So this dates back to the 50’s and 60’s when German Guitar Manufacturer Höfner (originally Austro-Hungarian, since 1887) designed those preamp circuits to be wired into its electric guitars of that time. This was done for the purposes of improving / enhancing the output of those guitars - where the preamp delivered a distinct, warm, and slightly compressed colour - which otherwise did not alter the core sound of the guitar.

Those early circuits were all Germanium and imparted a certain ...

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 ...

In the wake of my recent RangeMaster rundown I thought it would be fun to list those stand-alone units which ended up in my reference collection. I have a huge affinity for treble booster - where the majority I own are on combination pedals - including Plexi-Range types and Fuzz-Ranger types - overall around 30 treble boosters of various guises, and mostly in Germanium format.

My purely stand-alone RangeMasters / Treble Boosters kind of number 14 - while the CTC Constellation is kind of a ...

After the quiet comfort of February, March unleashed an avalanched of work - both in terms of new releases and acquisitions, but especial in the field of Guitar and Pedal expos - where I attended 3 within a month - first The Birmingham Guitar Show at Cranmore Park, then the London Synth and Pedal Expo at Studio 9294, Hackney Wick - and then back to Birmingham for the Noise Maker Market at Centrala, Digbeth - all grand events.

I burned myself out a little this month, and came back willingly empty...

This project has been a long time in the making - I actually started off this compilation properly last autumn, and then have iterated the final selection a number of times since then - before reaching this final format. I apologise to anyone whom I’ve inadvertently left out - I still have a number of Octave Fuzzes to require - that task is never ending!

I own around 80 octave fuzzes so far - and this is near enough half of those - where I’ve mostly leant into compact editions - and ...

Joe has kind of taken a leaf out of the Sof from Expresso FX playbook with his latest Fuzz-Ranger pedal. His new pedal is a touch inspired by Sof’s typical mid-size offerings, which combine a lot of features within the same enclosure - and typically offer up different Transistor selections.

Here we have an Abbey Road Fuzz (-Face) on the right hand side of the pedal - with Volume, Gain, and 3-way EQ controls. Where the left side of the pedal consists of a 2-way Germanium or Silicon ...

My friend Olivier asked me to do an updated rundown of my favourite choices for RangeMaster / Treble Booster - and I picked out 12 of the best viable candidates.

There’s a few honourable mentions for pedals that didn’t quite make the final 12 or have been discontinued since I last did this exercise.

These are still worth seeking out, while they are all discontinued :

• Bispell Tor (unspec. Si)
• JAM Pedals Rooster Ltd (CV7003 / OC44)
• Keeley Java Boost OC44 Edition
• KMA Machines

I picked up 3 new Hello Sailor pedals at the recent Birmingham Guitar Show including this one. Where over half the pedal varieties Joe brought with him were his legendary RangeMasters / Treble Boosters - which he somewhat specialises in. Two of my new pedals featured different varieties of RangeMasters - where the one that sat alongside an Abbey Road Fuzz had a Ge/Si option switch, while this one pictured uses the combined might of an orange sleeve Mullard OC45, alongside an unlabelled metal ...

Hearty congratulations to showrunner Jason Hunt for the most successful show day to date - with 3,000 visitors through the doors on the Saturday alone! The queue was already massive and nearly the whole length of the building when I arrived at 09:30.

It’s always good to attend on the first day - especially if you want to be sure of grabbing the best looking of the new releases - and particularly the one-offs on the Hello Sailor Effects stand!

This was another great show for me - with ...