Do please note that this is the 3rd roundup in the series - for those looking for more classic / vintage guitar designs - then the first part is the more pertinent for your preferences. Part 2 became a little more eclectic and avant-garde, while this Part 3 is an even mix of more classic / traditional designs and more modern and futuristic.

This part plays some fan service in covering some of the more popular omissions from the previous posts - while I don’t subscribe to the same view for ...

This episode is a little more esoteric and preferential than most - and involves identifying the most notable and easily recognisable ’Pedal Shapes and Formats’ essentially. Of course there is some subjective preference here - while I will try to explain objectively how I came to this exact 25 pedal selection - some of these are very obvious - others are slightly more idiosyncratic choices - while there are obviously some brands that are particularly good at coming up with memorable enclosure ...

So this is the 4th in my recent Guitar Elements Series - which started with Ergonomic Headstocks, then Iconic Body Shapes, and Modern Tremolo Bridges. I have a few more to come - next up is Iconic Fret Markers / Fredboards, then Strings, and some more Body shape ones - I’ve already completed the follow-up - and feel I have enough remains for a 3rd 25, I may even be able to do a 4th - so 100 guitar body shapes all-in.

I had some blowback on the use of the word ’Iconic’ - where some ...

While the more typical and specialist guitar / luthier brands seems to be back in full force - there are seemingly somewhat fewer pedal brands featuring in this year’s Birmingham Guitar Show - in particular compared to the Last Show on February of 2020 - which had the record amount for that roster.

Some of the big brands are missing, including Boss - which on the back of some really strong releases could have capitalised on those great recent introductions to its range. They have always had...

The third in my 2020 roundup series covers interesting and innovative Delay and Reverb Pedals released during the year, while it excludes the bigger Reverb Workstation Pedals - which I already featured back on November 30th. In that article I declared 2020 to be the ’Year of Reverb’ - as there have been so many quality releases in that genre.

Here we deal mostly with compact and medium variants with slightly fewer modes and parameters, but not necessarily entirely. The one pedal that puts ...

It is fairly evident that my favourite pedal genre is Fuzz - seeing as that of all the pedals I added to the collection this year - 80 of those were Fuzz varieties.

This particular selection consists of 31 pedals across different sizes and sub-genres. And of those 31, I personally own 22 of them. All the remainder are of course on my wishlist, these are :

• DanDrive Secret Machine (I own Secret Weapon edition)
• Dusky Electronics Augustus Octave Fuzz
• Fjord Fuzz Fenris Super-Fuzz

And here is the first of the category overviews for the year - combining those Overdrive and Distortion pedals which sparked some interest for me. Note that there will be 4 of these types of articles - Overdrive & Distortion (this one), Fuzz, Delay and Reverb (exc. Reverb Workstation already covered), and Modulation + Pitch + Untility pedals. Before I then reveal my overall 25 or so favourite favourite pedals for the year in a Best-of-the-Best listing - with possibly some sneaky additions....

This is probably the most anticipated of my 12 Degrees roundups - and is a touch more complex and different to the other 2 in the series. Within each category here there can be a huge difference in character and output - for instance with Fuzz Faces going from quite mild to rather searing Meathead and Regulus VIII levels of aggression. So the gradual step up in gain per category doesn’t apply here. And because of circuit variations and differences in components and construction, each and every ...

This edition comes rather hot on the heels of the recent 12 Degrees of Overdrive version as many readers’ inquiries questioned a couple of missing categories there - which I explained would rather figure within the Distortion contingent which is present here in all its glory!

As always, these is some considerable amount of grey science at play here - best typified by the Big Muff and Rat circuits - which are both very much distortions as well as fuzz varieties. I have 3 x 12 ...