GPX Blog

I had hoped to do regular monthly updates on how the various NAMM-announced pedal releases and other newer additions were impacting my own pedal-chain choices. Yet we all know how this year has gone - obviously impacted by numerous delays brought on by the Social Distancing required to counter the spread of Coronavirus / Covid-19.

Because of parts supply and resourcing issues, most 2020 NAMM pedals have been delayed to some degree. When there is uncertainty as to when the next ...

So I did my SGFX Compact Fuzz Range Overview back in January - where I featured my own 9 favourites past and present varieties. I stated then that I really should be looking at the larger pedals - and I’ve already determined a number of these to be acquisition-worthy - it’s just a matter of getting my other priorities and commitments out of the way first. The NAMM pedal releases have become a real waiting game now - and all pedal-makers are seemingly impacted in one way or another ...

Usually I limit these roundups to the 9 best from each brand - but I felt that the visual for that was a little gappy because of the different enclosure sizes! So in an effort to balance out the visual better I upped the limit to 11 - which allowed my to do a couple more interesting things with the listing.

These listings are based on a mix of my own personal favourites and more widely considered best pedal ambassadors for those ranges. For a lot of selections here there was an either ...

I originally got into SolidGoldFX (SGFX) pedals way back when I was researching Octave Fuzz pedals, and the SGFX 76 Fuzz (Hybrid Germanium/Silicon Super Fuzz) came out as my sort of surprise favourite in that selection. I did not particularly like the original banana yellow colourway and so went for the Custom Shop Weathered Rust edition instead - as pictured.

The next one that piqued my interest was the Copper Edition Germanium version of the Rosie Fuzz (Tone Bender MKIII), and then a...

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 ...