So we get another couple of stock Multi-Pedal units as JAM like to call them. Obviously where besides the David Gilmourish ’Pink Flow’ those are typically wholly custom shop pedals. While on this occasion Greg Koch’s Kochness Monster enters the main range - in 2 editions - Standard, and Supreme.

The Standard Kochness Monster Edition will retail at $790 and comes with 4 Effects - Lucy Dreamer Overdrive, Eureka Fuzz, Harmonious Monk Tremolo and Delay Llama.

The Supreme Kochness Monster ...

So a follower on instagram challenged me to shrink my elaborate pedal-chain down to just 10 pedals. My original plan was just to fill a Pedaltrain Nano Max board with 10 compact pedals. But I then decided I should do a Mid-Size variation too, using the Pedaltrain Classic 2 board or thereabouts. I may do further Mini and Large Format editions as a follow-up - depending on how well this article is received!

This was a trickier exercise than you would imagine - as I needed to shuffle through ...

Non-Human Audio introduced the 2-knobs Slow Loris Short Delay Line Dynamic Modulator about one year ago now - where it was incredibly enthusiastically received. Slightly reminiscent of a number of Delay Line Modulators - like say the Fjord Fuzz Loke, and Spaceman Effects Meridian - but hugely simplified - and with a slightly dissonant nature to the output.

And while inspired by the Slow Loris - this is a slightly differently calibrated effect with 2 different A + B Short Delay Lines - each ...

At the end of November last year - I put out an article featuring the two very first full stereo analog bbd delay pedals - The Walrus Audio Meraki, and Flower Pedals Dahlia. Shortly after that went live - my friend Olivier Armbruster of Glou-Glou fame - sent me a message to say that he was working on a number of his own Analog BBD Stereo Delays. And that has now been revealed to be 4 separate units - with 2 minor variants of control topology - featuring different BBD Chips for different Delay ...

An interesting fact is that this collaboration almost happened several years ago, but evidently the timing wasn’t right then for various reasons. This time around though there was an added ingredient in the mix - ’Yours Truly!’ - and I was somewhat instrumental in bringing the two sides together and finally making this happen!

It’s great news for us Brits - as these Lastgasp Art Laboratories Pedals have always been somewhat beyond our reach until now.

I obviously recently covered my 9 ...

I kind of see the Tripple Threat as an update / replacement for Donner’s discontinued $69 Alpha Cruncher (High Gain Distortion + Chorus + Delay) - but now with All Analog effects - where the Distortion is likely the same / similar to the analog British-voiced (Marshall) High Gain Distortion found on the Alpha Cruncher, while the Tripple Threat’s classic Phaser is a tune-up of Donner’s analog Pearl Tremor, and the Analog Echo is a tune-up of Donner’s well loved Yellow Fall Analog Delay.

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I love that Gamechanger Audio exists and is so free and forward looking in its innovation - continuously delivering new and distinct ideas into the world of pedals. They certainly make very interesting form factors, while their pioneering spirit often kind of ignores the more practical aspects of day-to-day pedalboard management. All their units are larger than the norms - often quite substantially - which makes those pedals difficult to accommodate on a typical board. And those considerations ...

So we featured 120 pedals across the 5 Genre categories this year - as you’ve witnessed over the last 5 days, and those have been whittled and distilled down to these 27 Magnificent and Exceedingly Flavoursome candidates.

Picking out the very best of those is obviously a slightly subjective exercise while based on a series of exacting criteria - including innovation, versatility, practicality, variability, playability, quality of manufacture, quality of output and sheer enjoyment.

Here ...

And so to the final category - where competition is extremely fierce this year. No doubt some of your favourites will have missed the cut here - but hopefully this selection is fully representative of the best of the year. Obvious I lean more towards immersive stereo effects - mono doesn’t really do it for me so much - while there is a smattering of mono pedals in here too. Price, format, versatility and practicality - everything counts!

Of the 23 featured in the selection - I own around ...