2024 Guitars For Idiots’ Guitar Pedal Review Rankings

It was a year full of showcasing new brands, creative builders, and smaller batches than you’ll find on main stream sites.

Welcome to the 4th annual guitar pedal review rankings here on Guitars For Idiots. This year was, yet again, a bit different on the website from years’ past. That seems to be a reoccurring trend, making the unknown of 2025 all the more interesting. In 2024 we covered a lot of newer brands as well smaller and independant builders. That was by design, as we set out early this year with the goal of covering a lot of gear you might not see on major websites like Ultimate Guitar.

This resulted in a total of 23 pedal reviews and demos coming to Guitars For Idiots in 2024, with all being from independant brands with a few affordable, imported options mixed in for good measure. This meant that unlike past years we did not cover anything from heavy hitters like Boss, UAFX, JHS Pedals, or Strymon. I’m very curious how you all feel about the switch to smaller builders, so let me know if the comments if you liked all of this year’s coverage or not!

Let’s dive in below!

Tier 1 – Can’t Miss Pedals

Tier 1 includes the pedals that I think are just clear cut brilliant pieces of work. They’d fit on almost any board, have withstood the test of time throughout the year, and just make me smile when I play them. It doesn’t mean the others suck, it just means these are the ones I grab most often out the bunch.

Rank	Pedal	Category	Price	Link to buy	Link to review
1	Stromer Mutroniks Super Fuzz	Fuzz	$199	Reverb	Click here
2	ALABS Audio Timeslip	Delay	$99	Amazon	Click here
3	Case Study Effects Studio Compressor	Compressor	$165	Reverb	Click here
4	Bulinski Pedals ASD-1	Reverb	$140	Reverb	Click here
5	Drunk Beaver Pedals Hoverla	Boost	$150	Reverb	Click here

Tier 2 – Useful & Luxury Items

Tier 2 includes a ton of pedals that are objectively great, but maybe they are a little more niche specific, or are more of a “jack of all trades, master of none” pedal. They are all pedals that I use in certain settings, but I wouldn’t be as hard pressed to replace if lost or broken.

Rank	Pedal	Category	Price	Link to buy	Link to review
6	Wonderful Audio Technology Fuzz Lands	Fuzz	$190	Reverb	Click here
7	ALABS Audio Cetus	Reverb	$106	Amazon	Click here
8	Rare Buzz Effects Rubidium	Fuzz	$179	Reverb	Click here
9	Summer School Electronics Half Day!	Compressor	$149	Reverb	Click here
10	Audio! Audio! Superdrive	Drive	$199	Audio! Audio!	Click here
11	Mosky Spring Reverb	Reverb	$34	Amazon	Click here
12	ALABS Audio Orbital	Octave	$109	Amazon	Click here
13	Summer School Electronics Extra Credit Boost	Boost	$149	Reverb	Click here
14	Eddie Rifkind KarenX	Fuzz	$110	Reverb	Click here
15	Drunk Beaver Pedals The Forest Song	Drive	$175	Reverb	Click here
16	JSA Effects Hot Toddy	Drive	$124	Reverb	Click here
17	Eddie Rifkind Ken Aggressive Pusher	Boost	$110	Reverb	Click here
18	Winnipeg Electrical Co. Blues	Drive/Fuzz	$128	Reverb	Click here
19	JSA Effects Eureka	Compressor	$151	Reverb	Click here

Tier 3 – Serviceable

Tier 3 includes pedals that are completely fine, do their job, but were a little bit unexciting to me. They weren’t objectively bad by any means, but these are not ones I will probably look back on years from now longingly.

Rank	Pedal	Category	Price	Link to buy	Link to review
20	Eddie Rifkind Karen	Drive	$110	Reverb	Click here
21	JSA Effects Little Treble Maker	Boost	$124	Reverb	Click here
22	ALABS Audio Novadrif	Modulation	$99	Amazon	Click here
23	Sonicake Warped Dimension	Modulation	$55	Amazon	Click here

Don’t forget about the past three years of guitar pedal review rankings!!

2023 Rankings

2022 Rankings

2021 Rankings

What do you want to see in 2025? Let me know in the comments! Thanks all for a great year, it’s been an absolute joy to run this site for 5 years now and I’m incredibly lucky so many great brands want to work with me. So many of those folks are the ones who keep the lights on here and keep me stocked with ideas and articles and demos. Here’s to a great 2025 that will have more pedal demos, a return to guitar reviews, and a lot more artist and band interviews like our recent chat with SWMRS! If you like what I do please subscribe, hit my affiliate links, or spread the word and share my articles! Anything you do makes a difference and is greatly appreciated by me.