I thought I’d see how the new Mastotron gets along with my Moog synth. The adjustable impedance opens up a world of fuzz to devices that don’t normally get along with fuzz pedals.
What you’ll hear is the sound of the synth, then you’ll hear the pedal kick on. I tweak the controls of the pedal, then add some delay, and then play with a filter. There are two basic sounds that I explore: a midrangey part and a bassy part. The playing is pretty boring, but I think the sounds are pretty cool.
It is a fuzz pedal. The controls are volume, tone (controls the treble), pulse width (varies the waveform from square to a narrow pulse), fuzz, and a variable impedance control (this lets it work with everything from guitars to low impedance devices). It also has a three-way switch that controls the sub-harmonics for some serious low end.
The sequencing is from the Little Phatty’s arpeggiator.
I got it off of eBay. Rockessories was the seller. I see there a few other sellers that have them in stock. These are from the first shipment and they are supposed to be available at more retailers in April.
I like it on guitar, too, but I think it sounds amazing on the Little Phatty. Some of the sounds are really chewy.
I’ve run my Voyager and LP through the Fuzz Factory and the Wooly Mammoth. I like the Mammoth better than the Factory but this new pedal has a real nice sound and I will definitely be picking one up as well. I like the subtlety that this pedal offers over the others - although the Mammoth can be tamed. This will be nice - now I can keep the Mammoth on my bass and use the Mastotron on my synth.
I just spent a bit of time A/Bing the Fuzz Factory and the Mastotron. The Mastotron can have a lot more low end and also has more treble if you want that. It doesn’t have quite the same level of gain on tap, but I think the tone control and the Pulse Width control more than make up for that.
I do notice that the Fuzz Factory doesn’t handle the attack of the notes the same as the Mastotron, perhaps due to the input impedance differences between the pedals.
I would love to have a Fuzz Factory with a tone control, the subs switch, and the impedance control.
Picked up a Mastotron today and played it for a few minutes with the LP - sounds great! Those extra controls (and the subs) sound great. The subs switch is hard as hell to get to though! Haven’t played it on the Voyager yet but will soon enough. Great addition to my fuzz arsenal!
Ill have to check this pedal out, I haven’t been to impressed with with fuzzes on synths. My super fuzz sounds good in certain settings but not many. Has anybody tried the zvex machine with any synths. Its supposed to interact differently than other fuzzes, something about when the strings are vibrating it enhances the something-a-rather instead of the other thing … I know the technical lingo might be over most of your heads
I’ve found position 2 of the sub switch to be the best in most cases for me. My only guess is that it was intended to be a set it and forget it type switch.
I haven’t tried The Machine but the Mastotron Relax/Push helps with synths. I would also agree that some sounds from synths just don’t work with fuzz but the sounds that do work can sound great!
Mastotron is a keeper - for $149 you can’t beat it!
This sounds absolutely killer—will definitely be picking up one of these pedals. Zvex makes great stuff; my Lo-Fi Loop Junky is my favorite pedal of all time.
