You would have thought that I would have been long since bored of 3-knob overdrives, considering how many of those have crossed my path over the years. But every now and again something special comes along which makes you park those prejudices.

And the Project 34 Selenium Rectifier Pre/Drive is just one such magical pedal - verily sounding like it’s loaded with tubes and other primo amp components - so lively is its character. There’s a massive hint of Vox in its tone profile, alongside a ...

Readers should know by now that I’m a huge fan of the overlapping genre of Fuzzy-Drive and Fuzzstortion style gain pedals - which tend to cover a variety of Fuzz, Overdrive and Distortion pedals - which all have a certain fuzzy character to them where they blur at least a couple of boundaries.

For me the sort of archetype of that sound is the Bixonic Expandora - while there are a great number of pedals that fall into that same sort of catchment area - and the 28 listed here are just a small...

Since we have had 5 cool new and formidable Stereo Reverb pedals this year - it seems opportune to review the category and figure out which are the standout options and alternatives - past and present.

My own journey into Reverb started with the Strymon BigSky - which was my mainstay for a while, then Source Audio announced its new Dual-Channel Ventris and I was very keen on that - but that edition was very slow to materialise, and so I moved instead to Boss’s excellent RV-500 next.

The...

I’ve been meaning to do this roundup for a while - where I touch on the most recent Plexi pedal additions. I could have done a larger exercise and included the Borgner La Grange and Seymour Duncan Diamondhead among others - but chose rather to keep things simple with just the latest 6 in consideration.

Those that read my blog regularly will likely know that I already pretty much have a favourite in mind here, but it’s important to do the due diligence and analysis - in ...

I’ve long mentioned that we’re living through the second golden age of effects pedals (some say ’Diamond Age’’), and as good as things have been - 2019 took it all to an entirely new level of excellence. I don’t recall any previous year where we’ve had quite the same degree of innovation and so many ingeniously appealing pedals - this year has been so fast and furious - it’s been difficult to keep up at times.

I noted in my End of Year ...

This post is exactly inspired by Mike Hermans’ recent Comparison Demo video (below) which features these 3 self same pedals (almost!). I’ve always associated Cusack Music (sister brand to Mojo Hand FX) with its various tap-tempo ’Tap-A-...’ Pedals - Tap-A-Delay, Tap-A-Whirl, Tap-A-Fuzz etc.

While the range is comprised of some excellent utility pedals too - including several really cool diminutive mini Never-Off pedals. It was only back in March though that I ...

It turns out that I’m quite the fan of drive pedals which occupy the space where overdrive and fuzz overlap beautifully. I have gravitated towards such sounds almost subconsciously ever since I got back into guitar. And while there are various fuzz pedals - particularly of the Germanium variety that can be tuned down to those sorts of tones, I’m referring more here to pedals whose very core character straddles both overdrive and fuzz - sometimes on the more fuzzy-drive end as I call...

They are a key functional element to all pedals - in terms of working practicalities, look and tactile feel - and there are hundreds, if not thousands of possible varieties and variants, yet certain types of Knobs tend to dominate. Ever since we’ve had electrical devices - well over 100 years now, we have had a variety of control knobs and dials - initially metal, then bakelite, and now mostly modern plastics, hardened rubber and aluminium.

In doing this feature/guide I referenced 5 sites ...