Another totally mad month for sure - loaded with frenetic activity and peppered with highs as well as crushing disappointments. The first give-away for GPX didn’t quite hit the highs I expected (said give-away closes tonight at 23:59 BST). And there are some weird gaps in the entrants’ home countries - certainly no shortage from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, or much of mainland Europe. I’m active in a lot more countries than have so far entered the give-away, so I don’t fully understand why ...
So back in and around 1975 there was a large aluminium box with red and black graphics made by Systech, and which had an open 9V battery bay built right into the front facia. It had just 3 controls - Bandwidth, Center Frequency, and Gain - which were instrumental in delivering the classic Frank Zappa sound of that era! The Gain knob sweep was fairly expansive, but not too heavy on the breakup until later along the taper - rather an amplitude control for most of the sweep - although it did climb...
As soon as you engage this Hot Saké you immediately notice that rich, dense distortion character which is so associated with the SD-9 Sonic Distortion.
This is the 3rd SD-9 derivative I feature within fairly short succession - following on from TWA’s Scott Henderson Signature SH9, and Vemuram’s Mark Landau Signature Butter Machine. The Hot Saké came long before those two, but somehow still remains a little under the radar.
I’ve long said that the SH9 and Butter Machine were rather more ...
So scanning through this month it seems to have been mostly about Guitar / Pedal Shows, Japanese Pedals, and Pedals Delayed and Missing in the Post!
The Guitar Shows have been pretty fast and furious for March - with two of the most significant ones of the year, along with a fledgling grassroots one : The Guitar Show (Cranmore Park - Birmingham / Shirley), London Synth & Pedal Expo (Studio 9294, Hackney Wick, London), The Alternative Guitar Show (The Fighting Cocks, Kingston).
I of ...
I first featured this pedal in the run-up to Halloween 2023 - where it most definitely has a suitably seasonal pumpkin theme to the artwork. So it’s taken a while to land - thanks once more to Kevin Bolembach and Trevor Shaikin for the assist.
Obviously the first thing you notice is the excellently themed appearance of the pedal, while it’s not without its idiosyncrasies. Bypass state delivers an all-green lit-up pumpkin - which then becomes orange, with green stem when engaged. While there...
And so to what is often my favourite category - the many wonderful flavours of fuzz - and we have some hugely innovative pedals in the selection this year - one of these may even be my pedal of the year!
So there are 24 in this year’s selection - where I’m just missing the Collision Devices TARS, Fender Shields Blender, JAM Pedals Octaurus, KMA Machines Mandrake, Reeves Electro Facet IZ, and Unsound Circuitry Kato Glitch Fuzz - where I will attempt to add most of those to the reference ...
A decent showing on the Distortion side too - with some particularly great High Gain Distortions. I was due to review the Licthlaerm Gehenna and Medusa also - but with Daniel Ringl’s workshop move - that didn’t quite get sorted this year - hopefully early in the new year - and then I can update the ’Full Metal Racket’ selection which exercise I normally do late Autumn!
There’s couple of really cool filter distortions here that I really like - the Intensive Care Audio Vena Cava Filter / ...
In order to celebrate one of TWA’s favourite seasons they’re launching a brand new Octave Overdrive Pedal in a suitably on-theme Pumpkin / Halloween Edition.
"Like Frankenstein’s Monster, cobbled together from discorporate parts and then electrified back to
life, the heart of the Octoverdrive hides archaic, undead components that should not create sound –
and yet, it lives!"
The Octoverdrive circuit is based around a set of obsolete Selenium rectifiers that create thick,
harmonically rich,...
Another busy month - doubly busy as I was working on the new website and commercial plans for the most part on top of the normal hectic schedule. Inevitably there are a few pedals that get moved into October - as I just ran out of time - still plenty of coverage. October is going to be incredibly hectic as I’m expecting a lot of incoming pedals - so a lot of review work to complete and a couple more sizeable projects.
I feel the website launch went mostly very well and was universally well ...
I’m already a huge fan of the Univox Super Fuzz sound and have several of that variety in my extensive fuzz collection. While this one from Totally Wycked Audio is really rather special.
It’s actually 3 pedals in one - the Super Fuzz at its core - via Combustion (Fuzz / Gain), and Substrate (Level) controls - and the original’s Mode toggle switch is rendered by the left-hand footswitch - which allows you to flip between Full Fat and Scooped EQ Output Modes.
You then have the Parametric ...