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 ...
My mood is one of bemusement on considering this matchup - and you will note that I did not feature the REVV Northern Mauler when it was launched last November - as I considered it a slightly lesser rip-off of the Klirrton Grindstein, and now EHX has launched the Hell Melter - a slightly lesser equivalent to the KMA Guardian of the Wurm - all 4 are pictured above, and at the start of this overview I must say I’m somewhat overwhelmingly biased in favour of my own king-sized reigning champions of...
Lots of us liked much about the recent Shawn Tubbs Signature Tilt Overdrive - but overall the pedal was a touch large, and the Drive side possibly somewhat indistinctive.
Most of us loved the smart Boost Side of the pedal - with the titular Tilt EQ function and smart 3-way EQ enhance section. For the Tilt Boost REVV have added a further ’Drive’ toggle-switch which renders core Boost, and a new Drive clipping voicing. REVV describe this as :
"A new Drive Switch allows you to engage a fat...
So it’s that time of year again when I trawl through the releases over these past 12 months or so and endeavour to extract the pedal highlights of the year. This exercise is all about drawing a line in the sand and figuring out which pedals deserve to be on the notable side of the line.
Of course everything I publish on Guitar Pedal X is highly curated - those are my own particular preferences and choices, and those are the pedals that I like the look of. So everything that appears on ...
This article has been such a long time coming - I last did a compact high gain distortion pedal roundup all the way back in 2019 - where only 24 featured. This time around I was determined to have it as comprehensive as possible, and like the recent 32 Overdrive and 32 Mini Fuzz selections - I was determined to have all in my reference collection.
I’ve long been a fan of heavier / metal textures and tones, and have always had certain pedal-chain slots dedicated to high gain pedals - in ...
Veteran AAA Nashville Session Player Shawn Tubbs is a Tone Hero to so many of us - where I’ve actually always associated him most with Steven Pettyjohn’s Pedals - like the Chime Overdrive. For his typical Amp Selection he tends to favour Suhr, REVV and Friedman Amps - so the REVV connection is not unexpected - just that I typically associate him rather more with Pettyjohn on the pedal front.
The Blurb reads that this Overdrive is inspired by Shawn’s favourite Vintage style Tube Amp Head, ...
Another year cycles around again - while it seems to be much of a muchness with 2021 - with parts supply issues, logistics problems and extensive delays very much still in evidence. That said, we have though had a number of interesting and intriguing launches already - with an equal quantity running late and materialising quite a bit later than planned / originally advertised!
Last year I hit 215 new pedals over those 12 months - which to be fair was a touch excessive - and the plan this ...
This edition comes rather hot on the heels of the recent 12 Degrees of Overdrive version as many readers’ inquiries questioned a couple of missing categories there - which I explained would rather figure within the Distortion contingent which is present here in all its glory!
As always, these is some considerable amount of grey science at play here - best typified by the Big Muff and Rat circuits - which are both very much distortions as well as fuzz varieties. I have 3 x 12 ...
In my recent coverage of Eddie Van Halen’s Signature Pedals I indicated that I had none of the usual suspects Overdrives/Distortions - or namely MXR EVH 5150, Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe and Seymour Duncan Diamondhead. While in fact I have well over 20 Brown Sound Style variants in my collection of various different sizes - with the vast majority being compact enclosures as featured here. I make no secret of the fact that the compact size format is my faourite and particularly for these sorts of ...