I’ve long championed Matt Palmer’s Solarist combined full-featured Classic Fuzz and Rangemaster Boost. I have the V2 edition of the Solarist alongside a simpler format Solarist Green. Those were both originally reviewed back in November of 2023. I was very lucky to get those at that time - as Matt wasn’t really shipping outside the USA at that time - while a family member was due to come to England - and they brought the pedals across with them!

The V3 edition takes its styling cues from ...

This article was actually inspired by the recent Fjord Fuzz SOL Fuzz-Vibe feature - where I got to thinking about extended range Fuzz Face style pedals. To my memory there is only the Carl Martin Purple Moon and Fjord Fuzz SOL in that compact Fuzz-Vibe format. I then recalled the Keeley Electronics Monterey - but realised there weren’t a whole lot of pedals in the extended format category - for Fuzz-Vibes - so I expanded the remit to cover ’Fuzz Face+’ pedals - essentially expanded feature set ...

The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!

So we featured 120 pedals across the 5 Genre categories this year - as you’ve witnessed over the last 5 days, and those have been whittled and distilled down to these 27 Magnificent and Exceedingly Flavoursome candidates.

Picking out the very best of those is obviously a slightly subjective exercise while based on a series of exacting criteria - including innovation, versatility, practicality, variability, playability, quality of manufacture, quality of output and sheer enjoyment.

Here ...

And so to what is often my favourite category - the many wonderful flavours of fuzz - and we have some hugely innovative pedals in the selection this year - one of these may even be my pedal of the year!

So there are 24 in this year’s selection - where I’m just missing the Collision Devices TARS, Fender Shields Blender, JAM Pedals Octaurus, KMA Machines Mandrake, Reeves Electro Facet IZ, and Unsound Circuitry Kato Glitch Fuzz - where I will attempt to add most of those to the reference ...

This whole year has occurred at such breakneck speed and volume - with so much happening all day and every day - that I have perpetually felt like I was always in the process of catching up and never quite had time to catch my breath as such. I’ve taken just one whole weekend off in the whole year - and am as close to burn-out as I’ve ever been. Every time I attended a Guitar or Pedal show I was up all night doing the write-up - average time for those articles was / is around 36 hours give or ...

My adventure with Matthew Palmer’s Solarist - Swiss Army Fuzz Face and Rangemaster combo -  goes back to August 15th - where I noted that there was alas no delivery option to the UK when trying to acquire one. Matthew and I got into a dialogue - which funnily included mention of how a close relative of his lived in the UK - and was due to visit him in November - and it probably made sense for them to take my Solarist back across the pond and then just ship it locally - which is exactly what ...