Not again you say - not another bloomin’ Screamer or Klone - nay - both says I! And rather terrific each of those two are - like a sort of special forces variant - think the SAS of Screamer and Klon - precisions honed and primed for every eventuality!

This pedal came about through Matt Webster of ’Let’s Play All’ fame, where JSA Effects Simon had made him two of his favourite ever boost / overdrive pedals - one a modified take on the Klone, and the other based on the Screamer. It was ...

At one stage there was a 50/50 chance as to whether I would make the show - as there were significant disruptions on the Liverpool Street to Norwich line - which meant a bus replacement service between Colchester and Ipswich. Some of the journey times quoted were up to 4 and a 1/2 hours each way! In the end the door-to-door was closer to 3 hours in total! The journey up including the coach was actually more fun that the journey back via Cambridge. Cambridge has obviously sinned grievously as ...

I’m fairly well versed inTraynor Solid State amps from the late 70’ and 80’s - which were much loved by garage punks and garage rockers alike - for those slightly loose, raw and ragged, even scuzzy kind of rock tones. And the lower-gain side of the pedal is in part inspired by the Bluesbreaker - with heaps of brightness in the mix, and with the voice toggle up - delivers a uniquely bright and clangy kind of sound with some real bite to it too. You can of course dial that out by lowering the ...

The Gain Box was very evidently designed for the 4 Channels / Voices to be stacked, each individual voice isn’t particularly strong on its own, but gains significant potency when combined with one or two or all of the others.

I would really have preferred a little more output volume, and probably a Tilt EQ vs the current LPF style Filter for more overall oomph! I started with all dials at Noon, and then added or subtracted as appropriate - adding Presets and Combinations as I progressed ...

May has been a little bit of strange month - lots of delays really, and waiting for pedals to land.

As inevitably happens most months - much was delayed this month, and I was unable to complete some of the larger articles - they will need to wait until next month, there’s certainly lots of projects in progress. Where new and imminent arrivals kind of scuppered several intended projects - hopefully they can be completed in June.

The first event I’m attending this month is tomorrow - as a micropub ...

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 - ...

There was a ripple of excitement when people first saw the somewhat oblique teasers for 2 ’new’ Chase Bliss pedals - turns out it’s just new colourways! Exciting still possibly for those who favour single tone pedalboards - but I already have these in their original editions. I don’t feel the need to have duplicates of these, and I actually prefer the original colourways. I run a large pedalboard of 52 pedals - which changes every week - it’s essential for me to be able to rapidly identify and ...

One of Brian Wampler’s very best pedals - this combines a Marshall Silver Jubilee Overdrive voicing with a circa MESA/Boogie Mark IIC/+ Distortion voicing - both blisteringly good!

You get the classic 3 controls per side, each side also gets its own ’Character’ switch - which for the Overdrive side is a Higher Gain Range / Gain Structure switch, and for the Distortion side delivers more Brightness. You also get a central switch to select the order of Effects.

Controls - DS / Mesa Mark ...

Andertons have just recently landed 7 of the 13 Does it Doom? pedal range. Per their moniker - these are mostly higher gain stoner, doom and sludge varieties - including a couple that lean intro Black Sabbath tones.

Andertons are still quite adventurous in seeking out new pedal brans - and it’s good to see them give so many brands a fair shake.

I’ve not fully processed this series yet to decide which ones are priorities for me - while a cursory glance would indicate that there are ...