This rundown has been a long time in the making - having been iterated many times over, and changed as recently as this last Tuesday - when Keeley brought out its Muse Driver - Super AT Mod replacement!
Readers will know that I’ve cited the Keeley Freak Fuzz Modded BD-2 Blues Driver as my favourite all-time overdrive pedal, and be extension - the Blues Driver circuit and variations of it are my own very favourite gain tones. Some gravitate towards Tube Screamer, others Blues Breaker, Timmy ...
I’ve long been a fan of Mooer’s potent X2 series - which typically has 14 Presets / Algorithms and stereo output alongside 6 controls and dual footswitches - and is the most capable variety of Mooer Compact Pedals. I’ve intended to add a few of these to the reference collection - while to date only the Preamp Model X is in the collection.
Here we have the X2 varieties of the Harmony and Tender Octaver pedals - where I really like the look of the Harmony’s Channel Separation capabilities - ...
So right at the end of last month Rob Chapman posted up a YouTube video of a rundown of his all-time favourite guitar pedals. He initially states he’s going to name his 10 most favoured ones - but goes on to mention 20 - which I’ve fully included here.
Rob has a great ear for tone - as countless of his own and Anderton’s videos have proven time and time again. And I really love his everyman approach to guitar gear. I’ve encountered him in person 2 or 3 times now over the years - and he’s ...
Even though I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the look of the first 3 releases - they obviously went down a storm - where I feel the $150 price tag was a big part of their success. While people obviously and very evidently seem to really like them. Which has encouraged TC Electronic to rush-release 3 more.
This time around tackling 3 Heavy Metal Classic amp inspirations - the Peavey 5150, Marshall JCM800, and MESA/Boogie Dual Rectifier - all 3 which featured in my Iconic Amps Roundup ...
So we’re just one day away from the Brighton Guitar Show and FX Expo - where Mr PedalPatch - Phil Steere takes up the reins alongside show partners and sponsors Zander Circuitry (Alex Millar), RotoSound (Jack Dunwoody), Strings & Things (Marc Snelling), and WaterBear College of Music (Adam Bushell and Bruce John Dickinson). All those brands are listed in the middle of the above visual! With further details below.
The show is in a handy location at the Brighton Racecourse - just a 10 ...
I’m a big fan of both Mooer’s Micro / Mini and X2 series, while I think NUX has stolen a march with its Mini TRS Stereo pedals - that Mooer has yet to answer. Mooer is still though the archetypal Mini Pedals Brand - with so many great examples in that diminutive format - including fantastic gain, modulation and utility pedals - and the formidable Micro Preamp Series.
Here we see new generations of the Drummer Drum Machine and Looper Pedals - each featuring 7 ’Parts’ in the larger more ...
So it’s about time for another round of ’12 Degrees of Saturation’ - featuring an updated selection and including most of the more recently released notable Mini Gain Pedals. Please note that as before - this is something of a Grey Science with simply approximated best fit positioning - as all those pedals have slightly different gain ranges, and certain ones within each selection / category can have vastly more extended range than others - and often cover more than one of the categories.
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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 ...
As you can see from the flurry of activity during the last week of the month in particular - April has seen the culmination of 3 very significant projects - which is mostly reflected by the end-of-month Pedal-Chain snapshot.
It was not as if I was short of an overdrive or two, having around 150+ to-date to choose from, but I always felt I was missing a few classics, and in the last couple of months in particular - I made a real concerted effort to make my reference collection fully ...
Readers will know that I’m quite the fan of Digital / Hybrid pedals - where the Strymon Riverside and Sunset in particular have been pretty much permanent fixtures of my pedal-chain since they first came out. I’m obviously a fan of the Boss OD-200 too and did a significant in-depth warts-and-all review of it when that materialised. More recently I have acquired both the Mooer Preamp Model X X2, and Neunaber Neuron Gain Intelligence Preamp / Multi-Drive pedals.
The Boss and Strymons are ...