Two New Fuzz Pedals from MI Audio

May 04, 2005

G.I. Fuzz

Neo Fuzz

MI Audio has just released 2 new Fuzz pedals, the "G.I. Fuzz" and the "Neo Fuzz". Both designs are original designs, and are not clones of older designs according to the company.

The 2 pedals were designed by first analysing the various components which go into the production of a fuzz tone. These parameters were identified as: pickup loading (input impedance), gain, bias and symmetry, and tone shaping and control

In order to control these parameters, both the G.I. Fuzz and the Neo Fuzz were equipped with the following controls:

Load - an input impedance control for loading your pickups, for anything from a traditional 'muffled' fuzz tone to a more articulate modern sound. It is also useful for getting better performance out of different pickups, such as high impedance humbuckers.
Bias - for setting the operating point of the transistors, from a fat symmetrical fuzz to an asymmetrical 'buzz', and even gated synth-like tones. The bias setting does not impact the gain.
Body - a full range midrange control.
Tone - more than a simple high cut filter. It controls both lows and highs simultaneously, so that the combination of the tone and body controls is like a 3 band EQ.
Fuzz - wider range, from pristine clean, through to a bluesy bite, to traditional fuzz, and beyond. At maximum gain, the pedals have about 20db more gain than a typical fuzz according to MI Audio.
Volume - The design has plenty of output volume, for overdriving tube amps, or for an extra solo boost

Both pedals also include an internal gain trimmer for fine-tuning the fuzz gain, as well as a 3 position brightness switch for matching modern bright amps, or for balancing with darker sounding overdrive pedals.

The G.I. Fuzz is built around a trio of high gain NPN silicon transistors, resulting in a tight, modern, aggressive fuzz tone.

The Neo Fuzz uses a duo of NOS AC128 germanium transistors, and one silicon PNP transistor (not used in fuzz production). The tone of Neo Fuzz is very smooth, and great for vintage fuzz tones. The Neo Fuzz also features a unique high intensity pink LED.

Both pedals also feature:

Professionally powder-coated and silk-screened enclosure ("MXR" size)
Heavy Duty 3PDT true bypass footswitch
DC power plug, as well as internal battery operation.
Operating voltage range up to 25V DC.

Each pedal is hand-made in Sydney, Australia, and comes with a 5 year warranty.

The retail price of the G.I. Fuzz is US$139.95, and the Neo Fuzz is US$159.95.

For more information, visit their web site at http://www.miaudio.com/.

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