Circa EQD’s 10th Reverb pedal. A very straigftforward, but somewhat unusual confection, with cool stretch function on the second footswitch.

You have individual full stereo connections, alongside an Expression Jack. And you get some great dynamics in manipulating the Expression and Stretch function on-the-fly. All-round a rather handy take on reverb - balancing filtering and modulation.

Controls - Length, Mode : Manual | Envelope | LFO, Frequency, Mix, Preset : 1-8, Filter, Stretch ...

January has been a bumper start for the year - with lots of killer arrivals - especially the DSM & Humboldt Dumblifier which I’ve been hugely impressed with.

Also my most formidable NAMM coverage to-date - where I only started work properly on the 8th of January - but have managed to do 60 articles since that time - which is a record of course, as is the week of 20 posts.

I feel I covered all the key moments - and mixed up new and old in my usual inimitable fashion.

There was ...

There has been a significant pattern of pedal builders making tube preamps recently, and this versatile variant totally fits that bill.

EQD describes it as a combined Preamp, Headphone Amp, Boost, DI and EQ. The device has a super handy left-hand control panel which includes 1/4" Headphone Out, DIN DI Direct Out, Ground Lift Button, and Cab Bypass Button.

The Cab Bypass Button is indicative that there is an analog Cab simulator onboard - for going direct out - which you can bypass if ...

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]

1. Becos FX CompIQ Pro Yuna Soft Knee Blackmer VCA Studio Style Compressor [SEPTEMBER]
2. Blue Colander Grimrobe Dual Cascaded Super Rat [OCTOBER]
3. Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields Ultimate Modulated Fuzz [SEPTEMBER]
4. Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble Leslie / Rotary Speaker

This is the second time EQD has collaborated with KGR Harmony’s Japanese Iron Foundry - famous for its relief-design wrought-iron / cast-iron enclosures. And here we get the most compact variant of the Sunn O))) Life Pedal do date - essentially the V4 edition of that circuit - named the ’HalfLife Fer’.

Only 200 of these were made - and they barely lasted an hour and half. So this is more my documenting the provenance of this circuit than putting up yet another promo feature. It’s all ...

Probably the strongest selection of the year - each one of these is amazing and sounds killer. But then agin similar was true of the Overdrives. I’m very much a fuzz fanatic - so his selection has to take the edge - what a selection!

This selection includes 3 from EarthQuaker Devices, 2 from Drunk Beaver, 2 from Fjord Fuzz, and 2 from ThorpyFX.

It also includes the likely pedal of the year - within a selection of 10 award winners here - these are so good - I could have labelled even ...

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

It’s interesting that EQD has only just recently discontinued another of its Tone Benders - the MKIII style Park Fuzz Sound - which was discontinued as of the 16th of this month. Funnily the limited edition EQD Black Ash Fuzz which I own - was also a MKIII Bender variant. I still thought I should get the Park Fuzz Sound for a sense of completion, while I probably prefer to be picking up a MKII on this occasion!

I actually already have a Mini 2 Knob Tone Bender MKII - courtesy of the ...

August turned out a little bit different than expected. Not so many releases - as expected - but really busy regardless - with a number of Marquee Events and Articles throughout the month. With the king of the crop being the Extended Capacitor Primer - to which I’ve just added a further section on Capacitor Lifespan. Obviously I hit 15,000 followers on Instagram - which is a significant achievement - a really killer month all-round with some big articles - meaning I’m a little bit burned out ...