The IV BENCH is the second RhPf Nerd Lab resource I cover after the super handy Pedal Tone Maps. Diodes play such an important part in shaping the output of gain pedals in particular. They are of course also used for power management and various other electronic purposes - but our main interest in these is in Clipping Profiles - Vf Forward Voltages and Current Rise. There is another side to these Diodes which is more esoteric - while the Germanium Diodes are typically much better behaved than ...

After the quiet comfort of February, March unleashed an avalanched of work - both in terms of new releases and acquisitions, but especial in the field of Guitar and Pedal expos - where I attended 3 within a month - first The Birmingham Guitar Show at Cranmore Park, then the London Synth and Pedal Expo at Studio 9294, Hackney Wick - and then back to Birmingham for the Noise Maker Market at Centrala, Digbeth - all grand events.

I burned myself out a little this month, and came back willingly empty...

What we have here is a superbly responsive MOSFET overdrive with a sort of Fuzz dynamic in some sense and for me a little reminiscent in character to the Shodhana - where the pedal gets progressively brighter as you dial up the Drive and Level.

I find myself constantly adjusting the Treble down as I turn the Drive and Level Up. It ramps up very evenly to a decent amount of gain. And it has a tonne of volume onboard!

The Drive knob is one of those slightly ’scractchy’ Bias types - where it ...

February is always something of a lull - particularly after the hyper busy NAMM-inflected January. This month is the doldrums of the calendar where not much gets releases. I did though manage to land a decent selection of a dozen pedals - obviously some from the previous year. With the Sinvertek MGAT-1 EVO being the standout pedal landed - where the Klowra Gnash and Wampler Golden Jubilee were pretty spectacular too. 3 x Klowra pedals on the board this month - all excellent!

Of course there...

The Shodhana is quite a distinct overdrive - which kind of pivots around the 1kHz frequency band at the peak of its output profile. The Level side of the pedal essentially works as a Clean Boost / Clean Channel - delivering beautiful sparkly cleans - some of the very best of that nature. And the Drive half is the Dirty Boost - both sides ramp up very quickly - and get progressively brighter and more focused in their output. And you get a lot of Volume - while only relatively moderate gain.

  ...

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 ...

Probably the strongest selection of the year - each one of these is amazing and sounds killer. But then agin similar was true of the Overdrives. I’m very much a fuzz fanatic - so his selection has to take the edge - what a selection!

This selection includes 3 from EarthQuaker Devices, 2 from Drunk Beaver, 2 from Fjord Fuzz, and 2 from ThorpyFX.

It also includes the likely pedal of the year - within a selection of 10 award winners here - these are so good - I could have labelled even ...

And so onto the Distortions of the year - the smallest group stage this year! There’s no particular logic as to why there are just 20 Disortions this year. There were a further couple of acquisitions that I was disappointed with - and I deliberately left out of this selection. It’s mostly a case of what appeals each year - and evidently there weren’t that many appealing ones beyond those I acquired. I’m not aware of any particular ones that are still in the wind. The last one in was the ...

36 outstanding Boost and Overdrive pedals  featured here in various sizes - 35 of which are already in the reference collection - with the Superlunar SR-01 the last remaining straggler!

The rules of the game are that I can only finally recommend pedals that I own and have lived with, while I can also feature a few other intended targets in the overview which I fully intend to acquire (like the Superlunar SR-01) - but those can’t feature in the final rankings. So there is only one remaining ...