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

I came across this recently on Coast Sonic - and then quite forgot where I saw it original - where it took me a further day or two to find it once more. This Multi-Gain pedal is definitely a target for me early next year.

It’s a cool Overdrive pedal with Fixed High Pass Filter, and fully variable Low Pass Filter, Input Gain Attenuation, and Q2 Bias.

The Blue push-button engages a further gain stage - which delivers Distortion and Fuzz tones.

This is a highly stylised and stylish ...

Another super busy month for me - particularly towards the end - with numerous large scale articles out this week. That also coincided with my busiest week of the year for my other day job. Meaning that I was up until 4-5 in the morning every day - just to keep up with my commitments.

I was already somewhat shattered and burned out before I even got to this super busy period - and it’s a relief that all that work has now been completed on schedule.

I’m especially proud of my work on the Bucket ...

Interestingly - the original compact JHS Kilt has typically been my least favourite Expandora take. To me it was somewhat cold and dense - and not nearly bright enough or sufficiently expressive. I hate brining in the wet blanket analogy once more - but that was my experience of the original take. Your typical Expandora’s tend to be quite more vibrant than JHS’s original take.

And it’s almost as if someone read my critique - because all my then niggles have been addressed in this new version. It...

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

The new Hangman fx pedal is a rare object of beauty in looks, output, and playability!

The DAGG’R Dynamic Auto-Gain/Gate features 2 Gain Channels - Overdrive and Fuzz - which you can Auto-Swell between the Gain dialled into the O.D. or Fuzz Knobs, and the Max Gain via the smaller Black knob. With DAGG’R Mode Engaged - your playing style triggers the gain bloom / swell when you dig in. Where the Sense (Sensitivity) knob defines the threshold of the trigger point - which you can then further ...

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 ...