Hand-made and boutique pedals often get a guaranteed stamp of approval simply because they are hand-made products. Although in the hands of a master craftsman, expert engineer or magical musician these pedals can often be superior, their meteoric rise also gives us pause; how many hand-made pedals can stand the test of time? We think we have identified some pedals that will in fact stand that test below… lets take a look.

The Demon Barber

Possibly David Barber made a deal with the devil to make the Tone Press Pedal because of its simplicity, transparency and quality sound, it seems just too good to be true. It provides a subtle transition in the blend that it is almost unnoticeable until you hold a note. The blend design mixes compressed and dry sound. With three knobs, Volume, Blend and Sustain that add to the capability of the pedal’s compression, it is simple, elegant and does as it was intended.

The pedal can act like a traditional class-A boost with 8 db of boost and the Sustain acts like a sensitivity control like many traditional stompbox compressors. With options between smooth sustain that is very subtle to hard compression, it provides the best of both.

It’s designer, David Barber, guitarist and engineer eschews the name boutique in favor of keeping prices in the real world and his head out of the clouds. Instead, his pedals are hand-made to exacting standards are one of the few outfits in custom hand-made pedal making history to truly be innovative and produce a new pedal, instead of simply copy old designs.

The Dreamscape

Many guitarists have heard of TC Electronics, you would have to live under a rock not to. Yet the new Artist Signature Pedal the John Petrucci TC Electronic Dreamscape pedal is a revolutionary digital pedal that many reviews claim sound like classic analogs. With one of the world’s most respected electronic companies and one of the world’s best guitarists get together, apparently magical things happen.

The Dreamscape pedal has three modulation effects built into the housing with a total of 6 custom-tweaked tones including two choruses, two flanger and two vibratos. What is truly innovative about the digital pedal is the ability to download direct to the pedal a TonePrint of any artist that has uploaded theirs to the Internet. Simply connect the pedal to your PC and download the TonePrint of the artist you want, providing an automatic option for many would be guitarists. As one of the most well received Signature Artist pedals to come into the guitar scene, it is a bit pricey, but many agree well worth it.

Digitech Jimi Hendrix Artist Pedal

Called the Jimi Hendrix Experience pedal it was designed from the original master tapes. The pedal includes four knobs built into a wah-wah style pedal but has the ability to switch between the needed sounds for Hendrix’s soundtracks. The engineers modeled a number of effects into the pedal including many of the vintage options that Hendrix used. There is so much ability in the pedal that it needed to use two Audio DNA chips rather than just one.

Although the pedal produces a sound pretty much as close to those original masters as you can get, to many the sound is rough and unfriendly; much like the original master tapes. It all comes down to your preference. If you want a pedal that amplifies the sound of Hendrix like no other on the market, this pedal is a must have. Too many however, it’ll be a luxury left unpurchased.

There is plenty of Artist Signature or hand-made pedals on the marketplace that cater to individual sounds or TonePrints. If you are looking to copy these sounds, then choose the corresponding sound. However, if you want a quality pedal to make your own sound, choose a cutting edge pedal maker, whether it is boutique, an Artist Signature or a cutting edge company.

This isn’t a complete list, but a few we think are top of the mark in terms of sound, innovation, and design. Let’s us know your favorite signature artist pedal and why you think it deserves a mention.

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