Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Empress Effects' new Amp-Like Drive Pedal is a super-versatile Extended Gain-Range Active-EQ Saturator with Pre or Post Boost, and a built-in Noise Gate
I really rate both the Empress Germ Drive and Multidrive pedals, and have had both Heavy and Heavy Menace pedals from the start. According to the Empress Drive introduction the development path for this new Drive pedal started with patching a Germ Drive into the middle of a Heavy Menace circuit!
Furthermore, on first glance - there seem to be some parallels to the ParaEQ II too, and indeed Zak tells me that the ParaEQ was an inspiration also - and was in fact used to help set the core ...
8 Monster Gain Machine Pedals
I thought I should focus on my large format heavy-hitters for a change - where these 8 are some of my largest, most potent, and best favoured gain pedals. They are arranged here in alphabetical order, while they were released in the below chronological order. All 8 have featured heavily in my rig at different times - and all 8 are still very valid award winners and still in rotation. While the enormous girth of the Elektron Analog Drive means that is gets somewhat less of a rotation nowadays - ...
Joe Anastasio's cool new Void Manufacturing Brand is now available at Joe's Pedals in the UK
We all know Joe Anastasio for his long-standing Lone Wolf Audio brand - Left Hand Wrath etc. while he now has a new umbrella brand ’Void Manufacturing’ which covers both Void and Lone Wolf Audio brands of pedals, alongside Void Modular Eurorack Devices.
My good friend Joe Light of Joe’s Pedals in Exeter, UK now stocks a range of Void Manufacturing and Lone Wolf Audio Pedals - which feature 8 new varieties - 3 of which have alternative colourway editions.
The range consists of 5 x Large,...
Klowra's Gnash Dual-Channel Analog Distortion is an incredible, vibrant, harmonic All-THT-components versatile Multi-Gain pedal - covering Boost, Overdrive, Fuzz, and Distortion - all the way up to super high-gain!
This is a fantastic departure from Klowra’s usual DSP roots. Here we have their first entirely analog all-THT components circuit - and it sounds absolutely killer! In one of the pictures below you can see the high quality internals of this pedal - which deliver the most richly harmonically textured Overdrive, Fuzz and Distoriton tones. This pedal is fun for weeks if not months - it has such a high potential. And is one of the most versatile multi-gain pedals of all time - alongside my long-term...
End of Year Pedal Chain Update - Class of 2025
New Pedals in the Class of 2025 Pedal-Chain Snapshot = 41
[OCTOBER] = 9
[NOVEMBER] = 6
[MARCH] = 5
[SEPTEMBER] = 5
[AUGUST] = 4
[JANUARY] = 3
[FEBRUARY] = 3
[APRIL] = 2
[JUNE] = 2
[MAY] = 1
[JULY] = 1
[A-Z by Brand]
- Becos FX CompIQ Pro Yuna Soft Knee Blackmer VCA Studio Style Compressor [SEPTEMBER]
- Blue Colander Grimrobe Dual Cascaded Super Rat [OCTOBER]
- Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields Ultimate Modulated Fuzz [SEPTEMBER]
- Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble Leslie / Rotary Speaker
2025 October Pedal-Chain Updated - Episode X - Big Thrills and Overspills
October was a super busy month - one of the busiest ever - with such a scope and scale and body of work covered - I’m quite shattered as a result!
We had of the penultimate Events of the year :
- The 2nd Woking Boutique Guitar Show
- Kempton Park London International Guitar Show
And around one dozen key posts as below also :
- Letter from Dr.No
- Teaching Machines FuzzBillion Component Combinations Wheels Gain-Shaper
- Hangman fx DAGG’R Dynamic Auto-Gain/Gate Mighty Morphing Gain-Ramper
The Magnificent Teaching Machines' FuzzBillion is one of my all-time favourite pedals - its combination wheel gain-shaping delivers myriad exceptional tones across the gain spectrum
I have spent a week now with the magnificent analog mechanical marvel that is FuzzBillion - and I’ve been utterly dazzled by its brilliance. This pedal is genuinely extraordinarily high fidelity and is a superb enclosed breadboarding device and analog sound-design machine.
Leon and his colleagues at Teaching Machines (+ Frank, Luke, and Mat) recommend you work left to right - and start off every sound design task - with all wheels at zero - and then mix your favourite sound cocktail from ...
IK Multimedia unleashes Limited Brown Sound 3 x Colourway Hardware Editions of its ToneX One - with 20 classic Van Halen sounds onboard
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 ...
Boss Pedals Distortion-ology
I thought it was about time that I tackled Boss’s legendary Distortion Pedals once more! This time around I’ve rounded up all the different Boss Distortion Flavours - with my own particular preferences for those particular circuits. So a number of those are Modded editions - which I often prefer over both the Boss originals and Waza Craft Editions - as I will reveal below.
You can of course break these down into 4 different degrees of saturation if you’re being fully granular - while I’m ...
IK Multimedia ToneX One Joe Satriani Chrome Edition Deep Dive
I was down for getting the original black ToneX One edition - one was offered to me, but never quite arrived. Which turns out I’m quite happy about in the end really as it was the much better looking Chrome Joe Satriani Edition that finally landed for me. So thanks to IK Multimedia for their assistance!
Considering I’m mostly a classic stompbox guy - then the ToneX One isn’t always going to be he most natural fit for me. While as a Multi-Gain / Versatile Multi-Drive and Distortion pedal - ...
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