So a quick second Woking Show in the same year - for reasons I will endeavour to explain. A bittersweet moment for me as I have really loved the Fiery Bird venue - it’s a great setting for these kinds of events - and so close to the town centre - just 5 minutes or so form the main Woking Train Station. The reason Jason brought the 2nd show forward is that the council has taken back the licence for the building - with a view to redeveloping the premises - so presumably demolition beckons - which...

If you didn’t make the first one - you really missed out! Check out my Inaugural Woking Show write-up to get a flavour of how good that first show was back in March - it genuinely had amazing vibes - in fact all the March shows - including The Birmingham Guitar Show and the London Synth and Pedal Expo - all had a really friendly and chilled ambience to them - and all three were a joy to navigate - where I often struggle to get around at the Birmingham show.

The Woking Boutique Guitar Show ...

Brighton is normally one of the easiest shows to attend - usually just an hour Journey from London Victoria to Brighton Station. But on this day - when I got to Victoria - it had been announced that all trains to Brighton had been cancelled owing to a landslide near Purley.

I was initially advised to head for Hove instead (Littlehampton service) as the nearest destination to Brighton. I had arrived around 06:30 at Victoria with a view to catching the 06:59 train - which should have got me into ...

This is set to be the first event in a series - with the first one happening on Saturday, June 14th.

The venue will be the PedalPatch HQ at Newhaven in East Sussex.

The Session starts at 10:00 Hrs and goes through to 17:00.

Expert Pedal Engineer and Circuit Designer Neil R. Grimes of NRG Effects will lead the session - which is based on one of his own designs - specially created for this event, a 2-knob full-range Overdrive and Distortion.

You will be provided with all necessary...

There are 32 Finalists in the Fuzz Category, where I own all but 3 :

• 29 Pedals Toki Overdrive / Fuzz
• Cachalote 214 Fuzz
• Subdecay Noise Theory Parallel Waveshaper Fuzz

The Finalists

• 29 Pedals Toki Fuzz Driver - $269
• Beetronics FX Tuna Fuzz - $99
• Beetronics FX Whoctahell V2 Low Octave Beeast Babee Edition - $149
• Cachalote Audio 214 Fuzz - R$1418 / $235
• Cornerstone Nero Dumble-Fuzz - €299 | $299
• Danelectro Nichols 1966 Liverpool Fuzz Tone - $199
• Decibelics Reverend V2 Mini

It’s that time of year when I pick out my personal favourite pedals in each category - starting with the Boost and Overdrive ones. I weigh up each candidate on the basis of my own experiences, preferences and sensibilities - and include pedals also that I intended to get but did not quite yet around to acquiring during the year of release!

For this selection I personally own all but these 8 :

• Aleks K Production Honey Moon Sweet Overdrive V3
• Bleak District Slate Discrete Gemanium

The very aptly named Purrer is one of Neil’s flagship pedals, and has been on the roster for many years now in various guises. It’s an OpAmp style overdrive (TLO72CP), nearest in profile to a BluesBreaker, while very much its own thing.

People variously describe it as being warm and even toned or warm, smooth and even tempered. Its coverage spans low to mid-range, and never quite gets into crunchy territory, but rather maintains a smooth and somewhat soft profile - while the Plus Boost adds...

Another strong month for sure! A little dominated by Keeley Electronics, but some solid releases over the month - with a crazy flurry towards the end - to coincide with Europe’s largest Guitar Gear Show - Mannheim’s Guitar Summit. It seems evident now that Guitar Summit is an event I should really be at - and I will make a concerted effort to be their next year.

As it was I attended just one guitar gear event this month - EarthQuaker Devices Showcase at GuitarGuitar in Camden - where I got ...

I’m delighted to finally be adding some NRG Effects pedals to the Reference Collection - it’s been a long time coming - and now’s obviously the right time for it. I’ve known about NRG Effects for several years - where I was always intrigued by those striking and colourful hand-painted animal head enclosures with idiosyncratic names, and equally left-field control labelling. I loved the look and lore of the brand then with its rainbow of colours and knobs of different hues - but parts of it felt...