My Favorite Nine Guitar Pedals

Because I Need To Think About Something Else Today

We all need a break from the news today, so instead of a post about worship or church scandal or blah blah blah here’s a list of my nine favorite guitar pedals.

But first, really quick, I did just release a Christmas song, the first of three this year. I won’t lie, I really, really like how it turned out and I hope you’ll listen to it at least once, and maybe even add it to your Christmas playlists.

Also, if you supported my Headwaters album on Kickstarter and you are waiting on a CD, the designs are finally done and off to the printer! Whew!

I also might announce a new album pre-order on Vinyl next week. But I should probably wait until all this election madness blows over. So I’ll wait a week… 😉

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Ok, my fellow nerds. Here we go.

I love guitar pedals. Maybe you do, too. I’ve been buying, selling, trading, collecting, etc… for twenty five years now, and at this point I’ve played at least a few versions of all the key flavors of things out there. I know what I like, I know what I don’t, I know what I love.

I know that no matter what I use, I really sound the same. Ha.

I also know that people on the internet love lists. I should do even numbers, but really, there are nine that are my favorites above all others. Here they are. In order.

(The pictures are from the internet because I’m tired.)

9. Archer Ikon / Mosky Golden horse

This is a “Klon Clone”, as in, a recreation of a famous overdrive that’s just psychotically expensive. I love it for stuff where I need to play quiet, but still have a lot of warmth. It rips, too, though, if you need it to open up. The one time I went to Vince Gill’s studio this was the only pedal in the room, whatever that means. I was too nervous to ask.

The Archer is the very nice version of this pedal, and it feels like it. It’s heavy, the knobs are smooth, and it will last a thousand years. Sounds amazing. Quality. Great company. Highly recommend.

The Mosky Golden Horse is from Amazon and you can usually get it for about 30 bucks. It feels cheaper, but not crappy, and it’s tiny, so the knobs are easier to knock out of place and they’re not as smooth and all that. But it’s almost 8 times cheaper. They sound exactly the same. I used it on the road with Matt Maher and it was on like half the show. It was great. Awesome.

8. Browne Protein

The new legend. It’s an overdrive with two different pedals built into it. They’re versions of two famous pedals, an ODR-1 and a Bluesbreaker, which both rule.

David Brown, who designed this, was actually our guitar tech when I played for Steven Curtis Chapman. So many nights I would walk out onto the stage and there would just be weird, little unfinished pedals plugged into my board with post-it notes and arrows telling me what songs to use them on. He was using me as his guinea pig and I loved it. I got to test drive this thing for a while and it blew me away every night.

Years later, he was finally able to start his own company and release it into the wild and it immediately blew up. It’s winning awards and selling out all over the place. Guitar Magazine’s “Pedal of the Year” in 2022 or something. Crazy. So happy for David, who has remained a dear friend. And I use this pedal all the time. It’s a monster.

7. Pedaltrain Daylight Overdrive

Another friend who designed a pedal I use a lot is this new one by Pedaltrain.

You didn’t know they made pedals? Yeah, most people don’t. But Jim, who owns Pedaltrain and actually used to play in my band back when I would play club shows around Nashville a lot, is a beast of a guitar player. He wanted to make his own pedals, so he spent the past few years quietly working on this, the Daylight, and its heavier brother, the Nightlight Distortion.

This thing is so clear and perfect. It just cuts right through. It immediately replaced the other “classic” drive on my main board. The Daylight is on almost all the time and the Nightlight gets quite a lot of use, as well. At some point people will discover these. They are unreal.

6. Walrus D1 Delay

Walrus released this Mako line a couple years ago and they really are fantastic. I’ve used their M1 in the studio, and I use the ACS1 both live and in the studio all the time. But it’s this delay that really floors me.

A lot of delays these days are the size of a laptop, and look as complicated. This can get that deep if you want, which I usually don’t, especially not live. I just need a knob that changes what isn’t right to what is, and a pedal that sounds awesome.

The sounds on this are inspiring. It can get wide and weird and spacey, or short and slappy, and most importantly, I set it up next to my old Memory Man (foreshadowing) and in about five minutes of doing all the nerdy stuff, I was able to get it to where, eyes closed, I couldn’t tell the difference. That, to me, is everything.

I have two of these. One on each of my main boards. The presets are roughly the same on each. A slap, a Memory Man, and a clean quarter note tape echo. My favorite of all the digital delays out there right now.

5. Keeley Verb O’ Trem

Everything you need. So much of my work these days is based around a guitar and an amp and little else, especially when I’m playing live with artists like Sandra McCracken or Taylor Leonhardt. It’s all about the rootsy, natural vibe. This is one button to make any amp feel like an old Fender, with a great Spring reverb and killer tremolo. I have had this on my little local live board for about two years, which I’ve ended up using on a ton of records and everywhere from the Ryman to the Local Show, and have literally never turned it off since the day I bought it.

4. Walrus 385

This is a nasty overdrive that makes it sound like you’re playing through one of those amps built out of an film projector. It’s dirty in the absolute coolest and most musical way. Super complex breakup that then gets whisper quiet in the next second.

Think Madison Cunningham or Dawes. I dared myself to do a show with Sandra with only this pedal through my little Princeton. She told me later it was the best she thought I’d ever sounded.

3. Walrus Slo / Sloer

First of all, I just love Walrus Pedals. I think they make the absolute coolest stuff, and their customer service is amazing. I’m just a fan.

I did a show about two years ago and my friend Olivia played rhythm guitar for me. She was making the coolest sounds and I had to know how. It was all the Slo pedal. So I had to get one. I got the Slotva, which is the same pedal, but had presets. I adore it.

I just moved up to this stereo version now, because of what I’m doing with the quiet hours project, a stereo ambient reverb just seems right. And this thing is insane. I’m obsessed. I brought it to a session and the engineer bought one the next day.

2. Strymon Flint

This might be the most essential pedal of the bunch. You need this. Everyone needs this. It’s a perfect pedal. Just get one.

Reverb: the best amp reverbs, the best big spacey reverb.

Tremolo: the best.

It’s easy. You cannot make it sound bad and it will make you sound better. If you buy one pedal, buy this pedal.

1. Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man

So I used to have three or four of the oldest model original of these. I love them so much. They’re delay pedals that also are kind of vibrato / overdrive / reverb, too, if you know how to really use them.

Nobody used to care about them and I kept getting them for next to nothing. I thought that would continue, so I gave one away, I loaned one out and it never came back, they just sort of disappeared. Now they’re worth like a thousand bucks and I don’t have any left. ARGH.

I don’t have any originals anymore, but EHX keeps making different new versions, many of which are in this photo:

I’m currently using the one on the top right, the 550-TT, which is the same circuit as the original, but has a Tap Tempo on it, which is really quite nice. It sounds about the same, but doesn’t have the same vibe, and has more options than the vibe/chorus switch, though I’d prefer just the switch. Oh well.

If you get a chance to use any of these in the photo, any but the bottom left (Hazarai) or bottom right (Memory Toy) are really solid and will get you making something beautiful.

It truly is the most inspiring and incredible pedal of all time. There simply is nothing else like it. I hope to get an original in my life again, but I’m grateful for all the digital options that can easily get us in the same room.

Well, there you go. I hope this was a nice little break from the craziness. Let’s get it going in the comments. What are your favorite pedals? Why?

If you guys like this kind of post let me know. I’m happy to do more of these if folks are interested. We can talk pedalboards, Amp simulators / Helix, Acoustics, and just general musicianship stuff… I’m a total nerd about it, but I’m well aware it’s not for everyone.

Thank you all. I’m praying for peace for you, for our nation, for our families and churches. See you soon.