Best of Croatian Guitar Pedals and Pedal Builders

Currently in the Dawner Prince range we have :

• Boonar Multi-Head Drum Echo
• Boonar Tube Deluxe Ltd Multi-Head Drum Echo
• Diktator MKII Preamp/Boost/Overdrive
• Pulse Revolving Speaker Emulator
• Red Rox Distortion
• Starla Tap Tempo Tremolo
• Viberator Stereo Vibe

Of those the new Deluxe Boonar has featured on the site most recently, while overall I've featured the Red Rox and Viberator the most - as those have both long been targets for me. I picked up the Red Rox finally actually relatively recently, but have not hit the trigger on the Viberator yet - it will happen for sure.

I do love the sound of the Boonars, but those are mono delays, and the last 1/3rd of my rig is stereo - which is not compatible with mono delays alas.

I'm not overly familiar with the Diktator, but I know the Pulse and Starla pretty well - both excellent at what they do. I just wish they were in more compact formats - both of those would be viable for me in vertically aligned 1590BB enclosures - while both are slightly wider currently than I'm fully comfortable with. I'm always on the lookout for a great Stereo Rotary Speaker Emulator but the current format just isn't right - several of my readers though love the Pulse and Starla.

Dawner Prince is pretty much synonym with the Boonar - which has long been its flagship mode. And its Red Rox has done well ever since Rob Chapman championed it. The Viberator is a little under the radar, but is one of the few stereo Uni-Vibes. It's not quite perfect for my needs because of its MISO nature (Mono-In-Streo-Out). It really needs a TRS input so that it can be full stereo - that's what's probably holding me off that one still. You can only have one MISO pedal on your board, and that slot is currently taken by the Boss DM-101. If Dawner ever added TRS Stereo In support - this would be a must buy for me!

Over the years I've probably has the most extended correspondence with DryBell, and I love the dynamics of the company - how you start having a dialogue with Zvonko, and then Martina takes over, and then Kruno does the final follow-up - a little akin to tag-team wrestling I supposed - but obviously indicative of the very close-knit nature of that company.

For me their incredible Vibe Machine is still the start of the show, slightly ahead of The Engine, and Unit67, while those are no slouches, and neither is the fantastic Module 4 Compressors.

I'm obviously currently somewhat wedded to my Becos FX CompIQ Pro Stella and JA Bloom, with the Chase Bliss Clean next up on Compressor duties early next year. I still really like the look of the Module 4, and that remains a viable candidate too.

The current range is currently just 4 pedals:

• The Engine Analog Plexi Preamp and RangeMaster
• Module 4 Orange (Squeezer) flavoured Compressor
• Unit67 RangeMaster / EQ / 1176 type Compressor
• Vibe Machine V-3 Uni-Vibe

I already have the Vibe Machine and The Engine, and the Unit67 is likely up next, and then the Module 4 at some later stage.

Beautifully engineered pedals for sure - which seems to be the way that all the Croation brands operate - they're all superb engineers!

So I've had an interesting relationship with Polarbear Effects (formerly PLBR) over the years. Darko as quite communicative in the early days - and we had a pretty good correspondence early on. And then for whatever reason he become wholly unresponsive and never responded to a single follow-up query.

When you buy his pedals - they ship pretty quickly - so there is an efficiency and expediency at the heart of the operation - while It's a genuine mystery to me as to why he became so uncommunicative in latter years. He's still highly prolific, and maintains a high quality of standard, while recently he seems to have moved entirely to 1590B vertical enclosures - much in the same mold as say Caroline Guitar Co, and he no longer seems to make those super feature rich compact editions which I so love!

I have acquired 7 of his to date, roughly in the following order, and where all but the Drowner seem to be discontinued now :

• Narwhal Black Muff (Vintage)
• Narwhal White Muff (Modern)
• Maritimus Multi-Muff
• Pizzacrusher Glitch Fuzz
• Young Hearts Lo-Fi / Glitchy Delay - Compact Black Edition
• Floral Green Compact Dual TS808 style OD
• Drowner Fuzz/Crush/Reverb Shoegazer

Another one that seems to be discontinued is my Compact Petrichor Lo-Fi Delay Sequencer target - I have a feeling that Darko has moved on from compact models, at least for the foreseeable future. The current active range seems to consist of just 3 medium size pedals :

• Raposa PT2399 Tape Warp Delay
• Medium format Petrichor Lo-Fi Delay Sequencer
• Medium format Young Hearts Lo-Fi / Glitchy Delay

Each of those newer variations has slightly different control topologies to the compact originals, and sometimes extended features, but I still prefer the neatness of the compact originals. If the compact Petrichor is no more - I will have to try to scoop it up on the second hand market at some opportunist point in the future.

Darko definitely continues to keep things interesting, I like his styling and uniformity, while I miss some of those neat compact editions. Another one of his that has been quietly discontinued is the Delay version of the Drowner - the Ascender, that one is no longer on the catalogue either.

Thee's no sign of any compact Petrichor currently across the interwebs! - so I will just need to bide my time with that - that is my next likely Polarbear Effects acquisition - if the opportunity ever crops up!

In truth I rarely deploy mono delays - unless they are somewhat glitchy and texturally interesting - which space Darko's ones mostly seem to occupy!