Everyone should be familiar with the MXR Rockman X100 Headphone Amp / Analog Tone Processor by now - which the MXR pedal of the same name is derived from. It was one of last year’s big releases - where I acquired mine back in March of that year.

But the XR100 was only one of several Tom Sholz signature devices. He made a far more expansive Rockman Sustainor Rack Unit - which is here in HTJ-Works’ beautifully streamlined 10-Controls HWS-100AS Sustainor PreAmp compact unit - which for me is ...

Most are familiar with this format by now - as it’s near enough the same as MXR’s 5150 Overdrive. Obviously this Red edition is the 3rd Channel - the Red Lead Channel from that EVH 51510 III Amp.

Apart from the extra gain, sear and saturation we also have a new Bass Shift control - which gives you two options of the Bass Centre Frequency.

Controls - Gate, Output, Bass, Bass Shift : 55Hz / 80Hz, Mid, Treble, Gain, Boost.

I wonder how much this was influenced by the equally red Anti ...

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 ...

This has turned out to be the largest category for 2025 with 38 pedals in this selection. As I favour those pedals that I own first, and then the more pedalboard-friendly editions - inevitably there would be some casualties for the year. With the most significant of those being the larger format Meris Enzo X, and the Polyend MESS Multi-Effect Step Sequencer. I know there are some who favour each of those - but they just aren’t targets for me personally.

 I always talk about having a lane - ...

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 ...

A Bucket Brigade Device (BBD) is an analog electronic circuit (Integrated Circuit Chip) that delays an audio signal by using a series of capacitors to ’hold’ and ’pass’ tiny samples of the signal, much like a line of people passing buckets of water. The signal is moved from one capacitor to the next within each ’Clock Cycle’, and the speed of this transfer can be adjusted to change the Delay Time - typically regulated by a further ’Clock Chip’.

In accordance with this feature, the Max Delay...

It seems a very short time ago that I featured the polka dot edition - which has mostly sold through now - and the usual A-holes are trying to sell those for as much as £1,500 on the second-hand market!

Controls - Output, Distortion.

While I am a Randy Rhoads fan, I’m not normally a fan of these cash-ins - very obviously taking advantage of the recent passing of Ozzy Osbourne. It is a very attractive proposition - and that pinstripe design plus the gold accents - is absolutely gorgeous....

My Klon/Klone journey started in December of 2016 with the Wampler Tumnus Mini - very near the start of my overall pedal journey - so very much in the first 50 pedals I acquired. That pedal had emerged a year earlier (2015) - and players were loving it for the extra bass / oomph it has in its low end. The Mini Tumnus is often selected as the favourite in Blind Tests - and has won a few of those Andertons rundowns.

It took me a while to run across my favourite Mini Klone - the Decibelics ...

July was a tough month for me! Plenty going on for sure - and I had a particularly traumatic Sunday a couple of weeks back - when I was unable to get any sound out of my pedal-chain for the best part of that day. At the end of that I retired incredibly frustrated and kind of distraught - which zapped whatever remaining energy I had - and left me entirely shattered.

After a night’s sleep - I turned up  a little sharper on the following day - and was able to fairly quickly and systematically ...