Boss has really been showing Bass Players a lot of love recently - with superb dedicated devices for the lower range of playback. For April we get a Bass Edition of the ME-90 - wholly re-designed with Bass Players in mind and the precise effects they favour in their rig. There may be some superficial similarities to the ME-90, but the ME-90B has been wholly re-engineered for Bass. In my describing all the effects, features and functions - it’s almost overwhelming just how much you get on the ...

Following on from his smart stereo Cortado Reverb, by friend Benno has conjured up a quite superb Tape Style Delay - packed with some exceptionally smart features.

You get 4 different styles of delay, including a handy Dual Tape, and the powerful Playback Direction toggle-switch allows you to engage the Delay in Reverse, Forward, or both together in parallel - which is a little reminiscent of the Chase Bliss Reverse Mode C.

In my visual I’ve incorporated the secondary settings / ...

Misha Mannsoor’s Horizon Devices has quietly made its way to 4 superior modern tone enhancers. It kind of set the mould with its specialist Metal tone enhancing Precision Drive, then came its Apex High Gain Preamp, then the Flux Echo/Reverb - and here we have a very unique take on a Compressor.

Horizon Devices’ slogan is "Sound great, and be easy to use" and that theme is very clearly carried through all 4 pedals which are about as straightforward a pedals as you might expect to encounter -...

The ALABS Audio Pedals were so successful over the Christmas / New Year period - that they were sold out for a while. So I thought it prudent to pause the action until ALABS were back in sync with the demand.

The TimeSlip is my second-favourite of the quartet and shares Cetus’s perfect mix of algorithms - mixing up classic and more traditional flavours with some more intriguing and unusual modern and futuristics ones. I really love this pedal in particular for superb sweep of algorithms - ...

I first glimpsed this pedal on my friend Andy Ebsen’s Effect Boutique site - while the image there wasn’t suitable for my use. I always intended to do an article on said very interesting looking pedal - which for me is kind of a pedal equivalent to a Casio G-Shock watch. In fact it really just needs those hexagonal corner bumpers to complete that look. In fact I’m surprised that a pedal brand hasn’t properly borrowed more from the G-Shock style by now.

In any case this is a pretty neat and ...

I’m delighted to report that my friend and yours Vitalii Bobrov - of Drunk Beaver fame - at last has a proper website / webstore for his pedals - DRUNK-BEAVER.ROCKS - where his full current range of 19 pedals can be purchased - of course when in stock.

All these pedals are made in relatively small batches (20 or so at a time) and when there is high demand as there often is - then stock clears out very quickly and then there is typically a wait of around 3-4 weeks before more stock is ready ...

I love that Gamechanger Audio exists and is so free and forward looking in its innovation - continuously delivering new and distinct ideas into the world of pedals. They certainly make very interesting form factors, while their pioneering spirit often kind of ignores the more practical aspects of day-to-day pedalboard management. All their units are larger than the norms - often quite substantially - which makes those pedals difficult to accommodate on a typical board. And those considerations ...

Colour me impressed! MXR has done an incredible job here of giving you the Edge’s Ambient Effects - as deployed on the 1987 Joshua Tree album - which I believe mostly means a smart take on the TC 2290 Rack Unit.

The compact form factor somewhat disguises the complexity and prowess of the pedal - which has full stereo ins and outs via TRS Cables, and no less than 18 parameters across 6 knobs and with a total 9 controls - with the Echo 2 and Trails buttons triggering secondary and tertiary ...

The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!