We’ve had a slew of evolved / Tube Screamer adjacent pedals recently, where I felt each one wasn’t a big enough story on its own, while all 3 together here are worth a consideration, even though the humble Tube Screamer is the most copied and most ubiquitous circuit out there - there really should not be a need for any more into that category - but here we are.
I’ve lined them up in order of their feature set - with the simplest one at the start, and the most enhanced at the far end. In ...
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 over the years there have been a number of different DS-1 editions and colourways. I’ve included the most obvious and attainable ones in my main visual - including the relatively recent 40th and 50th Anniversary editions. While there have been several more through the years - including the super limited ones that marked every 1 million pedals Boss sold - including the 1998 6,000,000 Units celebration Golden DS-1, and back in 2016 we had a 3000 units limited Guitar Centre run in HM-2 ...
I’ve always loved Mini Pedals - particularly those from Decibelics, Function F(X) / Pickdropper, Mooer and One Control, the latter two brands making up most of my mini pedal collection to-date - in fact you could probably add Wampler to the original list of 4 too - Brian makes some very fine minis - oh, as does MXR, and Ibanez even.. While for me at one time - Mooer was in the lead with 10 candidates in my mini pedal collection, while this latest exercise has pushed OneControl to the top of ...
Beautiful Noise effects always comes up with something distinct and different, and follows up its ’When The Sun Explodes Atmospheric Feedback Reverberator’ and ’Exploder’ White Noise Distortion, with an equally atmosperic Cascading Dual Delay.
The core of the circuit is two pitch-modulated delays which cascade into each other, and where you can send the output of the Second Delay back into the front of the first.
You can select different parameters per side - fully granular, including a...
So Nobels looks to have taken a leaf out of the Nux playbook here - who were the first to introduce Mini Stereo Pedals - empowered by TRS jacks / ports. So you get a fully immersive delay with 3 different voicings, and up to 1000ms of delay - for the digital mode. Along with Tap-Tempo - which you access by press-holding the Footswitch.
Controls - Time (553ms Tape / 402ms Analog / 1000ms Digital), Feedback (Repeats), Wet Mix, Mode : Tape / Analog / Digital, Hold Footswitch for Tap-Tempo.
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A distinct and different departure for Rick Matthews with an entirely different brand personality. Great to see those arcade switches in place though - which I first witnessed on the Chase Bliss Automatone Preamp. The interface / topology is elegantly and clearly delineated with all the labels visible, while the secondary function labels look a touch small - so presumably difficult to spot from a standing position.
Note that there was a previous version of The Technician in and around 2019 ...
My good friend Guillem is never one to do things by halves - especially when working on next level Hi-Fidelity Mini Format pedals. His Golden Horse, Reverend, and Angry Swede are already legendary, and here we have another one to join them on that lofty podium.
These magical creations will compete with any size pedal - where the Reverend and Angry Swede are already extended formats, and we may still get a Golden Horse with a couple of toggles - like its new Rivus Sibling.
I was very ...
Readers will know that I’m a huge Marc Ahlfs / Skreddy Pedals fan, and a range re-stock is always a big event for me - even though I own a large number of these masterpieces by now.
The top row of the visual is particularly exciting as we get a rare reissue of some long discontinued pedals - all improved version of those classics - Ernie, ? Lady, and Mayo. Marc is one of the kings of Big Muff - which represents all of the top row and the Zero in the bottom row.
We also have the brand ...
You can count on Land Devices to harness the very best studio / audio grade components to generate superior tones and textures. And this Moonbow combines dual hi-fidelity resonant filters across a cutoff frequency range of 20Hz to 5kHz.
You can further use a CV input to control the cutoff frequency more dynamically.
And finally you have an Overdrive circuit based on the Land Devices control strip with a 33dB Gain Range, running from -13dB to +20dB.
With those 5 key controls you can...