Another month filled with strong releases! Too many for me to cope with in short order. I’m still waiting for my Chase Bliss Big Time to land - and Strymon goes ahead and launches the Timeline MX - which is of course also on my list. AC Noises launches its killer Continua, just shortly after I landed my Purr-ting in a similar category. And Native Audio launches the killer In The Water - not too long after I landed my Hotone Verbera. All pedals have specific target slots, and I always want to ...

One of these has been on the cards for a while - I really like this type of Ge/Si Transistor Switching Fuzzes - essentially a switchable hybrid Fuzz Face variant with 2 sets of Germanium and Silicon Transistors onboard that you can set :

Q1 | Q2
Ge + Ge
Ge + Si
Si + Ge
Si + Si

So 4 different Transistor Variations out of such a circuit. The Colombeta is the third I have of this type of circuit - and it has the most diverse set of Transistors - with every one of the 4 ones onboard being ...

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 ...

This was an unusually busy month - with 3 significant Guitar / Pedal Shows and in-depth show reports by me for each - which I’m incredibly proud of - no one does those to the same degree of detail as I, and for the Birmingham show I really lucked out with some amazing pictures - including of me and TheGigRig Crew.

Fuzzes are very significant this month - with a 10 Unit Fuzztopia acquired overall - of which I could only fit 6 on the board in the end - where all of those though had an innings...

So I initially published an article on February 20th - where I gathered together 9 pedals which all had the same Hot Pink Colourway. It was originally inspired by the launch of Great Easter FX Co’s Obsolete Devices OD201 Preamp - so the article was a nod to that.

At the time of posting I had 2 of those in my possession - I guess you could say 3 - as I owned the Lightspeed too already - but not in that colourway - as you will have noted in subsequent references.

So this was mainly done ...

So this is Fuzz Face #104 for me - I always say I have room for one more brilliant one - and this one is one of the very best - it’s properly special sauce! The selected transistors - NKT CV7007 and 2N527 sound amazing together - really vibrant and searing and full on - with all the great hallmarks of classic Germanium Fuzz Face dynamics and guitar volume gain cleanup - but with more range and verve!

You get an external Q2 Bias - which is essential for me - as well as a really cool 3-way ...

There are 32 Finalists in the Fuzz Category, where I own all but 3 :

• 29 Pedals Toki Overdrive / Fuzz
• Cachalote 214 Fuzz
• Subdecay Noise Theory Parallel Waveshaper Fuzz

The Finalists

• 29 Pedals Toki Fuzz Driver - $269
• Beetronics FX Tuna Fuzz - $99
• Beetronics FX Whoctahell V2 Low Octave Beeast Babee Edition - $149
• Cachalote Audio 214 Fuzz - R$1418 / $235
• Cornerstone Nero Dumble-Fuzz - €299 | $299
• Danelectro Nichols 1966 Liverpool Fuzz Tone - $199
• Decibelics Reverend V2 Mini

So despite this being a relatively quiet month for releases - I was somehow manically busy throughout!

The month started with custom editions of ThorpyFX and Empress pedals, and I then did 2 massive articles for the Glou-Glou Flancher Series of Stereo Analog Delays / Modulators, and in-depth coverage of Henrik Nordvang’s excellent 1590B3 Series. I’m not sure people realise just how much works goes into those kinds of articles!

Also this month - Mini Pedals were a major feature - all ...

Gerry Pope’s G.P. Electronics’ Harmonic Generator is considered by many to be the first UK Fuzz Pedal - some still say Gary Hurst’s Tone Bender was the first - while there is some evidence that a version of Harmonic Generator was actually the first to materialise 1965 - just ahead of the Tone Bender.

This fuzz was famously advertised as having ’4 Semiconductors’ - which has led to confusion on occasion. While it seems those 4 Semiconductors were always 3 Germanium Transistors and a ...