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Some of the cuddliest pieces of equipment at this year’s Frankfurt Musikmesse came in the guise of Hotone Audio’s ranges of micro-sized effect pedals and amplifier heads.

The special eye-catcher with the Skyline-series pedals is the transparent Gibson-style control at their front end.

Two coloured status-LEDs behind the transparent knob light up, whenever the effect is switched on.

Naturally, you cannot fit a nine volt battery inside such a tiny pedal, which is why Hotone Skyline pedals have to get their juice from a power supply (9 V, negative centre – not included).

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The dark blue Hotone Blues (current price in Finland:65 €) is an overdrive pedal specialised in producing juicy Blues tones by using a pair of overdrive circuits wired up in series.

The big knob is for gain adjustment, while the two noctilucent (meaning: they glow in the dark) knobs deal with tone…