I was all et to get the Big Talker Modulator next in my ongoing coverage of the complete Empty Head Effects roster - but Nick tweaked his The Lover 2-Stage Transistor Drive & Fuzz - which was initially in Zvex-style Landscape format, while nearly everyone positioned the pedal vertically in Portrait mode on their boards. So Nic decided in the end that he should relocate the jacks to the top edge and shift some of those elements around for a more elegant control topology the the more pedalboard-...

Thermion famously started off its affordable €125 PowerBolt Series back in May of last year - with two amazing Modulation pedals - The PowerTrem - in part based on JAM Pedals’ Harmonious Monk, and the PowerVibe - a superb compact take on a Shin-ei Uni-Vibe - not nearly as expansive as DryBell’s Vibe Machine - but near enough as flavourful. I was hugely impressed at the time and quickly acquired the pair of them.

This time around I’m a little behind the curve - as the pedals have already ...

Another fantastic show in an amazing venue - and the weather gods definitely smiled on us!

Congratulations to Ross on another supremely smooth show - wish that it’s duration could be a little more extended - as it’s a struggle to get around all the stands in the time available.

This year’s show was a little beset by fall-outs - as initially Boss and HiWatt withdrew from the roster - which was great news for my friends Ian from Gigahearts and Stephen from Northern Stompboxes - as those were ...

The Bolster Dual Fuzz consists of a 3 x 2N5088 Transistor Tone Bender MKII adjacent High Gain Fuzz on one side, and a single knob OpAmp Speaker-destroying Fuzz on the other side. The 5-knob Transistor Fuzz has an enormous gain range from drive and fuzzy-drive through to fairly searing high gain fuzz - and then when you add the More Fuzz in - you kind of blow the doors off - in the best possible sense.

All the finesse is on the first channel, while the More Channel - comes in somewhat high-...

I’m a huge fan of Treble Boosters - and typically deploy a few on the board at a time in various guises. The Trés Bull essentially has a 3-way RangeMaster / Treble Booster on the right, with a Low-Mids Beefy Boost on the left. Those two combine beautifully for a full range boost - or you can deploy them independently to enhance any and all pedals on your board - upstream and downstream.

Traditionally, Treble Boosters sat at the front of the chain, while there is an increasing trend nowadays...

I own quite a few Top-Boosted AC30 style pedals, while this one is a little more expansive than most - combining a full fat Top Boosted AC30 type with a proper RangeMaster - all in the same box.

I would have preferred this in portrait format, but I can’t really grumble - as this has a perfect feature set - which wholly justifies that format. It has exactly the right complement of controls to get maximum impact out of this combination - and achieve the full range of those Gallagher and May ...

This is the 3rd Walrus Effects Compressor I’ve covered on this site, a cool replacement for the Mira - with the additional VU display and modes, as well as the Sidechain High Pass Filter.

The enclosure follows the styling set by the recent Mantle Bass Preamp, but in portrait format. It comes with a $100 hike in price too (vs the Mira) - but is mostly kind of worth it, while I would have preferred a more compact enclosure.

As I’ve said previously - you need to decide what your lane is ...

Back in 2003, Dan Coggin’s Dinosaural created a silicon transistor circuit which sort of combined elements of a Tube Sceamer and a Tone Bender - and hence the ’Tube Bender’ moniker. I believe the earliest models were in Silver sort of 1590BB style enclosures, and the later ones were in Black.

From 2003-2007 a total of around 150 were made. And in the intervening years several takes on that circuit emerged - including the Aion FX Wyvern in 2020, and the Drunk Beaver T-Rex a year later - ...

I’ve had the full-fat Beetronics SeaBee Harmochorus from the very start, but found it somewhat complicated to use, and while I still own it, it hasn’t had a rotation for a while. It took some time, but I had eventually gotten used to the Zzombee Filtremulator - which is equally complex, but the Harmochorus never fully gelled for me - while I have always loved the sound of its output.

This Lite Edition is a fantastic take - which carries most everything which made the original great - but ...