Wahey! It’s winter! I like winter. I was born in winter and I’ll die in winter. Unless the summer gets me first.
Anyway, it’s kind of time to wrap up the year and look at what’s ahead. So let’s do that.
2023!
Well, it’s been a year!
I didn’t manage to get as much new stuff out this year as I’d hoped. But I did manage to get the Dunsh out there and I squeezed out the Divvy and Fettle Boost re-release too! I’ll do better next year, I promise.
We were lucky enough to be able to add Perfect Circuit and Relic Music to our retailer list which was very nice.
Amongst the highlights of my year were the two music projects we did with the lovely people in our discord. Here’s all the weird and fantastic music that came from them.
The next one starts in January, so I’ll be excited to share the music with everyone next April! If you’re interested in joining us for one next year, it’s a project we run through our discord.
Coming soon!
Before I jump into my theoretical plans for 2024, I want to mention the stuff that is definitely coming over the next few weeks as we roll across the finish line into the new year.
Firstly, as of today we have these Purple Dusk Woozies in stock!
They’re in the store now! Unless you’re reading this after they’ve sold out, in which case I apologise, but I’m sure we’ll have some more Woozies with cool colourways soon.
2024!
Next up, as some of yous may know I started off my Champion Leccy (as a job) journey when I moved to the US in 2016. I did a few handpainted modified clones as I worked out some of the simple ‘running a business’ stuff. It helped me work out the practicalities of production.
I didn’t do too many and I moved to a full line of originals pretty quickly, but in 2017 I did do a few enclosures for some tweaked Big Muff variants and Fuzz Factories that I never built, cos my original designs were s tarting to take off, so I wanted to focus solely on the original stuff.
Anyway, I stumbled across those very enclosures a couple of months and have decided to get them built and sold. A portion of each sale will go to Philabundance, to help get food to people who are struggling at the minute.
So, here’s the enclosures! Check out that relicing on the Muffs!
The ‘Muff’ ones will all be slightly different tweaks on the Gett circuit with some flavour of Big Muff variant (Black Russian, Civil War, Green Russian, Tall Font Green Russian and Violet Ram’s head).
The Fuzz Factory ones will all feature a couple of neat mods and some proper rare foreign mojo germanium transistors from my secret stash that I’ve been hoarding away for years and years. It’s so much mojo that the world will end.
It will most likely be January 2024 before these are available, I’m still working on some circuit decisions.
Speaking of hand painting, next year I’m finally going to get round to painting some wee panels and selling them. Here’s a cheeky sample of one I whipped up whilst I was meant to be working.
I really am hoping to be able to offer these regularly, cos it’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I know a few people have asked about my art for a while, so fingers crossed. I’d love to be able to draw and paint but not just end up filling my own house with more stuff. If you could do with some tiny weird cartoon horror and gore art, let me know.
New pedals and stuff
So beyond the first few weeks and hand painted goodies, what’s the plan for next year? The answer is exciting things of course! First off I can finally confirm the…
Skitzy
…is finally done! Finally! I’ve signed off on it. I even have all the parts orders in! Release is most likely going to be mid to late February. There will be an article about it in January or early February and plenty of videos and demos coming after that. That’s exciting thing number one!
The Skitzy is a modulated reverb. It has taken such a long time to dial it in just as I want it, but it’s there. It’s a very Champion Leccy pedal. Sound-wise and function-wise it covers some similar ground to the Skitter and Woozy (obviously, because that’s where the name comes from), it’s the same size and it features the same LFO. It kind of rounds out the line in that respect.
It covers a lot of sonic ground from the subtle and beautiful through to lofi and crazy wobbles and oscillations. It will cover both volume modulation and pitch on two separately controllable reverbs, so you can blend them. There’s also some tape sound stuff in there. The second footswitch will have an internal options to toggle it between being a tap tempo and being a feedback/ oscillation control. Like all my designs there’s a lot of interaction between controls. It’s going to be a nice one to smash into some dirt.
It’s about the most involved PCB design I’ve ever done, double sided and everything! It’s also going to be the most controls I’ve managed to fit in a pedal of that size. There’s going to be 8 knobs and three switches on the front for the main controls and a couple of things you can tailor with trims and DIP switches internally.
I really hope yous dig it.
Speaking of that sort of thing, I might as well tell you that next year a few months after the Skitzy you’ll be seeing the…
Kilter V2
I’m just about to start working on the prototype PCBs! I know Chinese New Year will slow things down with ordering the PCBs, but I’m hoping to have them ready for re-release in spring or early summer.
What’s new with the V2?
Well, it’ll be in a smaller enclosure firstly. It’ll be a bit neater with some stuff I’ve learnt since I designed the first one, including an updated power section, it’ll (if all goes to plan) also have expression inputs for both depth and rate. It’s going to have a bridged fx loop sends/ returns, so it will function without any jumpers, so if you just plug in and out it’ll be a tremolo/ ring mod.
It took so much to squeeze it into the smaller enclosure that I’m still nervous whether everything is going to fit and work like I want it to. I really have chosen to make life difficult for future me who has to build these damn things.
A wee bit further down the line, but hopefully not too far will be the…
Skitter V3
As with the Kilter it’ll have an updated power section (boring but important), but it will have an extra phase cancellation tremolo setting for both the reverb and dry signal. It will also have a feedback knob (like the fog on the Swan Hunter). At the minute I’m planning to remove the tap tempo footswitch and replace it with a footswitch that will be an on/off for the tremolo. There will be a jack for an external tap tempo.
I’m hoping to have this ready by summer at the latest.
There will be loads more on those two redesigns later, but they are both in progress.
Just in case you’re wondering if there will be a Woozy redesign hot on the heels of the Kilter and Skitter, the answer is no. I haven’t gotten around to looking at that yet. I’m not saying it won’t ever happen, but it’s a distant thought at the minute.
Any other new designs coming?
Almost certainly a big fat yes. As to what surfaces first, I don’t know. I’m working on several things at the minute, but you know how it goes with them best laid plans aft gannin agley.
I’m pretty sure that this time last year I was very excited about the Forgetter being next on the list, but I wasn’t happy with the first prototype and whilst I was developing ideas for the next version, the Skitzy suddenly came to a life with a flurry of cool ideas that worked nicely.
I’m still working on the Forgetter, I really, really hope that that sees the light of day by this time next year.
I also haven’t forgotten the end of days fuzz I was working on. That might pop up. That will be bonkers.
I’m also tinkering with the idea of bringing back the Evil Twin for a run or two and I want to finally get the Hand Samwitch in as a regular part of the line up. Both are well overdue.
I have a couple of pretty oddball ideas that are in very early stages that I’d love to work on, and I have some shelved designs for expanded Canny” versions of a couple of things. Oh and whilst my dirt and gain pedals aren’t my main sellers, I do have a canny idea for a Canny Fettle Boost V2 that I’m very happy with. Anyway, it’s almost impossible at this point to say what will be next.
The other consideration for future Champion Leccy is that it’s hard balancing production on so many models as a largely one man operation working out of a South Philly rowhome. I might limit some pedals to seasonal releases. We’ll find out!
Any other business?
Yeah! A wee bit!
Retailers
As you may have noticed, we added Perfect Circuit and Relic Music to our retailer list this year. We’re continuing to expand and are hoping to add another few retailers in 2024 too! If you have a favourite small music store who might be into what gans on here, get them to hit us up!
Pedal Shows?
Unfortunately I have a disability that precludes me from driving, so attending pedal shows is very difficult, but if there are opportunities that I can make in 2024, I will be there.
Word on the street is that there may be a pedal show in the works at Russo Music in Philadelphia pretty early in 2024. If it happens I will absolutely be attending and I hope you will be able to join us.
As always thank you for reading, thank you for all the support in 2023, thank you for your patience in waiting for the Skitzy and I’m always interested to hear what you think!
Feel free to email us through the contact page, hit us up on Instagram or join our discord.