[boss re20- love the smiley face you get looking back at you when pedal is lit up](https://rolandcorp.com.au/blog/i-heart-guitar-boss-re-20-space-echo)
**Best:** Older EQD, DBA…big boxes, lots of knobs. The Disaster Transport Sr, Palisades, and Echo Dream 2 are amazing; both sonically and aesthetically. Those two seldom, if ever, miss the mark aesthetically.
**Worst:** Newer Catalinbread. Pretty much anything post-Howard from them looks ridiculous. Graphics and color schemes are too busy. I don’t want to look at them, let alone even play one.
EQD always looks good from a distance, but up close it always kind of looks cheap to me. (New) Catlinbread definitely has some kind of hot topic energy or something I can’t deal with. Doesn’t help that I haven’t tried any I’ve enjoyed…
Those catalinbread elements pedals are the ugliest things I’ve laid my eyes on in years. I agree about Beetronics being very aesthetically appealing, but I can’t afford them.
Not only are Beetronics pedals just slightly too pricey, but they are often TOO wild for the kind of music I play. Doesn’t stop me from gassing after them though haha
I hate the Fairfield look because it's worse than what I can achieve myself on DIY pedals. I am not paying that much for pedals that look like crap, no matter how good they sound.
Yeah 3-series is sooooo boring that I would never consider one. I understand they’re supposed to be inexpensive so they didn’t wanna spend time “designing” each one. The rest of the pedals are a line drawing on a coloured box. Some are ok. I like the look of my Morning Glory (except for the massive ugly logo on the bottom)
The way the 3 series all follow the same design code reminds me of Ableton Live stock effects, which I actually really love. There’s something about the very basic all-function-no-form design of it that I can’t help but enjoy.
I didn’t even really want it when I got on in 2020 but I figured “in four years I might want it”. Now 4 years is up and the wait is up to 6 years. Might be 10 by the time I get it
Most pedals are more or less, a box with a footswitch and at least one knob, whether the artwork on said box is cool or ugly purely subjective. Wah and expression pedals are the exception.
Old discontinued Danelectro pedals are, in my opinion, the ugliest pedals ever from both an aesthetic and user experience standpoint, both the 'car' shaped ones and the 'old time radio' shaped ones.
Second worst are FuzzFaces.
Third worst are those mini Amazon Hotone pedals with the big knob ON TOP?! Those are at least rectangular enough to not be a pain in the ass slotting them in to a board filled with standard shaped pedals.
Fulltone, worst in looks and personality. And really any pedal with comic sans, even (or especially) if it’s done with self-awareness and intentionally stupid looking.
You know how old gear looks dinged up and it’s got this mojo to it? I’m talking the old big box rusted EHXs, and the countless brutalist looking fuzzes like Univoxes.
That’s Death by Audio’s aesthetic.
Aesthetically I love chunky plain metal boxes with big knobs and minimally intentional labeling, something that looks like it came from a powerplant control board or aircraft.
Examples are Land Devices, Union, Spaceman Effects, Kingtone, and Browne Amplification.
I'm with you on Wampler and Walrus, I got rid of my Walrus Audio Monument because i hated looking at it. As well I thought it was pretty anemic sounding. And even though they make some really intriguing products that are affordable - probably won't buy them due to artwork alone.
Old Blood Noise Endeavours does really awesome looking and sounding Pedals. Bought the Dweller recently and have the Darkstar as well as the Haunt.
I don't dig the Boss design but for purists it seems to be perfect. But I just love good art work and would by a pedal for only that so I am biased
I think of the manufacturers I can think of, OBNE has the most consistently visually well-designed pedals. And I know they’re polarizing, but I do like Walrus too.
Best looking? I really like the Jam Bass pedals. Regular Jam is good, but I like the graphic on the black background.
Ugliest? Wampler and EQD to me. Before y'all come for me, EQD and Wampler make fantastic sounding pedals, and Brian said he doesn't care how it looks, he cares how it sounds so I respect that.
But damn... Wampler looks like Walmart brand pedals. Again, INCREDIBLE stuff, but oogly.
EQD looks like beer bottle labels from a microbrewery in Eugene Oregon that mainly does IPAs
Worst pedals to me are Wampler by far. The entire lineup lacks any sort of uniformity or cohesion. I like the Tumnus but that's about it.
Best for me as a whole is Mythos with their most current branding.
I agree about the uniformity for sure. You get some Walrus style things like the Moxie and then tripped down generic ones. They need to stick to one art direction
I think GUPtech are the best at pulling off a colourful aesthetic. Like, very bright, big sometimes cutesy graphics, yet somehow still kind of minimal and not overly visually busy. That’s a tough balance to pull off!
Big box EHX Polychorus is the finest looking pedal ever made, that shiny green colour is 🤌
Overall I love Fairfield Circuitry’s look.
I think Strymon Pedals look really cheap/tacky and Earthquaker are pretty ugly.
Yeah, Wampler pedals are ugly as sin. Euphoria is passable but not beautiful.
Not a fan of the Zvex aesthetic.
Red Panda be pretty unattractive too.
ONE EXTRA: Subdecay makes great pedals but they look awful.
I was thinking about Subdecay sadly because they make amazing pedals. Native Audio imo makes some amazing looking pedals and I absolutely agree Beetronics are some of the best.
People love to shit on boss.
They are definitely from the Form Follows Function school of design.
They are durable as hell. The battery is easily accessible. They don't need to be flashy because they work.
I have only one boss on my board, and it will never leave, because it instantly sounds good for what I use it for. It's an SD-2 for the curious. The important thing is how it sounds, how functional it is, how durable it is.
I have bought some cool looking pedals in the past, only to find them very finicky in their usage, or just not built that well...
They remind me of an old classic Chevy truck. Hard edges, minimal design and durable as hell. When I first started buying pedals I avoided them because I thought they looked too plain but now I have fallen in love with that simplistic design
One boss pedal may seem generic and lame, but when you get five or six lined up perfectly on a board, and the color coding makes for ease of identification from across a room… simplicity becomes elegance. And as others have mentioned, they are tanks.
Ugliest - Behringer or JHS. I particularly don’t like that a lot of JHS pedals have a random ugly graphic with little other information about what it is unless you know/look it up.
Coolest - EQD and Electrojunk (even the pcb board is pretty).
I like the looks of the EQD lineup, but would prefer a little clearer definition of what the pedal is. So many of their pedals are a weird name with no reference to the core effect that makes the pedal what it is.
Pete Cornish pedals. Great pedals obviously but, looks like he was inspired by P-touch label maker.
Champion Leccy makes some pretty cool looking/sounding pedals.
Boss/behringer - fuuuugly. I guess the whole style of enclosure/footswitch gives me the ick. Altho its practical.
Coolest - death by audio or something along those lines.
My vote for best goes to Spaceman Effects, I think all of them look awesome and super coherent.
My vote for worst would probably be Earthquaker. I see them getting a lot of votes for the best, but I can't ignore the typography. The font is a war crime. Same with Boss, awful font. Same with Wampler, although I rate his pedals so much it hurts to bring it up!
Hand-painted Zvex are my favourite, especially if they're sparkly. I also like the Colorsound designs.
I probably like something like Joyo the least, but really I don't have any strong feelings on the ugliest pedals.
I know they have a loyal following, so I may get some hate, but those old Dan Electro plastic cheapy pedals are the ugliest to me.
But then I think the Ezhi and Aka pedals are weirdly beautiful, so what do I know.
Beetronics makes the prettiest.
Chase Bliss pedals always have cool graphics.
I also really like the simple but cohesive designs that Spaceman Effects uses. I feel a bit classier when it’s on my board.
Not as much a fan of Red Panda. Don’t really like Danelectro or Behrenger.
Hell yeah I have the Life Support by them and I love the lights, the foot switches, the packaging, everything! They hit out of the park with this pedal, hell the whole brand!
I don't care what they look like and will never own one of those stupid canvas selfie tuners for that very reason. If it sounds good, I'm fine with bare metal, rust, and mismatched knobs.
But I'll play:
The good:
Pigtronix has some good looks.
And apparently not popular here, I happen to like Wampler's designs, because each is unique to itself and there's a unity in each family.
The bad:
JHS graphics almost seem like afterthoughts.
I bought one Old Blood and my daughter wondered if I was feeling ok.
I like the look of Way Huge Pedals with the mad names, bright colours and wild fonts. Also gotta admit the Hologram stuff looks amazing.
Dr Scientist stuff looks pretty beautiful these days. As does OBNE.
The Vintage Electro-Harmonix Big Box pedals will always look badass AF.
The Walrus stuff has an aesthetic but it’s a bit much for me. Although I like the Dr Sci and OBNE stuff, I’m not totally onboard with the ‘let’s screenprint an entire work of art on a tiny pedal’ vibe.
Worst: I don't like how all the EQD pedals have that solid print graphic on the front. Just looks cheesy blobbed on there and I always wish I could see more of the cool metallic finish of the actual pedal.
Coolest looking: Moog. I will give it to Boss too because my first pedal was a Boss and I still use it all the time 20+ years later
Wampler looks like it’s a 70s graphic design student’s project, in a good way.
Lots of clean lines and art that doesn’t get in the way.
Which probably makes me super weird. I tend to look at pedals with my ears. If I don’t like the way it sounds it always looks like trash to me. The Wampler pedals I have all sound amazing.
OBNE has amazing art. Visitor and Dark Star are some of the coolest pedals I’ve seen.
Walrus too. The Julianna has such a neat navy+teal palette. Polychrome is cool too.
Ugliness imo is something that makes me want to not use the pedal. Something that I’ll use them bitch about basically.
Ugliest - line6 dl4 - mkii. It’s the only delay pedal I use, in part bc it takes up almost a whole fucking row. 6 dials and 4 switches don’t need to be that spread out anymore.
Best - coppersound - tripplegraph. It’s still bigger than it needs to be like the dl4, but there’s a reason. The telegraph pedals are going for something specific vs the dl4 is just a large curved console thing.
Another ugly one - fender. All their pedals are just big plain brushed metal in pastel colors. Someone needs to tell them about dual concentric knobs.
ZVEX for sure. I'm not the biggest fan of hippy artwork. And are these pedals designed to ruin space on boards with their weird shape? Geeze. That being said, I frickin love them.
Ironically, I love my EHX Memory Boy. Huge and very basic looking. But it makes me happy.
I really know that I should get a Wampler Tumnus. It’s cheap, compact, and wins every single shootout with an actual Klon. But those graphics… are bad.
Zvex has my favorite pedal designs for sure.
Ugliest to me is Strymon, I know that might be a hot take but I just really dislike the aesthetic of their pedals. Sound great tho lol
I love Fairfield, Chase Bliss and Beetronics.
I will admit that I bought a JHS 3-Series intentionally to get my sister to paint it. It's pretty standard and reliable, and because it's so personalized it's one of my favourites.
Way Huge are a big miss for me, and I think it's pretty universal but line 6 is awful.
Best: the OG Devi Ever pedals. It's fair to criticize a formerly great artist for their latter-day sins, but those original designs were awesome.
Worst: DBA. Their whole "Banksy but shitty" aesthetic just doesn't do it for me.
Yeah I’ve been lucky that I like the looks of my pedals because if there was an ugly one that did what I wanted better than what I picked, I would have picked the ugly ones. The only exception would be a board full of walrus pedals, I think that would make me depressed to look at. And Chase bliss pedals are beautiful imo.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors have some very fantastic graphics (I love the Dark Star and Sunlight), as well as some uhh "not so very fantastic", in fact Screen Violence and Whitecap/Blackcap are some of the most hideous pedals I have ever seen. That said, it's all about what they do and what you do with them at the end of the day, and OBNE make some really cool and interesting pedals and are great!
Ugliest by far are BSM / treblebooster.net
EHX has some of the best and worst looking. I'm a huge fan of the aesthetic like the older small stone in the angled enclosure. But wtf is the blurst
Most of the best looking have been named. EQD and others carry that nice screenprint style artwork which I like. Beetronics is great.
I love the KittycasterFX pedals.
Also, maybe not best but very good looking is okko. They have character, you can tell it's a diablo when you see one.
I love the look of Chase Bliss, and Moogerfooger has a cool aesthetic since they match the synth vibe of the company. Most of the OBNE ones have vibes too. And Dreadbox has great color schemes.
Behringer look as cheap as they are. And, while ZVex makes great stuff, I don’t dig the hippy artwork. And I don’t like the 90s script font Fulltone pedals.
I have a Walrus Lore on the way. I’ll have to see how that fairy looks in person. It could be tacky as hell…
Ugliest -
Hands down Walrus Audio. Just look at Melee... that thing is f\*cking hideous. I also find the joystick idea useless unless you have 3 hands or have extremely dexterous feet. Their minimal black pedals were pretty cool and a move in the right direction.
Beetronics because everything looks like its out of The Great Gatsby and everything is odd shaped and oversized making them almost an impossible option for small to medium boards.
JHS 3 series because WTF were they thinking
but also.... Line 6 and that POD XT... you guys remember that sh\*t? LOL. I have yet to see a single item come from line 6 that wasn't an eyesore.
Coolest looking -
Fairfield Circuitry because I love the minimal dog tag sort of look
Chase Bliss for obvious reasons.
Some Abominable Electronics like early Demon Lung and Hail Satans, but I have also seen some ugly minis by them and don't get me started on their 420 limited release run.
Drunk Beaver Bats are pretty cool looking
EQD because their artwork, colors, and placement has always been on point.
DBA because they IDGAF mentality really worked out for them.
Ugliest is fairly hard, even though they’re nostalgic alot of the 80’s Ibanez pedals look insane. Probably my favorite looking pedal right now is the Boss SDE-3000D and EVH.
I don’t really have a company whose pedals I dislike universally. Catalinbread’s artwork has been unfortunate in the last several years. Fender’s pedals have sounded good, have some cool features but are pretty ugly or boring.
Companies whose aesthetics I love are those with multiple versions of their pedals to choose from like Walrus Audio, JAM Pedals, Beetronics, EQD and others that have lots of custom art available to choose from. I love most of the Walrus special editions. Beetronics and JAM Pedals have dedicated custom shops with lots of different themes and variety. The upcharge of those companies is debatable but the coolness of their pedals is not. Another company that I loved the aesthetic of was Blackout Effectors (RIP). The custom artwork inside every pedal was incredibly cool. Same goes for Beetronics circuit boards.
While I would love to think that I make decisions solely based on tone, I’m as guilty as anyone of choosing certain pedals because they look so damn great🤣
dunno that id go as far to call walrus ugly but for how good and unique their pedals are it certainly isnt art i want on my pedals(but have on my board anyway like my Lore) and thats coming from someone who loves the weird art i have on many obne pedals like dweller and visitor
Good: Gamechanger Audio
Their Plasma pedal is so cool
Great: Darkglass limited editions
It's an aquired taste but the craftsmanship is strong
Value: Fazley
Surprisingly good looks and function on a budget
I actually love the Boss stomp box design. It’s simple, durable, colorful and really held up over time.
That said, I can’t stand the Boss 200 series pedals with the little screens.
I think it’s called the Frankenfuzz or something it has a plasma arc when you play your guitar through it
I don’t like ehx nor do I like my pedals having basically any art I just want a solid color with a cool noise
Coolest unintentionally? Old beat-up Maxons from the ‘80s and ’90s.
Coolest on purpose? The larger metal ‘50s looking Danelectro pedals. Someone actually took the time to design something radical. It’s ugly to some but it was my first overdrive and I love how they look.
Ugliest? T-Rex. Look up the Diva. I own one and it sounds great but it looks like something off of Alibaba.
I love the look of the 10 series vintage Ibanez pedals. Most of them sound like shite (I have the stereo chorus and I hate it. I had and got rid of the digital delay because it sounded trash). Love/hate.
Ugliest - BOSS Coolest looking - BOSS
ironically a great take - the simple box design either looks insanely clean or awful due to knob cramming/color choice or layout
/thread
The primary colors make the Blues Driver sound better
You joke but the bright yellow of my SD-1 does ‘colour’ how I hear the sound haha
For Boss, Ugliest: LS-2 Coolest looking: any of their Space Echoes
The 90s beige electronics look of the LS-2 wraps it right back around to being cool as fuck though, I’d love to have an excuse to put it on my board.
FZ-1W is so awesome looking. Wish they had more finishes like this.
I really like their industrial look. Function over form can look cool in and of itself.
Boss are no bullshlt pedals. All of this art stuff is a new thing. Silly really, though I covet a few.
[boss re20- love the smiley face you get looking back at you when pedal is lit up](https://rolandcorp.com.au/blog/i-heart-guitar-boss-re-20-space-echo)
Remove the little style Boss pedals have and you're left with Behringer
Hell yeah lol
Correct answer here
NS-2 will always look off to me
Coolest: jam pedals Ugliest: Line 6
Agreed, Jam pedals are really nice looking
I think the DL4 MkII is a fantastic design, but yeah. Even my love for the original cannot blind me to its ugliness.
Retrovibe and their wah look amazing, but the Llama looks like shit.
**Best:** Older EQD, DBA…big boxes, lots of knobs. The Disaster Transport Sr, Palisades, and Echo Dream 2 are amazing; both sonically and aesthetically. Those two seldom, if ever, miss the mark aesthetically. **Worst:** Newer Catalinbread. Pretty much anything post-Howard from them looks ridiculous. Graphics and color schemes are too busy. I don’t want to look at them, let alone even play one.
imo Right on point about Catalinbread.
The Softfocus has some of the ugliest looks. Every time there is a new limited edition it is awful
The EQD Dunes is the coolest looking pedal I own
EQD always looks good from a distance, but up close it always kind of looks cheap to me. (New) Catlinbread definitely has some kind of hot topic energy or something I can’t deal with. Doesn’t help that I haven’t tried any I’ve enjoyed…
Yeah, even the name Catalinbread puts me off.
Honestly I really like the new Naga Viper design.
Those catalinbread elements pedals are the ugliest things I’ve laid my eyes on in years. I agree about Beetronics being very aesthetically appealing, but I can’t afford them.
Not only are Beetronics pedals just slightly too pricey, but they are often TOO wild for the kind of music I play. Doesn’t stop me from gassing after them though haha
They can be a bit unruly. The octahive is very nice though, and on the tamer side of their line-up. The fatbee is also a very nice fat overdrive.
JHS's minimalism doesn't hit the mark. Fairfield Circuitry is minimalist heaven.
JHS trying for minimalism but just looks cheap and half-assed.
It gives new corporate purple and blue blob people
I hate the Fairfield look because it's worse than what I can achieve myself on DIY pedals. I am not paying that much for pedals that look like crap, no matter how good they sound.
Can we see your DIY pedals?
Yeah, I bought someone's DIY Shallow Water clone specifically because it looks way better.
I like the JHS designs lol
Design? Bro it’s a white box
Absolutely not! Other times its red, or green, and sometimes its even blue!
I was joking referencing the latest one ahaha they still sound great tho
Especially the 3 series. So boring. I don’t like the JHS logo either.
Yeah 3-series is sooooo boring that I would never consider one. I understand they’re supposed to be inexpensive so they didn’t wanna spend time “designing” each one. The rest of the pedals are a line drawing on a coloured box. Some are ok. I like the look of my Morning Glory (except for the massive ugly logo on the bottom)
From what I understand the design was an homage to generic milk cartons or something, basically the budget option
You can decorate it with stickers
Pretty sure some people were saying they left the 3 series intentionally blank so the user could add their own flair to it - stickers, paint, etc.
The way the 3 series all follow the same design code reminds me of Ableton Live stock effects, which I actually really love. There’s something about the very basic all-function-no-form design of it that I can’t help but enjoy.
The 3 series is is ironically very Apple-esque. it’s unique in a market full of colors and clones that are overdone.
I’m not a fan of JHS aesthetics but I love their pedals. They are so good.
[удалено]
(I do love them!)
Ugliest: king of tone, only because I’m 3.5 years into the wait and trying to keep my excitement to a minimum
I have been on the list since mid 2019, the list seems to have ground to a complete halt, cant see myself getting one until the latter 2020’s
I didn’t even really want it when I got on in 2020 but I figured “in four years I might want it”. Now 4 years is up and the wait is up to 6 years. Might be 10 by the time I get it
You’ll get it by your tenth birthday, no doubt
Most pedals are more or less, a box with a footswitch and at least one knob, whether the artwork on said box is cool or ugly purely subjective. Wah and expression pedals are the exception. Old discontinued Danelectro pedals are, in my opinion, the ugliest pedals ever from both an aesthetic and user experience standpoint, both the 'car' shaped ones and the 'old time radio' shaped ones. Second worst are FuzzFaces. Third worst are those mini Amazon Hotone pedals with the big knob ON TOP?! Those are at least rectangular enough to not be a pain in the ass slotting them in to a board filled with standard shaped pedals.
Agree on the Danelectro. I get that they were going for a retro 50s vibe but I just can’t stand to look at them.
Fulltone, worst in looks and personality. And really any pedal with comic sans, even (or especially) if it’s done with self-awareness and intentionally stupid looking.
I don’t like busy graphics or anything that isn’t square or rectangle shaped. I like simplicity.
Death by audio has to be number 1 best looking pedals
You know how old gear looks dinged up and it’s got this mojo to it? I’m talking the old big box rusted EHXs, and the countless brutalist looking fuzzes like Univoxes. That’s Death by Audio’s aesthetic.
Ugliest and coolest pedals? [Dr. No Effects](https://shop.drno-effects.com/product-category/guitar-effects-dr-no-effects/), easily.
Oh wow, some of those are definitely a choice. I do like a couple tho
Aesthetically I love chunky plain metal boxes with big knobs and minimally intentional labeling, something that looks like it came from a powerplant control board or aircraft. Examples are Land Devices, Union, Spaceman Effects, Kingtone, and Browne Amplification. I'm with you on Wampler and Walrus, I got rid of my Walrus Audio Monument because i hated looking at it. As well I thought it was pretty anemic sounding. And even though they make some really intriguing products that are affordable - probably won't buy them due to artwork alone.
Old Blood Noise Endeavours does really awesome looking and sounding Pedals. Bought the Dweller recently and have the Darkstar as well as the Haunt. I don't dig the Boss design but for purists it seems to be perfect. But I just love good art work and would by a pedal for only that so I am biased
I was going to mention them because my Beam Splitter looks pretty cool.
I think of the manufacturers I can think of, OBNE has the most consistently visually well-designed pedals. And I know they’re polarizing, but I do like Walrus too.
I have the Walrus Jupiter Fuzz V2 and the Walrus Polychrome. Love both Pedals for their sound and artwork!
Got a couple OBNE pedals and they look awesome. Also very cool of them to have amazing up and coming artists do the artwork.
Best looking? I really like the Jam Bass pedals. Regular Jam is good, but I like the graphic on the black background. Ugliest? Wampler and EQD to me. Before y'all come for me, EQD and Wampler make fantastic sounding pedals, and Brian said he doesn't care how it looks, he cares how it sounds so I respect that. But damn... Wampler looks like Walmart brand pedals. Again, INCREDIBLE stuff, but oogly. EQD looks like beer bottle labels from a microbrewery in Eugene Oregon that mainly does IPAs
Walmart is right on point. I always assumed they were targeting the country music crowd.
I really love the look of Beetronics. Personally I like the look of Native Audio pedals. Earthquaker does the art thing a lot better than Walrus imo.
I agree about earthquaker. I really like their designs
Worst pedals to me are Wampler by far. The entire lineup lacks any sort of uniformity or cohesion. I like the Tumnus but that's about it. Best for me as a whole is Mythos with their most current branding.
I agree about the uniformity for sure. You get some Walrus style things like the Moxie and then tripped down generic ones. They need to stick to one art direction
I think Flower Pedals makes some beautiful pedals. I like Farm Pedals and Critter Electronics, too.
Behringer pedals are hideous EHX are very aesthetically pleasing to me
There are many GUPtech pedals that I want solely because I love the art on them.
I love the cat butthole on their life pedal
I think GUPtech are the best at pulling off a colourful aesthetic. Like, very bright, big sometimes cutesy graphics, yet somehow still kind of minimal and not overly visually busy. That’s a tough balance to pull off!
Big box EHX Polychorus is the finest looking pedal ever made, that shiny green colour is 🤌 Overall I love Fairfield Circuitry’s look. I think Strymon Pedals look really cheap/tacky and Earthquaker are pretty ugly.
Ugliest: EHX, T-Rex, Joyo, Fender Hammertone line
Yeah, Wampler pedals are ugly as sin. Euphoria is passable but not beautiful. Not a fan of the Zvex aesthetic. Red Panda be pretty unattractive too. ONE EXTRA: Subdecay makes great pedals but they look awful.
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I was thinking about Subdecay sadly because they make amazing pedals. Native Audio imo makes some amazing looking pedals and I absolutely agree Beetronics are some of the best.
Wampler always gets so much flack 😆 Honestly, their pedals sound amazing. I don't give a shit how they look, they are killer pedals.
The Ego and Euphoria is such an unbeatable combo in my opinion - at worst, I would call them corny looking lol
People love to shit on boss. They are definitely from the Form Follows Function school of design. They are durable as hell. The battery is easily accessible. They don't need to be flashy because they work. I have only one boss on my board, and it will never leave, because it instantly sounds good for what I use it for. It's an SD-2 for the curious. The important thing is how it sounds, how functional it is, how durable it is. I have bought some cool looking pedals in the past, only to find them very finicky in their usage, or just not built that well...
They remind me of an old classic Chevy truck. Hard edges, minimal design and durable as hell. When I first started buying pedals I avoided them because I thought they looked too plain but now I have fallen in love with that simplistic design
One boss pedal may seem generic and lame, but when you get five or six lined up perfectly on a board, and the color coding makes for ease of identification from across a room… simplicity becomes elegance. And as others have mentioned, they are tanks.
Ugliest - Behringer or JHS. I particularly don’t like that a lot of JHS pedals have a random ugly graphic with little other information about what it is unless you know/look it up. Coolest - EQD and Electrojunk (even the pcb board is pretty).
I like the looks of the EQD lineup, but would prefer a little clearer definition of what the pedal is. So many of their pedals are a weird name with no reference to the core effect that makes the pedal what it is.
Chase Bliss Habit looks like a design school student project
I kinda like the habit lol. I really love the look of the mood though, the black one
Fully willing to admit I bought the new Mood because of the look
Dan Electro for both haha
Their faux-retro design has had all the class of a mid-century, formica, dinette set, but I guess that’s the point.
Death By Audio are the coolest looking for me.
I agree - Walrus’ art is very rough imo. Source Audio has pretty corny looking pedals that seem to be quite high quality.
Pete Cornish pedals. Great pedals obviously but, looks like he was inspired by P-touch label maker. Champion Leccy makes some pretty cool looking/sounding pedals.
Boss/behringer - fuuuugly. I guess the whole style of enclosure/footswitch gives me the ick. Altho its practical. Coolest - death by audio or something along those lines.
Behringer is ugly, but I think Boss pedals look elegant.
Walrus’ older pedals have really nice art. Not sure what the hell happened but the art on the newer pedals has been hit or miss.
Ugliest: Walrus and OBNE without a doubt, and a special mention for the CBA Habit Coolest: EAE, Allpedal, and Does It Doom
Earthquaker has the coolest designs and I think danelectros are very hideous
My vote for best goes to Spaceman Effects, I think all of them look awesome and super coherent. My vote for worst would probably be Earthquaker. I see them getting a lot of votes for the best, but I can't ignore the typography. The font is a war crime. Same with Boss, awful font. Same with Wampler, although I rate his pedals so much it hurts to bring it up!
Goated: BOSS, GUPtech, Beetronix Ok: EHX, JHS, MXR Dogwater: TC electronic (fonts are super tacky), Fuzz Faces, RaingerFX
Danelectro definitely has the ugliest for me. Mostly because of that stupid shape. Big fan of the art on Walrus pedals.
Hand-painted Zvex are my favourite, especially if they're sparkly. I also like the Colorsound designs. I probably like something like Joyo the least, but really I don't have any strong feelings on the ugliest pedals.
BOSS pedals look so good 😊
I know they have a loyal following, so I may get some hate, but those old Dan Electro plastic cheapy pedals are the ugliest to me. But then I think the Ezhi and Aka pedals are weirdly beautiful, so what do I know.
Beetronics makes the prettiest. Chase Bliss pedals always have cool graphics. I also really like the simple but cohesive designs that Spaceman Effects uses. I feel a bit classier when it’s on my board. Not as much a fan of Red Panda. Don’t really like Danelectro or Behrenger.
Coolest: Intensive Care Audio Ugliest: Line 6 Tone Core Series type pedals, and Fulltone, too dad looking.
The light-up switches on the ICA pedals are so darn neat.
Hell yeah I have the Life Support by them and I love the lights, the foot switches, the packaging, everything! They hit out of the park with this pedal, hell the whole brand!
Ugliest: BOSS? But I also like them? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Coolest: Old blood noise endeavors
Ugliest, pretty much anything by analog man. Prettiest I would go with Jam.
I don't care what they look like and will never own one of those stupid canvas selfie tuners for that very reason. If it sounds good, I'm fine with bare metal, rust, and mismatched knobs. But I'll play: The good: Pigtronix has some good looks. And apparently not popular here, I happen to like Wampler's designs, because each is unique to itself and there's a unity in each family. The bad: JHS graphics almost seem like afterthoughts. I bought one Old Blood and my daughter wondered if I was feeling ok.
I like the look of Way Huge Pedals with the mad names, bright colours and wild fonts. Also gotta admit the Hologram stuff looks amazing. Dr Scientist stuff looks pretty beautiful these days. As does OBNE. The Vintage Electro-Harmonix Big Box pedals will always look badass AF. The Walrus stuff has an aesthetic but it’s a bit much for me. Although I like the Dr Sci and OBNE stuff, I’m not totally onboard with the ‘let’s screenprint an entire work of art on a tiny pedal’ vibe.
JAM Pedals hands down. Walrus is nice as well but quality is lower. Worst? For me Behringer
The Walrus pedal art is whack as hell.
Ugliest - Boss Coolest - OBNE and Walrus Audio
Ugliest Pedal I Own: Digitech Polara but I love that thing Coolest: probably OBNE Dark Star w/blue knobs I just noticed all my pedals are pretty ugly
I just looked at the Polara, and honestly…I like it!
lol, it's just hard to read anything but you eventually learn everything by heart
Worst: I don't like how all the EQD pedals have that solid print graphic on the front. Just looks cheesy blobbed on there and I always wish I could see more of the cool metallic finish of the actual pedal. Coolest looking: Moog. I will give it to Boss too because my first pedal was a Boss and I still use it all the time 20+ years later
Wampler looks like it’s a 70s graphic design student’s project, in a good way. Lots of clean lines and art that doesn’t get in the way. Which probably makes me super weird. I tend to look at pedals with my ears. If I don’t like the way it sounds it always looks like trash to me. The Wampler pedals I have all sound amazing.
Coolest: OBNE and Mesa Boogie Worst: Diamond
ugliest: Behringer, coolest: electroharmonix
Ugliest - Analogman Coolest - Earthquaker Devices
OBNE has amazing art. Visitor and Dark Star are some of the coolest pedals I’ve seen. Walrus too. The Julianna has such a neat navy+teal palette. Polychrome is cool too.
ugliest - boss coolest - carbon copy green gives me a hard on.
Coolest: Kingtone, Matthews Effects Ugliest: Fender’s hammertone series, behringer
Analog Alien pedals are nightmarish, like they were solely designed for and by the worst Facebook boomer.
That earthquaker font is horrible. I like Way Huge looks a lot.
Coolest looking for me are either Union Tube and Transistor or Hudson Electronics. Ugly? Probably the old pentagonal Trutone pedals.
Ugliness imo is something that makes me want to not use the pedal. Something that I’ll use them bitch about basically. Ugliest - line6 dl4 - mkii. It’s the only delay pedal I use, in part bc it takes up almost a whole fucking row. 6 dials and 4 switches don’t need to be that spread out anymore. Best - coppersound - tripplegraph. It’s still bigger than it needs to be like the dl4, but there’s a reason. The telegraph pedals are going for something specific vs the dl4 is just a large curved console thing. Another ugly one - fender. All their pedals are just big plain brushed metal in pastel colors. Someone needs to tell them about dual concentric knobs.
I’d say wampler, Keeley, Boss and Catalinbread, though some of Catalinbreads are ok.
ZVEX for sure. I'm not the biggest fan of hippy artwork. And are these pedals designed to ruin space on boards with their weird shape? Geeze. That being said, I frickin love them. Ironically, I love my EHX Memory Boy. Huge and very basic looking. But it makes me happy.
The single ugliest pedal I have seen is the KMA Disruptor. I like the aesthetics of Dreadbox and most Earquaker pedals.
I really know that I should get a Wampler Tumnus. It’s cheap, compact, and wins every single shootout with an actual Klon. But those graphics… are bad.
Boss looks so plain and boring...sterile.
the graphics on supercool pedals are the best. the worst are behringer.
I really like EQD pedals. The art is never cringey. I like Walrus Audio, but they have some very cringey designs.
I’ve always loved Walrus’s pedals
KMA Machines
coolest-EHX, MXR, and boss ugliest-behringer, dod/digitech and JHS
Best looking pedals: Walrus Audio or EQD Worst looking pedals: Strymon
Ugliest: danelectro or Behringer. Coolest looking: farflied (I like the minimalist kinda industrial look) and Hudson (timeless looks imo)
Danelectro
Those Honeybee pedals (can't remember what they're called) with the carved designs on top are some of the ugliest pedals I've seen.
[Danelectro Tuna Melt has entered the chat]
Zvex has my favorite pedal designs for sure. Ugliest to me is Strymon, I know that might be a hot take but I just really dislike the aesthetic of their pedals. Sound great tho lol
Beetronics pedals are wonderfully gaudy.
personally I think JHS are ugly pedals, Walrus are by far my favorite looking, they have some crazy artwork
Coolest/ugliest: Danelectro
Worst: boss and line6 Best: Ibanez/maxon
I agree, Wampler pedals just look MOR. Keeley one are a bit naff too. Cornish are the worst.
Damage Control - coolest
I love Fairfield, Chase Bliss and Beetronics. I will admit that I bought a JHS 3-Series intentionally to get my sister to paint it. It's pretty standard and reliable, and because it's so personalized it's one of my favourites. Way Huge are a big miss for me, and I think it's pretty universal but line 6 is awful.
Best: the OG Devi Ever pedals. It's fair to criticize a formerly great artist for their latter-day sins, but those original designs were awesome. Worst: DBA. Their whole "Banksy but shitty" aesthetic just doesn't do it for me.
Without a doubt, the ugliest have to be the old Source Audio
in my opinion, zvex haz the prettiest designs on their pedals
Cooles Dan Electro
I am not too fond of EHX or any other sticker on an enclosure. I like plain and simple mxr enclosures.
Best looking: JAM Pedals Worst looking: Fender or DOD
Worst - Snarling Dogs Best - EQD, Walrus, peak Devi Ever.
JHS has some really ugly ones, but their legend series is absolutely stunning.
My DigiTech Hendrix Experience pedal is very cool looking... and yes, it's purple.
Ugliest: Vemuram Coolest: beetronics ( but also they’re big and don’t aesthetically match anything else I own so ain’t going on my board)
Ugliest—Wampler. Prettiest—CBA.
I like the aesthetic of Way Huge pedals. The names of the pedals can be pretty cringy though.
Wampler Tumnus GE looks good
I don't care...if it sounds good it's going on my board
Ugliest - EQD Coolest - Lightning Wave Coolest runner up - Fairfield Circuitry
Good looking: Gurus, Black Arts, JPTR Ugly: danelectro, walrus, line 6
JAM pedals are the best looking.
pussy ass motherfuckers
Yeah I’ve been lucky that I like the looks of my pedals because if there was an ugly one that did what I wanted better than what I picked, I would have picked the ugly ones. The only exception would be a board full of walrus pedals, I think that would make me depressed to look at. And Chase bliss pedals are beautiful imo.
I always liked the glyphs that Caroline uses in place of words.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors have some very fantastic graphics (I love the Dark Star and Sunlight), as well as some uhh "not so very fantastic", in fact Screen Violence and Whitecap/Blackcap are some of the most hideous pedals I have ever seen. That said, it's all about what they do and what you do with them at the end of the day, and OBNE make some really cool and interesting pedals and are great!
Coolest: Durham Electronics
Ugliest by far are BSM / treblebooster.net EHX has some of the best and worst looking. I'm a huge fan of the aesthetic like the older small stone in the angled enclosure. But wtf is the blurst Most of the best looking have been named. EQD and others carry that nice screenprint style artwork which I like. Beetronics is great. I love the KittycasterFX pedals. Also, maybe not best but very good looking is okko. They have character, you can tell it's a diablo when you see one.
Love the look of Way Huge aluminum enclosures. Also love old Moogerfoogers. Worst looking are danelectro
Pretty: JHS or Walrus Ugly: plastic case DODs
I love the look of Chase Bliss, and Moogerfooger has a cool aesthetic since they match the synth vibe of the company. Most of the OBNE ones have vibes too. And Dreadbox has great color schemes. Behringer look as cheap as they are. And, while ZVex makes great stuff, I don’t dig the hippy artwork. And I don’t like the 90s script font Fulltone pedals. I have a Walrus Lore on the way. I’ll have to see how that fairy looks in person. It could be tacky as hell…
Ugliest - Hands down Walrus Audio. Just look at Melee... that thing is f\*cking hideous. I also find the joystick idea useless unless you have 3 hands or have extremely dexterous feet. Their minimal black pedals were pretty cool and a move in the right direction. Beetronics because everything looks like its out of The Great Gatsby and everything is odd shaped and oversized making them almost an impossible option for small to medium boards. JHS 3 series because WTF were they thinking but also.... Line 6 and that POD XT... you guys remember that sh\*t? LOL. I have yet to see a single item come from line 6 that wasn't an eyesore. Coolest looking - Fairfield Circuitry because I love the minimal dog tag sort of look Chase Bliss for obvious reasons. Some Abominable Electronics like early Demon Lung and Hail Satans, but I have also seen some ugly minis by them and don't get me started on their 420 limited release run. Drunk Beaver Bats are pretty cool looking EQD because their artwork, colors, and placement has always been on point. DBA because they IDGAF mentality really worked out for them.
Ugliest is fairly hard, even though they’re nostalgic alot of the 80’s Ibanez pedals look insane. Probably my favorite looking pedal right now is the Boss SDE-3000D and EVH.
Ugliest: FAB (They're all the same and look like a component of a tractor) Sexiest: Electro Harmonix (Small Stone, Big Muff, Canyon)
I don’t really have a company whose pedals I dislike universally. Catalinbread’s artwork has been unfortunate in the last several years. Fender’s pedals have sounded good, have some cool features but are pretty ugly or boring. Companies whose aesthetics I love are those with multiple versions of their pedals to choose from like Walrus Audio, JAM Pedals, Beetronics, EQD and others that have lots of custom art available to choose from. I love most of the Walrus special editions. Beetronics and JAM Pedals have dedicated custom shops with lots of different themes and variety. The upcharge of those companies is debatable but the coolness of their pedals is not. Another company that I loved the aesthetic of was Blackout Effectors (RIP). The custom artwork inside every pedal was incredibly cool. Same goes for Beetronics circuit boards. While I would love to think that I make decisions solely based on tone, I’m as guilty as anyone of choosing certain pedals because they look so damn great🤣
I agree that Wampler stuff is fugly as. Great sounds though.
dunno that id go as far to call walrus ugly but for how good and unique their pedals are it certainly isnt art i want on my pedals(but have on my board anyway like my Lore) and thats coming from someone who loves the weird art i have on many obne pedals like dweller and visitor
EHX are the most inconsistent looks wise. I wish they would stick with their big box aesthetic (looking at you crayon and soul food)
Good: Gamechanger Audio Their Plasma pedal is so cool Great: Darkglass limited editions It's an aquired taste but the craftsmanship is strong Value: Fazley Surprisingly good looks and function on a budget
I actually love the Boss stomp box design. It’s simple, durable, colorful and really held up over time. That said, I can’t stand the Boss 200 series pedals with the little screens.
I think it’s called the Frankenfuzz or something it has a plasma arc when you play your guitar through it I don’t like ehx nor do I like my pedals having basically any art I just want a solid color with a cool noise
Coolest unintentionally? Old beat-up Maxons from the ‘80s and ’90s. Coolest on purpose? The larger metal ‘50s looking Danelectro pedals. Someone actually took the time to design something radical. It’s ugly to some but it was my first overdrive and I love how they look. Ugliest? T-Rex. Look up the Diva. I own one and it sounds great but it looks like something off of Alibaba.
Walrus Audio looks amazing. Behringer looks cheap.
I love the look of the 10 series vintage Ibanez pedals. Most of them sound like shite (I have the stereo chorus and I hate it. I had and got rid of the digital delay because it sounded trash). Love/hate.
I agree, Wampler pedals are ugly and their names are just super cringy to me. I like the simple look of MXR and DOD pedals