Not every pedal at the Summer NAMM show this past week in Nashville was a hot-off-the-press, sneak peek, prototype-type thing! Several previously announced stomps and other… more mature… pedals dotted the landscape as well. It was good to see smaller companies showing off their pedal prowess – Jack DeVille Electronics, Swell Pedals, Molten Voltage and Sonic Edge et al. As larger companies have migrated away from the summer show in favor of the heightened exposure of the winter festivities in California, hopefully the trend of smaller shops committing to Nashville will continue. You can check out some of the other pedals we spied in Nashville after the jump!

Probably the most talked about pedal at all of Summer NAMM wasn’t an effect at all… instead it was Pigtronix’s slick new effect tool, the Keymaster Re-amp Effects Mixer. As we’ve already told you, the Keymaster sports dual, true bypass FX loops that can run in series or in parallel. The pedal will allow you to run a line level signal out of the recording console, into effects then an amplifier, or back into the console via one simple interface. A parallel blend feature allow you to mix two different effects or effects chains together. Confused? Let Pigtronix top hog Dave Koltai walk you through the rest of the features after the jump!

Electro-Harmonix’s own Larry DeMarco walked us through the new batch of upcoming pedals at the Summer NAMM show in Nashville. Included in the new offerings were the Freeze Sound Retainer, Germanium4 Big Muff Pi, Nano Clone and the Magnum 44 Power Amp. Each of the these pedals – and a nifty new headphone amplifier – will be available in stores shortly. We know a lot of folks have been interested in the Freeze and exactly what it does… as well as the new Germanium-driven Big Muff Pi. Check out the video after the jump and you should be able to get some idea about the possibilities of these new pedals.

The crew at Morpheus, who brought the market the unique DropTune pedal last year, is at it again… this time with its Capo Polyphonic Pitch Up pedal. The Capo is capable of up tune up to 3-1/2 steps in 1/2-step increments, and has full octave up tune and octaver/12-string effect. The pedal also sports a latching Effect On/Off switch, momentary Up and Toggle Down switches and a USB port for software updates. Where the DropTune ‘extended’ the guitar fretboard at the head… the Capo ‘extends’ it near the bridge. The pedal should be available a little later this summer and have the same retail price – around $200 – as the DropTune.

Francisco at Seattle-based AbovegroundFX showed us a trio of new pedals this week at the Summer NAMM show. The soon-to-be-released Tap Tremolo and Ropez PH phaser you may have seen already, but the sparkly black box with no name? That was something new! That something is the AboveGroundFX Rocks Hard high gain distortion. The Rocks Hard is a texture-rich distortion that offers a thick, throaty gain without muddying up chords and allowing the strings to sing through. Information of price and availability is yet to come, but we do have a brief video of the pedal in action after the jump!

Perry with Levana Audio was set up in Nashville this week showing off much of the company’s line of high-end pedals and pro-studio gear. One item that caught our eye was an unnamed prototype 3-in-1 pedal. The stomp, expected to be ready for Winter NAMM in Anaheim next January, is a combination of an octave phase, phaser and delay. Few details are available as yet, but you can expect the same level of quality and finish offered by the rest of the Levana line. Other pedals in the Levana line – including the Black distortion and the CT’s Rough Rider overdrive – are coming to market soon.

Harri with Mad Professor was showing off a new pedal or two at the Summer NAMM show this week – the Ruby Red Booster and Bass Auto Wah, but it was news of a new amp on the way that perked up our ears. Mad Professor is working on a new, low-watt, single knob combo amp. While the particulars are still being formulated, the amp will likely be a 5-watt, 1×10 combo with a single knob control. Harri said he was inspired by Jeff Beck’s recent infatuation with the vintage Fender Champ combo, which he used on his most recent album and tour. The new MP amp will likely favor a more British voicing, but ‘ballsier and rounder’. Stay tuned!

The Molten Voltage crew had two pedals on display at the Summer NAMM show this week in Nashville – the Node Effect Injector and the Molten Midi. The Node is dubbed an effect injector. The pedal can be set up to ‘inject’ a looped effect into the signal with a stomp of a switch, or ‘pull’ the effect out of the signal. The Node will be available later this summer. The Molten Midi is a pedal and software combination that works in conjunction with the Digitech Whammy 4. It saves 15 programs that can be sent from your computer via a custom program interface or entered manually. It also sends MIDI clock information along with program and song changes.

The buzz around the Modtone booth at Summer NAMM this week wasn’t exclusive to the new Space Flanger due to hit the market soon. The company has several new pedal projects in the pipeline, some of which will likely be debuted at the Winter NAMM show next January. So… what’s coming? A fuzz to start… which will be a first for Modtone. A high gain distortion is coming… gainier than the Speedbox, but voiced differently from the Extreme Metal stomp. Also… 2-in-1 (maybe 3-in-1) combo pedals are being mulled. Lastly, the company is planning to launch a mini pedal line (MiniMods?) at a lower price point. Stay tuned!

Steve Lasko with JangleBox has a new special edition of the Janglebox 2 on the way. The Byrds 45th Anniversary Tribute JangleBox 2 is basically the same as the previously released JB2, but with the addition of a J-Boost Tone knob to allow sound sculpting from thicker bass (full left) to piercing treble (full right). The Byrds 45th Anniversary Tribute version of the JangleBox 2 is set to hit the streets in September. Price has not yet been set, but it is expected to be slightly above the regular JB2 price of $275. Take a closer look at the special edition JB2 after the jump!

Ben Fargen of Sonic Edge/Fargen Amps has a lot more up his sleeve than just the J&J Overdrive and upcoming Tumbleweed vintage compression and clean boost stomp. While the Tumbleweed is due in September, Sonic Edge is aiming to have a new pedal coming our every quarter for the next year or so. Next up from Ben and crew is a high gain distortion pedal that will pay homage to the third channel of the EVH 5150III amp. Another stomp on the horizon is a buffer called the Fluffer… and the company is looking at offering just the clean boost side of the Tumbleweed for under $100. Take a look at the Tumbleweed proto after the jump!

The crew at Blackstar Amplifiers had the latest addition to their valve-driven pedal line on display at the Summer NAMM show this week – the Blackstar Blackfire. The Blackfire is a high-gain distortion pedal developed in partnership with Gus G – guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne. The pedal sports a metal crunch channel and a super high gain lead channel fuelled by two cascading ECC83 triode stages for gain from warm drive to screaming leads. The pedal will be available in September. Blackstar also had the new non-dirt additions to their HT line on display. The Reverb, Delay and Modulation stomps should be available later this month!

Will Cady with Source Audio gave us a sneak peak of a new SoundBlox stomp that isn’t due out for a number of months – the Bass Envelope Filter. The new pedal sports 21 effect presets ranging from low pass, single peak and phasers… and a lot of goodies in between. The stomp sports four knob controls: Effect selects to dial up the preset, Sweep Range, Speed and Frequency. The pedal offers all the filter functionality from sweeping, liquid flows to snappy, punchy thumping. We shot a little video of the stomp in action that you can check out after the jump! Pricing and availablity are coming soon! Stay tuned!

David Koltai and the Pigtronix crew had two new offering on display at Summer NAMM this week – the Keymaster re-amp effects mixer and the Tremvelope envelope tremolo. The Keymaster has dual, true bypass FX loops that can run in series or in parallel. In the studio, the Keymaster will allow you to run a line level signal out of the recording console, into effects then an amplifier, or back into the console via one simple interface. A parallel blend feature allow you to mix two different effects or effects chains together! More info on both pedals – including price and availability – is coming soon! For now, check out the close up pics of each after the jump!

The WTDP? crew will be loading up the family truckster and heading for Nashville this week to peruse the goodies on display at the Summer NAMM show. While the show is definitely the little brother to the big winter show in Anaheim, there are plenty of gear gurus showcasing equipment of interest! We’ll be bringing you updates from the floor on the newest pedals and amps, many photo galleries, some audio clips and a little video as well. Look for updates from the likes of Electro-Harmonix, Pigtronix, Source Audio, Aboveground FX, Blackstar, Diamond Amps, Egnater and many more! Stay tuned to the site starting Friday for all the gear news you can use!