Here at Regent Sounds, we announced the launch of a new video series this week: ‘One-Minute Wonders’. While many of you know us for a particularly strong selection of brilliant electric guitars, we are also proud stockists of some of the finest boutique guitar effects available, anywhere. And so we thought a selection of 60-second videos might be a neat little way for you to get a preview of what some of these effects have to offer, and might just be enough to rouse your curiosity enough to check some of these pedals out, for yourselves. The videos begin with a clean reference tone, and three subsequent effected tones that we dialled in for you; not only as some of our favourite tones from the pedals in question, but as representative aural sweet spots, that are sufficiently diverse, so as to give you a reliable taster of what these pedals have to offer.

At the time of writing, we have published three videos – and we kicked off the series with the brilliant Fulltone Supa-Trem Jr. We have always stocked a diverse array of these fantastic, American-made pedals designed by Mike Fuller, and for good reason. Back in the early ‘90s, Fulltone were far ahead of the game, creating and designing boutique guitar effects for the discerning player, and continuing to do so, with the same attention-to-detail, today. The Fulltone Supa-Trem Jr. is an evolution of the incredible Supa-Trem line of tremolo pedals: starting with the original Supa-Trem 1, and moving up to the larger sibling of the lineup available from the Fulltone Custom Shop – the Supa-Trem 2. Among other features, the Supa-Trem 2 saw the addition of stereo outputs, for running dual-amp setups, with powerful left-right phase controls, to shape the width of the tremolo effect.

So what does the Supa-Trem Jr. bring? Well, as Fulltone describe it – it’s essentially a slightly more advanced version of the classic Supa-Trem 1, bringing the same analogue tremolo, to a smaller enclosure, with the options of tap-tempo, and a half/double-time hold feature, as well. The boost on tap, is a little hotter too, adding up to an extra 15 dB to your signal. As you can hear in our #OneMinuteWonder video, this is a very fat-sounding, transparent boost, that loses absolutely nothing from the input signal. Tremolo aside, the boost is one of the best we’ve heard, and when wired in front of our beloved ’64 Tremolux, you can really hear just how huge the sound is. It’s a glorious thing, indeed. And regarding the tremolo itself, everything from stunning, electric, fast-paced stabs, to gentle warbles and slow throbs are possible with this highly diverse, effortlessly musical pedal. Fulltone have to be making some of the most organic, natural-sounding, analogue tremolos on the market, and the Supa-Trem Jr., brings these same features to a more attractive price point, and a more attractive footprint for those of us with slightly more crowded pedal boards. Definitely high on our list of recommendations!

Next in-line for our video playlist, we thought we demo one of our favourite analogue delays: the Fairfield Circuitry Meet Maude. Centered around bucket brigade chips, the delay times on offer here are not the longest, but how does this pedal compensate? Tone. And sheer buckets of it. This is perhaps one of the most tonally unique and spectacular analogue delay that we carry. The response under your fingers has to be experienced, to be truly believed. With an almost gate-like triggering to each cascade of repeats, this pedal quite simply takes the input signal, and blooms forth these low-pass filtered, harmonically exaggerated repeats, filling the tonal spectrum out where the guitar doesn’t. So much so, that with the mix control dialled in just right, these repeats do not cloud over the input signal, at all. Rather, they provide a rich, textured bed upon which your playing can shine, while still retaining the ethereal qualities that are inherent to a very fine analogue delay. A trio of tape-like modulation options are on tap too, offering everything from solidity, through to a chaotic warble. Have a listen to the video to see why we love this pedal so much, and maybe we can tempt you over to Denmark Street to dial it in and experience the myriad of delay tones on offer. And just in case that wasn’t enough, a series of 6 internal, mini dipswitches can be flicked with a small flathead screwdriver, to unleash yet another series of cascading tones that you didn’t realise were possible with it set as it is, straight out of the box.

And for our third video, we bring you back to Fulltone once more, with the reissued version 2 of their famous Full Drive 2 overdrive. In its new orange/red livery, this pedal is – once again – a little smaller than its famous blue predecessor. But physical size is the only aspect of this pedal that has been reduced: tonally, this pedal has even more on offer than the legendary blue MOSFET edition of the Full Drive 2 that was so hugely popular for many years. Based around the JRC4558 chip that was integral to the original Full Drive design available back in the ‘90s, the new version of this pedal also brings along a second, or ‘more’, drive channel, that can be run on its own, or stacked on top of Drive 1. This allows you to achieve higher-gain tones than before with v2, yet still retaining the transparency, and mid-rich musicality of the original. Noticeably, to our ears, there is also less of an apparent low-cut with the new pedal, over previous versions. Have a listen to the tones in the video, and stop by the shop to form your own opinion.

We hope you enjoy these new 60-second videos, and hope to film and publish many more over the coming days and weeks. Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel, yet? Alongside the #OneMinuteWonders, we also have our regular ‘Focus On Sound’ video series, where we take you through some of our favourite products in more depth, with explanations and demos. And, since Regent Sounds has been hosting some exciting in-store appearances, we’re also posting our ‘Live at Regent Sounds’ videos – most notably with our recent appearance from guitarist, and singer-songwriter, Ariel Posen. With an upcoming visit from the incredible Josh Smith later this month, it would be an apt time for you to subscribe to the channel, and make sure you leave that little bell on, so that you can keep up-to-date with the very latest from your favourite London guitar store.

Until next week…