My good friend Guillem is never one to do things by halves - especially when working on next level Hi-Fidelity Mini Format pedals. His Golden Horse, Reverend, and Angry Swede are already legendary, and here we have another one to join them on that lofty podium.

These magical creations will compete with any size pedal - where the Reverend and Angry Swede are already extended formats, and we may still get a Golden Horse with a couple of toggles - like its new Rivus Sibling.

I was very ...

Readers will know that I’m a huge Marc Ahlfs / Skreddy Pedals fan, and a range re-stock is always a big event for me - even though I own a large number of these masterpieces by now.

The top row of the visual is particularly exciting as we get a rare reissue of some long discontinued pedals - all improved version of those classics - Ernie, ? Lady, and Mayo. Marc is one of the kings of Big Muff - which represents all of the top row and the Zero in the bottom row.

We also have the brand ...

I would like to start my apologising that I got the previous One Knob Phaser article wrong - as I momentarily lapsed into thinking that the EHX Small Stone was a 2-Stage variant, where it’s rather the very first of the 4-Stage varieties. I’m so used to associating 4-Stages with the MXR Phase 90 - that it has always been my key benchmark, and until recently I’ve not been entirely clear on EHX’s illustrious phaser history - which I am now!

I still find it somewhat infuriating that you’re not ...

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 ...

I’ve been chasing down a Skreddy Zero Distortion for quite some time now and have suffered several near misses over those years, and quirky odd experiences along the trail too. Joe Light of Joe’s Pedals thought he had one buried somewhere in his store room - and it’s taken nearly a year of crate-digging to finally uncover it!

So this selection is in homage to that particular milestone, and the fact that my Skreddy Pedals collection is up to 10 now. The vast majority of these were acquired ...

Readers should know by now that I’m a huge fan of the overlapping genre of Fuzzy-Drive and Fuzzstortion style gain pedals - which tend to cover a variety of Fuzz, Overdrive and Distortion pedals - which all have a certain fuzzy character to them where they blur at least a couple of boundaries.

For me the sort of archetype of that sound is the Bixonic Expandora - while there are a great number of pedals that fall into that same sort of catchment area - and the 28 listed here are just a small...

I’ve been meaning to do this roundup for a while - where I touch on the most recent Plexi pedal additions. I could have done a larger exercise and included the Borgner La Grange and Seymour Duncan Diamondhead among others - but chose rather to keep things simple with just the latest 6 in consideration.

Those that read my blog regularly will likely know that I already pretty much have a favourite in mind here, but it’s important to do the due diligence and analysis - in ...

This article has been much requested - following on from my similar takes on the 7 Key Big Muff varieties and 9 Key Tone Bender varieties. I’ve sort of covered this a little bit before courtesy of my 6 Potent Fuzz Face Pairings feature and also my piece on Key Fuzz Transistors, while this offers a more comprehensive and expansive overview.

Everyone knows the story about how Ivor Arbiter of Sound City / Drum City fame sort of adapted the MKI.V Tone Bender format into a mic-stand-base ...

This is probably the most anticipated of my 12 Degrees roundups - and is a touch more complex and different to the other 2 in the series. Within each category here there can be a huge difference in character and output - for instance with Fuzz Faces going from quite mild to rather searing Meathead and Regulus VIII levels of aggression. So the gradual step up in gain per category doesn’t apply here. And because of circuit variations and differences in components and construction, each and every ...