Red Panda’s Bitmap Bitcrusher Pedal is the next of its range to see enhancements and size-shrinkage - bringing that into line with the same size format now as the Tensor, Particle and Context - in fact only the Raster Digital Delay remains to be updated.

This is probably the most significant Red Panda Update yet as the previous version had just 6 controls - compared to the 11 of this V2. The Modulation and Wave Sections in particular have seen a lot of additions - with numerous ...

Dune fans will undoubtedly appreciate this theme a little more than most. And in fact the Atreides is based on Electro-Harmonix’s now vintage 1980’s Mini Synthesizer.

What we have here is a perfect complementary amalgamation of different modulations with a hearty Fuzz and Sub-Octave element. There are 7 lit-up sliders for which in the above visual I have highlighted in red text how they group / break down.

Essentially we have Output Volume, then Sensitivity and ...

Pigtronix has gained quite a reputation and track record for Mini pedals of late - particularly the trio of Disnortion Micro Fuzzstortion, Octava Analog Octave Fuzz, and Philosopher’s Tone Germanium Gold Compressor. The Class A Clean Boost, regular Philosopher’s Tone Compressor, and Gatekeeper Noise Gate are decent too - but not quite as appealing as the principal Mini Flagship Trio.

The 3 new Mini Pedals are all killer - and would be equally impressive at full-size - while...

I covered the Ibanez Mini Pedal Range back in August - when there were 8 in total. Ibanez has since decided to round out its lineup with a 2-Band EQ tone-sculpting Boost, and a 4/6 Stage switching Phaser - which provides decent competition for MXR’s ever successful Phase 95.

Both pedals have enough variety and versatility about them to be amongst the strongest contenders in their respective categories. It’s been a while since I did my classic Mini Boost roundup of 16 highly...

This is obviously a follow-up from the Josh Scott / JHS January 1st YouTube video as below. Where Josh carried out and exercise where he compiled the best pedals released over the last two decades - in 6 specific categories - Best Overdrive / Distortion, Best Fuzz, Best Time-Based Effect, Best Modulation, Best Compressor, and Best Weird / Other - all must have been release January 1st 2000 or later.

Along with his own take, he solicited opinions from Jamie Stillman of EQD, Matthew ...

This is one of those articles that’s been a long-time coming, and where I needed to spend a rather large chunk of time getting fully under the skin of the pedal in question - the really quite superb, but also somewhat slightly flawed Boss GT-1000 CORE Guitar Effects Processor.

I must start by stating that I came into this project with somewhat lofty expectations, and there was some degree of naivety to my beliefs as to what was contained within this pedal, and more importantly ...

And so here is the culmination of everything that happened to the pedal-chain in 2020.

There were quite a few more displacements than I had expected - all told 22 slots changed over this year - including 19 Brand New Pedals for 2020, then 3 slightly older pedals, and some incidentals.

The most significant shift, and the one that caused the most disruption was the arrival of Boss GT-1000 CORE in October. This is often the case when you bring in a big new pedal - and you need to...

So I’ve now completed 5 preliminary shortlists type articles featuring between 9 and 30 or so of the best pedals released in 2020 - in each of the following categories :

• Best New Reverb Workstation Pedals (9)
• Best New Overdrive and Distortion Pedals (29)
• Best New Fuzz Pedals (31)
• Best New Delay and Reverb Pedals (20)
• Best New Modulation, Pitch, and Utility Pedals (28)

I sincerely apologise if I’ve overlooked any here, while I’m not sure they would have necessarily ...

This is the fourth of the preliminary roundups - before I reveal the 25 or so ’Best of the Best of 2020’ - it covers most other pedal genres not yet feature - including in particularly modulation and utility types. Note though that there will be a couple more surprises in the final reckoning!

Unlike the Delay and Reverb category I actually own a few of these, while other outstanding ones are very high on the priority list for next year.

I own 7 of these all-told - ...

This Card is obviously largely based on Tom’s most celebrated pedal to-date - the Generation Loss - while it doesn’t fully replicate that experience, nor the added chorusing elements available via the Chase Bliss Audio collaboration variety of Generation Loss.

The first two modes essential split off two of the key elements of the Generation Loss - the Wow and Flutter side, and the Signal Fidelity / Degradation side. You then get two modes which combine both those elements ...