In many ways this is the most straightforward category with singular award nominees - GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE.

It’s the second smallest category after Distortions - and the one where I own the least number of pedals in proportion to the whole - just 10 out of these 26.

The order pretty much set itself - with the Cornerstone Nucleo being the clear winner from the start. I’m so impressed with every aspect of that pedal - it’s a perfect Trifecta of Design, Feaures and Playability - pretty ...

Enclosure / Topology-wise - this is essentially a rebooted and updated version of the 3-Presets Walrus Audio Slotvå pedal - just with slightly different parameters and algorithms onboard!

Controls - Decay, Filter, Mix, X (Variable), MODE : I. Grain Cloud / II. Grain Verb / III. Forward Reverse Verb, Ramp / Glide Time : I. 10ms / II. 1000ms / III. 5000ms, Stretch, Bypass Footswitch, Momentary Footswitch, Press Both Together to scroll through 3 onboard Presets.

It channels elements of its...

I’m a little late with my in-depth review of the Dobbo for a variety of reasons. In part because of the heatwave we had in the UK - which limited playing time severely, in part because I was a little burnt out at the time, and in part because I was figuring out how to get the most use and utility out of this pedal.

"Dobbo takes small bits of sound and rearranges them. It can stretch, pitch and blur these bits, or transform them into rhythmic textures."

Most would likely file this under ...

So, in a similar fashion to the Limbo I just recently reviewed - I have a default flavour that I fall back to most of the time - which is of course Tape - and handily the first on the dial. And then at the other end you have the more unusual and otherworldly flavours - including Granule, Crystal, Sweeper and Mod. It also has the great sounding Reverse and Swell Algorithms - a really well rounded set of algorithms for sure - with all the obvious ones in the mix really.

I’ve had to update ...

June was influenced by a few key events. Obviously the Leeds Pedal Show had a massive impact on me - and I picked up 9 pedals at that show - all excellent, and later picked up a Hudson Electronics AP-II Broadcast. So the reach of the Leeds Show has been massive - particularly the brace from Emmergy FX and SoundLad Liverpool. Then also my visit to good friends Hello Sailor Joe and Glyn - which resulted in a further brace of superior pedals, all featured on the blog this month.

So these 14 are some of the pedals that continue to evade capture for me. Most of these are discontinued and were only made in  very limited numbers. Some of these are small batch productions - like the GNI Octa Fuzz and Iron Ether FrantaBit. And some are also impossible to get outside their country of manufacture. Some of these I’ve been chasing for nearly a decade so far.

Many of you will be familiar with my quest for the Blakemore Effects Deus Ex Machina OpAmp Muff - where I tracked down...

When I initially saw this device, Chase Bliss was the first brand that immediately sprung to mind - as superficially, minus the bottom Randomizer ’Dice’ section - the topology kind of mostly resembles the typical and classic Chase Bliss control topology - of 6 knobs, 3 x toggle-switches, and dual, multi-function Footswitches!

Whenever I consider the acquisition of a particular pedal, I need to be able to foresee what slot it should be deployed from on the pedalboard. And the Dobbo is a ...

So January 2025 sees a momentous milestone - where we have the peak possible number of pedals in the chain - which now numbers no less than 52 Pedals. It’s an incredibly tight squeeze - and all the available space is now fully used up.

I’ve re-flowed the main visual - where I used to try to have a fixed format arrangement - but now have re-numbered the slots entirely corresponding to the number and order of those pedals. Last January I noted that I was going to switch out my 2 Friedman ...

When I first clocked this - it immediately brought to mind my recently acquired AC Noises Ricorda Granualar Reverb, amd while there is some degree of overlap between the two - each device is also very distinctive in its own way. Where the QI Etherealizer adds Chorus, and Parallel as well as Series Routing.

It’s a device that perfectly covers Yvette’s key tones in the one device.

Controls - MIX } Mix / Dry (Series / Parallel), Grain, Delay, Chorus; MAIN } Mix / Dry (Series / Parallel), ...