Obviously all the PowerBolt Series pedals ship with stock orange knobs - but since I have so many pedals - I need to be able to easily identify what is what - and so I’ve replaced each of those orange knobs with pertinent unique colour replacement knobs.

When The PowerBolt Series launched last year - I bought 4 sets of knobs from Love My Switches. I used the Dark and Light Blue ones on the PowerTrem and PowerVibe pedals last year, and the remaining Purple and Hot Pink / Violet were perfect ...

Thermion famously started off its affordable €125 PowerBolt Series back in May of last year - with two amazing Modulation pedals - The PowerTrem - in part based on JAM Pedals’ Harmonious Monk, and the PowerVibe - a superb compact take on a Shin-ei Uni-Vibe - not nearly as expansive as DryBell’s Vibe Machine - but near enough as flavourful. I was hugely impressed at the time and quickly acquired the pair of them.

This time around I’m a little behind the curve - as the pedals have already ...

This has turned out to be the largest category for 2025 with 38 pedals in this selection. As I favour those pedals that I own first, and then the more pedalboard-friendly editions - inevitably there would be some casualties for the year. With the most significant of those being the larger format Meris Enzo X, and the Polyend MESS Multi-Effect Step Sequencer. I know there are some who favour each of those - but they just aren’t targets for me personally.

 I always talk about having a lane - ...

In some ways May turned out to be a little uneventful! I was due to visit Hello Sailor Effects down in Gosport, but that got pushed back to next month - so the only event of note is tomorrow’s Leeds Pedal Show - which takes place from 10:00 to 15:00 at the Northern Monk Refectory - in the former The Old Flax Store building! Supposedly 20 minutes walk from Leeds Station, and less than 10 minutes in a taxi. I will of course have my show report up for Monday!

May was a lot about pedal roundups...

As soon as I saw Thermion’s PowerBolt Series I immediately thought I would probably acquire a few of those - and I would likely need to swap out knobs to be able to be able to easily identify each one on the fly!

I also slightly mis-identified the PowerVibe in my original take, and kind of wrongly decided that I should go with the light blue knobs for chorus - while Uni-Vibe is usually associated with Black or Purple even - but Flanger is also a kind of Purple - and those MXR style knobs ...

Somewhat reminiscent of the JHS 3 Series - we get a new €125 affordable yet high quality compact series of 3-knob, dual-mode pedals - where the range starts off with a pair of potent and versatile modulations. Both the new pedals have the same variable controls and labels, but with distinct Mode legends and specific monikers.

I really like the textured facia here with the subtle lightning motif (PowerBolt) - which further elevates this series above most other affordable ranges - in terms of...

Thermion combines an 800ms Analog-style Tap Delay, smart Dual Reverb, and +15dB Boost for its super handy Breathe Multi-FX / Spatial Effects Pedal.

This project evolved I believe as a much requested companion pedal to Thermion’s potent Zero and Freeway floor-based amps (the Freeway in particular) - both have featured on this site. Where the Breathe gives you full granular control over your Time-Based Effects, with some further smart dynamics in play.

And those smart Dynamic elements ...

The FREEWAY is actually a sort of shrunken down and evolved version of Thermion’s ZERO Amplifier - minus the Power Amp stage, and with some extra features for the modern player. Its key attribute is how you can pretty much plug it into anything - analog / amp / DAW - without the need for any additional interface.

As the above visual highlights - this features a version of the ZERO Analog Amplifier with further Analog Speaker Emulation, and an expanded Digital Reverb section from the ZERO - ...

As you can see from the flurry of activity during the last week of the month in particular - April has seen the culmination of 3 very significant projects  - which is mostly reflected by the end-of-month Pedal-Chain snapshot.

It was not as if I was short of an overdrive or two, having around 150+ to-date to choose from, but I always felt I was missing a few classics, and in the last couple of months in particular - I made a real concerted effort to make my reference collection fully ...