This week we’re revisiting an old friend of the channel — the NUX Horseman. It’s popped up in its own demo, and in more Klon-style shootouts than I can remember at this point. There’s a reason for that.

It’s good. Really good.

A Budget Klon That Keeps Showing Up

The Horseman is NUX’s take on the legendary Klon Centaur circuit — that mythical mid-’90s dual overdrive that now costs the same as a small car if you want the real thing.

NUX have built the Horseman around the same core concept: transparent-ish drive, loads of headroom (thanks to an internal voltage converter pushing things up to 18V), and that slightly gritty, amp-like breakup that made the original so popular. You get the standard three controls — Gain, Treble, and Output — plus two modes: Gold and Silver.

Gold mode is your classic Centaur-style voicing. Silver mode gives you a bit more gain on tap — think of it as the hot-rodded version. Switching between them requires a long press of the footswitch, which isn’t the slickest system in the world, but you can access that without bending down to the pedal itself, so it works I guess.

You can also toggle between true bypass and buffered bypass on startup. Yes, it involves a bit of button-holding and LED colour interpretation, but it’s nice to have the choice — especially since the Klon buffer is half the magic for some players.

Blind Tests and Big Praise

A few years back, my good friend and partner in crime, Lee did a blind Klon shootout over on Tonepedia. We’re talking everything from an incredibly affordable Mosky Silver Horse all the way up to an actual Klon Centaur. There were some serious contenders in there too — KTR, J Rockett Archer, the usual well-respected names.

Blindfold on. No bias. Just tones doing the talking.

The comments about the NUX were along the lines of, “If that’s not the Klon itself, it’s probably the KTR.”

Lee came away from that video with a new found respect for NuX and it's easy to understand why.

And considering the price difference between a Horseman and an original Centaur… well, you don’t need me to finish that sentence.

The Klon Thing (And Why I’ve Changed My Mind)

Now, I’ve said before that I’m not the biggest Klon fan. I play a lot of Strats, a lot of single coils, and those guitars often benefit from something that fills out the mids a bit more aggressively. A Tube Screamer does that. A Klon… not so much.

But over time, I’ve come to appreciate what the Klon circuit actually does well.

It’s subtle. It adds that “amp just starting to break up” grit. It doesn’t smother your tone — it enhances it. Push the gain and you start getting that upper-mid bite, not unlike a Boss Blues Driver.

Where it really comes alive, though, is into a driven amp. Take a crunchy British-style rhythm tone and hit it with a Klon-style boost and suddenly you’re squarely in classic rock territory. Tightened low end, singing top end, more sustain and a tone that growls.

That’s the sweet spot.

And the Horseman does that convincingly.

More Than Just a Clone

On the technical side, NUX have gone with Schottky diodes for the clipping stage (since the original germanium parts are incredibly hard to find consistently these days), and they’ve built in their own voltage converter circuit to get that higher headroom feel. Whether you care about the internal topology or not, the important thing is that it behaves like a proper Klon-style circuit should.

It can do clean boost duties brilliantly — low gain, high output, push your amp harder. Or you can dial in more drive and let the pedal do the clipping itself. It’s flexible without being complicated.

And in typical NUX fashion, it’s compact, solidly built, and sensibly priced. I've said it once and I'll say it again, NuX give you absolutely loads for your money with their stuff. They are never lacking in features, nor does the tone come second.

So… Is It Worth It?

If you’re chasing a Klon-style overdrive and don’t fancy remortgaging the house, you could do a lot worse than the Horseman. In fact, you’d struggle to do much better in this price bracket.

It’s featured on the channel multiple times for a reason. It holds its own in blind tests. It sounds right. It feels right. And it captures that elusive “transparent but better” thing that made the original so famous in the first place.

If a Klon is on your wish list, the Horseman deserves a serious look.

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 This week’s video was a proper budget scrap: three “analog-style” delays, all chasing that bucket brigade vibe, all under sensible money, and all bringing something slightly different to the table.

If you’ve ever looked at real vintage analogue delays and then quietly closed the tab when you saw the price, this is for you.

The Contenders

We put the Joyo Analog Delay, the Mooer Ana Echo, and the TC Electronic Bucket Brigade head-to-head. On paper they all live in a similar space — warm repeats, darker voicing, classic feel — but under the hood they’re doing things a little differently.

And that’s where it gets interesting.

Joyo Analog Delay – The Sensible All-Rounder

Let’s get this out of the way first: the Joyo isn’t a “true” bucket brigade delay. It uses a PT2399 chip with filtering to get that darker, analog-style sound rather than a genuine BBD chip.

Does that matter? Not really.

It sounds good. Really good, actually — especially for the money. It tops out around 440ms, which is plenty for most practical uses, and it covers a lot of ground. Slap-back? No problem. Subtle doubling? Easy. Slightly more ambient textures? Absolutely doable.

If I had to label it, this is probably the best all-rounder of the three. It doesn’t have the strongest personality, but it also doesn’t have many weak spots. And it’s often the cheapest of the lot, which makes it very easy to recommend if you just want “a good analog-ish delay” without overthinking it.

Mooer Ana Echo – Vintage Vibes on a Budget

The Mooer Ana Echo is the purist’s choice here. It runs a genuine MN3205 bucket brigade chip and is very deliberately inspired by the Boss DM-2 — right down to the slightly backwards-feeling control layout.

If you’ve used a DM-2 before, you’ll know what I mean.

This one tops out at around 300ms, so it’s the shortest delay time of the three. It doesn’t really excel at slap-back tones — it can do them, but it’s not where it shines. Where it does shine is in those washy, ambient, slightly murky repeats that almost become part of your core tone.

It adds character. It softens the edges. It feels vintage in the best way.

And considering what a real vintage DM-2 goes for these days — or even the Waza reissue — the Mooer is a bargain by comparison.

If you want warmth and vibe over versatility, this is probably the one that’ll grab you.

TC Electronic Bucket Brigade – Crisp, Modern Analog

Then we’ve got the TC Electronic Bucket Brigade. This one uses a modern Cool Audio BBD chip — the same family of chips you’ll find in a lot of modern analogue designs (and yes, in plenty of Behringer-owned circuits too).

The big headline here is 600ms of delay time — the longest of the three. If you're after longer, luxurious repeats, then look no further.

The repeats are noticeably crisper and more defined than the other two. Because of that clarity, this one absolutely excels at shorter slap-back tones. It blends beautifully with your dry signal without turning to mush.

On top of that, you get modulation on the repeats. Subtle wobble at shorter settings, lovely movement at longer ones. That feature alone pushes it into MXR Carbon Copy territory — just without the Carbon Copy price tag.

If you want analogue feel but with a bit more modern usability, this is a very strong option.

So… Which One?

Honestly? You’re not getting a bad pedal out of this bunch.

They all cover that bucket brigade flavour in their own way, but they each lean in a slightly different direction:

• Joyo – most versatile and budget-friendly.
• Mooer – warm, vintage, characterful.
• TC Electronic – clearer repeats, longer delay time, added modulation.

Delay is one of those effects that can be as subtle or as dramatic as you want it to be. It can sit there doing gentle doubling, it can add a bit of reverb-like space, or it can become part of the rhythmic identity of what you’re playing.

The best one here isn’t about specs — it’s about which personality fits your playing.

And at these prices, the real danger is convincing yourself you only need one.

Consider using the affiliate link if you would like to buy one:
TC Bucket Brigade
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 This week we’re stepping slightly outside the usual budget territory, but trust me, this one earns its place. The Wampler Ego 76 Mini is Brian Wampler’s take on the legendary 1176 Peak Limiter — a compressor that has been absolutely baked into the sound of recorded music for decades. If you’ve ever loved the feel of a studio guitar track without really knowing why, chances are an 1176 was involved somewhere along the way.

Now, before anyone panics, this isn’t Wampler trying to turn your pedalboard into Abbey Road. The Ego 76 Mini takes the idea of the 1176 — that fast, punchy, characterful FET compression — and translates it into something that actually makes sense for guitarists.

At its core, this is a proper studio-style compressor in pedal form. You’ve got level, compression and a parallel clean blend, which is already a massive tick in my book. On top of that, there are attack and release switches, giving you access to those classic 1176-style response times without needing a degree in audio engineering. It’s clever, because you get all of the best attack and release settings without having to understand what attack and release actually mean.

The real magic of this pedal is how flexible it is in a guitar rig. You can absolutely stick it at the front of your chain and use it like a traditional guitar compressor. It’ll do the squishy Dynacomp-style thing if that’s your bag — country snap, funk rhythm, tightening up clean tones — all very much there. But it doesn’t stop at squash.

Dial things back a bit and the Ego 76 turns into something much more refined. There’s a lovely sparkle and polish you can add to clean tones without killing your dynamics, and that parallel blend control paired with the compression control is where the real magic happens. Being able to mix your dry signal back in means you get the benefits of compression without losing the feel of your playing, which is exactly how compression is used in the studio.

Where this pedal really surprised me, though, was further down the signal chain. Stick it after a drive or two and it becomes more of a glue pedal than a traditional compressor. It evens things out, adds sustain, and just makes everything feel a bit more “finished”. It’s that subtle, almost invisible thing that you don’t really notice until you turn it off… and then immediately turn it back on again.

Yes, it’s more expensive than what we usually cover. No, it isn’t a cheap impulse buy. But unlike a lot of boutique compressors, this doesn’t feel like a one-trick pony or a studio novelty shoehorned onto a pedalboard. It genuinely works in multiple positions, across multiple styles, and rewards a bit of experimentation.

If you’ve ever struggled with compressors feeling either too squashed or too boring, the Ego 76 Mini might be the one that finally clicks. It’s studio compression made usable, musical, and — most importantly — fun. And honestly? That makes it pretty easy to justify the extra spend.

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Sonicake Smart Box – From Proof of Concept to Proper Gigging Tool

The Sonicake Pocket Master was one of those pedals (well, FX unit maybe?) in 2025. The kind that quietly landed, didn’t look like much, but then completely changed the guitar landscape. It was one of the first genuinely affordable ways for everyday players to dip their toes into Neural Amp Modelling on the go, and once people realised what it could do, it absolutely took off. Small, unassuming, and way more capable than it had any right to be.

The Smart Box is very much the next step in that journey. If the Pocket Master proved the concept, the Smart Box feels like Sonicake taking that idea seriously and asking, “Right… how do we actually make this usable outside the bedroom?”

The most obvious upgrade hits you straight away: footswitches. Two of them, no less. This might sound like a small thing, but it absolutely isn’t. The Pocket Master relied on those little rubber buttons, which were fine for desk use but always felt like it prohibited live use. The Smart Box fixes that in one move. Suddenly, this feels like something you could actually put on the floor without fear.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons with the Valeton GP-50 here. Both companies seem to be circling the same idea at the same time: take a compact NAM-capable unit and make it genuinely stage-friendly. With proper footswitches, LED rings, tap tempo, and control switching, the Smart Box immediately feels more confident in that role. You can still pair it with something like the M-Vave Chocolate Plus if you want to go even further, but you don’t have to anymore.

The front panel layout is another big win. Instead of burying everything in menus, Sonicake have added dedicated buttons for each block in the signal chain — amp, cab, delay, reverb, EQ, and so on. Editing patches directly on the unit is now much quicker and far more intuitive. The Pocket Master wasn’t hard to use, but this feels friendlier again, especially for players who don’t want to spend half an hour scrolling through menus. Even the most technophobic guitarist should be able to build a usable patch without getting nervous.

Internally, there are some meaningful upgrades too. The effects list has grown a lot. Where the Pocket Master gave you one or two flavours of each modulation, the Smart Box gives you proper choice — including some more adventurous options. There’s a clear nod here towards ambient and shoegaze players, with textures and effects that go well beyond the usual budget multi-FX safe zone. It really feels like Sonicake are pushing the boundaries of what “affordable” gear is supposed to sound like.

Now, we do need to talk about the NAM situation, because this is still the elephant in the room. Like most compact NAM players at the moment, once you engage NAM profiling, the internal cab sim is bypassed. That means you’re either using full rig NAM profiles (amp and cab together) or running an external cab solution. The Smart Box sticks with this limitation, which is a little disappointing — simultaneous amp and cab modelling would’ve been a genuine leap forward.

That said, it’s not a dealbreaker. There are loads of excellent full rig NAM profiles available for free on Tone3000, and realistically, most users are going to find plenty of sounds that work for them without much hassle. It’s just one of those “we’re not quite there yet” moments for NAM tech at this price point.

Feature-wise, the Smart Box is absolutely stacked. You’ve got over 130 effects, up to nine blocks running at once, 100 presets, drum rhythms, a looper, tuner, metronome, stereo outputs, USB audio interface with re-amping, OTG support for phones, wired and wireless MIDI, expression pedal input, headphones out… and it’ll even run on its internal battery for a few hours if you need it to. It’s one of those pedals where you keep discovering another feature you didn’t realise was there.

Crucially, it still comes in under £100. That’s the headline for me. Yes, it’s not the bold technological leap some of us were hoping for, but it is a clear step towards being a proper gigging unit. More usable, more intuitive, more flexible — and still very affordable.

If Sonicake keep refining this platform, especially on the NAM side of things, this could end up being something really special. As it stands, the Smart Box feels like a confident evolution rather than a flashy reinvention — and honestly, that’s probably exactly what most players actually need.

NUX A/B ROLL – A Looper… and Quite a Bit More Than That

You can't be everything to everyone
At first glance, the NUX A/B ROLL looks like one of those pedals where the design brief was “how many features can we cram into one enclosure before someone tells us to stop?”. Looper, sub-octave, IR loader, auto-recording, OTG audio… on paper it feels like NuX pulled a handful of ideas out of a hat and decided to make it work.

Surprisingly, it mostly does.

Let’s start with the core of the pedal: the looper. This is a no-nonsense, very functional looping engine. Think original Ditto rather than some sprawling, multi-track workstation. One footswitch handles record, overdub, stop and erase duties, and once you get the muscle memory down it’s quick and intuitive. No fancy tricks, no menu diving — just hit record and get on with it. It gives you up to six minutes of loop time with unlimited overdubs, which is more than enough for practice, writing, or building up simple arrangements.

Where things start to get more interesting is the built-in IR loader. NuX have included a selection of cab sims covering the usual bases — small 1x12 combo-style cabs through to big 4x12s that are clearly aimed at higher-gain sounds. Annoyingly, they don’t actually tell you what any of them are in the marketing, but the important part is that they sound perfectly usable. More importantly, you’re not locked into them. Using the desktop editor, you can load your own IRs and tailor each one further with adjustable high and low cuts. At this price point, that’s a really nice touch.

Then there’s the sub-octave control. On its own, it feels like an odd inclusion. But when you look at it in the context of looping, it suddenly makes a lot more sense. Adding a subtle sub octave underneath a loop can really help fill things out, especially if you’re building layers with a single guitar. It pushes things away from “guitar noodling over a loop” and more towards something that feels like a full arrangement.

The real clue as to who this pedal is aimed at, though, is the OTG functionality. Being able to plug this straight into a phone and record or live stream without any additional interface gear suddenly reframes the whole pedal. This is content creation in a box. Bedroom players, younger guitarists, people experimenting with short-form videos, live streams, or quick demo ideas — this thing makes a lot of sense there.

With traditional live opportunities becoming harder to come by, especially for newer players, tools like this are starting to fill that gap. It’s a way to practise, perform, record and share without needing a full rig, a computer, and a desk full of cables.

At around £80, it’s also very easy to justify. That’s roughly the cost of a decent looper or a basic IR loader on its own. Getting both of those, plus a sub octave and direct-to-phone recording, in one compact pedal feels like pretty solid value.

It’s not trying to be everything for everyone, but for the players it’s clearly aimed at, the A/B ROLL is a surprisingly clever bit of kit. A little weird, sure — but in a way that actually works.

One Overdrive that covers so much ground

Thorn Soundlab Bad Cash - Lots going on under the hood
Overdrive pedals are funny things. We all say we want simple, but then spend half our lives stacking two or three drives together trying to cover different jobs. Clean boost here, mid-push there, something a bit more aggressive when things need to get spicy. The Thorn Soundlabs Bad Cash feels like it was designed by someone who got bored of doing exactly that.

This is a seriously versatile drive pedal. On paper, it might look like overkill – loads of knobs, switches, and a footprint that’s closer to “two pedals pretending to be one” – but once you actually start using it, it all makes a lot of sense.

At lower gain settings, the Bad Cash works beautifully as a clean-ish boost. You can add a bit of thickness and presence without really changing the core character of your amp. Push things a little further and it starts to live very comfortably in Tube Screamer territory, giving you that familiar mid push that works so well with single coils and driven amps. With a bit of a tweak of the EQ, you can turn that mid-focused overdrive tone into a more transparent Klon style drive - like I say, versatility on tap.

Crank it further and it’s perfectly happy heading into more aggressive OCD-style gain. It never gets fizzy or undefined, and thanks to the amount of EQ control on tap, it’s surprisingly easy to keep it sitting where you want in a mix. This is very much a “one pedal, many jobs” kind of drive.

A big part of that flexibility comes from the controls Thorn have built into this thing. The 3-band EQ (or 4, if you count the Presence) is a massive help, especially if you swap guitars or amps regularly. You’re not stuck fighting a fixed voicing – you can actually dial the pedal to suit your rig rather than the other way around.

Then there are the Damping and Headroom controls, which are kind of Thorn Soundlabs’ secret sauce. Damping lets you tighten or loosen the low end of the driven signal, which is invaluable if you’re running higher gain or a darker amp. Headroom controls how hard the pedal pushes into overdrive and even beyond, which makes it feel incredibly dynamic under the fingers. It’s one of those pedals that rewards picking dynamics rather than flattening everything into the same level of crunch.

There are also a couple of toggle switches to change the drive character and voicing, which just adds even more shades to an already very broad palette. None of it feels redundant – it all actually does something useful.

It’s also worth mentioning that this pedal really comes alive at 18V. You can run it at 9V without any issues, but bumping the voltage gives you more headroom, more openness, and a bit more breathing room in the feel. If you’re into touch-sensitive drives that respond like an amp rather than a box of clipping diodes, this is very much in that camp.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. This isn’t a sub-£100 pedal, which is usually where this channel lives. But honestly? It’s pretty easy to justify the extra spend. When you consider how much ground it covers – from clean boost, through TS and Klon flavours, right up to proper crunchy overdrive – it covers a fair few roles and in a very convincing way too.

It’s big, it’s bold, it looks like it escaped from a 1960s sci-fi B-movie, and it absolutely does not try to be subtle. But if you want one overdrive that can adapt to pretty much any situation you throw at it, the Bad Cash is a really compelling option.

Less “another overdrive”, more “why do I even need three of these anymore?”. 

Valeton GP50 – an improvement or unprovement?

Last year, Valeton released the GP5 and, although there was  a little buzz around it when it first released, it turned into one of the most interesting budget pedals of the year. Not because it did loads of new and innovative things, but because it brought amp profiling technology to a genuinely affordable price point.

Fast forward a little and Valeton are back with the GP50. At first glance, it looks like a fairly minor update – almost too minor to justify a whole new product. After spending some proper time with it though, it becomes very clear why this version exists, and for some players, it’s going to matter more than they might expect.

A Quick Recap: Why the GP5 Mattered

At the heart of the GP50 is the same core concept that made the GP5 such a success: Neural Amp Modeling. NAM is often compared to Kemper-style profiling, and while that comparison holds up in principle, the real story is that NAM is open-source and community-driven.

That means a constantly expanding pool of amp captures – everything from clean combos to fully driven rigs – shared freely by users who are actively pushing the technology forward. For players who’ve been curious about profiling but put off by price, complexity, or commitment, this is an incredibly accessible entry point.

Like the GP5, the GP50 converts NAM files into Valeton’s own Snap Tone format. You’ll see people online argue about fidelity loss, but in practical terms, the experience is the same: load profiles, play guitar, enjoy convincing amp tones that respond properly to dynamics and picking.

The Not-So-Secret Limitation of the GP5

The GP5 proved the idea worked, but it also revealed its own limitations pretty quickly. The biggest one was obvious: a single footswitch.

In a bedroom or studio, that’s manageable. On a rehearsal floor or stage, it becomes awkward. Scrolling in one direction through patches, choosing between a tuner or effect switching, and having to bend down if you overshoot a sound all start to feel like unnecessary friction.

You could solve this with external MIDI controllers, but that slightly defeats the purpose of having a compact, affordable all-in-one unit.

The GP50 exists because of that problem.

Enter the GP50: Same Brain, Better Body

Rather than chasing higher processing power or more features, Valeton focused on usability. The addition of a second footswitch might sound minor, but it fundamentally changes how the unit feels to play.

Patch navigation instantly becomes more intuitive. Effect switching becomes genuinely practical. You can set up a base tone and then build variations around it without feeling boxed in. Suddenly, the GP platform feels far more at home in live situations without needing additional hardware.

There’s also a dedicated tuner access now, which removes the annoying trade-off GP5 users had to make. It’s one of those changes you barely notice once it’s there – and immediately miss when it isn’t.

Small Changes That Make a Big Difference

The GP50 also includes an internal battery, which won’t matter to everyone, but makes a lot of sense for travel, casual practice, or even avoiding noisy household power. It’s not a headline feature, but it’s thoughtful.

There’s a built-in looper too. Personally, loopers aren’t something I reach for often, but for quick jams or sketching ideas, it’s a useful inclusion rather than a gimmick. It’s short, simple, and exactly what you’d expect at this size and price.

Crucially, Valeton have also left plenty of room to grow. Dedicated expression and footswitch inputs mean the GP50 can expand with your setup rather than boxing you into a fixed workflow.

So… Is It Worth Upgrading?

If you already own a GP5 and you’ve built a setup around it – especially if you’re using MIDI control – the GP50 isn’t a mandatory upgrade. The core tones are the same, and the sound quality hasn’t changed.

If you don’t own either yet, the GP50 is the one to buy. It feels like the version Valeton would have released in the first place if they’d known how popular and capable the platform was going to be.

For the relatively small jump in price, you get a unit that’s simply easier to live with, easier to use, and far better suited to real-world playing.

What's really up

The GP5 was a proof of concept.

The GP50 is from concept to actual usable tool.

Valeton didn’t chase hype here – they listened, refined, and improved the experience where it mattered most. If affordable profiling is something you’re curious about, the GP50 makes a strong case for itself without pretending to be something it isn’t.

And honestly? That’s exactly why it works.