One of my favourite super-versatile overdrives get a new edition / makeover - to bring it up to date with the latest design phase of Colortone Pedals. The Parasite gets its name from the definition of its unique JFETs - which are described as ’... sizzling with parasitic feedback’.

4 JFETs make up the core soundstage - which is further served by wide ranging Active Post-Drive Low and High EQ’s, as well as the super smart Pre-Drive Bright Boost and Bass Boost stitches - where the latter is ...

I originally featured this pedal on the site back in January of 2023 - so it’s been on the cards for a while! I obviously need to juggle a lot of priorities all the time - and some pedals unfortunately fall through the cracks momentarily - while I mostly manage to recover them at a later stage!

This Arigato is my 4th Caroline pedal, and I love it so much that I’m very tempted to pick up Philippe’s other 2 modulations - the Parabola Tremolo, and Somersault Lo-Fi Modulator / Chorus. 

The ...

The Kudu is a really cool circuit developed by Dan Coggins as a smart multi-clipping tone-enhancer - created to make everything it touches sound better. Thorpy and Dan have run the pedal into a vast array of pedals and amps - and the pedal never fails to improve the texture and tonality of the device that it pushes.

There’s no less than 12 Diodes onboard - while 6 of those are for power management. Which leaves 2 x 2N4148 Silicon Diodes for Soft Clipping, 2 x Red LED’s for Hard Clipping, ...

I really rate both the Empress Germ Drive and Multidrive pedals, and have had both Heavy and Heavy Menace pedals from the start. According to the Empress Drive introduction the development path for this new Drive pedal started with patching a Germ Drive into the middle of a Heavy Menace circuit!

Furthermore, on first glance - there seem to be some parallels to the ParaEQ II too, and indeed Zak tells me that the ParaEQ was an inspiration also - and was in fact used to help set the core ...

Utrecht-based pedal builder Dronechov Noise Machines has just unleashed its third creation. The Stepping Razor is an overdrive/distortion pedal based on a certain classic rodent-themed circuit, but with a twist.

Aimed at musicians exploring heavier music genres and especially the bassists among them, Stepping Razor features a fuller low end profile, while delivering a crushing output - especially when pushed to its limits.  Its flexible controls allow it to be used as an almost transparent ...

I only discovered the existence of the LNS Overdrive pedal a day or two before the recent Leeds Pedal Show - which both I and JSA Effects were attending. I had read that Simon had managed to get his hands on 3 super rare original NOS RC3403 quad opamp chips - where his mods included really unique active Treble and Bass controls, along with improved / louder output.

I was determined to arrive at Leeds super early to be in with a chance of snagging one of these. In fact the other 2 had been ...

I obviously slept on this when it was launched back in the Autumn of 2021 - as I’ve long owned the H9 Max, and now the H90 - so I wasn’t initially overly taken by the stand-alone Eventide Devices - while I so like the Tricherachorus that I will for sure get more of this series.

The Preset overlay cards are genius - and perfect for pedals which have two layers of controls - i.e. secondary / alt parameters. I’ve always preferred dual concentric pots - and don’t understand why pedal builders ...

This article was originally written for my good friend Lane from Cryptid Effects - for a branding workshop. I have so many references that I have originated and evolved over the years - that I thought it best to contain all the essential parts within this one singularly massive article.

Most of the source articles can be found within the Guitar Pedal 101 Section of this site - while I’ve also drawn on some of my branding articles from my other site Affino.com - and added a few further ...

So one control becomes 4, as the Spritz! pedal expands from Mini to Compact Format.

A really cool Aperol-themed pedal - now evolved into an amp-like overdrive and  saturator with a few more controls, and a switchable JFET Tube Emulator.

Controls - CORE / COMP } Sustain, Volume, JFET TUBE EMULATOR } Green On Button, and light-up Mini Master Volume Knob.

The new pedal is both handsome and really potent - with still a very simple control topology. A fantastic stacking option for sure, ...