Having already revealed its best-selling electric guitars of 2024, online retailer Reverb has now turned its attention to the stompbox market, sharing its lists of the best-selling effects pedals from the past 12 months.
As with the electrics round-up, Reverb has provided three lists: one for overall best-sellers, another for top-selling new pedal releases, and a third for the most popular used pedals.
Over the course of 2024, there have been some huge developments within the pedal world. The mini amp modeler market, for example, has never been so fiercely contested, with Neural DSP launching the Nano Cortex and IK Multimedia debuting the TONEX One.
This, of course, comes off the back of Fender releasing the Tone Master Pro, Kemper launching the Profiler Player, and Line 6 continuing to make its Helix family more appealing than ever through gamechanging updates.
But, with all that in mind, Reverb’s stats seem to show that 2024 is very much the year of the micro-sized TONEX One, which tops the list of the best-selling new releases.
And, as Reverb points out, this feat is made even more impressive by the fact it managed to pip the Hologram Electronics Chroma Console – “which sold in very large numbers,” apparently – to top spot.
Reverb notes, “The fact that it beat out the Chroma Console is a testament to just how much utility it provides.”
The rest of the new list has room for just three more amp modeler pedals: the Line 6 Pod Express (6), Line 6 Pod Express Bass (20), and Hotone Ampero II Stage (30). Again, the Line 6 units are budget-leaning pedals, making them more accessible to more players, which no doubt contributed to their successes.
The Hotone Ampero II is an interesting case, though. It's a rather premium piece of kit at $699, and often flies under the radar in the face of competition from bigger names. Clearly, though, Hotone is capable of rubbing shoulders with those major players.
Notably, the Neural DSP Nano Cortex doesn’t make the list of new releases, nor the overall list, but that’s more likely down to its September release date.
Non-amp-modeler success stories for the year include the Keeley Muse Drive Andy Timmons Overdrive, MXR M309 Joshua Ambient Echo, and long-awaited MXR RR104 Randy Rhoads Distortion+, the latter of which arrived after much delay.
As for the overall best-seller list, while the TONEX One once again makes an impressive showing (it comes in ninth spot), it’s still the Line 6 HX Stomp that seems to be the market’s go-to amp modeler and multi-effects unit.
Granted, the HX Stomp doesn’t top the overall pile – that honor goes to the Keeley Compressor Plus, which manages to dethrone the Boss DS-1 and BD-2 this time around – but it does top the used pedals list, suggesting that players are still hunting to get Line 6’s popular stompbox on the cheap wherever possible.
Keeping the focus on the overall list, Boss has seen some of its pedals slip in the rankings, but unsurprisingly there’s still a healthy showing from the Japanese effects specialist, which maintains five pedals in the pecking order.
Some other intriguing headlines include the fact that JHS Pedals’ Morning Glory V4 has slipped off the list entirely, as has the Dunlop GCB95 Cry Baby wah pedal and TC Electronic Ditto looper, which was previously believed to be the most popular looper pedal out there.
Perhaps the biggest shake-up, however, is the fact the Boss GE-7 (which only just broke into the list for the first time in 2023 and came in at 20th) has rocketed up to fifth position.
Does that have anything to do with the fact the pedalboards of session greats such as Tom Bukovac, Brent Mason and more – who all swear by the GE-7 – have been placed under greater inspection this year? Perhaps.
And, as expected, Boss’ dominance continues and grows in the used list, which features no fewer than 11 stompboxes out of 20. It will be interesting to see how things look this time next year, and whether the TONEX One can hold on to its spot…
Head over to Reverb to find out more.
Overall Best-Selling Pedals of 2024
- Keeley Compressor Plus
- Boss BD-2 Blues Driver
- Line 6 HX Stomp
- Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
- Boss GE-7 Equalizer
- Digitech Drop
- Boss DS-1 Distortion
- MXR M169 Carbon Copy
- IK Multimedia ToneX One
- ProCo Rat 2
- Strymon Iridium
- Strymon Big Sky Reverb
- Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
- Hologram Electronics Chroma Console
- Ibanez TS9 Tubescreamer
- Universal Audio Dream 65 Reverb Amplifier
- Hologram Electronics Microcosm
- Greer Lightspeed Organic
- Earthquaker Devices Plumes
- Keeley Halo Dual Echo Andy Timmons
