CURRENTLY HOT FOOTING it Westwards across the briney and hoofing it into your local music store pausing only long enough to dry their feet, is an extensive range of effects pedals from Vesta Fire. For all those suffering from 19in allergy syndrome or foot and threequarteritis there is sure to be an effect to fit your boot among this lot. There are nine standard analogue effects: Distortion, Overdrive, Compressor, Stereo Chorus, Stereo Flanger, Buffer, Stereo Phaser, Stereo Delay, Parametric EQ, plus a Digital Delay with add-on Low Frequency Oscillator. A mains adapting power supply is also available for those people perplexed at the price of PP3s and not yet blessed by Saint Ni-Cad.

D-1X DIGITAL DELAY: £176

This is one of the, so far rare, floor squatting digital delays available to us. The D-1X has a maximum delay of 1024 milliseconds at a bandwidth of 10kHz, which is about as high as you can hear after the first couple of numbers, so no problems here. Input level is adjusted by referring to a green (O.K.) and a red (Oh No) LED. Things are not overly critical here and a little abuse will not be severely rebuked. The feedback range is set 'sensibly' so as not to build up into an horrendous cacophony at its maximum position.

Delay time is selected in four ranges with fine adjustment made on an adjacent control. On the longest range of 256 - 1024ms a 'hold' feature supplies infinite repeat with no loss of quality. The effect on/off and hold function are operated via a pair of easily trodden on pads each with an associated LED status indicator.

A so-called stereo output socket sits next to the mono one enabling the dry and delayed sounds to be tapped off separately. No provision is made for battery powering of the D-1X, and quite sensibly, too, at a consumption of some 150mA. Vesta Fire's own 5-way power supply can be used for the job, or any reasonably rated 9 volt adaptor you may have lying around.

The sound quality from the D-1X is everything you would expect from a former 19in contender whipped up and piped into a smaller box. It will stand you in good stead on stage or in the studio.

L-1 L.F.O UNIT: £51

This little bolt-on goody will enable the D-1X to perform all your flanging and chorusing tasks. The usual Width and Rate controls are provided together with a Wave switch, which selects either a triangular waveform or a round-bottomed peaky-topped waveform. Subtle but useful changes to the sweep can be affected by a flick of this little knob. Perhaps £51 seems a bit steep for an L.F.O. on its own, but the D-1X and L-1 together create a versatile, high quality effects unit at a price which beats most of its 19in equivalents.

'POWER TUBE' OVERDRIVE: £35

All the rest of these pedals have been given names alongside their standard technical ones. 'Power Tube' seems quite relevant to an overdrive type pedal but we drift into the realms of hippy acid random association later on.

The Power Tube attempts to produce a creamy harmonic overdriven valve amp type sound. It actually achieves this quite well, and will cope with chord work without producing totally unrelated noises of its own. Controls for Level, Drive and Tone are provided.

'RAZOR SHARP' DISTORTION: £35

Don't attempt to play chords through this one without first cementing up any high frequency orifice in your cabinet. Probably used to best advantage for severing the heads of the first three rows during blistering high runs. Level, Distortion and Tone controls are provided on this one.

'NATURAL ENERGY' STEREO CHORUS: £55

It's a brain teaser isn't it, the link between natural energy and stereo chorus? I'm glad to relate, however, that the sound from this pedal is not as vague as the name. The chorus is rich and warm and produced excellent results with bass, guitar and keyboard inputs. Controls for speed and depth are provided along with a second output for phase inverted stereo. Very good value this natural energy business, whatever it is!

'HYPERACTIVE' STEREO FLANGER: £60

Another gem this. What does a hyperactive flanger sound like? Very good actually. Lots of variation available on this one with controls for Speed, Depth and Colour. The Colour control is actually the feedback and can enhance the flanging so dramatically that you can almost see the notches whizzing around. Could this be the hyperactivity creeping in? A Manual control is also provided to vary the delay time when the Depth is set to zero so you can use the pedal as a doubler. Again, a second output is provided for psuedo-stereo.

'BUF & LOOP' BUFFER AND LOOP: £35

Nothing particularly freaky about this chap's name. As it suggests, it comprises a buffer with a send and return loop. The buffer is of the multimillion megohm variety which will keep your guitar signal good and healthy while it sends it off through the loop. The footswitch routes your signal either round the loop or straight through. There is a gain control for the loop so that signal to noise ratios can be optimised and also a master gain for overall level. This is the sort of pedal that many people will overlook but which, once owned, would never be ditched. It can be useful in a variety of ways from switching a number of effects using a single switch to just generally beefing up your signal for a healthier future.

STEREO PHASER: £49, STEREO DELAY: £80, PARAMETRIC EQ: £37, 5-WAY POWER SUPPLY: £39

At the time of writing these tardy four are still treading water in some English port waiting until there are enough towels to go round. I am, however, assured by the distributor that shortly after you read this, there will be copious supplies flowing freely into your favourite stores. All these pedals have quiet FET switching, LED status indicators and come complete with battery.

Until that day arrives when the whole world will suddenly transform itself into 19in wide lumps, Vesta Fire will be offering a pedal for every occasion.

VESTA FIRE effects pedals: £35-£176

CONTACT: M.T.R., (Contact Details).