We have another great event now for the annual roster - where Adam has done a brilliant job in bringing this all together. Really handy venue too - very close to the centre of Birmingham and New Street Station - and so good for me! I alas forgot to grab a snap of show runner Adam - who was to be everywhere that day - to ensure the smooth running that we witnessed. Noise Maker Market is definitely here to stay!

There was a handy bar downstairs - with some exotic and unusual beverages - ...

This was funnily something of af 2022 Stourbridge Pedal Expo Reunion of sorts - where Audiostorm, Bleak District Electric, Emmergy FX, Fredric Effects, and Goliath FX were all present at that inaugural Pedal Expo. There are marked similarities between the two venues and events - both are  similar sort of Mill House style building set within a kind of packing district and both relatively near to a waterway / canal. And both had a really friendly vibe to them. It’s incredible how far we’ve come ...

Bleak District’s Phil has birthed another interesting combination / multi-fx pedal - which features a Full Range Overdrive, Multi-Wave Tremolo, and Belton Brick Spring style Reverb - served by 3 vertical control sections.

Normally individual knob colours delineate different control sections - while in this instance they represent Primary and Secondary controls for each of the onboard effects - which as mentioned are arranged in 3 elegant vertical sections.

Controls - OVERDRIVE } Gain, ...

My good friend Phil doubles down on his killer Sun? No Model T Preamp to create the even more expansive Sun? Never Edition.

The previous single sided Sun? No has 5 controls - with an additional ’Mode’ switch - which allows you to flip between Vintage and Reissue levels of Gain Saturation.

"The mode switch allows access to both ’vintage’ and ’reissue’ levels of saturation."

For the new one - both Channels have the ’Reissue’ level of gain saturation, and we get an additional ’Custom’ ...

It’s that time of year when I pick out my personal favourite pedals in each category - starting with the Boost and Overdrive ones. I weigh up each candidate on the basis of my own experiences, preferences and sensibilities - and include pedals also that I intended to get but did not quite yet around to acquiring during the year of release!

For this selection I personally own all but these 8 :

• Aleks K Production Honey Moon Sweet Overdrive V3
• Bleak District Slate Discrete Gemanium

I’m falling a little behind with my Bleak District Electric capsule collection - and now have 3 gain pedals to add - including the Sun?No Model T, Terra Earthly Overdrive, and this Slate Preamp. Each of them is distinct sounding and beautifully calibrated.

I will try to pick up all 3 early next year and do a combine hands-on feature!

I’m a huge fan of Germanium Overdrives - and this Slate combines a JFET Input Stage into a NOS Germanium Transistor for a gorgeous breakup texture. ...

So we were back in Bristol once more for the superb Wassup Nerds!? 2 Show - much expanded and in new BIMM Institute Venue in the Stokes Croft area of that city. Said area, is a little way out of the centre of the city, and consists mostly of take-away restaurants seemingly, a few pubs, and is heavily saturated with Vegan and Vegetarian options - so will likely suit the more fussy eaters!

Unusually for me, I hadn’t done any research on that area in advance - where for my lunch break - I ...

I’m a huge fan of Bleak District Phil’s unique sensibilities in circuit design. And I’ve long since acknowledged him as a master at knob selections - the 5 knobs on this one are just perfectly balanced!

And the overdrive itself is pretty unique. Based at its core on a high quality RC4558 OpAmp - but with a hybrid mix of both asymmetrical silicon diodes in the OpAmp ’soft’ position and germanium diodes in a hard clipping position. Furthermore we have JFET buffers for the Drive and Clean ...

Showrunner extraordinaire Phil Steere above (at the show entrance), AKA PedalPatch Head Honcho.

What a wonderful show!

Just as good as the inaugural one, in fact by several measures even better!

These shows are really like family reunions for me nowadays - I know most everybody on the pedal scene now and seemed to be mostly warmly welcomed into their company. I was up really early on the Saturday - in fact when I walked in at 08:15 only Boss and NRG Effects were close to having set ...