I’ve been on friendly terms with Oleg from Russia’s Shift Line electronics for a number of years now - mostly on account of his killer original Termofuzz - first released in 2011. I’ve championed that super versatile fuzz for years, and long advocated for a reissue - which finally happened around the middle of last year. Obviously there is understandably no way to get products out of Russia to the UK these days - I’ve no idea how the Australian I bought this off managed to get one - possibly ...

I own a number of PLL types - the slightly synthy harmonizing fuzz - and CopperSound has miniaturised that brilliantly. My favourite PLL’s are the Tark Audio Squidink, and the Beetronics Swarm - which are much simplified from the original Schumann PLL.

And this Ion is a simpler version still. Just one Fuzz (intensity) knob, and then a 3-way Mode / Frequency Selector :

• UP : High-frequency resonance; maximum filter sensitivity for sizzling, cosmic lift-off.
• MIDDLE : Balanced sensitivity;

This project has been a long time in the making - I actually started off this compilation properly last autumn, and then have iterated the final selection a number of times since then - before reaching this final format. I apologise to anyone whom I’ve inadvertently left out - I still have a number of Octave Fuzzes to require - that task is never ending!

I own around 80 octave fuzzes so far - and this is near enough half of those - where I’ve mostly leant into compact editions - and ...

New Pedals in the Class of 2025 Pedal-Chain Snapshot = 41

[OCTOBER]  = 9

[NOVEMBER] = 6

[MARCH] = 5

[SEPTEMBER] = 5

[AUGUST] = 4

[JANUARY] = 3

[FEBRUARY]  = 3

[APRIL] = 2

[JUNE] = 2

[MAY] = 1

[JULY] = 1

[A-Z by Brand]

1. Becos FX CompIQ Pro Yuna Soft Knee Blackmer VCA Studio Style Compressor [SEPTEMBER]
2. Blue Colander Grimrobe Dual Cascaded Super Rat [OCTOBER]
3. Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields Ultimate Modulated Fuzz [SEPTEMBER]
4. Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble Leslie / Rotary Speaker

Probably the strongest selection of the year - each one of these is amazing and sounds killer. But then agin similar was true of the Overdrives. I’m very much a fuzz fanatic - so his selection has to take the edge - what a selection!

This selection includes 3 from EarthQuaker Devices, 2 from Drunk Beaver, 2 from Fjord Fuzz, and 2 from ThorpyFX.

It also includes the likely pedal of the year - within a selection of 10 award winners here - these are so good - I could have labelled even ...

So you can look at this as an updated and upscaled version of the Sputnik I Germanium Fuzz - with more volume and gain onboard in particular - and a refined Scan mode - per the Sputnik IIb.

It retains all the key facets of the original - with that singing searing tonality - there’s just more of everything onboard. It doesn’t quite have those Sputnik I Germanium Harmonics - but in most respects totally matches and exceeds the original pedal. Its core tonality is every bit as good - just with...

I have spent a week now with the magnificent analog mechanical marvel that is FuzzBillion - and I’ve been utterly dazzled by its brilliance. This pedal is genuinely extraordinarily high fidelity and is a superb enclosed  breadboarding device and analog sound-design machine.

Leon and his colleagues at Teaching Machines (+ Frank, Luke, and Mat) recommend you work left to right - and start off every sound design task - with all wheels at zero - and then mix your favourite sound cocktail from ...

Rainger FX is one of the 3 Top Tier UK brands - alongside Origin Effects and ThorpyFX. David Rainger definitely ploughs his own furrow and is one of the Original Auteurs of the pedals scene - with ever distinctly different circuit designs.

Coming into this roundup I was short of a few Minis - where I picked up the Air Space Invader and Deep Space Pulsar from Macari’s, and the Echo X - from Andertons.

I don’t really have much need for the Deep Space Pulsar - that’s there largely for sake...

The Fuzz Fields is an incredibly versatile Modulated Fuzz with several smart Modes you can ramp up and down through on-the-fly. The Main Right Footswitch flips Modes by press-holding the switch, while the Left Footswitch flips through the Freq and Gravity Combinations via quick double presses - so you can apply the Modes singularly or in tandem combinations. You essentially have 8 different combinations for how you can combine the Main Fuzz, Fazer Mode, and Freq and Gravity Modes. 

The ...