Have a sizzling start to 2023 with Guitar World’s New Year New Gear guide

It’s a new year…and that means it’s time for some new gear. And it’s also time for Guitar World’s annual New Year New Gear guide. Because while we’re still shaking off the chill of winter, things are already heating up with lots of great new products.

In this second installment, Guitar World‘s Paul Riario and Alan Chaput explore innovative effect pedals for guitar and bass – Kernom’s RIDGE Overdrive and Seamoon’s Grind Machine

First up is Kernom’s RIDGE Overdrive (opens in new tab), a new offering billed as the world’s first “augmented analog pedal.” The innovative design uses a groundbreaking clipping control technology to combine best-in-class sound with unparalleled flexibility and expressivity, allowing users to shape the clipping flavor and personality of the pedal in an infinite number of ways and to control it via MIDI or with an expression pedal.

The RIDGE’s clipping behavior is controlled by a Mood knob, which, turning from left to right, takes you from high headroom, clean boost territory to highly compressed overdrive. There’s also an assortment of EQ controls via the Pre Tone, Post Tone and Mid dials, as well as one onboard preset and 128 MIDI presets. Additionally, you get Drive and Volume knobs, plus two footswitches: one for on/off – with true bypass – and one to engage a preset.

The RIDGE is powered from a standard 9V input, and also offers a top output of up to 30V for “ultimate dynamics to punish your amp.” Now that’s a powerful pedal.

Paul and Alan also have something special in store for bassists – the Seamoon Grind Machine (opens in new tab), a new pedal designed to deliver versatility, tone and responsiveness to distortion-demanding low-enders.

Built for the bassist who loves to get dirty but still wants to keep to cover their frequencies in the mix, the all-analog Grind Machine offers excellent distortion with no loss to low end. And the four-knob control set – Level, Drive, Blend and Cut – ensures plenty of flexibility to cover everything from pop and rock to funk and metal. And it all comes packaged in a rugged enclosure emblazoned with a super-cool black matte design.

GuitarWorld.com created this content as part of a paid partnership with Kernom and Seamoon. The contents of this article are entirely independent and solely reflect the editorial opinion of Guitar World.