In some ways you could say that the side-effect of the current pandemic has actually been helpful to Boss on this occasion as it has allowed its engineers to spend more time honing the accuracy of its tracking algorithm, and perfecting the authentic replication of the slightly warmer analog Vintage Monophonic Mode of the original OC-2. As factory production slowed right down, engineers had a little more leeway to further refine and calibrate all those controls and functions to the very best ...

My readers will know that I’ve featured Joe’s Pedals a fair few number of times on this site - in reference to where I acquired several of my own pedals from. My first introduction to said boutique was in search of Marc Ahlfs’ Skreddy Pedals. In fact 5 of my 8 Skreddy’s have come from Joe’s and I would have gotten more had those been in stock when I needed them - such is always the luck of the draw with pedal acquisitions - in that you cannot always get everything ...

August was quite a slow month in many ways - particularly for those of us clinging to the last vestiges of hope towards the arrival of a Buffalo FX Reticon Flanger. That now seems a very distant pipe-dream indeed as reports indicate that Steve Painter is suffering from some horribly debilitating condition that prevents him from doing any physical activities for the foreseeable future. He’s not officially responded to any communiqués since June 30th - the last day many of us heard ...

This post was inspired by a series of confluent events which impacted the use of slot #4 in my pedal-chain. Quite a while back I went through a phase of Mini CryBaby Wah Pedals - first the standard CBM95, and then the more advanced CBM535Q with additional controls. I was quite fond of the 535Q Mini for a while but eventually became somewhat frustrated with it and decided to switch to auto-wah / envelope filtering instead.

My auto-wah as such of choice for the longest time was the Mu-...

I will start by rightfully thanking Tom for allowing me to participate in this second launch phase and granting me all the access I needed to delve deep under the skin of his highly innovative pedal. If you read my original April 28th Arcades feature you will note that I was smitten by this formidable Multi-FX unit right from the first encounter. I had spent a very considerable chunk of 2019 getting stuck into a variety of glitch style effects and associated multi-fx pedals - including the ...

This post was triggered by a number of readers asking me for my take on the recent Modular Synth Multi-FX phenomenon. Where I composed a fairly long-form answer for one Joe D - and promised to make that part of a more circumspect review (this one!) where I compared the different approaches of Canada’s Empress Effects and the more recently highly newsworthy Poly Effects of Australia.

I myself am very much your typical guitar pedal enthusiast - who deploys a rather insanely complex...

Readers of this blog should be aware by now of my love/hate relationship with Manual Wah pedals as I’ve often shared opinions on those. I’ve generally been a fan of Dunlop’s Mini CryBaby Wahs and acquired each of the CBM95 and CBM535Q Minis as and when they were released. I however had issues with those as most do - no indicator light initially - so often finding the signal-chain sounding decidedly odd as I forgot to switch off the wah at the end of the previous day’s ...

The spiritual heir to Lovetone launches yet another monster big-box masterpiece. I’ve covered several of Glou Glou’s pedals on this blog - including the Rendez-Vous Dual Filter/Phaser in my piece on French Pedal Builders, and more recently the Pralines Fuzzy Quad Parallelized Resonant Filter and Moutarde Four Voice PLL Synth.

Glou-Glou really seems to specialise in applying multi-band filters and envelope followers onto any of the key effects types. These big boxes are ...

Readers of this blog should be well aware by now of Skindred’s Lead Guitarist and Redbeard Effects Head Honcho Mikey Demus. And while I had been very familiar with his band Skindred for a number of years - my focus didn’t shift fully to Mikey himself until he got into partnership with Adrian Thorpe and started producing his own range of signature pedals.

The first release was an exceptional take on Mikey’s core signature Orange Rockerverb 100 Amp sound - the Red Mist ...

It turns out that I’m quite the fan of Zach Broyles and his many circuit confections. And despite having only been officially properly in business for a handful of years now, Zach’s output is really rather prolific and a number of his classic circuits are already discontinued. Most of you will know his story of how he started dabbling with pedals while working at celebrated guitar hangout Carter Vintage. He got to a stage where he had established enough contacts with clients and ...