Probably the strongest selection of the year - each one of these is amazing and sounds killer. But then agin similar was true of the Overdrives. I’m very much a fuzz fanatic - so his selection has to take the edge - what a selection!

This selection includes 3 from EarthQuaker Devices, 2 from Drunk Beaver, 2 from Fjord Fuzz, and 2 from ThorpyFX.

It also includes the likely pedal of the year - within a selection of 10 award winners here - these are so good - I could have labelled even ...

Another super busy month for me - particularly towards the end - with numerous large scale articles out this week. That also coincided with my busiest week of the year for my other day job. Meaning that I was up until 4-5 in the morning every day - just to keep up with my commitments.

I was already somewhat shattered and burned out before I even got to this super busy period - and it’s a relief that all that work has now been completed on schedule.

I’m especially proud of my work on the Bucket ...

So the long-awaited Death Muff is in - and a superbly textured next level evolution of a Muff. It’s high gain and expressive - and slightly raspy sounding at times - with quite a bit more ’Crunch’ to than the average Muff!

It has a unique 4th Control - labelled Chaos - which Overloads the Gain, essentially a Second Gain Control - taking it form high gain - to extreme - with lots of sustain and feedback sounding texture. It’s a very distinct sounding and reacting muff - totally at opposite ...

So it was about time that Doug Tolley, the Chase Bliss UK Ambassador got the cover slot for his own party! It was a momentous occasion in many ways - including the final concert later that evening for his ’Nine is the Level’ band project. Where he gave away the 4 key albums from that project at the show - and I of course picked up a full set. [Oscillations, Crumbs, Remnants, and Traces].

I also picked up a Witney Pedal Party 4 T-Shirt, and 2 pedals on the day, and the unsung heroes for the day ...

Brighton is normally one of the easiest shows to attend - usually just an hour Journey from London Victoria to Brighton Station. But on this day - when I got to Victoria - it had been announced that all trains to Brighton had been cancelled owing to a landslide near Purley.

I was initially advised to head for Hove instead (Littlehampton service) as the nearest destination to Brighton. I had arrived around 06:30 at Victoria with a view to catching the 06:59 train - which should have got me into ...

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 - we’ve had 3 incredible guitar gear events this month - covering Birmingham, then Woking, and now London - in probably my favourite venue on the circuit. Studio 9294 is such a unique place - having the outside canal-side terrace, and superb next-door restaurant and bar - in the guise of Number # 90 - which always serve up a very decent lunch! With the sun out - like we experienced at the weekend - this venues is wholly glorious - there’s a cool nearby Sainsbury’s, and indeedned ’Bad Coffee’...

So we were back in Bristol once more for the superb Wassup Nerds!? 2 Show - much expanded and in new BIMM Institute Venue in the Stokes Croft area of that city. Said area, is a little way out of the centre of the city, and consists mostly of take-away restaurants seemingly, a few pubs, and is heavily saturated with Vegan and Vegetarian options - so will likely suit the more fussy eaters!

Unusually for me, I hadn’t done any research on that area in advance - where for my lunch break - I ...

Showrunner extraordinaire Phil Steere above (at the show entrance), AKA PedalPatch Head Honcho.

What a wonderful show!

Just as good as the inaugural one, in fact by several measures even better!

These shows are really like family reunions for me nowadays - I know most everybody on the pedal scene now and seemed to be mostly warmly welcomed into their company. I was up really early on the Saturday - in fact when I walked in at 08:15 only Boss and NRG Effects were close to having set ...