2023 Birmingham Guitar Show Highlights

It's always great to catch up with my good friend Adrian / Thorpy - who is actually my longest-standing friend in this industry - and was the first that I made a proper connection with at some guitar show many years ago now. Thorpy is now finally moved into his new workshop / warehouse facility - a process not without challenges and complications - while that, and various other operational and supply factors have meant that pedals that were due to be launched at the end of last year / start of this one, have been pushed back a bit. Adrian has 3 pedals nearing completion now I believe, with them all set to materialise fairly quickly one after the other, starting at around one month on from now. I've been given a basic overview of what's to come - and there are some really nice surprises on the way - I'm sorry I can't reveal any more at this time! Thorpy had a really cool new Top Gun style montage poster at the back of the stand this year - which I really liked.  He had his full showcase on display - including the incredible unobtanium Boneyard Fuzz - which was one of three killer releases last year, alongside the Scarlet Tunic Analog Amp Emulator and Limited Edition BC108C Fallout Cloud. Everything Thorpy makes is pretty much gold!

I was delighted that I made contact with Goliath FX's Matthew at last as he was one of the few that I didn't get around to in time during last year's Stourbridge FX Expo. He is the master of those really cool craquelure style enclosures and does those minimally embossed guitar knobs - where they have Letters etched into the knobs themselves - for a really clean and modern aesthetic. Matt and I had a conversation about brand recognition and recall - and the need to at least have some symbol or icon on the pedal's top facia to identify the pedal as being Goliath FX. I feel this is still very much a fledgling brand - where Matt is already doing great things - but really needs to decide where he wants to take the brand - there are so many great ideas here - it's surely not long before all falls into place.  I really like the look of his IceDrive - while that currently is not sufficiently identifiable as being Goliath FX. Some sort of ident / icon / symbol is needed - and then proper success surely beckons!

I'm so proud of my now good friend Wub Wainwright who has just completed a total range revamp in some spectacular style! I first connected with Wub at last year's Birmingham Guitar Show - where he had fairly recently just settled on his signature geometric etched enclosure aesthetic. At that show I noted that the Ritual Devices logo was not as legible as it could be / needed to be - and I recommended the logo be set in some kind of surround - to firmly anchor the pedal look to the brand. I've advised dozens of brands now around the world, but none have been so quick on the uptake as Wub - and by the time I encountered him again at the Stourbridge FX Expo - he already had 2 of his pedals updated to that new format - which looked amazing - really well balanced as if that was always how it was supposed to look.

Now Wub has completed the revamp across the range, and furthermore he has changed the colourways on his flagship pedals - so that all 4 of those - the Evol, Fay, Grimalking and Rainmaker are all shiny Silver and Black now. I will be doing a full brand overview for Ritual Devices very soon - the origin story etc, followed by individual reviews of the key flagship pedals. I have the Fay Filter Phaser already - which I mostly run as an amazingly flavoursome pseudo Uni-Vibe. It has the most amazing distinct throbby modulation texture - everyone should try one of those out. Similar to my Australian friend AD Hauser's Colortone Pedals - both those brands are the epitome of Pedal Art - both sonically and visually - with some really striking geometric enclosure designs!

First time I make proper contact with Great Eastern FX's David Greeves - and I feel we got on really well. He was actually sharing the Anasounds stand - as part of Anasounds' sister business Palf - which is a pedal distribution agency / retailer for France. I already have David's Small Speaker Overdrive, and fully intend to add his second Design-A-Drive Overdrive pedal. In fact David was only one of two that was soft-launching a brand new pedal at the show, along with Redbeard Effects - funnily both are fuzzes sort of evolved from classics - but with a modern spin.

The new Great Eastern Focus Fuzz ,which is not due to go on sale properly / officially for a wee while, is actually a discrete 3 Transistor fuzz - with a Hybrid 2-Transistor Darlington Array / Arrangement, shaped by a single Transistor RangeMaster adjacent circuit. I've used the gutshot above as it so ably demonstrates what nature of circuit this is - that cool symmetrical diagonal line of Q1, Q2 and Q3 stages. Using all Metal-Can transistors for that maximum quality feel. The Focus Fuzz also sports brand new folded metal enclosure. It will launch officially within a week or so - and I will of course post up further details then along with demos. I've agreed to do a proper overview piece on Great Eastern FX Co - on how David got started and what philosophy and motivation is at the core of his work.

My good friend Steve Dennis wasn't exhibiting - but he's very much like my shadow at these shows as I always seem to run into him at these sorts of events. We've had a pretty long association now - starting a few years back with Silverfox Guitars and the FX Pedal Planet Community. Steve did the very first Guitar Pedal X interview - a written one at that time. And I've watched him grow and expand into his high quality FX Pedal Planet Online Store. We're both on a similar mission to unearth, shine a light on and support innovative pedal businesses - while he has of course become a retailer too. I will certainly be doing more collaborative work with Steve in the future. We spent the best part of the conversation reflecting on the nature of the pedal business - particularly in terms of the quality of customer service. 

Audio Distribution Group always has a commanding presence at these shows - typically with one of the largest stands - and definitely the biggest and best selection of pedals - featuring multiple pedalboards per brand across all of ADG's 17 brands. Recent brand additions Daredevil Pedals and KSR Amplification were very much part of proceedings as was Danish guitar brand Baúm - which is recent diversification. Actually really high quality and well-priced guitars ranging from €899 to €1,799. I really like a lot of the body shapes, while some of the headstock shapes are a touch of an acquired taste - really good quality and value. It's always a pleasure to catch up with my now very good friend Bruce Davidson - where we didn't start off on a particularly good footing - but we're pretty solid now.

We discussed the recently launched Jackson Audio New Wave Chorus / Vibrato - which seems to be in high demand, but seemingly short supply on this side of the pond. I was also privileged to see a really cleverly engineered forthcoming pedal prototype. I do quite a few articles on ADG brands these days - and it's always nice to be on the inside of things - so as to better be able to share all the important salient details! The stand layout looked a touch truncated and squeezed-in which was the result of some sort of stand allocation snafu - ADG was supposed to be on a much bigger stand - fitting all those 17 brands into such a tight space proved to be hugely challenging - while it sort of mostly worked, but looked decidedly odd from certain angles!

Continuing a tradition that started at the 2019 Birmingham Guitar Show - these meetings are really like mini 1 hour+ conferences - where Alex and I trade pedal industry experiences. This time around most of the conversation was around the sister company - French Distribution / Retail Business Palf - whose brand roster has grown to over 110+ brands in a really short time. In terms of Anasounds itself - there's a couple of cool twists on some Anasounds Classics forthcoming over the next few months - so plenty to look forward to. While much of the discussion was around how to evolve and grow a brand network. The Palf proposition was very evident with Anasounds sharing their stand with the UK's Great Eastern FX Co. - which is of course on the Palf roster. For brands looking to gain distribution into the French market - then Palf should definitely be the first choice - it of course gets added to my own network of International pedal dealers too! Alex was going to send me some pictures of the stand - as I didn't really have time to take pictures at the show - and the crowds mostly got in their way anyway! While at the time of publication those pictures have yet to be received - so likely a later update!

Kernom's stand was the best in show as far as I was concerned - somewhat fitting for the same outfit that came up with the ultimate lifestyle accessory - the phenomenal futuristic Devialiet Phantom Speaker. The construction of the Phantom is extraordinary - the choice and quality of materials and quality of finish. So it's no surprise that the Kernom Ridge is of the absolute highest quality too - the pictures really don't do it justice - it looks slightly plastic in most pictures - while it's entirely made of aircraft grade aluminium finely milled and machined - including the knobs, and finished with the most exquisite egg-shell like coating. It's every bit a luxury object in look and touch and feel. Down to the movement of the even tapers of the knobs - with elegant centre-detents. And at the heart of the pedal is that incredible variable Mood Clipping Profile Control - a total revolution in gain pedal circuit design.

I discussed the merits of and my overall take on the pedal (which of course I own!) with R&D Lead /  Engineer Jeremy Savonet - right down to the feel of the click of the footswitches - I need to report back on my own preferred soft-click types. I also discussed the possibility of a BB-vertical edition of the Ridge, the possibility of having 5 or 6 selectable presets onboard, and the feasibility of further fine-tuning the nature of the Mood Clipping Profile - so you can get even closer to your favourite clipping diodes. This was my second favourite pedal from last year - after the Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1 - which took the crown as it scored higher in a couple of categories / criteria including size / format obviously. I feel that the Kernom Ridge is just the first of a series of pedals - and we will see more dedicated Low Gain, High Gain and even Fuzz Editions of this technology evolving over the next year or two!

Mikey always does great show pics - and he's ended up as the main visual for my show coverage twice before - while this year's edition was too close to last year's effort and not quite as iconic as that one - still very cool. Mikey was also one of only two companies launching brand new pedals at the show - alongside Great Eastern FX Co's Focus Fuzz. Both launches were vey much 'soft' and just using the show to get early word of mouth out. You could argue that Jackson Audio's New Wave was close enough to be a new-ish launch - as was Marshall's very recent 1988/92 Reissues Quartet - but both of those were launched in advance of the show. The new Redbeard pedal is called the Hairy Squid - to continue the slightly odd naming convention for the brand. The early prototype codename 'The Big Huff' gives a big clue as to what this Fuzz is adjacent to or derived from. While knowing of Thorpy's Fallout Cloud - it will be interesting to compare the two to see to what extent there is an overlap.

The Hairy Squid Fuzz has a 3-way clipping selector and the 3 pretty classic controls Knob you would expect to find on most gain pedals. The enclosure colour is somewhere adjacent to avocado and pistachio green - with a little more sheen but not quite lime green! Demos for that will be out in around a month - meaning that's around about when my coverage will appear too. I'm obviously a massive Redbeard Effects fan - as I am of pretty much all of Thorpy's combined output - so I'm expecting great things from this Fuzz too. It was a sudden last minute decision to soft-launch at the show - much like with the Great Eastern Focus Fuzz - so some of the key details, manuals etc. are still forthcoming. And as soon as all the references and collateral are ready - then I will of course do my own take too. If you haven't trued the Angry Rhubarb Overdrive, Honey Badger Fuzz or Red Mist Distortion yet - it's long overdue you got onboard with this brand. For all those of you who slavishly follow the ThorpyFX brand - this comes from that same musical genius gene pool!