So I’ve been meaning to do this article for a while, but kept putting it off - in the hope that we might see more brands materialising from this country. That has not been the case though - so now seems as good a time as any to focus on the small but mighty trifecta of Croatian brands - Dawner Prince Electronics, DryBell Musical Electronic Laboratory and Polarbear Effects.

I typically have a grid of a 9 for this style of article - so here I’ve selected my favourite 3 choices from each brand...

While this pedal shares the name of its Silky Smooth Saturating Overdrive sibling and they both share the same Audio Output Transformer - everything else is quite different. In fact the Silicon Steel Boost is a totally separately originated circuit - developed to deliver ultimate high headroom clean boosting, with potent EQ and subtle harmonics.

However much you raise the level - you never quite induce Overdrive breakup - you do get a subtle degree of saturation, while this pedal is mostly ...

I’ve always admired this Studio Style Console Box / Control Strip - while I’ve questioned whether I really need it. I have the Empress ParaEQ 2 DLX for all my EQ’ing needs, and I use some very specific gain-staging pedals, where some have up to +60dB onboard and an additional +30dB indenpdent boost - for pretty much limitless versatility.

I have several pedals with Audio Output transfomrmers onboard too, so I feel that I’m mostly covered for what I need already, and how I use those gain ...

So Fractal Audio Systems has thrown its hat in the ring with its first non-modelling device / unit - the VP4 Virtual Pedalboard Multi-FX Processor - which is quite a departure for the brand.

It’s obviously gunning for Line 6 and Eventide in particular, but also looking to knock out Boss and Strymon Workstation pedals. It has several of its own advantages, but with a number of caveats too. Overall it’s well priced for what it delivers - but for my own preferences it’s still somewhat over-...

Considering my well documented fallout with this brand - this is a slightly odd article for me. I might not get along with said brand name head honcho - but Jackson Audio still make some very decent pedals. They’re not necessarily always the best sounding overall, but in terms of their format innovation, build quality, feature set and usability they’re still a formidable force.

Pedal industry relationships are always complex - as they don’t just involve the builders, but distributors and ...

On first seeing this striking pedal you get instant Chase Bliss vibes - while this is an entirely new incredibly creative sort of glitchy circuit which Microlooper-style records its input into a buffer - where 9 x ’Playback Operators’ grab snippets from a 15 second Buffer and randomly play those back at different speeds and in different vector directions. The randomisation hits once per second where the 5 Playback Operator types get fired off randomly - i.e. some are played, some are not, and ...

So this is the final phase of the range revamp, bringing the Twain Dual Band / Stacked Compressor up to date with the other models. This is a refined and improved model over its predecessor - with serial changes inside and out.

Like the Stella - you now have the option of having the DITOS transformer-enhanced Balanced DI Out factory fitted by default.

And we see some significant updates with the Feed Forward / Feed-Back section, and Side Chain Filters. While the dual saturation engines ...

The source pedal for the ’distortiion’ - the long-since discontinued MXR Distortion II (1979-1984) has often been portrayed as THE essential companion pedal for Billy’s favourite OpAmp Big Muff - in order to deliver the Siamese Dream Lead tones. While the truth is a little more complex than that - as there are several additional pedals and indeed further studio effects that make up that essential sonic signature. There’s often a Phase 100 in the mix, with some tape delay and/or tape flanging, ...

My now good friend Trevor Taylor has totally mastered the Boss FA-1 FET Amp / Preamp Circuit with 3 authentic takes of his own - all utilising premium parts, and including the original NOS Hitachi HA1457W OpAmp chips featured in the original. Most takes on the FA-1 rather feature the LM1458.

If you check out Trevor’s Audio Blend Effects Reverb.com page you will see that there are 3 main variants - this flagship Edge EQ FA-1 FET Preamp, the FourLeaf FA-1 FET Preamp, and finally the FA-1 FET ...