A few notes in advance! Obviously I’m a huge fan of Analog Modulations in particular, and especially compact boxes - which deliver the largest numbers in my reference collection. While I do also like Portrait style 1590BB types too - and these are mostly they! The Hamstead Redwing is a little larger, and the Boss XS-100 is one of the largest pedals I have in my collection - and appears here somewhat shrunk down - otherwise this selection would look decidedly odd.
There were some very deep ...
A super busy month - with plenty of highlights and heatwaves.
My house is finally cooling down as I write these last few observations - we’ve had around 10 days of oppressive heat now, and there’s another wave on the way at the end of this week - which makes for very difficult conditions to have sessions with said pedals.
We’re in the final consequence of global climate change now - with increasingly more extreme weather patterns occurring - alternately cold snaps, heatwaves, and torrential ...
I was hugely impressed with my Analoger APH-12 Phaser - which is a rather unusual phaser in its enormous scope - particularly in how it ramps up from a single Stage - all the way up to 12! So where that extensive Multi-Stage approach singled out the Phaser as sonewhat unique and different. For the Flanger it is the Envelope / ’Whoosh’ Filter / Attenuator which makes it so unique. That allows you to temper the typical excesses possible with a flanger - and smooth out and dampen the output to a ...
I obviously slept on this when it was launched back in the Autumn of 2021 - as I’ve long owned the H9 Max, and now the H90 - so I wasn’t initially overly taken by the stand-alone Eventide Devices - while I so like the Tricherachorus that I will for sure get more of this series.
The Preset overlay cards are genius - and perfect for pedals which have two layers of controls - i.e. secondary / alt parameters. I’ve always preferred dual concentric pots - and don’t understand why pedal builders ...
For me - these Dealer special White Light editions - are some of the prettiest varieties Spaceman has released to-date - with the white-out / snow-blind livery and striking cyan / teal LED’s - just gorgeous. I was missing the Atlas IV and Apollo VIIb - and Cream City Music and Axe and You Shall Receive were enormously helpful in getting those shipped to me in short order. I then spotted that my friend Scott at Axe and You Shall Receive also had a White Light Rumblefuzz II remaining - and I just...
Electro-Harmonix first released the Echoflanger circuit back in 1977, that then became the Polyflange in 1979, and ended up as the Polychorus in circa 1981. Mostly the exact same circuit throughout - just with different names and artworks applied - where the final jade-accented Polychorus is the prettiest of the lot. Those 3 editions are distinct from the later 1997 Stereo PolyChorus Reissue - so we’re keeping ourselves to the 70’s and 80’s here alone!
Verlie has done her usual magic in ...
After the quiet comfort of February, March unleashed an avalanched of work - both in terms of new releases and acquisitions, but especial in the field of Guitar and Pedal expos - where I attended 3 within a month - first The Birmingham Guitar Show at Cranmore Park, then the London Synth and Pedal Expo at Studio 9294, Hackney Wick - and then back to Birmingham for the Noise Maker Market at Centrala, Digbeth - all grand events.
I burned myself out a little this month, and came back willingly empty...
Verlie has outdone herself once more - with 3 more killer takes on notable vintage effects - utilising the same rarified components as those originals.
For her Klon take - she has removed a number of previously core circuit elements which can otherwise generate excess noise for some players. In removing those trouble-making parts - she has delivered an utterly unique take on the Klon - which she further enhances with 2-Band EQ, and an extra Presence switch. It has the usual Buffered Bypass ...
This is such a smart pedal - it took me a while to figure out all the controls and their impact - but it’s mostly second nature now. I had to do a lot of experimentation for it all to slot into place for me. Klowra’s Jinbo was very helpful in getting me to understand the interplay between the main variable playback head - and the further fixed relative playback heads - which you can dial in and out of action or accentuate - by using the [Spawn], Heads Volume, [Groove] and [Sum-Invert] ...
You may recall that the last time I did a Mad Professor roundup I still had 3 long-term targets remaining - that I was hoping to land somewhat opportunistically.
And just recently my good friend Joe Light had a pristine second-hand Sky Blue available on his Joe’s Pedals store - which I snapped up at a great price. And while looking around for my other 2 active Mad Professor targets - I was given an offer on a near pristine Double Moon too - at a price that I could not refuse. So in quick ...