The original Spaceman I first came out in 2013, with the much larger Sputnik II materialising in 2017, and then the mid-size Sputnik III arriving a few years later in 2020. I missed out on the Spaceman I upon its original release, but picked up a pristine Red Cyrillic version of that in 2018 - which eagle eyed reader will note is my favourite American fuzz (vis-a-vis The Fuzz Pedal Olympics!).

I had the opportunity to get the Sputnik II at the time of release, but always felt that its ...

Who doesn’t like a bit of Japanese Cutesy Kawaii Culture. Fender certainly does - and has been onboard with Sanrio and Hello Kitty now for half a century.

This latest release obviously comes just in time for the Christmas season - in fact I would imagine a few princesses will be waking up to one of these guitars on Christmas Day. And Japanese princesses have even more to be excited about - as you can see in the overview video below - with some unique product available in Japan!

While ...

It’s that time again! When you can freely pre-order every and any Reeves Electro pedal in the catalogue within a 24 hour window - without having to partake in a small batch lottery!

The headline for this occasion is the return of the Big Box BlackHatSound Pro - housed in a MKIII Tone Bender style Enclosure - where only 20 of those are available - everything else is Unlimited in numbers!

Also the Plus Overdrive is absent on this occasion with the 183 Sound sort of in its place for this ...

Brazil is a fascinating guitar pedal marketplace - mostly inward looking, and mostly closed off from the rest of the world. I was the first European I believe to get Aura Amps and Tone Ink pedals shipped out of Brazil. Some of those brands have some experience of shipping up the landmass and into Central and North America, but little or nothing ventures across the waters in either direction.

Andy Timmons has long favoured the GNI/ NIG Music OctaFuzz (as pictured left of centre) - where I’ve...

So this incredibly busy month was supposed to be all about Tremolos, culminating with the Rounder Sounds Zebra-Trem Review and 30 Tremolo Pedal Overview. But we hit some snags along the way - the Zebra-Trem was mysteriously held up in customs for a week, and then got slightly lost in the local postal network. And when it did finally arrive - evidently it had been dropped a few times, as the screen was no longer working. After trying various obvious remedies with Bill over a few days - with no ...

I obviously have and love the original - with its external Bias control and super handy LED Bias Screen. The new one is simply an improvement of that already great circuit - with additional controls - and of course retaining that fantastic richly detailed harmonic germanium sound.

Silktone have also graciously maintained the price point - so you’re getting quite a bit more bang for you buck here. As before - I would of course have preferred this in a vertically oriented format, but since it...

I’ve just recently covered the phenomenal Tavysh HARM Multi-Gain pedal, and thought I should look at which similarly potent multi-gain pedals I had in the reference collection. In fact while doing the preliminary for this I realised I hadn’t yet acquired the All-Pedal Devil’s Triad Essentials - which landed around a fortnight ago. I had to go to Thomann, as there were none available in the UK at the time. I actually really like using Thomann - it takes a little longer to get packages from there...

When Horrothia’s Tom started down this path, he was determined to make the most wide-ranging classic fuzz - one that allowed for the maximum of tone-shaping, and delivered octaves and feedback oscillation on top of a kaleidoscope of different tones and textures.

And what we’ve ended up with sets a new benchmark for classic fuzz, where 7 controls and 3 footswitches give you access to everything you might desire from a fuzz - there are so many clever touches to this design - that I will ...

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-...