The Journey!

So this quest started at the tail end of January when the Venus was first teased at the NAMM show. I contacted Christos straight after the show and requested that I be fully in on the launch. I cover most every CTC launch - while typically it’s mostly just from the materials that Christos sends me - which are extensive.

I thought I had indicated that I wanted to be in on an hands-on deep dive review - but I’ve since read my statements and my meaning wasn’t always crystal clear...

Many thanks to my good friend Henry Kaiser - who introduced me to my new friend Jonny Brelliott. Henry was one of the early adopters of Jonny’s TODP Overdrive - where his model hadn’t yet evolved to the modular format / concept that it is now - as per my pictured one. The core Pentode Tube circuit is the same in my review version as in Henry’s, as are the clipping options and controls - but more fixed in their arrangement. The exterior has an identical control topology with all the same ...

33 slots updated this year - #2, #3, #4, #5, #7, #9a, #9b, #10, #11, #12, #15a, #15b, #15c, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #22a, #22b, #23, #24, #25, #26, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #36, #38, and #41.

There’s been a fair amount of re-routing and re-organising this year - which you should be able to pick via the pattern of changes. The introduction of the stereo Poly Amplitude introduced the biggest change to the board order - to get th most out of that format!

I try to limit acquisitions /...

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

In the light of a number of new arrivals this year, namely :

• Coriolis Hail To The King Ultimate Edition Dual BluesBreaker Overdrive
• Menatone MenaWatt Hiwatt DR103 style Preamp
• Menatone Wreck’T Trainwreck Express style Preamp
• Tubesteader ROY Twin Channel Vox AC30 Top Boost style Tube Preamp

It seemed about the right time to do an update of my original April 2023 16 Iconic Amps and Pedals Article. This has had some tweaks along the way, and on the 9th slot still features a pedal yet to ...

November has been a crazy month! With such a flurry of activity from around the middle of the month onwards. So many companies took full advantage of Black Friday promotions - and the smartest of them started early, and extended their campaign through to the 2nd or 6th of December - in order to be able to take advantage of 2 pay packets!

If you started your Black Friday sales with just a week to go or less - then alas you’re bang out of touch with the new paradigm shift. The early bird ...

There are 2 significant changes to the Kaluna 250V Tube Drive. Firstly it gets a new 3-way Structure switch - which allows you to select the stock ’V1’ voicing of the predecessor, as well as a ’Hot’ Higher Gain voicing, and a ’Low’ Lower Gain voicing.

Secondly the Kaluna now has an over voltage protection circuit which safeguards the pedal in case you inadvertently connect it to a power supply which exceeds the maximum 9 Volts.

You of course have everything that made the the original ...

So we’ve already had a Tube Preamp from Drunk Beaver before - the Ternopil from Pedal Drop #20 - that one was more of a tone-enhancer - added warmth and sparkle kind of thing - using a fairly unique Ukrainian 6Ж45Б-В Pentode Tube.

The Lutsk Deluxe Preamp is more typical fare in many ways - based that classic 5E3 Tweed Generation of Fender Amps. At its basic level it’s a reproduction of the Tweed Deluxe preamp section (Single Channel), while of course with Vitalii’s usual tweaks in effect. ...

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 ...