I originally featured this pedal on the site back in January of 2023 - so it’s been on the cards for a while! I obviously need to juggle a lot of priorities all the time - and some pedals unfortunately fall through the cracks momentarily - while I mostly manage to recover them at a later stage!

This Arigato is my 4th Caroline pedal, and I love it so much that I’m very tempted to pick up Philippe’s other 2 modulations - the Parabola Tremolo, and Somersault Lo-Fi Modulator / Chorus. 

The ...

January has been a bumper start for the year - with lots of killer arrivals - especially the DSM & Humboldt Dumblifier which I’ve been hugely impressed with.

Also my most formidable NAMM coverage to-date - where I only started work properly on the 8th of January - but have managed to do 60 articles since that time - which is a record of course, as is the week of 20 posts.

I feel I covered all the key moments - and mixed up new and old in my usual inimitable fashion.

There was ...

The new style of enclosure has come a long way since the original gloss black and copper face-plate early devices. I’ve enjoyed every era of Fjord Fuzz, and the new standard is every bit as striking - and as instantly recognisable. You can still spot a Fjord Fuzz pedal from a mile off. And Daniel typically removes all brakes and limitations for each circuit - so you always guarantee a fuller flavour!

This is the 4th or 5th iteration of Vibe circuit - where the last 2 iterations (Frei & ...

This is one of the simplest pedal post I’ve done to date. The MKIV Retrovibe simply adds a second footswitch - for Tap Tempo and Ramping. Making its flagship uni-vibe pedal more dynamic. The expression port allows you to control the Speed with an expression pedal.

For this update JAM have also flipped the orientation from 1590BB Vertical to 1590BB Horizontal - which probably makes it less likely for me to get this. I rather liked the previous pedal-friendly format of this pedal. This one is...

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 - ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

The VibroVerb is essentially a massively extended range reboot of the Colortone Roundhouse pedal - but with some very significant changes.

As its heart - this is a Stereo LFO Multi-Modulator with markedly expanded control parameters - across 2 layers of operation. The 3 core waveforms remain - Square, Triangle, Sine - where we also have further shaping of the Sine Wave (’Q’) via secondary setting on the Speed knob.

We have 3 exquisite Modes here - Optical Tremolo, Harmonic Tremolo, and ...