Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
2025 February Pedal-Chain Update - Episode II - Modulation Sensation
So February, as expected, turned out to be quite the slow moving month - with not too many featured releases. You always get the big announcements at NAMM - and then it takes a few months typically for those pedals to filter through.
There were a few heavy hitters that emerged in February or sooner - including the Kernom Elipse Modulation Playground, and the Polyend Step Drum Machine Pedal - both of which went on the board this month.
I also made the Plutoneium Chi-Wah-Wah a permanent slot on the board, and added the eagerly awaited Krozz RoyalBreaker. There was some fabulous gain pedals this month - including the very recently revealed Redbeard Effects Bearded Vulture - which is very Wide Ranging - and for some will be an Overdrive, others a Distortion, and for me a Fuzz! It all depends on there you set the Drive and Bias controls - which are highly interactive.
I also added a GigRig Wetter Box to the rig - to place the Polyend Step in a parallel loop - so I can maintain pristine quality for each of those signals - and balance them very finely indeed!
We would normally have had the UK Guitar Show in February - but it’s rather at the start of March this year - which suits me very well - albeit March is fairly saturated with events.
Nothing really particularly significant happened in February - which is often the case - that is normally the doldrum month of the year - the kind of in-between month where you are still waiting on most of the NAMM announced released to finally land!
I made a tactical error on the MXR Rockmam X100 - which I didn’t think would be quite as popular as it obviously is. All those early batches sold out way sooner than I could react - and the follow-up batches are mostly not landing until March - so that will likely be a March acquisition for me - unless I get caught out again.
So February was largely somewhat uneventful - with still a handful of very decent releases, and I made a number of new alliances - with will bear fruit later in the year!
I have a felling this is the calm before the storm!
On another note - I really enjoyed doing my updated article on Dominant / Primary Pedal Colours - seems like most of you didn’t enjoy it quite as much - perhaps too much Boss for you to handle!
February Acquisitions Update
12 pedals added to the reference collection this month.
Very evenly distributed really - and no particular standout category in terms of numbers. Some excellent acquisitions this month - not as much as usual - as this was my father's 90th Birthday Month - and some of that usual pedal activity had to be allocated elsewhere understandably. A grand time was had by all - over 3 days of festivities!
- 1 x Overdrive
- 3 x Distortions
- 3 x Fuzzes
- 2 x Modulations
- 3 x Utility / Pitch
Overdrive
Just the one overdrive this month - but a really killer one - with magical mid-frequency control! :
- Paul Cochrane Zefram Overdrive
3 x Distortions
A couple of killer Rat style Distoriton - both really potent - and a beautifully elegant and refined take on a Shredmaster :
- Drunk Beaver PD #26 LA Metal Distortion
- Krozz Devices RoyalBreaker Extended Range Rat style Distortion
- Perfecto De Castro BAD94 Distortion (Shredmaster)
3 x Fuzzes
The Bearded Vulture could happily sit in any of the Gain categories here - depending on how you set the Drive and Bias dials - for me and my settings - it's a beautiful searing fuzz! We then have two fantastic takes on classic pedals - the Univox Super-Fuzz, and EHX Big Muff Pi IC edition. Wonderful harmonics on all 3 of these!
- Redbeard Effects Bearded Vulture Preamp - with Octave (based on Culture Vulture)
- Rose Morris Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz Super-Fuzz
- SuperCool Pedals '77 Fuzz Blender OpAmp / IC Muff
2 x Modulations
A killer smart Hybrid Multi-Modulator with extensive range, and an extremely versatile Flanger! :
- Kernom Elipse Modulation Playground Analog Multi-Modulator
- Subdecay Starlight MKIII Flanger
3 x Utility / Pitch
Actually a very dynamic category this month - where I'm using the Wetter Box with the superb Polyend Step Drum Machine Pedals. And the Plutoneium Chi-Wah-Wah wins the mantle of my favourite ever Wah Pedals - and becomes a permanent part of the rig! :
- TheGigRig Wetter Box Stereo Parallel Mixer
- Plutoneium Chi-Wah-Wah V2
- Polyend Step Dynamic Stompbox Drum Machine
February Infinite Wishlist Additions and Future Targets
Not too much to write about this month. I definitely need to add some Ananashead pedals to the reference collection - I've been meaning to do that for a while!
I should be getting a Great Eastern OC201 soon - but I never count my chickens in advance!
Several here will likely be added over the coming months - with the Airis Diezel Hagen inspired take - probably my leading priority. While I'm attending The Guitar Show - and undoubtedly more targets will arise from that!
- Adag Audio Seagull Overdrive (Jan Ray)
- Airis Effects 51-Filty High Gain Distortion (5150 + Diezel Hagen)
- Ananashead Mark 2 TB MKII style Fuzz
- Ananashead Spirit Fuzz (Jordan Boss Tone)
- Bleak District Sun? Never Double T Preamp
- Buzzing Bugs Stargazy Transistor-based Preamp-Driven Reverb
- Fender Mustang Micro Plus Guitar Headphone Amp
- Fowl Sounds x Inter Arma Concrete Cliffs Parametric Opamp Distoriton + Boost
- Foxgear Muffin (Gilnour Civil War Muff)
- Great Eastern FX Obsolete Devices OC201 Preamp
- Meris Enzo X Polyphonic Synth
- Native Audio Commodity Octave Fuzz
- Native Audio Love Pony Overdrive / Distortion
- Nux MP-3 High Might Plug Pro Headphone Amp
- O.C.E. Pedals x Buddy Blues The Gentleman Fuzz and Boost
- Origin Effects Cali76 Stacked Compressor
- Strymon EC-1 Single Head dTape Echo
- Thorn Soundlabs Black Swamp Fuzz, and Magma Metal Distortion
- Totally Wycked Audio Ladditude Envelope-Controlled Resonant Filter
- Zorg Effects Love Philter
February Pedal Chain Status
12 slots updated this month - #4, #11, #12, #13, #14, #19, #24, #27, #30, #31, #50, #51.
A fairly subtle overall - but very signifiant at the tail end - with the new Wetter Box and Polyend Step, and also significant for the Plutoneium Chi-Wah-Wah becoming a permanent member of the board!
Slot #04 : Envelope Filter / Auto-Wah / Fixed Wah / WAH / PLL! / Octave Fuzz
The Rose Morris Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz - Super-Fuzz - is a cool vintage sounding Super-Fuzz - expertly replicated from the original by Thorpy. It could do with a little more volume - while its format and output is exactly how you would expect it to be - with real quality and attention to detail.
Slot #11 : Mid Gain Overdrive / Tweed / Amp-like Overdrive
The Redbeard Effects Bearded Vulture Direct Drive + Octave is a really intriguing Overdrive / Distortion / Fuzz - depending on where you position the Drive and Bias Dials. I mostly like it as a fuzz - and my review will be going up as soon as there is a demo to accompany the release!
Slot #12 : Mid Gain Overdrive / Dynamic / Blues Breaker / Harmonic Overdrive / JTM45
I was hoping to get to the Paul Cochrane Zefram Overdrive sooner - but this February seemed to be a good month for it. I much prefer this to Paul's Timmy - it has a much fuller flavour and greater range - with a really smart Mids-control!
Slot #13 : Mid Gain / Blues Driver / Anchor Drive / Bassier Overdrive
The Drunk Beaver PD #26 LA Metal Distortion (Rat) is almost as good as the Krozz Devices RoyalBreaker - it doesn't quite have that ones range or pounding low end and major Marshall-y overtones. But is still very close in its potency.
Slot #14 : Mid Gain / Dumble / Expandora / Fuzzy-Drive / Mostortion / OCD / TrainWreck
The Krozz Devices RoyalBreaker Fiery Distortion (Rat) is probably my favourite sounding Rat Distortion to date - slightly different in profile to most rats - with bolder Marshall-y overtones, more sear, and more killer low-end - sounds superb!
Slot #19 : Main Multi-Drive / Multi-Fuzz / Oversize Pedal
As you can see in my visual - the Kernom Elipse Hybrid Modulation Playground is the 4th Multi-Modulator on the board, and every-way genius in that typical Kernom way - superior build quality and that super smart seamless Mood Morphing!
Slot #24 : Modern Metal 2 / High Gain Metal 1 / Punchy Metal / Sometimes Plexi too!
This Caroline Guitar Co. Shigeharu Germanium Octave Fuzz - could have gone on the board in January (in fact it did), but it arrived relatively late in that cycle - and all the slots were already taken by then! Fantastic sounding Octave Fuzz - across both voicings! And really extended range!
Slot #27 : Wah Pedal (Permanent)
The much lauded Plutoneium Chi-Wah-Wah gets a permanent spot on the board! That's how much I like it!
Slot #30 : High Gain Fuzz 2 / Modern Metal 1 / Mid-Pushed High Gain
The Perfecto De Castro Bad 94 Distortion (Shredmaster) was the late arrival of the month - and would not have happened without my Hot Pink features - it's a really distinct Marshall Distoriton - with a somewhat elegant and always musical edge!
Slot #31 : Brown Sound / EVH / JCM800 / Liquid Distortion
The SuperCool Pedals '77 Fuzz Blender OpAmp / IC Muff - is another one of those killer Super Harmonics Fuzzes - with my sort of modern settings it produced the most amazing rich harmonic textures!
Slot #50 : Parallel Mixer
TheGigRig Wetter Box Parallel Blender was purely introduced here to place the Polyen Step in a parallel path - so I could exercise more control over each signal, and blend in a very refined and controllable manner!
Slot #51 : Drum Machine
The Polyend Step Drum Machine Pedal is the Drum Machine I always wanted - it sounds super, while there is some slight degree of clunkiness about its interface and information delivery. It covers a whole lot of ground - and truly sounds superb. I'm delighted that I've finally found a drum accompaniment that I really love!
Final Thoughts
So not to much out and about activity this month - but that's all due for a shake-up in March - which a key month for Guitar and Pedal Shows :
1st & 2nd March - Birmingham / Shirley UK Guitar Show - @ Cranmore Park : B90 4LE
15th March : Woking Boutique Guitar, Pedal, Bass & Amp Show - @ Fiery Bird : GU21 6JT
22nd & 23rd March : London / Hackney Wick Synth & Pedal Expo - @ Studio 9294 : E9 5LN
I will be attending all those shows - Saturday for The UK Guitar Show in Brum, Saturday for the Woking Show, and both Saturday and Sunday for the London Expo - as I'm one of the Media Partners for that!
So March is surely going to be busy - and a fair few of the NAMM-announced pedals will likely be materialising - although I'm a aware of others that have been pushed back to April / May.
Will be fun to do the rounds and see what everyone has planned for the year!
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