So this is the culmination of my first ever ’Boss Month’ concerted focus on everything Boss! I do hope you enjoyed the broad sweep of all those articles - and had some fun with my speculative projections and suggestions. The natural end to all of that is of course to set out the pedal-chain as a Peak Boss implementation - using what I have within my extensive Boss collection. I of course had to add a few more units - but only a handful really. I’m guessing some who don’t...

I’ve been a huge fan of Markus Reeves’ point-to-point-wired circuits - since having been alerted to them by Brian Wampler. I was lucky enough to secure a rare BlackHatSound MKI-style fuzz during that original production run - as per the below reference. And Markus seems to have been able to secure 22 more pairs of those rare TO106 TUN ‘Blackhat’ Transistors. He has made 20 more regular-sized / compact RedHatSound editions, as well as a couple of his big-box BlackHatSound...

Following on from my recent piece on Unsung Boss OverDrives and Distortions - I though I should also list which my own personal favourites were of all of Boss’s classic gain pedals. In fact I own multiple varieties and alternatives for all these feature ones - bar essentially for the original OD-1 - where I’ve always wanted one of the very earliest editions with the now super-rare 14-pin/leg RC3403D Chip - but not found one yet in the right condition, or at the right price! Most ...

Vitalii Bobrov is not the first to do a modern take on Boss’s celebrated FA-1 Preamp, while it’s my favourite take on that original to-date. I had long intended to acquire Josh Scott’s relatively recent Clover Preamp / EQ, but had never got around to that - while it had been at the back of my mind for quite some time.

As it happens, I was already receptive to getting in an improved and enhanced FA-1 clone - but thought for the longest time that it would take the ...

Readers of this site will know that I’m a huge fan of Björn Juhl’s pedals - which nowadays means Mad Professor, OneControl and of course his own iconic original BJFE brand as featured here. I believe this is the first time these pedals are made available directly in the UK - certainly in modern times and in this number.

Joe’s Pedals is now officially a BJFE stockist and carries 10 of Björn’s most celebrated pedals - which are all enduring classics. You...

Boss is of course famous for its many legendary gain pedals - including the OD-1, SD-1, BD-2, DS-1, HM-2, and MT-2. There are however a number of lesser-known varieties which are somewhat more under the radar, and never really got their full due.

Boss has as many discontinued as active pedals in its range, and a significant number of those are worth hunting down. This feature covers 6 discontinued, and 3 currently active pedals that I personally still like - and have designs on those ...

These are exciting times as another brand enters the Big Box Workstation Pedal arena. An area typically dominated by Strymon, Boss, Eventide, and to a lesser degree Empress Effects and Universal Audio. Eventide really kicked this sort of thing off with its quartet of ModFactor, PitchFactor, Space and TimeFactor. Before Strymon kind of took over with its Mobius, TimeLine and Big Sky.

I largely have a mix of Strymon and Boss in this area with the Empress EchoSystem too. It seems that IK ...

Where once there were around 12 Boss 20-Series Double Pedals (per second visual below) - now if you scan through Boss.Info - you will find only a couple still on the books as it were. And I feel that the days of the RE-20 Space Echo and VE-20 Voice Performer are likely numbered too - which is why I’ve done a suggested mockup of what the RE-20 in particular might look like in 200-Series format.

As a long-term Boss and Roland flagship effect - I feel we will certainly see it being ...

So back in around 2013 Boss made the smart decision to start reviving and reissuing some of its earlier pedal editions. The process involved selecting typically Series-2 analog pedals and re-engineering and hand-assembling those in Japan - with superior and more vintage parts.

Boss’s mainstay pedals were all initially built in Japan, but then production mostly moved to Taiwan, and more recently Malaysia - where all those standard and core pedals are mass-manufactured. By contrast...

I’ve had an odd sort of relationship with Polarbear Effects’ Darko Vadja since 2018, where in the interim I have acquired most of his pedals. In fact the only notable omission as far as I’m aware is the original BB-size Floral Drive - for which there was a plan - which never quite materialised in the end.

The early part of the relationship was relatively communicative - while I’ve not had a response from Darko - bar for a Christmas Greeting - in nearly two years...