So this Orama is a wonderful take on the early Orange 120 style of Amplifier from 1974, combined with legendary 90’s Boutique Fuzz - the Frantone Peachfuzz from 1997.

We have 6 controls on the Amp side, and 4 controls for the Fuzz. We also get the typical Send / Return FX Loop that Chrisots normally includes on his Dual Pedals. The two voicings here combine really beautifully - adding further richer textures and harmonics into the mix.

Controls - ORANGE AMP SIDE } Master Volume, High ...

Interestingly - the original compact JHS Kilt has typically been my least favourite Expandora take. To me it was somewhat cold and dense - and not nearly bright enough or sufficiently expressive. I hate brining in the wet blanket analogy once more - but that was my experience of the original take. Your typical Expandora’s tend to be quite more vibrant than JHS’s original take.

And it’s almost as if someone read my critique - because all my then niggles have been addressed in this new version. It...

So we’re at that time of year again for another Full Metal Racket Rundown. I meant to have it coincide with halloween - but was so inundated with new releases work - that I really struggled to fit this one in. And it now appears a month later than I wanted it to - but still very much at the appropriate end of the year!

As is ever the case - this selection continues to evolve over the years - and inevitably some previous candidates get bounced for more impressive newer variants.

For this...

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 / ...

What a gorgeous pedal the sparkly Outlaw is (check the below last video t see it sparkle!) - with its holographic chrome metal flakes and glorious dipped paisley skull artwork. A killer red-on-red / tone-on-tone theme - with Enclosure, Knobs, Footswitch Toppers and Halo LEDs - all matching.

Flattley typically favours blue-hued devices with blue Halo LEDs - so the Outlaw is a glorious contrast to that norm!

The Outlaw benefits from the perfect complement of controls. I typically like my ...

When Thorpy first sent me the picture of ’The J’ - I briefly thought ’Do we really need another Tweed Preamp?’ Thorpy promised me it was special - and special it really is!

It has the most exquisite breakup texture I have ever heard for a Tweed type - it’s suffused with beautiful harmonics and exceptional balance - for a supremely high quality of warm and lively output.

The control topology is arranged so you can either smooth out or further accentuate the pedal’s output character. For ...

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 new Hangman fx pedal is a rare object of beauty in looks, output, and playability!

The DAGG’R Dynamic Auto-Gain/Gate features 2 Gain Channels - Overdrive and Fuzz - which you can Auto-Swell between the Gain dialled into the O.D. or Fuzz Knobs, and the Max Gain via the smaller Black knob. With DAGG’R Mode Engaged - your playing style triggers the gain bloom / swell when you dig in. Where the Sense (Sensitivity) knob defines the threshold of the trigger point - which you can then further ...

Another smarty rolled out Warm Audio Device - albeit a tiny bit clunky for me - while you can’t dispute its exceptional feature set. The 4 knobs per channel are the KOT controls - where typically the Presence is internal to that pedal. While on my JHS 4-Star Modded Edition - the Presence Trimmers have been externalised as knobs, as have the voicing switches - allowing you to change between Boost, Overdrive and Distortion for each channel.

So my version of KOT has the Presence Knobs and Main...