2022 March Pedal-Chain Update - Episode III - Cosmic Transmissions

Quite a few new Overdrives this month as I start to ramp up towards my annual Overdrives Rundown feature - which is currently coming together nicely and where I'm looking to add a few more of those classics before I go live with my selection. 5 of these recent additions go into that rundown - where you will need to wait for the reveal - shouldn't be too long!

The Missing Link Audio pair arrived quite late in the month - so that feature will be appearing later this week or early next. I've been watching a lot of Shane 'In the Blues' Diiorio these days - which prompted my acquisition of the Royal Flush Gold Edition - that's temporarily pushed out the Golden Royale. I also acquired the Neunaber Neuron which will be covered in an upcoming feature on Digital Overdrives - I'm actually very pleasantly surprised by that. It does require a bit of due diligence and patience on the dial-in - but you can get some pretty superb tones out of it - all saved to one of 6 handy Presets - just a really cool pedal which is currently discounted in several places - including Andertons from where I procured mine! :

• Audio Kitchen Fake Plastic Trees Preamp
• Barber Electronics Gain Changer SR Overdrive
• CKK SH-1N Scream Honey Gold Edition
• J Rockett Rockaway Archer Steve Stevens Signature Overdrive
• JHS Overdrive Preamp
• Missing Link Audio Germanium Peacock Overdrive
• Missing Link Audio HotLanta Dual Drive
• Neunaber Neuron Gain Intelligence Digital Multi-Drive
• VS Audio Golden Royal Flush Dual Drive

Again a few here that I've not had time to cover yet, in fact some are missing demos - so at least one of these will appear early April :

• Demiurge Instruments one off Dual Channel Diezel VH4 Preamp
• Drunk Beaver Fat Bat Rat
• Funny Little Boxes 1991 Distortion (Pearl Jam '10' Tones)[TS808>JCM800]
• KMA Machines Wurm 2 Compact High Gain HM-2 Style Distortion
• Zander Circuitry Terra Firma Power Amp Distortion

Another major month for Fuzzes - with some really heavy hitters - including 5 exceptional Germanium varieties, and one incredible tiny muff! :

• BIG EAR pedals SLICE OF PIE PIZZA FUZZ (Triangle Big Muff)
• David Main Amphetlabs Silicon Tone Bender (Jumbo Tone Bender Muff)
• Drunk Beaver Silicon Fuzz Master (Maestro FZ-1S)
• Free Fall Diver Huge Mini Muff Fuzz
• Ibanez Mini 850 Muff Style Fuzz
• Keeley Electronics Hybrid Fuzz Bender Ghost Prism Edition
• Mastro Valvola OFF1 Octave Fuzz Filter
• Red Noise Pedals Stone Blender Germanium Matsushita 2SB352 Transistor Multi-Bender Fuzz
• Silktone Germanium Fuzz (Face)
• Skreddy 1966 Modernised Fuzz Face (2N3903) [Germanium Sounding Silicon - Type III]
• ThorpyFX Boneyard Germanium Multi-Bender Fuzz
• Triungulo Lab Scar Fuzz (2000 NYC Muff)
• VS Audio Andora Germanium Fuzz Face
• Zander Circuitry Cafetiere DistortoFuzz

Obviously one of the big changes this month - where long-term target the Wampler Terraform steps in for the GT-1000 CORE. I've long said that the 11 Modulations on the Terraform are the perfect mix of algorithms - and I've not been disappointed with said pedal yet - while I would have liked some sort of tone control probably just to be able to better shape the high and low end. The Terraform is still one of the very best Multi-Modulators out there. It's not entirely perfect, but it has some very useful tones onboard.

• Wampler Terraform Multi-Modulator / Workstation

And finally the superb latest editions of Roland / Boss Space Echo - superbly engineered by Boss. The most flavoursome of Tape-Style-Delays yet - with amazing levels of detail. The RE-202 knocks out my former favourite Volante - which I still love - while the RE-202 delivers a greater depth of richness - with soul! And moreover is easier overall to operate than the Volante - including on the Preset selections. The Volante still has some aces up its sleeve - while on balance I really prefer the RE-202 which should own that slot for a very long time! The RE-2 is amazing too - especially when space is tight! :

• Boss RE-2 Space Echo Compact
• Boss RE-202 Space Echo Deluxe

15 slots updated for the month - including 12 entirely new pedals, and 3 new to me! The following slots are changed : Slot #5, #9, #10, #11, #12, #15, #15B (power-supply branch!), #20, #21, #23, #24, #27, #34, #35, #38.

Obviously a lot of those are fairly temporary including #34 which will soon swap around again and bring back the Stereo Analog Chorus. Some of those effects are slightly out of position where I tried them on a few slots but ended up in that configuration as I liked the results and the few quirks I found along the way.

As mentioned in the intro - the change on Slot #35 (swap out of GT-1000 CORE) in particular meant that I had to recalibrate the whole chain - core EQ values etc, and re-tune both Amps - which always takes a few days to master - where I only stop tweaking when I'm fully satisfied. I would say that some tweakery may still remain as I'm currently only at around 98/99% satisfied!

Note that as before Green denotes New pedals released this year - or very late last year, while Yellow denotes somewhat older pedals that are simply New to me!

In any case here follow the key changes for the month! :

I was really looking forward to share this one for quite a while - as the ThorpyFX Boneyard Germanium Multi-Bender is a really magnificent achievement of engineering. I now have several Multi-Benders in the collection - where The Boneyard reigns supreme. It's just more visceral and full-flavoured than anything else out there - and I have some very fine examples of Multi-Benders which I will soon be compiling into a single article. Congratulations to all who managed to snag one of these - it really is exceptional if you know how to make the most of it!

So I've been watching a lot of Shane 'In The Blues' Diiorio demos these days, and noted how great his VS Audio Royal Flush was sounding - so I decided I should get one for myself! Which temporarily displaces my long-term favourite Golden Royale. The Royal Flush really sounds great, and will hold onto this slot until the inevitable arrival of the King Tone 2022 Duellist - which will likely happen in the next month or three.

A pedal that I thought I had missed out on last year but came back around in an improved limited edition - the CKK SH-1N Scream Honey Gold Edition Overdrive. I was very lucky to get one of these and I can vouch that it's a magnificent high headroom transparent / minimal colouring overdrive. A couple of my friends who own both original and gold editions confirm that the newer variety is slightly brighter and more pristine, while the earlier version is somewhat 'fatter' in comparison - but by really tiny margins!

The Barber Electronics Gain Changer Overdrive has long been on my wishlist - there are no Barber dealers in the UK nowadays, so I had to get one from nearest dealer - which just happens to be Haar Guitars in the Netherlands. This is a really smart overdrive with a 3-way EQ settings toggle and High and Low Gain switch to supplement a typical 3-knob topology. There's a significant range of gain structure and shaping onboard this pedal - which is a culmination of several earlier models of Barber Overdrives - SR, LTD and UnLTD.

My first introduction to Italian brand Triungulo Lab is the suitably impressive Scar Fuzz - a really smart extended-range take on John Frusciante's favourite 2000 NYC Edition Big Muff Pi. This offers quite a bit more shaping than the typical 3-knob Muff, while those who favour Vick Audio style muffs will be in the main familiar with what this pedal is capable of.

I am incredibly impressed by Audio Kitchen's Fake Plastic Trees Preamp which produces amazingly dynamic EL84 style tones from a solid state circuit - utilising some exceptional Audio Transformers. This is just the kind of pedal I really admire - making modern circuits sound just as rich, vibrant and nuanced as their tube-powered original inspirations.

A Holy Grail pedal for me for sure - which I had been chasing for 3 to 4 years now - the Free Fall Diver Huge Mini Muff Fuzz is so impressive for its output - particularly considering how small it is, and how immense a soundstage it produces. A modern classic in the making for sure!

This fuzz is actually appearing sort of out of position - where its Octave section really means it needs to be on slot #5 for accurate tracking. I've had the Mastro Valvola OFF1 Octaves Fuzz Filter on both Slots #5 and #20 this month - while I actually prefer playing with the glitchy tracking errors you get this far down the chain. The glitchy tracking just adds another really cool organic element to the playback - where it goes warbly on the sustain - but to great effect really!

Even though the BIG EAR pedals SLICE OF PIE PIZZA FUZZ Triangle-style Muff looks very much like a novelty - BIG EAR pedals and Mythos have done an incredible job on the circuit design and calibration - and this is a really fine slightly lower gain take on a Triangle style Muff - sounds suitably full-frequency and fully textured - in fact much like the flavours of a perfectly balanced pizza with just the right distribution of toppings!

I really love Alex Millar's Zander Circuitry Compacts, and added numbers 7 and 8 to my collection this month - where both have some degree of similarity - while the Cafetiere DistortoFuzz Harmonic Percolator is slightly more wiry and fuzzy overall - particularly with clever application of the Starve and Input Gain Controls.

Zander Circuitry's new version of Terra Firma Power Amp Distortion Model T style pedal is another formidable take on that preamp. Not quite as live-wire as my Kuro Exegol - while still hugely impressive. Has a fairly unique Alex-style Tone Stack with conventional Big Muff style tone control and then two further dials to set the cut-off points for those High and Low Pass Filters.

Enrico Preuß is on fire these days - and his KMA Machines Wurm 2 Compact HM-2 Style High Gain Distortion is a really impressive improvement of his former mid-size BB enclosured Wurm. It goes a few stage more clever than its predecessor with slimmer enclosure with top-mounted jacks, alongside externalised formerly internal voicing switch. Every bit as great sounding as its predecessor - just much smarter in every way!

A temporary displacement for March sees the Boss RE-2 Compact Stereo Space Echo take over the former Stereo Analog Chorus slot. Of course this month was the big launch event for Boss's re-tooled Space Echos - and of course I had to have both in the chain to compare head-to-head. The more compact RE-2 edition can sound every bit as impressive as its bigger luxe RE-202 sibling while that has significantly more granularity and tweakability - and also greater ease of use courtesy of onboard presets. The compact earns its place too with having near enough everything onboard in a much smaller unit.

One of the big changes this month sees the GT-1000 Core being retired for now - with long-term target the Wampler Terraform Multi-Modulator / Modulation Workstation in its place. My perfect Multi-Modulator is my GFI Synesthesia - while that is Mono input only which means it doesn't really fit in since I started using more stereo based individual modulations. The Terraform has the perfect mix of Modulation Algorithms - with all my favourites onboard in a really neat format. Would have preferred to have a Preset onboard for every algorithm - but 8 vs 11 is still pretty decent!

And finally to the king of the Tape Style Delay units as far as I'm concerned. Of course I still love my Strymon Volante - and that does some really neat things that no other pedal of this kind does. While I much prefer the new Boss RE-202 Deluxe Stereo Space Echo - which is easier to control and deploy, and produces a somewhat richer and more detailed / textured output.