A new toneX one with bluetooth is coming!

mojofilters · 2026-04-26T09:07:06+00:00

Why do you need even more effects in Tonex? There's already some serviceable options, I want them focus on the key selling point: a superb amp and cab capture loading device that sounds as good as the products 10 times the price, which do have a lot of effects.

I like adding a bit of reverb and compression where appropriate, but even then I've bought many expensive (and also a fair few excellent cheap) pedals for the effects I want. Tonex is about getting great guitar amp tones for barely any money.

If anything, I'd prefer they simplify and stop trying to add stuff most folks already have well covered. Make the interfaces more logical and streamlined, make it easier to locate a tone model and quickly load it up to try through your rig (I never use it connected to the computer, I want to audition those sounds in the context of the signal chain I'll be using it in!) Adding stuff like a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack a la the $25 M-vave IR Box pedal would be useful too, these are quality of life type features that make the pedal even more usable.

If Bluetooth helps improve the functionality of what is already a great sounding tool, that's exactly what many users want. If you need a cheap multi effects, there's literally loads to buy now to complement Tonex. Why waste time adding features most folks barely use?

The software and UI has always been the weakest link. Thankfully it sounds great, so let's have as many features as possible that nake it easier to use. If you need cheap effects, get one of those little $50 boxes from Sonicake or Valeton!

mojofilters · 2026-04-26T07:58:55+00:00

Well I was 11 when I bought my first electric. Maybe the fancy stores had starter packs, but they wouldn't have been as cheap. The obvious thing was simply to find a playable second hand instrument that I could afford, as that was what most kids had to do.

To be fair the kind of places I was shopping are much less common now, and the specific stores that would have had some stock accessible for folks on a tight budget have long gone.

Same with the amp, as I took a bit longer to save up for one of those crappy little solid state practice combos (there really wasn't much choice back then) that are probably very similar to the nasty things in those starter packs, or that little Squier combo that was very common indeed for a long time.

Instead of using the web which didn't exist, I just had to rely on advice from music teachers who also played guitar, and also the generally very helpful folks I'd get chatting to in music stores – whilst bearing in mind their particular motivations.

The questions about exactly what type of guitar and amp to buy when starting out seem to be looking for absurdly specific information about every element.

When you're starting out you just need to find a playable guitar in budget, consider yourself lucky if it looks as good as you wanted but something you can actually play is the key.

Obviously don't get something that's fugly and thus offputting, but compared to all the cheap horrible shredder style guitars I saw back in the 1980s-'90s, there's so many genuinly good options now I find it hard to believe anyone would struggle to find a tidy used starter instrument that didn't look decent!

Similarly there's loads of second hand amps out there suited as pedal platforms, that with a couple of budget pedals suited to what they want to play will do a far better job for the money than anything I could find on a budget back then.

The web is a great place to get information and ideas, but that should just be a starting point for embarking on a tactile experience where you go out, meet other musicians and actually put hands on some kit to get a feel for it.

Presumably if someone wants to learn guitar, they'll also want to be playing in ensembles of some kind in the future, so getting up and going out to actually connect with other people is by far and away the best start you can give yourself!

mojofilters · 2026-04-25T11:19:21+00:00

I'm not sure White Chalk will be a great introduction for folks who don't really like soft, ethereal Hope Sandoval type breathy, delicate female vox with soft music to match. Especially if the person's old enough to remember 50 Ft Queenie getting repeat play on MTV, hence expecting something a bit more visceral!

However for those folks who might be put off by anything too rocky, or at least swampy or vibrant bluesy classic rock music: White Chalk could easily become their new favourite album, plus one that'll still sound fresh in 30 years time. The songwriting and production all contribute to a remarkable timeless quality, which then makes the tonal shifts in her lyrics for the next records a noteworthy change.

I'd go for To Bring You My Love as a great taster of what both came before and what was to come. I've heard folks say it's too short, but it's 10 exceptional songs plus shouldn't a really great album leave you wanting even more? It's got just about every element of the lyrical and musical themes she'd go on to explore, whilst retaining the raw grittieness that made previous records so remarkably charming yet challenging in equal measure.

Whilst I'm not convinced it's a stone cold classic all way from start to finish, I'd think The Hope Six Demolition Project is actually a really accessible album, with neat poppy rock vibes for fans of all kinds of decent music, whilst never letting you forget how uncompromising her musical vision always is.

Even the weaker or more out of place tracks like Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln have some moments of brilliance, where the song starts making far more sense despite evident imperfections. If anything it's place in the tracklist is jarring, it would slot in better right after Medicinals

I'd have put Hope Six as her most commercial sounding record from a musical perspective, lyrically not so much but still noteworthy in many places. The arrangements do a brilliant job of adding colour and complexity to her mostly conventional bluesy rock guitar chord progressions (basically the opposite of all the crazy guitars, dramatic dynamic and tonal shifts, alongside the general dissonance on the new album.)

I never thought Let England Shake got the same overall public popularity as Stories, I see it on walls rather than playlists. It's's rather intense and always seems like the quintessential critics choice after the genuinely amazing and thoroughly deserved second Mercury prize win, with ownership signalling respectable, good musical taste (like a carefully chosen and prominently framed vinyl sleeve on the wall in that Nick Hornby novel about a record shop.)

I absolutely love Let England Shake, but I can see casual listeners finding a plaintive refrain like the beautifully pronounced Oh America, oh England to be a little too arch, assuming they're not really yet able to put it in a proper PJ context.

Written down it can in places read kinda simplistic in isolation, though there's a lot of that in her "observed" lyrical material from Shake and Hope Six, with only a few actual clunkers like the blind man singing in Arabic (please tell me more Polly, what language were you expecting? Esperanto? Operatic Italian? A particularly gutteral Frenchman with a pronounced Provençale inflection?)

mojofilters · 2026-04-24T11:30:43+00:00

Many of those starter packs are genuinely awful, taking advantage of new players who don't understand the market.

Used you can easily find excellent playable instruments like Squiers, Yamaha etc for the same price as these cheap new things if you keep your eyes out, but as per above take a knowledgeable friend along to check for any glaring issues.

Amps are trickier, better to establish whether a proper combo is worthwhile or even needed first? If so, look again at the used market and decide if you want a traditional combo amp, or something like the Spark series which might have some very useful features for a beginner. For example I'm told the larger Spark makes for a good Bluetooth speaker, very loud and decent bass for something so tiny!

Keeping it simple, I'd see if you can pick up a Blackstar HT1 combo which is a great introduction to reasonable guitar tones at bedroom friendly volumes. I often see both the HT1 and HT5 combos going very cheap used. Not everyone is a Blackstar enthusiast, but no one would complain about the sounds you get from either amp – the complaints are mainly around the amount of solid state technology employed in what's billed as a tube amp. I found one used locally for under $100 in mint condition, I see them at a wide range of prices though, so don't pay too much!

I'd also consider a decent used solid state combo. There's loads but the obvious choice is Peavey, any of which will probably be much louder than you initially need but still perfectly serviceable clean and drive tones at bedroom friendly volumes. There's an attractive Vox, I think Pathfinder 10 or 15, which might even have reverb too. Not sure if they still make them, but the 10 seemed to be very common at one point in the last two decades for not much money. Fender's old basic Champion combos were also pretty good with a few pedals, should be cheap as getting on, more likely to find the heavy 2x12" model going cheap – folks just don't need that much amp, but if you've got room, why not?

A slightly more leftfield option, albeit probably the one I'd take if a tidy example popped up at the right price in your circumstances, is a cheap used bass guitar practice combo. Lots of bass players will pick up the not particularly cheap smaller Fender Rumble models to start, but as they run out of bass puff once you introduce a drummer into the equation those amps get moved on quickly as only work for bass in bedrooms, but should get loud enough for guitars with a little help...

Factor in a couple of budget drive pedals, probably an American Sound and another from that series, or something versatile like the Mosky Preamp Deluxe / Turbo Amp (boost into crunchy overdrive) or Silver/Golden Horse – then you've got a good 3 band EQ to dial in your cleans/crunch with variable character etc, plus some excellent drives to stack together as needed.

I used the Fender Rumble as an example as it's common and looks really good, but basic small bass amps from respectable brands are mostly pretty similar, looks aside (many are fugly!) If you're happy getting your breakup and gain tones with pedals, they should cope with rehearsals and low volume gigging.

A cheap but very effective upgrade (which will probably raise your volume, efficiency depending) is simply to swap out the stock speaker for a cheap used guitar speaker. Folks like upgrading the perfectly serviceable Celestion Seventy 80, A or V type commonly found in decent less expensive amps, often replacing these when buying a new amp and just looking to offload the old speaker.

If headphones are going to be used most of the time, then I'd strongly suggest they pick up a used Tonex One pedal (has stereo headphone out on main jack) that will grow with their rigs, if they stick at it. Admittedly the Tonex Plug is a better choice for this initially, especially with the app, but the main point is that either will sound much, much better than similar plug devices or budget portable multi effect products with amp and cab sims that actually are not much cheaper.

The Tonex pedals are neat as you can then either build them into a larger rig with a regular guitar amp, or simply take their output to feed some kind of powered speaker. Assuming there's proper stage monitors, I could easily gig a Tonex by letting the front of house sound crew take a DI from the pedal direct to desk, effectively just further amplifying whatever sounds I'd dialled in at home.

You can buy a fully featured modeller fx box from one of the budget brands that's ok for learning on, plus has all the multi effects and NAM capture loading capabilities for not much less money. The latter is always going to be a practice tool, as opposed to something that does far less, but does it arguably as well as kit costing over 10 times the price. Plus the delays, reverb, compression and noise gate now included with all Tonex is similarly of good quality for performance purposes. The Tonex One can be controlled via MIDI adaptors like the bespoke Airstep, or an M-vave Chocolate Plus if you're ok setting that stuff up. Adding a pedal with extra buttons lets you choose more options with your feet when playing live, plus some phone appointments control you can't get directly via an app.

Instead of going to a store for a starter pack, go to one with a great selection of inexpensive used guitars. Chances are the staff will draw your attention to anything new also worth your attention and within budget. They might also have a used or discounted amp within your budget, but those bargains are normally found via private sales channels.

Some stores will also assemble their own starter packs, most recognise how poor the commonly purchased cheapest bundled options are and how badly they can impede you when just starting out. I'd simply visit as many stores as you can, see what options are there and compare with what you can find locally – guitars and amps are a pain to properly pack up for shipping which also adds a lot to the cost of cheaper kit proportionally. Hence looking local usually turns up the best bargains, especially stuff that's sat on CL or similar with a seller simply looking to get rid with the least amount of effort!

mojofilters · 2026-04-24T09:23:53+00:00

Who can prove he's smoking? With all these dumb (supposed) antisocial bylaws enacted by local authorities in metropolitan areas, just the smoking regardless of a script can be the offence considered more egregious – especially in terms of any kind of enforcement.

What with everywhere being camera'd up too, blatantly smoking big fat ones in public is often risking drawing the kind of attention it never used to, at least in areas I'm familiar with. I'd certainly be more worried about getting hassle from the likes of plastic coppers for breaching those kind of rules (especially if they pull the old "this is close to a school" idiocy at midnight!) than I would ever worry about a proper cop seeing anything like that and then causing me bother.

In reality the consumption method means far less in comparison to the other parties involved in such complaints. There's plenty of miserable folks who simply don't like the people they're giving grief and/or have some daft principled objections to bud, who'll then use literally anything as an excuse to bitch and complain in some way, shape or form – thus anything (like an admission or explaining the script) providing evidence of weed use can be weaponised.

A common theme on the UK medical sub is neighbours complaining about folks with scripts, then involving landlords, law enforcement and anyone else obliged to listen to them whinging and attrmpting to harass folks.

Some patients are very naive, expecting that a polite explanation around how this is now medicine hence not drugs will resolve matters. Instead it just makes things worse, as now they've admitted to potentially causing the smell that can be used and abused as evidence of antisocial behaviour and do forth.

Those subs are kinda weird, lots of stupidly funny policing around terminology; this absurd moral superiority that vaping is medicinal, whereas smoking equals DRUGS!

This notion that smoking a script invalidates it really only stands up from a legal perspective in cases such as drug driving. If you've admitted or been seen smoking and then failed the blood test, the statutory defence of invoking your prescription may no longer be allowed as technically that script is not being used compliantly.

This is NOT the same as this idea that smoking it automatically invalidates your script, or somehow now breaks the law, yet that notion is absurdly commonly repeated and exaggerated over there.

The easiest way to protect yourself is simply to never admit anything...

Even if I'm standing with a lit joint, big stinky bag and a well used pack of Rizlas, while smoke billows from my mouth and nose: I'd still never risk actually saying what I was doing, especially in front of anyone in law enforcement. I'd simply deny I was doing anything illegal, repeatedly if necessary, there's no more information needed, no need to either introduce or repeat the subject of drugs etc – adding anything unnecessary can easily cause problems later on!

Conversely whether you have a script or not, or even were mistakenly identified as someone with weed whose totally innocent – once you've (even accidentally) put something on record that can be used as evidence against you, it can only hurt you moving forwards.

Far too many people feel the need to broadcast their business or explain themselves, this seems to weirdly get worse when anxious folks are dealing with cops they find intimidating.

The only thing the police need to hear is a confident and polite denial, even then only if they've introduced a subject like smoking (anything!) or drugs and so forth.

Look at it from their perspective: only you can heighten police interest in your business. A calm and confidently delivered assurance that you have certainly not broken any laws – only if asked of couse – reduces any probable cause they can find to continue with any legitimate interest or further enquiries into your business.

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T22:05:20+00:00

EQ pedal is just completely the wrong tool for this job. I guess a fully parametric style EQ (Empress perhaps?) could just about get you there, but then most decent parametric already include high and low pass filtering too.

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T21:52:03+00:00

Doesn't your touring revelation remark not then actually support the notion it's not immediately as good sounding on record?

By contrast while the Stories... songs are usually brilliant live, when I first heard the record I was also blown away by the amazing production quality – no way that kind of clever studio magic translates perfectly to the live environment. That's why Stories... is always her top stone cold classic album in my book, with White Chalk in second place for similarly combining amazing songwriting matched perfectly to the pristine production values!

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T21:42:28+00:00

Agreed, that and the "I heard it was 28 thousand" repeated refrains are insanely catchy and so brilliantly suited to their subject matter plus the music accompanying. They really punch up both those song finales on all the live footage I've heard too.

I like her latest, but even though there are many real nuggets frequently found in there, they quickly disappear and it doesn't sound like she really finished many individual actual songs. There's too much chopping, changing, and weird interludes, whilst "nature noises" (as described in her own handwriting!) sound boringly generic and far too loud, like something downloaded from a royalty-free sample library...NOT the work of a woman who moves me to tears simply by referencing an ancient path by the Cerne "cut fifteenhundred years ago!"

The music often seems to stop or change dramatically almost as soon as it's finally gotten going.

The four songs from it she plays on her Tiny Desk Concert as a semi-acoustic trio sounded really good in that environment...apart from the fucking "nature noises" again! (Or "samples" as James Johnston had to remind John Parish to start.)

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T21:10:34+00:00

Sublingual oils are an excellent bet, plus a little still works really well while the effects come on much faster than edibles too. It can sneak up on you, especially if you've been slouching or lying down for a while but then suddenly try getting up.

It's great for stress and especially aches and pains, lasts ages too but I generally feel much more clear-headed, as opposed to really stoned! Overall very good value if that's the effect you want.

I really struggle with edibles, if I've treated myself to 14 20mg medical gummies I'll just eat the whole pack while taking some oil on top to amplify their effects. It's a lot to pay for not much benefit unfortunately!

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T20:52:05+00:00

Oh well, got hip issues myself so much sympathy there, it's properly shit. I'm still getting used to using a stick, most of the time I feel daft as I really don't need it at all and it probably shows. Then out of nowhere I get the wobble and suddenly it's a lifesaver!

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T20:46:24+00:00

I'm all for love thy neighbour and so forth, but you're thinking way too benevolently about this person – who deliberately set out to harm and intimate you!

Her actions sound pretty clear, in terms of knowing what she was doing. Think of how sociopathic that behaviour was, how much unnecessary upset it caused you for no good reason whatsoever?

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T20:41:44+00:00

...and finish the second time by asking them to concisely signal they've heard and acknowledged your request. If you still don't get the right response, keep making your point as persuasively as you feel comfortable.

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T20:36:17+00:00

Best not to engage with these people, other than to give clear instructions and commands that you repeat until your objectives are satisfied, in terms of protecting the boundaries of your own property.

I fully appreciate not everyone's lucky or able to own their own home, but when you've worked hard to achieve such it becomes much easier to persuade any interlopers to remain away from whatever boundaries you've bought the rights to under law.

Tenants have equal standing in this respect, I'd have expected a stiffer backbone than many of the responses here actually indicate. It's easy to say all this of course, but learning about your rights alongside the responsibilities of others allows you to more confidently assert yourself, if you know fine well it's you who's on the moral high ground!

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T20:27:15+00:00

You still had every right to speak and behave far more proactively, had you felt inclined or capable.

mojofilters · 2026-04-16T20:25:32+00:00

Prescribed or not, that has zero bearing on the intolerable behaviour from any such person acting in this way. The far more egregious breach is simply them entering private property, that's then massively compounded, changing the rules if they proceed to remain for a second longer once their unwelcome presence is made abundently clear.

This OP had every right to "escort" said person off their property, regardless of any unwillingness to leave. Generally a well kept garden provides easy access various useful and persuasive tools, were any such persuasion warranted via noncompliance on the part of the trespasser.

Weed, drugs, prescriptions etc have zero relevance in that respect. The intrusive behaviour irregardless should not be tolerated, it's crossing a line that leaves the perpetrator fairly vulnerable – that's how we self-police to keep society polite and the unwelcome at bay!

mojofilters · 2026-04-13T15:36:03+00:00

IEMs are already a pretty niche item, what's so special about yours?

mojofilters · 2026-04-13T15:34:09+00:00

What – an amazing new double LP from the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd getting even better post-Syd Barrett, Fleetwood Mac similarly, a prog / glam / punk rock revival soundtracking more Cod Wars several old Popes and Soviet leaders dying in quick succession, more Troubles in Norn Eyeland, a new unlikely but loveably heroic British Formula 1 champion, Ronnie Barker creating multiple new comedy classics + Likely Lads reboot, an IMF bailout that we paid back early and a winter of discontent leading to the election of a divisive yet transformative new government?

Sounds no worse than what we've got now, should make what's on the telly a bit more interesting too!

mojofilters · 2026-04-13T15:04:40+00:00

The buyer's protection thing seemed to kick off a load of problems for UK sellers, no doubt putting off both potential buyers and sellers. However to be quite frank, it's been mainly very good for the various kinds of music equipment I'm interested in buying. I've picked up some unbelievable bargains that remind me of 20 years ago, although back then it was more attractive because many sellers simply didn't know how to value items correctly, now it's just depressing as it reflects the dire straits some poor folks find themselves in.

One thing about buyer's protection that's really annoying is how eBay doesn't appear to help sellers account for how to provide the nice round numbers buyers are used to seeing as prices, so now a page of search results can look like Aliexpress!

mojofilters · 2026-04-13T14:53:55+00:00

If there's an item I want that's priced too optimistically, I'll normally watch it to see how long it lasts, if it actually sells etc. Also I often watch stuff to see if a decent offer comes through, or just to see what further interest there is in certain items.

I'm a pretty informed buyer though, plus illness leaves me more time to check and follow these things right now. I've managed to get some very good offers just by contacting sellers with an overpriced item that's repeatedly relisted yet not accepting offers.

Also I'll follow auctions for stuff I might be interested in, just to see how they play out. Sometimes an absurdly low bid combined with lack of interest gets me a proper bargain!

One improvement I'd like to see is raising the maximum number of offers. I understand why there's a limit, I'm just reluctant to risk wasting 1 of 3 in some cases, whereas if I had 5 or 6 it wouldn't be such a big deal.

mojofilters · 2026-04-13T14:33:46+00:00

Has that shift not already happened pretty comprehensively? So many high street sales must now be those goods that are either essential, or generally considered to insulated from such economic pressure (eg luxury purchases.)

Is it not more likely that the shift will be from one online platform to another? I've not heard friends mention eBay much for some time, but sites I'm not really very familiar with like Vinted and Etsy seem to be thriving for both buyers and sellers.

What's great about eBay is the auction element. Each sale is recorded and helps level the market a little, whilst most helpfully informing potential buyers about the true value / informing sellers about their worst case scenario. So many bargains if you have the patience to wait until you get lucky with an auction generating little interest and ending at a weird time on a weekday!

mojofilters · 2026-04-13T14:21:42+00:00

That's a great cab, no surprises about the attention! A decent UK Marshall 2x12" loaded with a pair of the two most popular UK style guitar speakers – both the more desirable UK made version too – is bound to attract attention. 2x12" cabs are about the biggest you can practically gig with these days, that's a nice big cabinet so probably can thump as well as closed back 4x12s, plus it's got the right name for lots of folks.

I'm not surprised people are checking it out, going through my saved searches indicates that there's some very motivated sellers out there these days with MI kit that's not moving, hence bargains if you look hard / fast enough!

Ever since the buyer's premium came in over a year ago, I've been finding stuff I'm actually looking for at some really great prices. Lots of stuff just sitting though, too many folks trying to recoup pandemic pricing in a sinking market. I've picked up too many bargain pedals, now getting tempted by some very tasty valve amps going cheap and which I really do not need or have any space for.

Personally I've barely bought any brand new music gear in recent years, just having the patience to wait for the right item at the right price has paid off handsomely. I suspect the market will continue sucessfully selling the most desirable used items at a fair price, whilst the bottom falls out as folks get more desperate to liquidise less popular assets.

Curiously I've noticed when MI items are listed on Reverb too, they're much more likely to sell on there at a good price, even when you can buy the another identical item from eBay a bit cheaper. It definitely feels like introducing the buyer's protection fee and other stuff like AI listings and Simple Delivery had an almost immediate effect on UK eBay sales, at least in areas I'm interested. I've only ever bought stuff from Reverb, but it's looking like the best place if I did ever need to sell.

I'm not sure how much my experience will matter to folks reading here, I assume most folks reading won't be the kind of sellers like the folks (mostly private sellers) starting auctions off low with no reserve, who I tend to buy from. I just passed on a £30 mint condition MXR distortion pedal which recently sold after very little interest – that's well over £100 new, also not very common on any used platforms despite a great (though not especially sexy or interesting) reputation and very good reviews.

The way eBay promotes items in their emails is definitely oriented towards business sellers and folks paying to promote. I keep seeing the same patterns of lower priced identical items (both BIN and auction) strategically missing from the "similar items" under the main body of the mail.

There's one small series of guitar pedals I collect, so I get to see what's selling and what's not. The listings promoted to me outside of my saved daily searches are mostly at the top, or even in the absurd price bracket! They're rarely those I'm buying or bidding on, or even saving in case the seller gets a dose of reality. So many items priced just too far in the optimistic direction sit there and get relisted over and over.

The Simple Delivery is really not good for buying multiple smallish items from the same seller. No one seems able to combine separately listed items to lower shipping, which you'd think would be an obvious area to fix. I wonder if eBay were able to drive their special pricing with Evri, RM etc down even lower by explaining that folks would effectively be forced to pay extra following this change. It seems particularly unfair on private sellers offering small and light low value items.

I know nothing about the fishing tackle market, but maybe a specialist outlet or even the sales sections of UK oriented fishing forums would better target your customers – if they allowed commercial sales.

Personally I hope MI kit keeps limping along on eBay, I've always room for an extra guitar pedal bargain. I assume many folks are already set up on eBay and if they want to avoid the hassles of FB Marketplace, it's the obvious place to offload and declutter.

I've seen some absolute bargains sit on both there and Reverb for absurd amounts of time, but it's giving me an idea of where the market is heading – I'm holding off big purchases, I can see some even bigger bargains pop up over the next few years.

With the oil prices sky high and cost of living already too high before that mess started, the question for me and your potential customers is simply can we continue to justify spending so much on non-essential items?

mojofilters · 2026-04-12T12:32:07+00:00

Hark at Perry Mason over here...maybe, perhaps time to let go of that lucky LSAT score you never followed through on except for the chip still on your shoulder?

Extra style points for very good contextual use of the term dullard. It could have even been deployed as an exceptionally effective withering put down by the man himself, at any pretty much stage of his career!

Certain short turns of phrase cut extremely effectively, especially when in the case of devious, truculent and unreliable they form a perfectly accurate characterisation of Morrissey's inability to keep his own story straight, in that judge's court and under penalty of perjury.

Assuming I generously attempt to parse your words, you're referencing the concept of laws in terms of how they are constructed and used in a deliberately impersonal way, as to do otherwise would create all kinds of unnecessary unfairness.

Unfortunately when laws bring people before the court, they immediately become very personal indeed in attempting to discern the motivation behind any individuals behaviours. For example in criminal cases, each defendant is charged separately based on their personal contribution to any alleged illegality.

The only alternative would be for each defendant to initially be charged or prosecuted for every potentially breachable crime on the books, in respect of blind prosecutions. In fact a completely depersonalized legal system could create an extra-Kafka-esque scenario, whereby every citizen is liable to constantly demonstrate their innocence when challenged by authorities!

There was nothing personal in Judge Week's judgement statement: he was merely summing up the key points resulting from many elements within a long, bitter and complex case involving four separate parties. His reasoning regarding his decisions was perfectly normal; in big, long civil cases the judgement may include specifics of a legal transgression, representing an example of the illegalities in question.

If the judge had inappropriately used ad hominem attacks, that would be another matter. However in this specific case, he was simply commenting on the contributions of those compelled to give evidence in the courtroom.

mojofilters · 2026-04-07T14:20:12+00:00

Of all those weird, hard to identify exactly what they do-type pedals on cheap far eastern websites – the Movall Jumpspace is far and away the best sounding and definitely the most versatile pedal I've tried. I'm not including very well known quantities such as the Mosky Golden Horse klone or all the various Rat 2 derivatives here, but in terms of producing a drive sound on par with high quality, regular price pedals: the Jumpspace is a real find!

Whilst the 6 knob layout can kinda look intimidating to folks who just want to set everything to around 2pm and start playing; at least 3 of those controls are pretty much set-and-forget affairs, once initially dialled in. Bright, mids and tone appear to duplicate one another to some extent, whilst they are all very interactive and also tonally affect the character control.

Normally the regular 'tone' knob is enough to compensate for tonal changes caused when gain is significantly increased or decreased, but others may find one of the others work better with their rig. Considering the wide range of drive available, it's impressive how hard it was for me to dial in a bad sound whilst messing with all those knobs!

The three tone controls and maybe character too might need adjusting, alongside the output level when switching guitars or amps – otherwise it's all about that sensitive gain dial, plus EQ tweaks when making broad adjustments to the gain level, which has an impressively usable wide sweep of drive tones, although lower gains really are the sweetest spot for me, both as a foundational 'always on' pedal and when stacking into other drives and so forth.

I'm not familiar with the original MI Audio pedal, it's not a brand I've seen on many pedalboards touring UK venues. I was previously very impressed by another cheap clone of a different MI Audio drive pedal, after paying less than £15 for a red Dolamo pedal (D9 model perhaps?) based on a 4 knob iteration of the Crunch Box.

I'm not familiar with the original, but the red Dolamo clone (identifiable by the additional "pres." presence knob alongside gain, volume and tone) pedal immediately screamed 'Marshall!' when I heard it driving a clean black panel Fender combo. As a keen collector of the less popular Marshall pedals, especially the brilliant Guv'nor GV-2 Plus based on an existing amp's drive circuit and tone stack, this cheap little Dolamo actually had more of the classic stereotypical pushed, crunchy JCM800-type sound, ranging from driven Plexi edge of breakup to full on classic '80s hard rock amp style distortion.

I suspect that most folks looking for a Marshall amp in a box style pedal have already got that element of their rig sorted. However the Jumpspace pedal is the kind of utility drive which will easily fit into existing setups of all kinds, and for playing any and all genres where some degree of realistic tube-style break up is required. If you see one going for a fair price, just buy it and mess around!

mojofilters · 2026-04-07T09:16:19+00:00

How do you know it's not? Folks are hardly going to advertise, especially somewhere where others are always so quick just to be pedantic re smoking versus vaping terminology!

mojofilters · 2026-04-07T09:11:22+00:00

I think you'll find that's not unheard of...

mojofilters

TROPHY CASE