Guitar Pedal X News

Rainger FX reboots and super-sizes its 2017 Mini Deep Space Pulsar, now the killer interactive and enhanced Binary Pulsar Stereo Sidechainer / Panner / Tremolo with Warm Analog Preamp

Stefan Karlsson — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 17:25:47 GMT

David has massively evolved his 2017 mini Deep Space Pulsar (DSP) into a monster interactive performance modulator which can absorb 2 separate instrument inputs, and/or a Mic - side-chaining one input against the other, and outputting in a variety of fashions including panning ping-pong stereo. It works brilliantly with just a single input too - but much of the magic happens when you double up on your inputs.

I was particularly enamoured with the interplay between the Rainger FX Snare Trap and the Binary Pulsar - we also tried the Minidrone which sounded pretty cool too - but the Snare Trap in particular was magical. The Deep Space Pulsar was initially developed significantly for placing the included microphone inside or adjacent to a band’s kick drum - and using the bass beat to side-chain and duck the band’s output so that the rhythm section could ring out loud and true - and you wouldn’t get any convoluted mushy flub from the otherwise interaction of the other instruments.

For all who own the mini DSP - you can use that included microphone with the Binary Pulsar as another input device - where you can use it in a kinda sorta vocoder fashion - but for a slightly different electronic side-chained phenomena. Cohen Hartman demos it well in the second demo below!

I spent a very productive rainy Monday afternoon at Rainger FX HQ in Willesden Junction - where David, Prav and Baptiste took me through the Binary Pulsar’s paces and highlights. We watched David’s reference video, as well as the excellent demo by mutual good friend Cohen Hartman / SpiralCaster. And we tested every ounce of David’s one remaining personal Binary Pulsar!

The only tiny niggle for me - was that there was no unit for me to take away! The whole Iran / Strait of Hormuz kerfuffle is causing major supply chain challenges and holdups - with massive increases to shipping prices, insurance etc. and delays obviously! So much so that it’s now more cost-effective to source many of those components from local suppliers in the UK - or else 3D-print and assemble some of your own parts - as Rainger FX have done for their internally lit function push-buttons - the core switch + LED unit is bought in - but the casing is 3D-printed in-house - and a further perspex LED Pipe goes down the middle to conduct the light source to the surface! Every time I visit Rainger’s Willesden Junction HQ I come away with new deeper knowledge of just how tricky the pedal sector can be!

Second from Klowra's Budding Bloom Mini Series is the versatile swirling Whorl Rotary Speaker Emulator

Stefan Karlsson — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:00:00 GMT

I have a soft spot for Rotary Speaker Emulators, and have long sought out the most flavourful from that genre. With the recent Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble my current champion of that genre, followed by Strymon’s Lex 2, the Eventide Rotary Vibrotone H9 & H90 Algorithm (Josh Smith settings), and the long-since discontinued Tech 21 NYC Roto Choir - also the Rotary voicings on the Hamstead Redwing, Eventide Tricerachorus, and Colortone VibroVerb - all those are excellent. And all those work brilliantly in proper Doppler effect fashion - in being fully stereo immersive in their output.

When I first saw the press release photos of Klowra Whorl I was hoping that Klowra had made a TRS Stereo Mini Rotary Effect - while alas it’s mono only in this first incarnation. As far as mono rotary effects go - this is surely one of the most formidable, while it’s overall probably short of a couple of knobs in order to give you that fully granular full-fat control environment.

The 2 x selections of 3 x Modes though are super handy and give you lots of great playing options - featuring all the best aspects of Rotary / Leslie pedals features and functions - including dynamic and manual speed ramping and the core Brake effect - but one-at-a-time and not all part of the same singular dynamic process - while if I had either of the Klowra remote footswitches I believe I could get more of that fully dynamic Leslie Rotary environment!

The Boss RT-2 has been pretty much permanent on the board since its launch, I also currently happen have the Stereo Tricerachorus on the board currently, and of course my trusty Eventide H90 - oh and indeed the Colortone VibroVerb - so lots of bases / basis for comparison. The Whorl acquits itself well enough - but it cannot compete with those full stereo modulations. It still sounds very decent most of the time - just not with the same degree of intimacy and immersion!

The Whorl has been super easy for me to dial in and control - and I was instantly able to find several favourite voicings. In some way the 3-way toggle Mode switch is really an Intensity kind of control to a degree - where it should really be ordered Distant Mic first, then Normal, then Large Cab - as each of those progressively increases the flavour and intensity of the device! All modes work exceptionally well and all are highly usable and worthy, Overall a really smartly designed and executed device - I would that it were stereo though!

There’s loads of Mono Chorus / Vibrato devices that purport to be able to deliver formidable rotary voicings - but they don’t hold up against any of the proper dedicated stereo ones. You don’t get a proper rotary effect without the stereo doppler effect - ideally you would need a quadrophonic setup with a speaker in each of the 4 corners of the room - 4 x channels therefore ideally - which of course no one does outside of professional and advanced studio applications!

Electro-Harmonix's latest 3-Mode Pico Cosmic Shimmer Reverb borrows parts from its Oceans, Canyon, and POG Pedals

Stefan Karlsson — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 07:00:00 GMT

For sure another cool Pico pedal - derived from a combination of algorithms from existing larger EHX pedals. I personally tend to favour stereo formats for all spatial effects - Reverb, Delay, and Rotary Speaker Emulators. And had hoped that since NUX and Nobels had rolled out a number of Stereo Mini enclosure pedals - that others would follow suit, but that doesn’t seem to have been the case so much - for whatever reason. It should be fairly easy to accommodate TRS Sockets and the required DSP parts within a Mini / Pico enclosure - but it’s not a phase that EHX has evolved to yet alas.

It’s still a noteworthy pedal with 3 variants of Shimmer Reverb - with no less that 8 variable parameter controls - courtesy of using the Press-Hold on the Scene button for the Cyan [Alternative Settings].

The 3 Modes you get are GREEN Classic Intergalactic / ORANGE Mellow Off-World / RED Glitchy Etherdust, with the ability to press-hold the footswitch for Infinite Reverb!

Controls - Scene / Mode : Classic Intergalactic / Mellow Off-World / Glitchy Etherdust, Hold Scene for [Alt Params], Blend [Rvb Mix], Time [Delay], Voice [Depth], Tone [Rate], Hold Footswitch for Infinite Reverb!

I’m quite the fan of the EHX Pico Series and have a few of those already, with a couple still on my wishlist. This one is for sure cool for those with mono rigs, but won’t really do much for mine - whose last 1/3rd consists entirely of stereo pedal . Great for mini boards etc. - while I wish it could have been stereo - that would have made it a lot more enticing for me. Will be fantastic when you can create a whole mini board of mini stereo effects!

The Pico Shimmer Cosmic Reverb is $149 on the EHX Webstore, and presumably already with USA dealers - we Europeans typically need to wait a week or few for EHX pedals to land on this side of the pond. Both EHX and MXR and notoriously slow at getting pedals to Europe - the Mid-tier brands - JHS, Keeley, Walrus, and Wampler for instance make sure that there are pedals in Europe and UK for launch - while we Europeans are second class citizens for EHX and MXR presumably!

You can read up more / access manual etc. on the Pico Shimmer courtesy of the EHX Website.

First out of the gate for Klowra's new Budding Bloom Mini Digital Series is the rather smart and vocally resonant Hane Envelope Filter & Auto-Wah

Stefan Karlsson — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:00:00 GMT

It’s been tough to get this out in time as I was away Monday afternoon when the final references came through for the launch. And I can’t properly process a pedal until everything is out in front of me. I always start my process with the visuals - to get a feel for where everything sits and what it does. And while nowhere near as capable and complex as Klowra’s full size compacts - they’ve managed to cram a lot into a 1590A style enclosure here.

I had hoped they might have ’Nobels’ed’ and ’NUX’ed’ the series with TRS connections for full stereo handling - that would have come in super-handy for the Whorl Rotary Emulator in particular, while these are all TS / Mono editions. They still sound great - but there are a number of brands already turning out stereo pedals in this format - and stereo would have been great for at least a couple of these!

The first in the series - the Hane Filter works fine in Mono - filters are almost always mono in any case. And we get the same topology throughout the series - 4 variable knobs, a 3-way Mode / Voicing push-Button, and a further 3-way Secondary Mode toggle-switch - which often impacts the function of the footswitch. And yes the footswitch typically has a different function for each of the 3 Modes too.

So we get identical control topologies TS In and Out ports, USB-C for Updates, and 150mA Current Draw on standard 9V DC [-] power supply. And finally a 1/8" CTRL port for further smart switching. Klowra have a couple of smart remote footswitches which can further open up those pedals and empower fluid on-the-fly control changes. I’ve not been provided with any of those - so it’s not a part of the pedal I will be focusing on here.

I’m mostly concerned with how the pedal sounds - and how easy it is to dial in, how intuitive / practical etc, the experience - and the general ease of deployment. For some pedals you discover killer settings almost immediately - while for others it’s more like a fly-fishing expedition in The Yemen.

With filters it’s generally just a lot of knob twiddling until you lock in an interesting / superior sound.

I’ve not always found filter pedals the easiest to dial in - and I have numerous fully featured flagship varieties in the collection already - including one of the leading pedals in that category - the Subdecay Prometheus 3 Dual Super Filter.

Overall I found the Hane generally pretty easy to dial in - but wasn’t always sure I had landed in the most appropriate place. The differences between the LFO and Envelope Modes are very obvious, while the combined LFO + Envelope has some deeper subtleties - which I’m not entirely sure I’m 100% au fait with yet - I was able to get some pretty cool killer tones for each Mode - and I ended up using all the different Filter Bands on the secondary Mode toggle switch.

Holy Island Audio's Spectral Fire is a fantastic versatile, raw and ragged, and clangy overdrive inspired by a combination of the Bluesbreaker and Traynor solid state amp

Stefan Karlsson — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 07:00:00 GMT

I’m fairly well versed inTraynor Solid State amps from the late 70’ and 80’s - which were much loved by garage punks and garage rockers alike - for those slightly loose, raw and ragged, even scuzzy kind of rock tones. And the lower-gain side of the pedal is in part inspired by the Bluesbreaker - with heaps of brightness in the mix, and with the voice toggle up - delivers a uniquely bright and clangy kind of sound with some real bite to it too. You can of course dial that out by lowering the highs somewhat - which get very bright in particular when you switch in the extra gain stage.

With that 3-Band EQ it’s actually really versatile - and you can dial out much of its core character if you wish - make it slightly smoother and more bluesy. But really it was born to rock and be edgy and attitudinal!

Controls - Gain, Voicing : Clear & Bright UP / Additional grittier Gain Stage DOWN, Master Output, High, Mid, and Low EQ’s.

I tend to have the EQ’s pretty fixed with Highs around noon, Mids dialled all the way back, and Lows between noon and 3 o’c. In fact 3 o’clock on both Gain and Master is pretty solid too - while you can temper both of those per your own preferences. I mostly range from 9 o’c to 3 o’c on the Gain Knob - with the Master mostly stuck at 3 o’c too, but sometimes set back as far as 1 o’c.

For me this would be the perfect pedal for all those relatively recent / young 3rd generation punk bands. Those solid state Traynor Amps were always perfect for Garage Punks and Garage Rockers - and this Spectral Fire - has plenty of Fire and Grit to its output - with quite a bit of Brightness and Bite too.

OPFXS' Gain Box is a potent gain-stacker / gain-shaper with both parallel and series stacking across Dry, Fuzz, Overdrive, and Distortion Channels with 3 x User-definable Presets

Stefan Karlsson — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:00:00 GMT

The Gain Box was very evidently designed for the 4 Channels / Voices to be stacked, each individual voice isn’t particularly strong on its own, but gains significant potency when combined with one or two or all of the others.

I would really have preferred a little more output volume, and probably a Tilt EQ vs the current LPF style Filter for more overall oomph! I started with all dials at Noon, and then added or subtracted as appropriate - adding Presets and Combinations as I progressed with my session testing.

I found that at the end of that process all the dials had ended on Max, bar the Dry Level which was pretty much stuck at 9 o’c. I found that a little bit of Dry voicing seems to add a little more low-end into the signal, while more than that starts to temper and reduce the output gain!

Controls - Preserved via Presets } Level, Filter, Channel Selection (FZ + OD + DS + DRY), Series / Parallel Mode (Hold Bypass FTSW to flip MODE); Not Preserved by Presets } Dry Level, Fuzz Gain, Overdrive Gain, Distortion Gain.

You Press-Hold the DS button for faster Preset Transitions, and Press-hold DRY to toggle between 2 or 3 Total Presets.

There’s a slight inconvenience in that the system does not preserve Dry Level, or Gain levels for the Fuzz, Overdrive and Distortion Voicings - such that if you’re flipping between Presets - those settings remain unaffected / unchanged - and therefore hold to the same positions. If you want to be able to rapidly switch between presets - you really need to set those in optimal positions for ALL your Preset needs - so that they work across all 3 of the Presets.

I ended up with the following Channel Selections for my preferred Presets, as below :

The Boss Katana 50 and 100 Modelling Amps finally have a serious challenger courtesy of the brand new Positive Grid Reactor 50 and 100 Amps

Stefan Karlsson — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 07:00:00 GMT

This is an object lesson in Product Design, Smart Marketing and Precision Segment Targeting. I don’t think anyone has had a better stab at the Boss Katana Amps juggernaut (particularly Katana 50 and 100), than Positive Grid has with its new Reactor Amps. It’s grabbed and processed the Boss formula to a large degree and come up with its own distinct and high-quality eye-catching amp designs - with some distinct objective improvements.

For instance both the Reactor 50 and 100 have the exact same control interface and can use the exact same ’Reactor Control’ remote footswitch - which happens to be bluetooth wireless too - that one is less than the equivalent Boss wired GA-FC EX or $149 versus Boss’s $164. For me the Reactor Control Footswitch is more attractive / appealing - with all those different coloured LED’s, and that soft grey / sandy background looks a lot more legible somehow than Boss’s white on Black aesthetic.

Positive Grid has definitely made some advances in ergonomics - in styling its control topology - which looks more welcoming and intuitive than the Boss one somehow at first glance - while activating and bypassing effects and function can be confusing at times too!

In terms of the key styling details - Boss has that cool ’K’ Katana insignia, which is matched by the Reactor’s stylised ’R’. The Amps are very similar sizes and very similar prices - with Positive Grid somewhat aggressively undercutting Boss in most respects - while I note that there are some discounts on some of those Boss Katana devices at Andertons in the UK.

The Boss Katana has established itself as the king of the practice amps - and perfect for small gigs for fledgling musicians. Up until the Positive Grid Reactor project - Boss was still significantly in the lead - with the chasing pack not really able to match the appeal and innovation of the Katanas. While Positive Grid has entered the fray with some significant Aces up its sleeve!

Note that I’ve selected the Boss Katana 50 EX instead of the base 50 unit - as that one can’t use the GE-FC EX Footswitch, and is lacking in a few of the Katana 100’s features. On the control topology - even the 50 EX is still missing the Presence knob from the 100 - while most everything else seems to be in place on the main control panel. For a fair and salient / equal comparison it made sense to select the 50-EX!

Eventide reboots its Single-Core H9 Harmonizer Multi-Effects Processor now in fully MAX Gen 2 Edition with all 74 of Eventide's Algorithms

Stefan Karlsson — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:00:00 GMT

So this new H9 is essentially a fully-loaded Single Core variant of the H90. The larger H90 predecessor allows you to deploy 2 x Stereo Effects simultaneously - and hence is referred to as a Dual-Core Multi-Effects Processor. Where the new Gen 2 H9 has all the same key features and functions as the H90 - but can only deploy a single Stereo Effect at a time - hence Single-Core.

The original unit had a cool looking but pretty useless onboard interface - which was mostly saved by the Bluetooth-connected app - that made the pedal actually usable. Without the Bluetooth App - it would surely have had fewer customers!

In any case for this new one - they vastly improved the on-pedal control topology - so you can run everything from just the facia of the pedal - the app is therefore a nice-to-have now - while with the previous H9 model - it was pretty much an essential!

Controls - Main Rotary Encoder, A/B/C Quick Access Parameters, Select, Perform, Select + Perform = System, Presets, Params, Presets + Params = Tempo, Active / Bypass Footswitch, Presets Down / Up Footswitch.

Ports - LEFT } MIDI In, MIDI Out/Thru; REAR } Left In, Right In, Left Out, Right Out, EXP, CTL, USB-C, 9-12V DC [+] 1A.

The H90 is already an essential all-rounder on my board, and the H9 is essentially a Single-Core versions of that Dual-Core edition - and it’s actually not that much smaller around 70% the size - the dimensions for the H90 are 170 x 136 x 68mm, where the H9 Gen 2 is 133 x 118 x 50mm.

I was surprised to see that the Black / Dark edition of the H90 costs $100 more!!! It’s literally just a different paint job! Same knobs and everything else as the original white one - highway robbery! The Black version looks more elegant, and weirdly - they’ve launched the stock Gen 2 H9 in Black! Does that mean we will get a later white edition for $100 less :).

3 CORE MODES

SELECT MODE - for browsing Presets
BANK MODE - for organising your Sounds
PERFORM MODE - for Live tweaking

Zorg Celebrates 10 Years with 6 Unique Artwork Limited Editions for 5 of its Pedals - Blow!, Blow! Blow!! Blow!!!, Glorious Basstar, Glue Fuzz, and Love Philter

Stefan Karlsson — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 07:00:00 GMT

So Zorg has been around for 10 years now, and I’ve kind of covered them on and off for the last 8! - starting with their Zogverdrive. Most recently I’ve featured their Glue Fuzz and Love Philter - both of which feature in the anniversary editions - where only typically 5 are available of each unique Collaborative Artwork Edition, and 7 for the Colère et Bagarre Glue Fuzz MKII Edition.

You can read up on the Glue Fuzz and Love Philter features on this site!

Here are the 6 editions :

5 x Blow! Blow!! Blow!!! Dual / Stereo Mic Preamp + Stereo FX Loop : Colère et Bagarre Edition - €400
5 x Blow! Single Mic Preamp + FX Loop : Chloé Gioberti Edition - €260
5 x Glue Fuzz MKII Multi / Octave Fuzz : Gabbie Burns (MADAM) Edition - €250
7 x Glue Fuzz MKII Multi / Octave Fuzz : Colère et Bagarre Edition - €250
5 x Glorious Basstart 3 x Multiband Bass Overdrive : Eva Cohen Edition - €230
5 x Love Philter Resonant Envelope Filter / Wha-Wha / Laser / Phaser+ : Marine Pacaut Edition - €320

As of last glance all were still available on the Zorg Effects Webstore.

My favourite edition here is handily the one there are the most of - the Colère et Bagarre Edition of the Glue Fuzz MKII, the Love Philter Marine Pacaut edition is also pretty cool, as is the Glorious Basstar by Eva Cohen - there should be something for everyone here.

Very limited quantities - and some of these will sell out really fast. If I did not have the Glue Fuzz already I might have been tempted here!

Further details on each below :

My Freqscene Slow Life and Koldwave have landed - superb, expanded, lush sounding evolutions of Boss's SG-1 Slow Gear, and CE-2 Chorus Pedals

Stefan Karlsson — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 11:00:00 GMT

Freqscene Effects delivers amazing improved and expanded full-flavour takes, massively evolved from Boss’s vintage analog SG-1 and CE-2 pedals - both originally from 1979. The SG-1 and CE-2 had just 2 controls each - where both the Slow Life and Koldwave get 3 additional knobs, and the Koldwave gets an additional Mode-switch too!

Freqscene has significantly expanded the scope of those pedals compared to their original source inspirations - where the Koldwave takes you into entirely new territory, while the Slow Life largely makes it easier to dial that pedal in. The Diode Compression in particular enhances the Swell Effect - but you still need quite a bit of delicacy when dialling in the Attack and Sensitivity controls.

I’m a little slow to both these Freqscene pedals - and am delighted to finally get in on the action - both of these sound superbly lush. They are made in small batches - which means they are frequently out of stock - so it’s often a waiting game - waiting for those to get restocked. When in stock on the Freqscene Webstore - the Slow Life goes for $159, and the Koldwave for $199 - which is excellent value truly. The Slow Gear / Slow Life is more of an acquired taste in some ways - a very elegant and often delicate effect - while the Koldwave is one of the best sounding Choruses I have encountered to-date - it sounds phenomenal.

I will be doing in-depth reviews on each pedal in following weeks - this is just an introductory overview! Currently the Wave of Modulation, Soft Crush, and Fanclub Select-a-Boost are all available on the store - and we’re waiting for the others to come back into stock - including the two I just landed.