At one stage there was a 50/50 chance as to whether I would make the show - as there were significant disruptions on the Liverpool Street to Norwich line - which meant a bus replacement service between Colchester and Ipswich. Some of the journey times quoted were up to 4 and a 1/2 hours each way! In the end the door-to-door was closer to 3 hours in total! The journey up including the coach was actually more fun that the journey back via Cambridge. Cambridge has obviously sinned grievously as ...

So a long and convoluted target mission of mine has at last come to a delightful conclusion! Readers will recall that back in 2023 I launched a mini campaign to get the Blakemore Effects Deus Ex Machina Fuzz revived and reissued. Blakemore Effects had been officially shuttered in 2018, and Blake Hickey had returned to the financial sector.

Here are the two articles from that somewhat fruitless endeavour :

• Blakemore Deus Ex Machina Revival Campaign
• Ex Machina Campaign Follow-up

It ...

This is my 3rd Lovetone Big Cheese derivative to date, and the most expansive / granular of the 3, first was the somewhat welter-weight JHS Cheese Ball, which sounds positively anaemic when compared to either of the Thorpy FX Field Marshal or this Gigahearts Small Cheese.

Both the latter ones are quite a bit more vibrant and visceral - possibly with the Small Cheese MK2 having just a little more in the engine room - that one can get ridiculously loud - just as I like it!

I’ve always ...

May has been a little bit of strange month - lots of delays really, and waiting for pedals to land.

As inevitably happens most months - much was delayed this month, and I was unable to complete some of the larger articles - they will need to wait until next month, there’s certainly lots of projects in progress. Where new and imminent arrivals kind of scuppered several intended projects - hopefully they can be completed in June.

The first event I’m attending this month is tomorrow - as a micropub ...

Obviously the Glenn S. Wyllie Moonrock Fuzz circuit is back in vogue again largely because of JHS Pedals’ recent Coyote take - a somewhat slavish 2-knob recreation of that original. While G.S. Wyllie actually made a huge variety of Moonrock fuzzes over his years of operation - mostly in the ’Moon rock’ style oval enclosures - but also in square and more evenly circular boxes too. My good friend Henry Kaiser sent the below visual of a selection of G.S. Wyllie’s finest! Note that several of those...

Back in 2021 I did a cool Fuzz Face Feature - which focused on the 3 to 4 Key Fuzz Face types :

• Type I : Original AC125 / Newmarket NKT275 Gorgeous Gritty-sounding Germanium Transistors
• Type II : BC108 / BC109 Higher Gain, Harder-sounding / Searing Silicon Transistors 
• Type III : BC183 / 2N3904 Germanium-sounding Softer Silicon Transistors
• Type IV : Fuzz Face Circuit Evolutions and Derivations - Fuzz Factory, Meathead, Regulus VIII etc. evolved 2-Transistor circuits - using a variety of

A slightly uneventful month in many ways - just the one event - the excellent sophomore Leeds Pedal Show - where I ended up picking up 3 pedals.

Some killer releases during the month, with a strong final flurry to make up the 10 notable article highlights. I’ve been very busy all month - and plenty of work has gone into this as usual, while there was somehow fewer large-scale rundowns and marquee features - more of that next month for sure.

HIGHLIGHTS for APRIL :

[Click on Images for ...

Another fantastic show in an amazing venue - and the weather gods definitely smiled on us!

Congratulations to Ross on another supremely smooth show - wish that it’s duration could be a little more extended - as it’s a struggle to get around all the stands in the time available.

This year’s show was a little beset by fall-outs - as initially Boss and HiWatt withdrew from the roster - which was great news for my friends Ian from Gigahearts and Stephen from Northern Stompboxes - as those were ...

I’m a huge fan of Treble Boosters - and typically deploy a few on the board at a time in various guises. The Trés Bull essentially has a 3-way RangeMaster / Treble Booster on the right, with a Low-Mids Beefy Boost on the left. Those two combine beautifully for a full range boost - or you can deploy them independently to enhance any and all pedals on your board - upstream and downstream.

Traditionally, Treble Boosters sat at the front of the chain, while there is an increasing trend nowadays...