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FRIEDMAN BE-MINI £299

If you’ve ever sat staring longingly at Friedman’s website wishing it made something between a pedal and a large valve head, ready your credit card. Dave Friedman’s latest creation is the BE-Mini, a single-channel, 30-watt solid-state amp, but don’t let the lack of valves fool you. Thanks to the BE preamp circuit, this little brute promises to deliver the same “Britishvoiced harmonics, grind and punch” of the revered BE series. As well as the gain/three-band EQ controls, you get a presence knob, plus Cut and Tight controls to help tailor your tone further. Around the back there’s a series effects loop and speaker outputs. The BE-Mini is available now. www.friedmanamplification.com

OLD BLOOD NOISE ENDEAVORS EXPRESSION RAMPER £59

You know that expression pedal socket you never plug anything into because you can’t face losing any more space on your pedalboard? Well, Old Blood Noise Endeavors has a solution that saves space and also works while you’re doing your best Kirk Hammett impression on the Cry Baby. The Expression Ramper gives you two toggle switches: one for the shape of the expression movement and one for toggling between two rate speeds. Meanwhile, the central control knob is used to determine the rate for each, and when you stomp on the pedal it moves between the two. The shape toggle gives you triangle and square (similar to your tremolo pedal) or one-shot modes to manipulate the way the expression pedal sweeps through its movement. It’s a handy solution that could unlock some creative results from the pedals you already own.