2026 May Pedal-Chain Update - Episode V - Giga-Hoard Modulated Fuzz'n'Drive Board

21 new devices added in May.

A very even spread for the month with around the same amount for Overdrives, Fuzzes and Modulations.

Quite a few special editions within the mix - including a couple of 'Preview Pedals' and a fairly advanced Prototype that mostly just needs a few nips and tucks!

Great pedal month overall - with some stellar long-termers here across the different genres. Including the Black Mountain Freewheel Dual Expression Pedal - which has taken up residence on slot #26!

• 6 x Overdrives
• 1 x Distortion
• 6 x Fuzzes
• 5 x Modulations
• 3 x Utilities / Multi-FX

Some truly magnificent overdrives here - everyone of them is stellar really, and all have been in circulation this month. Only one of these didn't get a final placement - there really are some exceptional drives among these, while on the board are a couple of straggles from the Leeds Pedal Show too!

I was in the process of doing a Crazy Tube Circuits roundup - hence the Killer V addition, while that was somewhat scuppered by the imminent White Whale Junior which is coming out late June now I believe!

• Colortone Parasite Full-Spectrum Overdrive V4 / 2026 Edition
• Crazy Tube Circuits Killer-V Magnatone Amp Drive + Vibrato
• Drunk Beaver the Voznesensk Dino Drive Tube Bender
• Empress Drive
• Holy Island Audio Spectral Fire Noise Rock Saturator (BluesBreaker x Traynor Preamp)
• ThorpyFX [Greater] Kudu Drive

BDS!

Logo scrubbed!

Brand evermore boycotted!

• Fxxxxr Godzilla Opamp Distortion

All 6 of these killer fuzzes are currently on the board - where 2 of them are PREVIEWS [due to be covered next month], and one of them is a Prototype - which is mostly circuit-complete - while we would like to add a second footswitch to it, and tidy up some of the graphics element - all very promising already!

Big month for Gigahearts!

• Gigahearts Denton Mid-Boosted Opamp Fuzz - PREVIEW
• Gigahearts Full Moon / Imbrium Custom Shop Moonrock Fuzz
• Gigahearts Siliface MKII Fuzz
• Gigahearts Dual Engine Avionics - PROTOTYPE
• Holy Island Audio Micro Mountain Mover Fuzz (Super-Fuzz x Big Muff)
• Overkill Effects V7 Fuzz (Sovtek Muff) - PREVIEW

Killer month for Modulations too!

All 5 of these are exceptional, and will be regular rotation on the board.

All the Caroline Guitar Co. Modulations have been acquired - just waiting for the final one to land.

And will be doing a similar exercise with Asheville Music Tools - with the Flanger the next to be featured.

It will take some weeks to get fully to grips with the Gamechanger RECODER - which is already proving to be a lot of fun - a very unique and unusual effect overall!

• Asheville Music Tools new Analoger APH-12 Variable-Stage Phaser
• Caroline Guitar Co Arigato Phaser / Vibrato
• Caroline Guitar Co Parabola Pawnshop Tremolo
• Eventide Tricerachorus Stereo Dimensional Chorus
• Gamechanger Audio RECODER - Spectral Morphing Workstation - Sampler / Modulator / Modifier / Vocoder / Looper
  
  

The Black Mountain Freewheel Dual Expression Pedal is likely a permanent resident on that slot - by far my favourite Expression pedal to date - so effortless and precise to deploy - exactly the right device for me - and super robust, built to last a lifetime!

Hungry Robot Wallflower at last arrived after serial delays - still worth the wait, and a really decent Klowra Isolated Power Supply, while not enough ports to be properly useful for my rig - but works very well for smaller boards!

• Black Mountain Freewheel Dual Expression Pedal
• Hungry Robot Wallflower Shoegazer - Dual Reverb + Chorus + Distortion
• Klowra Vires Isolated 6 Outlet, 2 Variable Slimline Pedalboard Power Supply

There's quite a few priority targets for next month - as asterisked and featured above.

As always - not all of those will land next month - and there will be others in addition, generally some truly magnificent pedals landed this month, while - as you can read in Final Thoughts below - there's plenty already in the works for next month, with several of those targets on the way or even landed already!

• Airline Dirty Birdy Fuzz [already landed for next week coverage!]
• Bastl Instruments Kalimba Electro-Acoutic Kalimba-Synth [already on order - due December]
• BilT Josh Scott Signature JHS Relevator Import Guitar [not 100% decided!]
• Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields Ultimate Dynamic Modulated Fuzz + It Modulatr [White Editions - only at Northern Stompboxes]
• * Caroline Guitar Co. Aaron Graves Preamp / Overdrive
• Dronechov Noise Machines Stepping Razor Crusthing Low-End Overdrive / Distortion
• * Holy Island Audio Blast Radius Oscillating Fuzz [waiting for next batch!]
• * Hotone Neon Glow Series Freqlux Triple-Voice Stereo Pitch-Shifter
• JAM Pedals Tubedreamer MK2 - Glowing Sunset Edition!
• JHS 3 Series Bit Cruhser, Glitch Delay, and Ring Modulator
• * Mattoverse AirTrash MKII Signal Corrupter Fuzz
• OPFXS Gain Box Multi-Gain Machine [already on order, due next week]
• Stomp Under Foot Vintage Mini Series - Fuzz Master 3, and Super Fuzz Sustainar
• Supercool Pedals Spritz! Saturator OTA Compressor + JFET Tube Emulator
• * TunderTomate Over-Drive+ Rev G [waiting on re-stock - for next month]

20 Slots updated this month - Slot #2, #3, #4, #5, #10, #11, #12, #13, #13b, #14, #15, #17, #19, #22, #24, #25, #26, #37, #38, #41.

21 New pedals in circulation!

Including - 4 x Gigahearts, 2 x Caroline Guitar Co., 2 x Holy Island Audio, and 2 x JSA Effects.

4 of the 5 rows have been significantly impacted this month, and next month we will finally have further movement on slots #47 and #48 - one of those has already landed, and the other is on the way.

The board is incredibly potent this month - with many of those new ones being significant long-termer - which will feature a lot on the board the year - including new permanent fixture on slot #26 - the Black Mountain Freewheel Dual Expression Pedal!

The Crazy Tube Circuits Triptychon Boost + Multi-Fuzz + Pushed-Amp Preamp is a killer long-termer for me, just recently moved to slot #1 here, and due for an extended run on the board. So potent and versatile - sounds every which superb - and there are elements here that pair beautifully with the other downstream fuzzes and drives in the chain!

I have been so impressed with Gigahearts' Silifuzz Ultimate Type II & III Silicon Fuzz Face with Germanium Feel. Good friend Ian deserves to sell a bucket load of these. The secret sauce Transistors are exceptional in their versatility, warmth and texture. And the Body control delivers some exceptional Germanium-like gritty textures. One of the very best Silicon Fuzz Faces out there!

The Rockwright FX Phuzzmaphobia Pulse Width Modulation Fuzz is a project very much tied to my friend with Phil at Pedal Experiments - as it was he that suggested to Rockwright that they adapt this rare fuzz circuit into a more compact format. And the result is superb - all 4 modes sound fantastic - and you can make is sound properly nasty or overwhelmingly classic - to your own preferences!

When I reviewed the JSA Effects Fuzztronought 6K Evolved Muff Fuzz I referenced the original 1969 EHX source pedal for the demo - while the Fuzztronought delivers so much more - it's almost a different pedal! I've chosen just to reference the main image here until there is an eventual demo - which is kinda slim in any case, as only 5 of these have been made to date!

The fantastic Gigahearts Custom Shop Full Moon / Imbrium expanded Moonrock Fuzz is an improved version of that circuit - still in compact enclosure. It's far superior to the recent JHS Coyote - with more granularity of control, and a slightly more open and potent core texture!

The Holy Island Audio Spectral Fire Clangy Overdrive [BluesBreaker / Traynor Preamp] is a super handy overdrive - which goes from bright and open - typically Breaker to really gritty garage punk Traynor amp style preamp. Really versatile drive pedal!

The very specific ThorpyFX [Greater] Kudu 'Make Better' Stacking Overdrive once started its life as a modded DOD250 pedal, but is now so removed from that with its softer clipping - where the Soft+ Schottky clipping delivers a quite magnificent germanium-like clipping output. I mostly deploy it solo on that voicing - with all the knobs @ 3 o'c - it sounds superb!

Another custom JSA Effects LNS Overdrive [Custom 14-Pin OD-1] - only 3 of these were made - so very slim chance of there ever being a demo! It sounds like an enhanced original OD-1 with a touch more output volume, and a very unique 2-Band EQ. I could still probably to with even a little more maximum volume, but fully cranked it sounds about right. Would be nice to have a little more in reserve - but it's pretty perfect as is!

The Empress Drive Tube-Like Multi-Drive + Boost + Noise Gate is a magnificent full fat drive saturator - which delivers a particularly magnificent Plexi voicing for me - also does a pretty neat Tweed style output - and even extends into proto-fuzz territory!

Gozilla Opamp Distortion - Ignore - BDS.

Logo scrubbed!

Brand is dead!

The 4th Iteration of the Colortone Pedals Parasite V4 Full Spectrum Everyday Overdrive - is a fantastic all-rounder overdrive - does Dumble and Plexi tones with ease - and much much more - such a clever circuit!

The Hungry Robot Wallflower Ultimate Shoegazer Multi-FX has been a really long time coming - I ordered it originally way back in November of last year, and it's been beset with numerous production delays - but worth the wait in the end - a magnificent shoegazer pedals - at the same kind of upper echelon levels as the OBNE Screen Violence - which I also have! 

The reduced size Holy Island Audio Micro Mountain Mover Super-Muff is an immense sounding hybrid fuzz - a sort of really high gain big muff with a Super-Fuzz style upper harmonic octave - glorious wall-of-sound output!

The Gamechanger Audio RECODER - Spectral Morphing Workstation - takes over the central slot from the Tubesteader Gainlord - which had a very decent innings. I'm still fairly early days with the RECODER - but having a lot of othewordly eerie / spooky modulation fun at the moment!

The supreme Overkill Effects V7 Sovtek Era Muff Fuzz - here for Preview purposes only as we're waiting on some demos, and a change to the knob selection. I've recommended a few tiny tweaks - while the insides of the pedal are superb, as is its wholly magnificent output - one of my best ever big muffs - sounds extraordinarily good - we just need to get the outside to impart some of the magic of the insides!

Gigahearts Dual Engine Avionics PROTOTYPE!

Circuit already sounds great - but there are still some changes to be made to the enclosure, and we would ideally like to add a second footswitch - which would perfect this circuit format. 

The eagle-eyed among you will be able to figure out what kind of pedal this is - we've made it better though - with 2 different Opamps onboard for optimised outputs!

The Gigahearts Denton Opamp Fuzz Preview [due to launch 16th June!]

This has been a long time coming - I've wanted one of these for year, and if you can't source it - make your own! With the help of a good friend of course!

Just teasing the beautiful exterior here - with this one due to launch in just a little over a fortnight!

The Black Mountain Freewheel Dual Expression Pedal 10K & 25K is my Expression pedal of choice now - it's versatile, and it works wonderfully - really even and precise - and surely the most robustly built of them all - fantastic Expression pedal take!

Both the Caroline Guitar Co. Arigato Phaser / Vibrato / Vibe, and Parabola Pawnshop Edition Higher-gain Preamp Amp-like Tremolo sound superb - they're each perfect for their respective genres - warm, lush and expressive - Philippe has done wonders here - the Arigato is stock, while the Parabola is the higher-gain Pawnshop edition. The Arigato is particularly impressive as it delivers Phaser, Vibrato, and Uni-Vibe sounds!

The Asheville Music Tools APH-12 : 1-to-12 Variable Stage Analog Phaser is probably the most versatile of its type - a quite superb analog phaser - with 8 different Stage options from 1 to all the way up to 12 - fully granular, with killer onboard preamp too - really like this one - it's more versatile in some ways than the Arigato - but the Arigato is the more instantly gratifying!

The Eventide Tricerachorus 3-Voice Chorus, Dimension, Vibrato, Flanger, Rotary and Delay is another superb Digital Stereo Delay-line Modulator - the current lineup of modulations is just superb - this one's incredibly versatile.

Really busy month coming up!

Been waiting for a few pedals to land - to complete certain roundup articles - hopefully all will fall into place next month!

These 19 pedals are already committed to for next month - some have landed already, and most of the others are in transit! :

• Asheville Music Tools AFG-1 Analog BBD Flanger
• Airline Dirty Birdy Fuzz - Vintage Pastels Edition
• B's Music Emily Hopkins Purr-Ting / OBNE Parting
• Caroline Music Co. Somersault Black & Lavender Edition
• Drunk Beaver Ivan Mazepa 2 Fuzz
• Freqscene Koldwave Warped Analog BBD Chorus
• Freqscene Slow Life (Slow Gear)
• Funny Little Boxes Treasure Chest Dual-Modded Overdrive : Klone-Screamer
• Gigahearts Small Cheese MK2 Fuzz (Expanded Lovetone Big Cheese)
• Holy Island Audio Angel Teeth Distortion (Massively Evolved DOD350 w/ fuzz + octave)
• Hotone Verbera Convolution Dual Reverb
• Klowra Budding Bloom Series Mini - Dive
• Klowra Budding Bloom Series Mini - Hane
• Klowra Budding Bloom Series Mini - Leap
• Klowra Budding Bloom Series Mini - South Zoo
• Klowra Budding Bloom Series Mini - Whorl
• Mentha.Works Monk Echo Choral Infused Reverb + Delay 
• OPFXS Gain Box Multi-Gain Machine : Boost / Overdrive / Fuzz / Distortion
• ThunderTomate Over-Drive+ Rev G

Some of those might get further delay - particularly the Monk Echo - I won't know until I get final shipping confirmation!

I'm also hoping to land these, and possibly a couple more!

• Caroline Guitar Co. Aaron Graves Overdrive
• Holy Island Audio Blast Radius [more likely July though - waiting on next batch!]
• Mattoverse AirTriash MKII Signal Corrupter Fuzz

I'm hoping good friend Doug (Tolley) can offer some further clarity on the recent Chase Bliss Big Time Delay - and help me decide if it should become a 'priority' target rather than the currently assigned 'nice to have'! It will involve some saving up if it's a go!

I've supported Chase Bliss UK Ambassador Doug right from the start, and am one of the relatively few to have attended every single Witney Pedal Party!

Doug is coordinating a live demo session in West London tomorrow - I will try to get there fairly early - where the event kicks off at noon! At The Dodo Micropub in Hanwell - which fortunately is on the Elizabeth Line! But involves a fair amount of walking too I believe! Weather should be nice though - and temperature around 27 degrees!

The Dodo Micropub is at :

52 Boston Road
Hanwell
London [West]
W7 3TR

4 stops West of Paddington on the Elizabeth Line!

June's big event takes place in Norwich!

Lots of my friends will be in attendance, and I will be looking to hit up at leat these following stands! :

• Blanch Flower Guitars
• Bleak District Electric
• Fidelity Guitars
• Fredric Effects
• Funny Little Boxes
• Gigahearts
• Great Eastern FX Co.
• Heavy Repping
• Hello Sailor Effects
• Intensive Care Audio
• Maybury Guitars
• NRG Effects
• PedalPatch
• Ritual Devices
• SoundLad Liverpool
• Zander Circuitry
• Lunch will be provided by D-Lish Pizza Co!

The full roster is in the image below!

LOCATION :

The Old Shoe Factory, St Marys  
24 St Marys Plain,
Norwich
NR3 3AF

Which does not really look to be within easy walking distance of Norwich Railway Station (taxi required!). I will of course be Training it up and back from Norwich - my first time in those parts for a very long time!