Fat tone from a (DDyna) Thinman
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The second member of the DDyna Music’s ‘Creamer’ series of overdrives we’ve been able to lay hands on its the light-to-medium gain Thinman OD. We took a look at the Narlie! Dude high gain dirt box in January. The Thinman is a very different animal. The hand-built true bypass stomp gets its grit from the interaction of two separate limiters. More on that in a bit. According to DDyna, settings can accommodate various electric, acoustic or bass guitar styles and can even be used as a front end for other effects. We’ll stick with electric guitars for our look at the Thinman.
Down-under pedalsmiths Diamond Skeleton have a new name and a new pedal shipping to retailers. Seppuku FX is the new name and the Digital Pitch Modulator, an 8-bit octave/fuzz monster is now available at online retailers, including 
The crew at Home Brew Electronics have added a third signature pedal to their expanding line of artist-inspired stomps. Hot on the heels of the Brad Gilbert DeTox EQ and the Gary Hoey Doomsday Device comes another Hoey model – the Skull Crusher. Designed to the exact specs of axe slinger Gary Hoey, this is the must-have pedal for any HBE overdrive fanatic, according to the company. HBE adds that the pedal is somehow mild, but with massive output – ideal to leave constantly on! The company also warns that if you’re looking for a monster-hyper-fizzy-kind-of-nu-metal sound, you should look elsewhere. The Skull Crusher is available now.
Swedish pedalsmiths Himmelstrutz Elektro Art have released info on two new pedals it is producing in the New Year – the Fetto Nord and Gramps. The Fetto Nord is ‘evil in a pleasant way’ and very tube-like. The pedal offers both crunchy or creamy distortions at any volume – good for old UK amplifiers like Hiwatt or Vox that can need a push to sound really good. Meanwhile, the Gramps stomp is designed to make your modern gear sound like its back in the late 60s. It features a three way switch for some different ways to make the pedal ‘fart, puke and sputter.’ Tone and Cream controls add more variety. Both pedals are available for order now.
Jaime at EarthQuaker Devices has a new four-stage OTA-based phaser ala the Ross Phaser and DOD 490 available for order. The four-knob Grand Orbiter Phase Machine sports two LFO speeds and a Dry kill switch that will take you into vibe/vibrato territory, depending on where the controls are set. Rate controls the speed of the LFO. Depth controls the amount of phase shift mixed with the dry signal. Sweep controls the frequency range and resonance controls the regeneration, which makes the effect more or less intense. The sweep and resonance have a large range and you can dial in classic subtle tones through over the top phasing. The pedal is priced at $165.
Pedal makers MythFX have announced the availability of their new Midas Clean Boost stomp. The small-enclosure, single-knob pedal provides up to 32dB of clean boost. An internal voltage boost circuit provides the healthy headroom for the pedal. The high impedance input preserves your picking dynamics, and will not color your tone, according to the company. The Midas is designed to allow your guitar to cut through any mix, boost long effects chains, compensate for different guitar pickups, and push your amp to the edge of distortion and beyond. The stomp operates on a 9vDC adapter only and sells for $129.95.
Kyle at Blackout Effectors has put up a teaser for his upcoming Whetstone Analog Phaser on the company’s website. The Canadian-based pedalmaker has made rumbles about the new pedal for a few months now. Though the details are sparse, the tag line on the site promises ‘the classic sound of an OTA-based phaser melded with contemporary parameters and angels’ wings.’ Curious, no? The pedal is slated to debut in March. Pricing information is not yet available. When we get more, including a pic of the new product, we’ll pass it along to you. 
Pedalsmith Brian Wampler has teamed up with the crew at California-based Rockett Pedals to create ‘a monster of an overdrive’ dubbed the Flex Drive. According to the partners, the stomp is a mixture of opamp and discrete clipping circuitry that gives off a warm and responsive feel. The pedal has three different overdrive textures as well as three different EQ options – giving the player nine distinct voicings from a thick, but crunchy overdrive all the way to an amazing open clean boost. The pedal is expected to be available in February and cost $189. We’ll post more info, and a pic of the pedal, as soon as we get it!
The crew at Fuzzhugger FX has a new fuzz pedal available dubbed the eleven-thirty-four (1134). The box has three knob controls – Gain Trim, Texture and Level. The company bills the stomp as an angry, punishing fuzz, but one that does it with a grin on its face and its tongue in its cheek promising a multi-textured fuzz with many faces! With the fuzz control dimed, it’s a blistering, splattery synth fuzz explosion. As you back off it changes fuzzy textures and hits overdrive territory as well. The 1134 is available now at an introductory price of $109.
We knew going in that we were not going to be able to talk to everyone and see everything we wanted at the NAMM show last week. We did, however, make it a goal to shoot of pic of just about anything that resembled a pedal if we spotted it. We spied plenty of cool offering from South America, China, Japan and right here in the US. There was a lot of new product on display and as much as we’d like to do write ups on each and every one, time just won’t allow it. It will allow us to post of gallery of pedal pictures however, and that is what you’ll find after the jump!
New Jersey-based Guitar Fuel has entered the pedal market with a unique initial offering dubbed the AV-1 Angular Velocity – a sleek, brushed stainless, four-knob stomp about the size of an Electro-Harmonix XO enclosure, but stylistically more akin to the Biyang pedals. The company, which also is a gear shop based out of South Plainfield, calls the Chinese-made pedal part flanger and part chorus – a florus, if you will. Intrigued, WTDP? sought to get our hands on one of these ‘floruses’ to see if there was any proverbial meat on this marketing bone.
Here is something pretty cool for the dexterous axe slinger that doesn’t have enough room on his/her board for a conventional wah pedal. Effects builder Chris Mahoney has just release his Wahsp mini-wah stomp pedal. The guts of the Wahsp wah is based on the famous Clyde McCoy pedal, and the results are truly outstanding. Here’s the trick though. There is a large, side-mounted knob on the Wahsp that acts as the treadle. When you roll your foot across it back and forth, it makes the traditional wah sound. Check out Chris’ demo video after the jump. The Wahsp is available now for $149.
We’re not sure exactly when the low-watt, mini-head craze started, but I do know it got kicked up several notches by the likes of the Epiphone Valve Jr and Blackheart offerings. Then, it got a real boost when Orange debuted the Tiny Terror and Egnater offered up the Rebel 20. Others, like the UK’s Blackstar have recently followed suit. Well, the Force remains strong with the ‘bedroom’ amp movement as Orange showed off not one, not two, but three(!) new boxes in the Terror line, Vox joined the game with an ode to cheap wine and several other boutique shops offered their answers to the low-watt, tube amp revolution. Check out some pics after the jump!
Pianos are not our normal fare here at WTDP?, but when we got the invite to a private press/dealer concert on Saturday featuring the talented Alicia Keys we couldn’t pass it up. She was on hand in the Yamaha suite at a nearby hotel to show off the company’s new AvantGrand piano and her own version of the new instrument, dubbed Alicia’s Keys. After answering a few press questions, she played a four-song mini-concert for attendees to show off the range of the new piano. We not only have a sweet picture gallery from the gig, we also have a song from the show after the jump!