John Snyder seems to be consistently the hardest working man in this industry - and features on so many brand collaborations that sometimes it feels like he’s responsible for half of everything out there!

I’ve had this article in mind for a while, and over that period we’ve seen many a limited colourway editions for this pedal - where I’ve seen versions in green, and copper, silver, and white even I believe. I still feel that the original black take is a beautifully balanced creation - with...

In my usual way I’ve poured over the Ample manual several times, and distilled the essentials down into a graphical visual format. This is my most detailed Poly Effects visual to-date with a lot of fine details - including all the Cab variants in the margins.

Same as with the ’Verbs’ - this is an IR-infused approach (specifically Neural Amp Modelling) - where those Classic Amps have been expertly captured and profiled - and rendered in simple but richly textured stereo format. You don’t get...

When I first saw a teaser for the Neural DSP Nano Cortex I thought it was an interesting idea - but one that I wouldn’t necessarily get along with. For instance - because the Source Audio compacts offload a lot of the pedal control to the Neuro App - that has entirely managed to put me off those devices - I love the larger One Series pedals - Ventris, Nemesis, Collider and recent Artifakt - which you can entirely run off the surface controls - but I’ve never really gotten on with any of the ...

You can instantly feel that the new amp is more immediate, tighter, and responsive than before - with more snap and punch to its output, and deeper soundstage projection. It benefits from additional expansive controls and output options, and now is much more controllable via direct Bluetooth App control with the Boss Tone Studio App. I would describe it as overall significantly more articulate and dynamic than before.

And I really love the new ’Pushed’ Amp Type - which I’ve switched over to...

I feel I did the definitive write-up of the GT-1000 Core back in January of 2021. The Core stayed on my board from October 2020 through March of 2022 - so I certainly built up a decent knowledge and experience of that pedal. I will never though be one to have the GT-1000 as I prefer individual effects mostly, many of them analogue, with the occasional workstation - while I appreciate the leaps-and-bounds evolution of digital formats.

In the Update release notes much is made of improvements ...

Laney builds on its family recent 8-knob 60W Ironheart Foundry Loudpedal - where it adds the Secretpath Reverb with its own Level Control and Footswitch, alongside a new Master Balancing EQ Tone control, and further Boost option. So taking the guts of the original pedal to higher levels, where the new Ironeheart and Lionheart pedals are collaborations with long term Laney artists - Martin Miller, and Tom Quayle. These are weirdly not billed so much as signature pedals for those artists - but ...

Somewhat serendipitously - Boss’s Katana Series was birthed in the same year that Guitar Pedal X first started - 2016. From that first MKI Series I very early on acquired a Katana 100, which of course was a long term favourite of mine. Then in 2019 Boss introduced the improved MKII Series - with the quite superb Artist MKII arriving a year later - that was to be my second Katana Amp. And now in 2024 Boss has released the Gen III Series, NOT MKIII, as this release is far more significant than a ...

There’s been quite the trend for Tube Preamp pedals of late - what with Friedman’s IR-D and IR-X, ThorpyFX Electric Lighting, Tubsesteader Lightkeeper and Magnesium, obviously some fairly large format solid-state types too like Thermion’s Freeway. And longer-term players too like Kingsley and Victory Amps. There’s never been more choice! And so much of what is now available is fantastic.

This new Tsakalis Mothership is another really smart take on floor-based tube amp / preamp with 2 ...

I’ve gone a little bit movie poster on this one! The saga of the forgotten Top Gun :

’The Bluesman!’

I’ve long been a fan of Chris Buck - and indeed named him as one of my favourite 25 Guitar Heroes back in a 2022 article. His incredibly expressive touch is second to none! And he can wring out the most impressive detail and nuance over several bars - from just a single note!

So it’s entirely fitting that Thorpy has built him an equally dynamic and expressive pedal to match Chris’s ...