2025 April Pedal-Chain Update - Episode IV - Peak Tube Proliferation

Finally, you will have noted that there has been a change in the visual backgrounds during the month of April - where I've selected bright luminous and neon colour tones for some arresting solid backgrounds - that exercise started on April 7th with the Pigtronix Gas Giant Fuzz, and will continue for the foreseeable future - it really helps in making those pedals stand out!

As the most recent visual for that format - I thought I should further advertise my friends' Pedal Building Workshop - a collaboration between Pedal Patch's Phil Steere (also Brighton Guitar Show Showrunner) and Neil R Grimes of NRG Effects fame. Neil will be leading those one day sessions - with the first one taking place on June 14th. 

You can read the full details and book a spot - on the Pedal Patch Website!

I hope you all had a nice and relaxing April! And enjoyed your Easter Break. It was mostly a working weekend for me - and I was half way through Monday before I figured out that was supposed to be a holiday too! No rest for me seemingly - even during the quieter months!

11 New Pedals added in April !

Big month for overdrives! Otherwise a fairly even spread.

I usually aim for no more than 20 new pedals per month, while April was quite an expensive month - with very few concessions.

Some days it feels like I'm singlehandedly propping up this industry! Where it doesn't always reciprocate. So many still take my coverage for granted - while coverage will always be a privilege!

• 6 x Overdrives
• 2 x Distortions
• 2 x Fuzzes
• 1 x Utility / Pitch

A big month for overdrives - and some really heavy hitters in this selection - including of course the new Chase Bliss Brothers AM, Reeves Electro Leo : Twelve, and Xotic Effects AC Booster V2. All 6 of these sound superb - and only one of them is somewhat challenging on its output volume!

• Chase Bliss x Analog.Man Brothers AM (KOT + Beano)
• Drunk Beaver Hostomel Tube Driver
• Reeves Electro Leo : Twelve Tweed Drive 
• ThorpyFX Purple The Dane MKII Overdrive + Boost
• Xotic Effect AC Booster V2
• Xotic Effects Allen Hinds / AH Booster

Two cool new High Gain Distortion additions - I like the 51-Filthy - while it didn't quite meet my full expectations. And I love the Chug Lite - whose punchier and more percussive profile I much prefer to the original - much much easier to dial in too!

• Airis Effects 51-Filthy (5150 + Diezel Hagen)
• Solar Chug Lite High Gain Distortion

Two really decent fuzzes - once of which I had had my eye on for a while - and it's now in UK distribution (Joe's Pedals), and the other which I only found out about fairly recentlyy - and snapped up on sight - a remarkably warm and richly textured octave fuzz!

• Cosmodio Instruments Pet Yeti Bitcrushed Fuzz / Distortion
• VFE Fuzz Cocktail

This doesn't exactly replace my Whammy Ricochet favourite - the Pitch-shifting here is instant - and you don't get that gradual rise that the Ricochet and Keeley Octa Psi do so well. I'm still mostly scratching the surface with this one - where I've really just started to experiment with the more complex Arpeggiator side of the pedal - it does sound pretty spectacular - while it's its own animal to a large degreee!

• DigiTech HammerOn Smart Pitch-Shifter

I have three very significant targets for the month - the Fortin Meshuggah and Sinvertek MGAT-5 SRAA near the start, and the Butterfly Dobbo towards the end of next month. The Engl Fireball IR is also definitely a priority target - with the others more opportunistic, and not a significant priority!

• Asheville Music Tools Analoger APH-12 12-Stage Phaser
• Bleak District Electric Wondertow Surfgaze Textualizer
• Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields Ultimate Dynamic Modulated Fuzz
• Butterfly Effects Dobbo Stereo Granular Playground
• Engl Fireball IR Preamp / Dual Channel Distortion - with Gate & Mid Boost
• Fairfield Circuitsy 20% More Slew Limiting Distortion
• Fortin Meshuggah Distortion / Preamp
• JCA Pedals Texas Flood SE (SRV)
• Jordan Pedals Acid Tone, Buzz Tone, and Sky Fuzz
• LPD Pedals Bedlum Overdrive (Dumble Drive)
• Pigtronix Gas Giant Ram's Head Muff style Fuzz
• Sinvertek MGAT-5 SRAA Real Amp Abstraction of the Soldano SLO
• Spaceman Effects Apollo VIIb Voyager Preamp / Drive
• ThorpyFX x Origin Effects Thorogin Folked Up Fuzz
• VFE Ge/Si Fuzz Duo

12 slots updated this month : #2, #4, #5, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #30, #31, #32.

Killer Overdrive and Fuzz section in particular for this month!

And we have a history proliferation of Tube powered overdives - with 4 of that king currently in the chain - in order of appearance - Drunk Beaver Hostomel Tube Driver, Tubesteader Roy Vox AC30, Crazy Tube Circuits Venus Tube Driver, and the Brelliott TODP Pro Modular!

The DigiTech HammerOn Creative Pitch-Shifter is a really cool and innovative pedal - I landed one of the first to arrive in the UK - courtesy of Juno.co.uk.

It's still fairly early days of my using this pedal - I miss the gradual rise of the ricochet - but there's so much more onboard here - this is an excellent pitch-shifter, down-tuner, and arpeggiator - just to name a few of its capabilities. I'm still fully getting to grips with this - and haven't used its advanced functions too much yet. Wile I'm using the Trill feature a lot! My friend Phil\s Demo (Pedal Experiments) was a great aid in helping me to understand how best to deploy said pedal's more advanced functions!

The main result of my recent visit to Reeves Electro HQ - getting my BlackHatSound-Deluxe, modded by Markus! He snipped out one of the resistors from the middle of the circuit (6.6k) and replacing it with a 2.6k version - which results in a much improved output gain and volume. My BHS-D now sounds just as good as my original raw and visceral BHS  original!

A fuzz that I knew very little about until recently! - the VFE Fuzz Cocktail Octave Fuzz - a beautifully balanced warm and richly textured octave fuzz. Has one of my most favoured octave fuzz outputs. Highly recomnended! While I don't believe many of these were made!

The new Xotic Effects V2 AC Booster is every bit as good as the Briothers AM - different genre of course, but the same degree of verve and versatility. Really sounds superb - and is extra versatile with that extra boost.

The Xotic Effects AH Booster (Allen Hinds) is probably the most specialist of that AC line - where it focuses on the compression side of that circuit - allowing you to strip out most of the compression present on the AC Booster. I of course prefer the Allen Hinds mode too!

The big story of the month was of course the Chase Bliss x Mike Piera Brothers AM KOT + Beano Boost I tend to have bot sides on Boost mode - and with the normal setting of Beano Boost in front. Sounds amazing! For me the KOT has mostly been about its stacking potential - and that superb softly clipped smooth profile. Really smart and great sounding pedal!

Thorpy's most attractive pedal to date - as well as overall bestseller - the Purple Edition of The Dane Drive + Boost. It has wonderful output - and it's wholly matched by the prettiness of its all-purple limited enclosure.

Markus and Izzy Reeves can do no wrong - here with their superb Daughterboard Series Leo : Twelve Tweed Drive - with all the bite and jangle that you might expect from that format - and peaking with a wonderful fuzzy texture!

The 4th Tube-Powered pedal currently on the board - the Drunk Beaver Hostomel Tube Driver - no not based on THAT Tube Driver - but based on another one also made by BK Butler - the Tubeworks Real Tube RT-901. This is a fantastic sounding, richly textured tube overdrive. While I do need to hit it with both barrels of the Stymon Sunset - in order to bring it up to unity with the other pedals in the chain. This one could really do with more output volume (and I say this in comparison to the other 4 Tube Overdrives on the board - which are all significantly louder!)

I identified this as a target when I first featured it - the Cosmodio Instruments Pet Yeti Bitcrushed Fuzz / Distortion. I just had to wait for it to get into UK distribution - which it has now - courtesy of Joe's Pedals. A great sounding textured fuzz - with plenty of variation and range.

So I most recently landed the Chug Lite - which I've of course tested against its larger original sibling. I much prefer this new version - it's smaller, simpler, easier to dial in, but more importantly sounds even more impressive than the original with a pounding punchy percussive low end - which you can't get to on the bigger version. Even though a somewhat lesser version - in features for sure - the semi-parametric mids really make this pedal - it truly sounds superb, and in my rig works out superior to the original!

Funnily I mostly got this one by mistake as I briefly mistook the Diezel Hagen element for the Herbert - one of my guitar heroes' favourite amps (Ian Crichton of Saga). The 51-Filthy is still a very decent High Gain Preamp - but not quite as searing as the core Herbert voicing.

So I don't have too much on my 'Dance Card' for May - besides a number of Family Birthdays

I'm off for for an onsite visit to Joe Halliday (Hello Sailor Effects) - second weekend in May. Where I'm booked in for the whole weekend. Joe has at least a couple of surprises for me supposedly. And I will be taking two pedals along with me for Joe to hopefully modify for me - both need more output volume for my preferences!

It's the first day I have two whole days at my disposal - obviously getting to explore Joe's new Workshop - and visit some quality dining establishments in the local Gosport area. Should be a lot of fun - and I'm very much looking forward to the meet-up - which also includes Joe's sidekick Glynn of course (father-in-law). Who mostly turns up at the various show with Joe, but was absent in Wokingowing to other prior family commitments.

And on Saturday May 31st, I will be attending the Leeds Pedal Show @ Northern Monk Refectory,  Holbeck, LS11 9YJ.

Usually I get invited to cover hose events. My show coverage is legendary - do check out the 3 show reports already for this year. While no one has contacted me about this event. I found ou as several of my builder friends are attending - so I must be there too! They've weirdly split the day in to Morning  and Afternoon sessions - not sure exactly how that accommodates me - as it will take the best part of a day to cover off each of those stands. Will be interesting to see who well organised this one is. Where I of course wish the organisers the very best of luck.

This is about as far north in the land that I''ve ventured for pedal shows - but on paper at least it seems like  a worthwhile endeavour - I will certainly lend them my support. I do find it slightly odd that they haven't reached out to me yet!

Finally, I'm hoping to secure at least the following 3 pedals during May :