I got heavily involved with Pettyjohn / Stephen during their MKII Era - which saw further consolidation of the main ’Foundry Series’, and the introduction of a more affordable, more compact ’Core Series’.

Over that period I acquired 4 of each series - including all of the Core ones. It took me a while to understand the nature of how Stephen works - which is always part custom-shop - and there are always additional custom Mods on offer for each pedal - which makes acquisitions more ...

I thought I should focus on my large format heavy-hitters for a change - where these 8 are some of my largest, most potent, and best favoured gain pedals. They are arranged here in alphabetical order, while they were released in the below chronological order. All 8 have featured heavily in my rig at different times - and all 8 are still very valid award winners and still in rotation. While the enormous girth of the Elektron Analog Drive means that is gets somewhat less of a rotation nowadays - ...

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...

I was immediately attracted to this smart Multi-Drive when I came across it fairly recently - where different clipping mods significantly change the core character of the pedal. My favourite voicing is the Guv’nor one - which adds Red LED’s into the mix - for more gain and sustain, and a really punchy bottom end. That voicing sounds superb.

It’s a really decent standout voicing for sure - where I also really love the OD-1 Asymmetrical Clipping Diodes one, and the AC30 style one - which ...

Many are not aware that TGT11’s Sebastian Nylund and Björn Juhl are the very best of friends. In fact Björn Juhl’s BJFE Pedals were at the root of the formation of the TGT11 Store. Sebastian was the original dealer and outlet for BJFE, and remains The key resource if you’re looking to acquire one of those pedals.

I assisted with the introductions between Joe Light and Sebastian - where Joe is one of my very first  and oldest friends in this sector. Each of those had killer brand ...

So this is the formalisation of a previously introduced theme - where I pick out 4 potential targets per new . mostly new brand to me. This is the first in a new series!

I have featured Mozztronics on the site before - for their FZ-1 Maestro take - as part of the ’2020 Key Fuzz Categories Edition’ feature. While I’ve not done an overview before.

I recently came across the GD-1 Bone Breaker and was intrigued enough to order one in (should land within a couple of weeks) - it delivers 5 ...

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. ...

This has turned out to be something of a Thorpy month! - following on from the recent Manson Supermassive Black Fuzz and 3 Thorpy acquisitions this month - indeed the Supermassive is also engineered by Thorpy!

I thought I should do a quick retrospective of pedals and projects that Thorpy has been involved in.

I selected my favourite pedal from those 4 brands (some singular options!) :

• Redbeard Effects : Bearded Vulture Direct Drive with Octave
• Victory Amps : V1 The Jack Guthrie

October was a super busy month - one of the busiest ever - with such a scope and scale and body of work covered - I’m quite shattered as a result!

We had of the penultimate Events of the year :

• The 2nd Woking Boutique Guitar Show
• Kempton Park London International Guitar Show

And around one dozen key posts  as below also :

• Letter from Dr.No
• Teaching Machines FuzzBillion Component Combinations Wheels Gain-Shaper
• Hangman fx DAGG’R Dynamic Auto-Gain/Gate Mighty Morphing Gain-Ramper