Best of Polish Guitar Pedals and Pedal Builders

This started off as vaguely Boss derivatives brand with enclosure look somewhere between Boss, Ibanez and Maxon, but then developed in its own direction - particularly with a number of notable drive and distortion pedals. Model references are very Boss-like and very common sense and follow the sequence -1 = Series 1 (1989), -2 =Series 2 (1995), -3 = Series 3 (2001), -4 = Series 4 (2004), and -5 = Series 5 (2011) which I'm not sure any actual pedals were released as the brand signed out at around that time. My first acquaintance with Exar was courtesy of JHS Josh Scott and his inclusion of the OD-1 style circuit on his Bonsai Multi-Screamer pedal - it was/is actually my favourite voicing on that pedal. The range has a great many different distortions - many of them 6-knob with 3-band EQ, but I decided to select the most recent model of their very well-received 4-knob Super Fuzz which came out in 2004. For lovers of Boss pedals - this range is very easy to follow and pick up on, while it does not look like the Exar enclosures overall were built to quite as high a standard as the Boss originals - some great sounding circuits here though:

• Like = AD-1/02 Delay | BC-03/04 Bass Compressor | BD-03/04 Bass Distortion | BE-02 Bass Equalizer | BF-03/04 Bass Flanger | BM-02/03 Bad Metal Distortion | BS-03 Bass Chorus | CP-1/02/03/04 Compressor | CS-1/02/03/04 Chorus | DL-03 Delay | DQ-1 Doctor Q Bandpass Filter | DS-1/02/03/04 Distortion | EF-1 Envelope Filter | FL-1/02/03/04 Flanger | GE-1/02/03 Graphic Equalizer | HM-02/03 Heavy Metal Distortion | HR-03/04 Hammer Distortion | HV-03 Hoover OD/Fuzz/Distortion | IB-04 Ibex PreAmp/Mixer/DI-Box | KM-03/04 Kamikaze 3-band Distortion | LS-03 Line Switch | MD-03/04 Metal Mind Distortion | MK-04 Moby Dick Bass Chorus | MM-03/04 Moon Metal Distortion | MT-1/02/03 Metal Distortion | MW-03/04 Multi Wah | NG-1/02 Noise Gate | OC-1/02/03/04 Octaver | OD-1/02/03/04 OverDrive | PH-1/02/03/04 Phasing | PD-05 Paranoid Distortion Syndrome | PN-04 Pig Nose Bandpass Filter | RP-04 Raptor Sub-Octave Fuzz | SF-02/03/04 Super Fuzz | SQ-03/04 Squeezer Distortion | SR-04 Squealer Distortion | TB-04 Tuber OverDrive | TB-02/03 Turbo Drive | TC-04 taBASSco Bass OverDrive | TM-1/02/03/04 Tremolo

There are quite a few of these available on Reverb.com which influenced my decision to include here. Some of these boxes I find somewhat over-sized, but I appreciate the consistency of uniformity of design - black boxes with common layouts and graphics. There are some really interesting large scale pedals here - like the DVO Dual Vintage Overdrive and the GSC multi-footswtich Guitar Controllers. While I've selected the rather elegant and useful DR-3 Dual Reverb as the representative here. There's plenty of players who have two main flavours of delay and reverb - short/subtle and long/expressive - and this is perfect for that sort of player.

• Like = BC-1 Boosting Compressor | BWW-1 Bass Wowee-Wah | DR/-2/-3 Dual Reverb | DVO Dual Vintage Overdrive | GSC/-2/-3/-4/-5 Guitar System Controller | M2L Midi D x Looper | MGC-6 Midi Guitar Controller | SD-1 Smooth Delay | TBWP True Bypass Wah-Pad | TCH-1 Tidy Chorus | WW-1 Wowee-Wah

I've featured Piotr Zapart many times on this site and don't really need to go into too much further detail - he is one of the great pedal innovators and every one of his pedals is a worthy addition to a collection. I really like his Bitcrusher and reVOLVER pedals - both of which have been on my wishlist for the longest time now!:

• Like = BitCrusher III | BitCrusher III Studio (stereo) | Melusine III Vinyl Record Simulator | Vario mini Momentary Expression Controller | reVOLVER DX Micro Looper/Stutter/Glitch

I keep being reminded of what a great pedal builder LongAmp is - it reminds me of a sort of Polish ThunderTomate to a degree - aesthetics wise, and it has a really impressive roster of pedals on sale via its Reverb.com storefront. Fans of That Pedal Show will have seen the faithful EHX Electric Mistress clone - the Roxanne, but there is plenty more here besides to be excited about - some fantastic Delay/Reverb/Modulation pedals and amazing Overdrives/Distortions:

• Like = The Abyss Chorus | Bear's Blare Overdrive | Carbonite Analog Delay | Catalyst Mark II Noise Gate | Compactor Compressor/Limiter | Da Phunk Vintage Phaser | Desant Comp | Deluxe Time Machine Analog Vintage Tape Style Delay | Joshua Tree Deluxe Memory Man Clone Analog Delay | Kloxanne horizontal Roxanne Flanger/Chorus | Majesty Mesa Mark IV Style Overdrive | Nirvana Small Clone Chorus | Octavius Octave Fuzz | Omegaman Flanger | Pink Alpaca Red Llama Clone Overdrive | Rectifier Modulation/Tap-Tempo Controller | Roxanne Electric Mistress Clone Flanger/Chorus | Slash'n'Boost Clean Linear Boost | Stage Man PreAmp | TRON Programmable Switch | Ultimate Time Machine Vintage Tape Delay + Reverb | Ultra Dist / Pip-Boy | Vintage Slash Overdrive | The Wall Uni-Vibe

This is a rather more compact brand - and the alter ego as such of one Adrian Czarnecki - but there is lots to admire here. I do wonder how the brand is supposed to be pronounced - I always thought of it as just Occult with a V, but Dipswitch Demos guy Jackson Brooksby pronounces it Occ-Volt? In any case some great sounding Fuzzes and Distortions here. I already have and love the doomy sludgy stoner Muff variant fuzz which is the Amethyst Dope - essentially the Dope Fuzz with extra voicings as far as I can see. I may also add a Wolf Distortion to my collection at some stage - these are beautifully designed pedals though inside and out - and pretty much still mostly made to order.

• Like = Amethyst Dope Fuzz (Muff) | Bass Dope Fuzz | Dope Fuzz (Muff) | Filthy 308 Distortion | Munchy Overboost Boost/Overdrive | Occvlt Delay | Old Hag Germanium Fuzz | P4 Signal Patcher | P5 Signal Patcher | Pillz Chorus | Purple Wolf Distortion | Vintage Octave Fuzz | Wraith Reverb | XXX Distortion

I guess this is the sort of wildcard here, as many would argue that Chaos FX probably rather deserves the 9th spot, but I really like Sitek's versatile Pandora Fuzz - which warrants Sitek's inclusion here. Not a huge range, but somewhat reminiscent styling-wise of Red Witch Pedals - with its female figure outlines. This is a nicely uniformly styled range which is fairly vanilla, but has some very pleasant surprises in amongst the more generic examples.

• Like = Big Wuffy Distortion | Caffeine Booster | Cocoa Overdrive/Distortion | Fuzzie Fuzz | Nudist Signal Buffer | Nursie Booster | Pandora Fuzz | Sirena Digital Delay | Vixen Germanium Booster

Taurus is particularly well known for its floor-based Tube Amps - the 'Stomp-Head' range with separate iterations for Bass and Guitar. Some of those pedals are truly gigantic - and event though I selected the smallest of those - the Stomp-Head 1.VT 40W Vintage as the pedal ambassador here - it still has a sizeable form factor. Besides the Stomp-Heads Taurus also has White and Silver series of effects pedals - most different types of drives which follow the same high standard of engineering and design. I obviously just wish that all of these could be a little more compact! There's no doubting the quality though.

• Like = Custom Classic Drive | Custom High Gain Drive | Custom Vintage Drive | Dexter Polyphonic Octaver | Servo Analog Guitar Enhancer Gain Boost | Stomp-Head 1.BL Floor Tube Amp | Stomp-Head 1.VT 40W Vintage Floor Tube Amp | Stomp-Head 2.CL 60W Floor Tube Amp | Stomp-Head 2.HG 60W High Gain Floor Tube Amp | Stomp-Head 3.BL 60W Floor Tube Amp | Stomp-Head 3.CL 60W Floor Tube Amp | Stomp-Head 3.HG 60W High Gain Floor Tube Amp | Stomp-Head 4.HG 70W Floor Tube Amp | Stomp-Head 4.SL 70W Floor Tube Amp | Stomp-Head 5.CE 90W Floor Tube Amp | Tux Compressor | Vechoor Multichorus | Zebu Reverb-Delay

I'm not sure why or how I missed out Yankee when I did my piece on Clean Pedal Power - it is one of the 3 most innovative power-supply builders at the moment alongside Cioks and Strymon. And while the Cioks DC7/MaxPower has somewhat taken the adjustability angle to new heights - Yankee has its own smart take on that via digitally definably variable control as on the flagship HS-M24 pedal which is likely the most powerful power-supply unit currently on the market. My pick of the bunch though is the somewhat more compact HS-M5 which is a great alternative to the Strymon Ojai and offers slightly more adjustability. I had considered acquiring and HD-M5 for a while, but went for a T-Rex Fuel Tank Goliath instead at the time - which has a slight hum to it when switched on, so I will be most likely swapping for a Strymon Zuma at some stage (Note video demo above is of HS-M12).

• Like = HS-M5 5 Isolated, 4 Adjustable Outputs | HS-M10 8 Isolated, 4 Adjustable Outputs | HS-M12 8 Isolated, 4 Adjustable Outputs | HS-M24 18 Isolated, 6 Adjustable Outputs | PS-M0 2 Outputs (1800mA) | PS-M1 10 Outputs (1800mA) | PS-M2 17 Outputs, 2 Adjustable | PS-M12 9 Outputs, 2 Adjustable

THE REST

This rather wide-ranging brand was actually unknown to me before this overview but has impressed with its largely uniform design, but more importantly wide scope of effect types targeted. We have a great mix of Utility, Drive and Modulation pedals here in a variety of enclosure sizes - but mostly compacts or medium. Depending on prevailing mood this could have pinned down the 9th spot in the Top 9 above, but lost out to my preference of the Sitek Pandora Fuzz - there was no one pedal in the Sitek range that captivated me to the same degree as that one.

• Like = A/B Switch | A/B/C Switch | A/B/Y Drive | ADHD Drive | Analog Chorus | Bad Bass Distortion | Bass Equalizer 7-band | Blend Blender/Paralooper | Booster | C.Drive Klone | Compressor Double Helix Overdrive/Booster | Equalizer 7-band EQ | Fire Box Overdrive | Fuzz Machine | Heart Beat Tremolo | K.O. Drive | Loop Box | Maya Comp | Mini Volume Box | Moon Phaser | Multidrive | Nice Doggy Drive | Noise Killer | Parametric Equalizer | PreAmp | Remote Switch | Reverb | Signal Splitter X2 | Signal Splitter X3 | Stop Noise Gate | Switch Box A/B Switcher | T.Drive | True Bypass Box | Tubera Tube Overdrive | Twin Drive | Twin Drive Bass/+ | Vibe Uni-Vibe | Volcano Boost | X.Drive Distortion

The epitome of a boutique outfit - actually just two models in the current range - good looking but still fairly vanilla Fuzz Face and Klone variants - with also an older now discontinued TS808 clone.

• Like = Fuzz Facin' Silicon Fuzz (FF) | Ice Cream Overdrive (TS808) | Klondike Carnival (Klone)

An actually pretty decent range of pedals which covers quite a lot of ground - but could probably benefit from a slightly more uniform and stylised design approach.

• Like = 808T'S Overdrive | A/A+B Switcher | A/B/Y Switcher | Bass Equalizer | Desire of Fire Overdrive + Boost | Flanger 301 | Forrest Echo | Fuzz Workshop | FX Looper Mini | μAMP3 PreAmp | Muuute Mini Kill Switch | Natural_Compressor | Phase Pi/2 | Stereo Out Splitter | Talk Box | Tremolo | Ultima Octave Fuzz | Underwater Chorus | Z.X. Overdrive

Obviously a very high-end boutique amp maker - really beatifully design Amp Heads in particular. They also have a neat line of 5 Drive and Fuzz pedals all in distinctive medium-size enclosures, but not quite as impressive looking as those Amp-Heads. You can't fault the engineering or the sound design here though - definitely worth consideration, and Steve Lukather supposedly favours the flagship Vanilla Sky Overdrive here:

• Like = Animal Classic Tube Driver | Brown Sugar Overdrive | Elevation Fuzz | Jazzy Drive Overdrive | Vanilla Sky Overdrive

This seems to be a highly collectible range of 70's mostly Wah-style Treadle pedals - or essentially effects with built-in expression pedal as such. With the 'Beat' pedal series particularly popular.

• Like = Attack Equalizer | Double Sound Wah | Envelope Filter | Envelope Follower | Parametric Filter Wah-Style | Small Phaser | Sustain Filter | Talker Fuzz-Wah | Tone & Volume Beat Pedal | Wah-Fuzz Beat Pedal

You can't get more elegant than this - a single 4-knob overdrive pedal with 4 specific voicing modes as such - Classic Vintage/New Vintage/British Vintage/Root Vintage. Pedal looks really cool and simple to operate.

• Like = Vintage Drive

I'm not sure this brand is still active as there are no recent updates on their Facebook page and the official website is no more. A pretty uniformly designed range with some impressive fuzz pedals in particular.

• Like = 4 Seasons Tremolo/Booster | Bies Octave Fuzz | Holy Oaks Chorus | Homen Overdrive | Never Cry Wolf Fuzz | Nymph Delay | Perun Distortion