2021 September Pedal-Chain Update - Episode IX, Vibin' in Stereo!

Obviously heavy on the PastFX here - while my Interchange Noise Works Streamline series also finally arrived after much delay. The Paul Gilbert MojoMojo arrived only relatively recently, and I finally sprung for a Walrus Audio Ages - as part of a pair with the Eras - over a year after that was launched!

The Chroma Drive is in the chain, and the PC GC-1 is just taking a while to materialise - which is likely par for the course for Pete Cornish pedals - hopefully I will have that as early as next week.

• Demiurge Instruments Chroma Drive
• Interchange Noise Works Streamline Series I - Gritty Overdrive
• Interchange Noise Works Streamline Series II - Light Overdrive
• PastFX Canberra (Carrera Overdrive)
• PastFX Power Booster (Colorsound Overdriver)
• PastFX TD-Y Tube Driver
• TC Electronic MojoMojo Paul Gilbert Edition
• Walrus Audio Ages 5-State Overdrive

Obviously quite a few fuzzes have arrived by this point - and many have been on the board already - albeit not officially. I was very happy to get my Blackhawk Copper Hammertone variety fuzzes in - and there will be a review of those in due time. The Coopersonic Germanium has been on the board for a short while too - while the only two here that are officially on the board so far are the Expandora Squared Compact LM308 Edition, and the Reeves Electro RedDotSound. Many here arrived really very recently. You will be reading a lot more about the others fairly soon. While I have a secret Blackhawk pedal release feature to complete before I can focus on the two Coppertone varieties.

The Drunk Beaver Fluff Octave Fuzz has so far spent one week in UK customs, and has taken 4 days already to get from Greenford to Paddington - a journey of a whopping 7 miles / 11 km - 'could have walked it'! Either Britain is overall degenerating further, or the Post Office specifically is getting ever more incompetent. Royal Mail Customer Service wholly where wholly clueless and entirely useless as ever!

• Blackhawk Amplifiers Mithrandir Octave Fuzz Coppertone Edition
• Blackhawk Amplifiers Valhalla V3 Deluxe Sludgy Fuzz Coppertone Edition
• Coopersonic Germaniac Fuzz
• Expandora Squared LM308 Edition Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz
• PastFX Patriarch / Patriot II - PC P-2
• PastFX Revolution / Evolution - PC G-2
• Reeves Electro RedDotSound (MKII)
• Skreddy Pedals Cognitive Dissonance MKIV Distortion

Here the Demiurge Doomy O))) has gone in on the board, while I've not really had a chance yet to put most of those others through their paces. I'm still waiting for a demo to materialise for the Bardic Audio Thunderclap V3. While I'm delighted to have got my hands on a Mr Black Thunderclaw at last - as a follow-up to my recent Rabea feature. And of course equally - if not more delighted to have gotten my hands on a Skreddy Zero after a sort of 3 year chase. The Walrus Eras has not been on the board yet...

• Bardic Audio Devices Thunderclap V3 Distortion
• Demiurge Instruments Doomy O))) Life Pedal Clone
• Interchange Noise Works Streamline Series III - Distortion / Fuzz
• Mr Black Thunderclaw Distortion
• Skreddy Pedals Zero Distortion
• Walrus Audio Eras 5-State Distortion

I was so keen to get these two on the board that I was willing to pay import fees from abroad - they arrived a lot quicker than at UK dealers - where I had both of these within the first week of the month - so have benefited from extended playback. As mentioned, I needed to rejig the modulation section to accommodate the Zelzah for full stereo playback. The Zelzah came from Coast Sonic (Strymon don't ship to Europe), and the Delta II came from good friend Scott Hager at Axe and You Shall Receive.

• Spaceman Effects Delta II Harmonic Tremolo
• Strymon Zelzah 4-Stage + 6-Stage Stereo Multidimensional Phaser

Order totally changed on Slots #30 through #34.

This used to be : Chorus > Flanger > Tremolo > Phaser > Glitch / Rotary / Uni-Vibe

While it's now : Flanger > Tremolo > Rotary / Glitch / Uni-Vibe > Chorus > Phaser

That is determined to a large degree by the Rotary only having Mono input - which then outputs fully in stereo - which is carried through the rest of the chain. I now need to find other suitable compact stereo reverbs to use in this formation as alternative rotations!

Here follow the key changes for September :

I was really hoping to have a Boss SY-200 Synthesizer by the end of this month - to step in and step up from my well-loved SY-1. The SY-200 obviously takes all that to the next level as I detailed in my recent review. Relatively few of these were made for promotional purposes and those rightly just went out to the YouTube demo guys. I will hopefully have my own example before too long! There have been some supply chain issues out of Japan of late - so it could be mid to late October to late November for these to get generally into circulation.

I took delivery of my Reeves Electro RedDotSound Jnr Silicon MKII Fuzz very recently - it arrived this last Saturday - and obviously went straight in on the board as I really loved its BlackHatSound sibling. This is every bit as impressive - possibly not quite as visceral, but I'm really loving it so far - and its guitar volume cleanup is extraordinary. Certainly one of my favourite fuzzes - while slot #5 does see a lot of changes as I'm so keen on fuzzes and there are always several new ones inbound every month!

Taking up the rotation here for a while is the Demiurge Instruments Chroma Drive - which is essentially a Silicon RangeMaster into an Electra circuit. Where you have Gain and Level control over 2 gain stages, and then a Full-Frequency to Treble-Booster Range / EQ control. The breakup texture is great here and this is a really versatile overdrive with an extended range of tones and textures.

I've obviously just recently reviewed the Expandora Compact Square LM308 Edition - and it's great on the Crunch and Overdrive Modes, OK on Distortion - but not so great on Fuzz / Forbidden Mode - where it's just too compressed, dense and gated to be of any proper use! And it's not the interesting zingy gating like on the Blackhawk Fellbeast - but more of a throttle / choked output profile.

The Way Huge Atreides Analog Weirding Module Sub-Octave Filter Fuzz Phaser has been on and off the board a few times - while it hasn't really had an official innings yet - now's the time! Just a really cool synth fuzz style effect with all kinds of amazing sweeping modulation weirdness!

I'm a huge fan of my EQD Life Pedal V2 and the Demiurge Instruments Doomy O))) Octave Distortion gives me that same great flavour - with a slightly better behaved octave element - in a cuter and more compact pedalboard-friendly format. The artwork is a really clever contrast to the Doomy moniker.

The first of my Blackhawk Amplifiers Trifecta is the Basilisk Warm Mid Gain Fuzz which works great into the Balrog and Basilisk. It has a really cool midsy bark to its output - just a really interesting texture of fuzz in its own right - which stacks particularly well with the Balrog.

Second of the Blackhawk Trifecta is the Fellbeast V2 High Gain Fuzz with an Extremely Powerful EQ and really cool gating effect. There's a real knack here to dialling in the X-Gate just right - so you get that really cool almost PLL style fade-out / decay. This is a great gated fuzz with extensive texture and tone-shaping abilities.

And last of the Trifecta is of course my favourite Blackhawk to-date - the immense Balrog V3 High Gain Metal Distortion. I principally bought it because of a rather excellent doomy / sludgy demo (as here) which isn't necessarily its main intended territory but it works supremely as the ultimate doomy stoner sludge pedal - just really deep and immense sounding!

Taking the place of the JAM Pedals Monk for a rotation or two - the Spaceman Effects Delta II Harmonic Tremolo is not quite as thick and juicy as the Monk - which is still probably my favourite Harmonic Tremolo to-date, while the Delta offers up some of its own interesting flavours. Overall I still prefer the Monk - I like the granularity of the Delta, while it cannot wholly compete with the Monk which simply has the best Harmonic Tremolo voicing, and near enough the best Amplitude Tremolo voicing too!

I've been really impressed with the Strymon Zelzah Multidimensional Dual 4-Stage + 6-Stage Stereo Phaser and have obviously moved things around to accommodate it in full stereo. It's such a versatile pedal that by rights it should really have some onboard presets - it does so many things well - including pretty great versions of chorus, flanging, rotary, tremolo and auto-wah even.