Another super busy month for me - particularly towards the end - with numerous large scale articles out this week. That also coincided with my busiest week of the year for my other day job. Meaning that I was up until 4-5 in the morning every day - just to keep up with my commitments.

I was already somewhat shattered and burned out before I even got to this super busy period - and it’s a relief that all that work has now been completed on schedule.

I’m especially proud of my work on the Bucket ...

My close association with Thorpy started back in late September of 2018 - at the now defunct Olympia UK Guitar Show. He was the first pedal maker I reached out to, and the first I connected with.

Since then ThorpyFX Pedals have become my 3rd most populous selection after Boss and Drunk Beaver. Those 3 brands alone contribute over 200 pedals to my reference collection!

The fact that I’m now at 31 ThorpyFX Pedals is a major milestone - and features every mainline MKII pedal Thorpy has made. ...

So Mr. Black’s new Tremolo is a fairly simple proposition - just 3 controls, and 4 waveforms.

Where the 4th ’Robot’ waveform is a kind of Forman robot-talk type - making those kind of sounds - but in Tremolo modulation format!

Controls - Intense (Depth), Output, Rate, Waveform : Triangle / Square / Sine / Robot (formant).

There’s a real elegance about this device and it definitely imparts unique flavours.

This could easily be someone’s signature tremolo - while there are overall...

I picked up the 4th and final pedal from the Ritual Devices Flagship Quadfecta at the recent Kempton Park Show. Those are all part of the acid etched and enamelled series - which features the EVOL Fuzz, Grimalkin Fuzz, Fay Phase Filter Modulator, and this Rainmaker LFO Modulator.

The MVP control here is the Texture one - which controls the Dry/Wet Mix in such a clever way - taking you from subtle rain-drop like pitter-patter, through pulsing / pulsating tremolo, and onto vibrant fluttery ...

So when I first reviewed these two superb specimens from Colortone Pedals I advocated for Smarter Preset Switching - via a combined press on the two footswitches - as several pedals do - and AD has now programmed that to perfection - so you can scroll through the presets with the 2 footswitches - changing things up wholly on-the-fly - for a much more dynamic live performance.

I also noted that the output could at times be somewhat dense and intense - and could do with Lightening Up and ...

So what we have here is another innovative fluttery style of dual delay - making exceptional use of the PT2399 chip and adding serial tremolo points into the mix.

We have a somewhat unique control topology - with 4 push-buttons on the right-hand-side - the first 3 of those select one of 5 modes for each of those 3 tremolo points : Off | On | Blinking | Fading | Mix of Blinking + Fading. And then the final 4th button Randomises the interaction of those Tremolo Points.

Otherwise the ...

All the new dealers - including Joe’s Pedals and Effekt Boutique will feature the two most recent Colortone Pedals - the Vibroverb (£219 / €289), and ZeroSum (£219 / €289), while some - like Joe’s Pedals will also have the Lo-Fi Delay (£239) and Spring Reverb II (€179).

All 4 of those pedals sound every bit as good as they look!

Northern Stomps’ new website is due to go live on this coming Friday (31st) - with those Colortone Pedals featured for launch.

There’s a few more dealers ...

This Tasmanian Brand Gehirn Enterprises (Gehirn meaning brain!) - AKA one Brendan Pearce - only came to my attention relatively recently - while these are exactly the kinds of pedals that I gravitate towards. There’s a few takes here of certain well-loved circuits - where Brendan has a really unique approach o each of them - and all his pedals are very distinct and features several deft detail touches.

I consider myself very much a fuller flavour noise-maker - and there are several killer ...

I feel that Nobels has done an exceptional job with its Mini Range - those pedals are very handsome, and super practical - now consisting of the original Nashville Overdrive (ODR-mini), DEL-mini (Stereo Tape, Analog, and Digital Delay), CHO-mini (Stereo Chorus / Flanger), and now the MOD-mini (Stereo Tremolo, Phaser, and Uni-Vibe).

Controls - Rate, Width, Mix, Mode : Tremolo / Phaser / Uni-Vibe.

The 3 Stereo Minis are at €99 / $99 / £85, and the ODR-mini is at €77 / $79 / £69. And are ...