And so onto the Distortions of the year - the smallest group stage this year! There’s no particular logic as to why there are just 20 Disortions this year. There were a further couple of acquisitions that I was disappointed with - and I deliberately left out of this selection. It’s mostly a case of what appeals each year - and evidently there weren’t that many appealing ones beyond those I acquired. I’m not aware of any particular ones that are still in the wind. The last one in was the ...

June was influenced by a few key events. Obviously the Leeds Pedal Show had a massive impact on me - and I picked up 9 pedals at that show - all excellent, and later picked up a Hudson Electronics AP-II Broadcast. So the reach of the Leeds Show has been massive - particularly the brace from Emmergy FX and SoundLad Liverpool. Then also my visit to good friends Hello Sailor Joe and Glyn - which resulted in a further brace of superior pedals, all featured on the blog this month.

The Devil Tail Deathtortion is the 7th Lastgasp pedal to enter my reference collection. It’s a sort of cousin to the recent Lluna Feedback Oscillation Fuzz - with a similar cutting sear to it, but accompanied by a pounding thick and chunky textured distortion.

It has a wide range of gain from medium to somewhat blistering high gain distortion.

Controls - Level, Gain, EQ Trimers on Rear : Mid, High, Low.

I decided that I wanted a little more girth and hair to the sound - and so I ...

I already noted in yesterday’s article on the Lluna that Joe’s Pedals had had a restock of Lastgasp Art Laboratories - which restock includes 3 brand new Lastgasp pedals, and 2 new to the Joe’s Pedals roster.

I touched on how I had been targeting a select grid of 9 Lastgasp pedals - which included 2 of this selection - the Lluna of course, and the Deviltail which will be featured tomorrow! I have two compact targets remaining - the Tone Axe, and Toxic Plant - before I then target some of ...

So my good friend Joe Light at Joe’s Pedals has had a number of new Lastgasp Art Laboratories pedals into stock (5 in total I believe) - which I will feature in an article tomorrow (albeit some are sold out already).

There were two of my long-term Lastgasp targets in that selection - the Lluna Oscillo Fuzz Drive and Deviltail Deathtortion - both of which I felt obliged to pick up. The first of those - the LLuna features here now, and the Deviltail will likely feature on Wednesday. My first ...

Some time late last year I identified that the Tremolo section of my Reference Collection was probably the weakest of the major modulation categories - and I determined to do something about it in 2024 to bring that fully up to scratch. I made 2024 my ’Year of Tremolo’ and set to the task of bolstering my own capsule collection. Seems like I slightly overdid it in the end - as I’ve so far added 17 to the collection thoughout this year, with a likely couple more still to come.

So as with all...

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The meaning of ’Halves’ here is dual - as it concerns the 2 Modes - Subharmonic and Overtone, as well as the two hemispheres of the Tone and Sensitivity controls.

Controls - Level, Tone, Sensitivity, Mode : SB (Subharmonic) / OT (Overtone).

As per the full name of this Fuzz - it is incredibly sensitive - and in particular for the Subharmonic Mode - and very much needs to be the first thing your guitar hits in the pedal-chain. The two sides are really quite different. The Subharmonic ...

So it’s been quite a while since I last covered this subject - indeed you have to go back to a August 2018 feature, which covered just 6 pedals. And where the then mentioned 770 Circuits seems to have wholly gone to ground in the interim, and there is no sign of its Komparator Trem-Fuzz anywhere anymore!

This time around I cast a slightly wider net - do note that these are a mix of LFO-assisted - therefore more Trem-Fuzz, and more natural feedback fuzz-oscillation. Essentially these are are...