First launched in 2014 - the BitQuest Multi-FX / Multi-FX-Fuzz / Fuzz-Modulator - quickly became Dr Scientist’s most popular and best-selling pedal - and has held the line ever since - despite fierce competition from my other Frazz Dazzler Fuzz favourite! According to Ryan- there are only 2 core models of this pedal - the one which originated in 2014 - which holds all the way through to 2020 - while there are some circuitboard variations along the way too. Before 2020 you first move the Fuzz/...

Catalinbread has done an amazing job of transforming the quirky 2002 Alesis Bitrman into a compact stompbox pedal format. The Bitrman had 4 different Signal Mangler Flavours / Modes - which are combined with distortion and dual phaser effects for maximum impact, and where you can control the Dry > Wet Mix also.

There’s an excellent article on Catalinbread’s Kula’s Cabinet Blog which goes into further details about the Alesis Bitrman.

Catalinbread refers to this pedal as a Hyper-Deranged...

So this has been on the cards for a while, in fact I needed to get an update of both boards featured here, as the first version I had was almost a year ago now. The idea was always to feature reader’s pedalboards - which had been somewhat noticeably / significantly inspired by this very site.

And I’m delighted that Long-term GPX friend and pedal fan Cyril Demaegd, board game designer / developer (founder of Ystari Games) and touring musician, has been somewhat ’Inspired by GPX’ since December of...

A really cool sort of fuzz oddity, which is even less of a proper fuzz than the Mattoverse AirTrash. We’re dealing with various Bit-Crushed and Sample Rate Reduction and essentially modulation of the incoming signal - which renders some very sci-fi sounds. Mostly leaning into the synth side of things. You don’t get anything approximating traditional fuzz - but what you get is an extraordinarily versatile noise box - but one which requires patience and diligence!

Besides the two mode ...

At the end of November last year - I put out an article featuring the two very first full stereo analog bbd delay pedals - The Walrus Audio Meraki, and Flower Pedals Dahlia. Shortly after that went live - my friend Olivier Armbruster of Glou-Glou fame - sent me a message to say that he was working on a number of his own Analog BBD Stereo Delays. And that has now been revealed to be 4 separate units - with 2 minor variants of control topology - featuring different BBD Chips for different Delay ...

CAVEAT EMPTOR! : Someone just did a breakdown of the Warm Bender - and alas - those are not NOS transistors - not even in the slightest - in fact rather more ordinary grey market knock-offs - not one of the Germanium  Transistors has any sort of pedigree or provenance - which very much explains how Warm Audio could sell this at such a low price, For me this should be filed under ’False Advertising’. Weirdly I still have a vague desire to own this pedal - but it’s not nearly as...

Red Panda Lab never do things by halves and here have hewn a most mighty ring modulator. My good friend Henry Kaiser, who is something of a Ring Mod connoisseur, has actual had one of these for a while and really loves it. He speaks very highly of the Dr Scientist Phreak too - which he acquired similarly early.

To date I’ve not really gotten into Ring Modulation, and the only pedal of that type I own to date is the cool Pigtronix Ring Master Analog Multiplier. I’ve long intended to get into...

We’re steadily seeing the Boss 20-Series pedals being replaced now, and the VE-20 is the latest to get a very significant upgrade. The new VE-22 moves things on pretty massively and completely revamps and enhances the form factor, switches, knobs and overall control interface - with 3 core switches now in place of the former 2 - and really smart dedicated controls for each of the core functions - all served by a highly visibly and usable LED screen.

If you’re a singer or vocal performer of ...

The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!