This article was prompted by the recent NAMM show, the new Walrus Audio Canvas Rehearsal in particular, and my thoughts about the big forthcoming UK Guitar and Pedal Shows. This post also hints at the return of a personal favourite!

I initially had the list and visual arranged in alphabetical order - but it made more sense to arrange those devices per the above visual - which has the sort of guitar jack micro multi-fx and headphone amps listed first, followed by the mini, and then compact ...

So this is something of an odd one, and I question some of the launch and marketing decisions made / not made for this unveiling. It’s very rare that a brand new and wholly unknown pedal brand launches with a full range right from the get-go - the normal path is to establish a reputation with 1 finely honed pedal - and then build on that success and reputation and add further pedals once each one has become properly ’embedded’ in the public conscience. 

Launching so many pedals all at ones ...

The Subdecay Starlight Flanger has quite the pedigree now - having first materialised as the 3-knob Starlight Quantum Flanger back in 2012. Over that intervening time we’ve had 4 major versions of the circuit - including the Starlight DLX - which also debuted in 2012 - a little later in the year.

The MKIII can trace its lineage all the way back - and indeed now features most of the essential features that were on the DLX model - with some other advancements and refinements.

It’s the ...

The Native Audio Love Pony / War Pony is a singularly well calibrated 3-knob organic overdrive with plenty of range and great playing dynamics. It’s been re-named and re-packaged just in time for Valentine’s Day with a variety of extras included. 

Controls - Love (Volume), Tone, Pain (Gain).

"Get ready to experience the aggressive, dynamic tone you love, now refined for even greater focus and clarity. With its redesigned post-filter circuit and smoother harmonics, Love Pony delivers ...

So interestingly this is the second time Vitalii has covered the Ibanez LM7 LA Metal as there’s a version of it already onboard his Fat Bat Rat. The LA Metal voicing is also one of the options on the JHS Pedals Packrat Distortion - so it’s a well worn path for a pretty distinct Rat Distortion variant.

This PD #26 is very much an evolved and enhanced take on that circuit - with the original 5534 op-amp replaced with a fine-tuned discrete FET op-amp and additional LED clipping mode beyond the...

So January 2025 sees a momentous milestone - where we have the peak possible number of pedals in the chain - which now numbers no less than 52 Pedals. It’s an incredibly tight squeeze - and all the available space is now fully used up.

I’ve re-flowed the main visual - where I used to try to have a fixed format arrangement - but now have re-numbered the slots entirely corresponding to the number and order of those pedals. Last January I noted that I was going to switch out my 2 Friedman ...

I first clocked Verso’s Folded Sheet Metal Guitars (Steel) late last year, while I’ve not paid to much heed to the Circle Guitar up until now. There was an earlier iteration of the Circle Guitar back in 2020, where that design has been massively refined and honed in the interim. Originally the spinning disk had 128 slot for different styles of picks / plectrums, while the newer model has a sort of modular system of 16 slots and 16 controls - including those 6 individual string faders. I believe...

So when I first covered the HammerOn - alongside the MonoNeon Whammy release, I hadn’t fully gotten to grips with what this pedal was overall about. I think that at my time of writing there were no demos out at that time - while a few brief NAMM snapshots have emerged since - particularly around the 2-5 Note Sequencer and Trill Auto Repeater functionalities.

As the proud owner of the HammerOn’s adjacent siblings - the Drop, and the Whammy Ricochet - I thought I would break it down in the ...

I’m a little late with this - even Josh Scott beat me to the punch here - while I had always intended to do an overview article for Pedalnetics - this is just when I finally got to that task!.

Pedalnetics in the main makes various switching devices which wholly fit with the profile of the target pedals they are intended for, it also makes pedal-risers and patch-bays, as well as colourful replacement knobs for Halo Devices. The switches are either stand-alone and simply connected, or consist...