Lydia Sean Mandrake is not one to follow the crowd or do things by halves. This Grand Classic Passion Project has way exceeded its Kickstarter timeline - but is all the better for it, and is overall a vast improvement on the original concept - acquiring an improved control topology, and a couple of key accessories along the way.

At the same time, Lydia developed Audiostorm’s own automated ’pick-and-place’ manufacturing assembly line, utilising numerous 3D-printed parts. Turns out Lydia is ...

Another totally mad month for sure - loaded with frenetic activity and peppered with highs as well as crushing disappointments. The first give-away for GPX didn’t quite hit the highs I expected (said give-away closes tonight at 23:59 BST). And there are some weird gaps in the entrants’ home countries - certainly no shortage from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, or much of mainland Europe. I’m active in a lot more countries than have so far entered the give-away, so I don’t fully understand why ...

I’ve really taken to the Kempton Park Reacourse venue for this show - with its superb viewing platform of a Panorama restaurant at the top of the building - in fact there are a few places you can seek refreshments. The whole things had / has an easy family vibe to it - where several exhibitors brought part of their family with them for the day - some the whole shebang, while others had their Dad or Brother in tow - just a really nice easy breezy atmosphere - and so easy to get to for those of ...

This article has been a long time coming - where I originally started this ahead of the Mini Edition - which went live on January 24th. I was waiting for a couple of new pedals to be released - while the article has been iterated around 20 times now with a number of recent additions.

And the pedal I was waiting to launch still hasn’t quite happened, while the builder has authorised me to tease it in advance of its official release. And if I were to do the same exercise tomorrow - no doubt ...

Like most I believe - I had a wonderful time at the recent Brighton Guitar Show and Pedal Expo - where I spent 97% of my time in the Pedal Room, with just brief excursions out to the Hamstead Soundworks and Timber Tones stands in the main Guitars Room.

I pretty much managed to get to the vast majority of stands I intended to - but there are always some casualties as time is a finite commodity! And I was there actually from just after eight until gone 17:30 - one of the very last to leave - ...

So we’re just one day away from the Brighton Guitar Show and FX Expo - where Mr PedalPatch - Phil Steere takes up the reins alongside show partners and sponsors Zander Circuitry (Alex Millar), RotoSound (Jack Dunwoody), Strings & Things (Marc Snelling), and WaterBear College of Music (Adam Bushell and Bruce John Dickinson). All those brands are listed in the middle of the above visual! With further details below.

The show is in a handy location at the Brighton Racecourse - just a 10 ...

This episode is a little more esoteric and preferential than most - and involves identifying the most notable and easily recognisable ’Pedal Shapes and Formats’ essentially. Of course there is some subjective preference here - while I will try to explain objectively how I came to this exact 25 pedal selection - some of these are very obvious - others are slightly more idiosyncratic choices - while there are obviously some brands that are particularly good at coming up with memorable enclosure ...

There’s no shortage of High Gain Distortion pedals out there - while Audiostorm stresses that their Grand Classic is a distinct breakaway from the normal conventions of overbearing dominant distortions which typically very significantly colour an amp’s output. Where the Grand Classic’s unique topology rather preserves the core dynamics and flavour of your Amp output and simply massively extends its gain range potential as such.

The whole topology here is somewhat different to the norm - ...

So the recent launch of Origin Effects’ Halcyon enhanced TS808 type screamer prompted me to refresh my memory on what the competition to that was - and if the Halcyon was quite as appealing as it appeared to be. So I’ve trawled through all my usual resources, including my own memory banks - and come up with this list of 28 suitable candidates.

This list is specifically on enhanced / evolved Compact enclosure Tube Screamer types - so I exclude hybrids - such as Matthews Effects The Broker (...