Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
4 of a Kind - Iconic Pedal Pouches
As part of a pedal’s packaging you typically get an inner protective pouch / drawstring bag - usually made of canvas, cotton or hemp, but also in a variety of more exotic materials and fabrics. A lot of those are unbranded, but a fair amount of them have logos stamped, embossed, printed, appliquéd or embroidered even.
This post was prompted by 2 fairly recent arrivals - my first 2 Asheville Music Tools pedals, and my first Pedal Pawn pedal. I had actually first thought about doing such an ...
RhPf Electronics' Nerd Lab IV Bench gives you the full inside edge on 175 different Diodes of all stripes
The IV BENCH is the second RhPf Nerd Lab resource I cover after the super handy Pedal Tone Maps. Diodes play such an important part in shaping the output of gain pedals in particular. They are of course also used for power management and various other electronic purposes - but our main interest in these is in Clipping Profiles - Vf Forward Voltages and Current Rise. There is another side to these Diodes which is more esoteric - while the Germanium Diodes are typically much better behaved than ...
Key Criteria and Considerations when Rolling out a New Pedal or Pedal Brand!
This article was originally written for my good friend Lane from Cryptid Effects - for a branding workshop. I have so many references that I have originated and evolved over the years - that I thought it best to contain all the essential parts within this one singularly massive article.
Most of the source articles can be found within the Guitar Pedal 101 Section of this site - while I’ve also drawn on some of my branding articles from my other site Affino.com - and added a few further ...
Warmest Seasonal Greetings and a Happy Xmas to you all!
502 Articles created for 2025, here are 10 of my own personal favourites for the year :
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A Brief Hobbyist Primer on BBD's - Bucket Brigade Devices
A Bucket Brigade Device (BBD) is an analog electronic circuit (Integrated Circuit Chip) that delays an audio signal by using a series of capacitors to ’hold’ and ’pass’ tiny samples of the signal, much like a line of people passing buckets of water. The signal is moved from one capacitor to the next within each ’Clock Cycle’, and the speed of this transfer can be adjusted to change the Delay Time - typically regulated by a further ’Clock Chip’.
In accordance with this feature, the Max Delay...
Thomas of RhPf Electronics has created a quite superb Resource for Pedal Enthusiasts and Professionals alike - 'Tone Maps' - where you can compare the output profile of up to 5 pedals at a time!
The RhPf Electronics’ Nerd Lab Tone Maps is an incredible pedal resource which I already use a lot - and which plots, maps and compares the output profiles of a large variety of devices - where you can compare up to 5 at a time - and even [Stack] them together to view Combined Output Profiles.
While I mostly have the resource in [Compare] Mode - where you contrast the output profiles of up to 5 different devices in the same chart - where each device gets its own distinct coloured line with ...
Guitar Pedal Demo-ology - Insights, Art and Science - 2025 Updated Edition
This article is built on and updated from the 2022 original - with further additions and categories, and a different current--appropriate covershot
The 5 x 5 visual above is not necessarily definitive, but surely largely representative of the best demoers active today - spiralling out from the 3 OG Elder Statesmen / Godfathers of Demos in the centre (Andy, Brett and Mike) and covering 25 of my own favourite demoers. The selection features most of the big names along with many of my own personal ...
Spiral Caster - Here's To The World As We Don't Know It Album Launch! - Sprung forth from the Magnificent Deep-Dive 'Let's Make Some Noise' Pedal Sessions
An incredibly ambitious project which took place between July 2022 and Dec 2023 - right on the cusp of the Covid Lockdown - an exercise of such depth, complexity, and magnitude - that it is unlikely to ever be repeated - but if it is - then Cohen Hartman will likely be the one to pull it all together again!
This was a coordinated project covering more than 160 pedals across more than 70 brands - so a lot of moving parts!
Cohen is one of the most gifted pedal demoers out there - so many...
A curated selection featuring 6 of the Best Looking Pasta Pedals
So I’ve been seeing Pasta Pedals fairly regularly in my Instagram feed - for a few months now I think, and starting with the Green Line Delay I believe - I think that’s the first one I encountered.
I’m a sucker for a well-place LED or two, and Charles Costa here has a real knack for a striking artwork punctuated by precision-placed LEDs. It’s a pet peeve of mine if there is a creature with eyes as part of the visual - and those eyes are then not used for the actual LEDs. For these following...
9 cool pedal designs - each with proprietary custom designed knobs
3 elements inform this particular curated selection of pedals. Firstly these are all distinctive and striking designs of pedals - and some of these are absolutely at the top of that form. Also these all have unique proprietary designs of knobs exclusive to those brands, and finally all 9 of these are from my own Pedals Reference Collection!
Ever since I published my ’101 Pedal Knobs’ article back in 2019 (pictured below) I have been championing the creation of unique knobs for each brand - ...
