JHS Pedals 'Fixes' its Expandora take, with a new and much improved Kilt 10 Anniversary Edition in shiny polished aluminium!

Interestingly - the original compact JHS Kilt has typically been my least favourite Expandora take. To me it was somewhat cold and dense - and not nearly bright enough or sufficiently expressive. I hate brining in the wet blanket analogy once more - but that was my experience of the original take. Your typical Expandora’s tend to be quite more vibrant than JHS’s original take.

And it’s almost as if someone read my critique - because all my then niggles have been addressed in this new version. It’s much more in line with the warm and expansive nature of JHS’s Morning Glory. Gone is the former ’dankness’ and we have a much superior pedal here!

It’s brighter, louder, better sounding, and even signficnalty more better looking!

Controls - Volume, Gain, Tone, Bass-Cut / Flat, G1 Clipping Switch, G2 Clipping Switch

↓ ↓ = Crunch

↑ ↓ = Overdrive

↓ ↑ = Distortion

↑ ↑ = Forbidden Fuz

Of course this pedal is also brilliantly served by JHS’s Red Remote - which controls the second G2 Switch - Down = Blue, Up = Red.

This means that I have the Bass-Cut permanently off / Flat, and both the Clipping Switches Up. The Red Remote then lets me switch  between Overdrive and Fuzz Modes - which is what I also do on my Decibelics Reverend Mini - which behaves almost identically. Possibly I prefer my Reverend just a smidge - nut this new Kilt is really fantastic too - especially with that extra headroom and Volume.

It’s not quite as aggressive at its peak as some of my other Expandoras - but it still sound brilliant.

So JHS has totally turned it around for me - I didn’t particularly like the JHS Original - but I really love this one!

My preferred settings are Volume @ 3 o’c, Gain @ 4 o’c, Tone @ 5 o’c with Bass-Cut Switch on Flat, and both G1 and G2 Clipping Switches UP!

I think I bought the last Red Remote (£34) from Andertons. All JHS Pedals are currently on 25% Black Friday discount - which means  US Pricing is just $187, with equivalent UK Pricing (Andertons) at £187.

Interestingly the Red Remote just uses a plain TS cable!

This is probably my last acquisition of the month, and one of the last hands-on reviews for this year. As right at the start of December I switch to the Best Gear of the Year articles - which take a long time to complete!

I am indeed very satisfied with this much improved current iteration - it sounds superb!