I’ve long championed the CompIQ Stella - which is the closest you can get to a studio rack compressor in pedal format. The Stella is simply the most powerful and tweakable compressor in its category. And I’ve finally got one in the reference collection - many thanks to Becos FX for organising that for me in such a timely manner!

I’ve had my Stella for a couple of weeks or so now, and this will be my first article of a series - a sort of short-term first impressions take. Which I will then ...

So it’s about time for another round of ’12 Degrees of Saturation’ - featuring an updated selection and including most of the more recently released notable Mini Gain Pedals. Please note that as before - this is something of a Grey Science with simply approximated best fit positioning - as all those pedals have slightly different gain ranges, and certain ones within each selection / category can have vastly more extended range than others - and often cover more than one of the categories.

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So the recent launch of Origin Effects’ Halcyon enhanced TS808 type screamer prompted me to refresh my memory on what the competition to that was - and if the Halcyon was quite as appealing as it appeared to be. So I’ve trawled through all my usual resources, including my own memory banks - and come up with this list of 28 suitable candidates.

This list is specifically on enhanced / evolved Compact enclosure Tube Screamer types - so I exclude hybrids - such as Matthews Effects The Broker (...

NOTE - this article is too large (108 videos) to work properly on Mobile devices - make sure you view on Desktop or Laptop!

This is my largest ever article - and it will unlikely be repeated in this fashion - as this takes so long to compile - and the 108 Pedals / Videos included just take a little too long to load up on the screen. In any case it’s a pretty exhaustive run-down in rough order of preference of my favourite Compact Enclosure Pedals of Each Type.

For a few here there are ...

It was about time I did my roundup of favourite and preferred Mid-Size enclosure pedals. This means we’re covering Medium-Slim, Medium-Tall and Medium-Square enclosures - depending on my prevailing mindset - the Horizontal / Medium-Stout types I often group with ’Large’. For my Pedal-Chain in particular - space is very tight - and I really cannot accommodate anything beyond Medium-Square on those slots.

The thought process is deciding between Compact and Medium box solutions involves your ...

This Grand Finale has been through several iterations and some very advanced Tetris-style re-arrangements. Last year I had 25 finalists, while this year I’ve upped that quotient to 40! I still would have liked to have included a few more - including the EQD Hizumitas, but in the end felt this was about right on balance. 

As I’ve already covered all of these in the very recent end of year category rundowns - this article will just be listed mentions - bar the 3 sort of specially singled out ...

The Boost, Overdrive and Distortion category is the most heavily contested, and indeed the most heavily congested category this year. I started with a Longlist of more than 70 and whittled down to the 39 featured here. Note that for balance I have included Rat pedals in the Fuzz Category already listed. This list features some of the more subtle fuzz-edged / fuzzy-drive varieties - although there will of course be some slight degree of overlap.

Featured above and listed here are 39 ...

Readers will know that I recently acquired Becos FX’s Jordan Ziff Signature Overdrive, while my good friend Carsten also graciously gifted me a Solo Boost Master which was surplus to his requirements.

I had long wanted a Becos Mini Boost, since I featured it in Edits back in September of 2018. I had thought it would be around for a while as it was so impressive at the time, but Costel Barac has stated that said pedal was particularly fiddly to engineer and build and it was ...

In the wake of the recently released Becos FX Ziffer Overdrive and MXR Raw Dawg, I thought it opportune to do a roundup of some of the best Mini Tube Screamer Variants out there. In starting this article, as is often the case, I was encouraged to order the Ziffer Overdrive - where I’m currently awaiting its arrival. While previously I had the Function F(x) Clay Jones Overdrive and KHDK Ghoul Jr as my frontrunners.

I already own and have for some time - the Ibanez Tube Screamer ...