So I’ve obviously covered each of these pedals individually and in real depth - so please refer to the earlier articles if you need more details. The purpose of this exercise is to pick out my favourite/s from the series - which is really about comparing those 4 pedals head-to head across my 2 favourite settings for each - pitting one against the other - back and forth - until we have a preferences.

Note - that if you want to skip all the preamble - you can just scroll down to the bottom ...

Interestingly we have had a couple of step changes over the last few years - first with a Bass Cut switch appearing inside the battery compartment on the last standard model, and then with the recent Gold 30th Anniversary Edition - where we got a fully surface-accessible and fully variable mini Bass-Cut knob - which now gets to be standard issue.

The compact ODR-1X also gets an external Gain Boost push-button, and inside the battery bay we now have an easy-access switch for flipping between...

As promised - this turned out to be quite a big month - we had 5 substantial pedal rundowns - where I hope you appreciate the time and effort put into those - they take a very long time to compile and write up! :

• Reference Collection World Odyssey [25]
• 32 Favourite Compact MIAB Distortions
• Fuzz Pedal Olympics [25]
• 32 Favourite Compact Rat Style Distortions
• Drunk Beaver 15 Favourites

I attended just one show this month - but it was a great one - the #2 Alternative Guitar Show @ Hackney...

The Noble Screamer was the first of the 4-in-1 series - which was launched in September of last year. Featuring a beautifully crafted, custom gently-sloping wedge-shape enclosure with complementary colour-coded milled and anodised aluminium knobs. The look and feel here is truly top-shelf and there is a superb smooth tactile high quality feel to the finish. To my mind this is a fantastic execution of a great concept, and distinct from Boss’s double circuit approach - a la JB-2 Angry Driver, and...

Supposedly I’m one of the inspirations for this particular edition, which was simply based on my suggesting a more compact version of this excellent all-rounder original Parasite JFET Overdrive. I don’t take too much credit though - as my good friend AD Hauser did all the heavy lifting here!

I enormously enjoyed the partial collaboration on the new generation of Colortone knobs, and the creation of their ’Headliner’ silicon caps - for extra hi-vis legibility. I certainly had some say in ...

I’ve waxed lyrical for a long time about the potency of the Daily Driver - where I originally acquired it based on how close it came to the tone and timbre of the Pete Cornish CC-1. The CC-1 can replicate / reproduce the tones of the TS808, Timmy, Klon and Blues Breaker with ease - and this new Boost addition makes it even more versatile.

The original had those 4 key corner knobs - and a single toggle switch for More Hi-Cut / None / Some Hi-Cut. Those 5 controls gave the pedal an incredible...

And so to my roundup of the best gear of the year - apologies of course if I’ve overlooked one of your favourites - and note again that this year I’ve split out Boost & Overdrive - and Distortion separately - as there are so many new pedals that it’s tough to fit them all into a single summary overview. Some of these pedals are incredibly extended range - and if I’ve used them more on the distortion side - you will find those listed in the very next Distortion Rundown article - like say the...

At the start of the week I covered the Vemuram Shanks ODS-1 as part of Rob Chapman’s favourite pedals rundown. The Vemuram goes for a stinking $385 - it was the priciest of the Rob Chapman select - and is the priciest option here.

Obviously Nobels have just recently released a Metallic Gold 30th Anniversary edition which makes the formerly binary Bass Cut hidden in the battery compartment - a full granularity mini-knob on the front facia. So the Anniversary edition is pretty much identical ...

So right at the end of last month Rob Chapman posted up a YouTube video of a rundown of his all-time favourite guitar pedals. He initially states he’s going to name his 10 most favoured ones - but goes on to mention 20 - which I’ve fully included here.

Rob has a great ear for tone - as countless of his own and Anderton’s videos have proven time and time again. And I really love his everyman approach to guitar gear. I’ve encountered him in person 2 or 3 times now over the years - and he’s ...