One knob. One job.

You’re looking at a one knob monster of a germanium fuzz. Want to make that 5W clean tube amp YELL? In a way that you like? Want that next overdrive in chain to sustain till you say it’s enough? Wanna spray-paint a warface of the grill cloth of your Vox and play hardcore punk? Well, do yourself a favour and get yourself one of these.

MMM does one thing and one thing only, but it does it really well. When you’re only able to take your gear close to the edge, this thing slam kicks it over that edge, yelling obscenities. But it does so using perfect grammar.

Need more details? Here you go.

“Megawatt Mayhem Maestro” is here among us because of a happy accident, as Bob Ross would have put it. This one time when I was re-stocking on knobs, I bought a hundred of the usual type. Or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when instead of thumbnail-sized knobs, I opened a box full of the “palm-of-your-hand” sized ones. Then again, I’ve always wanted to make a simple, despicable one-knobber. So I did.

Under the hood – to the surprise of not a single soul on this planet – two germanium transistors, in a circuit similar to what you can find in Pocket Rocket, Skyrocket, Freerange. The differences – it’s biased a bit hotter and it carries more bassy oomph. The increased low-end content also changes the way the transistors overdrive. It’s still the same germanium sweetness, but with more grit to it. Like when your cat purrs and shows its claws when it stretches, but it’s a puma. Or like when your grandma tells you to take another cookie, but she’s holding a baseball bat in her hand. Or like when that pizza guy asks if you’d like to get yourself a piece, but the place is giving you really strong italian vibes. Really strong. Know what I’m sayin’?

Now, you could go and try playing edge-of-breakup jazz with this thing, just like you could try to order an artillery strike to get rid of a mosquito in your tent. Would work, but… not really the tool for the job, you know. The trouble is – with MMM, its output volume is always at 100%. That one knob is gain control. So when you set it really low, you’re gonna get some hiss.

The pedal is hand-made top to bottom. The top plate is made out of carbon steel, turned black by the process called “rust bluing”. A fascinating process in its own right. In short: cowboy era technology! The black layer is quite resilient to scratches, but you can treat it with a wipe of a slightly oily rag from time to time. This will restore the depth of the black finish. Avoid cleaning it with rough chemicals, acidic cleaners (vinegar is a no-no) or water baths. You know, baths, electric equipment, bad.
The sides are made out of solid wood – and not just any store-bought lumber, but dumpster rescuees. Instead of allowing them to rot in landfill, I cut them in pieces and made pedal enclosures. My two cents in the “saving the planet” dispute. That means there might be some dings or even holes in your pedal! That doesn’t mean you received a beat-up unit somebody else had abandoned. That’s not a bug, that’s a feature! The sides will quite enjoy some oil or wax on them from time to time, too! Will restore that slight shimmer.

Demo vid coming soon.

or place an order here: