So you can look at this as an updated and upscaled version of the Sputnik I Germanium Fuzz - with more volume and gain onboard in particular - and a refined Scan mode - per the Sputnik IIb.

It retains all the key facets of the original - with that singing searing tonality - there’s just more of everything onboard. It doesn’t quite have those Sputnik I Germanium Harmonics - but in most respects totally matches and exceeds the original pedal. Its core tonality is every bit as good - just with...

October was a super busy month - one of the busiest ever - with such a scope and scale and body of work covered - I’m quite shattered as a result!

We had of the penultimate Events of the year :

• The 2nd Woking Boutique Guitar Show
• Kempton Park London International Guitar Show

And around one dozen key posts  as below also :

• Letter from Dr.No
• Teaching Machines FuzzBillion Component Combinations Wheels Gain-Shaper
• Hangman fx DAGG’R Dynamic Auto-Gain/Gate Mighty Morphing Gain-Ramper

I have spent a week now with the magnificent analog mechanical marvel that is FuzzBillion - and I’ve been utterly dazzled by its brilliance. This pedal is genuinely extraordinarily high fidelity and is a superb enclosed  breadboarding device and analog sound-design machine.

Leon and his colleagues at Teaching Machines (+ Frank, Luke, and Mat) recommend you work left to right - and start off every sound design task - with all wheels at zero - and then mix your favourite sound cocktail from ...

Rainger FX is one of the 3 Top Tier UK brands - alongside Origin Effects and ThorpyFX. David Rainger definitely ploughs his own furrow and is one of the Original Auteurs of the pedals scene - with ever distinctly different circuit designs.

Coming into this roundup I was short of a few Minis - where I picked up the Air Space Invader and Deep Space Pulsar from Macari’s, and the Echo X - from Andertons.

I don’t really have much need for the Deep Space Pulsar - that’s there largely for sake...

Glou-Glou’s Olivier Armbruster often hits me up for a launch - where I participated in the STAKE launch - indeed I helped write the Press Release for that. And I also participated significantly for the Flanger Series releases. While this time around he’s kind of sneaked this one past me - so not sure what’s going on there. There has been a spate of these sorts of things this year - with a few builders somewhat negligent in my direction. People that I call friends - and have worked very amicably...

Another super busy month - where the lack of a holiday is really starting to impact my wellbeing - as I’m about as shattered and burned out as is possible without going entirely into meltdown - I’m teetering on the edge!

Here follow the highlights of the month - which I normally try to limit to around 10 elements - but stand at 12 for September. No show or onside attendances this month - while plenty of other activities - and some killer releases of course!

• Jo Quail @ the Roland Store,

August turned out a little bit different than expected. Not so many releases - as expected - but really busy regardless - with a number of Marquee Events and Articles throughout the month. With the king of the crop being the Extended Capacitor Primer - to which I’ve just added a further section on Capacitor Lifespan. Obviously I hit 15,000 followers on Instagram - which is a significant achievement - a really killer month all-round with some big articles - meaning I’m a little bit burned out ...

I obviously just recently picked up a second Delta II and Explorer in red - as per that recent article, and where I’ve included said visual again just below these first paragraphs! I do love a striking visual composition and my 3 Red Spacemen look spectacular together. 

Bar the Cyrillic Red Sputnik I - I’ve always tended to go for the Black and Black-ish Editions by default - typically with those red crystal LED lens caps. So when I originally picked up my Black Delta and Explorer - I ...

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.