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 ...

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,...

Twilight Pulse is a well regarded German brand - which makes super versatile and unique Overdrive pedals - from rare and premium components. Northern Stompboxes features two of their finest here in Limited Special Edition Pelham Blue - while the colour looks a little closer to powder blue to me - but that may just be down to the saturation and ambient lighting of the photograph.

We have the Konstante evolved Lightspeed Overdrive with an EP-style Pre Boost. Would be cool to have the ...

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...