This is the 2nd Iteration for this article - where we go from a selection of 13 to 16.

I landed 4 of these these last year - the Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, Flattley Outlaw, Fortin Kali, and Tubesteader Gainlord.

And two early this year - the Car Martin PlexiRanger and Seymour Duncan Diamondhead

We have 4 distinct types of pedals here across 4 format sizes (Compact / Mid-Horizontal / Mid-Vertical / Large) :

1. Dedicated Dual Channel Plexi + JCM800 Overdrive / Distortion with

I’ve been a huge fan of the Dumble sound for several years now, and have around 20 pedals representing that genre. All my Dumbles hit slightly differently and each has a distinct usage scenario - with some excelling at the cleaner lower-gain tones - like the Clean-Fusion II, and others delivering an incredibly mid-rangey sear - like the Zenkudo.

My very first ’Dumble’ was the Mad Professor Simble - back near the start of 2017 - that was recently reissued as a MKII with some further Lassi ...

On first encountering the Dumblifier - I was reminded of the long-since defunct Van Wealden Royal Overdrive (Mick Taylor favourite) which featured 6 of those skirted knobs across the pedal - versus the 5 of the Dumblifier. It looked to me like a deluxe evolved version of that pedal - made more compact and with a much larger featured set.

The Dumblifier benefits from no less than 22 controls - which cover most every surface of the pedal - which has 3 footswitches too within that really neat ...

This feature has been a long time coming. I have somewhere around 60 to 70 Marshall-style Pedals in my collection - while this selection mostly features Dual-Channel or Drive + Boost Pedals - which cover you both for Marshall Plexi and JCM800 flavours - actual and ballpark.

I landed 4 of these this year - the Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, Flattley Outlaw, Fortin Kali, and Tubesteader Gainlord.

We have 4 distinct types of pedals here across 4 format sizes (Compact / Mid-Horizontal / ...

So a follower on instagram challenged me to shrink my elaborate pedal-chain down to just 10 pedals. My original plan was just to fill a Pedaltrain Nano Max board with 10 compact pedals. But I then decided I should do a Mid-Size variation too, using the Pedaltrain Classic 2 board or thereabouts. I may do further Mini and Large Format editions as a follow-up - depending on how well this article is received!

This was a trickier exercise than you would imagine - as I needed to shuffle through ...

I’m totally in awe of the technical prowess presented on this killer dual analog amps in a pedal format.

It’s actually a very compact device at just 125 x 105 x 65 mms, and carries so many advanced functions here almost entirely in the analog domain. There’s not a single sub-menu here - this is surely WYSIWYG perfection - while it does use every available surface to cram in all the technology that is needed to support all those features.

At first encounter this all seem wholly intuitive...

A decent showing on the Distortion side too - with some particularly great High Gain Distortions. I was due to review the Licthlaerm Gehenna and Medusa also - but with Daniel Ringl’s workshop move - that didn’t quite get sorted this year - hopefully early in the new year - and then I can update the ’Full Metal Racket’ selection which exercise I normally do late Autumn!

There’s couple of really cool filter distortions here that I really like - the Intensive Care Audio Vena Cava Filter / ...

There’s never a dull moment, and rarely a span of time without a ripple or wrinkle. I don’t get many frustrating or disastrous days - while this last Friday was particularly eventful as I wrestled with 4 challenges simultaneously. One of my new pedals was detective and simply didn’t work - but I spent half a day trying to get something out of it - different positions on the board, different cabling, power-supply solutions and every tiny attempt to correct the obvious deficiency. At the same ...

After the Compact size enclosure - the Medium-Vertical sort of 1590-BB size of enclosure is my second favourite format - and often a go-to for more extended range pedals. This is a far more practical format than those typically horizontal BB types - like so many of the dual overdrive units - a la King of Tone etc.

This article was prompted by my recent acquisition of the KMA Machines Logan which I kind of missed out on the first time around. In fact it emerged very soon after I had received...