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 ...

One of the best known chorus tones of all time ’Come as You Are’ is one of the many killer voicings that this pedal delivers with ease - where its 3 ERA voicings deliver all of Kurt’s favourite chorus infused tones - and take you into even more extended and rarefied territory.

The classic Small Clone pedals have just 2 controls - Rate, and Depth, where the Depth is a 2-way High/Low Slider Switch - which Kurt pretty much permanently had in the Upper / High position - which corresponds with ...

I last did this exercise around 4 years ago now, and in that time have advanced my Rat style pedal collection to 44 units, where 29 compact editions of those are featured in this listing of 32.

From the listing I don’t yet have the NRG Effects 2024 Edition Gnawer, Oneder Red Ryder Distortion, or Walrus Audio Iron Horse. The last mentioned of those is the easiest to acquire, but I’ve not 100% made my mind up on that yet - there may be other more extended range Rats out there that I’ve yet to...

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, ...