Apologies that his is a little late - it took and age to research, compile and complete - and is filled with myriad wonderful fun facts - I sincerely hope you enjoy this one - as a whole heap of work has gone into bringing it to you!

So I spent the whole weekend working on updating my pedal inventory records to figure out exactly where I was at with the Reference Collection, the last time I did that exercise was a couple of years ago. I had kind of mentally estimated that I had around 1.300...

I’m going to start this month’s roundup with a couple of conundrums that I’m still kind of wrestling with.

Firstly about my old friends at Sinvertek, whom I can’t but think that they might have jumped the shark with their latest release. It’s another spin off of the Scream Honey line - the 4th or 5th in that series. Mr Wu seems to introduce tiny improvements each year, and every other year we get a price rise too. On this occasion the offering is two pedals - supposedly both slightly different ...

In typical PastFX fashion we have an exacting compact replica of the MF-101 using all primo components - and the truly smart addition of an Output Level control.

Besides the new Output Level knob, the control topology is identical to the 1998-2018 original. Of course the original had a couple of larger format rocker switches - which have been replaced by space-saving toggle switches on the PX-101 - but otherwise the topology and layout is exact!

In terms of comparative sizing, the now ...

I’m still playing catchup with the most recent PastFX releases - where I’m almost back up to date! I say almost - while there are also 4 of my incumbent PastFX pedals that have since been updated with more features - so even when I turn in the PX-101 Moogy Lowpass Filter review at the end of this week - I still have a few more older, but updated editions to add to the reference collection!

This PX99 Classic Phase is my 3rd PastFX Phaser - after the Foot Phaser Deluxe and Rotary Phaser - all...

First used on the Pink Floyd Momentary Lapse of Reason / Delicate Sound of Thunder Tour (1987-90) - the TCE Booster / Line Driver / Distortion was used by David Gilmour to boost into the front of his EHX Ram’s Head Muff / Pete Cornish P-1 Muff (cv PastFX M-1-A) - where the Butler Tube Driver typically came after and was used more to further EQ the Muff as such - or so I am led to believe by those category experts.

So David essentially boosted his Big Muff to beef it up a touch - much like ...

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, ...

I am quite the fan of the ProCo Rat Distortion circuit - where this is the 36th of that category to enter my reference collection.

PastFX’s Verlie has done yet another genius smart take on a classic pedal - not necessarily quite as expansive as some of those I already have, but with all the smart features you need to get the most out of this format. The Mischief sounds fantastic when you dial it in just right.

The classic Rat circuit has just 3 controls - Distortion, Filter (inverse), ...

I’ve worked up another selection of fuzz pedal pairs - a couple here may be a touch more tenuous - while there is solid logic in all the choices - even those that look a little differentiated! As before - there are some magnificent combinations to be found here.

The first selection was mostly about Fuzz Face pairs, while for this second roundup, we have a larger contingent of Big Muff types.

Expresso FX puts in a second appearance here - while all the other brands have not featured ...

The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!