I’ve followed tkog / The King of Gear for many years now - and have had the Mini Glitch in the reference collection for quite a while - a really cool and relatively simple but impactful Micro-Sampler. I believe that first materialised properly in 2018 - where I’m aware there were a few earlier sort of prototype versions before then - while I think the final design occurred some time in and around 2018.
Around a year later, tkog then introduced its Oxford Drive - which I understand is an ...
We’re steadily seeing the Boss 20-Series pedals being replaced now, and the VE-20 is the latest to get a very significant upgrade. The new VE-22 moves things on pretty massively and completely revamps and enhances the form factor, switches, knobs and overall control interface - with 3 core switches now in place of the former 2 - and really smart dedicated controls for each of the core functions - all served by a highly visibly and usable LED screen.
If you’re a singer or vocal performer of ...
I’ve long been a fan of Mooer’s potent X2 series - which typically has 14 Presets / Algorithms and stereo output alongside 6 controls and dual footswitches - and is the most capable variety of Mooer Compact Pedals. I’ve intended to add a few of these to the reference collection - while to date only the Preamp Model X is in the collection.
Here we have the X2 varieties of the Harmony and Tender Octaver pedals - where I really like the look of the Harmony’s Channel Separation capabilities - ...
The Modutility roundup combines Modulation, Utility and Pitch type pedals - it also includes Multi-FX and Multi-Modulation pedals of course. Some years this selection is relatively sparse - while this year it’s totally chock-a-block! In fact it was a struggle to whittle the Longlist down - and inevitably some pedals I wanted to feature did not make the cut - including the Endorphin.es Ghost Pedal Multi-FX and Subdecay Prometheus 3 Dual Super Filter.
I still feel that this selection of 26 is...
So right at the end of last month Rob Chapman posted up a YouTube video of a rundown of his all-time favourite guitar pedals. He initially states he’s going to name his 10 most favoured ones - but goes on to mention 20 - which I’ve fully included here.
Rob has a great ear for tone - as countless of his own and Anderton’s videos have proven time and time again. And I really love his everyman approach to guitar gear. I’ve encountered him in person 2 or 3 times now over the years - and he’s ...
So here is the first more in-depth coverage of the ALABS Audio Adam Adventures Series - starting with the front-of-chain Orbital Pitch Shifter.
Superficially this would seem to be a very straight up (and down!) and straightforward pedal really - but it has a tonne of hidden depths and beautiful fluttery ambient nuance. I tend to think of it as an enhanced Boss PS-6 S-Bend / DigiTech Whammy Ricochet - while it is missing that rather essential Tom Morello style +2 Octave interval - that ...
I’m really proud to be supporting a small fledgling audio products brand based in Singapore - which has only been around for a couple of years or so, and was originally known for making studio quality Microphones, Wooden Earcup Headphones and Mixing Consoles. ALABS Audio’s Jinbo Hui reached out to me back in September - to ask if I would want to support the launch of their new Adam Adventures Series pedal range - and I of course said I needed to be properly impressed by those pedals for me to ...
This is one pedal you definitely need to dip into the manual to understand fully what’s going on - while the Hologram Electronics engineers have imbued this device with so much intuitive smarts that you should be up and running in no time.
This pedal is a shoe-in for the Eventide H90 on my #35 slot while they’re quite different beasts really - and the H90 gets you more granular in some ways - with many more algorithms precisely modelled - while you can only deploy two in combination. While ...
Obviously the Moai Maea has been back in the news again as the latest one-off Lilac Edition KMA 10 Year Anniversary pedal. Its Sub-Octave Channel was extracted as the stand-alone Queequeg Sub Generator - in two editions, and now it’s the turn of its Analog Upper Octave Shriek Channel with additional Fuzz Voicing.
So this new Mandrake Octo-Shrieker essentially improves on that Channel - with a lot more granularity and shaping possibilities.
Controls - Filter (Low Pass Filter), Timbre (±...
So this is an interesting move / departure by Line 6 where their intent is obviously to target those hoards of stompbox fans who have not yet succumbed to the Multi-FX way of things a la Helix. You get the same core library of algorithms and effects - but in a more compact format - which allows you to utilise just one at a time - to dovetail into the more typical analog stompbox experience.
While I agree with other commentators that the whole charm of a Multi-FX unit is in how you can ...