This is the Yamaha Magicstomp II, a programmable multi-effects floor pedal for guitar. It’s my new toy. Of course, I’m going to use it for harmonica, and I bought it because it was a closeout and on sale for dirt cheap (less than most delay-only pedals). The thing has excellent reverbs, delays and choruses (all very useful for harp) and a lot of other fun settings, along with a volume control that could help me get a hand on feedback in some of my rigs. It also makes a nice backup to an amp — the effects include several amp simulators, meaning I could run a line out of the Magicstomp and into a PA system. It has a headphone jack and thus makes a nice practice amp as well, giving it even more usefulness.

The thing is completely programmable and I’ll get into playing with that within a few days, but I’ve been fooling around with the pre-sets tonight. Most of the distortion effects sound a bit cheesy but the reverbs/delays are great, and once I dial in my own settings, I should be able to come up with some fun stuff.