Both these pedals materialised around the same time - in and around the recent NAMM Show - although the Herculean Deluxe has not been officially launched yet (21st February) - but there is plenty of coverage of it online already.

I thought it made sense to cover off both of these in a single post - as they are kind of competitors to each other - each with its own unique elements. And the Herculean DLX contains that very rare mix of Dumble and Bluesbreaker.

I like the look / sound of ...

As soon as I saw this I thought - ’mini Boss OD-200’ - at least in concept. Zoom effects are fully DSP as far as I’m aware - so we don’t get a JFET input section like on the Boss and Strymon Hybrid / Digital gain pedals - while there should still be plenty of interesting flavours to be found here. The Bixonic Axentrix and Mooer Model X Preamp X2 were both instrumental in convincing me that you can get really decent gain voicings just from digital - also the Neunaber Neuron - all stand-alone ...

Readers should know that I collect the more extended range DOD250 style overdrives - and I’ve long had the original 50/50 in the collection - where it initially emerged in 2017 I believe. So it’s good news for everyone who missed out on one of those then as we now have a reissue of this in a very slightly smaller enclosure with a flush back-plate and momentary and latching footswitches.

The core circuit and functionality is unchanged - so probably not worth getting if you already have one -...

The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!

So we featured 120 pedals across the 5 Genre categories this year - as you’ve witnessed over the last 5 days, and those have been whittled and distilled down to these 27 Magnificent and Exceedingly Flavoursome candidates.

Picking out the very best of those is obviously a slightly subjective exercise while based on a series of exacting criteria - including innovation, versatility, practicality, variability, playability, quality of manufacture, quality of output and sheer enjoyment.

Here ...

A decent showing on the Distortion side too - with some particularly great High Gain Distortions. I was due to review the Licthlaerm Gehenna and Medusa also - but with Daniel Ringl’s workshop move - that didn’t quite get sorted this year - hopefully early in the new year - and then I can update the ’Full Metal Racket’ selection which exercise I normally do late Autumn!

There’s couple of really cool filter distortions here that I really like - the Intensive Care Audio Vena Cava Filter / ...

Wow what a wild ride of a month - one of the busiest to date - bookmarked with two superb events. You really need to read my event round-ups - they’re so full of little details - and of course personalities - the bigger friendship network and sort of family that makes up this magnificent sector in many ways. For sure everyone is in hard competition with each other for the same customer money - but there’s genuine warmth of spirit - a friendliness and willingness to cooperate and get along. Both...

Before I jump into talking about this fantastic pedal it’s good to do a little background on Ben Carlin’s essentially ’Electric Love’ sort of Foundation - a pedal business specifically set up to raise money for cancer research.

Both Ben’s Wife and Daughter have had serious and significant cancer scares in the past few years - which were overcome through wonderfully attentive service and effective treatments delivered by a variety of healthcare professionals - who brought both those family ...

This article has been a long time coming - where I originally started this ahead of the Mini Edition - which went live on January 24th. I was waiting for a couple of new pedals to be released - while the article has been iterated around 20 times now with a number of recent additions.

And the pedal I was waiting to launch still hasn’t quite happened, while the builder has authorised me to tease it in advance of its official release. And if I were to do the same exercise tomorrow - no doubt ...