I drastically reduced my pedal intake this past year and increased my pedal purging, which is for the best! But I DID get a good amount of affordable Muff clones and some affordable utility pedals. My favorite pedal purchases for 2024 were:
1. BAT Priestess - Instantly became my #1 fuzz. Just the right amount of aggression, no loss of lows, present in the mix, and tweakable in the right ways. An absolute monster of a fuzz I'm surprised I don't hear about more often, and a wonderful companion to my other favorite BAT fuzz, the Pharaoh Supreme.
2. CMC Muffs - I'm cheating here, but really, they're all pretty great. For bass specifically, I LOVE the Bubble Font, with the Tall Font a close #2 on my second rig. But I could also do just fine with the Civil War... Anyway, for the price, they're the best fuzzes I've ever played, and have beaten out most of my boutique fuzzes for their size and simplicity. They're so easy to dial in and sound so good! If I didn't have other options, these 3 could do whatever I need on both guitar and bass. (Thankfully, I do have other options when I want, so I also have other CMC Muffs for other guitar needs!)
3. Digitech CabDryVR - Nothing too fancy or complicated, but it really helps with my headphone/PA/silent practice rig. Way better tone than my old DOD Gray Box Cabinet Emulator, and certainly more features and tweakability. Plus, I can use it with guitar and bass simultaneously if needed. I've got a few now, with only one more to acquire to have one on each of my bass and guitar rigs. Great pedals!
Next year, I hope to continue dramatically reducing my pedal intake. I'm aiming for maybe 6 total, though I certainly don't need any and have no definite plans to acquire any. We'll see - nothing really comes to mind much at the moment besides a few other CMC clones or some stuff that's relatively hard to find and usually out of my budget. Maybe I'll get lucky on a trade or two?
