And here we have the GRAND FINAL- with all 36 Award Winners from the Group Stages - across all 5 categories!

The first two places have kind of been obvious for a while, where the 3rd / BRONZE position was actually the hardest to decide on - it was between the eventual recipient - the Tubesteader Gainlord, Boss’s XS-100 Poly Shifter, Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields and Gamechanger’s Motor Synth - all of whom would have been worthy runners-up - while in the end I went for the one that overall ...

36 outstanding Boost and Overdrive pedals  featured here in various sizes - 35 of which are already in the reference collection - with the Superlunar SR-01 the last remaining straggler!

The rules of the game are that I can only finally recommend pedals that I own and have lived with, while I can also feature a few other intended targets in the overview which I fully intend to acquire (like the Superlunar SR-01) - but those can’t feature in the final rankings. So there is only one remaining ...

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 ...

Interestingly - the original compact JHS Kilt has typically been my least favourite Expandora take. To me it was somewhat cold and dense - and not nearly bright enough or sufficiently expressive. I hate brining in the wet blanket analogy once more - but that was my experience of the original take. Your typical Expandora’s tend to be quite more vibrant than JHS’s original take.

And it’s almost as if someone read my critique - because all my then niggles have been addressed in this new version. It...

I seem to have had a number of conversations recently - about Mk.gee and his use of the Tascam 424 Portastudio Tape Recorder as a sort of signature ’Amp’. Which seems to have triggered a somewhat gold-rush from a number of brands - majors and minors alike.

I thought it would be good to roundup a selection of these - which includes mainstream brands JHS and Benson, alongside a couple of independents - MXNHL and Neutrino Labs MX. Three of those brands are American, and one is Mexican.

JHS...

This was a strange one for me - not that JHS and Jack White collaborated on a Mic Delay - with Mic Preamp and Balanced XLR Out. But the fact that the vast majority of demos use this as a standard stompbox / pedalboard delay. If I were Black Mountain - who just recently had the Jack White Roto Echo Delay out - in their shoes I would be a little peeved.

As the JHS one - which is principally designed for Jack WHite’s Microphone - is more being promoted as a general delay - in direct ...

Another super busy month - where the lack of a holiday is really starting to impact my wellbeing - as I’m about as shattered and burned out as is possible without going entirely into meltdown - I’m teetering on the edge!

Here follow the highlights of the month - which I normally try to limit to around 10 elements - but stand at 12 for September. No show or onside attendances this month - while plenty of other activities - and some killer releases of course!

• Jo Quail @ the Roland Store,

It’s evident that Josh Scott has been much impacted by the sounds of the fast-rising Mk.gee - whose recent Two Star & the Dream Police Album was largely based on the sounds Mk.gee was able to extract from that Tascam 424 Portastudio device.

Interestingly my good friend Marc at Tark Audio did a similar exercise with his Tark 144 - which was based on the earlier Tascam 144 Casette Portastudio - and is also excellent!

And albeit this 424 Gain Stage is based on a different source device - ...

It’s been a while now since the NOTADÜMBLË was retired - owing to a mistake that was made in the core production run - where somehow the schematics for the rare BBC-1 Dumble Boost got mixed up with the better known ’A Box Later’ boost - in fact both used by John Mayer, but the ’A Box Later’ Boost was supposed to be the one on the pedal - and instead we go the rarer BBC-1 - which is equally excellent, and I still really like - to the extent that I’m not in the slightest bit bothered that the BBC...