End of August Pedal-Chain Update - Episode VII - Altitude Ascension

Although not pictured on this occasion as the Dr Scientist Dusk has still been the principal pedal on this slot for most of August - nevertheless my new Fulltone WahFull has already had a pretty decent innings here. I'm sort of rotating the Dusk and WahFull depending on my mood and how industrious I feel on the day. I still have the Dunlop CBM535AR Mini CryBaby Auto Return Wah down for acquisition - while Andertons indicates a release date of September 30th - which frankly means an October target date if everyone is being totally honest. Weirdly there is still no target date for the TC Electronic Ditto+ Looper which was due at a similar time!

This is one of the slots that always sees a lot of rotation action - and while my recent Expresso FX Custom Dual MKII has been seeing most of the action here, it has been in rotation with its Custom Dual Fuzz Face sibling, JDM Elektrika MKI/Zonk Fuzz and of course the very recent Danelectro 3699 of late. I typically add a few fuzzes each month and this slot as mentioned is seeing quite a regular carousel of alternatives - while my 2 Custom Expressos have still dominated for the month.

I feel a little sorry for the key incumbent on this slot - the now legendary Demon Pedals Kondo Shifuku D-Style Overdrive. As I reckoned with the addition of the CBA Automatone Preamp MKII - slot #12 has become another sort of carousel - where I always return back to my long-term favourite Kondo, but various different pedals still get an innings on this slot - and for August that pedal has in the main been the excellent Danelectro Roebuck Distortion with 3-way clipping selector and 3-Band EQ - it was interesting to see that the final edition pedals were significantly different from the format promoted at NAMM. I'll probably give the Roebuck another week or two on this innings before I return back to my favourite favourite Kondo!

Around a month on from acquiring the CBA Automatone Preamp MKII I'm still somewhat significantly impressed with this amazing pedal. I see it as THE pedal release of the year alongside the Cooper FX Arcades - and I still get readers asking me for my opinion on this stellar pedal. I will say one last time - that if you can afford it you should get it - it's just The most fantastic overdrive (+fuzz) pedal ever created. The hype is entirely justified - it sounds and works wholly magnificently. For the record it pips the equally excellent sounding Origin Effects RevivalDrive - by virtue of its easier controllability, dial-in-ability and PRESETS! In any case you don't really need my say-so as the praise has been universally effusively positive. I also included his mention so I could feature Pete Thorn's quite superb demo - which is the best one yet for this wonder pedal.

I don't want to say too much about the Sitek Freya Overdrive/Booster in advance of my full review - just to say that it sounds particularly great on the Orange LEDs clipping setting with pre-gain boost applied - lovely warm soft-clipping overdrive with beautiful sustain. This slot has already been earmarked for another incoming pedal - Roman Belonozhko's Shnobel Tone Daily Driver which I somewhat missed / overlooked at this year's NAMM, but had really grown on me in recent weeks - more on both of these coming up pretty soon!

I feel this is settling in as a somewhat 'Gilmourish' slot for now. For August I've been enjoying the smooth Muff tones of the recently added Buffalo FX Patriot II - while I think ongoingly I will be rotating between that, the Buffalo Evolution and Vick Audio V-2 - both exceptional but distinctly different PC G-2 derived variants. Slot #19 is one of the main rotational slots - and I probably need to bring back the EQD Life Pedal V2 at some stage and a myriad of other mostly Muff pedals I have for rotation here. My next significant phase will very much be Vick Audio targeted - so expect a lot more Muff variants here in the next rotations.

It seems that after one of the longest stints of recent time - that the superb MI Effects Super Crunch Box V2 will be finally getting a well-earned rest for a while as it seems that the next Jackson Audio pedal - the Mateus Asato Signature El Guapo Overdrive/Distortion is due to land some time in September. I'm still chasing details from Brad Jackson who should be furnishing me with more clarity any day soon. The El Guapo though has already put in an appearance on Reddit, LoopersParadise.de and AmericanMusical.com. No trace remains for American Musical Supply any more - while Loopers Paradise says he pedal is currently in stock for €369/£329 - with a supposed USA RRP tag of $350 - which is a touch higher than that advertised at NAMM ($279)! Most of us were expecting the Jackson Audio Modular / Octave Fuzz to land first as that's the order we had been told - but it seems that the El Guapo has been given priority - this time with a different colour scheme and Mateus Asato fully onboard! The left footswitch will allow you to access 4 clipping modes for a JCM800 style distortion using the 6 regular control knobs, the right-hand footswitch will allow you to access the 4 modes of the same main Broken Arrow Tube-Screamer style circuit as far as I am aware - with 3 mini knobs for control - Volume, Tone and Drive - you can check the known details from NAMM in my follow-up Jackson Audio Article from then.

It's with much sorrow that I announce that the second of my MI Effects long-term heavy hitters is getting a break from the chain as I re-up and bring back the Boss OD-200. I feel the OD-200 is particularly adept at the heavier more textured distortions - particularly when you double up on the Boost and apply the EQ cleverly. Part of me still wants parametric mids and some sort of Q-control. But an abundance of superior heavy / metal / extreme tones and textures can be dialled in with relative ease - including that amazing Big Muff Fuzz voicing in combination with itself or other Metal pedal mode variations.

This slot now updated to Boss's programmable EQ-200 Graphic Equalizer - with 128 presets onboard - this is no longer just balances the high frequency content of the signal-chain - but is used for a plethora of tone-sculpting and modifying tasks - including a Bass-Cut / Tightness preset. I worried that I really did not need the bigger EQ or the presets, and that I would struggle to fit it into my already exceedingly crammed real-estate. It turns out I had just the right amount of space to squeeze it in - and while a little more tricky and time-consuming to dial in than the GE-7 - I still got to a place I liked within a relatively short time. It's evident that the EQ-200 is somewhat more finely calibrated than the GE-7 so tiny moves can make quite significant impacts. I've made so many changes to the signal chain in August - that it's bound to take a few extra minutes of tweaking to get everything back in balance and sounding optimal across all my different pedal types and two amps.

So my Buffalo FX Reticon Flanger project does not seem to have worked out - I had a couple of articles already plotted out on best Buffalo FX Pedals and Best Medium Enclosure Flangers. The short answer to all of that is my good friend Adrian Thorpe's category leading Camoflange Flanger which I firmly expect to be me favourite flanger for life - I like everything about it, in fact the only marginal improvement would be to make the pedal more compact and give it a tap-tempo. Other than that it's absolutely perfection - and my favourite ThorpyFX pedal to date - actually I have a few of those! In any case I'm still very much enamoured by the Camoflange - and if any of your were disappointed by the Buffalo Reticon incident - I advise you to focus your attentions on the Camoflange instead!

For the briefest while this was the last one standing of my original Chase Bliss Audio lineup of analog modulations - from the former Warped Vinyl MKII, Spectre BK, Gravitas, and Wombtone MKII combination - only the last named was still standing. I had been much impressed by the Crazy Tube Circuits Cyclone 4-Mode Analog Phaser - so decided that would be best to go in on the rotation to complete a clean sweep / refresh of analog modulations. I still wholly love my original CBA quartet - and they will return - I'm just giving some other superior quality pedals a run / rotation / innings in the chain!

This is my second big white whale landed this yeas alongside the CBA Automatone Preamp MKII - those were really my 2 key targets for the year, and I'm delighted to finally have both together. Many thanks to Tom Majeski for his ongoing kindness towards me and the time he spared me to answer my Columbo-style questions. Hopefully most of you enjoyed my in-depth review. I still feel that not enough players are recognising the full potential fo the Arcardes - with is every bit as revolutionary and innovative as the spotlight hogging Preamp MKII. Of course all power to Joel Korte and his Chase Bliss Posse - but all power to Tom Majeski too. He is also doing magnificently innovative devices which deserve to be equally highly lauded, celebrated and supported. A key tip for using this device is to set the clock rate slightly lower for more ambient texture!