Three things are becoming evermore common coming out of the Pacific Northwest – gloomy weather, terrific seafood and quality effects pedals. The latest subject in the final category comes from the fine folks at Catalinbread, which steered away from the amp-in-a-box trend they had been following with the Dirty Little Secret, Wiio and Formula No. 5 and moved to a sort of modulation gumbo with the release of Pareidolia Harmonic Mesmerizer. Equal parts Tremolo, Vibrato and Filter, the Pareidolia has its roots in the 1961 Fender Twin Amp, with offered a vibrato that favored tremolo voicings. So… does the Pareidolia deliver the trance-inducing swirl it suggests?

We knew the minute we walked into the private test drive suite Strymon set up at this year’s Winter NAMM show that we were in for a treat. The company – a semi-unknown having only offered one pedal (the OB.1 compressor) at the time – had four new offerings to show to prospective dealers. The sweet sounds and extreme versatility of the Strymon digital stomps was enough to put a smile on the face of even the most steadfast analog snob. While hype for the Brigadier delay and blueSky reverb ran fairly rampant after their release, there was less buzz about the Ola chorus/vibrato. We took that as a hint that we need to investigate the pedal further.

Let’s face it… distortion pedals are a dime a dozen. Many have common elements leading to common sounds all under the guise of a different name and unique paint job. Still, there are some distortions that hit the market these days with a little something extra under the hood. This was our hope for the Aria from the New York-based pedal gurus at Pigtronix. The Aria promises a singing distortion tone more powerful than a modded tube screamer and tastier than an old Muff… ahem. We hit up Pigtronix top hog David Koltai to send us an Aria for review, and he obliged. But does this little red wonder deliver on the promise or is it just another buzz box?

We met up with Henry Clift and the rest of the Jaguar Amplification crew at the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim last January. We had heard good things about Jaguar’s product from other reviews and internet buzz, so we made it a point to seek them out and see what all the fuss was about. After good conversation about gear, travel and Jaguar’s future, we planted a little seed about possibly reviewing one of their amps in the future. The noisy NAMM show floor is not the ideal place to hear the nuisances of any amp, as one might expect. Today, that seed blooms! Henry sent us the company’s newest low-watt offering – the Jaguar 7 1×10 combo. But does this kitten have claws?

Tour boxes are great. It gives players a chance to sample gear that they might ordinarily not get to sample and the manufacturers get feedback on their products directly from their target audience. Earlier this year, we were a stop on the Mojo Hand Harvey DC tour. The Harvey DC is a dual channel distortion unit capable of everything from neutral low gain tones to full-on distortion. With boxes like this, the Goosoniqueworx Seventheaven and others, smaller builders are running with the two-in-one trend aiming to give users more bang for their precious pedalboard real estate. Does the Harvey deliver, or is it two sides of the same old coin?

A few years back, in response to players’ wishes for a grab-and-go reverb amp with a clean sound, but compact stature that did not compromise tonality, the fine folks at Burriss Amplification introduced the Royal Bluesman. Following the initial success of that model, the crew started getting feedback about how a more gain-y version of the Bluesman would be a killer addition to the line. Enter the Dirty Red… an all tube amp designed to deliver classic rock and vintage metal tones that hold true at ‘apartment’ levels and rehearsals or recording gigs where low stage volumes are key. Suckers for little, punchy amps that we are, we tracked one down for a test drive.

Here is a new wrinkle to the ‘Your Mileage May Vary’ reviews you all are used to seeing from us. Our friends at Electro-Harmonix (2009 WTDP? Builder of the Year) sent us a whole mess of pedals recently that were going to take a while to work through in traditional review form… so we decided to do something a little unique. We wanted to hear these stomps in their natural habitat – a song! So, we present to you the first (of possibly many) WTDP? ‘test drive compositions’ – I’m Electro-Harmonic! Every guitar tone in this tune is generated from an EHX pedal starting from the ground up with the 22 Caliber acting as the amp! Check out the world premiere video after the jump!

The crew at Goosoniqueworx has been working overtime churning out its attractive Seventheaven dual mode high-gain distortion pedal. John and company have had good initial response to the unit that promises boatloads of singing saturation with a high level of articulation and control. When we saw that Goosoniqueworx was putting together a US tour box for the pedal, we jumped at the change to give the new dirt box a test drive. We were curious if this solid looking pedal from a freshman outfit had the tone to back up its appearance… or would our trip to Seventheaven be more like a descent to the ninth plane of abrasive, ice-pick distortion Hell?

Black Cat Pedals have been around a long time. Born in Texas in 1993, the company was started by early boutique builder Fred Bonte, but in late 2007 he discontinued the line. Now, with the company restructured and the line revamped, Black Cat is back! Using Fred’s original designs, but with a modern boutique makeover, these hand-wired, made in the USA boxes are looking to reclaim some of their former glory. We had the chance to get our hands on a new Black Cat Super Fuzz and run it through its paces. But did we find a purring, fuzzy kitten or an angry stray with claws?

Fuzz is a subjective thing, really. Some folks dig it while others don’t. We’ve always been partial to fuzz around these parts… so many different pedals, tonal options via build style: original… versus clone… versus clone with upgrades, etc… We first took notice of the Earthquaker Devices Tone Reaper when it was a limited edition (30+ pcs) pedal. The Reaper is a vintage style fuzz based on the three-knob Tone Bender. It is a silicon/germanium hybrid capable of producing a wide range of tones with careful tweaking of the tone and fuzz controls, according to builder Jamie Stillman. Once the Reaper entered the regular production line, we jumped to land one.

At our first New York Amp Show last year, we knew we’d miss some stuff bouncing from room to room, checking out all of the boutique amp goodness. When we returned to Houston and checked our show notes, there was one page that just said ‘Sommatone!’. We couldn’t quite recall the context of that scribbling, but we were obviously excited. When the Nashville Amp Expo rolled around a few months later, we made it a point to check in with Jimmy and Danny in an attempt to jog the memory of our previous exclamation. That trip laid the groundwork for the crew sending us their latest combo – the Overdrive 35 – to review. But would it inspire the same NYC excitement?

The Internet is a wonderful thing. Not only does it give ideas like WTDP? a platform to exist (thanks, Internet!), it gives folks like us the ability to cast a much wider net when it comes to gathering up knowledge on the plethora of smaller pedal making shops scattered across the globe. I can say with little doubt that without the Internet we would have never heard of Israel-based PiggyFX and certainly never had been able to get our hands on a Schweinefleisch fuzz to review. But we did! The only thing left was to figure if this wild boar was made of straw, sticks or bricks?

It dawned on us towards the end of last year that we needed to shake things up a bit on the pedal and amp review front. Firstly, we felt the need to change our amp platform from a great, but out-of-production combo – the Reverend Hellhound – to a more traditional, readily available model – the Fender Princeton Reverb RI. We also wanted to bring in more tonal standardization by using one set of high quality cables for pedal reviews and another for amp reviews. We now use Lava Clear Connect cables for all the pedal reviews and Analysis Plus cables for amp test drives. Cool? Yeah… we thought so too!

Right before the big NAMM show in California last month, we were contacted by Rachael Becker at Heavy Leather NYC to gauge our interest in reviewing a couple of her company’s custom leather guitar straps. Now, we’ve always been big on guitar accessories here, but never that big on the non-electronic variety. However, given our efforts to branch out a bit in 2010, we agreed to take a look at her offerings. We ran into her at NAMM, fresh from delivering a new strap to Slash, where she said we’d be getting a handmade Black Beauty and Ballroom Blitz in the mail soon. And now that they’ve arrived, we’re having a hard time letting them go!

The second pedal sent to us by Montreal-based Solidgold Soundlabs was a dirt box honestly titled the Rock Machine – an overdrive/boost stomp with a vintage bent. The OD sector of the boutique pedal market is awash with pedals, most derived from vintage Tubescreamer circuits while others like the Rock Machine, bring something a bit different to the party. I was thrown a bit by the Rock Machine at first due to its appearance – one knob and one toggle… hardly standard issue for an overdrive, but once I got into the pedal, the logic of the controls come forward. But does the Rock Machine deliver on its promise of vintage classic rock and blues tones in one package?