2026 April Pedal-Chain Update - Episode IV - Blizzard of Fuzz

17 new devices added in April.

A veritable Blizzard of Fuzzes!

Several pedals / launches delayed, and/or pushed back into next month!

A cool spread for sure - but massively dominated by fuzz pedals!

• 4 x Boosts and Overdrives
• 10 x Fuzzes
• 2 x Modulations
• 1 x Utilities

1 Boost and 3 very different but excellent overdrives - JSA Effects LNS Overdrive Review will be up next week - not of the 3 pedals acquired at the recent Leeds Pedal Show!

• Electronic Audio Experiments Greathammer Bass Overdrive
• Gigahearts Trés Bull Dual Mids + Treble Booster
• JSA Effects LNS Overdrive (14-pin OD-1+)
• Wilson Effects Capstone Transparent Foundation Overdrive

This is very much a tale of two halves - plenty of cool fuzz  voicings here - where the BJFE Mystery, CTC Triptychon, JSA Fuzztronought, Rockwright Fuzzmaphobia, and Spaceman Rumblefuzz II are all top tier territory - with the others differing degrees of underwhelming. I had high hopes for the MKII Termofuzz and Octavia - while the former is significantly outperformed by its MKI predecessor - and the Vahbruch Octavia is not quote up to the high standards of most of the other Octave fuzzes that have landed this year. Both the JHS ones are a little underpowered, as reported in the pedal chain roundup below!

And the CopperSound Ion is a great idea on paper, but somewhat underwhelming in person - very limited compared to something like the Tark SquidInk - it needed to be quite a bit better - and with more output volume and verve!

• BJFE 3 x Silicon Transistor Mystery Fuzz (3 x 2N3439)
• CopperSound Pedals Ion Mini PLL-style Laser Fuzz
• Crazy Tube Circuits Triptychon Triple-Stacking Multi-Fuzz
• JHS Coyote Moonrock Fuzz
• JHS Double Dragon ± Octave Fuzz / Octaver
• JSA Effects Fuzztronought (EHX One Knob Muff Fuzz+)
• Rockwright Fuzzmaphobia (smallsoundBigSound Blargg-o-tron-o-tron)
• Spaceman Effects Rumblefuzz II White Light Edition
• Shift Line Termofuzz MK2 Multi-Fuzz
• Vahlbruch Octavia V2 Octave Fuzz

2 of my favourite modulations - the M. Stellatarum has been on the cards for a while - while it was one of the Isn'tses demos that introduced me to the delights of the EQD Sea Machine. It's fairly recently arrived, and has yet to have a rotation on the board. I came across a pristine second hand edition which was at a price I could not possibly turn down!

• EarthQuaker Devices Sea Machine Super Chorus
• Moth Electric M. Stellatarum 32 Mode Optical Tremolo

The Big Joe ISO 4 Power Box is a second rechargeable lithium device - this time with 4 x 9V ports - I use the 2-port predecessor almost constantly, where I though it would be nice to have a separate power supply to feed my soon-to-be-collection of Isn'tses Mini Art Synths!

These are pretty industry standard - I've always found them to be super-dependable!

* - Likely priority targets asterisked, emboldened and featured up top!

• Bananana Effects Quimera Polyphonic Synthesizer
• * Beetronics SeaBee Chorus Lite Editions
• * Buzzing Bugs Bolster Dual Fuzz
• * BCryptid Effects Indrid Cold Menacing High Gain Fuzz
• *Chase Bliss Big Time Hybrid Echo Automatone
• * Dawner Prince Eclipsa Triple Rotary Speaker Emulator
• Diamond Pedals Phase 2/4/6-Stage Phase-Shifter
• Electronic Audio Experiments Limelight Overdrive Touché Amoré Tour Edition
• * BFreqscene Koldwave Warped Analog BBD Chorus / Vibrato
• BFreqscene Wave of Modulation 3/5 Stage Phaser
• Keeley Electronics RK2000 Funk Siren Delay
• Old Blood Noise Endeavors Setback Ultimate Reverse Effect
• Pettyjohn Electronics Chime3
• Pettyjohn Electronics Gold3
• Red Panda RD-1 Pitch Delay
• Solodallas CompanDrive 65
• Summer School Fuzz 101 Classic Fuzz
• Thermion PowerDrive
• Thermion PowerMuff
• * Tsakalis Audioworks AC Master RangeMaster + AC30
• Walrus Audio High Point Optical Compressor

14 slots updated in April - with 16 pedals. #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #10, #11, #12, #13, #17, #20, #21, #25, #38.

Big on Fuzzes and (Treble) Boosters.

With a streak of White Light for those 3 Spacers.

Blizzard of Fuzz means that there are a total of 10 fuzz pedals currently deployed on the board - with several rotational ones in reserve!

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I think I momentarily forgot that the BJFE Mystery Fuzz was Silicon as its dynamics were so Germanium in nature - with fantastic under the finger feel, and guitar volume cleanup. Something about this circuit feels so vintage - that you feel you need to place it at or near the front of your chain - fantastic fuzz in any case which sounds particularly textured with the gain set relatively low.

One of the pedals in contention for Pedal of the Year - we have the Dazzatronyx Big Fuzz Console, the DSM & Humboldt Dumblifier, and this amazing Triple-Stacking Triptychon 2-way Boost and Octave, 4-way Fuzz, and pushed amp saturating overdrive. Incredible pedal - especially in this compact form factor - CTC's Christos is really on a roll - following up his exceptional Venus Tube Driver with and even better vintage inspired multi-fuzz!

I landed a MKII version of the Shift-Line Termofuzz this month - around a year after its launch, where this Russian-origin pedal is extremely hard to get hold of. The new one has more controls and granularity in some ways - but is not as good overall as its predecessor - so the MKI goes back on the board, and the MKII goes on the shelf. The Vahlbruch MKII Octavia also arrived this month, and while not exactly underwhelming - it was not in the same class as the other Octave Fuzzes that I've landed this year - even the variable JHS pair is more satisfying than the Vahlrbruch. The bar is just so high now!

Both the JHS sort of Octave type fuzzes - the Double Dragon and Coyote. For the Double Dragon the two sides are not independent - you need to have the Lower Octave on to trigger the Upper Octave + Fuzz - so it's not as versatile as expected - it sounds pretty decent, but I feel it could be better. Same goes for the Coyote take on the Moon Rock Fuzz - it's pretty decent - but if you listen to the Gigahearts Imbrium take - that is so much better sounding. JHS kind of overdoes the vintage authenticity - in terms of replicating the original profile - I prefer pedal builders who evolve and enhance circuits. JHS does have some great pedals in its range, while these two are somewhat middling overall! Again not bad, but not as good as they could be!

I've already covered the Spaceman Rumblefuzz II a few times - this is my second of the reissues. It's pretty decent sounding for sure - I really like this, but I feel it could be even better. I'll see if my friend Ian would want to make an improved version of this. It won't happen for a while - as we're already working on a number of projects - and there are only so many hours in the day!

The Gigahearts is a killer Dual Booster Tone Enhancer - Treble Booster on the right, and a MIDS (Phat) boost on the left. These can be deployed independently or in combination for really killer impact. The Pickup simulator means you can place the pedal everywhere - while it typically sounds best at the front of the chain - and before any buffers. A really potent and beautifully calibrated tone enhancer.

This is the second of my Spaceman White light pedals - and my first Atlas IV versatile booster - which is by default a clean boost - flip up the left toggle for more harmonics, and flip up the right one for a Treble Booster profile. It's a smart capable pedal - but could do with a little more granularity on the 'Range' I really love its simplicity!

Third of my Spaceman White Lights - the improved Apollo VIIb - I liked the original, and I guess I like this one even more - can get really chunky - May is going to be so much about overdrives - but we're already off to a strong start here - even though this one is iterative.

I don't typically gravitate towards Clean style Drives, but this Wilson is particularly sweet - as I mentioned in my review - and you can texture it up to a decent degree of saturation - so it's a pretty versatile pedal within that space. Surely one of the best Clean Drives out there.

The CopperSound Mini PLL style Ion Laser Fuzz is somewhat limited in its appeal - it sounds best in the down mode, Two of the modes are pretty decent, but still somewhat limited. The Tark Audio SquidInk is still my favourite PLL type - followed by the Beetronics Swarm. The SquidInk is spectacular truly - while the Ion's execution does not quite match up to its promise - nice idea though - but possibly a control or two short!

One of the heaviest hitters in the Overdrive class - this Greathammer totally lives up to its name - it's equally as potent as its Glaive sibling - both of those are magnificently high octane - and the Greathammer is exceptional low-end pounding fun - which sounds exceptional on guitar too. Not all Bass preamps works well with guitars - but this one is spectacular!

I'm still waiting on the demo for the two new Fredric Effects pedals - last month I featured the Petite Unpleasant Companion - and this month I'm featuring its sibling Verzerrer East German Distortion - now in more compact enclosure. It was good that I had a chat with Tim at the recent Leeds show - as I didn't feel I was getting enough output from the pedal - turns out that there is an output limiter onboard - which you can disable via the 3rd internal dip-switch. I've currently got the two NR noise reduction switches off - as the pedal is within the loop of my Noise Gate - but those deploying the pedal without a gate - night want to use the NR1 and NR2 dip-switches.

I've used the previous larger model demo here - while I was for the new one to arrive!

I finally got my hands on a Thorn Sound Labs pedal at the London Synth and Pedal show - and the review was out this month. This is a fantastic all-rounder multi-fuzz which covers all the classic flavours with ease - and then some. A really smart versatile fuzz pedal - which comes highly recommended. I have quite a high gain doomy sound on it currently - I was quite wowed by the Black Swamp - those Thorn Sound Lab pedal are very decent on this evidence!

I made something of an oversight when I named this as probably my favourite ever Tremolo pedal - meaning a mix of visual and sonic appeal, versatility and ease of use. It's a fantastic Tremolo really - but it's also a very slightly reduced version of the the Drolo Twin Peaks Tap Tempo Harmonic Tremolo. The Twin Peaks has an additional Expression port and additional Symmetry and Envelope controls. I personally don't miss those - and they add a little more complexit to the overdrive. The Moth Electric M. Stellatarum is a very attractive tremolo - but functionally it's a lesser version of the Twin Peaks - while sometimes less is more. I should really get the Twin Peak too and compare them - that's one's not quite as attractive - but on the GBP exchange rate you get more bang for your buck. So look at both variations - and buy the one that best appeals to you. Moth Electric does site the Twin Peaks as the origin point for its M. Stellatarum - and the key modes are the same. A couple of the waveforms are different too. Both are worthy for sure - and each has its own appeal!

The Norwich Fret Fest is my next event - but not until June 20th. For May I'm kind of free - which is a huge relief - as I'm already a little worn out after March and April. Fortunately there is a bank holiday Monday coming up - so hopefully I can catch up on my sleep - I have deep dark furrows under my eyes - hopefully I can bring some of the freshness back over the long weekend!