2022 November Pedal-Chain Update - Episode XI - Looper Trooper

The biggest single inspiration for me was Jo Quail's Mandrel Cantus track (as below) - where I quickly came to the conclusion that I needed an electric cello for that task! Fun fact is that I used to play the cello many lifetimes ago - between recorder and violin - where the smaller stringed instrument got the most of my focus for the best part of 10 years. There is definitely a deep refresher required, while some of the techniques are starting to come back to me. I feel I need a few more Percussion devices - probably some bongos and wood blocks next. The idea behind the Pandeiro (Brazilian tambourine) is that it can recreate most of the sounds or thereabouts for a pretty full drum kit - while getting those samba rhythms down is yet another learning curve. What with the Cello, UBass, Kalimba and Pandeiro - and indeed using a Mic for 'sampling' - there's just a whole lot more going on above and beyond all my usual pedal testing and pedal-chain experimentation. The Cello in particular responds phenomenally to effects pedals - and you very quickly get into some pretty stellar sci-fi soundtrack sounds!

Beyond all the Looper Trooper stuff, I guess the biggest story this month was the new Eventide H90 Harmonizer - which I'm definitely getting early next year to swap out for my incumbent H9 Max. It's a very pricey proposition - $899 in the USA, and a weirdly whole £100 more in the UK @ £999 - obviously the distributor is taking a big slice there! Each year though I typically limit myself to one big ticket item - which was the Meris LVX this year. I will have to save up a little for the H90 - so I'm aiming to snap that up sometime in the first quarter of next year. January is usually 'Tax Month' and a touch slow-going to boot!

There were a few other notable releases this month which I've already covered off - where November was a big month for Boss, Empress Effects, and PastFX in particular. Pretty much half the slots flipped around this month for the penultimate monthly selection. The Class of 2022 will obviously be revealed towards the end of the year - and there are some fairly obvious shoe-ins there - of course based on new pedals released within the last 12 months or so.

I typically wind down for December in terms of pedal acquisitions as budgets get shifted to the Christmas programme - while of course December is when I do all my 'best of the year' rundowns - which takes an enormous amount of time and some really deep deliberations.

I hope you've enjoyed the journey this year - I will be taking a holiday for the last 2 weeks of December or so, and the first week of the new year. Of course all the end-of year 'best of' articles and the final Christmas (Xmas) and New Year greetings will be completed on schedule. It's been a tricky year - particularly with delivery issues - but it's all turned out pretty well in the end!

I really need to start slowing down! - as it's another 25 pedals for the reference collection this month. Most significantly this month Empress Effects is represented by 4 new entrants, while Past FX has 5.

Obviously there were two major projects this month - the Billy Gibbons style Overdrives and 'Full Metal Racket' Distortions - so a fair number of these are in service of those two categories.

By genre it's Distortion that takes the lead - obviously largely composed of the remaining constituent parts of the Full Metal Jacket rundown with 8 in total - including the magnificent Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1, Rainger FX Break Box, and Soldano Super Lead Overdrive.

Next we have 6 Modulations - including the superb Boss SL-2, JAM Pedals Seagull, and PastFX Quartet.

Then 5 superb Overdrives - including the really smart Kernom Ridge and Blackstone Mosfet.

Just 4 Fuzzes - but all strong, and of course the killer Empress ParaEQ MKII and handy TCE Ditto+ which has been on the wishlist for over a year!

Generally a really solid selection - with just a single cautionary tale in the guise of the Anarchy Audio Reignmaker which turned out to be somewhat under-powered!

Some really impressive overdrive this month - with the superb and innovative Kernom Ridge likely at the top of that pile. We then have the Blackstone Mosfet and Bogner La Grange a la Billy Gibbons, the updated PastFX TD-Y now with 3-Band EQ, and the first of the three pedals for the forthcoming Empress Singles vs Multidrive feature which will be appearing early next month :

• Blackstone MOSFET Overdrive
• Bogner La Grange MIAB Overdrive + Boost
• Empress Effects Germ Drive Mini
• Kernom Ridge Augmented Analog Overdrive
• PastFX TD-Y V2 5K Drive

One of my favourite ever pedals leads this selection - the inimitable Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1, where the others here are all incredibly strong too - with the exception of the Anarcy Audio Reignmaker - which I found to be somewhat significantly underpowered both Output Volume and Gain wise. It joins the Engl Powerball as a cautionary tale - both need to review what their competitors are doing! :

• Anarchy Audio Reignmaker High Gain Distortion
• Drunk Beaver Zaporizhzhia Preamp
• Empress Effects Distortion Mini
• Rainger FX Break Box Fuzzstortion / Sustainer / Scratch
• Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1 Ultimate MIAB
• Solar Guitars Chug High Gain Preamp
• Soldano Super Lead Overdrive
• Westminster Effects 2716 Seth Morrison Dual Rec Distortion

Another strong month for fuzzes - with both the Acorn ADHD and ThorpyFX BC108C Fallout Clout leading the line. The Black Mass Kill Chain arrived quite late this month, and the Empress Fuzz Mini will be properly featured in an upcoming article very soon :

• Acorn Amps ADHD - Adaptive Droning Hyperfuzz Device
• Black Mass Electronic Kill-Chain 1K Fuzz
• Empress Effects Fuzz Mini
• ThorpyFX Fallout Cloud BC108C Ltd 250 Edition

A superb month for Modulations too with the new Boss SL-2, PastFX Quartet of Flangers, Chorus and Phaser, and long-term wishlist item - the JAM Pedals Seagull Wah Filter with Gilmour 'Echoes' Squawk effect :

• Boss SL-2 Slicer
• JAM Pedals Seagull Wah Filter Pedal
• PastFX Elastic Mattress V3 Stereo Edition
• PastFX Foot Phaser Deluxe
• PastFX Hot for Flanger Level Edition  
• PastFX Stereo Chorus PX65 based on DOD FX65

2 top of the pile Utility Pedals this month - probably my favourite EQ pedal to-date - does everything I need it to do, and with pristine noiseless sound quality. And long-term wishlist item - the TCE Ditto+ Tweaker Input Looper - which I've been intending to get since I first featured it in June of 2020 - been a long time coming! Priorities / Priorities!

• Empress Effects ParaEQ V2 Compact Deluxe
• TC Electronics Ditto+ Looper

Just three new items for the Infinite Wishlist this month - one very significant. The Eventide H90 is a surefire shoe-in for Slot #39 - where it will replace its single channel older sibling. The H90 improves that format in every which way - while it comes a little late in the year for me to accommodate within budgets etc. So definitely top of the list for next year - as it has a dedicated destination slot already.

Both new Origin Effects overdrives this year have impressed me enormously - where the M-EQ Driver is slightly ahead of its Halcyon sibling in the pecking order. I will undoubtedly be getting both eventually - and will first need to see how friendly Simon Keats and co are towards me!.

Finally the OBNE BL-44 Reverse Effector is a really cool incidental / occasional effect that I really want for the collection - while it's not an immediate high priority - very nice to have though!

• Eventide H90 Harmonizer Multi-FX Workstation
• Old Blood New Endeavors BL-44 Reverse Effector
• Origin Effects M-EQ Driver Mid Booster & Drive

20 Slots changed in November - #1, #2, #5, #10, #11, #12, #15a, #15b #15c, #18, #19, #21, #23, #24, #26, #29, #31, #32, #33, #41 :

Because of the sheer volume of new entrants, not all are appearing on their most natural slot - for instance the Sinvertek MGAT-1 which will most likely take up semi-permanent residence on slot #24 (Brown Sound / JCM800), and hand back slot #18 back to the Pettyjohn Gold II for Plexi duties.

Also the middle #15 large format slot is still divided to accomodate 3 pedals - will be interesting what I decide up for that slot in the final Class of 2022 rundown - I've not done the number crunching yet!

Each row here is significantly impacted - while in real terms the RC-600 sits in front of the chain - with the RC-10R still in slot #41 but bypassed - the current visual representation is the only way I could fit everything in logically - while the RC-600 features somewhat significantly under its proper ratio size.

Obviously the EQ / Modulation row is particularly strong, and there are besides that a lot of distortion in the chain. Slots 10-12 are somewhat out of character too!

It's not often that nearly half the board changes around in a month - but luckily this month none of these changes had any unforeseen impact. One thing that has changed recently is that since I put 18V power supply onto the Tone Ink Raven - there's some kind of weird current distribution going on - meaning that I need to re-power-up the Meris LVX each time I launch the chain!

Generally though the output of the chain is pretty flawless now - but of course not without myriad complexities. I'm frequently my own worst enemy with all of this, and I don't really recommend how complicated things are for me - while I would never do it any way else! It's a really sound system for comparing and benchmarking pedals in any case! Very much focused on variety and versatility overall - albeit with lots of different options to accommodate any and every scenario in theory ... actually probably need to include a parallel mixer for that!

Even though it hardly ever features in these monthly updates, I often us a TC Electronic Ditto on this slot as what I call an 'Input Tweaker Looper'. Usually for the purposes of dialling in new pedals where I record a suitable riff and play back ad infinitum until I hit all the optimal sweet-spots on that pedal. I've been using the standard earlier Ditto Mini forever - where I've long since decided that I should upgrade to the newer Ditto+ edition - but it just hadn't happened yet - and it made perfect sense for it to happen this month - when I would be focusing on the Boss RC-600 too. The Ditto+ is most definitely the king of the mini loopers!

Another long-term wishlist item here - the JAM Pedals Seagull Wah Filter Gilmour 'Ehoes' Squawk Effect - something I identified as a target very early on this year. And now seemed a good time to add it to the reference collection. I'm a huge Gilmour fan, and I love having a standard and reverse Wah filter effect in one pedal.

The fuzz of choice this month on the most rotated slot in the chain - is the superb Acorn Amps ADHD - Adaptive Droning Hyperfuzz Device - which I'm defining as a pseudo PLL Fuzz Harmonizer - or like an even more simplified and usable version of something like the Beetronics Swarm. The 5 controls here are really easy to dial in and you're super quick to some great sweet-spot tones - which tend to be somewhat harder to come by on the more full-featured PLL types.

I've become a huge fan of the superbly versatile All-Pedal Slamurai Bushido Drive - which has some of the most incredible smooth overdrive sounds in particular onboard. It's back on principal overdrive duties for November. A somewhat under-the-radar overdrive for sure - but well worth getting your hands on!

The Aura Amps White Sugar MIAB Overdrive / Distortion is one of a pair of cool MIAB pedals new to the board at the same time - along with the Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1 Hyper Preamp.  Both appear somewhat out of their normally intended slots as there are so many new pedals to accommodate this month.

And so to the Drunk Beaver Zaporizhzhia Preamp which is a really superb take on a 70's style hard-clipper along the lines of DOD250 and MXR Distortion+ pedals. Here with smart EQ, and additional Clipping and Opamp selections - for the zingiest and most articulate of that type - there are some quite super textures to be found onboard - where I'm mostly parked on 741 Opamp with Mosfet clipping these days. Note that there are still no demos - very few of these were made, and they are only very recently landed.

A really cool BC108C variant of the ThorpyFX Fallout Cloud Triangle Muff style Fuzz - which makes for a smoother / softer vintage-style output vs the original BC549C standard edition. Essential for Thorpy fanatics like me, but a nice-to-have for most who already own the original BC549C edition. Speaking in generalities the inherent differences are somewhat subtle - and only properly noticeable in lower gain registers. Some will prefer it's more subtle output for sure, but I'm not sure how much mileage there is for most to own both!

I am so smitten by the Victory V1 The Jack Preamp - with its silky smooth liquid distortion tones - that I'm trying to find a permanent / semi-permanent slot for this pedal - which is no easy task as there are so many gems already in the reference collection and on the board. I do love playing though this pedal - and it will for sure become a mainstay rotation pedal if not fully permanent.

Inspired by the Victory V1 Jack I've also brought back my other favourite Liquid Distortion - the Free Fall Diver Huge Muff-style Liquid Distortion. Both of these are total gems of that specific genre - while even then I think there is another even higher level to come - a close friend of this site may already be working on such a variety right now ...

I really can't speak more highly of the Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1 Hyper Preamp MIAB - just one of my favourite Multi-Drive Gain Pedals of all time - sounds superb every which way, and goes from Clean to Extremely Brutal and Mean. Surely the high water mark for smart multi-level gain staging - with no less than 19 levels of gain to power through - and cautery of 14 controls - all in a relatively tiny 1590B. Superficially it looks super complicated while it really isn't when in use - just pure genius really! Note that it's only temporarily displacing the Pettyohn Gold II on this slot - as it will moved further down the chain to it's own fixed #24 slot soon enough.

This is seemingly a 'Smooth' month as there are 4 super smooth pedals I the chain for November. The All-Pedal Slamurai Bushido Drive, Victory V1 Jack Distortion, and Free Fall Diver Fuzz. Where this Colortone Fuzzball makes up the final corner of said quartet - specialising in those smooth singing Black Russian Muff style tones. The Fuzzball is a truly expressive and versatile Muff style pedal with a really unique EQ.

I was really pleasantly surprised by the Westminster Effects Signature Seth Morrison 2716 Distortion - not that I had any doubts that it wouldn't sound great - while it has the most enormous extended range across those 6 dials - with plenty of everything to take you all the way up ti 11! Possibly not quite as authentically Dual Rectifier as the Aura Diamond, but with more gain, volume and EQ options onboard for a greatly extended soundstage. A really great all-rounder Metal style distortion which has roots in the M/B Dual Reciter but easily takes you into other related territories too - like the 5150 style of distortion.

Victory's V1 Kraken Rabea Massaad Signature High Gain Distortion is supposedly a darker and more modern take on the 5150 - with a significant Mids Punch. It goes well beyond Rabea's signature sounds via a really smart 3-Band EQ and Volume and Gain dials with more than enough in reserve. Both this and the previous mentioned Westminster 2716 are superb and can overlap to some significant degree, while the core feel of the 2716 leans slightly more towards the fairly similar MidValleyFX Peaks V3. The Victory V1 Jack is probably the most impressive of that new Victory range, while the Kraken is very close behind.

Ola Englund's Solar Guitar Chug pedal was another very recent surprise - which obviously reproduces that core Ola sound brilliantly. It definitely has a certain sizzle to it, and a core character which weirdly makes it now quite as versatile as some of the others - in some ways it's fully hewn towards getting your setup to sound like Ola's rather than a more broad-based High Gain Distortion. It doesn't to those more elastic vintage Metal tones - those 10 controls seem very much honed towards the more modern and contemporary side of punchy palm-muted high gain distortion. You can't load in too many high gain frequencies as this pedal is so over-saturated it can have a tendency to squeal if you're not too careful. It's a pretty great sounding pedal in its own way - but somewhat more fussy to dial in than you would have thought. Still if you're exactly after that signature Ola Chug - then this is the one for you!

Yet another David Rainger Quirky Classic - the Rainger FX Break Box Distorto + Sustaining Chorus + Vinyl Scratch effect pedal. Based on the assembly of 3 idea - Updating the Distorto Fuzzstortion with Freakenbender EQ, adding a 1 second delayed active sustaining chorus, and evolve the white noise module from the Snare Trap into making vinyl scratch sounds controlled via built-in Igor Expression Pad! It certainly has a learning curve about it - particularly in the timing and inclusion of the Vinyl Scratch effect - for a sort of Portishead style soundscape. I really like it, but need a little more practice in coordinating the Vinyl Scratch in a tasteful manner - I'm certainly getting there...

The Empress Effects' ParaEQ MKII Deluxe is my most favourite perfect format of EQ to date. Combining 3 Parametric EQ bands with fully granular Q-bandwidth, 4 smart Shelving Filters and a +30dB Boost in an entirely noiseless compact enclosure circuit with top mounted jacks. Just every way perfect as far as I'm concerned.

PastFX's have really become my favourite Modulation pedals this years - in particular the updated and upgraded flanger trifecta - where the Hot for Flanger now has 8 controls - including the recent additions of Mini Level and Regen knobs - it was already pretty great as was - this Trifecta now totally reigns supreme! 

The PastFX PX65 Stereo Chorus (based on the DOD FX65) is not quite as immediate as the CE-1 style Chorus Ensemble, and not as bright or sparkly, while it turns out to be rather more versatile - with two distinct Chorus voicings, and a really cool faux Through-Zero Flanger effect on the second Andy voicing. It takes a little more dialling in that the Chorus Ensemble but is every bit as good as that and has even more range overall.

The SL-2 Slicer is another Boss near masterpiece - only let down a touch by the clunkiness of its output settings. In terms of range and variety of tones via those 88 different patterns - this is just supreme every which way. It can quite happily live is my default Tremolo and do all kinds of things besides - particularly good when paired up with the SY-200 synth - for some magic synthesized percussive choppiness! Boss needs to figure out a more elegant way for accessing those secondary features - I've suggested using a Custom Mode style slider switch on the back (like the HM-2W) as the most suitable solution for that - so you simply move it to S for Secondary Modes and apply those dials as needed. While currently you need to dial back all dials fully CCW and set the Type knob to 8 to select Output Setting via Variation knob - and while holding down the footswitch on power-up - which is the opposite of user-friendly!

I've had the Boss RC-600 Pro Loop Station for a few weeks now and am still just getting up to speed for how I want to be using it - in that Jo Quail / Chris Woods style of using a mix of acoustic and electric inputs - some with effects pedals and some direct. Currently including Sampling Mic, Electric Kalimba, Electric Cello, and Kala UBass. All are up and working well now - just getting used to the various new instruments and the rather vast control interface for this looper. Much to think about - in terms of XLR Phantom Power, Mixer Setup, Channel Setup and the like. I'm still just getting a feel for it all really - and still just scratching the surface mostly - while things are definitely starting to sound pretty superb. This will take a while to mature to a competent level - but I'm well prepared to put in the work. The Pandeiro is the one thing that I'm finding slightly challenging to coordinate - that heel/toe wrist action on one hand with thumb thump and the gentle rocking motion with the other - it's going to take weeks of mechanical learning to get that percolating fully automatically!