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The best effect pedals for all styles and budgets
Looking for your first stompbox or to complete the last piece of your stereo spaceship? We’ve got you covered.
Beetronics Larva. Image: Adam Gasson for Guitar.com
Guitar pedals! Those wonderful boxes of tone that can do seemingly anything to your guitar sound, from light overdrive to wild fuzz – from a little bit of slapback to insane, incredible ambience. No matter your tonal tastes, there’s a pedal for you – likely more than one.
Yes, in reality the pedal market can be a little intimidating, even for a season effects junkie. But over the years we’ve taken a look at more than our fair share of pedals, and so we’re here to help you pare down the rather intimidating universe of stompboxes into something a little more manageable with a list of our favourite overdrives, fuzzes, phasers and more.
At a glance:
- Best overdrive: Boss SD-1
- Best distortion: ProCo RAT 2
- Best fuzz: Great Eastern FX Co Focus Fuzz Deluxe
- Best muff-style fuzz: Evil Eye FX Warg
- Best analogue delay: Boss DM-101
- Best digital delay: MXR Joshua
- Best big-box reverb: Strymon BigSky MX
- Best compact reverb: Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Stereo
- Best phaser: Beetronics Larva
- Best chorus: Mythos Pedals The Fates
- Best multi-effects: Neural DSP Nano Cortex
- Best compact amp pedal: Walrus Audio Mako Series MkII ACS1
- Best beginner effects: Fender Hammertone
- Why you can trust Guitar.com
Best overdrive: Boss SD-1
The Boss SD-1 is an utter overdrive classic. The brand’s take on a Tubescreamer-style mid-hump soft-clipping overdrive, the SD-1’s asymmetrical diode layout and versatile fequency response make it a great choice for players in any genre who need a bit more grit.
Need more? Read our Boss SD-1 review.
Best distortion: ProCo RAT 2
And speaking of versatile classics – the Pro Co RAT 2 is an amazingly wide-ranging box of chaos that can go from gentle overdive sounds to chugging distortion to all-out overblown fuzz. It’s found on pro boards from across the world of music, which ain’t bad for an affordable and simple little unit!
Need more? Read our ProCo RAT 2 review.
Best fuzz: Great Eastern FX Co Focus Fuzz Deluxe
This awesome boutique fuzz from Great Eastern FX is more than just a fuzz pedal – it has some killer drive and boost sounds on tap, too, but thanks to some revamped circuitry and a return to germanium transistors, there’s a bigger, well, focus on the fuzz side of things. Not least because of the addition of some wild octave-up sounds accessibe by a second footswitch. It’s a thick and throaty fuzz sound with a balanced tonality and plenty of muscle in the mids. And the unique focus control can take you anywhere from a subtle tightening-up to something like a superpowered Tube Screamer.
Need more? Read our Great Eastern FX Co Focus Fuzz Deluxe review.
Best muff-style fuzz: Evil Eye FX Warg
The Evil Eye FX Warg is based on an old Ace Tone Big Muff clone, with the addition of a midrange-flattening switch to temper the circuit’s propensity for getting lost in a mix. It’s a slighty lower-gain variant of the pedal, but rather than being underpowered this instead means it has a mean snarl on it, perfect for downtuned sludgy dirges.
Need more? Read our Evil Eye FX Warg review.
Best analogue delay: Boss DM-101
This pedal brings all the delay gratification most guitarists will ever need, with twelve modulatable delay modes (six of them stereo-compatible), some very good presets, tap tempo and a MIDI input. Such comprehensive functionality is remarkable in an analogue delay.
What’s even more impressive is how this unit sounds. Our reviewer particularly enjoyed the Ambience, Reflect and Pan modes, which respectively sound solo-thickening, rockabilly-ready and expansively spacey. Don’t be put off by the pedal’s plethora of controls – it’s great fun adjusting them to create all sorts of analogue delay sounds.
Need more? Read our Boss DM-101 review.
Best digital delay: MXR Joshua
It’s a mixed blessing to own a 1980s rackmount delay unit. There’s a good chance it’ll sound exceptional – but how are you going to store and transport the unit, without a massive 80s hairdo within which to stow it?
The MXR Joshua seeks to give you the best of both worlds, racking up a motley crew of authentic 1980s delay tones in a great-sounding, feature-packed pedal that’s just as neatly proportioned as most other MXR effects.
Sure, the Joshua’s highly musical repeats lend themselves well to U2-like walls of chiming sound – but there’s plenty here for other ambient experimentalists too, including options to modulate, syncopate and add octaves to your signal.
Need more? Read our MXR Joshua review.
Best big-box reverb: Strymon BigSky MX
Creating an even more expansive horizon than the original, the Strymon BigSky MX is a comprehensive revamp and expansion on Strymon’s world-moving big box.
With our ambient hats jauntily cocked atop our heads, we’d say the most significant upgrade here is the MX’s capability to run two reverb algorithms at once, routed in series, parallel or split. This gives you the scope to arrange those classic BigSky reverb sounds into new and idiosyncratic constellations.
It’s a little cleaner cut and more utopic than, say, the Meris MercuryX, but the BigSky MX is a powerful, premium option to flavour your guitar sound with the infinite.
Need more? Read our Strymon BigSky MX review.
Best compact reverb: Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Stereo
Old Blood Noise Endeavors have always been ones for ambient oddness, and the Dark Star Stereo is no different. A very modern update of their classic ambient reverb, the Dark Star stereo comes with a ckiller new enclosure, extra control, presets and, of course, stereo functionality – all in a relatively compact package. Is it a bit of a one-trick pony? Perhaps, definitely more so than the workstarations like the BigSKy MX, but that one trick is damn impressive.
Need more? Read our Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Stereo review.
Best phaser: Beetronics Larva
Beetronics always gets points for uniqueness – this phaser isn’t just a normal phaser, no – it’s a warpng phaser!. What does that mean? Well, it means you can ramp from one preset to another – a bit like the acceleration of a real leslie! This can create some awesome dynamic shifting across your playing, even more so than a regular phaser, and it helps that the actual sounds that you’re warping too and from are all damn lovely by themselves, too.
Need more? Read our Beetronics Larva review.
Best chorus: Mythos Pedals The Fates
For a unique take on the much mythologised Boss CE-1 chorus, go whither The Mythos Fates calls. This boutique clone repackages pleasing CE-1-like sounds with some innovative controls and features, including a JFET buffered input/bypass stage and a tweaked vibrato option that reins in the chorus’s warblier tendencies.
We reckon The Fates is at its best with the rate knob at noon and the depth set slightly higher, which brings out a beautiful responsiveness. The vibrato section is a great option to have, too, especially for tone minimalists who like their modulation to sit a little behind their guitar’s signal.
Need more? Read our Mythos Pedals The Fates review.
Best multi-effects: Neural DSP Nano Cortex
When the Nano Cortex first arrived, it was not without controversy. Not just because of Neural DSP’s propensity for confusing marketing videos – but also because people were kind of expecting a full-blown Quad Cortex at half the price and size. We didn’t get that – however, NanOS 2.0 brought us pretty close. With expanded signal chain flexibility and countless quality-of-life improvements, the Nano Cortex is an extremely powerful capture engine and compact multi-effects unit all in one.
Need more? Read our Neural DSP Nano Cortex review.
Best compact amp pedal: Walrus Audio Mako Series MkII ACS1
Ever since digital modelling became powerful enough to be “good”, there’s been a product category that aims to bring an entire amplifier simulation to what would otherwise be just another slot on your pedalboard. Perhaps the best of these, in 2025, is the MkII update of the Walrus Audio ACS1. With three discrete amplifiers per ear to choose from, custom IR loading and
Need more? Read our Walrus Audio Mako Series MkII ACS1 review.
Best beginner effects: Fender Hammertone
Fender’s range of budget effects stompboxes is a great place to start with effects. Not only are the pedals all very affordable, they all also offer a good overview of their chosen effect, often with multiple operating modes. For example the fuzz offers both standard speaker-ripping fun as well as an octave-up mode. The reverb and delay also offer unique operating modes, and the flanger is a particularly versatile standout. In short, these are pedals that will absolutely get you started on the right foot with their respective sounds, and will be more than happy to stay in your rig as you grow as a player.
Need more? Read our Fender Hammertone review.
Why You Can Trust Us
Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.
That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide, you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you. What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.
Cillian is Guitar.com's Senior Staff Writer, and has written news, features and reviews for Guitar.com since 2019. When not writing about guitars, Cillian spends their time building and modding pedals, rearranging their pedalboard and extolling the virtues of the ProCo RAT.