I was a touch critical about the HX One - possibly overly so - as it’s really decent for what it delivers and how. While I could not be more effusively positive about this new POD Express!

For anyone starting out in guitar effects - you get everything you need in one smart little box - with intuitive and mostly surfaced control (vs Noise Gate).

If I was thinking of buying in my very first guitar effect pedal - then I don’t think I could do better than this. It contains 7 Amp & Cab ...

So back in 2019 - Reverb.com coordinated Black Friday Limited Blacked Out Editions across 17 Brands and 19 Pedals - and by and large it was a resounding success - a lot of those sold out very quickly - and overall pretty much every special pedal maid was sold in fairly short order.

I always thought it a little surprising that this exercise wasn’t repeated more often as I kind of expected it to be an annual or biennial thing following on from the 2019 event. While we’ve had to wait 4 years ...

So this is an interesting move / departure by Line 6 where their intent is obviously to target those hoards of stompbox fans who have not yet succumbed to the Multi-FX way of things a la Helix. You get the same core library of algorithms and effects - but in a more compact format - which allows you to utilise just one at a time - to dovetail into the more typical analog stompbox experience.

While I agree with other commentators that the whole charm of a Multi-FX unit is in how you can ...

This episode is a little more esoteric and preferential than most - and involves identifying the most notable and easily recognisable ’Pedal Shapes and Formats’ essentially. Of course there is some subjective preference here - while I will try to explain objectively how I came to this exact 25 pedal selection - some of these are very obvious - others are slightly more idiosyncratic choices - while there are obviously some brands that are particularly good at coming up with memorable enclosure ...

As I’ve just done all the category overviews / best of genre rundowns - you can refer to those for all the individual pedal details - most have full reviews on this site too - here I will simply lay down the longlist - and explain why I picked those top 3 here - so just the details for the 3 overall winners!

I normally try to single out around 40 each year in the final overview - but it also depends on how many can fit the ’jigsaw’ of the visual.

There were 4 pedals in the full longlist...

So this is the first selection here where I only own a handful of the candidates - it’s easier to say what is in the reference collection than out :

• Boss RE-2 Space Echo Compact - $249
• Boss RE-202 Space Echo Deluxe - $399
• Chase Bliss Generation Loss MKII Stereo Magnetiser - $399
• Chase Bliss Habit The Echo Collector - $399
• Meris LVX True Stereo Modular Delay System - $599
• Old Blood Noise Endeavors Screen Violence Stereo Saturated Modulated Reverb Pedal - $279

Of those the Gen Loss II ...

I’m a touch late with this as I had other priority releases scheduled already for last week, while this new MKII DL4 deserves some serious consideration. It’s obvious that Line 6 are targeting the existing DL4 User Base - as the new Model is mostly just an expanded version of that - in very similar format.

They’ve shaved a little off the height and weight - by removing the battery compartment - and have cut into the former rectangular box with a lower-curve cutaway. Otherwise Control ...

The amount of different versions of Helix is now almost getting to pandemic levels - with Line 6 offering up yet another variant - in the guise of the HX Stomp XL.

The stats for this really could not be any simpler - as what you are getting is essentially the exact same HX Stomp Unit - with largely all the same functionality and screen - but with 5 more footswitches - for more Stompbox mode switches, and the ability to select up to 4 different Snapshots.

All the ports on this ...

Reverb.com has revealed the best-selling pedals of 2020 on that particular platform. And while there are plenty of other big retailers on the Interweb - Reverb is likely the largest single entity - so some heed should be paid to these stats, while they don’t necessarily give you the full global picture. Plenty of manufacturers sell direct - and you have all those major stores - with Andertons, Sweetwater and Thomann leading the charge - which play into things too. Nevertheless it always ...