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Ambient music has carved out a unique niche in the guitar pedal world, and guitar players use all sorts of different pedals and effects to create ambient drones and soundscapes within their compositions.
While countless guitar pedals on the market can be classified as ‘ambient’ pedals, some cater to ambient musicians better than others. Often those will be reverb pedals or delay pedals since those effects lend themselves well to the genre. However, as you will see below, there are several different styles of pedals out there that work well in an ambient guitar rig.
Below are some of our top picks for the best, most interesting ambient guitar pedals available today.
A quick look at the best ambient guitar pedals
| Pedal | Where to Buy | |
|---|---|---|
| Strymon - Nightsky |  | Amazon |
| Chase Bliss - MOOD MKii |  | chasebliss.com |
| Hologram Electronics - Microcosm |  | hologramelectronics.com |
| Keeley - Caverns |  | Amazon |
| Earthquaker Devices - Afterneath |  | Amazon |
| Gamechanger Audio - Light Pedal |  | Amazon |
| Walrus Audio - Slö |  | Amazon |
| Earthquaker Devices - Avalanche Run |  | Amazon |
| Electro Harmonix - Freeze |  | Amazon |
| Dunlop - DVP4 Mini Volume Pedal |  | Amazon |
Strymon – Nightsky
Strymon’s Nightsky Time-Warped Reverberator is an incredible guitar pedal for making ambient music and soundscapes.
The Nightsky offers three distinct reverb modes: Sparse, Dense, and Diffuse. Each mode offers a unique reverb sound that can then be tweaked almost infinitely using the array of parameter controls available to you on the front of the pedal.
The Nightsky features several ways to experiment with its reverb sound, including a unique ‘Drive’ knob that allows you to overdrive the reverb sound for a unique saturated reverb sound. You can also adjust the pitch of the reverb sound to create interesting reverb textures and drones. While these are both exciting features, they barely scratch the surface of the Nightsky. It also allows you to add low and high pass filtering, modulation, shimmer effects, and much more.
Overall, it’s an ambient machine.
Where to buy the Nightsky
Chase Bliss – Mood MKII
The Mood is perhaps one of the most iconic guitar pedals of recent times. It’s a unique delay and looper pedal that is absolutely packed with unique features and looper playback options. It’s an ambient guitar pedal that you can get lost in forever.
The Mood MKII features a micro looper that is constantly listening to whatever is being played through it. Then, once you turn the pedal on, it plays back a snippet, or a ‘Micro Loop’, of whatever it just heard. But that’s not all, the Mood offers several effects that can be used to process the micro loop – including reverb, delay, time-stretching, and more.
The result is truly an immersive ambient guitar pedal experience that is constantly evolving as you continue to play.
Where to Buy the Mood MKII
Hologram Electronics – Microcosm
The Microcosm is the ultimate ambient guitar pedal for those who love experimenting with completely new sounds.
The Microcosm is a granular sampler – meaning it slices up your guitar (or whatever instrument you’re using) sound into tiny sound samples, and rearranges them into pure bliss.
The Microcosm offers several phrase looper and micro looper options, two granular modes, a multi-mode delay, and a wide range of parameters you can use to tweak reverb, modulation, and filtering within the pedal.
Where to Buy the Microcosm
Keeley – Caverns
If you are looking to use more ‘traditional’ reverb and delay to create ambient music, the Caverns from Keeley Electronics should be on your radar.
The Caverns is a two-in-one pedal that offers both a reverb effect and a delay effect. Each effect can be used individually or simultaneously for the ultimate ambient experience.
Both the delay and reverb effects in the Caverns have their own set of controls, allowing you to adjust the reverb delay or delay time independently. The Caverns also offers three ambient-friendly reverb modes: Spring reverb, modulated reverb, and – my favorite – shimmer reverb.
Where to Buy the Caverns
Earthquaker Devices – Afterneath
The Afterneath is a unique ambient reverberator that is renowned for its ability to create atmospheric and experimental sounds.
The Afterneath uses short digital delays to create a reverb effect. This style of reverb coupled with the Afterneath’s unique controls and pitch-shifting modes gives you a litany of haunting reverb and delay sounds – a truly otherworldly experience.
Where to Buy the Afterneath
Gamechanger Audio – Light Pedal
The Light Pedal from Gamechanger Audio is one of the most unique pedals available today – and it’s an incredible tool for creating ambient sounds.
At its core, the Light Pedal is a spring reverb pedal. However, the way it achieves its reverb sound is where it stands apart from the rest. The Light Pedal uses infrared optical sensors and physical springs to create its reverb sounds – resulting in a unique, incredibly beautiful reverb effect.
The Light Pedal also offers 6 different modes and a whole set of controls for tweaking its reverb sound.
Where to Buy the Light Pedal
Walrus Audio – Slö
The Slö is a staple in the ambient guitar world.
The Slö features three distinct reverb modes: Dark (Octave down reverb), Rise (Swell reverb), and Dream (Modulated reverb) – each with its own unique characteristics for creating lush, ambient sounds.
It is a go-to reverb pedal for those looking to make ambient music.
Where to Buy the Slö
Walrus Audio now also has the Slötvå, which offers the exact same reverb sounds as the Slö but features on-board presets for a slightly higher price. Well worth the upgrade if you are a big user of presets.
You can find the Slötvå here on Amazon
Earthquaker Devices – Avalanche Run
The Avalanche Run from Earthquaker devices is another fantastic two-in-one delay and reverb pedal.
The delay side offers a wide array of delay sounds ranging from tape emulation and bucket brigade-style delay to reverse delay and more. It also features tons of control over the delay sound – including tap tempo. It also features a reverb effect that can be controlled independently using the “Mix” and “Decay” knobs in the middle of the pedal.
Where to Buy the Avalanche Run
Electro Harmonix – Freeze
The Freeze from Electro Harmonix is definitely the most simple effect in this list, but is an absolute must-have for those seeking ambient sounds and drones.
The Freeze does exactly what it sounds like it does. It freezes your audio signal and plays it back infinitely. Resulting in a never-ending drone that you can apply other effects to or use it as a backing sound to play over top of.
While it’s a simple effect, it serves its purpose perfectly and it is the ultimate drone machine for ambient musicians.
Where to Buy the Freeze
Dunlop – Volume X Mini DVP4
The ultimate volume pedal.
A volume pedal should definitely be on your pedalboard if you’re looking to make ambient music, and the DVP4 is one of the most popular choices on the market.
The DVP4 is great because it is a fantastic volume pedal (that can also be used as an expression pedal to control several of the above pedals via their expression pedal inputs), and it is also quite small so you don’t have to sacrifice much space on your pedalboard.
If you’re not aware, a volume pedal just allows you to adjust your guitar’s volume, which lets you create ambient swells with your foot rather than the volume knob on your guitar. One of these plus a reverb pedal is an equation for endless ambient bliss.
Where to Buy the Volume X Mini DVP4
