Redbeard's superb Bearded Vulture take on the Thermionic Culture Vulture Tube Saturator Rack Unit could very well be their most satisfying pedal to date!
So I’ve had this pedal for over a month now, and was totally blown away by it right from when it first arrived. It’s part Overdrive, part Distortion, and part Fuzz in its output - depending on where you set the Drive, Bias, and Timbre dials - which are all very interactive - and particularly the Drive and Bias.
I’ve been waiting for Mikey Demus to do a rifftastic demo of his pedal - which he originally told me he would have out the week after the Birmingham Show - now long since passed. He’...
Hot Pink Colour Sync - The Return!
So I initially published an article on February 20th - where I gathered together 9 pedals which all had the same Hot Pink Colourway. It was originally inspired by the launch of Great Easter FX Co’s Obsolete Devices OD201 Preamp - so the article was a nod to that.
At the time of posting I had 2 of those in my possession - I guess you could say 3 - as I owned the Lightspeed too already - but not in that colourway - as you will have noted in subsequent references.
So this was mainly done ...
Mooer's Prime Minimax M2 Intelligent Pedal is a cool Bluetooth App-controlled Multi-FX with 194 Effects Onboard
Mooer was due to be at the recent London Synth and Pedal Expo that I attended over the weekend, but ended up being a casualty of the Heathrow Substation Fire - the only pedal that got there in time was its GS1000 Intelligent Amp Profiling Processor and there was some kind of power supply issue with that - so it needed to be retired on the very first day!
I was hoping to see the GL100 Looper and this Prime M2 at the show - while alas neither of those pedals made it in the end!
The Prime...
Inaugural Woking Boutique Guitar Show Highlights from Fiery Bird
Maybury Guitars - Jason
So here are the highlights from the very first Woking Boutique Guitar Show - which took place this past Saturday at the Fiery Bird venue - just 5 minutes walk from the train station / town centre.
The show was organised by my good friend Jason Snelling of Maybury Guitars, alongside John Smith of JAS Guitars. The venue was perfectly centrally located, and was spacious - with a lot of natural light - which did make some of the photography somewhat...
IK Multimedia ToneX One Joe Satriani Chrome Edition Deep Dive
I was down for getting the original black ToneX One edition - one was offered to me, but never quite arrived. Which turns out I’m quite happy about in the end really as it was the much better looking Chrome Joe Satriani Edition that finally landed for me. So thanks to IK Multimedia for their assistance!
Considering I’m mostly a classic stompbox guy - then the ToneX One isn’t always going to be he most natural fit for me. While as a Multi-Gain / Versatile Multi-Drive and Distortion pedal - ...
Audio Cultivation Projects' Fourth Solid-State Distortion is a great take on those trashier sounding solid state amps - using a Hybrid Transistor + OpAmp topology
I’ve been wanting to cover this pedal since I first glimpsed it. Something about its elegant design really appeals to me - as does its Drive / Distortion output profile. It supposedly sits somewhat adjacent to the Music Man 112 RD, Epiphone Studio 10s, and the Silvertone 1464 solid state amps - for that kind of brasher garage-punk / rock sound.
It starts with a fairly conventional control topology of Output / Level, Gain and Shape (Bass EQ),
while it’s 3 toggle switches make it really...
Aclam's latest Vox Conqueror Go Rocky Go take further cements their reputation as the leading purveyor of Highest Quality Beatles' Vox Sounds
This lates Vox-Conqueror-inspired pedal covers the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour and White Albums. Interestingly ’Magical Mystery Tour’ is my brother’s favourite Beatles Album, while the White Album is my own second-favourite Beatles work. My favourite is of course ’Revolver’ - which is covered by Aclam’s previous Dr. Roberts pedal. And my 3rd favourite Beatles Album - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is ably covered by Aclam’s Mocker pedal.
Controls - Volume, Drive : Attack <> ...
Tampco's Nelson Martins Distorter collaboration is a super smart and expansive 3-Part Parallel Gain Machine - blending Clean Signal with Fuzz and Overdrive
What we have here is a +20dB Clean Blend, Classic Fuzz, and a Low Gain Overdrive - all blended together in parallel. You have separate footswitches for Fuzz and Drive - and can blend in your perfect mix via the 2 x Level and single Clear conntrols.
Controls - FUZZ } Voice : Pushed / Scooped, Level, Tone, Gain, Bias, Fuzz Distortion; DRIVE } Level, Tone, Gain. Drive Footswitch; CLEAR } Blend.
Most of you will recall that the Klon Centaur default blends Dry and Effected signals in ...
Lawrence Petross adds the JMP 2203 to his excellent Marshall derived preamp roster
Lawrence has carved out quite the reparation for superior Marshall style devices over the years - including his fantastic Sixty8, Seventy4, and Eighty7 circuit takes on classic Marshall amp voicings.
I only have the Eighty7 variant to-date, but the aim has always been to complete the set - it just hasn’t happened quite yet. And now we have another sort of later period Plexi - which came just before the JCM800 variant - and kind of sits between the Sixty8 Super Lead Plexi, and Eighty7 JCM800...
Drunk Beaver releases Cute Kawaii style Hello Beaver Distortion Colourway - with matching T-Shirt
OK - so this is the well loved Drunk Beaver Distortion - or DStort1on as I sometimes refer to it as - Vitalii’s quite superb take on the Boss DS-1 Distortion - with vastly extended features and range. I did a piece on the latest version of that back in 2022.
This Hello Beaver variant is simply just a re-skinned colour-variant as requested by a prospective customer. The brief was for a pink variant of the Distortion - where Vitalli kind of serendipitously arrived at a similar treatment to ...
