One Knob Wonders
In this article, I'm going to show you my absolute favorite guitar pedals that have only one knob. They're one knob wonders.
I know it sounds like I’m setting this up for some kind of knock-knock joke, but I’m not. Yet. I can’t guarantee we won’t drop one before the article is over.
If you go back and watch this episode of the JHS show, bear in mind that in all the demos I’m playing to a clean tube amp, so there's no overdrive distortion going on within the amp. Any distortion that you do hear is because of the pedal that I'm playing, or maybe because that pedal’s overloading and pushing the amp in a good way. Let's do this thing.
Phase Shifter
First up is the Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phase Shifter. The original pedal was released in the ’80s, so you can track down a vintage big box if that’s more your style. If you want a newer pedal with the same effects, you can grab their new nano reissue. These two pedals sound pretty much identical, but in the demo I played the bigger one because bigger pedals almost always sound better. That’s a scientifically proven fact.
Now, there are a lot of one knob phasers, like the classic MXR Phase 90 or the DOD Phasor, but this is my favorite. It does have a switch, but I'm allowing that because it's not a knob and I love this effect. Also, I made the rules. I’m allowed to bend them a little.
Boost
Next is the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster. Like the Small Stone, you’ve got the original units, plus the new reissue. I had one of the original pedals back in the day, and the reissue is pretty much the same circuit in a new enclosure.
This was the first boost that I ever used where I discovered that simply putting a good quality clean boost in front of my tube amps and cranking that boost gave me overdrive. I’m talking real actual tube overdrive, because my amp couldn't handle it in a very good way. If you can’t get hold of this pedal, some other recommendations are the Cusack More Louder and my own Prestige. They all do very similar things, but the Pickup Booster is a super underrated pedal, and it's always been a favorite of mine.
The Beano Boost by Analog Man is one of my favorite effects ever. Basically, it's a Dallas Rangemaster treble boost circuit,** and I love that this is in a small package. Analog Man is so good at building these classic circuits, so I highly recommend this if you want to experience the true nature of a late ’60s treble booster. It’s pretty magical.
**Fun fact: the Dallas Rangemaster was actually manufactured in England, not Texas. #themoreyouknow
This boost sends the amp into natural breakup, and almost on the edge of fuzz overdrive. It's just such a great sound.
If you can’t get your hands on the Pickup Booster or the Beano Boost, another good version of this circuit is the Stomp Audio Labs Amp.
Fuzz
You gotta have fuzz, and some of the most fun fuzz pedals on the planet have one knob. Case in point: the Mythos Golden Fleece. The name alone is insanely epic. So is the enclosure, come to that. It’s like having a bar of gold sitting at your feet, and what guitarist hasn’t dreamed of that? It's also based off of this really rare classic fuzz pedal that no one's ever seen. I promise it's real, though. And this clone sounds amazing.
Another favorite is the Erupter by EarthQuaker Devices. This is basically a strange Fuzz Face hybrid, a truly crazy pedal that Jamie worked up. It’s really fun to play.
Wah
For Wah, we’ve got the Electro Harmonix Dr. Q Envelope Follower, which has one knob, one switch, and a lot of funky auto wah** going on here. The Danelectro French Fries is a smaller pedal in a cute little purple plastic enclosure.
**Shout out to my auto-transcription service for trying to transcribe “auto wah” as “Ottawa,” the Canadian capital. You weren’t right, but you honestly should have been.
I’m fairly sure the French Fries is a copy of the Dr. Q Envelope Follower, so if you had to pick between them, I will say that the Dr. Q is a little more rich and full sounding. But you really can’t go wrong with either pedal. That’s the beauty of cloned circuitry.
Overdrive
Yeah, EarthQuaker Devices gets to be on this list twice, because Jamie and Julie have earned that kind of respect. Picture the wisdom of Marlon Brando in the Godfather, but without the violence and shooting people, and that’s Julie and Jamie.
Also, the EarthQuaker Devices Speaker Cranker is a really, really cool pedal. It's a one transistor circuit that a lot of people have used over the years. It originally came out in the ’70s and a lot of people have put their own spin on it, but the original unit is still my favorite out there. I love it because you can take an amp like a Princeton or a Bassman, you can crank it all the way, you can crank it half, and either way it just gives you a really natural breakup effect because that transistor reacts a lot like a tube.
Another good version of a one knob overdrive/simple transistor circuit is the Lovepedal JTM. I'm a big fan.
Reverb
There are a lot of reverb pedals on the market, but after all these years, I continually come back to the one knob Holy Grail Reverb by Electro Harmonix. I’ll admit that it’s an oddly appropriate name. Electro Harmonix definitely knew they were on to something when they released this.
There's a big box version of the pedal and there's the small nano, but they sound practically identical. In either pedal, I love the spring reverb and hall reverb settings. The one setting you need to avoid at all costs, though, is the flurb. I can’t describe it except to say that it’s awful. Nobody ever uses it. It's kind of banned.
Don’t let that put you off the Holy Grail, though. The rest of the settings are fantastic.
Another great one knob reverb is the TC Electronic Hall of Fame Mini, which is the tiny version of the Hall of Fame by TC Electronics. The original has too many knobs, so they put this version out with just one knob. The Mini also has some USB capability, where you can load in presets and fancy digital stuff.
At the end of the day, you can’t go wrong with anything from this list. Honestly, the beauty of a one knob pedal is that you have one less thing to worry about, whether you’re in the studio or at a live show. Just turn on the pedal and call it a day.
I’m just doing what I can to help. Rock on and prosper.