2021 August Pedal-Chain Update - Episode VIII - Good Reverberations

With quite the onslaught of Overdrives this year - August has been something of a hiatus - while I did pick up a pristine Boss SD-2 - or rather it finally landed! There are also a few of Mini Overdrives on my imminent acquisition list - including the Becos FX Ziffer, and MXR Timmy.

• Boss SD-2 Dual OverDrive

Good to see that Fuzz reigned supreme again in August with 8 acquisitions - including a couple of long-term targets - the Pettyjohn Fuze and Caroline GC Hawaiian Pizza - which I'm so glad to finally have got my hands on. And I'm delighted I managed to pick up that really cool CCCP edition variation. I also picked up a Mu-Tron Octavider+ which I had been intending to get for a while - from my good friend Joe Light's Joe's Pedals boutique.

I persuaded good friend Grant Wilson to make me a long-discontinued Chaka Octave Fuzz - in fact he made three - using the remaining enclosures he found in stock - all sold by now. I was also hugely impressed with the Mini Hendrix Psych Series Fuzzes - the Fuzz Face in particularly with its proper cool metal can NTE158 and BC108B Transistor combination. And I still need to get the MXR 108 Mini at some stage too.

Tom Cram's Spiral Electric FX Demhe is also superb - Based on the Black Rose / Spiral Black, but also supposedly with some Carcosa DNA - it sounds fantastic in any case and is superbly versatile :

• Big Ear Pedals Chaka Octave Fuzz
• Caroline Guitar Co Ltd Edition 2021 CCCP Hawaiian Pizza
• Mu-Tron Octavider+ Octave Fuzz
• MXR Jimi Hendrix Psych Series Gypsy Fuzz Mini
• MXR Jimi Hendrix Psych Series Fuzz Face Mini
• MXR Jimi Hendrix Psych Series Octavio Octave Fuzz Mini
• Pettyjohn Electronics Fuze Dual Fuzz/Distortion
• Spiral Electric FX Demhe Compact Silicon Transistor Fuzz

I'm up to 9 out of 10 pedals for my recent HM-2 Capsule Collection target group (per above visual) - having been very fortunate to pick up a Black and Orange variety of Abominable PBF Chaotic Evil Ned. Patrick Emmons said he would never make any more of those - and as luck would have it - one pristine example appeared on Reverb.com at just the right time. I also managed to get in on the first batch of KMA Machines Guardian of the Wurm - so many thanks to Enrico Preuß for the assist there. Just the Blackhawk Amplifiers' Heimdall II remains now - which will happen soon enough - while I will be getting Blackhawk's Mithrandir Octave Fuzz and Valhalla V3 Deluxe fuzzes first!

I've also connected with Joe Maxwell of Demiurge Instruments - where I had long intended to pick up one of his Doomy O)))'s - which has now happened. And I will be acquiring his Black Mountain Signal Deluxe pedal next - before doing a feature on that pair.

I also picked up the third of the Drunk Beaver Bat Trifecta - actually the V2 of the Standard Version (with added 3-way Bass Boost). I've already written and loaded the article for that - just waiting for more to come into stock on Vitalii's Drunk Beaver Reverb.com Store before going live :

• Abominable Electronics Pedalboard-friendly Chaotic Evil Ned HM-2 Style Distortion
• Demiurge Doomy O))) Distortion (Compact Life Pedal Clone)
• Drunk Beaver Standard Bat Distortion
• KMA Machines Guardian of the Wurm HM-2 Style Distortion

My own current 11 Phaser Pedals above (Zelzah is on the way).

Phaser is obviously the big modulation flavour for the year - where I ordered the Strymon Zelzah this month, my Magnetic Effects Eye-to-Eye landed, and the Sitek Phasia launched - which I had had for a while by then. In fact 5 Phasers have been added to the collection this year - bringing my perosnal Phaser total to 11 per the above visual - which should be enough for now! While I'd still quite like a Mu-Tron Phasor III too - and the Deluxe Foot Fuzz from PastFX - oh and I'd really quite like an MXR Phase 99 - which seems in very short supply currently - probably should have snagged that one sooner as it's quite long since discontined now!

I of course also picked up the cool Hendrix Psych Series Mini Uni-Vibe, and two other long-term targets - the EHX Mainframe, and Subdecay Prometheus DLX with black knobs! :

• EHX Mainframe Bitcrusher
• Magnetic Effects Datsuns Eye to Eye 4-Stage OTA Analog Phaser
• MXR Jimi Hendrix Psych Series Uni-Vibe Mini
• Subdecay Prometheus DLX Filter
• Sitek Guitar Electronics Phasia Analog OTA Phase-Shifter

I'm very excited to have gotten a Neunaber Illumine quite so quickly - and have been familiarising myself with it over the bank holiday weekend. The menu really is very intuitive. The only thing I struggled with initially was why only 9 presets cycled around via the footswitches - where the penny finally dropped and I figured out that I had to switch all those others from the 'Skips Preset' to 'Recalls Preset' setting - a neat feature for sure - but I like to be able to cycle between all presets initially while I get acclimatised - so distinctly odd that only 9 should be default enabled - not a big issue though once I figured it out. This pedal is for sure all Thriller and all Killer - so a hearty congratulations to Brian Neunaber for that achievement - this really is a fantastic device. Also props to Brian for reaching out to me to see how I was getting on with it. This will for sure be my reverb of choice for quite some time to come - and pushes back the CXM 1978 acquisition well into next year - I'm really not in any hurry to get another reverb now! :

• Neunaber Illumine Stereo Reverb Workstation

This has been some time coming - as I have a few Boss pedals that could do with a Remote mini switch - including the JB-2 Angry Driver - and of course my recently arrived SD-2 Dual Overdrive. The Bright Onion Micro Switch is really the perfect format - and I will likely get another of these soon too! :

• Bright Onion Pedals Boss Micro Remote Switch

Obviously a return to 'normal' this month after last month's Boss takeover. Of course we see the return of some of those established favourites, and some lateral movement too. I so like my Pettyjohn Gold II - that really is my favourite Plexi voicing - so I've put that back in on Slot #18, and moved my other favourite MIAB - the Room #40 to Slot #23 - taking over from the equally superb Sinvertek N5+. As I've said before, I now have so many favourite pedals on each slot that there is almost constant rotation going on as established favourites get rotated in fairly regularly. But generally here and now the Gold II is the Plexi of choice and the Room #40 is the JCM800 / Brown Sound mainstay.

All pedals appearing this month have been reviewed already, and I will be following up with further insights on the Neunaber Illumine soon enough, as well as the Strymon Zelzah when that arrives in a week or two. The Zelzah will take over as the mainstay Phaser - while all of this year's acquisitions will be in fairly healthy rotation - including of course the formidable Pulse Doppler and Phasia Analog varieties.

The Zelzah means that Phasers are now going to be on slot #34, and will essentially swap rosters with that current Slot's inhabitants - meaning glitch and sundries will now be on #33! The Alexander Sugarcube is obviously back for a duration - where I'm running each of its 4 algorithms through its paces. It's certainly a handy pedal - while I have even better preferred versions of Chorus, Dimension and Rotary flavours. Probably the best Compact Rotary Stereo pedal currently - while I marginally prefer the sounds of my Tech21NYC RotoChoir and H9 Josh Smith Settings!

Here follow the key changes :

The Spiral Electric FX Demhe Silicon Fuzz shares its DNA with the Black Rose / Spiral Black and DOD Carcosa Fuzz - for a supreme everyday highly versatile fuzz. It is so shapeable and sounds immense every which way. Works with guitar knob clean-up also to a certain extent. This is such an easy fuzz to dial in great tones with - for sure the perfect starter fuzz for newbies - and pros can of course get quite a bit more out of it!

I've wanted the Pettyjohn Electronics Fuze Dual Fuzz / Distortion pedal for quite a while - it's been discontinued for a couple of years now. This is pleasingly somewhat milder than I though it might be - with incredibly usable tones every which way. This is actually quite a bit more elegant than I could have imagined - and really doesn't go to those extreme fuzzstortion peaks - kind of running to slightly more moderate levels - which is perfect for a Fuzzy-Drive! A really neat feature here is how you blend the Fuzz with the Distortion circuit in any combination - and the 2-Band EQ makes it all that much more versatile - a really handy fuzzy-drive for sure.

I've long been after the Caroline Guitar Co Hawaiian Pizza Fuzz / Fuzzy-Drive pedal - but didn't really want the standard edition and was biding my time for something a little more special to materialise. For some reason I never clocked the CCCP Soviet edition what was released alongside the tri-coloured USA 4th of July Edition this year - all the promotion seemed to be on that other model. So when searching recently for Hawaiian Pizzas on Reverb.com I was delighted to see that a UK collector had one of the CCCP limited editions up for sale and had recently dropped his price. This is just the perfect Fuzzy-Drive with the perfect balance of overdrive with harmonic fuzz texture!

Initially I was going to make the Way Huge Atreides Analog Weirding Module the mainstay for this month - as I have had it for months already - and it's not yet got a proper innings. But Grant Wilsons's Big Ear Pedals Chaka Octave Fuzz that he recently made specially for me rather deserved the slot for this month. I'm not sure whether this is a version of Foxx Tone Machine Fuzz or something fairly adjacent to that - certainly has a similar circuitboard topology. This sounds fantastic in any case - the Fuzz on its own for fat juicy riffs, and the Octave mode for searing solos and melody lines!

I'm so happy to have been finally able to reveal the full potential of this beast - where the Drunk Beaver Heavy Bat really is the Ultimate Ultra-Rat. If you're a Rat fan you need one of these for sure - with a choice of 4 Opamps, 8 Clipping Options per each of the two Channels - and a choice of Standard EQ (Filter) or 3-Band HM-2 Style EQ - there's nothing anywhere close to this out there! Also has a cool Clean Blend - for sure the most feature-packed Rat style pedal currently out there!

While the ThorpyFX Camoflange Flanger remains my favourite flanger overall, and for sure favourite Authentic Vintage Style variety. Where the Spaceman Effects Aurora Analog Flanger gives a few more modern and unusual Modes of flanging - so that's in the chain for a rotation or two - before I bring the Camoflange back into line.

I've acquired no less than 5 new phasers this year - all unique and distinct - and all vying for attention on this #33 Slot. Right now the Sitek Guitar Electronics Phasia Analog OTA Phase-Shifter gets its turn in the rotation - before the Strymon Zelzah takes over next. This year 4 of my new phasers are analog, and the Zelzah is of course digital - but with a hugely expanded range. That said the Sitek Phasia is a glorious aqueous delight and delivers the best of vintage and modern phasing with the least amounts of control, and the maximum of phase textures - particularly for Asymmetrical Hypertriangular Waveshape on 6-Stage Mode!

I had some reservations about having just a 2-knob control topology - but actually the Neunaber Illumine Stereo Reverb Workstation is pretty ingenious, really intuitive and really easy to pick up. Only quirk so far is having to enable all the different User Presets for foot-switchable control - only 9 Presets are selected by default - which means you need to access the other 41 and change the relevant setting from 'Skips Preset' to 'Recalls Preset'. I'm currently still getting a feel for all those presets - and it's obvious that there are numerous killer ones onboard. So far this totally lives up to its promise!