How do you find the right sound when everything is a great sound?

We’re living in the “Golden Age of Guitar Pedals.”

Outstanding builders from America and across the world are consistently creating excellent, musical effects. High quality components, workmanship, and style are becoming the norm. Keeley, Earthquaker Devices, Catalinbred, among many others are raising the bar for guitarists’ expectations of their effects. Even industry stalwarts like Boss, Electroharmonix, and Dunlap are modernizing and improving their offerings. And most effects are affordable these day, too. All this quality is yours for usually between $100-200 dollars.

So with all the quality available, the challenge is no longer figuring out which delay or overdrive is good. Because they’re pretty much all good, now. The challenge is figuring out which one is the right one for what you need—based on the situations where you play.

That’s where The Any Colour U Like ratings project comes in. Each pedal I review will not end in a simple 1-to-5 star rating. Instead, we’ll look at 5 independent factors. Each factor will address a different dimension of the pedal, from the perspective of performance, recording, composition, and overall range of application. For each factor, the pedal under review will get a rating from 1 to 7.

The first factor is Build Quality. Most of the builders today are using quality components and build techniques. But, what are the design elements that make a pedal most useful? Most fun? Most rugged and worry-free? I’ll take a critical eye to the overall quality here.

The second dimension is the Size of the Sweetspot and Diversity of Tones. Some effects are a bit of a one-trick pony, with one great sound or setting. Others are Swiss Army knives, with multiple worthwhile sounds and multiple voices. A big sweetspot means less time tweaking, and more time playing. It also means more to explore in the pedal, and more potential ways it can be used. A pedal with a bigger sweetspot is one thatwill get used more often, and sound great with a variety of guitars.

Next, Tone Quality in a Room. Some pedals sound fantastic in a room, with only the sound of the amp and no recording gear or techniques in the way. This is the raw sound, the sound you hear by yourself when you play alone, or in a live ensemble. For players that primarily perform live or simply play for their own pleasure, this is often the most important factor.

The flipside of Tone Quality in a Room is Tone Quality in a Mix. We’ve all been there: some tones that are fantastic in a live setting sound awful when recorded or placed into a busy mix. Other sounds which may be thin and farty in a room sound rich and alive when recorded. So, I’ll be looking at the recorded sound separately, and evaluating it as its own dimension. For guitarists that are focused on tracking or production, this dimension is critical.

Finally, there is the X-Factor. This dimension is fundamentally about vibe. Does the pedal inspire you? Does it make you want to play? Does it change the way you play or the things that you play for the better? Does it open you up to write songs or riffs that you may not have written without the pedal? Is the sound fascinating, does it make you want to get lost in it? Finally, and this is important: Is it cool?

I’ll end with a composite score that averages out the five dimensions. But I encourage you to give the most weight not to the composite—but to the individual dimensions that are most important to you as a live performer, recordist, or composer. Stay tuned for reviews of new and classic stompboxes. Meanwhile, please offer your feedback on the rating system—where it works, and where you’d like to see additions, in the comments below.