2024 November Pedal-Chain Update - Episode XI - Mini Marvels and Red Ripples

'Brazil' Pt 1

'Brazil' Pt 2

For sure the biggest story from this year's Black Friday promotions is Chase Bliss's Mystery Box - done in a way that only Joel Korte and gang could concoct. Just like the recent Clean Compressor - which is a whole lot more than a compressor - such is the same with the Mystery Box - where it has been evolved to a fine art. Now with more than 20 guest brands onboard - albeit the vast majority of those are USA-based. So in UK and Europe we're less likely to see those guest pedals - those will surely stay local to USA - where as far as I can see - only Collision Devices and Empty Head Effects are based in Europe - so just a small handful of us have an opportunity to land one of those.

My thinking is that those guest pedals are mostly used to offset some of the cheaper discontinued Chase Bliss pedals - so people won't be disappointed when they land one of those in combination with another even bigger surprise. While we Europeans stand to get higher value Chase Bliss pedals overall - with just a tiny mix / possibility of guest brands. I've scoured the internet to get to the most complete list - while I still may have missed one or two.

Like many of the more established fans - I have 18 Chase Bliss pedals to date (no duplicates), so my odds are diminished.

Currently there are just 8 active pedals in the Chase Bliss range - Clean, Onward, Lossy, Mood MKII, Gen Loss MKII. Habit, CXM 1978, and Blooper. The only ones of those that I don't have are the Clean and CXM 1978 - so if I landed either of those, or one of those rare Golden Pins - those would count as a win. While I feel that I'm 99% most likely to get something I already own - something like an Onward or a Habit - which means I would be looking to make a swap for a Clean - which should be doable. My understanding is that as they're the two most recent production models - then there's probably the most stock of Clean and Onward pedals available - so one of those is the median most likely outcome.

In any case - I'm still looking forward to see what I land. Here below is the list of guest brands as far as I can make out - while I may have overlooked one or two - do let me know if that's the case! My understanding is that there may me as many as 10,000 of these Mystery Boxes due to make the rounds - which is quite extraordinary. It's great for Chase Bliss too - as is allows them to shift a lot of their static stock - and clear the shelves as it were!

1. AC Noises (Italy)
2. Acorn Amps (USA)
3. Alexander Pedals (USA)
4. Analog Music Company (Ukraine)
5. Audio Cultivation Project (USA)
6. Beetronics FX (USA)
7. Benson Amps (USA)
8. Blank Electronics
9. Obie Audio (USA)
10. Canned Monsters (Poland)
11. Collision Devices (France)
12. Cosmodio Instruments (USA)
13. Coppersound Pedals (USA)
14. Couch Electronics (USA)
15. Death By Audio (USA)
16. Diamond Pedals (Canada)
17. Discomfort Design (USA)
18. Electronic Audio Experiments (USA)
19. Fairfield Circuitry (Canada)
20. Empty Head Effects (Germany)
21. Gear Ant (USA)
22. Hangman fx (USA)
23. Intensive Care Audio (UK)
24. JFX Pedals (USA)
25. JPTR FX (Germany)
26. KGR Harmony
27. Kinotone (USA)
28. Land Devices (USA)
29. Madsen Amps (UK)
30. Mask Audio Electronics (USA)
31. Meris (USA)
32. Mikel Patrick Avery (USA)
33. Monger Pedals (USA)
34. Native Audio (USA)
35. Nokill Pedals (USA)
36. Non Human Audio (USA)
37. OKKO FX (Germany)
38. Old Blood Noise Effects (USA)
39. Pedalbrains (USA)
40. PlainSpeakMusic (USA)
41. RJM Music Technology (USA)
42. Silktone (USA)
43. SolidGoldFX (Canada)
44. Sonic Explorer (USA)
45. Spooky Circuits (USA)
46. Summer School Electronics (USA)
47. Tuesday Experiments (USA)
48. Vexed Brain (USA)
49. VOID Manufacturing (USA)
50. Weird Noise Pedals (USA)
51. Wren and Cuff (USA)

25 Pedals added in November-  the biggest mont of the year! (actually - I added the DOD250-50A very last minute - so there may be some inconsistencies in references here! - actual numbers up to 26 therefore).

Obviously a very significant gain pedals quotient this month - with 9 new Overdrives and 8 new Distortions added to the collection - some wonderful pedals in the mix!

• 9 x Overdrives
• 8 x Distortions
• 5 x Fuzzes
• 4 x Modulations

A killer selection of overdrives - with all manner of different types across the selection - including Tube variants and Modellers. And ranging from postage stamp sizing, through Minis and Compacts, and up to something fairly substantial - in the guise of the Poly Effects Ample. Not a weak one among them - while some can be a little sensitive to overall pedalboard placement!

• Decibelics Rivus Mini BluesBreaker - Black : Proto 1
• Decibelics Rivus Mini BluesBreaker - Blue : Proto 2
• DOD Overdrive Preamp 250 50th Anniversary Edition
• Drunk Beaver XR OD-1 Overdrive (4558)
• Olinthus Cicada Tiny Screamer
• OneControl Golden Acorn ODS Dumble Drive
• OneControls Strawberry Red RC Overdrive (Humbucker Special)
• Poly Effects Ample 56 Amps Modeller
• Tubesteader Roy Twin Channel VOX AC30 Top Boost Style Preamp

Before I added the last minute DOD250 - the Distortions were even-stevens with the Overdrives selection. Mostly Minis here - but oh so formidable - you should genuinely be surprised by the potent output of the Anodized Brown and Fluorescent Orange in particular - they have no right surely to sound quite so massive as they do with such tiny format sizes. A lot of Mini pedals can be a little underpowered - while these two compete with any pedal of any size - truly immense!

• Boss DS-1-WH Distortion Ltd White Sparkle Metallic Edition
• Drunk Beaver Uzhhorod Xtortion
• Drunk Beaver XR MM-1 Moon Metal Distortion
• OneControl Anodized Brown Distortion 4K (EVH Brown Sound)
• OneControl Fluorescent Orange AIAB Distortion (RockerVerb)
• OneControl Purple Plexifier 4K (Plexi / MIAB)
• OneControl Red Rebel Distortion 4K (Hot Rodded Marshall Plexi / JCM800)
• Oneder Effects Red Ryder Rat Distortion in Sparkle Red

So I finally snagged a Nichols 1966 - which is now in a different livery to what it was when I first covered it! The big story should really be about those super rare Skreddy pedals - some of which were officially discontinued back in 2015 / 2016. I own a compact Mayonnaise MKII - and so did not feel the need to get the Mayo - while I did snap up the Ernie early on, and thought long and hard about the ? Lady - in fact I'm about to pull the trigger on that one too - as those pedals don't come around very often, if at all!

• Danelectro Nichols 1966 Liverpool Fuzz-Tone
• Drunk Beaver XR SF-1 Sustain Filter Fuzz (Muff)
• Fender x Hello Kitty Fuzz
• Skreddy Ernie Fat Ram's Head (Ernie Isley)
• Skredddy Serenity FuzzDrive

Some really heavy hitters here - with the 2 OneControl ones being superb in their own way, while the Beetronics Larva and Walrus Audio Mako II [M1] Modulators are somewhat exceptional - and should be must-buy for most! I've been totally blown away by the Larva Morphing Phaser - it sounds amazing every which way - and is such a clever pedal - very much my favourite phaser to date!

• Beetronics FX Larva Dual Morphing Phaser
• OneControl Butter Yellow Auto Quack (Auto-Wah)
• OneControl Dimension Blue Monger (DC-2 -ish)
• Walrus Audio Mako II M1 Multi-Modulator

Acquiring 26 pedals in a month is a lot! But there are still several more that the budget or timings just don't stretch to sufficiently. I normally try to limit myself to 20 pedals a month - but like buses - they don't always come in an orderly fashion. In fact for me it's mostly about launch dates - and how many significant launches fall within each month.

Looking at all the ones I did not mange to secure - then the Origin Effects Deluxe 55 is definitely the key target for early next year! I would really quite like some more Brazilian pedals - particularly from Tone Ink and Cachalote - but that doesn't seem likely to happen for a variety of reasons. There were a number of failures to land last month - at one stage I felt that I had lost my mojo - and was ready to throw in the towel. But there are enough kind and decent people out there in the world that give me the support I need to carry on - and you will never find my shirking my duties - I don't feel anyone works as hard as me - how could they when I only barely manage 4 hours of sleep each night - and I'm typing his well into the wee hours on way the wrong side of midnight! I frequently don't call it a day until 4 or 5 o'c in the morning, and them I'm back up and on duty at 08:00!

I will do a more concrete list of still remaining Wishlist items at the end of the year - as I need to rationalise that across a few documents. The path is never a straight line though!

• Anasounds FX Teacher Blues Believer BluesBreaker style Overdrive
• Beautiful Noise Endless Sleeper Cascading Dual Delay
• Cachalote 214 Fuzz & Formiga Drive
• Chase Bliss Dirt Bird USA Mystery Box Pedal
• Dawner Prince The Viberator Uni-Vibe
• DryBell Unit67 RangeMaster / Compressor / EQ
• EarthQuaker Lee Kiernan Signature Gary Dynamic Overdrive and Auto Pulse Width Modulation Fuzz
• GNI Music OctaFuzz
• Hangman fx Atomic World Ender Trem-Fuzz, Lord GermFet Overdrive, and Tyrannosaur MegaDrive
• Jackson Audio Silvertone Twin Trem
• Keeley Electronics Andy Timmons Signature Halo Core Dual Modulated Echo
• Land Devices Moonbow HPF/LPF + OD
• Matthews Effects The Technician Dual-Channel Auditory Manipulator
• Mythos Pedals Envy Pro Overdrive NV-9
• Native Audio Nisoo Harmonic Equalizer
• Nobels Del-Mini
• OBNE Dark Star Stereo Soundscape Textured Reverb
• Origin Effects Deluxe 55 Tweed Recreation
• Pedal Pawn Cowboy King Overdrive
• Polarbear Effects Drowner V4 Fuzz-Crusher-Reverb-Delay
• RudeTech Dude Alert! Overdrive
• Science Amplification Mother 2-Channel Preamp
• Skreddy Pedals ? Lady Ram's Head Fuzz
• Spaceman Effects Sputnk IIB Fuzz
• Thermion Breathe Boost + Dual Reverb + Tap Delay
• ThorpyFX FLIR Buffer - Birthday Cake Edition
• Tone Ink Rotten Rat Distortion
• Vahlbruch Kaluna II 250V High Voltage Tube Drive
• Walrus Audio Voyager MKII Multi-Clipping Klone
• Wampler Catacombs 11 Mode EchoVerb Workstation

20 Slots updated this month - Slot #4, Slot #5, Slots #9-#10 (5 Pedals), #11, #12, #14+, #15a, #15b, #17, #20, #22a, #23, #29, #32, #33,

20 new pedals onto the board, and some serious re-wiring which required further cables from Thomann. The Boss DM-101 takes a hiatus, and the Empress EchoSystem returns - for a more linear and flexible pedal-chain.

Also the Boss SY-200 is currently on hiatus! (There was a need to remove unnecessary buffers from the start of the chain as several pedals don't seem to play well with that!).

So much going on this month - and a full 50 pedals in the mix! A complex edit of the masterplan for sure, but marvellously one that worked out perfectly - without incident. There's always a worry when you massively re-wire the board that things will go wrong - for instance in accommodating the Poly Ample in amongst the modulations - it all took some serious thinking and planning - but all seems to have worked out magnificently!

My current Modulation selection is wholly killer - with my favourite Phaser, Flanger, Chorus and 2 Multi-Modulators all on the board at the same time!

I gave up waiting for Danelectro to throw me a bone as such and finally completed my Danelectro Trifecta - with possibly the best of the set the last one added. Really versatile Fuzz with a great texture - classic but full-fat territory.

It's unlikely to ever be my favourite fuzz - it's a little too rough and ready for that - but the Fender x Hello Kitty Opamp Fuzz has some really decent textures onboard. A little raw in places, and a little thin on occasion but still worthy and a lot of fun. It's really not the novelty item some make it out to be - definitely worth having in the collection - and it's pretty to look at too!

The first trio of killer OneControl pedals - each of which sounds better than the rest - OneControl Butter Yellow Auto Quack (Auto-Wah), Golden Acorn ODS Dumble Drive, and Rebel Red Distortion 4K (Hot Rodded Marshall Plexi / JCM800). I've been hugely impressed by this latest generation of OneControl pedals - they sound so much bigger than they sound - in fact the 5 I've selected in this sequence can take on almost any pedal across the spectrum of different enclosure sizes - these truly sound phenomenal.

These two are absolutely killer - the OneControl Fluorescent Orange AIAB Distortion (RockerVerb) and Anodized Brown Distortion 4K (EVH Brown Sound) - they're both proper loud and visceral - amazing that such a big sound comes from such little pedals - both of these totally blew me away - they sound immense!

The latest Skreddy - the Serenity FuzzDrive is a super versatile massively granular fuzzy-drive with just the right complement of controls for maximum impact - really vibrant!

Named after the prodigious guitar talent of the Isley brothers - Ernie Isley - this specially modded Ram's Head delivers the core of Ernie's signature fat liquid distortion sounds, where it's ? Lady is another essential part of the palette - slightly zithery but searing - I've secured one, and am determined to secure the other in short order. The golden era of the Isley brothers is definitely worth exploring. Ernie is somewhat unfairly overlooked in those lists of guitar heroes - but he definitely deserves to be on the roster. And March Ahlfs has done a fine tribute to those talents with his pair of Ernie and ? Lady Ram's Head takes!

Several more mini wonders in a row here - starting with the tiny Olinthus Cicada Screamer and then two of  Decibelics' Rivus BluesBreakers - Blue and Black Editions. Guillem is going to do me a second Blue one - to match the specs of my original blue - which is now the current production version in terms of all its parts values. The Cicada works well enough - still a bit of a novelty thought - and won't complete with the 3 screamers I featured today. While the Rivus will take on any BluesBreaker - it's another Decibelis solid gold classic!

One of my remaining long-term Rat targets - I initially thought I wanted one of the wood facia style ones - with Cream knobs - but I felt that a Sparkle Red edition of a Red Ryder was somehow even more adept. I'm still deciding If I should change the knobs to a different colouway - possibly white - but actually the Red one is pretty perfect as is - and it sounds great too.

Tubesteader's latest compact Tube Preamp is probably its most exciting one yet - a superior Twin Channel take on the legendary Brian May favoured VOX AC30 Top Boost Amp. As of writing mine has still been somewhat unfortunately waylaid by UPS  - where instead of sending the package straight our of Canada and across the Atlantic - it has instead somehow ended up passing through Louisville, Kentucky on a weird loop. The launch is on the same day that this article goes live, while my review cannot be out any earlier than when the pedal arrives - which is currently looking like Monday afternoon! I've loved the previous two - the Eggnog and Lightkeeper V2 - and am expecting more of the same!

I will be doing a JHS gain pedal trifecta article in December - featuring the Morning Glory, this Violet, and the recent Hard Drive - giving you full gain-range coverage across those 3 essential pedals. The Violet is such a smartly calibrated Overdrive / Distortion - it has so many different hues of tone onboard - from relatively moderate overdrive gain to pretty significant searing distortion. It's a much more open profile than the thicker and denser Hard Drive - it's wonderfully versatile and ever poised!

OneControl's Dimension Blue Monger (Boss DC-2 -ish / adjacent) is a fantastic fluttery chorus - not really based on the DC-2 but in somewhat similar territory - I really love it, and expect it to hold onto its slot for a long while. That said it's alternate - the Rainger FX Reverb-X is also fantastic on this slot - and I will likely rotate those two fairly consistently.

Of the 4 Drunk Beaver pedals that landed this month - this Uzhhorod Xtortion was the most impressive - being a really smart evolution and improvement over the original Boss XT-2 circuit. Vitalii's re-EQ-d and gain adjusted variant makes the Xtortion a much more versatile and controllable pedal. The XR SF-1 Sustain Filter Fuzz (Muff) runs it pretty close - while the Xtortion impressed me just a smidge more!

I've not had it for long - but I already feel that the Beetronics Larva Dual Morphing Phaser may be my all-time favourite phaser - it's combination of superior sounds and rich feature set seems to elevate it above every other one I have in my collection. Accompanied by the Krozz Airborn and PastFX Kurt's Cologne - that's probably the most potent analog modulation trio that's been on the board to date!

I'm still having a lot of fun with Poly Effects' Ample 56 Amps in a Box - and am still in the process of exploring all those different voicings. It's already glitched out once on startup - so it has the same slightly flawed boot-up routine as the Verbs. While generally I've been getting on with it swimmingly - where though every single preset needs to be adjusted for my liking - so definite a work in progress. I feel it would have been better to have all the presets set up as full-on and richly textured rather than mild and insubstantial as they are on default!

The Walrus Audio Mako Series II [M1] Multi-Modulator is another pedal I've been having a lot of fun with this month - I managed to snag one fairly early on - one of the first available for sale in the UK I think it was. It's actually really straightforward to use - while I wish I could have more presets at my disposable via the footswtiches. But you can flip across the 3 Banks by pressing down the middle rotary controllers. I mostly use it for its Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Rotary and Uni-Vibe voicing - sounds great for me, and all the Lo-Fi variables are great too.

So December is all about reviewing the year and identifying the very best of the new releases. Interestingly this year is the first year that I've no clear idea on where it's going to go - I don't have a clear idea of which my final 3 top placed pedals will be!

I will do it slightly differently this year - and identify Gold, Silver and Bronze accolade winners in each category - not just the overall 'Best of the Best' Finale!

Sometimes concurrent activities have an influence on which category I target first - it's usually Fuzz or Overdrive. Generally I look to do these in the usual order of - Boosts and Overdrives, Distortions, Fuzzes, Modutilities (Modulation / Pitch / Utility), then Time-Based Effects and finally the all-round 'Best of the Best'. Depending on final Numbers I may split out some of the categories further - but it usually means around a maximum of 25-30 per final roundup. It's a highly time-consuming activity, but a fun way to appraise the year's output.

Every year I mean to get a head start on the process and start releasing those articles as early as the second week in December - but typically something else gets in the way - and it becomes a mad scramble to get everything done by Christmas. Where I do my 'Class of 2024' final board arrangement just in time for New Year's Eve!

There are still several features and incidentally articles in the works - including a number of 'capsule collection' updates - as some of those reference library subsets have grown very significantly over the year. It's always good to get fully contextual at the end of one year - so you can transition relatively cleanly into the next.

One of the remaining articles - following my recent twin Menatone Pedals additions - is the 16 Iconic Amps and Pedals one - which has evolved a bit since I last published that article - as per the latest visual below :

I also set off on a journey with Rogue Pedal Rehousing - to deliver the final part of my JHS Gain Pedals Trifecta - in fact the very first building block in that set of 3! RR's Zach really is the best in the business for those rehousing projects - and several of his builds - Including the twin footswitch Morning Glory that I'm getting - are the very finest examples you ill find out there. A relatively costly route for sure - but one whose finer qualities wholly shine through. I'm really looking forward to sharing that feature. While Zach doesn't necessarily need the extra publicity as he is inundated with requests already. My collaboration is more about giving him better choices and the strength to pick and choose more easily what best suits his preferences. My Morning Glory should very much look like the one pictured below - I will share new pictures as soon as that pedal lands - hopefully before Christmas!

Finally - I would like to bring your attention once more to the class-leading and properly pioneering Conversational GPX onsite AI Chatbot - which is a massive innovation - and wholly cutting-edge within this industry - it's a really big thing - but which seems to have slipped under the radar for most.

This is a Perk for my paying Patreon Members - where oddly still - a number of hose are not registered on this main site. I believe I've granted all those who have properly registered here - the privilege to engage the AI.

If anyone feels they've been overlooked - then please drop me a line to stefan@guitarpedalx.com - so I can remedy that.

For just a minimal monthly outlay of $1 / €1 / £1 you can avail yourself of that amazing facility - or feel free to contribute more - at the $5 or $10 level - running an AI has some significant costs If you feel you deserve access to the AI but don't have that yet - then do drop me a line.

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