I love the blooming harmonics of the Super-Fuzz circuit, yet a lot of those originals are a little underpowered on the output. I prefer vintage-inspired but slightly modernised circuits which have a significantly improved output profile.

This will be my own 25th Super-Fuzz - that’s how much I like the format. And Vitalii has really pulled out all the stops for his version. The original 1968 Super-Fuzz essentially had 3 controls :

Balance (Volume), Expander (Fuzz Amount), Tone Switch : ...

OK - so this is the well loved Drunk Beaver Distortion - or DStort1on as I sometimes refer to it as - Vitalii’s quite superb take on the Boss DS-1 Distortion - with vastly extended features and range. I did a piece on the latest version of that back in 2022.

This Hello Beaver variant is simply just a re-skinned colour-variant as requested by a prospective customer. The brief was for a pink variant of the Distortion - where Vitalli kind of serendipitously arrived at a similar treatment to ...

So February, as expected, turned out to be quite the slow moving month - with not too many featured releases. You always get the big announcements at NAMM - and then it takes a few months typically for those pedals to filter through.

There were a few heavy hitters that emerged in February or sooner - including the Kernom Elipse Modulation Playground, and the Polyend Step Drum Machine Pedal - both of which went on the board this month.

I also made the Plutoneium Chi-Wah-Wah a permanent ...

So interestingly this is the second time Vitalii has covered the Ibanez LM7 LA Metal as there’s a version of it already onboard his Fat Bat Rat. The LA Metal voicing is also one of the options on the JHS Pedals Packrat Distortion - so it’s a well worn path for a pretty distinct Rat Distortion variant.

This PD #26 is very much an evolved and enhanced take on that circuit - with the original 5534 op-amp replaced with a fine-tuned discrete FET op-amp and additional LED clipping mode beyond the...

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 ...

When I started this exercise it was initially just about documenting those compressors I already owned - where obviously the Chase Bliss Clean is the most recent addition.

A Becos FX CompIQ Mini Pro has long been on the cards - but hasn’t happened quite yet - things often take interesting turns along the way - that one will almost definitely be the next one to enter this particular capsule collection.

My very first compressor was the Xotic Effects SP Compressor Mini - where I bought a ...

I’ve long been a fan of the Boss FZ-3 Fuzz - whose output straddles both classic Tone Bender and Fuzz Face tones and can get pretty full-on. I’ve had my pristine copy  of that since 2018, and I’ve always loved the vibrancy of this fuzz.

And Drunk Beaver’s Vitalli has exactingly recreated the FZ-3 circuit using expertly matched Toshiba SMT Transistors with the exact same values as the Toshiba THT originals.

The profile of the two pedals is incredibly close - with that same excellent ...

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

It’s that time of year when I pick out my personal favourite pedals in each category - starting with the Boost and Overdrive ones. I weigh up each candidate on the basis of my own experiences, preferences and sensibilities - and include pedals also that I intended to get but did not quite yet around to acquiring during the year of release!

For this selection I personally own all but these 8 :

• Aleks K Production Honey Moon Sweet Overdrive V3
• Bleak District Slate Discrete Gemanium