We’ve had all manner of innovative expression controller devices over the years - including things like FOMOfx’s Virtual Jeff Pro.

It’s a massive surprise that a company not normally associated with guitar gear has brought out such a cool guitar accessory.

It kind of makes use of a B-Bender style mechanic - where pulling down on your guitar / strap stretches out the spring-loaded transmitter which finely senses the degree of force and movement - and sends those changes to the Pedal / ...

So this is what everyone was expecting when we got the Nano Quad Cortex instead - which wholly dispensed with the innovative Interface / RotoStomp Controls - that made the original Quad Cortex so enticing!

Here we literally have mostly just the screen of that original in a smaller box - where Neural have had to adapt the interface just a touch to accommodated the reduced number of controls.

The pricing of the new unit is $1,399 vs $1,799 which is a 22% saving.

And the footprint is ...

Volume pedals typically come in either Passive or Powered variants - where the Powered ones typically hold down a much more expansive feature set as is the case here. The only other truly expansive Volume Pedal that comes to mind is the Sonuus Voluum - which is a favourite of my friend Henry Kaiser. That pedal has always seemed a little on the large side - but it covers a lot of ground - as does the Canvas Volume.

It’s a full Stereo Volume controller with a choice of 8 different Taper ...

Generally guitar players can mostly split into 3 categories - Just the Amp / Digital Plugins / Pedalboard (stompboxes).

Studio musicians and those that do a lot of guitar recording typically use quite a hybrid setup - while day-by-day they  mostly use Plugins and Digital Effects - but switch to an amp when performing. Ola England is a good example of this - as most of the time you see him on YouTube, including SWOLA - he is playing direct into his laptop / PC. But then uses a full fat amp ...

This often happens in the evolution in artist signature devices. The first edition is somewhat expansive, with added features. But then the artist realises that they’re only using a select few elements - and the second edition is often a refined and simplified version of the original - as is the case with this Kanso.

The Kanso takes the 4 Diode options from the Flat V - in a slightly different arrangement, and then harnesses them with a super smart universal combined rotary and footswitch ...

Peterson Tuners rolls out a 6th Hardware Edition - which is essentially just the screen part of the StroboStomp HD - with the 2 controls on each side, but no Footswitch - this one ends up almost 1/2 the size of the HD variant - but with all the abilites of that pedal.

This is a further cool variant which rounds out that range nicely. I’m a little conflicted personally - as to whether this new one is better for me than my current favourite StroboStomp Mini. At the moment I still really like ...

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

The blurb says something about the Pillbug being inspired by both the Boss CS-2 Compressions Sustainer, as well as the Ross Compressor - while those are 2 slightly different technologies - the first being a FET type, and the latter an OTA type. I’m guessing they mean that they have captured the warmth of the Boss CS-2 along with the added brightness of the Ross Compressor - which in turn was just 2 pars away from the MXR Dynacomp Compressor

• Pillbug Controls - Level, Attack, Sustain.
• CS-2

This has turned out to be the largest category for 2025 with 38 pedals in this selection. As I favour those pedals that I own first, and then the more pedalboard-friendly editions - inevitably there would be some casualties for the year. With the most significant of those being the larger format Meris Enzo X, and the Polyend MESS Multi-Effect Step Sequencer. I know there are some who favour each of those - but they just aren’t targets for me personally.

 I always talk about having a lane - ...