Back in 2019 I became aware of the NuX brand of pedals. Maybe it was actually the end of 2018. It was whenever they announced that they were making a Klone. At that time, I was on a kick to try just about every pedal of that variety that I could find, especially the cheap ones. I already had several, and had my favorites (which are still my favorites today), but NuX announced their Horseman. It caught my interest because, knowing there were two types of Klons (the gold and silver), but not really knowing what the difference in them was, NuX was apparently making a klone that could be changed from one type to the other just by holding the switch down long.

So, shortly after it was announced, I placed my order for it. It was supposed to ship in like 2 months. After nearly 3, I got a notice that shipping had been delayed, but it was still coming. After waiting a total of about 4 months, I finally got it in hand. I excitedly pulled it out and put it in my chain to test out.

I was underwhelmed on all counts.

Granted, I'm not a huge Klon fan, I think in the right places, it is a standout pedal. Yes, I am one of those folks that Josh Scott hates because I like it at the front of all my drives on an amp that is just beginning to get some hair. Set the volume to push the amp and the drive at about 9 o'clock, and I think, on the right amp, that is one of those guitar tones that people chase. Sorry, not sorry, Mr JHS.

The NuX Horseman just didn't do much for me. It quickly got put in the closet and forgotten. A few months later, I pulled it out and tested it against some of the klones I had at the time. It didn't do very well. In fact, it went back in the closet, and was one of the first pedals I grabbed in the great gear purge of 2020.

On a sort of related note, in that same gear purge, I got rid of a Vertex Steel String Clean Drive. I had never really bonded with it, so it got sold. I'll come back to this in a sec.

So, earlier this year, I kept getting those targeted adds for the NuX Ace of Tone. I was completely unfamiliar with it. Turns out it is a double pedal with their Morning Star on one side and their Tubeman on the other. Two things caught my eye about it. First, it has a switch so that you can change the signal so it routes to the side that you want it to hit first. So it can go left to right or right to left. Second, the MS side is supposed to be their Blues Breaker circuit, and the TM side is a TS-type circuit. A good TS of some sort has been on my board since I first started buying pedals. The first OD pedal I bought was a TS-copy, but I didn't know it at the time. 

Neeways, it was the BB side that I really wanted to try. I had heard a couple of guys talking about those along with the legendary King of Tone just before I started seeing the ads. I had never tried a BB-type that I knew of, and only knew that the KoT was talked about in the same hushed tones as the original Klons. Since, this had the circuit that I wanted to try as well as the circuit I always used and I could route it through either side first, I figured the worst that could happen would be for me to buy it, and then flip it because it sucked.

I had some Amazon gift credit, so I grabbed it there on the cheap. Got it the next day, plugged it in, and it has held a spot on my Affordaboard since. I prefer it routed right to left (BB -> TS). Honestly, I'm not super impressed with the TS side. It's just missing something that every other TS-type I've got (and kept) has. But I forgive that because the BB side sounds really good to me. It has a little thing on it called Shine-mode that pushes the treble, and, with that on, the pedal just sounds super good to me.

Then, back during the fall, I was talking to someone about trying to get that Robben Ford sound, and they told me that a lot of it was because he was using a Dumble amp. I don't ever see me getting a Dumble. Even if I am ever in a position to afford one, I don't think I could rationalize it. So I decided to try a D-type pedal. When I googled those, I saw the NuX Steel Singer. Since I had been liking the Ace of Tone so much, I decided to check them out. I found one on Reverb for $25 that looked in good shape, so I got it.

When it came in, I thought it looked an awful lot like that Vertex I had never liked. So, I immediately discounted it because I never really liked the Vertex. Although, in retrospect, I may not've given it a fair shake. I plugged the pedal in and started playing around with it. I immediately dug it! Kind of like this klones I have always had at the front of my ODs, I leave the gain really low and was using it to just push the amp. I like it better than any of my sub-$100 klones enough that it ended up taking that space on my Affordaboard.

Then, last week, I was thinking I wanted to try a cheap Marshall in a box. Saw one of the NuX Plexi Crunch pedals on Reverb for $20 and grabbed it. I don't have a Marshall to judge it against, but it sounds about like I expected it to sound. It'll probably get traded off at some point, but I'll hang on to it for a while.

Now they're advertising that Queen of Tone. It's a BB-circuit and their klone. Granted, I didn't like their stand-alone klone, I may give the dual pedal a shot. Just because. I haven't decided though. I got the Ace of Tone brand new for $110, but they're asking $200 for the Queen of Tone. I could get the two individual pedals for $120, so why would I want to spend an extra $80 just for them to be in the same box. If they drop the price to the price of the Ace of Tone, I may grab one.

That's been my NuX journey since I first heard about them. Some of their stuff has been extremely average, and some of their stuff I have really liked. You'll see the Steel Singer and Ace of Tone both on my Affordaboard below.

What budget-minded pedals have you tried that surprised you? Was it a good surprise or a bad one? Did any of them stay on your board? Let me know in the comments.

I started playing when I turned 16.  Since I was brought up in a pretty conservative home, that meant that I started off playing (or trying to play) hymns and Scripture songs from church and maybe the occasional Michael Card song.  Now that's not bad, but that just meant that I played very little beyond big, open, cowboy chords.  After a couple of years, I fell in with some friends from work that introduced me to bluegrass and country gospel.  So I started playing that.  Actually learned a few major scales on the neck, but still never played much beyond cowboy chords. 

​In one of the little bands I played in, another guitar player and I would swap off between playing some melody lines and chords.  In retrospect, I can only imagine how bad we sounded, because, other than the occasional "leads" we were both playing big, open, ringing, cowboy chords.  Maybe it wasn't as bad I I think it may've been.  Back then though, we were having a ball. 

I played in another little duo (me and a harmonica player) that played about twice a month at a weekly fellowship group.  He and I also played once a month at a church that liked what we were playing.  About that time, I managed to get in with a group of "real" players.  And, by "real" I mean that I considered them actual musicians.  They played out most every weekend somewhere, and they let me sit in with them every couple of months.  Because of them, I was also introduced to a flute player who formed a trio out of herself, a violin player, and me.  We put together some hymn arrangements and played at a couple of churches in our area three or four times.  I was slowly learning to get away from cowboy chords, but it was  a very slow process. 

Then I moved.  I became the worship-leaderish-person-by-default for my singles group at church because I played the guitar.  So I was playing once a week at a minimum for that.  Then I got a job that, for all intents and purposes, kept me from playing for probably 5 or 6 years.

Moved again, and started going to a local BBQ restaurant.  it was at this restaurant that I first heard some music that just reached out and grabbed me.  The buddies that I used to go with would sometimes laugh at me because I didn't really care about the BBQ (it was good - don't get me wrong), the whole time we were there I was keyed in on the music being played coming out the speakers above our heads.  And then, when we left, we would head to the Borders not too far up the street, and I would search the cd section trying to find what I could remember hearing while we ate.

The blues had reached down and grabbed me.  BB King, Stevie Ray, Robert Cray, Albert Collins, Howlin' Wolf...  What was this music and why had I never heard it before??  So I decided I needed to learn this music.

Over the next few years, I half-heartedly tried to learn on my own.  This wasn't pre-internet days, but it was back when video was just beginning to get a useful foothold and social media was limited to your personal blog and maybe a forum or two.  No one had heard of Tom from MySpace yet, and Facebook was still several years away.  You could order stuff online, but it was still a hardcopy that was sent to you in the mail...digital content wasn't nearly what it is today. 

So I picked up the occasional lesson book from the local Guitar Center or Amazon and tried to learn from them.  For the most part, unsuccessfully.  I managed to learn the pentatonic scales, but couldn't figure out what to do with them.  Sometimes I can take a concept and run with it.  For some reason, this time, I'd be given the concept, but then couldn't translate it into something useful. 

Fast forward a few years, and let youtube gain its foothold into all things instructional, and at the very end of 2009 while I was between having been laid off and the start date at my new job, I discovered Griff Hamlin and his 4 note solo video.  It looked like a simple way to take some of what I had managed to teach myself and turn it from something scale-y into something musical.  So I signed up for his emails.  After receiving a few of them and actually being able to put what he was talking about into practice, I ordered his course, Blues Guitar Unleashed.

Back then, he only had 2 courses.  A beginner course, and BGU.  Since I had already been playing for a long time, I started with BGU, and it has set me on the blues path I've been traveling for several years now.  At this point, I consider Griff to be my teacher even though he and I have only ever actually spoken on a couple of occasions.  He now has a LOT more than just the 2 courses, and each one that I have picked up, I have learned a ton from.  His teaching style is simple and understandable.  If you purchase his courses, he invites you to join a forum that he works hard to be sure is a welcoming place full of friendly guys and gals where you can get answers to your questions (not like a LOT of internet guitar forums where, if you ask a question, everyone that knows the answer makes you feel stupid for asking since everyone else already knows the answer).  He is also active on his forum and interacts with a lot of the discussions that are there.

Because of Griff and his courses, I have progressed beyond cowboy chords and being a pretty one-trick-pony-player to being a confident guitar player that knows I have a whole heck of a lot to learn but knows enough to have a good time in almost any situation.  I'm now like a two-trick-pony-player.  :-)

Griff has since updated his 4 Note Solo and his flagship Blues Guitar Unleashed course, and, like I said, he's gone from just 2 courses to having an entire catalog.  But if you're looking for a good, solid course of instruction, I can't recommend him any more highly.  If you're that struggling player that needs a shot in the arm to get your playing jump started, take a look at his material.  He's probably got something you'd find useful.

​I may do a more in-depth review of his BGU V2 course later on.