THE PEDALS THEY CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT

Pedals have provided some of the most thrilling guitar tones in history, from "Purple Haze" to "Comfortably Numb." To celebrate decades of stellar sounds, we asked 60-plus guitar greats to choose their ultimate stompboxes

- Amit Sharma with Jason Sidwell, David Mead and Jamie Dickson

MICHAEL AMOTT

MXR PHASE 90

"I HAVE SO many phasers, but the one I usually go back to is the classic Phase 90. It just sounds how I imagine a phaser to sound in my head. I have all these custom-shop ones from Japan or whatever, but they don't really sound like the ones I heard on those famous records. I even have the EVH one [MXR EVH Phase 90], but I kinda prefer the regular Phase 90. I run it with the speed at zero, and it gives everything this extra fatness and slight sense of movement. I like the 3D kind of depth it brings."

ARIELLE

J.ROCKETT ANIMAL

"MINE IS THE old model that looks like a bread box. I love it because no matter what amp I put it in front of, it breaks things up beautifully with just the right amount of gain - especially when I don't want to kill everyone's ears with volume. The gritty saturated tone is so minimal, and it creates smooth Dumble-like tones, plus other sounds more associated with Fender, Marshall and everything in between. If I could only have one pedal, this would always be my first choice."

JOHN BAIZLEY

FTELECTTRONICA SCHUMANN PLL

"I USED THIS analog harmonizer pedal a lot on the last Baroness album, as well as a handful of tracks from Purple. The builder's name is Schumann, and I believe he only makes two pedals - both of which are ridiculous and unique. They're very pricey; the PLL I used actually belonged to our producer, David Friddman. It's very bizarre with lots of weird knobs and dials with some kind of envelope follower, while also having this very rich fuzz tonal characteristic."

LARI BASILIO

JHS MORNING GLORY