May has been a little bit of strange month - lots of delays really, and waiting for pedals to land.

As inevitably happens most months - much was delayed this month, and I was unable to complete some of the larger articles - they will need to wait until next month, there’s certainly lots of projects in progress. Where new and imminent arrivals kind of scuppered several intended projects - hopefully they can be completed in June.

The first event I’m attending this month is tomorrow - as a micropub ...

This project has long been on the cards, as I’ve always intended to take the Asheville Music Tools journey - the Analog Modulations in particular. The Phaser ended up being the first on the list, and I will tackle the Flanger next, and then the Chorus / Vibrato after that.

I’m not short of a great Phaser or two - as the APH-12 is the 29th phaser in my reference collection (full list after the demos below). I have a soft spot for so many of these - including the Beetronics Larva, Caroline ...

I originally featured this pedal on the site back in January of 2023 - so it’s been on the cards for a while! I obviously need to juggle a lot of priorities all the time - and some pedals unfortunately fall through the cracks momentarily - while I mostly manage to recover them at a later stage!

This Arigato is my 4th Caroline pedal, and I love it so much that I’m very tempted to pick up Philippe’s other 2 modulations - the Parabola Tremolo, and Somersault Lo-Fi Modulator / Chorus. 

The ...

I obviously slept on this when it was launched back in the Autumn of 2021 - as I’ve long owned the H9 Max, and now the H90 - so I wasn’t initially overly taken by the stand-alone Eventide Devices - while I so like the Tricherachorus that I will for sure get more of this series.

The Preset overlay cards are genius - and perfect for pedals which have two layers of controls - i.e. secondary / alt parameters. I’ve always preferred dual concentric pots - and don’t understand why pedal builders ...

Freqscene’s Wade has a unique knack for spinning out distinct and very individualistic takes on classic effects. His Wave of Modulation Phaser adds a Transistor Preamp into the mix - which warms up and enhances the modulation. And in place of the more typical 2 and 4 Stage phasing, Wade has added a further stage for increased range and more complex modulation textures.

The modulation is further enhanced by Slow and Fast Rate Ranges - which bring out further details in those extremes of ...

This new generation delivers 2 / 4 and 6 Stage Phasing in an incredibly handy format - with the perfect complement of controls for maximum impact. The original version had a Phaser / Vibrato switch, which has been felt surplus to requirements on this occasion - considering the already fabulous Diamond Vibrato - which I have and love.

All the Diamond Modulation pedals are great - where I’ve still to acquire the Tremolo, and will also be getting in this Diamond Phase at some stage - while I ...

For me - these Dealer special White Light editions - are some of the prettiest varieties Spaceman has released to-date - with the white-out / snow-blind livery and striking cyan / teal LED’s - just gorgeous. I was missing the Atlas IV and Apollo VIIb - and Cream City Music and Axe and You Shall Receive were enormously helpful in getting those shipped to me in short order. I then spotted that my friend Scott at Axe and You Shall Receive also had a White Light Rumblefuzz II remaining - and I just...

It took me a few years to pick up this full set of 4 - where each of these is a revelation - they all deliver more than you might initially think, and they do it in such a clever way. Each one of these is far greater than the sum of its parts - and all those parts are high quality THT components.

My only tiniest niggle here is that I feel the Grimalkin could do with a little more output volume, while all of these sound amazing, and are all super versatile.

We essentially have 2 fuzzes ...

January has been a bumper start for the year - with lots of killer arrivals - especially the DSM & Humboldt Dumblifier which I’ve been hugely impressed with.

Also my most formidable NAMM coverage to-date - where I only started work properly on the 8th of January - but have managed to do 60 articles since that time - which is a record of course, as is the week of 20 posts.

I feel I covered all the key moments - and mixed up new and old in my usual inimitable fashion.

There was ...