2026 January Pedal-Chain Update - Episode I - A Flying Start!

24 Pedals in at the start of the year!

The Drives have it!

Strong showing for Fuzz and Modulations too!

• 9 x Boosts & Overdrives
• 2 x Distortions
• 6 x Fuzzes
• 7 x Modulation, Pitch, & Multi-FX

A killer selection of overdrives - not an average one among them - and some of these are my all-time favourites for those genres. If you follow my blog properly - you will know which ones of these I'm particularly enamoured with!

• Carl Martin PlexiRanger
• DOD Badder Monkey Blendable Parallel Circuits
• Drunk Beaver Olbia / OΛBIO Super-Klone
• Drunk Beaver Pedal Drop #35 The Mykolaiv Broadcast Attack soft blooming magnetic saturator
• Drunk Beaver Vatra Signature Vlad Yarun Evolved TS808 Screamer
• DSM & Humboldt Dumblifier Overdrive Special
• Flattley Guitar Pedals Joker Valve Tone Fet Tube Stag Emulator
• Mad Professor Sky Blue Hand Wired Overdrive (Dumble ODS HRM)
• Wampler The Compulsion Drive - TCD (OCD)

2 amazing distortions - both sound superb, and totally represent their respective categories - absolutely killer tones here!

• Lichtlaerm Thorn - Lennart Bossu Signature Distortion
• Seymour Duncan Diamondhead Multistage Distortion + Boost

A couple of killer Octave Fuzzes, a new Muff, a Fuzz for non-fuzz-fans, a blistering Doomy Fuzz, and an exceptional multi-gain pedal - which I particularly like for its searing fuzz voicing.

• Citadel Vector Octave Fuzz
• Electro-Harmonix Big Muff 2 Compact
• Fjord Fuzz Odin V4 Octave Fuzz
• Missing Link Audio Peace Fuzz
• RhPf Electronics x Loopy Demos x Sketchy Pedals MOSRAWR High Gain MOSFET Fuzz
• Superlunar SR-01 Analog Saturation Device

2 Phasers, 2 Hybrid Vibes - Mono and Stereo, one 4-voice Polyphonic Octaver, a superb Chorus, Flanger, and Vibrato, and a Modeller / Multi-FX - all of which I've enjoyed enormously - not weak spots here in the slightest. The whole January selection has proven to be wholly exceptional - all these pedals have huge range and plenty of volume onboard - some of these modulations are wholly fabulous in deployment - I'm so happyy with how everything turned out!

• Death By Audio Moonbeam Phaser
• Fjord Fuzz Frøy Resly-Vibe
• Fjord Fuzz Sommer Dual Stereo Uni + Reslytone Vibe
• Klowra Verdict Poly Octaver
• Mad Professor Double Moon Modulator - Chorus / Flanger / Vibrato
• Seymour Duncan Polaron Multi-Stage Phase-Shifter
• Valeton GP-50 Neural Amp Modeller & Multi-FX

Longlist

• Beetronics 8-Mode Pollinator Hazee Modulated Digital Delay
• Bixonic Axentrix II Clean / Drive - NAMM 2026
• Bixonic Sugar Blues Auto-Wah - NAMM 2026
• BluGuitar Amp X Analog Amp & Pedal Modeller
• Casio Dimension Shifter Guitar Strap Expression Device
• Collision Devices Snack Fuzz
• CryBaby IM95K Iron Maiden Killers Wah
• Electro-Harmonix Pico Intelligent Harmony Machine
• Electro-Harmonix Interface Hardware Plugin
• Freqscene Effects Humans Wah-Drive
• Frost Giant Electronics Mourning Star Metal Superbooster Amo-Driver
• Fulltone Ultimate Octave Fuzz
• Horrothia Triage Deluxe High-Headroom Transistor Preamp
• Ibanez LD303 Rhythmic Layer Delayer
• J Rockett Aqueous BBD Analog Chorus with Digital Controls
• JAM Pedals MKIV Retrovibe with Tap Tempo & Ramping
• Mad Professor Super Black Mini Overdrive
• Mentha.Works Monk Echo Reverb + Dealy infused with a human voice [sorta NAMM]
• Missing Link Audio AC⚡︎OD (Angus Young)
• Missing Link Audio Deluxe Eliminator (Billy Gibbons)
• Missing Link Audio Super Nature (Carlos Santana)
• Neural DSP Quad Cortex Mini Full Fat Modeller & MultiFX
• Moth Electric M. Stellatarum 32 Mode Tremolo
• MXR EVH Modern High Gain Distortion
• Old Blood Noise Endeavors x Emily Hopkins Parting Glitchy Delay / Reverb / Crushing Modulation
• Pasta Pedals Sasquatch Octave-Muff
• PastFX OG-1 : OD-1 & SD-1 Dual Voice Overdrive
• Pirate MIDI Scribble Mini MIDI Controller
• Poly Effects Kanso Diode Clipping Stage / Saturator
• REVV Amps Joey Landreth Signature DirtDog Overdrive
• Shift-Line Termofuzz 2 Multi-Fuzz
• Shnobel Tone Dual Channel Dumbbell Driver / Boost
• Strymon Fairfax Class A Output Stage Drive
• Tru-Fi '69 / '71 Colordriver
• Tru-Fi Aqua Echo 600
• Vox VFZ-1 BC108 VTB 1.5 Fuzz
• Vox VTB-1 BC108 Treble Booster
• Walrus Audio Canvas Volume
• Way Huge Swollen Pickle XXX Jumbo Fuzz

20 Slots Updated this month : Slots - #1, #2, #3, #4, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #18, #20, #21, #22, #24, #25, #30, #37, #38, #39, #42.

There's a Line of Green Overdrives at the Start of the Chain! Generally a very strong month for overdrives - with a lot of new favourites. Fuzz Section / Selection is also very strong, as are the new Modulations. Pretty much a bumper month - where the board has rarely sounded better!

Every new pedal had its time on the board, while some missed out on final placings!

The excellent Citadel Electronics Vector Octave Fuzz had the slot to itself for most of the month - with the Klowra Verdict Four-Voice Polyphonic Octave Generator taking up residency toward the end of the month. Both are truly great sounding and properly dynamic. And each of those have extensive shaping abilities!

The Fjord Fuzz Odin MKIV Fuzz / Octave Fuzz is one of the true greats of the Octave Fuzz realm - this is my 3rd iteration of this pedal - all versions are exceptional And each of mine has the dual footswitches. This newest version has 2 sets of internal dippers where you can add clipping and boost to each channel. I only have the clipping on the fuzz channel - for me the Octave sounds better unadulterated - really vibrant and searing. And the core fuzz sounds excellent too - properly thick and textured. A true classic in looks, sound and function - really easy to dial in too!

An early arrival - the Missing Links Audio Peace Silky Fuzz - a decent sounding 2-voice fuzz - Vintage and Modern. I tend to prefer the slightly silkier smoother Vintage side. A good fuzz for those who don't like fuzz typically. While I feel the Cornerstone Nero Dumble-Fuzz did this somewhat better.

The RhPf MOSRAWR Doom / Sludge High Octane Fuzz is one of my favourites of that kind - alongside the Blackhawk Balrog and Lichtlaerm Altar. The Balrog is still the sludgiest of those - while all 3 are Doomy as hell! in the best possible way!

The Drunk Beaver Vatra Signature Vlad Yarun Evolved TS808 Screamer - is yes yet another Tube Screamer - but it is a rather excellent one with very Classic sounding main voicing - but then an exceptional fatter / punchier MOSFET clipping voicing.

The DOD Badder Monkey 3 Voice Parallel Blend Overdrive is a fantastic evolution of the Bad Monkey with vastly expanded versatility - while maintaining the key facets of the original. The new iteration is superior in every way - while the build quality of mine seems a bit shoddy - where the lid of the barrel has not been glued on properly. The device sounds great, but I'm genuinely surprised that it passed quality assurance - the barrel looks very obviously out of sorts!

Paul Flattley seems to be somewhat on a roll with his last few releases - The Valkyrie Classic Chorus, Outlaw Plexi + Ace Tone Boost, and now this Flattley Joker Valve Tone FET Tube Emulator Overdrive / Boost - all sound excellent and have great dynamics and feel. The - 2-Voice Joker really sounds incredibly amp-like in how vibrantly it plays!

The Superlunar SR-01 Analog Saturation Device is a killer Overdrive / Distortion / Fuzz - which I mostly use in its Fuzz Voicing - which is super searing - but beautifully textured at the same time!

Yet another Tube Preamp for me - this time the EarthQuaker Devices ZEQD-Pre Tube Overdrive. I think I'm at over 10 Tube Overdrives now - which has happened very quickly. This one is collaboration with Dr. Z Amps using a very specific tube variant. Has a nice sort of bark-y sound - really very crisp - crunchy even!

An absolutely killer Dumble Drive type - fully loaded  2-Channel Preamp - but essentially with 4 Channels when using the PAB Boost. My favourite release of the month for sure - the Clean tones in particularly are superb!

I had to complete my nano set - with the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff 2. This one sounds rather more like a conventional distortion than a typical Big Muff sustaining fuzz. Has a pleasant breakup texture to it - it's different for sure to the classic Muff - but in some ways rather unremarkable. I kind of like it, but the hype is not really wholly justified! Never forget that this was one of the options in contention for the OpAmp Muff - while Mike Matthews rejected it in favour of the Howard Davis Edition.

The Drunk Beaver Olbia / OΛBIO Super-Klone mostly owned this slot - as is deserved by its brilliance - a simply wonderful sounding next-level Klone - which fully embodies the sound and spirt of Rock and Roll! Pedal Drop #35 The Mykolaiv Broadcast Attack soft blooming magnetic saturator had a bit part here - with its really unique soft-attack breakup texture - it's a an excellent organic and natural saturation device - warms up pretty much everything!

The first of a couple Marshall types - both excellent - this Seymour Duncan Diamondhead Multi-Stage JCM800 style Distortion with Boost leans rather more into the high gain / metal side if things - really searing, and modern in places. With 2 Boost Options and expansive output shaping. A fantastic high gain Marshall take - but more versatile than that too!

The Carl Martin PlexiRanger Overdrive / Boost is a super fat and vintage sounding Marshall type - proper chunky and beefy - I really love it. This one somewhat surprised me by how good it sounds - it's quite different to the Seymour Duncan Diamondhead which is obviously more JCM800, They can overlap a little - while one leans more into the Vintage Plexi, and the other more into the slightly more Modern Searing JCM 800.

The excellent recent Wampler TCD (OCD) which had this slot to itself for most of the month - only with the Mad Professor Sky Blue Dumble ODS HRM coming in very later in the day. Both excellent sounding overdrives - with the OCD a little more versatile, and a little easier to dial. The dial-in for the Sky Blue requires a little patience!

My 4th Lichtlaerm Audio High Gain Pedal - the Lennart Bossu Signature Thorn 3-Mode Distortion. This one is perfect balanced - and distinct from the other 3 High Gain Lichtaerms - it sounds particularly great for me on the core stampeded mode!

This slot has been shared pretty much evenly by the - Death By Audio Moonbeam 6-Stage 6-Mode Phaser, Mad Professor Double Moon Chorus, Flanger & Vibrato, and Seymour Duncan Polaron 2-16 Stage Dual Modulated Phaser. All 3 of those are totally killer modulations and top tier candidates for each of those genres. Each of these has distinct capabilities not repeated elsewhere. 2 more Phasers, and a killer Chorus, Flanger, and Vibrato.

The excellent Fjord Fuzz Frøy Resly-Vibe - fat and richly textured with the Reslytone adding a burbly swirl to the throbbing of the Uni-Vibe - really sounds superb - being stacked in series really works here to maximum effect!

I'm still just scratching the surface with this Valeton GP-50 Neural Modeller / IR / Multi-FX. I like it so far! All the presets are kind of quiet and need tweaking, while the pedal is capable of decent sounds. Fairly easy to navigate too - I've got along with it pretty well so far and not really felt the need to use the App too much yet. I will feed back further when I have more - I love the fact that this pedal has a dry-through bypass - so when it's off (set to tuner) - it doesn't impact the core sound of the chain in the slightest. Much easier to deploy than the ToneX One for instance - so far so good!

The Fjord Fuzz Sommer Stereo Resly-Vibe is something of an experimental prototype. It stereo-fies the Frøy and separates the Reslytone and Uni-Vibe to separate channels - which the effect is far more subtle when split - versus the two elements being stacked serially. Daniel was never fully satisfied with the Sommer - so only a few have been made. I still kind of like it - while the Frøy sounds quite a bit richer and more appealing. You don't really get an audible burble swirl thing with this Sommer - where that is so apparent on the Frøy!

I'm very much looking forward to next month - obviously we have the big UK show right at the tail end of February - and a couple of significant shows in March.

I've already secured a number of pedals - well all but one - which should hopefully all land in February :

• Brelliott Amps TODP Tube Overdrive Pro Mutartis Cell Structure Edition (Pick up at Guitar Show!)
• Gamechanger Audio Recoder - Sampler / Modifier / Vocoder / Looper (hopefully Feb, but could be March!)
• Horrothia Triage Deluxe Germanium Edition (I snagged the last from the first batch!)
• Hungry Robot Wallflower Shoegazer - Dual Reverb - Chorus - Distortion (via Effekt Boutique)
• Klowra Rilum Multi-head Delay (already landed)
• RhPf Electronics Shodhana Balanced Overdrive (already landed)
• Sinvertek SRAA MGAT-1 EVO/T+ Great Era Edition (landing on Monday in theory!)

Those 7 are all killer - and the targets are coming in thick and fast. There are more due - but the final details haven't been worked out yet. I'm hoping to acquire an OG-1 too from my friend Verlie at PastFX - there won't be many of those made - so my luck will need to be in. While I never count my chickens until they are fully secured and en-route.

It's already shaping up to be a great February!