I’ve followed tkog / The King of Gear for many years now - and have had the Mini Glitch in the reference collection for quite a while - a really cool and relatively simple but impactful Micro-Sampler. I believe that first materialised properly in 2018 - where I’m aware there were a few earlier sort of prototype versions before then - while I think the final design occurred some time in and around 2018.
Around a year later, tkog then introduced its Oxford Drive - which I understand is an ...
Red Panda Lab never do things by halves and here have hewn a most mighty ring modulator. My good friend Henry Kaiser, who is something of a Ring Mod connoisseur, has actual had one of these for a while and really loves it. He speaks very highly of the Dr Scientist Phreak too - which he acquired similarly early.
To date I’ve not really gotten into Ring Modulation, and the only pedal of that type I own to date is the cool Pigtronix Ring Master Analog Multiplier. I’ve long intended to get into...
We’re steadily seeing the Boss 20-Series pedals being replaced now, and the VE-20 is the latest to get a very significant upgrade. The new VE-22 moves things on pretty massively and completely revamps and enhances the form factor, switches, knobs and overall control interface - with 3 core switches now in place of the former 2 - and really smart dedicated controls for each of the core functions - all served by a highly visibly and usable LED screen.
If you’re a singer or vocal performer of ...
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 - ...
The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!
The Modutility roundup combines Modulation, Utility and Pitch type pedals - it also includes Multi-FX and Multi-Modulation pedals of course. Some years this selection is relatively sparse - while this year it’s totally chock-a-block! In fact it was a struggle to whittle the Longlist down - and inevitably some pedals I wanted to feature did not make the cut - including the Endorphin.es Ghost Pedal Multi-FX and Subdecay Prometheus 3 Dual Super Filter.
I still feel that this selection of 26 is...
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 ...
So here is the first more in-depth coverage of the ALABS Audio Adam Adventures Series - starting with the front-of-chain Orbital Pitch Shifter.
Superficially this would seem to be a very straight up (and down!) and straightforward pedal really - but it has a tonne of hidden depths and beautiful fluttery ambient nuance. I tend to think of it as an enhanced Boss PS-6 S-Bend / DigiTech Whammy Ricochet - while it is missing that rather essential Tom Morello style +2 Octave interval - that ...
This whole year has occurred at such breakneck speed and volume - with so much happening all day and every day - that I have perpetually felt like I was always in the process of catching up and never quite had time to catch my breath as such. I’ve taken just one whole weekend off in the whole year - and am as close to burn-out as I’ve ever been. Every time I attended a Guitar or Pedal show I was up all night doing the write-up - average time for those articles was / is around 36 hours give or ...
I’m really proud to be supporting a small fledgling audio products brand based in Singapore - which has only been around for a couple of years or so, and was originally known for making studio quality Microphones, Wooden Earcup Headphones and Mixing Consoles. ALABS Audio’s Jinbo Hui reached out to me back in September - to ask if I would want to support the launch of their new Adam Adventures Series pedal range - and I of course said I needed to be properly impressed by those pedals for me to ...