And so onto the Distortions of the year - the smallest group stage this year! There’s no particular logic as to why there are just 20 Disortions this year. There were a further couple of acquisitions that I was disappointed with - and I deliberately left out of this selection. It’s mostly a case of what appeals each year - and evidently there weren’t that many appealing ones beyond those I acquired. I’m not aware of any particular ones that are still in the wind. The last one in was the ...

Another super busy month for me - particularly towards the end - with numerous large scale articles out this week. That also coincided with my busiest week of the year for my other day job. Meaning that I was up until 4-5 in the morning every day - just to keep up with my commitments.

I was already somewhat shattered and burned out before I even got to this super busy period - and it’s a relief that all that work has now been completed on schedule.

I’m especially proud of my work on the Bucket ...

At its core this is a PT2399 modulated delay - which is operating well beyond its core abilities - and thus delivering those cool quirky flavours at the edges of its normal output. Empty Head’s Nic has really pushed the envelope here to create a unique character delay with a deformed downward pitch effect - which sounds like you’ve been gripped by gravity - for that falling feeling.

Nic has described tis pedal as "A study in using the dynamics of your input / pick attack to self modulate ...

The King Alex II is an iteration of a pedal that Nic originally made for a friend’s birthday - it started off closer to one of his production models - but then evolved a life of its own. And here he has further iterated that Birthday Pedal to give it more range and variation.

At its core it’s a heavily Modified Single Stage Transistor Electra Distortion - which then has a further Pre-Gain OpAmp cascaded into the front of it - to explosive effect.

It’s a pretty standard distortion with ...

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

So a quick second Woking Show in the same year - for reasons I will endeavour to explain. A bittersweet moment for me as I have really loved the Fiery Bird venue - it’s a great setting for these kinds of events - and so close to the town centre - just 5 minutes or so form the main Woking Train Station. The reason Jason brought the 2nd show forward is that the council has taken back the licence for the building - with a view to redeveloping the premises - so presumably demolition beckons - which...

If you didn’t make the first one - you really missed out! Check out my Inaugural Woking Show write-up to get a flavour of how good that first show was back in March - it genuinely had amazing vibes - in fact all the March shows - including The Birmingham Guitar Show and the London Synth and Pedal Expo - all had a really friendly and chilled ambience to them - and all three were a joy to navigate - where I often struggle to get around at the Birmingham show.

The Woking Boutique Guitar Show ...

I’ve seen these Empty Head pedals doing the rounds quite bit of late - and it was these pedals’ style of knobs - in particular on the ’Big Talker’ - which first drew my attention. Empty Head Effects’ Nik would seem to be a Brit abroad, being based in Mainz, Germany - he certainly sounds like a Brit!

He’s carved out a very unique slightly quirky brand identity which would seem to occupy a philosophically adjacent plane to David Rainger’s Rainger FX. Mixing up a unique aesthetic with very ...