The Best Weird Boutique Effects Pedals - 2022

That are actually usable

Now that the Effects Pedal Market has been more active than ever, the term “Boutique Pedal“ is used for all sorts of things. Some think it’s about a pedal being expensive, others think that it’s about the limited availability, and many believe it’s about having a unique feature set.

While all these are somehow true, today we are going to explore only pedals that are unique in a weird way. Effects that cannot be easily replaced by a plugin in your DAW, that have a special tone you can’t find anywhere else, and that spark inspiration once you start messing with their knobs!

We are mostly focusing on pedals that play well with synthesizers, not only guitars since we focus on Electronic Music.

Collision Devices - Black Hole Symmetry

Black Hole Symmetry is a sexy-looking pedal made by the French company Collision Devices. It is a Modulated Delay / Pitch shifted Reverb / Destruction Fuzz pedal that combines those three effects into one stunning package. Hand-made, with awesome copywriting, Black Hole Symmetry is a great all-in-one ambient effects unit. It has a lush Reverb, a warm Delay, and to add that extra crunch, a Fuzz circuit.

It looks and sounds amazing with any instrument and that’s why we highly recommend it.

Pladask Elektrisk Fabrikat

This industrial-looking pedal by Pladask Elektrisk is a weird one. Fabrikat is a 100% inorganic, experimental multi-effects processor featuring 16 algorithms focusing on granular synthesis and modified sample playback. It has pitch-shifting, freeze functions, granular processing, and more.

It is essentially a glitchy, stuttery device that will mangle your signal in all the right ways. With a low mix, it will create a beautiful “bed“ for your melodies and chords but it also gets to the extreme.

Earthquaker Devices - Rainbow Machine

An iconic pedal, the Rainbow Machine by Earthquaker Devices is the craziest pedal on this list. It may be crossing the line of being usable but we had to include it. On the EQD website, it is called a Polyphonic Pitch Mesmerizer. What that means in common terms is that it is a Pitch Shifter that can get out of hand in a split second.

If you have this pedal, you will definitely try to find those little sweet spots to make it work, but when you do it’s amazing. What else would you expect when it has a knob and a switch called “Magic“?

Hologram Electronics Microcosm

One of the most successful pedals of the past two years, the Micorcosm is an amazing device. After the release of Infinite Jets and Dream Sequence, Hologram Electronics put their experience to work and made one of the greatest pedals out there.

Microcosm is a granular effects pedal that rearranges and reinterprets your sound in new and exciting ways using a variety of sampling, pitch-shifting, delay, and looping techniques. It has a ton of modes (11 to be exact) that all have their place in your sonic arsenal. It has a reverb, a delay, a looper, granular effects, and glitching effects that all sound amazing with any source.

It’s deep and fun at the same time and sounds beautiful. Definitely our best pick on the list.

Montreal Assembly 856 for ZELLERSASN

Montreal Assembly is known for its micro-looper/ delay, the Count to Five. Here, we feature another pedal by them, the 856 for ZELLERSASN. This is a looper that allows playback of many-layered copies of a single recording, each layer can have various unique manipulations of the original recording. Portions from the recorded loop can be played back in various rhythms and at different pitches. Once a series of transformations has been composed, this sequence of manipulations can be stored and can be applied to new loops/recordings.

It is a very unique take on looping, that will help you create textures and loops like never before. It will pitch shift, chop, and re-arrange your original recording in ways you wouldn’t think and that’s why it is so special.

Chase Bliss Audio Thermae

Maybe the best delay pedal you can get. The Thermae by the amazing Chase Bliss Audio is an analog pitch-shifting delay that simply sounds like heaven. Pitch Shifting in general is an effect that rarely sounds good, and very often your sound is just out-of-tune and stretched (in a bad way).

But this is where Thermae shines. Its analog delay alone sounds perfect and when you add the pitch shifting effect you will get in love with this pedal’s lush and warm sound. I can’t stress enough how gorgeous it sounds. All Chase Bliss products are stellar, but Thermae is their very best.

Industialectric RM-1N

For all the shoegazers and drone musicians, the RM-1N is a great choice. It combines distortion and reverb to create infinite soundscapes. It is mellow and soft, but also harsh and destructive. It looks industrial and it sounds industrial.

If you enjoy distortion and synths (we have a whole article about this), you will love Industrialectric’s RM-1N!

Empress Effects ZOIA

The ZOIA by Empress Effects is basically a modular synthesizer in pedal form and you can do anything you want with it. You can create almost any type of effect while you can also use it as a synthesizer on its own. It has a huge amount of modules (more than 80!) that you can combine to your liking to create unique patches and get lost in the process.

This is a one-of-a-kind pedal. It is extremely deep and can get quite complex but it pays off with its flexibility and features. If you are ready for exploration and tweaking, there is nothing like the ZOIA.

Meris Ottobit Jr.

Meris is an effects and pedals manufacturer that quickly became of the best boutique pedal builders in the world. Ottobit Jr. is their weirdest creation. If we want to oversimplify it, we would call it a bit crusher. But that would be an understatement. Ottobit has a pitch/ filter/ crush sequencer that makes your signal move unexpectedly and a stutter effect that you can dial from off to random. It also packs a very nice “synthy“ lowpass filter that sounds great.

It is made to add rhythm and movement to your sound and provide that stuttery, glitchy element that is hard to achieve.

Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water

Last but not least, we have the king of boutique pedals. Shallow Water by Fairfield Circuitry is a legendary device that started the boutique pedal revolution. Nowadays, it is very easy to find a Lofi pedal that focuses on vibrato and filtering. But back in the day when Shallow Water was released, there weren’t many pedals that embraced their Lofi character so well.

I’m pretty sure that this video by Knobs made this pedal world-famous and for a good reason. Shallow Water is a Vibrato pedal with a Lowpass Gate that sounds so broken and beautiful at the same time. It resembles an old cassette recorder adding so much texture and wobble to your sound and that’s why it is used when you need to make a melody sound more alive and nostalgic.

A lot of pedals tried to copy Fairfield Circuitry, but Shallow Water is still the best of its kind.

Do you know more weird boutique pedals? Let us know!

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