Wow, The Guitar Show was certainly a rollercoaster of an event with the busiest crowd I’ve witnessed to-date. At times it was quite a struggle to make your way through the packed waves of attendees, which did though start to peter out just a little after 3 o’c. For me it was fast and furious from the start - and I found it a little awkward navigating around the hall - as the stand layout seemed to have all kinds of little nooks and crannies - which made some booths incredibly easy to overlook ...

And so to my roundup of the best gear of the year - apologies of course if I’ve overlooked one of your favourites - and note again that this year I’ve split out Boost & Overdrive - and Distortion separately - as there are so many new pedals that it’s tough to fit them all into a single summary overview. Some of these pedals are incredibly extended range - and if I’ve used them more on the distortion side - you will find those listed in the very next Distortion Rundown article - like say the...

This article has been a long time coming - where I originally started this ahead of the Mini Edition - which went live on January 24th. I was waiting for a couple of new pedals to be released - while the article has been iterated around 20 times now with a number of recent additions.

And the pedal I was waiting to launch still hasn’t quite happened, while the builder has authorised me to tease it in advance of its official release. And if I were to do the same exercise tomorrow - no doubt ...

WARNING! This post is massive, and will probably crash your mobile device! Best accessed via Desktop or Laptop!

Last time I did this exercise I featured just 9 companies in my cover shot, and covered 57 overall - with just videos for the top 9.

While this time around I’ve doubled down - where there are 27 companies in the cover shot and 105 overall! And circa half of those are accompanied by a video - which is a lot! I first cover the 27 Leading Lights group, and then the 78 brands in ...

I’m expecting this post to attract a lot of ’whataboutisms’ as many of my rundowns seem to do. While every single choice / selection here is well considered, pondered upon on and properly weighted up against pertinent criteria and then further rationalised, whittled and distilled down into a top 9 or 16 or 25 - as I always favour symmetrical grids.

If I find 18 or 19 suitable candidates - then only 16 can be featured on the grid etc. - you need to draw the line somewhere. And you can also ...

So this is the second of this series - where the first was more about the uniqueness of the enclosure shape - more structural really - covering the overall form factor. While this edition is more about ’Trade Dress’ or the Memorability of the Aesthetics - style of graphics, consistency of theme, and consistency of control topology - doing something in a consistently measurable way that makes that pedal instantly recognisable from afar as belonging to a certain single brand.

So this one is ...

It turns out that I was one of the relatively few in the end who made their way to the Witney Pedal Party.

From my starting point at Paddington Station it seemed like things were going to be very busy throughout the day - the station was packed, including lots of people in straw boaters and colourful stripey jackets - obviously heading for the Henley Regatta. While my Hereford-bound Hanborough train was filled to capacity too. With a significant proportion of passengers being of Chinese ...

Chase Bliss UK Ambassador (as I call him!) the honourable Doug Tolley - will be hosting a ’Pedal Party’ at his local Truck Music Store in the Woolgate Shopping Centre, Market Square, Witney OX28 6AP TOMORROW - July 1st!

He will be joined by fellow brands : Origin Effects, Rainger FX and ThorpyFX for half a day of pedal celebrations, demonstrations and presentations.

There will be several other Pedal Builder and Industry luminaries there on the day including Markus Reeves (Reeves Electro...

Chase Bliss UK Ambassador (as I call him!) the honourable Doug Tolley - will be hosting a ’Pedal Party’ at his local Truck Music Store in the Woolgate Shopping Centre, Market Square, Witney OX28 6AP exactly one month from today.

He will be joined by fellow brands : Origin Effects, Rainger FX and ThorpyFX for half a day of pedal celebrations, demonstrations and presentations.

The Truck Music Store is the sponsor and host location for this get-together, where auteur Nick Rees will be filming...