We have the same core format here as the Black Mountain Volume and Roto Echo PT2399 Delay Pedals. This evolves the rotary wheel style of pedals first popularised by Classic Audio and Chase Bliss - especially for their respective Expression Rollers.

Black Mountain has evolved that concept further - with the Freewheel as the core of its pedal designs - with an even more robust and more accessible control wheel. Those pedals are truly precisions honed devices - with exceptional touch and feel....

We’ve had all manner of innovative expression controller devices over the years - including things like FOMOfx’s Virtual Jeff Pro.

It’s a massive surprise that a company not normally associated with guitar gear has brought out such a cool guitar accessory.

It kind of makes use of a B-Bender style mechanic - where pulling down on your guitar / strap stretches out the spring-loaded transmitter which finely senses the degree of force and movement - and sends those changes to the Pedal / ...

New Pedals in the Class of 2025 Pedal-Chain Snapshot = 41

[OCTOBER]  = 9

[NOVEMBER] = 6

[MARCH] = 5

[SEPTEMBER] = 5

[AUGUST] = 4

[JANUARY] = 3

[FEBRUARY]  = 3

[APRIL] = 2

[JUNE] = 2

[MAY] = 1

[JULY] = 1

[A-Z by Brand]

1. Becos FX CompIQ Pro Yuna Soft Knee Blackmer VCA Studio Style Compressor [SEPTEMBER]
2. Blue Colander Grimrobe Dual Cascaded Super Rat [OCTOBER]
3. Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields Ultimate Modulated Fuzz [SEPTEMBER]
4. Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble Leslie / Rotary Speaker

Levitation is an Austin, Texas based Music and Arts Platform - known for its live events and festivals. This is their first pedal collaboration as far as I’m aware - and it’s limited to just 333 units which are only available from the Levitation.fm website - where said pedal goes for $225.

Controls - Gain, Reverb Blend, Reverb Time, Trem, Warp Range (Light Sensitivity), Light Sensor.

Everything about this pedal is fairly self-explanatory, and intuitive and familiar - apart from the Warp...

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.

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...

So January 2025 sees a momentous milestone - where we have the peak possible number of pedals in the chain - which now numbers no less than 52 Pedals. It’s an incredibly tight squeeze - and all the available space is now fully used up.

I’ve re-flowed the main visual - where I used to try to have a fixed format arrangement - but now have re-numbered the slots entirely corresponding to the number and order of those pedals. Last January I noted that I was going to switch out my 2 Friedman ...

So Fractal Audio Systems has thrown its hat in the ring with its first non-modelling device / unit - the VP4 Virtual Pedalboard Multi-FX Processor - which is quite a departure for the brand.

It’s obviously gunning for Line 6 and Eventide in particular, but also looking to knock out Boss and Strymon Workstation pedals. It has several of its own advantages, but with a number of caveats too. Overall it’s well priced for what it delivers - but for my own preferences it’s still somewhat over-...

Electro-Harmonix often does superb introductory demos for its new pedals, and I must admit I was totally blown away by the vast Multi-FX territory covered by this launch. This POG III takes the Polyphonic Octave Generator circuit into entirely new territory - and has you covered for all kinds of other advanced effects.

Watching the demo, the following key territories are touched on :

• Slow Polyphonic Attack - backwards octave blend, somewhat Attack Decay -like
• 12 String sound with Chorus