Since its initial unveiling last year, Fender has been steadily adding to its line of effects pedals, releasing six new entries at the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim back in January and six more today at the Summer NAMM show in Nashville. New to the roster are the: Reflecting Pool, Pour Over, Smolder, Compugilist, Trapper, and MTG:LA.
Functionality-wise, the Reflecting Pool is the most robust of this new batch of effects and is packed into the largest chassis. It's a combination stereo delay and reverb pedal that gives players a wide range of functionality and control over each independent effect's parameters—decay, damp, level, and extra on the reverb side and time, feedback, mix, level, rate, and depth on the delay side. There's also a tap-tempo footswitch and a time toggle for subdivisions.
The Pour Over is Fender's first envelope filter entry to its effects line. Sometimes referred to as an auto-wah effect, the Pour Over features everything a player would need in an envelope filer—like selectable high-, low-, and band-pass filters—as well as extras, like an onboard distortion circuit.
Also a first for Fender's series is an acoustic pedal called the Smolder. Rather than starting with a more common type of acoustic pedal, like a DI, Fender opted to take on a new challenge and create an acoustic overdrive unit.
This all-analog pedal promises to solve common acoustic distortion tonal issues with features like its Pickup Compensation control, which smooths out the highs of a piezo pickup's bright attack. Players can sculpt their tone further with its distortion-controlling drive knob, three-band EQ, and filter controls and even play around with the included cabinet simulation when plugged into an acoustic amp or PA.
While this effects line already features a standalone compressor effect and a couple of distortions, the new Compugilist marries the two effects in one pedalboard-friendly chassis. These two discrete, all-analog circuits can be used independently or stacked together for the ultimate pairing.
Also new is a dual fuzz unit called The Trapper, packing a softer-sounding voice complete with a switchable high octave for synth-like tones and a grittier second voice with a highly interactive noise gate. And, lastly, Fender iterated on its MTG Tube Distortion pedal with the MTG:LA Tube Distortion, which is based around a genuine, American-made NOS 6205 preamp tube.
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