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 ...

I attend as many as a dozen guitar and pedals shows each year, and am always on the lookout for the best technology for my pedal-builder friends to use. Most of these events are now headphones ones - so you need a solution to connect your pedals to your audience.

I’ve featured quite a number of Headphone Amps on this site over the years - and I feel this is the best one I’ve encountered to date - at least for my preferences.

Firstly it has auto-sensing on the jacks - so you can go Mono ...

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 ...

February is always something of a lull - particularly after the hyper busy NAMM-inflected January. This month is the doldrums of the calendar where not much gets releases. I did though manage to land a decent selection of a dozen pedals - obviously some from the previous year. With the Sinvertek MGAT-1 EVO being the standout pedal landed - where the Klowra Gnash and Wampler Golden Jubilee were pretty spectacular too. 3 x Klowra pedals on the board this month - all excellent!

Of course there...

In many ways this is the most straightforward category with singular award nominees - GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE.

It’s the second smallest category after Distortions - and the one where I own the least number of pedals in proportion to the whole - just 10 out of these 26.

The order pretty much set itself - with the Cornerstone Nucleo being the clear winner from the start. I’m so impressed with every aspect of that pedal - it’s a perfect Trifecta of Design, Feaures and Playability - pretty ...

So we’re at that time of year again for another Full Metal Racket Rundown. I meant to have it coincide with halloween - but was so inundated with new releases work - that I really struggled to fit this one in. And it now appears a month later than I wanted it to - but still very much at the appropriate end of the year!

As is ever the case - this selection continues to evolve over the years - and inevitably some previous candidates get bounced for more impressive newer variants.

For this...

I first feature KMA Machines Utility Pedals back in 2023 - the AB/Y and Stereo AB/Y - which are also in this presumably honed and improved in these 2025 editions.

We have the almost identical looking AB/Y and Stereo AB/Y pedals, here joined by a new Dual Loop Switcher.

You can guarantee high fidelity and superior electronics from the Berlin-based outfit.

I know Utility Pedals aren’t a particularly exciting category - but these brightly lit examples are most definitely the droids you ...

So I took a little bit of flack about the 4 of a kind noise gates I included in that feature. It was really just a matter of the first 4 I came across that fit the pattern - I did not do any extra curation for that selection - simply first come first serve. Inevitably I left out some killer ones - which I make amends for by including the largest possible selection of high quality compact noise gates in his very article - including my current incumbent - Alchemy Audio Modded Boss NS-2 - which ...

I’m a huge fan of double trackers - and hitherto the TCE Mimiq - which I have long described as fairy dust for stereo rig - it massively enhances the soundstage - adding more width and wider stereo feel, as well as a greater depth of tone!

The Geminus is the first one really that has come along that may likely unseat the Mimiq. It’s a more refined circuit in many ways and a proper Hi-Fidelity Studio Stereo Tool.

It has the perfect feature set and complement of controls - while it’s just...