MK1

The MK1 tonebender. My ride or die fuzz unit.

Every single MK1 has its own character- quite literally no two units sound the same. I have built quite a number of these at this point, and no two have ever come out identical. It is the beauty of this circuit. Personally, I love playing each one until it is time for it to find a home, then I build another and become acquainted with its unique personality, and the cycle continues.

each unit gets transistors auditioned in circuit until the best sound is achieved.

My words will not properly emphasize my enthusiasm toward this sound. Every fuzz aficionado needs at least one ride or die MK1 in their life. They fetch hefty prices for a properly made one- not any mortal soul can cobble up a good MK1.

Ever since discovering this fuzz, I have never not had one in consistent use. It is my perfect feeling and sounding fuzz.

Why my recipe is special

first of all, I tune mine so that the controls have as wide of a range of sounds as possible. With the bias, there are 4 main zones you can dial in- broken, ripping, crackling fuzz, stable, able to clean up, and piercing clear distortion, wonderful smooth singing fuzz, or compressed and blooming heaven.

the attack control on these pedals is naturally simultaneously a bias and gain control. I tune mine to have a wide range of lower gain, able to clean up or be a nice fuzz textured overdrive, all the way to fat sustain, to overbiased and squishy.

with my 3 mode switch, you get 3 unique modes

zonk- bright, tons of bite, not much low end. lower gain and best suited for rangemaster like sounds, and cleaner, glassy sounds. Can get into a crazy biting overdrive in this mode, all the way to fuzzy treble booster like sounds.

mk1- fuller, more sustain, warmer, and more low end. feels the most neutral between the 3 modes, and is the most useable across many scenarios. I use this most of the time.

twilight- the most low end, massive fuzz. basically overloads the transistors and causes them to bloom- the feeling of the sound ducking, diving, then collapsing into itself and releasing a tidal wave of ripping fuzz. the most dynamically intersting mode to play that is incredibly interactive with pick attack.

no low end loss - this circuit naturally has a pretty big low end cut at about 180hz and below, I remedy this so there is NO low end loss... because the more massive the better.

loud af- I tune mine to excel at pushing an already dirty amp- warning, into a very clean amp, this pedal has EXTREME volume jump and youll want to put the volume around 9 o clock.

BUT WAIT- IT IS NOT A NORMAL FUZZ

It is a fuzz- but the quality of it is extremely biting, and ripping- it does not get muddy like many other fuzzes. It has the most viscous crackle and decay that sounds like decades of rock n roll trapped in a box- let out at the stomp of a switch.

It sort of lives in that middle ground of distortion/fuzz. which means, it has the textural complexities and sustain characteristics of a fuzz pedal, but has the note clarity and non mushy, tighter note grouping characteristic of a distortion.

Be aware that this is a temperature sensitive full germanium fuzz- it will sound different day to day and with varying temperatures.