I have always liked the look of the Walrus Audio Mako Series of MI Multi-Modulator, D1 Delay, R1 Reverb and ASC1 Amp Cab and Sim. And feel that these latest changes have really propelled some of these to the top of their respective categories - particularly in terms of Compact Enclosure Editions!

The new control interface is actually remarkably simple and intuitive - the knobs above each of the 3 screen segments allow you to click through different ’pages’ or screen of options - where you ...

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...

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 ...

Similar to its recent and utterly superb Prometheus 3 Dual Super Filter which I have and love - Subdecay now takes the same kitchen-sink approach to its Tremcoder Pattern Tremolo and Sequencer. You can see that its control topology is almost identical to its predecessor Prometheus sibling - with 6 main control knobs, a 3-way Mode toggle-switch, and dual footswitches.

However Sudecay seem to have gone a step further forward with the newer pedal in that each of the 4 Parameter knobs now has ...

So this was truly a full-throttle month - with so much activity this month and a really busy NAMM release schedule. We also had a couple of JHS Faux Hist this month - some real and some not so much.

The month saw my most popular article ever on Instagram - the Iconic Pickup one - with currently 17.6K likes - still growing as the number of followers surpassed 8,000. It’s been a really grad graft slowly making my way up that slope - but some of the recent Guitar Elements posts have really ...

^ 2022 Final Arrangement - December

So the time has come again to to the final reckoning of the layout and composition of this year’s ultimate pedal chain arrangement. I’ve introduced a new ’⚓’ symbol into the visual - which indicates those Slots / Pedals that are unchanged from last year’s Class of 2021 arrangement. That element really is testament to how much has changed between years. It’s also indicative of how much I love those particular pedals - and pretty much find them ...

As I’ve just done all the category overviews / best of genre rundowns - you can refer to those for all the individual pedal details - most have full reviews on this site too - here I will simply lay down the longlist - and explain why I picked those top 3 here - so just the details for the 3 overall winners!

I normally try to single out around 40 each year in the final overview - but it also depends on how many can fit the ’jigsaw’ of the visual.

There were 4 pedals in the full longlist...

Another healthy selection - Modutility covering Modulation, Pitch and Utility pedal categories - for one of the strongest selection to date. Some of the pedals here are truly stellar, and I have a little over half here already in the collection.

I’m unlikely to ever get all the pedals featured here, but there are several already earmarked for acquisition in 2023 - with the Eventide H90 at the top of that list.

The ones I don’t yet own, or may never own even - include :

• Chase Bliss

I’m the proud owner of the previous version of this - the Passive V1 Edition with simple Polarity Switch. I was a touch surprised when the original Telegraph was discontinued - but I understand why that happened now.

Coppersound have taken all the engineering R&D and learning from their massive Tripplegraph success and incorporated that in their Telegraph pedal - which is much more robust now.

Those engineering improvements alone were considered insufficient for a new launch - so ...