January has been a bumper start for the year - with lots of killer arrivals - especially the DSM & Humboldt Dumblifier which I’ve been hugely impressed with.

Also my most formidable NAMM coverage to-date - where I only started work properly on the 8th of January - but have managed to do 60 articles since that time - which is a record of course, as is the week of 20 posts.

I feel I covered all the key moments - and mixed up new and old in my usual inimitable fashion.

There was ...

As we’ve seen with Tone King sharing Friedman’s IR Tube Preamp Platform for its two floor-based-amps, we now get 2 different roll-outs of Synergy’s Machine Learning Power Amp Platform for 2 very different audiences. With a full-fat Amp-top / Rack unit for Friedman, and a more compact floor-based Pedal unit for Wampler. 

The Friedman IR-Load is the all-singing and dancing unit - with a much higher power load - which David says should work for amps of up to 200W. The genius of this solution ...

There is of course a decent amount of sharing between Boutique Amps Distribution brands, and the Tone King Imperial Floor Amp owes everything to Friedman’s IR Platform - upon which it is built.

Obviously it’s been tuned to replicating Tone King’s Amps, first the Imperial, and then the Royalist. Each of those have different parameters in accordance with their source amps - and are built up on very similar circuits - but somewhat miniaturised.

The Imperial Floor Amp has already been a ...

So this is what everyone was expecting when we got the Nano Quad Cortex instead - which wholly dispensed with the innovative Interface / RotoStomp Controls - that made the original Quad Cortex so enticing!

Here we literally have mostly just the screen of that original in a smaller box - where Neural have had to adapt the interface just a touch to accommodated the reduced number of controls.

The pricing of the new unit is $1,399 vs $1,799 which is a 22% saving.

And the footprint is ...

This is the most affordable unit from the GX line of Boss Multi-Effects Processor - with the same high quality core of effects onboard. And instead to the 23 Guitar amp types and over 140 BOSS Guitar Effects that sit on the GX-1, the GX-1B has its own dedicated suite of Boss Bass effects - with 16 amp types and over 130 BOSS Bass effects.

All the same criteria apply with an identical control interface - just with a separate bank of effects.

Just like the GX-1 is the perfect first / ...

This is the most accessible Boss GX Series unit to date - which has some concessions (no touch screen), but instead has a super handy 9 buttons Control Strip - which gives you instant access to key functions, where you press-hold to edit those underlying settings - otherwise it’s just a really neat interface to more easily turn on and off all the key effects.

The GX-1 benefits from the usual robust Boss construction, which should stand up to all the usual rigours of touring. This is a ...

I had meant to acquire the GP-5 - but since this expanded range edition came out - it made more sense to get this one - it has a little more about, and a more elegant interface. Like the GP-5 it also has a neat Bluetooth app, while you can seemingly get to most things via the pedal interface. This one has only just landed for me - so I’ve only just scratched the surface so far - but I am really liking it already!

Controls - 3 x quick access Parameters, Core Parameters Rotary / Menu Select, ...

I’m obviously well onboard with the ToneX One concept by now - and it’s kind of cool, but also a little new money for old rope here  - in putting out different artwork editions of hardware pedals that can house any and every of the many ToneX flavours - in collections of 20 at a time!

I feel the shiny mirror finish of the Satriani Model is the most visually arresting. While I’m much more of an EVH fan - and would really love to have the new Red Edition - with all those favourite EVH ...

When I first saw this pedal I thought it could be decent competition for my Poly Ample (which has 56 different Amp Types onboard), while it turns out that the Nux Amp Core Studio is more like that - with the below selection of 26 Amp Types : 

Jazz Clean, Deluxe Rvb, Bassmate, Tweedy, Twin Rvb, Hiwire, Cali Crunch, Class 15, Class 30, Plexi 100, Plexi 45, Brit 800, 1987 X50, SLO 100, Fireman HBE, Dual Rect, Die VH4, Vibro King, Budda, MR.Z.38, Super Rvb, Brit Blues, Match, Brit 200, Uber ...