So scanning through this month it seems to have been mostly about Guitar / Pedal Shows, Japanese Pedals, and Pedals Delayed and Missing in the Post!

The Guitar Shows have been pretty fast and furious for March - with two of the most significant ones of the year, along with a fledgling grassroots one : The Guitar Show (Cranmore Park - Birmingham / Shirley), London Synth & Pedal Expo (Studio 9294, Hackney Wick, London), The Alternative Guitar Show (The Fighting Cocks, Kingston).

I of ...

I first featured this pedal in the run-up to Halloween 2023 - where it most definitely has a suitably seasonal pumpkin theme to the artwork. So it’s taken a while to land - thanks once more to Kevin Bolembach and Trevor Shaikin for the assist.

Obviously the first thing you notice is the excellently themed appearance of the pedal, while it’s not without its idiosyncrasies. Bypass state delivers an all-green lit-up pumpkin - which then becomes orange, with green stem when engaged. While there...

And so to what is often my favourite category - the many wonderful flavours of fuzz - and we have some hugely innovative pedals in the selection this year - one of these may even be my pedal of the year!

So there are 24 in this year’s selection - where I’m just missing the Collision Devices TARS, Fender Shields Blender, JAM Pedals Octaurus, KMA Machines Mandrake, Reeves Electro Facet IZ, and Unsound Circuitry Kato Glitch Fuzz - where I will attempt to add most of those to the reference ...

A decent showing on the Distortion side too - with some particularly great High Gain Distortions. I was due to review the Licthlaerm Gehenna and Medusa also - but with Daniel Ringl’s workshop move - that didn’t quite get sorted this year - hopefully early in the new year - and then I can update the ’Full Metal Racket’ selection which exercise I normally do late Autumn!

There’s couple of really cool filter distortions here that I really like - the Intensive Care Audio Vena Cava Filter / ...

In order to celebrate one of TWA’s favourite seasons they’re launching a brand new Octave Overdrive Pedal in a suitably on-theme Pumpkin / Halloween Edition.

"Like Frankenstein’s Monster, cobbled together from discorporate parts and then electrified back to
life, the heart of the Octoverdrive hides archaic, undead components that should not create sound –
and yet, it lives!"

The Octoverdrive circuit is based around a set of obsolete Selenium rectifiers that create thick,
harmonically rich,...

Another busy month - doubly busy as I was working on the new website and commercial plans for the most part on top of the normal hectic schedule. Inevitably there are a few pedals that get moved into October - as I just ran out of time - still plenty of coverage. October is going to be incredibly hectic as I’m expecting a lot of incoming pedals - so a lot of review work to complete and a couple more sizeable projects.

I feel the website launch went mostly very well and was universally well ...

I’m already a huge fan of the Univox Super Fuzz sound and have several of that variety in my extensive fuzz collection. While this one from Totally Wycked Audio is really rather special.

It’s actually 3 pedals in one - the Super Fuzz at its core - via Combustion (Fuzz / Gain), and Substrate (Level) controls - and the original’s Mode toggle switch is rendered by the left-hand footswitch - which allows you to flip between Full Fat and Scooped EQ Output Modes.

You then have the Parametric ...

If you watch Scott Henderson’s below featured video you will get a good idea of the intense development process that went into evolving and improving the SD-9 Sonic Distortion circuit to reach Scott’s exacting standards. As a Jazz Fusion player he tends to do a lot of upper fret legato playing - where the ability to hold focus and sustain on those higher notes is of critical importance to Scott’s signature sound.

Underlining all of this is a full frequency science / theorem proposed by Mike...

I confess that I’m not an expert on the Maestro Brassmaster Bass Fuzz - as even though I have a fuzz collection numbering over 600, I don’t have many Brassmasters at all, and certainly none quite so potent as this new TWA Krytical Mass.

It really has the most extraordinary upswelling low-end rumble - punctuated by upper octave harmonics - and is one of those magnificent fuzzes that you are constantly wrestling for control - it ebbs and flows and blooms of its own accord, and in its raw ...