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 ...

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 (...

I last did a roundup selection for Harmonic Percolators back in May 2019 (around 5 years ago!), where this time around I near enough double down on the possible options. Of course the late 70’s Ed Giese designed pedal was absolutely ginormous, and famously with just 2 slider controls - one for ’Harmonics’ or input gain, where the second ’Balance’ one represented Volume / Output. Interestingly this was a hybrid Fuzz circuit - which originally featured 2N404 Germanium, and 2N3565 Silicon ...

The much celebrated Waitlist Wednesday is back tomorrow - in fact from midnight tonight! Where you can PREORDER each of Reeves Electro’s Point-to-Point Builds. For most pedals it’s a case of unlimited preorders, while for the BlackHatSound-Deluxe - because of parts availability restrictions - those are limited to just 10, and the Plus Distortions are limited to 25.

Here is the full list with the all-important prices!

• 108 Master - £330
• 2n2Face - £330
• BlackHatSound - £350
• BLackHatSound-

Another totally mad month for sure - loaded with frenetic activity and peppered with highs as well as crushing disappointments. The first give-away for GPX didn’t quite hit the highs I expected (said give-away closes tonight at 23:59 BST). And there are some weird gaps in the entrants’ home countries - certainly no shortage from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, or much of mainland Europe. I’m active in a lot more countries than have so far entered the give-away, so I don’t fully understand why ...

I’ve gone a little bit movie poster on this one! The saga of the forgotten Top Gun :

’The Bluesman!’

I’ve long been a fan of Chris Buck - and indeed named him as one of my favourite 25 Guitar Heroes back in a 2022 article. His incredibly expressive touch is second to none! And he can wring out the most impressive detail and nuance over several bars - from just a single note!

So it’s entirely fitting that Thorpy has built him an equally dynamic and expressive pedal to match Chris’s ...

I always get pangs of sorrow when a pedal brand retires for one reason or another. Late last year Luca Romanelli announced that he was pulling the plug on his Mastro Valvola pedal brand - which at times I have referred to as ’The Strymon of Italy’.

There are so many complications and complexities with pedal-building in general - chip sets and key components increasingly harder to source, and numerous challenges with logistics and red tape. It’s a wonder more of these don’t go to the wire. ...

The StarCrash 70’s Collection re-skins 4 Catalinbread classics (Adineko, Katzenkönig, SFT, and Valcoder) and adds 2 brand new period correct pedals - a Screamer-type SideArm Overdrive, and a 70’s style StarCrash Sustaining Fuzz.

I really like the styling of these - which enclosures come in a really appealing apple-green sparkle, and where prices vary from $179 to $209 for the Adineko delay.

I only own the standard Katzenkönig from this circuit selection, I’ve had the SFT on the wishlist...

Before we get into the detail of the Santanabe, it’s important to note that both the May Queen and Santanabe pedals are derivations of the the core Zenkudo circuit - with certain EQ, Voicing and Gain Tweaks / Alterations. For instance the Gain curve on the Zenkudo and May Queen has a Linear B Taper, while the Santanabe is of the Logarithmic A type curve.

Both the May Queen and Santanbe have significantly more gain onboard than the Zenkudo - with 3 times the amount of the Zenkudo at Max ...