The most popular post on this blog to date is ’A Brief Hobbyist Primer on Clipping Diodes’ which has to date been read 117,610  times! It was always on the cards to follow up that article with deep-dives into Capacitors and Resistors too. I wanted to be even more encompassing than before - and go into more detail - and it was a matter of finding the best possible partner and collaborator for that task.

And no one has a deeper exotic-filled parts bucket than my good friend Joe Halliday at Hello ...

It’s been a while since I did one of these colour roundups - per the below visual - all the way back in 2020 in fact. I’ve done quite a few of these over the years and there’s a whole Section dedicated to ’Colours’ on the ’Highlights’ Tab of this site.

Every time I do this exercise I try to be more thorough and expansive. Last time I identified 12 primaries, while this time around we have no less than 26 pedals across 20 categories - and I hint at several more - which means there are 6 ...

I’ve always been fascinated with component choices in audio device manufacture and their key formative role in shaping the specific character of a particular device - often through inherent flaws or inaccuracies in the technology of that period. Guitar effects owe much to the imprecise nature of amplification devices, and how they would naturally distort in interesting ways when you turned the level up beyond a particular point. Note that I’m by no means an expert on Tube technology, so there ...

I’m expecting this post to attract a lot of ’whataboutisms’ as many of my rundowns seem to do. While every single choice / selection here is well considered, pondered upon on and properly weighted up against pertinent criteria and then further rationalised, whittled and distilled down into a top 9 or 16 or 25 - as I always favour symmetrical grids.

If I find 18 or 19 suitable candidates - then only 16 can be featured on the grid etc. - you need to draw the line somewhere. And you can also ...

So this is the second of this series - where the first was more about the uniqueness of the enclosure shape - more structural really - covering the overall form factor. While this edition is more about ’Trade Dress’ or the Memorability of the Aesthetics - style of graphics, consistency of theme, and consistency of control topology - doing something in a consistently measurable way that makes that pedal instantly recognisable from afar as belonging to a certain single brand.

So this one is ...

Do please note that this is the 3rd roundup in the series - for those looking for more classic / vintage guitar designs - then the first part is the more pertinent for your preferences. Part 2 became a little more eclectic and avant-garde, while this Part 3 is an even mix of more classic / traditional designs and more modern and futuristic.

This part plays some fan service in covering some of the more popular omissions from the previous posts - while I don’t subscribe to the same view for ...

So I’ve pretty much covered every aesthetic and mechanically functional part of the guitar - starting with the headstock, then tremolo-bridges, pickups, body-shapes and fret markers. I’n not sure guitar electronic harnesses is sufficiently an interesting enough topic - so this Locking Tuning Peg feature may well be the last category - while I’ve still got at least 2 guitar body shape features to go! If there are other parts of aspects of a guitar that you want me to feature here - do let me ...

This episode is a little more esoteric and preferential than most - and involves identifying the most notable and easily recognisable ’Pedal Shapes and Formats’ essentially. Of course there is some subjective preference here - while I will try to explain objectively how I came to this exact 25 pedal selection - some of these are very obvious - others are slightly more idiosyncratic choices - while there are obviously some brands that are particularly good at coming up with memorable enclosure ...

So this time around I’m including a number of the ones you said I left out of the last rundown - not all of those mind you as I’m looking to do 4 of these most likely. The first episode of these was more the classics obviously - and here we’re starting to move a little more left-field in places.

Significant to this selection are avant-garde designers Leonardo Lospennato and Ulrich Teuffel - both with 3 entries apiece. I will keep sprinkling in the more mainstay ones that you’re keen on - ...