This article was prompted by an observation of obviously complementary fuzz pairings - where I currently own all of these bar the two Dwarfcraft Devices - Limited Edition Necromancer and Reese Lightning. In fact a number of these could be construed to be officially highly limited - where Buffalo FX and Dwarfcraft Devices have both ceased trading and their products are in very short supply. There were only 25 dual-footswitch editions of the Dwarfcraft Devices Limited Edition Dark Arts ...

And so here is the culmination of everything that happened to the pedal-chain in 2020.

There were quite a few more displacements than I had expected - all told 22 slots changed over this year - including 19 Brand New Pedals for 2020, then 3 slightly older pedals, and some incidentals.

The most significant shift, and the one that caused the most disruption was the arrival of Boss GT-1000 CORE in October. This is often the case when you bring in a big new pedal - and you need to...

So I’ve now completed 5 preliminary shortlists type articles featuring between 9 and 30 or so of the best pedals released in 2020 - in each of the following categories :

• Best New Reverb Workstation Pedals (9)
• Best New Overdrive and Distortion Pedals (29)
• Best New Fuzz Pedals (31)
• Best New Delay and Reverb Pedals (20)
• Best New Modulation, Pitch, and Utility Pedals (28)

I sincerely apologise if I’ve overlooked any here, while I’m not sure they would have necessarily ...

It is fairly evident that my favourite pedal genre is Fuzz - seeing as that of all the pedals I added to the collection this year - 80 of those were Fuzz varieties.

This particular selection consists of 31 pedals across different sizes and sub-genres. And of those 31, I personally own 22 of them. All the remainder are of course on my wishlist, these are :

• DanDrive Secret Machine (I own Secret Weapon edition)
• Dusky Electronics Augustus Octave Fuzz
• Fjord Fuzz Fenris Super-Fuzz

You may recall that back in April I reported how I had received delivery of 3 fantastic Mini Fuzz Pedals from Dave ’Pickdropper’ Friesema, and I shared some of the highlights from that burgeoning Mini Pedal Range. With my first order I took delivery of a Clusterfuzz Mini, Professional MKIII and Hive Mind Fuzz (Baldwin Burns Buzzaround). I then spotted a new custom 2-knob MKI variety on the Pickdropper Insta, and asked Dave if he couldn’t oblige me with a 3-knob version thereof...

CTC seems to have a habit of releasing pedals really late in the year - typically just after your budget for the year has been blown. Last year it was the turn of the Killer V Magnatone-inspired Vibra-Drive, while this year we have the modulation-only ’Memphis’ version of that, alongside a new version of the Constellation Multi-Mode Fuzz - this time sporting military spec CV7003 Germanium Transistors (equivalent to OC44) which are the same sort of Transistors originally deployed in ...

So we’re in the final throws of 2020, and most of what’s going to be in place for the year is near enough there already - I typically wind down in November to shift budgets for December towards Christmas expenses. There will be at least one change in December - as I will reveal later on in forthcoming arrivals below - and there may be a couple or so further adjustments depending on how well I’m feeling things!

For 2020, of the 40/41 numbered slots - 21 have actually ...

This is probably the most anticipated of my 12 Degrees roundups - and is a touch more complex and different to the other 2 in the series. Within each category here there can be a huge difference in character and output - for instance with Fuzz Faces going from quite mild to rather searing Meathead and Regulus VIII levels of aggression. So the gradual step up in gain per category doesn’t apply here. And because of circuit variations and differences in components and construction, each and ...

So last week saw me snap up 2 rare and unusual Germanium Transistor Fuzz Pedals - I’ve covered the Chase Bliss Audio Bliss Factory in detail already, and here we have another highly innovative fuzz - which derives its name from the single Russian Germanium Transistor it employs.

We’ve seen overdrives before with separate OpAmps generating each of High, Middle and Low frequency content - which you then combine and mix together for unique harmonic output. I’m not aware ...

Most of you who read this blog will know by now that Joel Korte worked for/with Zachary Vex from 2008 to 2013. While he was there he was responsible for the design and development of the Instant Lo-Fi Junky - which in many ways was the forerunner to the Warped Vinyl project.

In any case and while at Zvex, Joel picked up a taste for that brand’s flagship and all-time consistently best-selling Fuzz Factory pedal - which started out as a modified Germanium Fuzz Face which then gained a ...