So back in the 70’s EHX’s Mike Matthews commissioned both Howard Davis and Bob Myer to make the next generation of Big Muff - using the newly release OpAmps / IC’s rather than the individual quartet of Transistors. Each engineer came up with their own version - and Mike picked out the Howard Davis one for production - which then became the 1978 EHX OpAmp Big Muff.

Meanwhile Bob Myer’s version sat abandoned and forgotten in the mist of time - until Josh Scott and Daniel Danger came upon it ...

This is the second time EQD has collaborated with KGR Harmony’s Japanese Iron Foundry - famous for its relief-design wrought-iron / cast-iron enclosures. And here we get the most compact variant of the Sunn O))) Life Pedal do date - essentially the V4 edition of that circuit - named the ’HalfLife Fer’.

Only 200 of these were made - and they barely lasted an hour and half. So this is more my documenting the provenance of this circuit than putting up yet another promo feature. It’s all ...

So this Orama is a wonderful take on the early Orange 120 style of Amplifier from 1974, combined with legendary 90’s Boutique Fuzz - the Frantone Peachfuzz from 1997.

We have 6 controls on the Amp side, and 4 controls for the Fuzz. We also get the typical Send / Return FX Loop that Chrisots normally includes on his Dual Pedals. The two voicings here combine really beautifully - adding further richer textures and harmonics into the mix.

Controls - ORANGE AMP SIDE } Master Volume, High ...

Probably the strongest selection of the year - each one of these is amazing and sounds killer. But then agin similar was true of the Overdrives. I’m very much a fuzz fanatic - so his selection has to take the edge - what a selection!

This selection includes 3 from EarthQuaker Devices, 2 from Drunk Beaver, 2 from Fjord Fuzz, and 2 from ThorpyFX.

It also includes the likely pedal of the year - within a selection of 10 award winners here - these are so good - I could have labelled even ...

Another super busy month for me - particularly towards the end - with numerous large scale articles out this week. That also coincided with my busiest week of the year for my other day job. Meaning that I was up until 4-5 in the morning every day - just to keep up with my commitments.

I was already somewhat shattered and burned out before I even got to this super busy period - and it’s a relief that all that work has now been completed on schedule.

I’m especially proud of my work on the Bucket ...

My close association with Thorpy started back in late September of 2018 - at the now defunct Olympia UK Guitar Show. He was the first pedal maker I reached out to, and the first I connected with.

Since then ThorpyFX Pedals have become my 3rd most populous selection after Boss and Drunk Beaver. Those 3 brands alone contribute over 200 pedals to my reference collection!

The fact that I’m now at 31 ThorpyFX Pedals is a major milestone - and features every mainline MKII pedal Thorpy has made. ...

This has turned out to be something of a Thorpy month! - following on from the recent Manson Supermassive Black Fuzz and 3 Thorpy acquisitions this month - indeed the Supermassive is also engineered by Thorpy!

I thought I should do a quick retrospective of pedals and projects that Thorpy has been involved in.

I selected my favourite pedal from those 4 brands (some singular options!) :

• Redbeard Effects : Bearded Vulture Direct Drive with Octave
• Victory Amps : V1 The Jack Guthrie

The Drunk Beaver Rat-into-Muff Disambiguation first materialised as a 3-knob type back in 2021 - simply with Distortion, Level, and Tone controls - and an intriguing cool militaristic army green enclosure with black pistol graphic.

I always liked that version - but at times it could be a little muddy, and I sometime felt it could have done with a bit more volume. Which is a large part of what is new in the V2!

We now get 5 Controls - with the same core 3 controls - here named Tone, Gain...

What we have here is an incredibly potent fuzz - consisting of 3 x OpAmps, 3 x Silicon Transistors, and 2 x Blue LEDs - so the core fuzz flavour is already immense and richly textured - very much ’Supermassive’ in its output. And you then have an impressively powerful tone stack essentially - consisting of an expansive Filter [Warp] (350Hz > 5kHz) used in tandem with a wide-ranging ’Q’ bandwidth control [Dimension]. So essentially a sort of semi-parametric EQ - where you set your chosen ...