Brian Mena Surprises with recent announcement for New Versions of Menatone Workingman's Blue and Wreck'T Overdrive / Preamp-style Pedals

When I featured my new Menatone Vertical Format Trifecta back in May I teased the next likely pedals coming through the works - supposedly the Dumbstruck V2 and Wreck’T V2. Yet the newer Dumbstruck is still pending, and in its place we have the excellent JTM45 / Blues Breaker style circuit in brand new form factor.

This is really just a teaser / announcement post, even though a small batch of each was made available - and the Workingman’s Blue initial batch has already sold out! There are no demos of these yet of any kind - informal or official. I know Brian is working on getting some more demos out, and I will make my recommendations once I have further salient references with which to make a judgment - likely early next year.

The new Workingman’s Blue variety is most likely based on the 8-knob, 4-Band EQ, dual-footswitch variety, while it loses the Sag control, and gains a Channel Switch - I for the Bright Channel, and II for the Normal Channel - per the original amp inspiration.

I place JTM45’s typically within my Bluesbreaker classification - as those amps were near identical - the BB combo just had Reverb and Speakers additionally vs the JTM45 Head - but otherwise pretty much the exact same circuit.

For the new Wreck’T evolution we gain 2 controls - the previous model had 5 - Reso, Push, Presence, Level, Drive, Gain, while the new version sports a largely more conventional topology - with 6 regular knobs - Bass, Mid, Treble, Level, Drive, Gain, and 2 mini-knobs - Presence and Hi-Cut.

So in effect both pedals here have 4-Band EQ, including Presence. The Workingman’s Blue however benefits from a Second Boost Footswitch too. These are both 2 of my favourite categories of drive pedal, and I had already committed to getting the V2 Wreck’T at some stage when that materialised. I will likely be in line for a Workingman’s Blue too - while practically speaking I don’t really need another in that category - but this one looks really appealing.

I need a few more references to do some proper due diligence, and then I can consider each of these in the new year.

These won’t make this Year’s Best New Pedals - but will hopefully feature in next year’s selection - I’ve already run out of space on this year’s Best of Year features - which will start materialising next week.

As mentioned, there are no new demos, so I’ve had to rely on a couple of previous ones - for previous / near-match models! :