Real life (and my work on the upcoming Marshall Origin 20H long-term review) doesn’t leave much time for exploring new (to me) gear at the moment.
So I’m trying to be sensible, and only pick up gear that solves a problem, helps me with the Marshall Origin 20H review, or is just too good an opportunity to pass on.
KAT Load*Star Speaker Attenuator
One of the few regrets I have about my Tweed Deluxe amp is that it’s far too loud for home use. While I’m very happy using it for silent recording, I did buy the amp so that I could educate myself. I’m worried that I’m missing out on experiencing / learning about how the amp’s cabinet and speaker shape the sound.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had much luck in finding an attenuator that’s voiced for 5e3 tweed amps. At best, the manufacturers / distributors I’ve spoken to have been very cagey about which amps their attenuator is voiced for. At worst, they’ve claimed “universal” support, without being able or willing to confirm that they’ve tried their attenuator with a 5e3 Tweed Deluxe amp.
So, I reckon the next best thing is to try an attenuator that’s been designed for an amp that’s commonly fitted with Celestion Blue speakers.
My first impressions are extremely positive. This has a real chance of being the best thing that I buy in 2026.
Maestro Invader Distortion Effects Pedal
Last year, Gibson ran a promotion: buy a Les Paul, get 3 of their Maestro pedals for free. You didn’t get to choose which pedals you wanted: each Gibson dealer was given a different set of 3 pedals to include in the bundle.
As a result, there are a lot of unwanted Maestro pedals on the UK second-hand market right now, which has driven down prices. (I can buy one for about the price of decent restaurant meal atm!)
While I haven’t spent time with the Maestro pedals that I got in my bundle, I did like what I heard when I briefly tested them. So I figure: why not pick up one or two more, and give them a go at some point soon?
I’ve briefly tested the Maestro Invader Distortion into a few of my pedal platform presets, as well as into a crunchy plexi amp preset that I’m working on. It reminds me of every time I try the Boss DS-1 distortion pedal: I don’t know what I’m doing, and as a result it doesn’t sound great.
I need to learn how to use these kinds of pedals!
NUX Plexi Crunch Distortion Pedal
This is another pedal that I’ve picked up to use in my upcoming Marshall Origin 20H long-term review. I want to see if I can use it with my Marshall Origin 20H to get close to that famed Marshall plexi tone.
This pedal is from NUX’s “reissue” series. I’m not sure what it is a reissue of. I don’t know if it’s a reissue of an older NUX pedal, or whether it’s meant to be a clone of a pedal from another manufacturer, or something else entirely.
I’ve only spent a few minutes with it, to check that it was working. I ran it through some of my Axe-FX 3 pedal platform presets, and quickly discovered that the choice of amp & speaker seems to be critical with this pedal.
And that seems reasonable to me.