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 ...

So - Susumu Tamura first developed his Tube Screamer Circuit for Maxon back in 1979. It came two years after the Boss OD-1, and was in part inspired by that circuit, but since Roland owned the patent for Asymmetrical Clipping - Susumu was  compelled to go with the softer Symmetrical Clipping (which proved to be the more popular!). He also added a tone-stack to bring it up to 3 controls. Boss then copied the Tube Screener back to a degree with their SD-1 - making their own overdrive circuit ...

So the somewhat oddly named Portafilter Multi-Drive is one of those smart analog circuits with digital controls. Which empowers you with incredible versatility here - where we essentially have 6 x total overdrives, 2 x distortions, 2 x three band EQ’s. And you have 6  onboard Presets and 20 via MIDI to make it all work for you!

The 3-Band EQ consist of the fully variable Bass and Treble controls, and a 3-way Mid control - with Flat / Scoop / Boost options.

Controls - 2 x Bass, Treble, ...

I’ve been highly critical of Warm Audio in the past - culminating in my red-line critique of some serious Trade Dress violations - for its Mutation Phasor II, ODD and Warmdrive pedals - those were definitely out of line, and over the line! And contrasted significantly with their opening flurry of Centavo, Jet Phaser, and Foxy Tone Box - which I felt were sufficiently differentiated - making for proper Tributes and Riff-offs of those original themes - versus more of a Rip-Off for the Phasor II, ...

It seems a long while since I first met the new owners of Mad Professor the Iconic Finnish Pedal Brands - Jussa and Mikko - at the London Synth and Pedal Expo back in March - where they announced their new MK2 Simble. They were sort of queuing up the pre-sales for that pedal - which started a week or two later, but it took quite the while for it to be officially launched and in stock.

I’ve been a big fan of Mad Professor pretty much from the start - especially as it’s somewhat connected to ...

So I’ve been waiting for my much delayed Keeley Manis to land (#17 overall) - to complete the series - and that happened on the day I’m writing this piece - which will be ’yesterday’ by the time it goes live. I ordered mine from Andertons on the 25th June - but it was delayed coming into stock at least twice, and then delayed on the shipping - so it’s been a series of scheduling issues supposedly.

I’m not sure what the root cause is - but the formerly pretty solid Andertons ’coming into ...

I’ve been meaning to cover these KGR Harmony pedals for a while - since I first saw them on the Coast Sonic newsletter. If I recall correctly EarthQuaker Devices did some custom limited editions of its Plumes and Blumes Overdrive Pedals - in collaboration with the same KGR Harmony! I just can’t recall which of those mailers I saw first.

In any case these pedals are hand-made using traditional Japanese techniques including  Nanbu-tekki. and utilising a proper iron foundry to make those very ...

June was influenced by a few key events. Obviously the Leeds Pedal Show had a massive impact on me - and I picked up 9 pedals at that show - all excellent, and later picked up a Hudson Electronics AP-II Broadcast. So the reach of the Leeds Show has been massive - particularly the brace from Emmergy FX and SoundLad Liverpool. Then also my visit to good friends Hello Sailor Joe and Glyn - which resulted in a further brace of superior pedals, all featured on the blog this month.

The MK1 Scran first emerged in 2021 - designed to replicate the sound of the Britpop era - with classic British sounds straddling Marshall and Voxy tones, but capable of much more besides - including that typical Britpop jangle too. ’Let’s Play All’ Maestro Matt Webster first coined the phrase ’Oasis in a Box’ - which is why we have the Cool Britannia Edition of this pedal - but the original remit was much broader - and was meant to cover off most of the key Britpop Bands / Sounds of that era -...