Another month filled with strong releases! Too many for me to cope with in short order. I’m still waiting for my Chase Bliss Big Time to land - and Strymon goes ahead and launches the Timeline MX - which is of course also on my list. AC Noises launches its killer Continua, just shortly after I landed my Purr-ting in a similar category. And Native Audio launches the killer In The Water - not too long after I landed my Hotone Verbera. All pedals have specific target slots, and I always want to ...

This post has been a long time in the making - 3 days solid - with just a few hours of sleep overnight! I feel it might be my best coverage yet - for a nigh perfect show.

This time around pretty much everything went of perfectly - I was out the door very early in the morning - and at the Brighton Racecourse by 07:45! Phil had set up his Pedal Patch stand the night before - as had Paul from Flattley Pedals, and my good friends Wub from Ritual Devices and Rob from Timber Tones has just recently ...

We have another great event now for the annual roster - where Adam has done a brilliant job in bringing this all together. Really handy venue too - very close to the centre of Birmingham and New Street Station - and so good for me! I alas forgot to grab a snap of show runner Adam - who was to be everywhere that day - to ensure the smooth running that we witnessed. Noise Maker Market is definitely here to stay!

There was a handy bar downstairs - with some exotic and unusual beverages - ...

Obviously the big Distortion story of the year for me was my recent Full Metal Racket High Gain Distortion roundup - and roughly one third of this selection was in service of that feature alone. Even then I didn’t get to everything I wanted to as a couple or so builders weren’t particularly responsive. This is often quite a thankless task of revolving and closing doors - in any case case I’m proud of what I managed to accomplish regardless - and some of the candidates are quite superb.

The ...

Each of the months this year has been pretty exciting in several ways while we’re still facing various unprecedented delays in getting our hands on new pedals. I’ve had numerous talks with industry insiders this month and it seems that the order cycle for certain components - particularly in any sort of quantity - is as much as 18 months now. Shipping costs are still near an all-time high, while some of the container shipping is starting to come down a fraction - but still nowhere near pre-...

So the adventure which started out with the DF-2 per the recent FX Expo show - Leyland Pedals Mods that is - has been extended to cover the long sought-after companion pedals - the Boss FB-2 and DigiTech FreqOut. I had been chasing both Boss pedals for a while - but hadn’t encountered those at the right balance of pristine condition and price at the time I was actively seeking them. In the end I probably paid a little over the odds for them - but still way below some of the lofty prices that ...

So Boss’s DF-2 Super Feedbacker & Distortion (1984-1993) is a secret weapon for many a player and band - including Hum and Swervedriver - a somewhat thicker and more textured derivation of the DS-1 with additional Feedback Function.

Leyland Pedals’ Caleb Holmes has long been a fan of the DF-2 and this was the first pedal he properly got his hands on and modified - both tackling a couple of the original pedal’s weaknesses, as well as adding new features.

This is actually the first of...

Best Stand in Show by Indifferent Engine (above)

fxexpo.co.uk

The Inaugural FX Expo Show has been quite the adventure - 2 years in the making owing to Covid! - It’s so much a major occasion to have this many prominent and promising independent UK pedal builders all under the one roof. And it could not be helmed by a better man than Alex Millar - who has the strength of will and dogged determination to see it all through.

I obviously did the Show Preview a while back now - and while ...

A key reason for why there were somewhat fewer pedal brands at the recent Birmingham Guitar Show is that many had elected to participate in June 19th’s FX Expo instead. While there are quite a lot of brands that appear at both - Bleak District Electric, Fredric Effects, James’ Home of Tone, Pedal Patch, and Ritual Devices among them.

FX Expo has been in planning for a long time now - and where Covid scuppered an earlier incarnation of this event. It is a ’noiseless’ show - where all sound-...