As 2018 winds down to a close, we here at Reverb can't help but reflect on all of the great gear that this year has brought. Justin DeLay fantasizes about the synths, Joe Shadid daydreams about guitars, and Andy Martin, of course, considers all of the new pedals he's demoed and fallen in love with this year.
In fifth place is the reverb-loaded Oceans 11 from Electro-Harmonix. It features 11 different reverbs, but Andy's here for the spring reverb, specifically. "I thought the Spring Reverb mode alone was worth the price of admission—you could double-click on that footswitch and virtually kick those springs." See his full demo for more.
Andy puts the versatile, time-warping Red Panda Tensor from back in August in slot four, enamored with all of the creative modulation its unique circuit is capable of—everything from tape-stop effects and glitchy looping, to reverse delay and traditional whammy effects (with an expression pedal plugged in). Spot three, the Southampton Indie Dream, mixes it up with tastes of all of these aforementioned effects, being an overdrive, delay, and reverb all-in-one—perfect, as Andy demonstrated in May, for the shoegazers out there.
Winning Andy's silver medal is the dual-circuited Beetronics Royal Jelly OD/Fuzz Blender that he checked out early this summer. Designed in collaboration with legendary Deluxe Memory Man designer Howard Davis, this pedal is capable of super rich and well-articulated fuzz and distortion tones—both independently generated and run in parallel.
And finally, coming in Andy's first place spot is the pedal that has officially earned a spot on his own personal pedalboard: the Benson Preamp. The stompbox is based off of the classic Chimera 30-watt amp circuit—a favorite of players such at Ryan Adams—and replaces its tubes with FETs for a playing experience that sincerely mimics an amp's performance. Be sure to check out Andy's full demo here.
Check out the full video above to see Andy highlight his favorites from the year, and click any of the links above to pick up your own right now on Reverb.