So we had the usual cryptic clues that something was about to happen - with various glimpses of the Dirt Bird pedal, as well as an older version of the Ayahuasca Trem-Fuzz. So even more cryptic than usual - while it increasingly looked like we would be getting a new variant of the Condor pedal.

When the reveal happened it all got a bit more complicated as this smart Mystery Box festive promotion was world-wide - where everyone pays the same $299 and equivalent for their mystery box (free ...

I’ve just recently covered the phenomenal Tavysh HARM Multi-Gain pedal, and thought I should look at which similarly potent multi-gain pedals I had in the reference collection. In fact while doing the preliminary for this I realised I hadn’t yet acquired the All-Pedal Devil’s Triad Essentials - which landed around a fortnight ago. I had to go to Thomann, as there were none available in the UK at the time. I actually really like using Thomann - it takes a little longer to get packages from there...

A company that never does things by halves - Chase Bliss has supposedly been working on this circuit for a few years now - bringing extra dynamics and movement to the normally rather utilitarian compressor format.

This is a full Stereo Dual Stage VCA Compressor / Limiter - with an amazing feature set - that’s going to take people / players a wee while to adapt too. This is far from you regular compressor - while it can perform that basic function with aplomb! You can also place it at either...

So we were back in Bristol once more for the superb Wassup Nerds!? 2 Show - much expanded and in new BIMM Institute Venue in the Stokes Croft area of that city. Said area, is a little way out of the centre of the city, and consists mostly of take-away restaurants seemingly, a few pubs, and is heavily saturated with Vegan and Vegetarian options - so will likely suit the more fussy eaters!

Unusually for me, I hadn’t done any research on that area in advance - where for my lunch break - I ...

So I said I would expand the scope of the 10 Pedal Challenge to Mini and Large Enclosure variants if the original was well received. And in indeed that seems to be the case - with several readers encouraging me in particular to do the Large Pedals Edition.

So of course I’ve done the 2 remaining categories - Mini and Large! The Large Pedals were pretty much all obvious choices really and that board largely suggested itself. It was the Mini Pedals version that took the most cogitation!

It...

So a follower on instagram challenged me to shrink my elaborate pedal-chain down to just 10 pedals. My original plan was just to fill a Pedaltrain Nano Max board with 10 compact pedals. But I then decided I should do a Mid-Size variation too, using the Pedaltrain Classic 2 board or thereabouts. I may do further Mini and Large Format editions as a follow-up - depending on how well this article is received!

This was a trickier exercise than you would imagine - as I needed to shuffle through ...

So it’s been an odd week for Chase Bliss announcements! As just 6 days ago Joel announced that 5 of their pedals were to be discontinued owing to their containing one or more Vactrols / Resistive Opto-Isolators / Light Cells (LDR / Light-Dependent Resistor) components - which is deemed to contain a carcinogenic / hazardous substance in its make-up (Cadmium Sulphide [CdS] / Cadmium Selenide [CdSe] )- and where it falls foul of European and UK RoHS regulations (Restriction of Hazardous Substances...

I’m going to start this month’s roundup with a couple of conundrums that I’m still kind of wrestling with.

Firstly about my old friends at Sinvertek, whom I can’t but think that they might have jumped the shark with their latest release. It’s another spin off of the Scream Honey line - the 4th or 5th in that series. Mr Wu seems to introduce tiny improvements each year, and every other year we get a price rise too. On this occasion the offering is two pedals - supposedly both slightly different ...

Showrunner extraordinaire Phil Steere above (at the show entrance), AKA PedalPatch Head Honcho.

What a wonderful show!

Just as good as the inaugural one, in fact by several measures even better!

These shows are really like family reunions for me nowadays - I know most everybody on the pedal scene now and seemed to be mostly warmly welcomed into their company. I was up really early on the Saturday - in fact when I walked in at 08:15 only Boss and NRG Effects were close to having set ...