As we near the close of another year of excellent new effect pedal releases, it's just about that time again to compile a list of some of the highlights. In the video above, resident guitar hero Andy Martin is digging into his top five pedals of 2023.
As with previous years, Andy is not choosing from a pool of every pedal released in 2023, but rather those that he was able to get enough hands-on time with to make a demo video. The effects that Andy chose span a wide range of categories, from fuzz, delay, and reverb to octave-shifters, flangers, and amp emulators.
A few of the standouts on his list include the Fender Shields Blender, which was first debuted as a limited-edition effect earlier this year and was so popular that a standard production model soon followed. Andy also loved the Universal Audio Lion '68 Super Lead, which promises all of the sonic qualities of a Marshall rig in a compact unit.
Check out the video above to see the full list and hear some tidbits of each pedal in action, and click any of the links below to shop for your own right here on Reverb.