Geez, 2025's already over. What's next, 2026?
After a pretty busy 2025 packed with exciting stuff – none the least of which being our sixty-fifth anniversary as a family-owned company – we're here to do one of our favorite traditions, our Year in Gear! Pull up a chair, stay a while. We've got plenty of stuff to talk about from 2025.
Best in Show: Where Did the Time Go?
Throughout 2025, we were treated to a bunch of new releases that really shocked us when we looked back up at the clock again for the first time in "How long?" These picks were tons of fun, simple as that.
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Black Fountain Stereo Delay
This year, Old Blood really stacked up with a bunch of new, upgraded, stereo-minded versions of their fan-favorite effects. Among them: the Black Fountain Stereo. The legacy of the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Black Fountain is a lengthy one lined with captivating oil can delay effect pedals. Old Blood's Black Fountain Stereo overflowed with expressive modulated delays and ultra-modern playability as it definitively elevated oil can delay effects across the board.
Shop the OBNE Black Fountain Stereo
Walrus Audio Xero Polylooper
Sometimes your looper doesn’t hit the standards of ease and inspiration that you hold. This was not at all the case with Walrus and their Xero Polylooper. The Xero, Walrus’s first crack at the classic pedal archetype, dropped in with a dual-engine, stereo-enabled looping experience with all the seamless playability and bells and whistles you’d expect to either get a looping experience blissfully simple or inventively complex.
Mythos Pedals Big Puft Fuzz
"Well, there's something you don't see every day." Mythos Pedals, movie and Muff buffs that they are, summoned a deliciously destructive demon into our reality this year with their Big Puft fuzz. Authentically monstrous and sugary sweet, the Big Puft became the number-one sailor in our hearts and gave us the frights well past Halloween.
Best in Show: Classic in Real Time
This year, we were met with a couple of picks that really stuck with us. In particular, we saw ourselves in a vision of a future flashed-forward where we’re still sitting around playing these picks. “Remember when this was released? When was it? 2025? Man, I’m still using this. Where did the years go?”
Fender American Professional Classic Series
Fender’s always reinventing – not only on their standby models and “old school” stuff, but on their most modern classics. Case in point, when they dropped their American Professional Classic series of guitars this year, it was trademark Fender magic in motion. Introducing some retro-inspired aesthetics and features to the more modern design principles of the American Professional series, this series already has a story to tell.
Shop the Fender American Professional Classic Series
Intensive Care Audio Death Muff Fuzz
It’s a good idea to keep up with your health. Luckily for us, 2025 brought Intensive Care Audio effect pedals to our stores. Intensive Care Audio is really all about new takes on classic effect archetypes, so it only makes enough sense that their spin on a Muff fuzz is so delectable. The Death Muff embodied quite a bit of what makes the brand so compelling – and for that, all we can recommend is you take two and call us in the morning.
Milkman Sound x Benson Amps Benson The Amp Amplifier Pedal
Crossover episodes can be tricky, but that wasn’t at all the case with 2025’s highest-profile boutique amp collab: the Milkman Sound x Benson Amps Benson The Amp. This pedalboard amplifier, assuming Milkman’s classic The Amp format and Benson’s Monarch tube tone, really broke the mold for an authentic tube amplifier sure to stick around.
Shop the Milkman x Benson Benson The Amp
Caroline Guitar Company Kilobyte 2000 Lo-Fi Tap Delay
For 2025, Caroline looked to the future on their classic Kilobyte delay pedal with the definitively futuristic Kilobyte 2000 Lo-Fi Tap Delay! The original Kilobyte, hailed as “the twentieth century’s delay pedal of the future,” took a bold step with its “2000” version with upgraded playability, tone, and style. In the far-distant future – the year 2000 to be precise – the lo-fi tones of karaoke delay chips still reign supreme.
Shop the Caroline Kilobyte 2000
Best in Show: Back to the Future
Sometimes, the next big thing has been the next big thing before, if you catch our drift. 2025 brought on a bunch of exciting revivals and recreations of iconic gear. It’s deja vu all over again!
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage Series
Reaching for the top shelf of their most revered historic models, Fender’s American Ultra Luxe Vintage series sought to balance the standby pillars of their past with the forward-thinking features of the future. The American Ultra Luxe Vintage series brought some of the most iconic parts of Fender’s past forward for their players of the present.
Shop the Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage Series
Gibson Les Paul Standard Double Trouble
There’s a lot of Les Paul designs strewn about the decades, if you can imagine. This year, Gibson revived one of their most coveted finish and pickup design combos with their Les Paul Standard Double Troubles. In 2025, we were treated to limited releases of Les Paul Standards with one-of-a-kind burst finishes, vintage-inspired electronics, and rare Double Classic White pickup bobbins. We don’t condone causing trouble, by the way. With these Les Pauls though, how could you not?
Shop the Gibson Double trouble
Surfy Industries SurfyMan Preamp
In tribute to one of boutique amplifiers’ earliest unsung heroes, our friends at Surfy Industries dropped their SurfyMan preamp effect pedal. This authentic preamp from Sweden’s finest in vintage tube amps punched in with a warm sonic profile and an expressive tremolo effect. Surf’s up, kiddos.
MXR Rockman X100 Analog Tone Processor
The ‘80s are so in. Believe it or not, they are still in. With the MXR Rockman X100, we were reminded of one of the decade’s most undeniable tones – the stadium-ready, overdriven, and modulated sounds of Boston. MXR’s Rockman X100 charmingly recreated the experience of one of the world’s earliest headphone amplifiers with a simple, one-and-done drive and chorus combo ready to sell out Madison Square Garden. How do we describe it? Well, it’s more than a feeling.
Best in Show: Heart of the Rig
It’s not always about the add-ons. Believe it or not, you do often need the big pieces to make your whole rig work. With these picks, we treated ourselves to a couple pieces that really brought everything to life in big, big ways.
Martin Custom Shop Expert Acoustic Guitars
Here at Russo Music, we get treated to incredible custom acoustic pieces from Nazareth, Pennsylvania’s Martin Guitar. The reason for that being we are one of a handful of “Martin Guitar Custom Expert” dealers. With this, we frequently see some of the brand’s highest-quality custom acoustics come through our shops. This year, like any year, brought on some real stunners.
Shop Martin Guitar Custom Expert
Moog Messenger Monophonic Synthesizer
There was a pretty sizable shakeup in the analog synth world this year. One of synth’s biggest names, Moog, dropped their latest development in monophonic analog synthesis with the Messenger. This very player-friendly synth packed in incredible Moog analog synth tone, modern connectivity, and that certain vintage-style Moog aesthetic to bring leagues of synthesist hopefuls into the Moog multiverse the right way.
Teenage Engineering EP-40 Riddim Sampler and Sequencer
TE’s a funky bunch. If you didn’t know that before, it’s certainly something you couldn’t miss with their EP-40 Riddim sequencer and sampler. As part of their revered EP sampler series, the Riddim dropped in with that classic TE workflow, expansive memory, and a library of reggae and dancehall-inspired instruments.
Music Man StingRay Special Bass Guitars
As part of their ever-evolving and always celebrated StingRay Special series, Music Man dropped a dazzling lineup of basses this year. The StingRay Special, definitely a classic among bass players of all stripes, got plenty of new coats of paint to keep the series fresh alongside its effortless playability and dynamite electronics.
Shop the Music Man StingRay Special
Best in Show: Expand Your Mind
Alright, so the classics are the classics. Of course they are. You can’t spin those same wheels forever, though. Occasionally, you do have to try some of that new stuff. 2025’s the future, after all, so this year we’ve got plenty to put our perspectives on a new level.
Meris Enzo X Modular Instrument Synthesizer
Sometimes you’re not going straight for the keys. Sometimes you find yourself synthesizing your own synthesizer. This year, Meris revisited one of the creations that made them famous – their Enzo synth pedal – with the totally upgraded, six-voiced synthesizer, the Enzo X. This supersized supercomputer proved itself to not only be an upscaled Enzo but a full-on library of synth effects primed for performance through six strings.
JHS Pedals 424 Gain Stage Preamp
Okay, so we did let a little bit of vintage flavor in this section, we admit. If reformatted retro sounds like your cup of tea, the JHS 424 Gain Stage authentically revitalized the analog experience of the internet’s favorite tape recorder – though not for tape recording purposes. The 424 Gain Stage utilized the true-blue op amps of original tape recording studios to produce some truly blown-out distortions along with a dedicated XLR out to translate such tones for recording. Commit this pedal to memory. Get it on tape.
Electronic Audio Experiments Mirror House V2 Modulator
This year, we had the pleasure of welcoming Boston’s Electronic Audio Experiments to our family of brands. What’s more, this year EAE welcomed a new entry to their line – the Mirror House V2 Modulator. This wildly powerful pedal punched in with massively expressive modulation effects centered around pitch-shifting and harmonizing. Maybe your thing is more traditional choruses... maybe it’s noisy harmonies so wrong in all the right ways. EAE proved themselves quite cracked when it comes to these kinds of new effects. We can’t wait to see what they cook up next.
Best in Show: Tried and True
It’s a great feeling to find a favorite. It’s a better feeling to have one to trust in and rely on. With these picks, we have some favorite brands and designs to keep coming back to. What could be better?
Farm Pedals Forest Floor Fuzz
Our favorite Maine vegetable farmers outdid themselves this year with a funky, new fuzz. Their Forest Floor fuzz coupled germanium and silicon diodes for a charming hybrid fuzz that barked, roared, and sputtered in that wonderfully Farm-coded way: Honest, earthy, and simple. Keep an eye out every winter for what Farm farms up. It’s always original and always organic. Imagine trying to find something like that at the grocery store.
Taylor Guitars Gold Label Collection Acoustic Guitars
A big part of Taylor’s 2025 found itself in collections. With a good couple new collections of guitars showing up, we were treated to some great Taylor reinventions. Among them, the Taylor Gold Label Collection. The collection welcomed a number of refreshed takes on classic Taylor body shapes, bracing patterns, and aesthetics with innovations like their new Super Auditorium body shape and fanned V-Class bracing rising to the top. There’s never a bad time to get in on Taylor Guitars – they're always going for gold.
Shop the Taylor Gold Label Collection
EarthQuaker Devices Easy Listening Analog Amp Simulator
If you’ll indulge us, we’re always psyched to shout out our exclusive pedals from EarthQuaker Devices. This year, we collaborated with Akron’s finest for an eye-popping, candy-coated take on their Easy Listening Analog Amp Simulator – which fittingly enough also debuted this year! There is a reason why EQD is one of the leading names in effects, these days. When you have a reliable means of playing anytime you’d like with the Easy Listening, how could there not be?
Best in Show: Sixty-Five Years Strong
As 2025 comes to a close, so too does Russo Music’s sixty-fifth anniversary as a family-owned and operated company. For sixty-five years, we did something a little different and called upon some of our closest friends for some truly amazing custom and exclusive pieces. All year long, we got in some truly marvelous gear with our own distinct styles and flavors – maybe you saw some of these for yourself in real time. Here’s to sixty-six!
Caroline Guitar Company x Russo Music Tomato Pie Fuzz
There is something about Russo Music that we cannot deny: Our New Jersey roots. There is something about central ‘Jersey denizens that we will not deny: Our love for food. After sixty-five years as a family-owned, tri-state company, you eventually realize you are what you eat, so you better make it good! We turned to our friends at Caroline Guitar Company for their expertise on distorted delicacies and our own customized spin on their Hawaiian Pizza fuzz: The Tomato Pie. This original take on Caroline’s classic fuzz brought the heat for a delectable distortion that tastes like home – whether you call the Garden State that or otherwise!
Check Out the Caroline x Russo Music Tomato Pie
Kauer Guitars Russo Music 65th Anniversary Korona Deluxe
Kauer Guitars over in sunny Sacramento knows a thing or two about a family business. Among the many other things that brought this amazing custom model to life, that knowledge is surely one of them. With retro-inspired specs like a cherry sunburst finish, T-style single-coil pickups, and Kauer’s standby Spanish mahogany build, this Kauer Korona Deluxe really hit the nail on the head for a guitar equal parts vintage and modern. Kauer Guitars wasn’t around sixty-five years ago, but with an iconic piece like this, you certainly could have had us fooled.
Check Out the Kauer Russo Music Korona Deluxe
Souldier x Russo Music Zigzag Guitar Straps
In tribute to our place in the Philadelphia music community and our third store on Spring Garden Street, we tapped the fine folks at Souldier for a pair of custom guitar straps. Souldier’s all-American craft brought to life two guitar straps that translated some designs and colors from our Philly store, those designs themselves inspired by the visual styles of directors David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick. Sixty-five years on and art is everywhere!
Shop Souldier x Russo Music Zigzag Straps
Taylor Guitars Russo Music 65th Anniversary Grand Auditorium and Grand Pacific
Funnily enough, this year Taylor Guitars also shared an anniversary. Their fifty-first, to be precise. For our sixty-fifth anniversary, we got in two custom-designed Taylor Guitar models. Our own Grand Auditorium and Grand Pacific came together with a number of customized specifications that summoned our own unique vision of each model. Western red cedar and Honduran rosewood bodies, highly variegated ebony fingerboards, and L.R. Baggs electronics systems made these custom Taylors special alongside two truss rod covers engraved with “Est. 1960” for Russo Music’s first year of operation.
Shop the Taylor Russo Music Grand Auditorium
Shop the Taylor Russo Music Grand Pacific
Fender Custom Shop Russo Music 65th Anniversary Stratocaster and Telecaster
The closing act of our year-long anniversary celebration, we called on none other than the Fender Custom Shop and Master Builder Dennis Galuszka to craft two very special guitars. These two Masterbuilt models hit on early ‘60s-style Fender design tenets to paint a vivid picture and pay tribute to one of Fender’s most celebrated eras and Russo Music’s earliest days. We couldn’t help but add that extra seaside flourish. Hearkening to our history at the Jersey Shore, our two Masterbuilt models featured Fender Custom Shop Heavy Relic finish jobs inspired by the seafoam color of Asbury Park’s Wonder Bar “Tillie” mural. You don’t get to sixty-five years without some walks on the beach, don’t you know!
Check Out the FCS Russo Music Stratocaster
Check Out the FCS Russo Music Telecaster
A Year In Review
With 2025 starting to shrink in the rearview, we’re excited, as always, to close out another Year in Gear. We’d like to thank our brands and all our readers that make our yearly round-ups so eventful and so much fun. We’ll catch you in 2026!
