2023 September Pedal-Chain Update - Episode IX - Transformative Wireless Audio

14 pedals were added to the Reference Collection this month. Mostly Fuzzes and Overdrives - but a broad spread of genres - some older, mostly brand new. And including a number of revised and updated editions - re Bisspell Audio and Colortone Pedals. Most of these were reviewed this month - one or two are now happening next week, and quite a number had to be moved further down the road - just too much happening at the moment - and to do things properly takes time!

• 4 Overdrives
• 1 Distortion
• 6 Fuzzes
• 1 Modulation
• 1 Time-based Effect
• 1 Utility

3 of these have been reviewed this month - with the Flattley Revolution up next for early next week. The Drunk Beaver Simferopol Venta is a little quirky and specialist - while the other 3 are more likely regular slot occupiers and more longer-term candidates :

• Bispell Audio Saxon V1.5 JTM45 + Super Lead Plexi
• Drunk Beaver Pedal Drop #13 - Simferopol Venta Overdrive
• Flattley Revolution Dynamic 3-Voice Overdrive
• Great Eastern FX Design-A-Drive 

I've grown some new respect for the TWA SH9 Scott Henderson Signature Smooth Sustaining Distortion - while it is a very highly specialist device - specially made for Scott's upper fret legato playing. Sounds superb every which way with Single Coil guitars, more of challenge for humbuckers!

Some real killer fuzzes in this selection - where I'm particularly delighted with the Fresh Fuzz, DG Fuzz, Krytical Mass, and Wahxidizer. While I found the MXR Hybrid Fuzz a little disappointing - and the Stone Burner not quite up to expectations, but still with some merit!

• Farmer Factory Fresh Fuzz 3K Turret
• Flattley DG (Dual Gain) 1960's Classic Fuzz with Grunt Boost
• MXR Hybrid Fuzz
• TWA Krytical Mass Brassmaster Bass style Octave Fuzz
• TWA Wahxidizer Envelope-controlled octave / fuzz / filter / wah
• Way Huge Stone Burner Sub Atomic Sub Octave Fuzz

A further new variant of the Roundhouse - the Colortone Pedals Roundhouse V3 Multi-Mode Tremolo / Vibe - not too much changed from its predecessor which was on the board back in February March this year, and featured in my recent Uni-Vibe capsule collection roundup. Of course with those fantastic new Cog Series Knobs!

The Colortone Pedals Lo-Fi Delay V3 is a very slightly updated version since this was last on the board back in February. Some slight recalibration of the smaller control knobs, and of course now with those extremely fetching Cog Series Knobs.

The Boss NS-1X MDP Noise Suppressor is the first update on that format since 1987 - when the NS-2 first materialised. There's no doubt that the NS-1X is incredibly well suited to certain playback scenarios - and gives you enhanced noise reduction. While many will still prefer the more organic gating of the all-analog NS-2. The all digital / no dry-through essence of the NS-1X may make it a touch more of a challenge for the more analog purists!

Pedals covered this month button featured on this list are typically on their way into the collection - but not quite landed yet, while others may simply be unsuitably or surplus to requirements - all will be revealed next month!

I'm pretty keen to get in the Collision Devices TARS - and they have made encouraging noises about that probability. Most everything else here is more on a nice-to-have basis - where those aren't priority acquainting - but may become so - particularly when focusing on a certain genre roundup - or when there are head-to-head review possibilities :

• 29 Pedals JFET Boost
• Collision Devices TARS Analog Filter Fuzz
• CopperSound Triplegraph Triple-effect Octaves & Kill Switch / FX Loop
• Crazy Tube Circuits 80's inspired Sidekick JR Multi-FX
• EHX Attack Decay Pico Edition
• EHX Deep Freeze Pico Edition
• EHX Pitch Fork Pico Edition
• EHX POG Pico Edition
• Friedman IR-X Floor-based Hybrid Tube & DSP Amp
• Funny Little Boxes Skeleton Key Josh Homme style Distortion
• Hungry Robot The Stampede CMOS Fuzz
• Keeley Electronics Noble Screamer Overdrive
• Strymon Ultraviolet Vintage Vibe DSP Uni-Vibe
• Wampler Black '65 Vintage Overdrive
• Wampler Tweed '57 Original Tone

11 slots were updated this month - #5, #10, #11, #12, #15a, #15b, #18, #21, #23, #24, #28.

Slot #5 still sees the most rotation of any - and often has 3 o 4 pedals in circulation each month. As mentioned - the Drunk Beaver Simferopol Venta OD is just a little too quirky for regular rotation, and the TWA SH9 just a touch to specialist. In fact the Stone Burner not quite up to scratch when compared to the giant that is the Honey Badger.

Everything else here is likely to be in fairly regular rotation - perhaps with the exception of the Boss NS-1X - where despite its many advantages - I somewhat still prefer the Alchemy-modded NS-2 - wired up of course in 4 cable method.

I have such sensitivities to tone and timbre that I can immediately detect any variation from the norm - and simple A/B testing will always single out the more organic and natural champion of that particular slot. 

For certain slots some pedals are pretty unassailable - while for everything else this is pretty much a constant work in progress. Not always moving exactly forward - but often just into equally interesting and nuanced nooks and crannies!

The Flattley Classic DG Silicon Fuzz - utilises a pair of BC108 metal can Silicon Transistors alongside a 3rd Flattley Ace Boost Transistor. With essentially 2-Band EQ onboard too, and an internally boosted signal - you get a fantastically potent and versatile Silicon Fuzz Face - far above the typical 2-knob jobs!

I had been meaning to get the Great Eastern FX Co. Design-A-Drive for a while - since I first featured it actually. So it made sense to re-introduce it as a head-to-head with its earlier sibling - the Small Speaker Overdrive. And while they both share 4-knob control topologies - they really could not be more different in their core textures and how they operate. The Design-A-Drive is the perfect arena tool for switching up your drive sound quickly and easily during a live performance - that and it's core texture are what really appeal here - how rapidly adaptable the pedal is on the fly - and in the proper context of sound mix and projection!

As before there are no demos for this line of Pedal Drop Editions - and this Drunk Beaver Simferopol Venta OD is a little bit of an odd fish - with every much a core gritty fuzzy-drive style texture, and then a couple of slightly odd town controls that need to be tweaked in tandem. The Brightness slider is a very odd Mids Peak Resonant Filter which introduces a sort of reedy whistle as it gets brighter, and you then use the the LPD of the Cut slider to temper that. A touch fiddly to dial in for me, and one I think that would probably have benefited from more conventional EQ controls - as the core texture is quite interesting. It needs a touch more volume too for you to really. make the most of that interesting texture!

The second coming of the Farmer Factory Fresh Fuzz - here in incredibly attractive 3-knob Turret Edition - just a gorgeous opamp fuzz all-round - and with an edition Filter EQ control over the original - for even more granularity. This is one of the prettiest pedals currently out there - inside and out - and these need to be snapped up very quickly before my good friend Sebastien goes fully viral - and the inevitable price rises occur. Currently superb value - if you're in the market for a Fresh Fuzz - don't be looking at the recent JHS Pedals one - this is where the really action is on this format!

I was encouraged to get the Way Huge Stone Burner Sub Atomic Fuzz in - on account of some pretty decent demos. While in the flesh - it's not quite as impressive - and particularly in as how much it is out-muscled by the truly superb Redbeard Effects Honey Badger - which is the superior Sub-Octave fuzz in every department I guess apart from price and size - the Honey Badger has far more range and is easier to dial in - it's not surprise that it's one of my favourite all-time fuzzes / fuzzstortions!

The Way Huge Stone Burner immediately brought to mind my long-term favourite Redbeard Effects Honey Badger Sub-Octave Fuzz. By every measure pretty much - bar pricing and size - the Honey Badger is superior sounding to the Stone Burner - it's fatter, more textured, while also somehow being more cutting and clearer! This Thorpy creation is just exemplary for how a sub-octave fuzz should work and sound - there's no wonder this is one of my most favoured fuzzes of all times - simply immense!

So the Bispell Audio Saxon V1.5 JTM45 + Super Lead Plexi Overdrive is fairly marginally updated here in V1.5 edition, but significantly enough for me to immediately pick up the differences. There's now more gain at your disposal, and the Tone Stack has been re-calibrated - where it's much better balanced now and even easier to dial in than before. Some people likely won't hear too much of a difference - but for me the differences were noticeably and definitely improvements over the original! The only outward sign of the new edition being that the Saxon V1.5 as the Dot on the Mids knob at noon rather than the previous Max / 5 o'c position. One of the great mid-gain MIAB pedals.

So when I reviewed the TWA Effects Scott Henderson SH9 Distortion I noted the specialist nature of this Signature Distortion. In fact I've come to recognise the genius of the pedal's function - but it has to be said that its intended use is incredibly specialised. It employs something I'm going to call 'Note Gravity' which is all about making upper fret notes sound denser and richer in particular for single coil guitars. In fact that aspect works pretty well for Humbuckers too - as long as you just deploy this pedal for playing higher notes - then the excess bass content just lends more density to the note, while lower down the fretboard it can become very boomy and is too strong for most Humbucker guitars. This pedi is obviously crafted to Scott Henderson's style of play - where it is uniquely suited to that upper frets legato playing - in giving those notes more gravity / mass / sustain! If you known what this pedal is about then it all kind of makes sense - while you would then have to concede it was fairly limited for broader applications!

I've been so impressed byTWA Effects' two flagship octave fuzzes - this killer Krytical Mass Hot-Rodded Brassmaster Bass Fuzz - which really brings the thunder! A truly immense wall-of-sound that can sake foundations - deep and resonant - and glorious in every way - and properly full-on!

The second of the killer TWA fuzzes - the Wahxidizer Hot-Rodded Superfuzz with Parametric EQ and Envelope Control totally re-imagines the Superfuzz as an even more expressive, ebbing and flowing blooming fuzz sensation. This and the Krytical Mass are both incredibly richly textured - fuzz phenomena for sure!

The longest-serving pedal in my chain gets a sort of upgrade in the guise of the Boss NS-1X MDP Noise Suppressor. In some ways though I actually achieve more natural results still using my all-analog Alchemy-modded NS-2. I always use the 4-cable method here - sending the noisiest pedals into the loop. While with the NS-1X the pedal converts even the pass-through signal to Digital and back to Analog - so you get no Dry-through with this pedal. This does subtle alter the core tonality of my pedal-chain - while there are certain advantages to deploying the NS-1X. It's 'clamping' and latching on is superb - while I get the occasionall off artefact in the manner of release in particular. It's been an interesting experiment for sure - and where my mindset is right now - I will likely go back to the NS-2 again. For sure there are certain scenarios when the NS-1X is far superior, while overall I still think I prefer the modded NS-2 for my rig - you need to make up your own minds here!