Witney Pedal Party 3 Highlights
So the second time we’re at Fat Lil’s, thank you to all the helper elves that made all this happen - of course UK Chase Bliss Ambassador Doug Tolley and team - including Jonny ’Guitar’ Davies, Nick Rees, and Fat Lil’s owner Paul Spink.
Cover star on this occasion is Holy Island Audio’s Gwion Christmas - that photo just came out the coolest with those light-flares - it’s often just about the aesthetic hit - I also feel that said visual gives you a good flavour of the venue too!
I picked up a cool Eric Nyffeler desiged Pedal Party Tee, and would have picked up one of the mint green Bleak District ones, and tie-dyed Blind Panic Devices ones - if there had been one of each in my size! Many brands there on fleek with their wearable Merch!
Lunch once more was burgers at the Como Lounge - with my good friend Phil from Pedal Experiments. Very late lunch this time - at around 3 o’c, but good as always - that mini summit always runs out of time too - we need to find a central venue to meet at - as getting from London to Strourbridge on public transport is unnecessarily complex and requires at least 3 or 4 connections!
Lots of interesting pedals on display - with one entirely brand new prototype one brought along by Collision Devices’ Denis - all the way over from Angers, France.
We wish a speedy recovery to Markus Reeves, who was supposed to be exhibiting, but has been brought down by illness. He’s been coasting on adrenaline for so long - as concerns the stresses of moving house, new workshop and everything connected with that big move. Izzy did though put in an appearance - and I had a cool 10-15 minute chat with her about how everything was going - which were her particular bestsellers etc. - for which the answer is the Facet FF. By all accounts Reeves Electro’s Waitlist Wednesday event wholly surpassed expectations - with enough pre-orders to keep Markus and Izzy occupied for much of the rest of the year. UPDATE! - judging from this morning’s Monday Minute, Markus seems to have made a remarkable recovery - he seems full of vim and vigour once more - we need not have worried!
I really love Witney, and Fat Lil’s as a venue for this event. It’s not the easiest place to get to on public transport - but the effort of getting there is always worth it - I pitched up quite early in the morning - to get some pics before tings got too hectic. Susan from Hanborough Taxis kindly picked me up at both ends of the day - and made sure I was delivered to the right destination. I left the house at just past 8 in the morning, and got back in almost exactly 12 hours later - a great day was had by all I believe.
Collision Devices - Denis
The first person to get fully set up was the one who'd come the longes distance! Collision Devices' Denis of course - all the way from Angers, France. His was the first picture of the day, and first proper conversation I had - where we discussed how he and Baptiste were doing, how everything was going, and in particular the new Nocturnal-adjacent prototype. The name will obviously be somewhat Nocturnal-related - and more on that Time and Space theme. Denis had the new name, but wasn't willing to spill it - in advanced of the May 26th launch - certainly a very intriguing sounding ambient pedal with lots of cool sounds.
It was originally supposed to be a kind of custom version of the Nocturnal, but Denis and Baptiste latterly decided it should be its own thing - be cool to see what this is named, and how exactly it looks when it goes live on the 26th, the prototype version was obviously a little raw, and non-representative of what the final version will look like.
It's still on the cards for me to do in-depth TARS and Singularity demos at some stage, while of course Denis and Baptiste have other more pressing challenges to contend with, and the rapid prototyping and super quick time-to-market for the new device, has surely taken a toll on the quartet of Collision Devices staff.
I had a wonderful conversation with Denis at the Birmingham Guitar Show, and this was very much more of the same. Collision Devices have been so busy of late - that they've not been very good at responding to social media messages - the best course of action if you want to get a hold of them is to go via email - contact@collisiondevices.com. In any case we were all delighted that Denis made the effort to comes across for the event.
Blind Panic Devices - Matt
blindpanicdevices.bigcartel.com
Matt is definitely one of the kings of the prototype - with so many WIP pedals in different degrees of finish. Similar to many other circuit magicians he tweaks and iterates each circuit to extremes - before he is finally satisfied - somewhere around version 20.
I somehow failed to register his little petting zoo pen display - with all those One-Eye Expression Monsters, and brand new Monster Eye-crophone - which mixes up lo-fi Eye-Monster electret microphone with onboard delay and light-reactive modulation. A really cool concept for sure, and one which we immediately identified Emily Hopkins as the prime candidate for a demo - but who else might find this devices useful within their performance discipline - do let us know if you can think of other perfect match demoers, and / or artists that might be likely to make use of this within their live rig.
There were also a couple of Pedal-Experinemt-Phil related pedals - where both Phil and Matt had watched Simon The Magpie circuit-bend the Korg Miku - with additional pitch-shifter - to raise the pitch of the vocals up to chipmunk levels, or down to more Barry White levels. Matt amusingly designed new graphics for said variant - which he named the 'Yoko' as it pretty much sounded horrible every which way!
On Phil's suggestion, Matt has made a dual phaser + flanger, based on a combination of Behringer VP1, an EHX E-Lady Flanger and some Blind Panic secret sauce. These are blended in series, and you have quite an extensive control topology - where you can change the order and impact fairly significant shaping of the output - Matt is just waiting for the final boards for hat to come in - and then I will undoubtedly be doing an supporting article.
Also on display were the beautifully made and circuit-board facia style Psychoscillator! Touch Controlled Mini Synths in green, and blue colourways.
And finally there was a really cool 9-knob Pinkulator take on a harmonic percolator - with all kinds of cool extras onboard - In addition to the basic perc controls, Matt had added a gain control, diode blend, a boost, notch filter, tone control, sag, and a momentary feedback switch with a tune knob! I very much look forward to supporting the launch of that too - when it's finally up to Matt's exacting standards!
Matt is very much one of the brightest lights on the whole experimental side of things - and so many of creations are like nothing really that has come before!
One-Eye Light-Reactive Expression Monsters - including the new Monster Eye-crophone!
Life is Unfair Audio Devices - Grindle
I had 3 separate conversations with Grindle - mostly about their new Bad Machine pedal - which mixes up the best bits of Boss's FZ-2, HM-2, and MT-2 pedals. Essentially an extended range take on the FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz - with additional switch-in Heavy Metal and Metal Zone Voicing - really cool!
The only thing that isn't 100% cool is the legibility of the outline text on said pedal - where we had a very expansive debate on screen printing red onto black, the impact of pixel density, and resulting degree of contrast. An inverted colourway version of the pedal is due - which will make its labels and legends more legible. Otherwise the Bad Machine is pretty much perfect - it sounds immense! I will definitely be doing a feature on the Bad Machine soon - Grindle is waiting for some further components to drop - before he does the next batch of those.
Also showcased on the stand was the inestimably cool forthcoming Stylophone Theremin (pictured Below) for which Grindle designed the circuit - and which will be on sale soon for just £99. Several of the builders in the room - including Blind Panic Devices' Matt - will be circuit-bending that really accessible take on the Theremin - expect to see a load of modded variants with interesting coloured knobs!
Brand New Bad Machine High Gain Fuzz / Distortion, and forthcoming Stylophone Theremin.
Chase Bliss - Doug Tolley, and Son!
I was surprised to find out that Chase Bliss UK Ambassador Doug - did not own all the different variants of the Mood. He only has 4 of that type! But no Light Bright Edition! If anyone deserves a Light Bright Edition it's Doug!
Surely the very embodiment of quiet calm. His stand as always was one of the best attended, and it's always great to see his son Ed in tow - they work so well together. Ed really enjoys the setup part to these shows, less so the take-down, and he's yet to find his instrument of choice. I believe there's a musician or noise-maker in most of us - we just need to find the right format to express ourselves.
Unusually, Doug's stand also had an older variant of the Chase Bliss Condor, not the new Eric Nyfeler designed one. That all makes me wonder if Eric keeps a pedal for each of his designs? Chase Bliss have been unusually quiet of late - I'm pretty sure they're going to catch us all out again with an imminent new release. Many of us are still waiting for a stereo edition of the Dark World Dual Reverb. It's always fascinating to see what Chase Bliss come out with next. Some people are also hoping for an Automatone sized stereo delay too! But likely we'll get something entirely unexpected and new!
Everything Doug had to bring with him to the show - pre-pack - including those nifty little mostly copper coloured lamps especially acquired for the show! And Collision Devices Denis - got to take temporary ownership of the legendary Rikk!
Bleak District - Phil
Obviously Phil is hot off the campaign trail of just having launched the latest iteration of his superb Miraj Phaser / Vibe. Which kind of took centre-stage for the occasion. His 'Merch' game was top drawer too with a really cool summery mint green Tee - which alas he did not have in my size - but we'll make a point to sort that out when we next meet - in Brighton I think it is.
Phil and I had a very involved discussion on Artwork colour Hues - and how some of those pedals - like the Antistatic in particular had evolved a much more vibrant profile with almost primary pinks, yellows and blues evident - vs the more typically earthy organic tones of the majority of the line. We discussed the use of Cold and Warm Colour Tones / Hues - and how those worked best together. I thought the Antistatic colourway would make it's way to other pedals in the range, and indeed my friend Phil from Pedal Experiments has a unique bright colourway edition of that - but Phill tells me that one was definitely a 1-off!
Also we discussed the format of the logo - which has been a long topic of discussion between the two of us - in terms of the restricted utility of the long-form version of that logo. Hereon in this brand will be simply be knows as 'Bleak District', versus Bleak District Electric - with the 3rd word about to be wholly lopped off - and the logo changed to convey that.
The new Miraj has all the extra smarts that Phil always manages to inject into his pedals - taking you way outside the usual jurisdiction of such pedal genres. I might have preferred it in a vertical format of the same - you know me! While I can't be anything but impressed by how everything turned out - Phil is definitely on a roll!
Holy Island Audio - Gwion
Gwion's latest release is that mammoth Mountain Mover Ring-Mod Muff Fuzz - with all kinds of extras attached. I love the idea of it, but its somewhat exaggerated dimensions mean that it has no chance of fitting in on my board as such it's a veritable behemoth in appearance and output - hopefully Gwion can make a more pedalboard-friendly derivation of that circuit at a later stage.
The pedals that really caught my attention on this occasion were the immense sounding Abracadaver transformer-based octave up boost/overdrive pedal - it's output is immense - and while I don't typically go for no-controls pedals - this one sounds so great that I'm sorely tempted!
Another pedal that sounded amazing was the still being finalised Celestial Firing Squad gated + modulated synth fuzz with tap tempo. All of Gwion's pedals sound like they go to 11! So that one's definitely one that I will feature once it's fully and properly launched.
Interestingly the MVP for the day was none of those - rather a custom one-off compact LFO / CV Output Generator - which added beautiful modulation to all those pedals mentioned. I would assume that we might see a commercial version of that too at some stage - as it works so well with all those pedals. The Holy Island Audio experience is always full-on and very loud - quite visceral too really, but always a lot of fun for us self-confessed noise-makers! I do hope to collaborate more with Gwion in the not too distant future - if you like full-flavour pedals - then you're definitely at the right stand!
Middle-Left MVP Pedal - the LFO / CV Generator!
Glowfly - Tom
Firstly - this was Tom's first proper show - so props to that - and here's hoping this is the start of more regular Tom appearances on the show calendar / circuit. I last covered Tom's Glowfly Effects almost exactly 2 years ago - with his Retroflect LoFi Tape Simulation / Modulation.
The plan was always to follow that up with a few more article on the most interesting pedals within the range, with a view to latterly doing some sort of range overview. But as is often the case things don't always flow quite so smoothly - and Tom and my paths diverged a little, before they've fallen kind of back into sync. So the idea is most definitely to cover off a few more of those. Probably including the recent InCap II Random LoFi Modulator which was heavily showcased at the event. And of course long-term target the GlitchWave567 Chaos Engine 4K - meaning it now has 4 controls - definitely looking forward to getting that one in.
We also discussed how to possibly bring the Albert LoFi Vinyl Modulator more into line with those vibrant hues found on the other pedals. Intriguingly Tom also revealed that he had collaborated with Intensive Care Audio's Patrick Smith - so obviously something new brewing there, and was / is a long term collaborator with Michael Gardner too of Emmergy FX fame.
As is often the case at these events we ended up talking about guitar pedal knobs, and which varieties existed it in pink! My 4 main pedal knob resources are typically Amplified Parts, Don'Audio, Love My Switches, and Small Bear Electronics - and yes Tom - there are plenty of pink knobs to be found - but not alas for the silver-top Boss style varieties alas!
Another one of Tom's that I'm interested in covering is his End Credits - 7 Second Delay / Looper / Bitchrusher / Stutter / Glitch pedal. We'll see how all that pans out - when I reach out to everyone once this article is up and shared to social media - these kinds of articles always take quite a bit of work to bring together - shame that they're not more popular!
In any case all of us who were there really enjoyed it - and just wish there could have been a few more circulating, possibly the allure of the sun - on the hottest day of the year to-date - was too much of a temptation for some. I was happy to be inside though and out of the heat!
See all you regulars again at the next one of these!
