Some of you may recall my seminal Knobs-focused Pedal Design 101 article from 2019 where I highlighted most of the more commonly used knobs, alongside some more distinctive and bespoke types - some made specially for / by those brands, where others have just been cleverly procured.

Some brands are very much instantly identified with a certain style of knob - while the majority of builders still make use of mostly Davies Moulding types and derivatives, Boss and MXR types in particular, some ...

Many thanks to my now good friend Sebastien at Farmer Factory Effects with whom I collaborated with on this article. His latest Fresh Fuzz is the featured pic for the Turret Style of construction - a really beautiful design spiralling out from a metal can JRC 4558 Opamp - onto a colour-coordinated board, and with several colour-coordinated parts matching the red exterior paint job - a real Object d’Art.

Sebastien is the only one I personally know that has completed a Manhattan style circuit...

Many who read my blog don’t know that I used to work in advertising - mostly brand origination / development - and we dealt with a lot of copyright and trademark issues over that time. You quickly get a feel for how close you can sail into the wind - and the truth is mostly not that close at all! Of all of these replicas only probably the first one could be argued away against a top copyright lawyer - the other 5 would pretty much come under straight-up plagiarism - but there are other factors ...

I’m expecting this post to attract a lot of ’whataboutisms’ as many of my rundowns seem to do. While every single choice / selection here is well considered, pondered upon on and properly weighted up against pertinent criteria and then further rationalised, whittled and distilled down into a top 9 or 16 or 25 - as I always favour symmetrical grids.

If I find 18 or 19 suitable candidates - then only 16 can be featured on the grid etc. - you need to draw the line somewhere. And you can also ...

So this is the second of this series - where the first was more about the uniqueness of the enclosure shape - more structural really - covering the overall form factor. While this edition is more about ’Trade Dress’ or the Memorability of the Aesthetics - style of graphics, consistency of theme, and consistency of control topology - doing something in a consistently measurable way that makes that pedal instantly recognisable from afar as belonging to a certain single brand.

So this one is ...

I’ve championed various causes over the years - including ongoingly encouraging brands to evolve their own style of knobs - to help distinguish and differentiate themselves from the myriad alternatives. As a component - knobs are highly visual and can really lend a certain look or aspect of quality to a pedal. Generally Milled Aluminium or Sculpted Ceramic Knobs are top of that pack - and yet 99% of brands use a handful of very ubiquitous and commonplace designs.

Far less visible - as much ...

This episode is a little more esoteric and preferential than most - and involves identifying the most notable and easily recognisable ’Pedal Shapes and Formats’ essentially. Of course there is some subjective preference here - while I will try to explain objectively how I came to this exact 25 pedal selection - some of these are very obvious - others are slightly more idiosyncratic choices - while there are obviously some brands that are particularly good at coming up with memorable enclosure ...

Readers should know by now how highly I rate Cioks Power Supplies - where we’ve recently seen 2 new additions to the range - the 5-outlet SOL, and the 2,700mA single-outlet Crux. Of the 2 the Crux is the far more exciting proposition with me as its single outlet delivers 2,700mA @ 9V, and 2,000mA @ 12V - which is just the right amount for powering a Quad Cortex. By contrast the SOL is a highly stripped down and stand-alone edition of the DC-7 - where it has 2 less ports, and no outward daisy-...

I’ve had a few readers ask me how I go about storing my now 900+ pedals. Where I actually discovered a solution some time ago that really suits my own situation.

In effect these are 2 different types of strong hard plastic (polypropolene) drawer stackable storage towers- as below - do note though that not all these units are created equal - and Amazon have occasionally sent me a lesser flimsier type which I had to return immediately - you need a certain thickness and durability of plastic ...