JAM pedals

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to visit Athens, and if you like effects pedals, you’ve probably heard of Athens-based JAM pedals. I was incredibly lucky to visit JAM’s HQ over there, and have a chat with Jannis and Alex. Jannis is the founder of the brand, he started JAM in 2005, and since then, the reputation of his pedals has only kept growing internationally.

You can now find some JAM pedals on a lot of your favourite guitar players pedalboards, and to name a few, John Scofield, Steve Lukather, Nile Rodgers, Graham Coxon or even Mark Lettieri all own some of them. I invite you to have a look at the list for yourself: JAM Artists

My first experience with JAM pedals was when I tried their Ripple phaser a few years ago. And of course, I ended up buying it… So I knew the brand, and was aware of their reputation.

JAM still builds all their pedals by hand in Athens, even today. I met with the team, and it’s absolutely crazy to think that in 2025, a pedal company is still doing all of this in their workshop.

This is true “boutique” and analog, and the attention to detail is crazy. Even the packaging is superb and makes you feel like you’ve just picked up something very unique and premium.

And not only is everything handmade, but it’s also hand-painted! The gorgeous artwork is what made me curious about JAM pedals years ago, and I still absolutely love it. You can even get some “custom artwork” on your future acquisition, or request your own artwork.

If that’s not enough, JAM offers custom shop multi-effects builds that look absolutely stunning. I’d definitely imagine myself rocking one of those on stage someday!

What I really like about their effects, is how inspiring they can be. I own quite a few pedals (as some of you know), but these are pretty unique. I’ll admit that I’m probably biased, but I do believe they make you play differently.

For example, I’m not a delay type of player, but their Delay Llama is so fun to play with that I definitely think it will be on my board in the future (just need to find some pedalboard real estate!).

So back in March, when I tried the Fuzz Phrase Si at the “London Synth & Pedals” expo, I was hit by a massive Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

I’ve been on the hunt for a good “vintage sounding” fuzz for a long time, and this one sounded exactly like I wanted. Rich, warm, and most importantly, super dynamic. I wanted a fuzz that could be tamed just with the volume of my Strat, and this one does that extremely well. It cleans up very well, but turn up the volume and you enter proper fuzz territory.

So, you guessed right, I couldn’t leave Athens without a souvenir:

If you’re curious about JAM: JAM pedals