So back in the 70’s EHX’s Mike Matthews commissioned both Howard Davis and Bob Myer to make the next generation of Big Muff - using the newly release OpAmps / IC’s rather than the individual quartet of Transistors. Each engineer came up with their own version - and Mike picked out the Howard Davis one for production - which then became the 1978 EHX OpAmp Big Muff.

Meanwhile Bob Myer’s version sat abandoned and forgotten in the mist of time - until Josh Scott and Daniel Danger came upon it ...

Probably the strongest selection of the year - each one of these is amazing and sounds killer. But then agin similar was true of the Overdrives. I’m very much a fuzz fanatic - so his selection has to take the edge - what a selection!

This selection includes 3 from EarthQuaker Devices, 2 from Drunk Beaver, 2 from Fjord Fuzz, and 2 from ThorpyFX.

It also includes the likely pedal of the year - within a selection of 10 award winners here - these are so good - I could have labelled even ...

Another super busy month for me - particularly towards the end - with numerous large scale articles out this week. That also coincided with my busiest week of the year for my other day job. Meaning that I was up until 4-5 in the morning every day - just to keep up with my commitments.

I was already somewhat shattered and burned out before I even got to this super busy period - and it’s a relief that all that work has now been completed on schedule.

I’m especially proud of my work on the Bucket ...

My close association with Thorpy started back in late September of 2018 - at the now defunct Olympia UK Guitar Show. He was the first pedal maker I reached out to, and the first I connected with.

Since then ThorpyFX Pedals have become my 3rd most populous selection after Boss and Drunk Beaver. Those 3 brands alone contribute over 200 pedals to my reference collection!

The fact that I’m now at 31 ThorpyFX Pedals is a major milestone - and features every mainline MKII pedal Thorpy has made. ...

So the long-awaited Death Muff is in - and a superbly textured next level evolution of a Muff. It’s high gain and expressive - and slightly raspy sounding at times - with quite a bit more ’Crunch’ to than the average Muff!

It has a unique 4th Control - labelled Chaos - which Overloads the Gain, essentially a Second Gain Control - taking it form high gain - to extreme - with lots of sustain and feedback sounding texture. It’s a very distinct sounding and reacting muff - totally at opposite ...

This is an interesting hybrid Muff take - somewhat mild - but beautifully textured. The Ram’s Head is quite aggressive, while the Bubble Font Black Russian is the mildest / softest of the Big Muffs - with typically the least sustain.

So this Electric Elk is very unique in carrying aspects of both of those - where the general dynamics are closer to the Black Russian - and the Texture and Harmonics - more for the Ram’s Head - but at a milder level of gain.

It really is a beautifully ...

This has turned out to be something of a Thorpy month! - following on from the recent Manson Supermassive Black Fuzz and 3 Thorpy acquisitions this month - indeed the Supermassive is also engineered by Thorpy!

I thought I should do a quick retrospective of pedals and projects that Thorpy has been involved in.

I selected my favourite pedal from those 4 brands (some singular options!) :

• Redbeard Effects : Bearded Vulture Direct Drive with Octave
• Victory Amps : V1 The Jack Guthrie

I’ve had my eyes on Cian ’Moose’ Megannety’s output for a while. In truth I was just biding my time until these were finally available closer to hand - and that’s exactly the case now. Since my good friend Joe Light from Joe’s Pedals has picked up this range.

5 Pedals are currently available on the Joe’s Pedals Webstore - and all are sill in stock as of my writing this. The gold-hued Electric Elk caught my eye in particular - which I thought for sure was based on the Japanese Triangle Muff ...

The Drunk Beaver Rat-into-Muff Disambiguation first materialised as a 3-knob type back in 2021 - simply with Distortion, Level, and Tone controls - and an intriguing cool militaristic army green enclosure with black pistol graphic.

I always liked that version - but at times it could be a little muddy, and I sometime felt it could have done with a bit more volume. Which is a large part of what is new in the V2!

We now get 5 Controls - with the same core 3 controls - here named Tone, Gain...