So January 2025 sees a momentous milestone - where we have the peak possible number of pedals in the chain - which now numbers no less than 52 Pedals. It’s an incredibly tight squeeze - and all the available space is now fully used up.

I’ve re-flowed the main visual - where I used to try to have a fixed format arrangement - but now have re-numbered the slots entirely corresponding to the number and order of those pedals. Last January I noted that I was going to switch out my 2 Friedman ...

So I actually did a feature on this back in February of last year, while Joe Light / Joe’s Pedals didn’t get new Subdecay stock in until the start of this year. My friend Phil at Pedal Experiments reviewed / demoed this quite some time ago, and my friend Cyril M got his second hand off eBay quite some time ago also - so I’m a little late with this one, but it’s been well worth the wait.

At its core this is a dual-fuzz, where you blend together a Digital Wavefolder Fuzz, with an Analog Fuzz....

There are 32 Finalists in the Fuzz Category, where I own all but 3 :

• 29 Pedals Toki Overdrive / Fuzz
• Cachalote 214 Fuzz
• Subdecay Noise Theory Parallel Waveshaper Fuzz

The Finalists

• 29 Pedals Toki Fuzz Driver - $269
• Beetronics FX Tuna Fuzz - $99
• Beetronics FX Whoctahell V2 Low Octave Beeast Babee Edition - $149
• Cachalote Audio 214 Fuzz - R$1418 / $235
• Cornerstone Nero Dumble-Fuzz - €299 | $299
• Danelectro Nichols 1966 Liverpool Fuzz Tone - $199
• Decibelics Reverend V2 Mini

2024 has been quite the monumental year for me as regards Modulations - with several of my all-time favourite varieties having been added to the reference collection this year, some very recently - including the slightly older Krozz Airborn and Strymon Lex V2 - which I could have gotten in sooner, alongside 3 killer modulations that were released this year :

Modulations added to the Reference Collection in 2024 :

• 2024 : Chorus : PastFX Kurt’s Cologne Small Clone Multi-Era Analog Chorus -

Some time late last year I identified that the Tremolo section of my Reference Collection was probably the weakest of the major modulation categories - and I determined to do something about it in 2024 to bring that fully up to scratch. I made 2024 my ’Year of Tremolo’ and set to the task of bolstering my own capsule collection. Seems like I slightly overdid it in the end - as I’ve so far added 17 to the collection thoughout this year, with a likely couple more still to come.

So as with all...

So it’s been quite a while since I last covered this subject - indeed you have to go back to a August 2018 feature, which covered just 6 pedals. And where the then mentioned 770 Circuits seems to have wholly gone to ground in the interim, and there is no sign of its Komparator Trem-Fuzz anywhere anymore!

This time around I cast a slightly wider net - do note that these are a mix of LFO-assisted - therefore more Trem-Fuzz, and more natural feedback fuzz-oscillation. Essentially these are are...

This new hybrid fuzz pedal is in a similar format to Subdecay’s recent PixelWave Phase Distortion Synth. It has the same 11 Mode (0-10) Mode Selector and overall 5 knobs + 3-way Toggle Edit Mode switch. Obviously quite different parameters and output - but same in layout and similar in function.

Controls -  GAIN / Pre-Comp, TONE / Pre-HPF, OFFSET (Bias)| MIX / Pre-LPF, VOLUME, EDIT MODE : PRE / ANALOG / Shaper, FUZZ TYPE : 1-11 / Chorus & Flange, Hold Footswith to Save Preset.

This ...

So 2024 is off to a pretty spirted start! I treaded myself to 2 pedals right at the tail end of the year - the Poly VERBS puts in an appearance in this month’s selection - while the Reeves Electro BHS-D is running a touch late and will be part of the February selection instead.

This time of the year has to be mostly about NAMM - while I feel that a lot of builders kind of took away from NAMM and launched / showcased their new release in advance!

I’ve still to make it to NAMM - timing’s ...

The Modutility roundup combines Modulation, Utility and Pitch type pedals - it also includes Multi-FX and Multi-Modulation pedals of course. Some years this selection is relatively sparse - while this year it’s totally chock-a-block! In fact it was a struggle to whittle the Longlist down - and inevitably some pedals I wanted to feature did not make the cut - including the Endorphin.es Ghost Pedal Multi-FX and Subdecay Prometheus 3 Dual Super Filter.

I still feel that this selection of 26 is...