End of Year Pedal-Chain Update - Final December Formation - Class of 2024

17 Slots updated in October!

20 Slots updated for September!

12 Slots updated for August!

17 Slots updated for July!

15 Slots updated for June!

11 Slots updated for May!

15 Slots updated in April!

12 Slots updated for March!

12 Slots updated for February!

12 Slots updated for January!

33 slots overall updated during this year - #2, #3, #4, #5, #7, #9a, #9b, #10, #11, #12, #15a, #15b, #15c, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #22a, #22b, #23, #24, #25, #26, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #36, #38, and #41.

Individual pedal details to follow - as always! :

The Keyztone Exchanger Pro is still an absolutely essential pedal for me - it delivers exceptional Tele and Strat Voicings for my Humbucker-based main guitar. It's the best version yet of this format and really works well for me - much more authentic that using the coil-split. Been in the chain for a couple of years now! It's almost always the EXchanger Pro - with just occasional appearance of the TC Ditto+ for when major settings tweaking is required1

Fantastic Tremo-Fuzz. Gorgeous Amplitude Tremolo with very unique decay - designed by a 14 year old Dan Coggins, while Thorpy tackles the Silicon MKI Tone Bender - a preview of the forthcoming Silicon Boneyard Multi-Bender - which in theory should be out some time next year!

A fantastic mix of Octave Fuzz (Muff) and Dynamic Polyphonic Pitch-Shifter - in mart kind of like a mini DigiTech Whammy. Great sounding Fuzz, and amazing tracking on the Pitch-shifting - a fantastic 'Transfigurating' Fuzz!

Beautifully conceived and executed / designed Cornerstone Nero Dumble Fuzz - really for those that prefer to temper their Classic Fuzz Circuit with an Overdrive - which on this occasion is a version of Cornerstone's Gladio SC - big year for Cornerstone! And could have been even bigger if the Nucleo Reverb had been finalised in time - but that's one for next year!

Horrothia's Lütz Full-Range Fuzz is surely the most potent Classic Fuzz pedal created to date. It straddles both Tone Bender and Fuzz Face voicings and delivery a range of outputs - including Harmonic Upper Octave and Oscillation via its smartly selected 3 x Silicon Transistors. This pedal looks and sounds incredible - inside and out, and includes a tonne of smart features - like the Curly Cable Capacitance emulator switches. This was essentially my Pedal of the Year - just superb every which way!

The Jackson Audio Prism is still anchored to this slot - and has served me very well through the years. I will be trying out the DryBell Unit67 on this slot next year though - so this is the Prism's last hurrah for a while!

You should be able to see that the brilliant Becos FX CompIQ Pro Stella MKII took over this slot in April - and has reigned supreme for the year! Surely the best Studio-style Compressor to-date, and without equal in terms of its extended featured set - in compact enclosure.

Next year I had planned to try out the Chase Bliss Clean on this slot, while it's going to be the turn of the DryBell Module 4 Compressor - for the first half of the year, and then possibly checking out the Chase Bliss Clean for the second half! I'm kind of spolit for choice with compressors currently!

This was a big year for my favourite Heavy Water Dual / 3-in-1 Harmonic Boost  - where Thorpy and I coordinated an April worldwide Give-away of a signature GXP-branded Heavy Water. Only two of those exist in the world - the one on my board, and the one in the possession of the winner Ronald Prokes - hopefully he's still enjoying that as much as me. Still my reigning champion booster - and still one without any real competition for that feature set!

I had to include the Cornerstone Antique V3 here too - its earlier Nero Dumble-Fuzz sibling was an object of rare beauty - while this Antique V3 was incredibly even prettier - particular in that pastel mint green standard colourway. Just look at the detail on the facia plate - this is sure at the peak of pedal design - and the Antique V3 Dual Channel Screamer certainly lives up to this hype. Is sounds every bit as good as it looks!

The Coriolis Hail To The King Ultimate Edition is another wonder-pedal. Essentially a King of Tone entire in compact enclosure, with all controls externalised, and additional mods and features versus those available on the KOT. It's essentially a 'better' more compact King of Tone - another one that looks as good as it sounds. Mine is a 2nd Iteration one which came out before the Insert / FX Loop was added - that came with the V3 and subsequent iterations. Another wonderful multi-gain pedal!

We don't yet have a new demo of the V2 Compact edition - but rest assured it sounds every bit as good as the larger Full-Range original. The two EQ Boost switches really are magic on this drive pedal - delivery Marshally-s say JTM45 tones by default - but then expanding in almost every direction, including delivering a particularly fine Dumble Drive voicing. Shnobel Tone has its Daily Driver, and Colortone has the Parasite V2 - which you can turn to almost any overdrive purpose - another superb sounding and super-versatile overdrive - one of my favourites for sure!

The latest Skreddy Pedal is a fantastic Fuzzy-Drive / Fuzz pedal - with the perfect complement of controls. it has a lot to do with the interplay of the Fuzz (Output Gain), and Hot (Input Gain) controls. With unique Presence and Body controls too - sounds fantastic and is really versatile.

The Tavysh HARM Multi-Gain pedal totally blew me away this year - the first Serbian pedal in the collection, and the perfect embodiment of my '12 Degrees of Saturation' Methodology' - this one is truly immense - taking you from a whisper of s Clean Boost through Overdrive, Fuzzy Drive, Fuzz,  Distortion and onto screaming / grinding High Gain Metal Distortion. This is the most impressive multi-gain pedal I've encountered to-date - and it's amazing that it all live in a compact enclosure!

The super versatile Strymon Riverside has held onto this slot all year. It briefly yielded the slot to the 29 Pedals FLWR last year - while the Riverside is quite a bit more expansive - and was soon back in action! I'm considering the 29 Pedals Toki Fuzz-Driver / Fuzz - which is a perfect snap-in for this slot. So that may appear in place for a few months next year year - before I return to the Riverside once more - it's just the perfect neutral and expansive multi-gain pedal - with a vast range of gain!

My favourite Octaver is still standing strong - there's no thread to this out there - nothing else close to this format. While I'm a little surprised CopperSound Pedals haven't expanded it's feature set a little - would be great to have ramping and octave ranges - so you could also do the Whammy Tom Morello thing - that surely needs to happen one of these years. Otherwise the Trlplegraph is nigh perfect - it's been so well engineered!

I was so impressed by both Menatone pedals / preamps I acquired this year - the MenaWatt HiWatt DR103 take, and the Wreck'T Trainwreck Express take - where I really love both - both sound totally killer - varying the authentic sounds, feel and dynamics of those original amps - the Wreck'T though is just a little bit more imposing - fatter, juicier - more pounding and punchy. It's basically your hot-rodded Marshall taken to 11 on the dial - absolutely immense!

The Sentimental Bob Tephra was the most impressive Rat pedal I acquired this year - what with +60dB on the main gain, and a further +30dB of independent boost. This is the most beautifully textured Rat Distortion / Life Pedal clone - which takes you all the way up to doomy heavy metal levels. Certainly the unit that has the most about it - alongside Lichtlaerm's Ritual - while I feel that if I had gotten my hands on the Krozz RoyalBreaker - that might have been by favourite all-time Rat style Distortion - the demos certainly sound fantastic. Until one of those enters the chain - the Tephra is the reigning champion!

Another pedal that blew me away this year - I already loved the V1 Reverend - while that did have a little competition for the best ever Expandora pedal - while in this new iteration - with the extra external Bass Boost and LED Clipping switches, and the Fuzz Remote Switch - this is now the one to beat. Those changes elevate this pedal to a proper 2-Channel solution - and it sounds even better than the first edition. Everything about the Reverend V2 is absolutely top-notch - one of the most satisfying multi-gain pedals out there!

The Anasounds Sandman Klone-Screamer was on this slot for such a long time - it looked like it was going to be impossible to budge. But then along comes the Life Is Unfair x Boston Manor Bad Machine - which kind of mostly blows everything else out of the water - being the most incredibly multi-gain pedal with handy undefended Boost, and taking you up though the gain gears all the way to crushing metal distortion. It's in part evolved from the Boss FZ-2 circuit, while taking on aspects of the HM-2 and MT-2 also, with useful further EQ Mods. Creating one of the most wonderfully capable and versatile gain machines. This one's a real gem, and I really like it the baby blue and pink of my colourway edition - vs the black and red original

Slot #17 is kind of permanently set to 12V DC [-] these days, and has somewhat become the Tubesteader slot! With the Tweedy Eggnog the first one in action here, and hen earlier this year the Lightkeeper V2 'Jazz' - like Dumble Drive, and finally the supreme Vox-in-a-box - Vox AC30 Twin Channel Top Boost type. It sounds and feels exactly like the original amp - it's such a perfect embodiment of those tones - and it has plenty of range on board. Another one that blew me away this year - it sounds superb!

I was hugely impressed by the original mid-size version of this circuit - and I described it as instant Marshall satisfaction - it already sounded brilliant with all dials at noon. And this new compact proper Dual-Channel version is even better - retaining all the verve and vibrancy of the original - and adding even more to the format. I'm spot for choice for Marshall pedals really - but this one is genuinely fantastic - especially with its dual-channel capabilities! Note that this slot has traditionally been the Vox AC30 one - but since the Tubesteader Roy is active on slot #17 - this one can become a little more freeform again!

The Colombo Audio Eruption EVH Variac Distortion is simply the most authentically EVH Brown Sound textured pedal I've heard to date - sounds superb. That said my new-wish OneControl Anodized Brown Distortion 4K does a pretty brilliant take on that sound too - and has more gain and volume onboard - so for now the Eruption reigns supereme! But at some stage it may very well be swapped out fort the OneControl Anodized Brown!

One of the big surprises this year - kind of to be expected though since coming from Lari Basilio - which has long been a favourite of mine. This collaboration with JHS Pedals is really superb - a distortion pedal for sure - but taking you from bluesy Morning Glory tones up to a beautifully warm textured singing distortion. Really super versatile and sounds amazing at every turn - surely one of the best of its type!

My good old dependable Strymon Sunset is still delivering the goods - mostly still being used on its 2 boost modes, but with variations of course. Both this and the Strymon Riverside are still essential to me - and are mostly being used as tone-chancers / tone components on the board - and for boosting slightly underpowered gain pedals!

Three pedals have populated this slot this year - the Rainger FX MiniDrone was the first one in, while it's mostly been about the Rainger FX Reverb-X, and OneControl Dimension Blue Monger fluttery chorus - with the latter of those ending up at the slot right at the end. It could have gone either way really - I love both those effects - and it's really just about whether I want an additional distorted reverb or extra modulation on the board.

Lichtlaerm's latest Altar High Gain Fuzz is surely the ultimate doom sludge fuzz now - while the Blackhawk Balrog still has a little more low-end resonance. The Altar though is even more expansive - properly doomy and high gain, and you can turn it to pretty much any fuzz purpose as the gain range here, volume and EQ is vast. I was hugely impressed with all 5 Lichtlaerm Audio pedals that I added to the collection this year - and this is one of the very best!

One of my very favourite high gain Metal Distortions - the Gehenna has all the flavour I need - including a thundering and pounding low end. The overall distortion texture is fully poised and visceral. Daniel Ringl has really calibrated this one brilliantly it consistently sounds amazing in my chain!

Thorpy's signature Tube Preamp Plexi for Chris Buck was another fantastic tube-powered masterpiece out this year. A really smart combination of wide-ranging touch-sensitive and dynamic Plexi with an ingenious Active High Pass Filter Boost! I rather unusual use the boost to cut low-end for a more Rhythm style tone, while without the boost is my solo lead voicing - somewhat topsy-turvy in setup, and very much atypical - but it works really well for me!

Another one of this year's surprises - Josh Scott's first foray into High Gain Heavy Metal, and what a superb thick and densely textured pedal this was. The 3-Band EQ with Semi-Parametric Mids really hits the spot in a most distinctive way. It does heavy hard rock particularly well - and in a pretty unique fashion - this is actually a wonderful and slightly different high gain pedal - I really like it! Also great for chuggy style sounds - that thick and dense core texture really hits hard!

There really isn't much more to say about my Sinvertek MGAT-1 Golden Ear DS99 MIAB Hyper Preamp. Surely the ultimate full-range MIAB - which takes you from fully Marshall Clean all the way up to the heaviest of JVM style Metal High Gain. I thought the last iteration of this was surely the peak of this format - while Mr Wu managed to eke even more out of the Golden Era variant - just everyday superb! If you love Marshall tones - you most definitely need this!

Another one of my steadfasts! The Alchemy Audio Modded Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor is still my noise gate of choice. I've tried various different ones over the years - while this one still seems the most natural and least intrusive of all of those. Notable I did not get on with the new MDP style Boss NS-1X - what seemed to add some odd digital artefacts into my chain - long live the NS-2 I suppose!

My Post Balancing EQ and Boost is also still standing strong. Really does what I need it to in the most elegant of fashions. This is a totally essential pedal for me - and that mighty independent clean boost comes in handy a lot too. For the EQ's I'm mostly just deploying shelving filters, and slightly augmenting the high end sparkle and reducing the potential of low end roominess. Such a precise device - Empress really did a proper job on his - another pedal that is every way superb. I've kind of patched up with Empress, while the reference visual here is still sporting Rebel Jedi Alliance Livery!

Another superb performer for me - makes everything sound pristine! I might need another at the other end - as I'm about to swap out the JA Prism (has buffer) for the DryBell Unit67 (no buffer!).

Simply and by far and away my favourite phaser pedal of all time - in terms of sounds, features, looks - the whole package is just perfect for my sensibilities and preferences - this Beetronics Larva Dual Morphing Phaser is such a joy to deploy - another killer pedal that is every-way superb!

Following my favourite ever Phaser funnily enough is my favourite ever Flanger - the Krozz Devices Airborn - the most fullest flavour of flanger within a really smart feature set - where you can kick in some serious flange flutter too. An extraordinarily flavourful flanger - fantastic on both Jet Flanger and EVH Flanger duties - so much to love here!

Completing my modulation trifecta is the PastFX Kurt's Cologne Chorus - which covers 3 eras / decades of EXH Small Clone. This is another superior sounding modulating - and this one has stereo output too. Combined with a perfect control topology for maximum impact - wonderful sounding Chorus - with a vast amount of range!

I had to significantly 're-wire' the board to accommodate this full stereo multi-gain-machine. Superb 56 Amps-in-a-box confection - really smartly executed - as with the previous Poly Flat V and Verbs devices. This one still has an odd boot-up routine which doesn't render quite 100% of the time but works really well the vast majority of the time. Looks great, sounds great, and is easy to operate!

A fantastic stereo Multi-Modulator with advanced features, 18 Algorithms, and 9 instantly accessible presets in A/B/C-threes. The new three-segment screen is fantastic, and this is now by far and away the best multi-modulator in compact format. The whole Lo-Fi side of things is utterly genius too. A really smart device every which way!

Chase Bliss released a number of cool pedals this year - I acquired the Onward at its time of release, could not acquire either of the recent Billy Strings Envelope Iteration of Wombtone or Dirt Bird Condor - which was a lucky draw within the Mystery Box - but both of those have the RoHS restricted Vactrol parts - which makes them only available in the USA. I was hoping to get the Clean from the Mystery Box project - where I was fortunate to receive a second Onward, alongside an AC Noises Ricorda Reverb. So I'm looking to swap my second Onward for a Clean hopefully - just waiting for someone in London to become the other end of the deal - there's plenty of time for that in any case. The onward is fantastic dynamic envelope micro-sampler repeater / modulator - which manipulates your recorded signal in various interesting ways before it outputs it. I've really enjoyed this one over the years - it's kind of adjacent to the MODD - a lot of fun to deploy in any case!

My Eventide H90 is still going strong too - I dip into that fairly liberally, but weirdly it's very much a secondary effects pedal for me - where I have other primary ones that I tend to use more - including the recent Walrus Mako II [M1] - the H90 is typically used for secondary Modulation, Harmonizing, Delays and Reverb Effects mostly. Eventide keeps expanding the range of this pedal - while I'm not sure where we are with the Bluetooth App currently - still a marvellous Multi-Modulator and Mulit-FX though. Some have suggested I replace it, my Delay Workstation and Reverb Workstation - with the Fracal VP4 unit - which is rather a little too large for me. But they're missing the point in any case - I favour individual stompboxes mostly. If I wanted to go with as few boxes as possible - surely I would go with either the Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Fender Tone Master Pro and similar!

I've been so enamoured with the Flower Pedals Dahlia ever since I got it - another perfect pedal as far as I'm concerned - a gorgeous full stereo modulated Analog BBD Delay - with so many extras all in this compact enclosure. Just an all-round great engineering achievement - really smartly executed here - and really intuitive to use - fabulous every with way1

The TC Mimiq is still an absolute essential for me - 'fairy dust' for stereo rigs - makes everything sound grander and more immersive. Me and Brian Wampler really love this one - sure it's a smart double-tracker of sorts - but it really does do something magical to my rig in particular - one of my always always-on pedals!

This is weirdly Boss's only compact pedal release of the year - and sure it's a really good one - but it's kind of odd that we've only had one new classic Boss Compact Pedal in a whole year. 2024 was of course mostly about the 3rd Generation of Katana Amps - with a slew of new amps released - including my new Gen 3 Artist Edition, and Katana-Mini X. This SDE-3 shrink-down of the SDE-3000 - has been universally well received - it's such a smart Dual Digital Delay - and the second stereo channel Offset feauture - suggested by my good friend Matt Knight - is utterly genius. A very unique modulation too - where a little goes a long long way!

The Hologram Microcosm has been on this slot since the start of last year now - I've had spells with where I've used it quite a lot, but for the majority of the time it's more of an occasional punch-in effect. Still sounds magical! I'm still thinking of getting in the Endorphin.es Ghost Pedal in on the rotation on this slot - to alternate with the Microcosm - I feel that the Ghost Pedal can deliver some similar but differentiated flavours along similar lines - although there is no particular priority on that - and it's been an intended move for a while now - it all depends on the nature of the opportunity!

The Empress EchoSystem is back on duty on this slot at last - my favourite delay pedal of all time - and taking over the Boss DM-101 - where the Flower Pedals Dahlia has taken over the Analog Delay duties. That has all allowed me to re-wire the board back into a more conventional linear arrangement. The DM-101's MISO nature has long made for challenging deployment of this pedal within a stereo rig. I'm delighted that things are back to a more conventional basis! The EchoSystem really is fantastic!

The BigSky MX is a wonderful device - and surely my likeliest favourite Reverb Workstation pedal of the current crop - while I also really love the Empress Reverb, Poly Verbs, and Source Audio Ventris. The MX's combination of extensive feature set and incredibly ease of use are what make this such a suitable pedal for my preferences. Some of those Reverb workstations are really tricky to get to grips with - while the best ones are intuitive and effortless. There are so many great improvements here compared to the original variety - and the much larger screen makes a big difference too!

To be fair I've not used the RC-600 too much this year - and my electric Cello seems to be sort of staring at me somewhat impatiently - hoping that I take it for a spin again soon. It's been an incredibly busy year - and I've just not found the time to carry on that particular journey. Really nice to have all the power on-tap - and I promise to make better use of it again next year. I bought a whole load of further instruments and percussive devices to use with the looper - but a number of those didn't really gel / workout - the electric Cello is almost always sensational - but oddly doesn't get along with every effect pedal - some sound great - and some sound distinctly unimpressive in combination. Where I'm at at the minute - the RC-600 is probably a little overkill - but it still makes sense for me to have it their on-tap as such - of when I really need it!