GPX Blog

I’ve already largely decided what new pedals I will be targeting this year (that I know of!) - following on from the various reveals and announcements made over the last week, and other projects I’m aware of and various themes I will be pursuing in 2020.

First of all to explain the above visual - this features and extrapolation of my current pedal-chain - with the NAMM legend in front of various new / newish pedals - Green means already acquired - or at least already ...

So despite the perilous state of the world, the first NAMM of the new decade actually turned out to be pretty stellar. I had thought that last year’s exceptional show might end up as the all-time high water mark - but this one turned out just as many pleasant surprises.

Slightly different to last year there were a more significant number of pedals announced and launched in advance of the show - while a lot of pedals at the show had very little by way of collateral and some are ...

Contrary to my original analysis - all 3 pedals are actually pretty well rounded and ready to go - while Jackson Audio want to give each a chance to reach their intended audience - meaning a staggered release - with the first to be made available being Joey Landreth’s signature Golden Boy Overdrive ($299) - pre-orders will be up any day soon with shipping due to start in February. The pedal gets its name from a statue which sits atop the Manitoba Legislative Building in Joey’s home ...

Christian Lessenich or Chris Jupiter as many know him is one of the great sonic adventurers out there - forever seeking to break new boundaries and go further than man has gone before. His challenge on this occasion was to produce an explosively nasty / gnarly fuzz - which he has achieved in part through a clever evolution of the Super Fuzz circuit and using some really high gain Russian NOS transistors.

You have 4 controls on the pedal - wide-ranging Volume, Gain and Tone knobs, ...

I caught some early preview snaps of these on Instagram - and have been waiting for a while for better resources to appear yet to no avail. In the end I had to make my own composites from the best reference I could find online as it does not appear Jackson Audio will be releasing proper details during the show. I was able to do decent facsimiles of the Modular Fuzz and Golden Boy - and will do the El Guapo Distortion image/overview separately / additionally later - as and when better references...

I was very quick to fall for the charms of the previous Danelectro Vintage Eisenhower Octave Fuzz (Super Fuzz), while it took me a touch longer to warm to The Breakdown (Univox UD50 Uni-Drive). Yet I did succumb to both in the end and I’m very happy with that eventuality.

This time around we get the 3699 Octave Fuzz (Foxx Tone Machine), Roebuck Distortion (Ibanez Mostortion MT-10) and sort of reissue of Danelectro’s own Back Talk Reverse Delay. I’ve pictured / listed ...

Each year I like to do a comparison of where my current thinking is ahead of the Winter NAMM Show versus shortly after I have witnessed all the new innovations for the year and I have finalised my annual target list. The Chain already features several pedals that will be properly featured at NAMM for the first time - and I’m still waiting for Pete Thorne’s demo video of the Sinvertek N5+ Drive so I can publish my findings on that excellent pedal.

My most recent new arrival ...

Readers will know by now that I really like the first Redbeard Red Mist Distortion and that it’s part of my current active pedal-chain. On encountering this follow-up release the immediate thing that springs to mind is my Gamechanger Audio / Third Man Records Plasma Coil - which also happens to be something of a yellowish hue - and has a number of Sub Octave effect modes to it also.

The Twist with the Honey Badger is that you have an ’Octave’ Knob that Blends in the ...

When the original Life Pedal (pictured in background above) was launched around 6 months ago I rather liked the concept of the pedal - which is really a kind of souped up Rat-style distortion with extra bells and whistles. Yet I somewhat balked at the size, format and price of the device at around $429. The Life Pedal was originally launched by Sunn O))) as a package deal with their latest -’Life Metal’ album and was part of a 1,000 unit limited run. Since then we’ve had a run...

I’ve long mentioned that we’re living through the second golden age of effects pedals (some say ’Diamond Age’’), and as good as things have been - 2019 took it all to an entirely new level of excellence. I don’t recall any previous year where we’ve had quite the same degree of innovation and so many ingeniously appealing pedals - this year has been so fast and furious - it’s been difficult to keep up at times.

I noted in my End of Year ...