It may have happened a little later on, but as a direct result of finally meeting Michael Hudson face-to-face at the Leeds Pedal Show - I now own the Broadcast AP-II, as my 6th Hudson Electronics Pedal. He was evidently very persuasive at the time in showcasing how this version was significantly more potent than the standard Dual Broadcast I already had. The AP-II has 2 separate Preamp Circuits with wider gain ranges, which can then also be stacked, while on the standard Dual Broadcast you ...

This was funnily something of af 2022 Stourbridge Pedal Expo Reunion of sorts - where Audiostorm, Bleak District Electric, Emmergy FX, Fredric Effects, and Goliath FX were all present at that inaugural Pedal Expo. There are marked similarities between the two venues and events - both are  similar sort of Mill House style building set within a kind of packing district and both relatively near to a waterway / canal. And both had a really friendly vibe to them. It’s incredible how far we’ve come ...

So Catalinbread just launched its Airstrip CB-Range Discrete Console Preamp, and instead of covering that just on its own, I thought I should do some kind of group / genre overview.

I’m not sure whether my powers of detection are somewhat not fully up-to-speed for this exercise, for I was only able to uncover 5 suitable candidates for this selection - do let me know if you’re aware of others that fit this selection.

There seems to be some sort of a distinction distinction between ’...

I’ve worked up another selection of fuzz pedal pairs - a couple here may be a touch more tenuous - while there is solid logic in all the choices - even those that look a little differentiated! As before - there are some magnificent combinations to be found here.

The first selection was mostly about Fuzz Face pairs, while for this second roundup, we have a larger contingent of Big Muff types.

Expresso FX puts in a second appearance here - while all the other brands have not featured ...

WARNING! This post is massive, and will probably crash your mobile device! Best accessed via Desktop or Laptop!

Last time I did this exercise I featured just 9 companies in my cover shot, and covered 57 overall - with just videos for the top 9.

While this time around I’ve doubled down - where there are 27 companies in the cover shot and 105 overall! And circa half of those are accompanied by a video - which is a lot! I first cover the 27 Leading Lights group, and then the 78 brands in ...

Readers should know by now that I’m a huge fan of the overlapping genre of Fuzzy-Drive and Fuzzstortion style gain pedals - which tend to cover a variety of Fuzz, Overdrive and Distortion pedals - which all have a certain fuzzy character to them where they blur at least a couple of boundaries.

For me the sort of archetype of that sound is the Bixonic Expandora - while there are a great number of pedals that fall into that same sort of catchment area - and the 28 listed here are just a small...

As promised, I’ve drawn up a list of suitable quality alternatives - for those who did not or were unable to snag one of the excellent Boss TB-2W 2N404 Waza Editions. I’ve already passed highly favourable opinions on said pedal, while I recognise that there weren’t nearly enough to go around for all of those who wanted one. This has resulted in ridiculous price gouging - which has long afflicted the Klon Centaur in a similar manner. For the Klon Centaur around 8,000 units were...

I knew the ’These Go To 11’ website long before I was introduced to owner / founder Sebastian Nylund. It was the core reference for me for brands like BJFe and DanDrive and several more rarer boutique brands - and I have always admired Sebastian’s smart curation and selection process - and often used that in my own pedal discovery process.

These Go To 11 is an incredibly eclectic, but selective mix too of both mainstream and boutique pedal brands. It’s not exclusively guitar pedals like Joe...

Last time I did a Tone Bender overview I limited the selection to 12, and as much by chance as anything else I still managed to get a pretty decent roundup of most of the main Tone Bender varieties although not quite all as featured here. In the world of fuzz though only the Big Muff can compete with the convoluted and complex nature of the Tone Bender Family Tree - which I will endeavour to distil first, and then extrapolate into my own favourite / preferred pedals!

It all starts with the ...