REVIEW CONTINUED

yeilds some surprisingly polite
results. As well as nearly studio-
friendly performance as far as
background noise is concerned, the effect itself is quite mild when compared with most fuzz pedals. Even with the fuzz control turned to it's maximum, the effect is totally cleaned up by knocking back the guitar's volume a few notches or by playing lightly. This does mean that it's very sensitive to your playing dymnamics, even if the effect is mostly either on or off. The texture of the distortion is quite hard too, and very reminiscent of '60s stuff like you hear in 'Satisfaction' by the Rolling Stones. Consequently in this manner you'd probably assign it to the odd riff or lead break where you required a certain character.
Put the Mista' in front of an already cooking amp however, and it's a very different story. It's instant Santana, with endless sustain, added oomph and a side helping of fatness. Each note becomes a blunt instrument that you can't see coming, with a run flowing effortlessly between the intervals to produce a silky burble that's thick and even.
We think this kind of setting is best for solos- you might find it far too fat and forthright to sit as a rhythm tone. Nonetheless, it won't fail to impress.

The Mutha' Fuzz has a more
sophisticated air about its
appearance -funny what a slick
paint job and chrome-plated knobs
can do, isn't it? After all, the chassis is
identical in every other respect; right down to the retaining clip that holds the battery to the inside of the base. Speaking of which, it may be accidental, but the screws that hold the baseplate are extremely tightly fitted into the rubber feet, so it's possible to use them to remove the base by hand. That's very handy if you want to use batteries, but there is also the option of using a 9V adaptor on both of these Cat's-Eye pedals.
The Mutha's slicker appearance may well have been chosen to represent its smoother tonal qualities. The Cat's-Eye folk describe it as a 'more versatile, more musical distortion pedal'. This has been achieved by building the more involved circuit around an RC4558 wideband opamp and germanium diodes, which has the potential to give plenty of gain while keeping the noise levels to a minimum. The IC-based nature of the circuit also allows for what Cat's-Eye are calling 'Custom tuned EQ'.

A different approach gives the Mutha' Fuzz
the ability to provide the kind of gain that could
be used as a core sound in its own right. It does

lean toward a treble-heavy kind of tone,
but by warming this up from your amp
you can achieve the kind of results that
could easily pass as overdrive from a
good quality hybrid amp, for instance.
It's also great to find that the drive is very responsive to changes on the guitar's controls. It's possible to set the effect control to full for a sustain- rich lead tone, and ease back on the volume for a sprightly crunch for rhythm, or even warm-up the top end with the guitar's tone control. Not many pedals are that responsive.
For heavier applications you will have to rely on your amp to fatten-up the bottom end for metal tones; there's nothing in the way of EQ adjustment here of course. Consequently, the Mutha' sounds better through larger amps if that's your thing, but Cat's-Eye do have another pedal for beefing up the output of small combos on the way- we'll keep you informed, but check out the Cat's-Eye website for updates and ordering details (currently only direct from the USA) for these pedals. There's some sound samples coming soon too.

There's little doubting the build quality or
authentic fuzz sounds from these two pedals,
and if fuzz is your thing, you won't be
disappointed here. GB