I’ve always admired this Studio Style Console Box / Control Strip - while I’ve questioned whether I really need it. I have the Empress ParaEQ 2 DLX for all my EQ’ing needs, and I use some very specific gain-staging pedals, where some have up to +60dB onboard and an additional +30dB indenpdent boost - for pretty much limitless versatility.

I have several pedals with Audio Output transfomrmers onboard too, so I feel that I’m mostly covered for what I need already, and how I use those gain ...

JHS’s new Flight Delay covers Josh’s 3 all-time favourite Delay Pedals / Effects. The Electro-Harmonix Memory Man [Analog], Line 6 DHL4 Reverse (Reverse), and Boss DD-5 (Digital).

The pedal is very clearly laid out - with mostly Delay Elements on the Left, and Modulation on the Right.

Controls - DELAY } Mix, Repeats, EQ, Time (50ms > 1000ms), Divisions : Quarter / Eighth / Dotted Eighth, Mode : Analog / Reverse / Digital, Bypass Footswitch, Tap Tempo Footswitch; MODULATION } Mod Rate, ...

Another strong month for sure! A little dominated by Keeley Electronics, but some solid releases over the month - with a crazy flurry towards the end - to coincide with Europe’s largest Guitar Gear Show - Mannheim’s Guitar Summit. It seems evident now that Guitar Summit is an event I should really be at - and I will make a concerted effort to be their next year.

As it was I attended just one guitar gear event this month - EarthQuaker Devices Showcase at GuitarGuitar in Camden - where I got ...

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 ...

I last did this exercise around 4 years ago now, and in that time have advanced my Rat style pedal collection to 44 units, where 29 compact editions of those are featured in this listing of 32.

From the listing I don’t yet have the NRG Effects 2024 Edition Gnawer, Oneder Red Ryder Distortion, or Walrus Audio Iron Horse. The last mentioned of those is the easiest to acquire, but I’ve not 100% made my mind up on that yet - there may be other more extended range Rats out there that I’ve yet to...

It’s been a while since I did a Marshall / MIAB roundup - where last time I leant rather more into EVH / Brown Sound variants. In this current selection we mostly have Plexi and JCM800 types, but also some that extend down to JTM45, and a few that get up to JVM levels of gain.

I’ve always been interested with Marshall Colour Association - where in the visual you can see a fair smattering of gold and red variants, a few black ones too - which are kind of the core colours. Purple seems to have ...

As is often the case - just after I complete my annual Full Metal Racket Rundown - we all of a sudden have another handy candidate or two!

It seems like these days everyone is looking to jump on the High Gain Bandwagon - with JHS just the first of many of this new wave. Supposedly J Rockett has a High Gain candidate fairly imminent, and there are several others sort of waiting in the wings!

In many ways this is also a tribute to recently passed JHS Head Engineer Cliff Smith - for whom ...

Josh Scott goes back to early Shine-Ei and Univox for his inspiration for the aesthetic of his duo of Beach Boys inspired pedals. Using a very streamlined Black and White format - which is nicely punctuated with period-correct Orange Amp knobs!

I rather prefer Keeley’s take on Beach Boy inspired pedals - but wholly understand how Josh arrived at this endpoint - which is most definitely period-correct versus its source origins - but still not particularly aesthetically inspiring.

As a ...

JHS’s SuperBolt first materialised in 2012 as a Preamp / Overdrive take on the 1960’s Valco Supro Thunderbolt amp. It’s been through a few iterations throughout its 12 year history - where the original 3-part Thunderbolt symbol needed to be extended to 4 parts to avoid trademark copyright issues.

The pedal also picked up a Red Remote socket and Gain boost switch along the way. But evidently the pedal had not been selling particularly well - and Josh decided that it should be discontinued - ...