This is actually just my second Tech 21 pedal - long after I acquired my first - the RotoChoir Stereo Rotary pedal several years ago now which I still really rate. Henry reports how the CompTortion brings out the very best in all his guitars and reveals different hidden depths of character - where each guitar sounds distinctly different with this pedal too.

Readers will know that I’m a huge fan of ’Fuzzy-Drive’ and ’FuzzStortion’ pedals - and so when I learned that my good friend Henry’s ...

It was about time I did my roundup of favourite and preferred Mid-Size enclosure pedals. This means we’re covering Medium-Slim, Medium-Tall and Medium-Square enclosures - depending on my prevailing mindset - the Horizontal / Medium-Stout types I often group with ’Large’. For my Pedal-Chain in particular - space is very tight - and I really cannot accommodate anything beyond Medium-Square on those slots.

The thought process is deciding between Compact and Medium box solutions involves your ...

Much like my recent coverage on Flangers, and despite the fact that the Compact Enclosure is my favourite format, most of the Rotary action tends to be from the mid-size enclosure pedals featured here. I feel that for a proper Rotary sound - then Stereo output is a must - otherwise you don’t get the full spatial effect. I also look for pedals that give you the essential functional footswitch combinations for Fast, Slow, Brake, and Stop - which typically has dual footswitches as all here ...

Tweed Style Drives seem to fluctuate in and out of fashion quite frequently - there are a lot of discontinued Tweed pedals out there - like the Wampler Tweed 57 Drive and Way Huge Red Llama for example, while there seems to be a certain resurgence happening at the moment with a number of new pedals being introduced - particularly from smaller builders.

Both Greer Amps and Mad Professor launched new Tweed style pedals at the start of the year - namely the Tomahawk and Little Tweedy ...

Before I get properly started on this post I want to dampen down the emotions of some of the gainsayers who actively contend that the King of Tone is not a Blues Breaker style pedal. In Mike Piera’s own words he describes how the King of Tone pedal evolved, and yes the initial inspiration and starting block was the MK1 Marshall Blues Breaker pedal, even though of course Mike’s final circuit is significantly enhanced and eventually highly differentiated from that it is still an ...

UPDATE 1 - It’s often the case that just after you publish, something big happens which forces a change of stance. On this occasion it was the release of the truly amazing Wampler Pantheon Overdrive which has immediately found its way into Slot #10 of the chain. In fact I have sort of swapped slots #10 and #12 around - relegating the Spaceman Aphelion to a supporting role for now.

UPDATE 2 - Still no word from Jackson Audio on the delayed Bloom Compressor etc. - which means the Wampler Mini...

My pedal chain has never sounded better, and it’s the closest it’s been yet to achieving my end game of having the perfect pedal in every slot. Of course some slots are more multi-use than others, and some have a plethora of exceptional pedals available for rotation. While many slots have pretty much permanent residents now too.

There has been a lot of movement in the first 10 slots, with really only the Tuner at #1 and Compressor at #7 holding firm for now. Even though the almost always-on...

As previously posted, my preferred pedal format is the compact / regular enclosure - ideally as close to Chase Bliss in design as possible - with multiple dials, voicing toggles and dual footswitches. There are moments though when 3-footswitch pedals - a la Empress, Eventide, Strymon and now Boss are advisable, and those are in the main the sorts of large pedals I use - the modulation, delay and reverb workstations. I also have some of the larger dual and multi-drive pedals, whose real-estate ...

It’s always amusing to set your pedal goals and targets right at the start of the year, and then have to amend them right after the various Winter NAMM announcements. In fact I did a status update at the end of last year, and at the start of this one - which is not a whole lot of days really, but so much as happened in the interim!

I kind of got inspired by heavier tones over Christmas - which prompted me to acquire another heavy distortion pedal - in the shape of the MI Audio Megalith ...