NOTE! - I made a mistake here - the EHX Small Stone is a 4-stage type - will need to re-do this article. Looks like I now have enough for a One-Knob 4-stage rundown - but so far can only find 3 One-Knob 2-Stage types - do let me know if you discover a worthy 4th!

I was originally going to focus on the Phase 90 4-Stage types, but could not find enough for a significant full house - while there seemed to be a lot more of the 2-Stage variety - which is what this selection consists of.

All ...

We’re back onto the fully similar pedals again - with 4 contemporary examples of a vintage 2-knob chorus. All of these sport the exact same chip set - consisting of the 3207 + 3102 Boss CE-3 style chipset - but using the CoolAudio V3207 and V3102 variants - versus the original Matsushita / Panasonic MN3207 and MN3102 variants. In fact there’s just one tiny difference here in that the Way Huge Blue Hippo has a different Chinese BL3102 variant of that chip type - but with identical values. Which ...

So this time around we have a slightly different take on this format - where each of these pedals has a similar outward control topology - that is to say 4 Knobs, with an additional 5th Switch or Button control.

And while the outward appearance is very similar, internally these are all quite different styles of compression circuits. Interestingly they’re listed out in alphabetical order, which just happens to coincide with a descending order of price!

There are generally considered to ...

This episode marks a rather unique set of circumstances - where all 4 candidates are from the same brand - indeed these are essentially 4 evolutions of Robert Keeley’s Super Phat Mod - which Mod first appeared onboard the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver - before Robert started making his own variants. All 4 ones pictured are now in the reference collection.

The first listed is the most recently added to the reference collection - the ’20 for 20’ (2020) Boss Blues Driver Blue Sparkle Edition. I ...

So it made sense that after I did one of the most obvious ’4 of a Kind’ initial groupings - with the 3-Band EQ Boost pedals - largely EQD Tone Job adjacent - that surely the almost as obvious Timmy quartet should be next up for this format!

Interestingly the first massively popular ’Transparent’ Overdrive - Bill Finnegan’s Klon Centaur - first materialised in 1994. Then in 1998 we had Brian Mena’s Menatone Red Snapper , and a full 10 years after the Klon in 2004 - Murfreesboro, Tennessee ...

So I’m trying out a new 4-way format where I feature / compare seemingly very similar pedals. They need to be almost identical in general scope and control topologies to be eligible for inclusion. So these 4 are the first for this format :

• EarthQuaker Devices Tone Job - $159
• Carl Martin Tone Tweaker - $159
• Fender Engager Boost - $119
• Kuro Custom Audio Hand-Made Bakeneko EQ Boost - $179

That’s not to say Looks-Like is necessarily Like-for-Like. All 4 of these have slightly different ...