This is the 2nd Iteration for this article - where we go from a selection of 13 to 16.

I landed 4 of these these last year - the Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, Flattley Outlaw, Fortin Kali, and Tubesteader Gainlord.

And two early this year - the Car Martin PlexiRanger and Seymour Duncan Diamondhead

We have 4 distinct types of pedals here across 4 format sizes (Compact / Mid-Horizontal / Mid-Vertical / Large) :

1. Dedicated Dual Channel Plexi + JCM800 Overdrive / Distortion with

I first covered the Diamondhead back in November of 2019, and it’s been on the wishlist ever since. I guess I was never presented with the right opportunity - until I came across it during my Christmas visit to Reykjavik’s 2 main pedal shops - Tónastöðin and Hljóðfærahúsið.

It turns out that it was the only reasonably priced pedal that I encounter in Iceland - where it was priced at 32,500 ISK which amounts to around £192 equivalent. I had my father in tow - and he managed to wrangle a ...

The Peace Fuzz was one of my targets for last year, and I indeed did an article back in August of last year with the aim to get one in during that year. I used to have a main contact at MLA - called Mark - who just stopped responding to me all of a sudden. I had helped him connect with a number of my good demo friends - including Andy Martin, Shawn Tubbs, and Alberto Barrero - I had set all those up - but Mark did not follow up for whatever reason. And shortly after that kind of started ...

Readers will know that I’m a huge fan of Sinvertek’s N5 / MGAT series - where I own each of the key editions released to date - since 2017.

This is the 3rd and ultimate edition of the MGAT-1 MIAB circuit - which retains the same topology as the other 2 MGAT-1’s - but slightly repurposes some of those controls - and aligns them more with specific Marshall Amp Profiles.

Controls - Volume, Marshall Amp Frequency Character : JCM / JTM / SLP & JVM, Gain, Low Frequency Response : Full / ...

I already thought we had witnessed Peak Full-Range Marshall back in 2022 with the original MGAT-1, then Mr Wu significantly improved that circuit in 2024, and the new one promises to be even better!

So far we’ve only had a teaser on Instagram - where I got the EVO pic from - while there is no web page yet or much in the way of further details.

Like the MGAT-5 - the first batch will contain especially mojo components - so it’s worth getting involved early on.

The actual control ...

New Pedals in the Class of 2025 Pedal-Chain Snapshot = 41

[OCTOBER]  = 9

[NOVEMBER] = 6

[MARCH] = 5

[SEPTEMBER] = 5

[AUGUST] = 4

[JANUARY] = 3

[FEBRUARY]  = 3

[APRIL] = 2

[JUNE] = 2

[MAY] = 1

[JULY] = 1

[A-Z by Brand]

1. Becos FX CompIQ Pro Yuna Soft Knee Blackmer VCA Studio Style Compressor [SEPTEMBER]
2. Blue Colander Grimrobe Dual Cascaded Super Rat [OCTOBER]
3. Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields Ultimate Modulated Fuzz [SEPTEMBER]
4. Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble Leslie / Rotary Speaker

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 ...

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 ...

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...