BOSS GT-1000CORE

If you want serious creative power in a small package, you need to try this. Based on Boss’s full-size floorboard GT-1000, the Core measures only 173mm wide by 135mm deep, making it no larger than a chunky preamp pedal – and yet it can do so much more. With 250 user and 250 preset patches to play with, you can configure complex chains of Boss’s GT-family amp models, but it’s the effects that are the main draw for us here: there’s a raft of legendary sounds from Boss’s huge pedal catalogue aboard, from the rare Slow Gear swell effect to rich reverbs, delays and more. It’s only £220 more than Boss’s DD-500 delay pedal, but the extra buys you a complete tone workstation for your ’board or studio.