And here we have the GRAND FINAL- with all 36 Award Winners from the Group Stages - across all 5 categories!

The first two places have kind of been obvious for a while, where the 3rd / BRONZE position was actually the hardest to decide on - it was between the eventual recipient - the Tubesteader Gainlord, Boss’s XS-100 Poly Shifter, Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields and Gamechanger’s Motor Synth - all of whom would have been worthy runners-up - while in the end I went for the one that overall ...

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 ...

So we’re at that time of year again for another Full Metal Racket Rundown. I meant to have it coincide with halloween - but was so inundated with new releases work - that I really struggled to fit this one in. And it now appears a month later than I wanted it to - but still very much at the appropriate end of the year!

As is ever the case - this selection continues to evolve over the years - and inevitably some previous candidates get bounced for more impressive newer variants.

For this...

This feature has been a long time coming. I have somewhere around 60 to 70 Marshall-style Pedals in my collection - while this selection mostly features Dual-Channel or Drive + Boost Pedals - which cover you both for Marshall Plexi and JCM800 flavours - actual and ballpark.

I landed 4 of these this year - the Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, Flattley Outlaw, Fortin Kali, and Tubesteader Gainlord.

We have 4 distinct types of pedals here across 4 format sizes (Compact / Mid-Horizontal / ...

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

Another super busy month - where the lack of a holiday is really starting to impact my wellbeing - as I’m about as shattered and burned out as is possible without going entirely into meltdown - I’m teetering on the edge!

Here follow the highlights of the month - which I normally try to limit to around 10 elements - but stand at 12 for September. No show or onside attendances this month - while plenty of other activities - and some killer releases of course!

• Jo Quail @ the Roland Store,

Jose Arredondo definitely seems to be flavour of the month these days - with Friedman having just recently released its ’Tribute’ Amp Head - based on that Amp Technician’s legendary 80’s Marshall Mods. Where Fortin’s equivalent Cali amp was launched all the way back in 2019.

This renamed Kali is the Pre-Amp Pedal derivation of that specific amp - making use of all those killer Jose Arredondo Modifications to Plexi and JCM800 Marshall Amps in particular.

Fortin very much seems to be on a...

In some ways May turned out to be a little uneventful! I was due to visit Hello Sailor Effects down in Gosport, but that got pushed back to next month - so the only event of note is tomorrow’s Leeds Pedal Show - which takes place from 10:00 to 15:00 at the Northern Monk Refectory - in the former The Old Flax Store building! Supposedly 20 minutes walk from Leeds Station, and less than 10 minutes in a taxi. I will of course have my show report up for Monday!

May was a lot about pedal roundups...

So I took a little bit of flack about the 4 of a kind noise gates I included in that feature. It was really just a matter of the first 4 I came across that fit the pattern - I did not do any extra curation for that selection - simply first come first serve. Inevitably I left out some killer ones - which I make amends for by including the largest possible selection of high quality compact noise gates in his very article - including my current incumbent - Alchemy Audio Modded Boss NS-2 - which ...