This pedal has been long teased now - we’ve seen excerpts and snap shots of it for quite a few months, and Keeley have finally decided that the time is ripe for release, or at least a pre-release!

It goes without saying that the limited 100 pre-release run sold out very quickly on the day of release - this past Friday the 7th of August. The actual general release takes place on September 1st - where there will be at least 2 editions, a Gold Dealer Edition sporting a 12AT7WC Tube, and a ...

I meant to feature this pedal sooner - which was first launched back on May 21st. While the images available then alas weren’t at all suitable for my usual website visual / editorial style - so I had to wait until the second batch - which luckily has more suitable pictures that I could finally use!

This Germanium Preamp / Overdrive is an entirely custom build - with super high fidelity components onboard, including 2 x AC128 Germanium Transistors, 9 x Germanium Diodes, Custom Knobs, and ...

For whatever reason - this is only the second time I cover a Spruce Effects pedal, and much like my earliest 80’s record buying forays - this one had much to do with its cover art! I somewhat got the wrong handle on the recent Spruce Blow-out Sale - which I presumed was a going out of business sale. But no - it was more of a pivot really - selling off remaining stock to put funds into a re-launch of the brand in some V2 rejuvenated guise - to happen as early as this Autumn / Fall. In any case ...

David Ross is well known for his immaculate attention to detail - and his beautiful tone-on-tone colour-coordinated enclosures with refined graphics. Here in summery yellow tropical seaside fashion - with matching knobs.

The Summer Heat delivers an expansive 2-Band EQ - with Gyrator Bass and Gyrator Mids Frequency Controls with 3-way central frequency selectors that you can cut or boost. Further to that David has added clipping to each of those tone stacks - such that as you boost them - ...

I have a real soft spot for Germanium Overdrives and Preamps, of which this is the latter. This typically takes you into fuzzy-drive territory - and yields superiors harmonics and textures.

The Seward Park Maravilla benefits from an expansive control technology - which gives you powerful shaping over your output.

Controls - Loud (Master Output), Tone, Mid, Air (Presence), Pre Gain, Post Gain.

Pre and Post are independent Gain controls into each of the Germanium stages. Stack them for ...

A super busy month - with plenty of highlights and heatwaves.

My house is finally cooling down as I write these last few observations - we’ve had around 10 days of oppressive heat now, and there’s another wave on the way at the end of this week - which makes for very difficult conditions to have sessions with said pedals.

We’re in the final consequence of global climate change now - with increasingly more extreme weather patterns occurring - alternately cold snaps, heatwaves, and torrential ...

At one stage there was a 50/50 chance as to whether I would make the show - as there were significant disruptions on the Liverpool Street to Norwich line - which meant a bus replacement service between Colchester and Ipswich. Some of the journey times quoted were up to 4 and a 1/2 hours each way! In the end the door-to-door was closer to 3 hours in total! The journey up including the coach was actually more fun that the journey back via Cambridge. Cambridge has obviously sinned grievously as ...

I recall the original Core Series very well - and picked up those 4 original compacts - per the below original range visual. You had the Edge, ODI, Rail, and ROUS (per bottom row of visual) - where 3 of those have now been revived and enhanced.

Pettyjohn then did a number of additional very limited small batch custom compact editions - which covered most of the same territory as these 11 new editions. I feel a couple of these might be brand new - certainly the Moss X Fuzz. ...

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 ...