Brazil is a fascinating guitar pedal marketplace - mostly inward looking, and mostly closed off from the rest of the world. I was the first European I believe to get Aura Amps and Tone Ink pedals shipped out of Brazil. Some of those brands have some experience of shipping up the landmass and into Central and North America, but little or nothing ventures across the waters in either direction.

Andy Timmons has long favoured the GNI/ NIG Music OctaFuzz (as pictured left of centre) - where I’ve...

Tosin is a very special player, and has a unique style with very specific technique. Where he’s also very particular about his instruments / tools and gear. Obviously he’s sporting one of his Abasi Concept signature Legion Guitars in the main video, while he also has a Kaizen Signature Guitar in collaboration with Music Man - both seem to cover similar territory - where I think the Legions typically have more strings, but there definitely seems to be something of an overlap there for me - not ...

So I’ve been meaning to do this article for a while, but kept putting it off - in the hope that we might see more brands materialising from this country. That has not been the case though - so now seems as good a time as any to focus on the small but mighty trifecta of Croatian brands - Dawner Prince Electronics, DryBell Musical Electronic Laboratory and Polarbear Effects.

I typically have a grid of a 9 for this style of article - so here I’ve selected my favourite 3 choices from each brand...

I got my Boss XT-2 Xtortion around the same time as the MZ-2 Digital Metalizer - a few years back now - and always felt that the Xtortion pedal never quite reached its full potential. There was something strange about those controls - where you could kind of feel the potential of that circuit - but never quite get to the best version of it. Unlike the MZ-2 which was already every way brilliant!

My good friend Vitalii also harboured similar sentiments when he first encountered the Boss ...

As part of ThorpyFX’s 10 Year Anniversary Celebrations (born on 2nd November 2014) - they’re encouraging everyone to get a ’caked’ version of any of the current pedal models. Thorpy is obviously making the most use of his new super-duper Roland 4-Colour UV Printer!

And I had a lot of fun creating this visual on a background of 100’s & 1000’s / Sprinkles!

Single pedal editions will be base-coat painted yellow - with the cake design on both outward facing sides. I personally think there ...

So this incredibly busy month was supposed to be all about Tremolos, culminating with the Rounder Sounds Zebra-Trem Review and 30 Tremolo Pedal Overview. But we hit some snags along the way - the Zebra-Trem was mysteriously held up in customs for a week, and then got slightly lost in the local postal network. And when it did finally arrive - evidently it had been dropped a few times, as the screen was no longer working. After trying various obvious remedies with Bill over a few days - with no ...

While this pedal shares the name of its Silky Smooth Saturating Overdrive sibling and they both share the same Audio Output Transformer - everything else is quite different. In fact the Silicon Steel Boost is a totally separately originated circuit - developed to deliver ultimate high headroom clean boosting, with potent EQ and subtle harmonics.

However much you raise the level - you never quite induce Overdrive breakup - you do get a subtle degree of saturation, while this pedal is mostly ...

Jack White has done it again! - producing his most exciting pedal collaboration since the Gamechanger Plasma Coil - at least for me. A cool off-kilter Octave Fuzz combined with Analog Monophonic Synth - which delivers suitably creepy supernatural horror thriller Giallo tones!

The keywords here are texture and ambience - where this delivers soundtrack-like atmospheric tones - perfectly timed for Halloween surely!

Interestingly - even though I have the yellow limited edition Plasma Coil -...

There was a time when Hiwatt stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Marshall and Vox at the top of the British Amplifier hierarchy. In fact during the Dave Reeves Era (1966-1981) Hiwatt was considered the superior amp brand of the day - with significantly better build quality than all the rest. This had much to do with Dave’s dual apprenticeships at Marconi and Mullard - where he was imbued with MilSpec production values - such that those devices could be more easily and expediently maintained.

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