Lichtaerm’s Gehenna has been on my radar for a good 4 years, when I first covered it in early 2020 it was not nearly the powerhouse it is right now. The second footswitch was labelled Boost and you had just 3-Band EQ, Level and Gain, and M/T/V and Brit / Am switches. 

There was then at least one more significant iteration between the original and current one - that in-between version had 9 controls - starting to see the 4-band EQ (Lo and Hi Mids), No Gain I/II yet - but instead Range and ...

Stumpbox Pedals is Merseyside resident Andy Banks, a lifetime electronics and electrical engineer with an unusually varied experience and expertise within that sector. As with many origin stories Stumpbox started off as a hobby and an idea - influenced by a lifetime of being inspired by classic fuzz circuits, and the works of Analog.Man’s Mike Piera in particular.

The Stumpbox range currently consists of 3 fuzzes, all sharing the exact same style of green enclosure, while being ...

Cosmodio Instruments’ principal is one Barton, who’s made a really cool highly texture Fuzz / Distortion at his first official attempt. I really rather like the look of this pedal, which was originally in 3 colourways - Purple Dark Doomy Deathscape (as pictured) / Neon Nuclear Wasteland (Sold Out!) / Limited Purple Neon Wasteland. I really like the first 2 editions best - while one of those is already sold out - so it would have to be the Dark Doomy one for me!

Controls - Level, Voice (...

Diamond Pedals’ original VIB1 and Boss’s VB-2 / VB-2W are most likely historically the go-to Vibrato units for most pro pedalboards - each with a deep and loyal following. So it’s great news for Vibrato lovers - to see the Diamond Vibrato back on the scene, now in smaller compact size enclosure - and with an even greater range of flavour onboard - courtesy of its 9-18 Volts power capabilities.

The original square format had mostly the same controls as this new unit, just in a different ...

Josh Scott goes back to early Shine-Ei and Univox for his inspiration for the aesthetic of his duo of Beach Boys inspired pedals. Using a very streamlined Black and White format - which is nicely punctuated with period-correct Orange Amp knobs!

I rather prefer Keeley’s take on Beach Boy inspired pedals - but wholly understand how Josh arrived at this endpoint - which is most definitely period-correct versus its source origins - but still not particularly aesthetically inspiring.

As a ...

These pedals are part of a bigger project in celebration of The Beach Boys’ eponymous Disney+ documentary - which to me seems to have come out a couple of years early - surely 1966’s Pet Sounds is the signature Beach Boys Milestone - so surely 2026 would have been more appropriate! It’s a project coordinated between Disney+ and Sweetwater - where JHS’s Josh Scott was brought in to make a series of pedals that would represent The Beach Boys signature sound.

Josh Scott then drafted in his ...

There’s a reason why the above background is purple - for it indicates the provenance of this particular pedal - which is sort of based on Tom Majeski’s long discontinued Cooper FX Outward pedal - where the ONWARD extrapolates and expands on the Envelope-based sampling prowess of that device.

This is one of the simplest Chase Bliss pedals to deconstruct / decipher - while as always there are some smart hidden options and secret modes to be found here.

In effect this is a Dynamic ...

There’s been quite the trend for Tube Preamp pedals of late - what with Friedman’s IR-D and IR-X, ThorpyFX Electric Lighting, Tubsesteader Lightkeeper and Magnesium, obviously some fairly large format solid-state types too like Thermion’s Freeway. And longer-term players too like Kingsley and Victory Amps. There’s never been more choice! And so much of what is now available is fantastic.

This new Tsakalis Mothership is another really smart take on floor-based tube amp / preamp with 2 ...

The very original 1968 LBP1 was a diminutive solid state compact preamplifier plugin device - with single Boost Level Knob, and an Off / Boost slider switch. Then in 1976 we got the first pedal version of that - now with added footswitch, some very slight component changes, but still very much the same thing.

The long standing modern / compact LPB-1 variant dispensed with the slider switch, so then it was just a case of Footswitch and Master Volume - which has been the default for a few ...