This is the 2nd Iteration for this article - where we go from a selection of 13 to 16.

I landed 4 of these these last year - the Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, Flattley Outlaw, Fortin Kali, and Tubesteader Gainlord.

And two early this year - the Car Martin PlexiRanger and Seymour Duncan Diamondhead

We have 4 distinct types of pedals here across 4 format sizes (Compact / Mid-Horizontal / Mid-Vertical / Large) :

1. Dedicated Dual Channel Plexi + JCM800 Overdrive / Distortion with

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 - ...

This feature has been a long time coming. I have somewhere around 60 to 70 Marshall-style Pedals in my collection - while this selection mostly features Dual-Channel or Drive + Boost Pedals - which cover you both for Marshall Plexi and JCM800 flavours - actual and ballpark.

I landed 4 of these this year - the Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, Flattley Outlaw, Fortin Kali, and Tubesteader Gainlord.

We have 4 distinct types of pedals here across 4 format sizes (Compact / Mid-Horizontal / ...

Tsakalis’ original horizontal - kind of Zvex format Funk Pedal was generally very well loved, so it made utmost sense to release an improved version of that. I much prefer it in its new vertical compact orientation, I was never a fan of those width-ways pedals. The newer version has a slightly different topology with one additional control, and greater granularity.

Controls - Master Volume, FX Mix, Input Gain, OCTAVE } Octave Level, Order : Post, Octave Fooswitch; FILTER } Q Bandwidth, ...

In the light of a number of new arrivals this year, namely :

• Coriolis Hail To The King Ultimate Edition Dual BluesBreaker Overdrive
• Menatone MenaWatt Hiwatt DR103 style Preamp
• Menatone Wreck’T Trainwreck Express style Preamp
• Tubesteader ROY Twin Channel Vox AC30 Top Boost style Tube Preamp

It seemed about the right time to do an update of my original April 2023 16 Iconic Amps and Pedals Article. This has had some tweaks along the way, and on the 9th slot still features a pedal yet to ...

It’s been a while since I did a Marshall / MIAB roundup - where last time I leant rather more into EVH / Brown Sound variants. In this current selection we mostly have Plexi and JCM800 types, but also some that extend down to JTM45, and a few that get up to JVM levels of gain.

I’ve always been interested with Marshall Colour Association - where in the visual you can see a fair smattering of gold and red variants, a few black ones too - which are kind of the core colours. Purple seems to have ...

There’s been quite the trend for Tube Preamp pedals of late - what with Friedman’s IR-D and IR-X, ThorpyFX Electric Lighting, Tubsesteader Lightkeeper and Magnesium, obviously some fairly large format solid-state types too like Thermion’s Freeway. And longer-term players too like Kingsley and Victory Amps. There’s never been more choice! And so much of what is now available is fantastic.

This new Tsakalis Mothership is another really smart take on floor-based tube amp / preamp with 2 ...

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 ...

I’ve long been saying that Catalinbread should be externalising the SB / SL switch of its DLS - which for such a long time has been an awkward-to-reach internal dip-switch. They finally decide to do it in this Deluxe edition which comes with additional Presence and Boost controls / functions too.

I’ve owned a compact DLS for quite some while - and it’s a decent Plexi type for sure - supposedly Andy Martin’s favourite, but has never quite been one of my own absolute favourites - unlike the ...