2025 August Pedal-Chain Update - Episode VIII - The Double Down Paired Edition

A total refresh of my power section!

23 New Pedals and Devices for the month.

Equal amounts of Fuzz and Overdrive pretty much, some significant spacial effects additions, and a significantly upgraded pedal power section!

• 6 x Overdrives
• 2 x Distortions
• 5 x Fuzzes
• 2 x Modulations & Multi-FX
• 4 x Spatial Effects
• 4 x Power & Utilities

An exceptional month for Overdrives - all of these are fantastic  - the only one that didn't make it to the final board was the Kahrkiv Supercharged CMOS Overdrive - which just show how strong the selection was this month - I really love all of these!

• Catastro FX Outbreak 2-in-1 Overdrive (Greer Lighspeed + Southlands)
• Drunk Beaver Kahrkiv Supercharged CMOS Overdrive
• Drunk Beaver Denys Toporchuk Signature Kavun (Water Melon) MOS Drive
• ThorpyFX Peace2Keeper Low Gain Germanium Diodes Harmonic Overdrive
• Walrus Audio 385 MKII Overdrive
• Walrus Audio Voyager MKII Klon Klone Overdrive

Two really worthy distortions - both noteworthy for their exceptional distortion textures - really distinct and individual. For my own preferences and sensibilities I could have done with a little more volume on each of them - but it'a minor quibble really - and both will get you to unity levels for most rigs!

• Fuzz Imp Furia Grinding Chainsaw Distortion
• RhPf Mo(s)ghoul MOSFET Overdrive / Distortion

A killer fuzz selection for the month two - some new, some old, some reissued! We would have had one more but it got postponed last minute - after I turned everything around to accommodate it - but now been launched in September instead. What a great selection - and featuring tow Super-Fuzzes here!

• Blind Panic Devices Reactor Destructive Power Station Fuzz
• EarthQuaker Devices Fuzz Master General Octave Fuzz Legacy Reissue
• Fuzz Imp Adventure Superfuzz
• Fuzz Imp Creature Dual Gated Series Stacked Fuzz
• Walrus Audio Kangra Filter Fuzz

Two really interesting mostly Multi-Modulators as far as I'm concerned - and both of which could do with some updates really for my preferences. For the PX-1 I would want to modify its colourway a touch and give greater flexibility in the selection and arrangement of your Effecs, For the VibroVerb - I kind of feel like it could do with some sort of EQ control - where there is one for the equivalent ZeroSum - which works really well!

• Boss PX-1 Plugout FX Compact Stereo Multi-FX
• Colortone VibroVerb Multi Mode Stereo LFO Modulation

2 Mono and 2 Stereo - with the EM-1 Echo Machine and Slötva destined to be secondary bit-players - while the ZeroSum and Nucleo will feature prominently for years to come surely! Two of the very best non-workstation Delays and Reverbs out there! Both secondaries for me - but principal secondaries - like you would get in an orchestra!

• Colortone ZeroSum Dual Head Rhythmic Stereo Delay
• Cornerstone Paul Davids signature Nucleo Atomic Reverberator
• Drunk Beaver XR Series EM-1 Echo Machine (Ibanez EM-5 + Tone)
• Walrus Audio Slötva Multi-Texture Reverb

These are all mainly Power Utilities really - with a new NUX Multi-Tester and 2 x Zeus power supplies - while I also upgraded my Strymon Ojai to a second Zuma - the power section should be solid now for many years to come!

• NUX NMT-1 Multi Tester + Tuner
• 2 x NUX Zeus 10 Outlet Power Supply
• Strymon Zuma 9 Outlet Power Supply

I'm definitely getting the JHS 424 Gain Stage Preamp, and as I'm in the runup to Full Metal Racker in October - I will be looking to add a few more High Gain Pedals - including the Fortin Kali Preamp. I also really like the Pasta Pedals I featured - and there are overall 4 of those that I'd like to add to the collection - The Dude, FrankenSTEEN Fuzz, Sasquatch and Sewer Rat - also I'd quite like to get the Missing Link Peace Fuss - we'll see how September shapes up - I don't belie there are any specific Shows on my calendar - next one of those is the 2nd Woking Boutique Guitar Show on October 11th!

• Black Art Toneworks BAT Multi-Gain Pedal
• Blammo Utility Boost / Buffer / Cocked Wah
• Death By Audio Savage Dual-Band Resonant Filter Crossover Fuzz
• Dr. No Holy Wahcamoly Wah
• Fortin Kali Preamp / Distortion (Plexi + JCM800)
• JAM Pedals Wahcko Wah
• JHS 424 Gain Stage Console Preamp
• Mad Professor Royal Blue Overdrive Handwired
• Mile End Effects Pique Dynamic Preamp / Buffer / Boost
• Missing Link Audio Warm & Silky Peace Fuzz (Germanium Diodes)
• Pasta Pedals The Dude, Sasquatch, Sewer Rat, and FrankenSTEEN Fuzz

18 Slots updated for August : #2, #3, #4, #5, #11, #13, #14, #15, #15x. #19. #25, #30, #37, #38, #40, #42, #43, #47.

The chain features several pedal pairs - in fact 7 in this particular sequence : 3🔗4, 7🔗8, 12🔗13, 15🔗15x, 37🔗38, 39🔗40, 42🔗43.

One of the strongest arrangements to date - every slot is suffused with the highest quality effects - in a potent mix of classic, modern and futuristic. Some stunning pedal designs in this selection too!

My long-term Spaceman Sputnik (Спутник) Germanium Fuzz had to share this #02 Slot with another new favourite last-minute arrival - the Fjord Fuzz Thor Wild Self-Oscillating Lightning-Strike Fuzz - which is kind of a very unusual Wild and Weird and Crazy take on a Tone Bender II style fuzz with serious extra flavour - really sound immense! The Thor was supposed to launch today - but has been moved back a week or so - making it par of the September intake now!

The Fuzz Imp Adventure SuperFuzz is one of 3 killer Fuzz Imp pedals onto the board this month - it's also one of two absolutely killer takes of the Super-Fuzz - alongside the EQD Fuzz Master General on slot #05. The 6 knobs of the Adventure make it incredibly versatile across its 3 blended circuits - an octave fuzz, a flat frequency fuzz, and a clean preamp.

The second of the Fuzz Imp Trifecta - the Creature Dual-Gated Series-Stacked Richly Textured Fuzz - this one combines Percolator and Fuzz Factory circuits with additional Buffer Boost stage - it's a fantastic all-rounder textured gain machine - while not quite as richly textured as the Adventure SuperFuzz - it kind of hits you in the same way - its texture is distinct from the Adventure Fuzz - while the mechanic is similar in balancing different circuit elements together - has an immense range!

The EQD Fuzz Master General (SuperFuzz) is another superb take on the Super-Fuzz - It's not quite as beautifully richly textured or as versatile as the Fuzz Imp Adventure - it's rather more full-on and aggressive - and still very much top tier!

The Thorpy Peace2Keeper is the superior Germanium Diodes Low Gain take of the Peacekeeper - with a slightly grittier more textured sound - which gets beautifully overblown at peak gain!

The second of my RhPf Electronics pedals - also a hybrid Soft and Hard Clipping drive - which leans more into the harder clipping side - which makes it a MOSFET Distortion - with a really distinct twin-peaks output - kind of like a a softer HM-2  - but quite differently textured. It sounds particularly good for me with the Strymon Sunset Treble Booster following - that really elevates its output!

Alas there is no demo still for this CatastroFX - which combines Lightspeed and Southland circuits in the same singular compact enclosure - it really sounds superb, and is hopefully the first of many Catastro pedals in this format to land at GPX!

The first of my two recently arrived Walrus Audio Overdrive - the Voyager II is a great extended range Klon Klone - where the addition of semi-parametric mids really enhances the output - as do the two Bass Boosted clipping modes - both Germanium and Silicon Diode variants. For sure another fantastic take on the format - which further expands its versatility.

The Walrus 385 Filmosound Projector Preamp Overdrive has long been a target - in fact since the first V1 edition. It's as well that I held out though - as the newer take adds a second channel and higher gain 385 voicing. As with many of my pedal pairs - my preferences shift so that at time I prefer one of the versions to the other, and a few weeks later that reverses! Both the Voyager II and 385 II are superb - where right now I'm leaning slightly more into the Voyager - but preferred the 385 initially!

Blind Panic Devices Reactor Nuclear Power Station Fuzz is one of the most exceptional destructive / brutal industrial sounding fuzz out there - which I love on all Fusion modes - particular on Yellow and Orange. This thickly textured high octave Fuzzstortion - one of the ultimate noise makers out there!

The Denys Toporchuk signature Kavun MOS Drive is a majestic improvement over the PD #9 Kharkiv CMOStorion. The Kavun improves that circuit in every way - sounding crisper and better balanced - a real precision journeyman tool now - and one of my favourite overdrives - the gain and default EQ is perfectly balanced with a rich appealing texture alongside exceptional articulation.

The Furia Grinding Chainsaw Distortion is the 3rd of my Fuzz Imp Compact Trifecta - and indeed this one sounds pretty beefy too - with a fantastic sort of bark to its core tonality. As with many of these hard clipping devices - this one suffers a little in the output department - I need to run it at full volume, and often feel that I need to boost it a little further to match the other pedals in my chain. I really like all my gain pedals to be somewhat hot - and with plenty of extra levels to it, This one doesn't quite go to 11 for me!

Part of my Spaceman Team Red Trifecta - alongside the Red Cyrillic Sputnik, and the neighbouring Delta II Harmonic Tremolo. The Spaceman Compact 6-Stage Optical Explorer Phaser is one of my very favourites of that type - coming just after the even more capable Beetronics Larva in the pecking order - a beautifully expressive phaser for sure!

Part of my Spaceman Team Red Trifecta - alongside the Red Cyrillic Sputnik, and neighbouring Explorer 6-Stage Optical Phaser. This Delta II Harmonic Tremolo is a superb candidate for that genre - not quite at the lofty heights of the JAM Pedals Harmonious Monk - but it will run it close enough for most. One of my favourites for sure - and very striking when used in conjunction with its other Spaceman Team Red members!

Boss's new seemingly somewhat divisive PX-1 Plugout FX Multi-FX. For me an excellent celebratory compendium of its earliest effects - and in particular those modulations. While the pedal will only carry 16 Effects in total, and 8 of those are fixed. Moreover future new Effects - will be micro-transacted at $9.99 each. I'm personally generally not in favour of micro-transactions for additional effects - it sets a worrying precedent. I don't wish to stand in Boss's means of earning a fair crust - but I'm not sure this is the way to go, I like the core of what the device offers - but have my own opinions on the nature and scope of the rollout, and the inherent limitations of such a device!

Colortone's new VibroVerb 3-Mode Stereo LFO Modulator is every bit as striking as the recently reviewed ZeroSum Dual Head Rhythmic Delay. It's essentially a major upgrade of the former Roundhouse Modulator - with a whole slew of added features and functions - across digital Optical Tremolo, Harmonic Tremolo, and RotoVibe (stereo Uni-Vibe). It's an excellent upgrade of that device - while I feel it could do with some sort of EQ two, otherwise every bit as good as the ZeroSum!

The Colortone ZeroSum Stereo Rhythmic Dual-Head Delay is an instant and immediate hit. And particularly on the Dual Head Mode - which does those really cool skittery rhythmic delays that I so love. It's a perfect supporting effect to my already firmly entrenched Empress EchoSystem and Flower Pedals Dahlia. The ZeroSum is highly capable - with presets onboard and an extended range of features and parameters. Combines beautiful design with equally striking output!

I seem to have been somehow and unofficially exiled from Cornerstone - as I've not received any comms replies since June 16th. I can't understand why this has happened - but obviously there's a lack of care, duty and professionalism there - so I won't be promoting this particular device as such. It is however a really superb Reverb pedal in every which way - and including its spectacular design. I'm not sure what I have done wrong that led to my exile - I've always thought I did sterling work on Cornerstone's behalf. But yes I feel I've been mistreated, and even maltreated here. Never mind - I will prevail! Very happy to have got my hands on one of these so quickly - thanks again to my good friend Dylan at Definitive Guitars! Definitely worth getting - but you didn't hear that from me!

So not the busiest release schedule necessarily but a really busy month for me with lots of significant and detailed features. The long and the short of it is that I'm kind of burned out a little - which necessitates my taking next month a little easier.

The big event next month is obviously Guitar Summit in Mannheim - which ranges from the 26th to the 28th of September. While in this current climate there is no one that is going to help sponsor my attendance at said event, And it's a little too pricey for me to justify at the moment - I would estimate a minimum outlay of around £1,500  - which would need to come from my pedal budget - which would inevitably mean I would be getting in a lot less pedals for that month - and since so much of what I do is based on the hands-on experience - and in fact people don't tend to read / like my show reports anywhere near the level those deserve - so it's a serious amount of cost and graft - for minimal rewards. It just can't be justified withitou their being some sort of sponsor to make that happen. 

The next event I will be attending is the 2nd Woking Boutique Guitar Show on October 11th - with the following roster below. As I'm a media partner for that show I will be preparing a proper feature article in advance - which should go live a couple of weeks or so before the event! If you're in the area then - I hope to see you around!