foxrox Electronics - 9 (Full)
• Stone Deaf FX - 8 (Full)
• Analog Alien - 7 (Full)
• Buffalo FX - 7 (Full)
• Dr Scientist - 7 (Full)
• Blue Colander - 6 (Partial)
• Joe Gore Guitar Pedals - 6 (Partial)
• Spiral Electric FX - 5 (Full)
• DryBell - 4 (Full)
• Emanating Fist Electronics - 4 (Full)
• Throbak Guitar Effects - 4 (Full)
• Hilbish Design - 3 (Full)
• Lightning Wave - 3 (Full)
• Ramble FX - 3 (Full)
• BAE Audio - 2 (Full)
• Klon - 1 (Full)

You should also be aware that there are always new and exciting pedals incoming on a regular basis - and since many of those are made in small-batch operations they appear and disappear rather quickly. So it's worth keeping an eye on the Joe's Pedals Instagram and Facebook pages. For instance right now there is a batch of the rare French VL Effects incoming - including the celebrated Bullit Od-oNe Overdrive. I'm told there's also a very interesting batch of a unique custom D*A*M pedals- due some time in the next few months.

Historically the Klon KTR Overdrive has been the best sold pedal on the site overall, while Dr Scientist is the most consistent selling brand. The most expensive pedal ever sold on the site was an original and very unusual John Hornby Skewes I.V variety - in fact the only one I've ever heard of - where a proper Zonk II enclosure contained 2 x Mullard OC75 Black Glass Transistors - where the original Zonk I had A02650 + OC75 + OC44 - and you would have expected to find actually two Silicon 2N4061's inside a Zonk II box. Understandably therefore this very unique specimen sold for a lofty $2,500 back in 2011!

Joe and I together carefully selected 12 of the best brands that best represented the store - and from within them a leading ambassador pedal to represent the very best of each of those brands - either a current classic or all-time bona-fide classic! As follows, listed alphabetically by brand :

The venerable Pharaoh Fuzz is one of those all-time classic Muff variants - hugely versatile - but largely based on a Ram's Head style circuit. You get 6 controls - with 4 knobs - Tone, High, Fuzz and Volume, and two toggle-switches - Lo/Hi Gain Structure and GE/SI Diode Clipping. Massive sounding beautifully balanced fuzz with extended range - certainly one of my favourites - although I have this in its more compact Son of Pharaoh format - exactly the same circuit just smaller. The original BB version still seems to outsell the more practical pedalboard-friendly version - go figure. I so like this pedal that I've already determined that I will get the slightly even more versatile green Pharaoh Supreme version - when that is back in stock!

The 15 BAT pedals currently stocked by Joe's Pedals are:

• Black Forest Overdrive (CS Power Boost) £159
• Black Sheep Fuzz (Bee Baa) - £159
• Crown of Horns Muff Fuzz - £169
• Destroyer V2 Distortion - £159
• FNORD Octave / Fuzz - £139
• LSTR Muff Fuzz (BAT-LSTR : Battlestar!) - £159
• Pharaoh Muff Fuzz - £169
• Pharaoh Supreme Muff Fuzz - £219
• Quantum Mystic Overdrive - £159
• Raw Heart OD - £229
• Revelation Preamp (Super Bass Version) - £149
• Sarcophagus Dual Channel Fuzz (Pharaoh + LSTR) - £329
• Sky Boost - £149
• Son of Pharaoh Compact Muff Fuzz - £149
• Tres Diablos Ruidosos 3-Gain-Stage Overdrive - £139

The Ge Spot is a hugely controllable and well-behaved / exemplary Germanium Fuzz Face variant and the lead choice here. Achieve ultimate Germanium Fuzz mastery with 3 controls - Volume, Fuzz and Bias. This brand often falls under the radar for some, but it's quality has been consistent all these years - and is one of Joe's best performing long-term brands. The brand is probably still best known for its 'Marc F'n Ford' Overdrive - while for me it's the well calibrated fuzzes here that are the stars. I personally have my eye on the Ge Spot, High Roller Distortion and Purple Nurple essentially Fuzzy-Drive - you can't go wrong with any of those - and all very reasonably priced!

Joe currently stocks 19 BMF Effects :

• 7th Syzmenzab Fuzz/Octave - £169
• Aries Muff Fuzz (Ram's Head) - £159
• GB Boost Treble Booster - £149
• Ge Spot Germanium Fuzz (FF) - £189
• Ge/GB Fuzz/Boost - £229
• High Roller Distortion (Rat) - £159
• El Jefe Overdrive - £169
• Little Red Compressor (Dyna Comp) - £169
• Liquid Sky Analog Chorus - £179
• Marc F'n Ford Signature Boost / Overdrive - £229
• Purple Nurple Overdrive - £159
• Sisyphuzz Silicon Fuzz (FF) - £149
• Son of Bastard Clean Boost - £95
• Super Nurple Dual Overdrive - £169
• The Godfather Low/Medium Gain Overdrive - £169
• The Godfather II Dual Overdrive - £229
• The Great Wide Open Distortion - £149
• Wah - £219
• Wah Board Circuit/s (Snap-in alternative voicings for above Wah) - £59

Still the best selling Buffalo is Steve Painter's more controllable take on the BK Butler Tube Driver - with its 4 finely calibrated controls - Lo, Hi, Gain and Level. I myself have been going through a bit of a Buffalo FX phase these days - despite the current questionable future of the brand. I was one of the 100 who pre-ordered the now apparently aborted Reticon Flanger from Steve. In anticipation of that I acquired 3 Buffalo FX pedals from Joe - the Carrera Overdrive, Evolution Distortion and Patriot MKII Civil War Style Muff. I was in two minds as to whether to go for the TD-X (slightly more scooped) or the Carrera (mids-boosted) where Bjørn Riis describes the Carrera as a more modern take essentially on the same sort of circuit as the TD-X. I really like all 3 of my Buffalos and have more on the wishlist - with the M-1 likely up next while I'm also trying to chase down the discontinued Germanium Fuzz (FF) and Supa Driver (CS PB+) pedals by any means necessary!

The 7 pedals within the current Buffalo range stocked are :

• Carrera Overdrive - £209
• Evolution Distortion (PC G-2) - £219
• M-1 Stacked Ram's Head Muff Fuzz (CS PB + BMP) - £239
• Patriot MKII Muff Fuzz (Civil War BMP) - £199
• Power Booster (CS Power Boost) - £199
• Propeller Boost / Buffer - £169
• TD-X Overdrive (BKB TD) - £199

I'm a self-avowed massive fan of Ryan and Tanya Clarke's Dr Scientist pedals and have 4 such in my collection - the BitQuest, Dusk, Elements and Frazz Dazzler. In fact the Frazz Dazzler is probably still my favourite Fuzz pedal of all time - and it's currently still rooted to my board / pedal-chain alongside the recent Dusk Dynamic Filter. Joe and I selected the superb BitQuest here which is such a unique pedal - and where you can use it either as an extended 8-mode Multi-FX unit - with 6 controls, or a more interesting Fuzz-Modulator - where it combines those modulations with an opamp / BMP style fuzz. The Atmosphere is also probably still the very best compact enclosure Reverb workstation - a shame for me though that it isn't stereo. All these pedals are next-level innovative and I personally would heartily recommend each and every one.

Joe stocks all 7 of the current Dr Scientist range :

• The Atmosphere Reverb Workstation - £359
• BitQuest Fuzz-Modulator / Multi-FX - £249
• Boost Bot Booster/Buffer/Level Meter - £119
• Dusk Dynamic FIlter - £189
• The Elements Preamp/EQ/Overdrive/Distortion - £209
• Frazz Dazzler 2-Channel High Gain Fuzz - £229
• Spectrum Analyzer - £189

Fuzzrocious are best known for their many custom iterations of each pedal - so you need to double-check which edition of each pedal you're getting. They're probably best known overall for their Cat King / Tail Rat-style pedals and Feed Me Multi-Clipper / Tone-Shaper. While our choice for ambassador pedal this time around is the really clever combined Analog and Digital Knob Jawn Octaver. It's a pedal I've recommended to several readers, and have long intended to get one for myself eventually. I also really like the Feed Me / LunaReclipse style pedals and of course those Cat Tail BB-size fuzzes - I just need to wait for Joe to get the right version of that in - with as many knobs and switches as possible!

Joe stocks the full range of Fuzzrocious pedals which currently includes these 17 examples :

• Afterlife Reverb - £159
• Afterlife V2 Compact Reverb - £169
• Baxstabber EQ and Pre Amp - £159
• Blast Furnace Gated Fuzz - £169
• Cat King Deluxe Distortion (Rat) - £195
• Cat Tail Distortion (2nd Distortion Edition)(Rat) - £159
• Croak Expressive Double Filter Fuzz - £179
• The Demon Medium/High Gain Drive/Distortion - £149
• The Demon (2nd King Edition) Medium/High Gain Drive/Distortion - £159
• Demon King Medium/High Gain Drive/Distortion upto Gated Fuzz - £195
• Feed Me EQ/Preamp/Multi-Clipping/Tone-Shaper - £155
• Grey Stache Muff Fuzz (Civil War) - £149
• Grey Stache (2nd Setting Edition) Muff Fuzz (Civil War) - £159
• Knob Jawn Analog + Digital Dual Octaver - £159
• LunaReclipse Compact Multi-Clipping Tone-Shaper (sort of Jr Feed Me) - £159
• M.O.T.H. (Multi Overdrive Tremolo Hex) Fuzz/Gated - £159

Hungry Robot specialises in really cool Lofi Ambient Modulated Effects - with a number of Delays and Reverbs in the range in particular. One of the standouts is obviously the Wardenclyffe sort of wobbly filter chorus which I've featured on the site before. It can be viewed as fairly adjacent to the Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water - while I prefer the format factor and overall aspect of the Wardenclyffe - definitely one to consider - with its 8 controls. The Borderland, Karman Line and Moby Dick are also particularly stand-out.

Joe covers the full range of 11 Hungry Robot pedals :

• The Borderland Lite Digital Modulated Reverb (Simplified 2-Footswitch Edition) - £189
• The Borderland Digital Modulated Reverb (Tap-tempo 3-Footswitch Edition) - £229
• El Castillo Arpeggiating Reverb - £189
• The Karman Line Lo-Fi Ambient Delay Modulator - £229
• The Lumen State-Variable FET Overdrive - £169
• The Moby Dick V2 Lo-Fi Ambient Delay Modulator - £189
• Monastery Polyphonic Octave Generator - £159
• The Stargazer V2 Parallel Channel Reverb - £189
• Starlite Modulated Reverb - £189
• Wardenclyffe Lo-fi Ambient Modulator / Filter / Chorus - £219
• The Wash V2 Lo-Fi Ambient Arpeggiator Reverb - £229

Our key selection here is the Goatkeeper Polyrhythmic Dual Pattern Sequential 2-Stage Tremolo - which is a significantly evolved and compacted version from the Lightfoot Labs original - which essentially handed over guardianship of their beloved circuit to Malekko. Malekko's version is a much neater compact take on the circuit - which I featured in a head-to-head against the Subdecay Tremcoder which exists in a similar plane! Malekko have always been something of a leftfield choice - they certainly do things their own way largely - apart from their two best-known pedals now this Goatkeeper and the B:Assmaster which are both borrowed circuits largely as such. I've featured Malekko a lot on my site, but to date I've only acquired their now discontinued Omicron Mini Fuzz (Superfuzz).

Joe carries the full range of Malekko pedals with 12 varieties currently in stock :

• B:Assmaster Harmonic Octave Analog Distortion - £239
• Charlie Foxtrot Digital Granular Buffer/Pitch-Shifter/Delay - £179
• Downer Wave-Folder / Saturator / Octave / Filter - £179
• Goatkeeper Dual Squential Pattern Tremolo - £209
• Lil Buddy Expander Pedal Mini Footswitch - £30
• Omicron Phase Mini Analog Phaser - £99
• Scrutator BitCrusher - £179
• Sloika Multi-Band Distortion - £149
• Sneak Attack : Attack/Decay/Tremolo - £179
• Spring Chicken Reverb - £159
• Thicken Double-Tracker Delay/Chorus - £179
• Unity MKII Wolftone Multi-Tap 2-Transistor Fuzz Compressor - £149

My favourite Joe's Pedals stocked brand to date - where I've also acquired the most specimens, or 5 in total from Joe - the BC109 Fuzz, BC239 Ram's Head BMP Fuzz, Lunar Module Mini Deluxe Gilmourish Fuzz, Screwdriver Mini Deluxe Overdrive and Top Fuel Distortion. I have also in fact acquired 3 from other sources - a Mayonaise MKII Triangle BMP Fuzz, a Hybrid Fuzz Driver, and P19 Ram's Head BMP Fuzz. I love all those and I'm a huge fan of Skreddy - with still a few more to get on my wishlist, including the discontinued Zero Distortion. The very Gilmourish Lunar Module Mini Deluxe is a perfect ambassador for Skreddy - replicating as it does via 3 x BC109 Transistors - Dave Gilmour's tone from the 'Time' song off Dark Side of the Moon. Mr Skreddy - Marc Ahlfs himself is considered the master of the Big Muff circuits and I have several of his fine varieties.

Joe stocks all the current range including these 21 varieties :

• 1971 Muff Fuzz (Triangle BMP) - £259
• BC109 Fuzz (Silicon FF) - £189
• BC239 Muff Fuzz (Ram's Head BMP) - £195
• Cephalopod II One Knob Octave Fuzz - £195
• Cognitive Dissonance Muff Fuzz / Distortion (Triangle BMP) - £195
• Dynamic Mids Enhancer / Mids EQ - £159
• Echo Lush PT2399 Digital Delay - £259
• General Pig Muff Fuzz (Ram's Head BMP) - £195
• Hybrid Fuzz Driver 2 x BC109 + AC127 Fuzzy-Drive - £229
• Hybrid Overdrive (More JTM45 Style) - £159
• Kusangi 3 x Germanium Transistor Fuzz (TB MKI) - £229
• Little Miss Sunshine '79's Style Phase Shifter - £229
• Lunar Module Mini Deluxe Silicon 3 x BC109 Fuzz - £229
• Major Overdrive (Plexi-style) - £159
• P19 Muff Fuzz (Ram's Head BMP) - £189
• Rubber Soul Chimey Overdrive (Vox AC30) - £229
• Rover Compressed Fuzz (TB MKII) - £159
• Rust Rod Muff Fuzz (Ram's Head BMP) - £159
• Screw Driver Mini Deluxe Multi-Drive - £229
• Swirl '69 Style Vibes Phaser - £229
• Twangophile Overdrive (Fender Blackface) - £229

I've been a fan for Stone Deaf FX for a long while, but can't necessarily abide some of their over-sized enclosures. The only pedal I have to date from Stone Deaf is the amazing slightly more slimline Tremotron - while the Syncopy Modulatd Analog Delay follows a similar format. When those two emerged I thought Luke Hilton would proceed with compacting the enclosure sizes of the other pedals in the range - so I could finally get the Fig Fumb Muff Fuzz and say PDF 1/2 in my preferred form factor. This has not happened though and I feel that some of those great sounding pedals are just a little larger than they need to be - I think Luke would sell a lot more if he brought them down to Tremotron and Syncopy size. The Tremotron is just a beautiful sounding analog tremolo with tonnes of wave-shape variety, and really clever controls where you can set up two different tremolo patterns to run together. You can moreover then save those onto the 4 footswitchable presets which is equally ingenious. The stars of the show for me are definitely the Tremotron and Syncopy - I really like the Fig Fumb and PDF-1X too - but don't like their over-sized enclosures, nor am I overly enamoured with the artwork of the final PDF-1X (while the limited edition was great). There is no doubt that these are very fine sounding pedals - and they mostly overcome some of their inherent quirks. Note also that weirdly the best ever Tremotron demo by Stefan Fast of ThePedalZone is no longer live (v. strange!).

Joe stocks the full range of Stone Deaf FX pedals which currently numbers 8 :

• EP-1 Expression Controller (only for SDFX pedals) - £99
• Fig Fumb Paracentric Fuzz (BMP Style) - £150
• Kliptonite Dual Channel Fuzzy / Clipped Drive - £130
• PDF-2 Dual-Channel Paracentric Overdrive - £150
• Syncopy Modulated Analog BBD Delay - £199
• Trashy Blonde Paracentric Distortion - £130
• Tremotron Dual Analog Tremolo - £199
• Warp Drive High Gain Filtered Distortion £150

Subdecay is another brand I've long loved, and while I've acquired a few along the way - I should probably have more by now as they're somewhat growing on my ever-expanding wishlist backlog. There are so many cool pedals in this range - I feel that the Synth-style pedals are all fantastic - the M3 Monophonic Oscillator Synthesizer, Octasynth and Octave Theory - which are all on my wishlist alongside the recent Tremcoder Tap-Tempo Pattern Tremolo. The Quasar Phaser and Starlight Flanger have also long been many players' favourite modulations within their categories - so Joe and I decided that the Starlight would be a suitable ambassador. Interestingly the Quasar is 4th generation, while the Starlight is just a V2. Subdecay do so much right - down to the compact format factor and simple and intuitive controls. They could probably do with catching up with the second tap-tempo footswitch trend but that's about the only criticism you could level at these. Just really smart and well engineered now mostly digital effects pedals.

Joe stocks the full range of 18 pedals :

• Echobox PT2399 Digital Delay - £179
• Harmonic Antagonizer Oscillating Synth - £169
• Liquid Sunshine Classic Overdrive - £139
• M3 Monophonic Oscillator Guitar Syntesizer - £189
• Octasynth Octave Synth - £169
• Octave Theory Octave Modulation Synth - £189
• Prometheus DLX Dynamic Filter with Tap-Tempo - £239
• Proteus Sample Hold Filter - £179
• Quasar Phaser V4 - £179
• Quasar DLX Phaser with Tap-Tempo - £159
• Starlight Flanger V2 - £179
• Super Spring Theory Spring Reverb - £179
• Tremcoder Pattern Tremolo - £189
• Vagabond Vintage-style Tremolo - £159
• Variac Hot-Rodded Saturating Overdrive - £169
• Vector Analog 11-Mode Preamp - £179
• Vitruvian Mod Ring Modulator - £179
• Vocawah Vowel Shift Format Filter - £159

So our featured pedal from within this range is another great Germanium Fuzz Face style Fuzz - which can go head-to head with the BMF Ge Spot - which sports Volume + Fuzz + Bias, while the Fuzz Haze sports Level + Fuzz + Pre Gain Switch which allows you to temper the Fuzz gain structure. ThroBak has a very compact range - alongside also the Strange Master Treble Booster, Stone Bender MKII Fuzz, and the V2 Overdrive Boost (CS Power Boost). I've actually been after the V1 variety of the ThroBak Overdrive Boost for the longest time - which comes in vertical format, but minus the Pre Gain second footswitch - which is instead rendered as a side-mounted toggle - a case of where the newer one has the better feature set, but the older one is in a more convenient form factor. I'm secretly hoping Throbak eventually copy Zvex and do another / newer Vertical edition!

Joe stocks all 4 ThroBak pedals :

• Fuzz Haze 2-Transistor Germanium Fuzz (FF) - £229
• Overdrive Boost V2 (CS Power Boost) - £259
• Stone Bender 3-Transistor Germanium Fuzz (TB MKII) - £239
• Strange Master Germanium/Silicon Treble Booster - £239

Tru-Fi is actually the brainchild of Teddy Rasch of Musictoyz - who happens to be the very first person Joe contacted at the start of his pedal adventures - when seeking out an HBE Power Screamer. Teddy has crafted a brand of colourful vintage-style unique enclosure pedals - just a touch over-sized and quite distinct in their looks. These have been perennial bestsellers at Joe's Pedals and there are regular new limited edition sparkling artwork editions - in fact one such batch is due to land sometime this week / next week as far as I understand. The Colordriver seems to be the most obvious ambassador here as that consistently sells well, while the Rat Pack format also seems to be having some success of late. You need to keep an eye out for special and limited editions as the cooler ones tend to disappear really quickly.

Joe stocks the full range of Tru-Fi Pedals - which amounts to circa 18 currently (notably often with different editions / variants of each!) :

• Colordriver Overdrive (CS Power Boost) - £169
• Colordriver Overdrive 18V Edition (CS Power Boost) - £169
• Colordriver Overdrive Swirl Edition (CS Power Boost) - £189
• Floyd Fuzz (Ram's Head BMP Edition) - £169
• Floyd Fuzz (Red Army BMP Edition) - £169
• Floyd Fuzz (Russian BMP Edition) - £159
• Floyd Fuzz (Triangle BMP Edition) - £159
• Floyd Fuzz Swirl Edition (Ram's Head BMP) - £189
• RangeMaster Treble Booster - £159
• The Rat Pack Distortion Overdrive (Rat) - £169
• The Rat Pack Distortion Overdrive Swirl Edition (Rat) - £189
• Sammy Fuzz (Sam Ash Fuzz Box) - £159
• Supa Fuzz (Marshall Supa Fuzz TB) - £159
• Super Fuzz - £159
• Zoso Fuzz (VTB) - £159