End of June Pedal-Chain Update - Episode V - A Disturbance in the Force!

There's actually quite an interesting development here - as in doing the recent Mikey Demus pedalboard overview I kind of got a feeling I should be giving manual Wah another go - versus the mostly auto-was I use here. I don't think it will be an immediate development as I generally don't much like the conventional treadle-plate wah pedals - which is why I started using pedals like the Micro-Tron III, and current favourite Dr Scientist Dusk. I'm actually looking for something more like an extended-range compact version of Fulltone's WahFull - to which ends I've created another of my prototype visualisations that I will be sharing with you all a little later!

I've discovered that it's very much not just Germanium fuzzes that benefit by being on this first of the fuzz slots - there are actually quite a number of my fuzzes that just sound better on this earlier slot - many fuzzes are of course totally agnostic and you can stick them anywhere in the signal-chain - but some just really like coming first! In any case I'm really very much still enjoying the Kuro Akuma Fiery Fuzz and I'm extending its innings here - even though I have already acquired a Spaceman Sputnik III - which will likely come onto this slot for a more permanent innings around August onwards.

I'm still loving the Golden Boy - still mostly on Green mode. My good pal Matt Knight (Mr Boss Europe) posted a cool clip of a recent recording of his using the Blue 4 Symmetrical Silicon Diodes mode on a low gain setting - and it sounded divine. Not much more to say here really.

It would have to take a lot to shift my all-time favourite Dumble-Style pedal - Demon Pedal's Kondo-Shifuku, but I've taken to running the Reuss Germanium Dirt on this slot now. The Germanium Dirt I actually categorise as somewhat Rat-adjacent as it runs off a metal-can LM308AH - with 4 magical Germanium Diodes which give it just the most incredibly harmonic fuzz-edged tones - it's just my type of pedal for this kind of task - and actually brings a little more warmth and richness onto this slot. We'll see how it pans out, but this could become quite a long-termer here. The only quibble is that on lower settings the Germanium Dirt could really do with more output - which means I use it in combination with the Treble Booster mode on the Strymon Sunset when I need to.

I've already mentioned the status of the Automatone MKII acquisition in the above Positivity segment - this will hopefully happen some time later this year - the decision has very much been made, just need the funds to cover it! In the meantime the slot is occupied by two pedals - the JHS Kilt V2, and the Expandora 2000R - in preparation for a project I'm delighted to be collaborating with Guillem of Decibelics on - more of that later - when we have something to share with you all!

You should know by now how hugely impressed I've been by the Kuro P.h.A. Boost/Overdrive/PreAmp - which has likely taken up a fairly permanent residency here. As per a forthcoming feature, I'm also considering rotating in at some stage Steve Demedash's 112 Overdrive/PreAmp - nothing fixed or set in stone yet, while I feel the P.h.A. will undoubtedly have a starring role here for a very long time - most agree with me that it's a truly stellar, amazingly highly adaptable unit (Prodigiously high Adaptability!).

Still delighted with the Menatone TBIAC - it sounds consistently stellar - I think I'm pretty well done with its micro-tweaking - it always sounds just tremendous nowadays. If you love Brian May like I do - then this is a very handy tone capsule for that!

Same for the Menatone KOB as the TBIAC - just perfectly dialled in now for all that chewy goodness. I did mention that I quite liked the look/sound too of the DryBell The Engine PreAmp - but that is near enough twice the size of the KOB - and while I think I will probably get The Engine too eventually - I think it will be more of an understudy on slot #14 - I think the KOB pretty much owns #17 now.

and without the independent octave component - this is another fantastic Rat-adjacent pedal that I feel most would enjoy deploying. I still see the occasional negative comment posted about this pedal which is kind of understandable given the huge amounts of hype generated with its launch. For mr the hype is largely substantiated here - and this will undoubtedly linger on this slot for quite a while longer.

I mentioned last month that after just a month's absence I felt compelled to bring the Frazz Dazzler back in again. This is probably still my first pick fuzz every time - albeit not suitable for every application. As far as super extended-range Rat pedals or Rat-adjacent pedals go - this is absolutely my top choice. Best ever Dr Scientist pedal too in my opinion!

My recent coverage of Mikey Demus's pedalboard has inspired even more love for the Honey Badger - just superb every which way around - both with and without the octave effects. I don't feel this is going to be shifted for a very long time.

I enjoyed a quick catch-up with Panos at VS Audio - and I was somewhat surprised that the Alchemy is not breaking any sales records yet. This is one of the very best sounding and smartest Analog Choruses out there - I totally love using this and use it near enough every time I play to add sparkle to overdrive and crunch to distortion - among other things. Mostly makes everything sound a little more high-fidelity - I'm somewhat at a loss as to why this hasn't taken off more! I challenge you guys to check it out - I can't see how you would be disappointed - and there's nothing else quite like it out there right now!

This is an interesting one for me as Steve Painter of Buffalo FX is about to launch his not altogether dissimilar Reticon Flanger alternative to the Camoflange. As a dedicated Thorpy loyalist this is quite difficult for me - as I would really like to do a head-to-head here as the Camoflange is already as amazing as any Flanger can be - and it would be interesting to see just how close Steve's Reticon gets to those lofty heights. The Reticon flanger is also a medium-size box - very slightly narrower - but not much in it. Both have vaguely the same controls - both 6-knob topologies, while the Reticon has the additional Matrix Filter toggle-switch too as was on the original Electric Mistress. I don't see how you can improve on the Camoflange - but I'm still very intrigued as to just how well the Reticon Flanger acquits itself.

Much like the Alchemy Chorus above, I'm surprised and disappointed that the Ages Harmonic Tremolo hasn't taken off in quite the way I expected it should. Obviously Walrus Audio muddied the waters somewhat recently by 'borrowing' Anasound's product name for its recent 5-state overdrive. This is a truly fantastic sounding Analog Harmonic Tremolo which more people really need to check out. I've mentioned that some of the secondary function selections can be a little clunky - but generally this pedal works pretty flawlessly and superbly dynamically. More people should certainly be checking out the Alchemy Chorus and Ages Tremolo over and beside all those other usual suspects.

The Cooper FX Arcades saga has been a little complex for me. Initially I was waiting for it to come into UK distribution which means Phil Grounds' Guitar FX Direct. For whatever reason that whole process of re-stocking the shop has been somewhat delayed - as the intention was that I would do a feature on Guitar FX Direct and lead on how that is the sole Cooper FX UK Distributor - where I got my Arcades from etc. As things turn out that process was taking far too long and wouldn't have necessarily worked out how I need it to - to get the full inside details on the Arcades and its algorithms. The only way to do this properly is to deal with Mr Cooper FX - Tom Majeski direct - which has introduced further delays. To cut a long rambling story short - Tom and I have come to an accord - and I should be getting in a unit with the full complement of modular cards - sometime in August. At which point I will share some more in-depth Arcades key tips and tricks.

It's been a while since I updated the Synesthesia firmware to the latest release with its 15 additional algorithms - while I'm still getting to grips with all of those. In fact I'm still working on dialling in my perfect rotary sound - where the Horn and Drum are actually split across two different Channels - which is actually quite clever really. I will report back in more detail once I get further down the road here - and I will then be at a stage to do another follow-up feature on the Synesthesia which is still the most amazing of the Multi-Modulation pedals - despite getting some of the weirder reviews I've read in recent times.

I'm still deciding here if I need an add-on triple footswitch. So far I've found using the Oceans 12 to be really intuitive and quite inspiring really. Some of the dials are unnecessarily fiddly - particularly those two mini ones - but the interface and visibility on what is happening is mostly pretty clever. I would have placed the Channel A / B LEDs next to their respective footswitches though - parts of the interface are rather clustered together. Overall though I feel this is a really worthy stand-in for the Source Audio Ventris - and with some of the cleverer features - like the Lo-Fi ability across all algorithms - there's much about this pedal which is really ingenious. It's not quite the perfect usability experience I thought it could be - as some aspects are still a touch fiddly as mentioned - but generally I feel I'm broadly satisfied here and happy to have this as my principal stand-alone reverb now. While of course mostly I just use the Reverb on the Volante - in conjunction with that being my mostly-on textural delay, and have further backup from the Eventide H9 Max which has spectacular algorithms of its own - while it suffers from a somewhat clunky onboard interface!