Skip to main content
MusicRadar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
UK EditionUK US EditionUS AU EditionAustralia SG EditionSingapore
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Music Gear Reviews
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Controllers
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Guitar Amps
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About us
Don't miss these
Status Quo
Artists “I remember saying to Clapton, ‘You try playing that one riff for eight minutes!’”: The secret to Status Quo's riff power
EarthQuaker Devices ZEQD-Pre Tube Pre Amp
Guitars EarthQuaker Devices and Dr Z team up for a tube-driven preamp that might just be the cure for whatever ails your tone
Quentin testing a Yamaha piano
Keyboards & Pianos Best digital pianos 2026: I'm a professional piano and music gear reviewer, and these are my top picks
Man playing Roland TD716 electronic drum set in a studio
Electronic Drums Best electronic drum sets 2025: Top picks for every playing level and budget, tested by drummers – plus video and audio demos
Music technology gear of the year 2025
Tech Music technology gear of the year 2025: Our favourite new synths, drum machines, plugins and more
Man plays Alesis Nitro Max drum kit with black sticks
Electronic Drums Got a new e-kit for Christmas? Transform it with 15 day one upgrades that will make it sound better and play quieter
A Fractal Audio VP4 Virtual Pedalboard multi-effects pedal on a concrete floor
Guitar Pedals Best multi-effects pedals 2026: Our pick of the best all-in-one guitar FX modellers
Sennheiser in ear monitors on a lit up dj controller
Studio Monitors Best budget in-ear monitors 2025: My pick of cheap in-ears for every type of musician
Neural DSP Quad Cortex
Guitar Pedals "Makes the case that you might never need anything else": Neural DSP Quad Cortex review
Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz: inspired by Supergrass, this two-knob fuzz has a white enclosure, blue dials, and a comic graphic of someone being apprehended in a police car.
Guitar Pedals "Its simplicity is a selling point": Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz review
Close up of a Taylor GS Mini acoustic guitar lying on a wooden floor
Acoustic Guitars Best acoustic guitars 2026: Super steel string acoustics for all players and budgets
Close up of a Yamaha FG800 acoustic guitar
Acoustic Guitars Best cheap acoustic guitars 2026: Top picks for strummers on a budget
Joe Walsh plays a PRS SE electric guitar live onstage
Artists Joe Walsh on the best guitar solo he ever recorded (and how it officially made the talk box a thing)
Mark Tremonti throws the horns and points to something during a live performance with Creed. His signature PRS singlecut is strapped on his shoulder.
Artists “I had no idea that he was that good”: Mark Tremonti on Alter Bridge’s “secret weapon” and his soloing strategies
Close up of LR Baggs Anthem pickup in an acoustic guitar
Guitar Pickups Best acoustic guitar pickups 2025: electrify your acoustic for stage, studio and sound fx – our top picks for all budgets
More
  • "The most expensive bit of drumming in history”
  • JoBo x Fuchs
  • Radiohead Daydreaming
  • Vanilla Fudge
  • 95k+ free music samples
  1. Guitars
  2. Guitar Pedals

The best guitar effects pedals of all time

News
By The MusicRadar Team last updated 3 February 2020

You'll never get bored with these on your board

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

The best guitar effects pedals of all time

The best guitar effects pedals of all time

What is the best effects pedal of all time? Issue 336 of Guitarist magazine was a bumper celebration of all things stompbox, with the team compiling a list of the best guitar effects pedals ever produced.

Whether for innovation, influence, sound, sheer popularity, or all of the above, each and every unit that made the cut is a tone-shaping tool worthy of a place on a pro pedalboard.

Click onwards to read about - and in many cases hear - the greatest guitar effects known to man or woman, split neatly into three categories: drive pedals, delay/echo units and modulation and filters.

Page 1 of 4
Page 1 of 4
The 42 best overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals of all time

The 42 best overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals of all time

Dirtbox lovers and FX addicts of the world unite!

See the 42 best overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals of all time here.

Page 2 of 4
Page 2 of 4
The 17 best delay pedals and echo units of all time

The 17 best delay pedals and echo units of all time

From analogue and digital stompboxes to tape echoes.

See the 17 best delay pedals and echo units of all time here.

Page 3 of 4
Page 3 of 4
The 33 best modulation and filter pedals of all time

The 33 best modulation and filter pedals of all time

Flangers, chorus stompboxes, tremolos, wah-wahs and more!

See the 33 best modulation and filter pedals of all time here.

Page 4 of 4
Page 4 of 4
The MusicRadar Team
The MusicRadar Team
Social Links Navigation

MusicRadar is the internet's most popular website for music-makers of all kinds, be they guitarists, drummers, keyboard players, DJs or producers.

GEAR: We help musicians find the best gear with top-ranking gear round-ups and high-quality, authoritative reviews by a wide team of highly experienced experts.

TIPS: We also provide tuition, from bite-sized tips to advanced work-outs and guidance from recognised musicians and stars.

STARS: We talk to artists and musicians about their creative processes, digging deep into the nuts and bolts of their gear and technique. We give fans an insight into the actual craft of music-making that no other music website can.

Read more
A Fractal Audio VP4 Virtual Pedalboard multi-effects pedal on a concrete floor
Best multi-effects pedals 2026: Our pick of the best all-in-one guitar FX modellers
 
 
The Boss PX-1 Plugout FX is a white compact series Boss pedal with three blue dials with silver inserts, and has eight assignable presets so that it can be any one of 16 classic pedals.
The Boss PX-1 is a treasure trove of classic and contemporary Boss effects pedals. Here's everything you need to know about the compact chameleon stomp box
 
 
Great Eastern FX Obsolete Devices Distortion Filter D312A
Great Eastern FX finds stash of NOS germanium diodes and makes a distortion with a cocked-wah twist
 
 
TC Electronic Plethora X1 pedal
Just £99 for 14 effects pedals in one? Surely this TC Electronic Plethora X1 compact multi-effects deal makes it the most value-packed stompbox this Black Friday
 
 
Electro-Harmonix Pico Atomic Cluster: the new glitch/synth mini-pedal from the storied NYC pedal brand
EHX expands its Pico series with the Atomic Cluster Spectral Decomposer – a mini-pedal that sounds so wrong its right
 
 
JHS Kilt 10 Special Edition: the silver overdrive pedal is a best-seller for the Kansas-based pedal company and has just been reissued with user-requested mods.
JHS Pedals revises the “ultimate dirt pedal” with a heap of player-requested features and more headroom
 
 
Latest in Guitar Pedals
EarthQuaker Devices ZEQD-Pre Tube Pre Amp
EarthQuaker Devices and Dr Z team up for a tube-driven preamp that might just be the cure for whatever ails your tone
 
 
Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz: inspired by Supergrass, this two-knob fuzz has a white enclosure, blue dials, and a comic graphic of someone being apprehended in a police car.
"Its simplicity is a selling point": Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz review
 
 
Keeley Electronics Nocturne: this new stereo reverb is the latest signature pedal for Andy Timmons and has a dark metallic blue enclosure with a similar control surface to his Halo Core pedal.
“I turn this thing on, I don’t want to stop playing”: Keeley Electronics has made Andy Timmons fall in love with reverb with his new signature Nocturne pedal
 
 
JHS Pedals x Electro-Harmonix Big Muff 2: This limited edition fuzz pedal was created from a long-lost blueprint that was unearthed while researching the upcoming book about the NYC pedal brand.
Electro-Harmonix and JHS Pedals team up for a Big Muff based on schematic that had been lying forgotten for 50 years
 
 
Crazy Tube Circuits Orama: the orange/peach coloured pedal combines classic preamp and fuzz circuits and promises a wide range of sounds
Crazy Tube Circuits squeezes out another sweet twofer with the Orama preamp/fuzz pedal
 
 
Strymon Fairfax Class A Output Drive: the first in the Series A range, this is an all-analogue pedal inspired by the Herzog unit made famous by Randy Bachman
Strymon debuts Series A analogue pedals range with the Fairfax – a “chameleon” drive that can “breathe fire”
 
 
Latest in News
DETROIT, MI - NOVEMBER 4: American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, actor, and filmmaker Prince (1958-2016) and American guitarist, singer-songwriter and member of the Revolution Wendy Melvoin perform onstage during the 1984 Purple Rain Tour on November 4, 1984, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Ross Marino/Getty Images)
How Prince and The Revolution turned the bare bones of Purple Rain into a lighters-in-the-air epic
 
 
 Iconic female rap group Salt-N-Pepa members Salt (Cheryl James), Pepa (Sandra Denton), and DJ Spinderella (Deidra Roper)
"Did not establish they ever owned the copyrights to their sound recordings": Salt N Pepa lose legal battle with Universal
 
 
DAVID BYRNE AND OLIVIA RODRIGO
“I actually cried when I heard his version of this song”: Olivia Rodrigo on David Byrne's cover of Drivers License
 
 
Buddy Guy [left] smiles as he takes a solo on his Fender Stratocaster. He wears a red jacket and black hat. Billy Gibbons [right] wears shades, a wide-brimmed hat and a red blazer as he plays his custom SG-style electric with the V-style headstock.
Billy Gibbons on the tip Buddy Guy gave him after they jammed a T-Bone Walker classic
 
 
Pat Smear performs onstage during the FIREAID Benefit Concert for California Fire Relief at The Kia Forum on January 30, 2025 in Inglewood, California
“In the classic tradition…”: Pat Smear is out of upcoming Foo Fighters dates after “bizarre gardening accident”
 
 
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 23: Raye performs onstage during All Points East at Victoria Park on August 23, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
Producer Mike Sabath reveals the surprisingly limited instrumentation in Raye's Where Is My Husband!
 
 

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...