The COT50 simulates a cranked vintage Marshall at the lower gain settings and a nasty fuzz tone at the upper end. The COT50 GOLD adds a new flavor to the classic COT 50, Master Volume and a Vintage Tone Stack. A pedal you can leave on all the time and get a diverse range of tones just by varying your guitar volume knob.
This unit can give you that magical Plexi tone regardless of amp make and model.
Glassy cleans, nice crunch, or a nice overdriven sound - think classic Billy Gibbons, SRV clean with just a bit of hair.
And it is a pefect stacker (see video). Try any overdrive or especially fuzzes with the COT in front. Maybe one of the best non-boost boost pedals ever.
Tone Factor demo video of the COT50 pushing a fuzz:
The Mule is a lean, mean dirt machine. Cranked tweed tones in a tiny package. Sweet overdriven tones with fuzzy edges. Adds grit even at the lowest settings, crank it on up and it screams! The Mule is NOT another Tube Screamer clone. The Mule is based on the same circuit as a certain legendary Red Mammal, with added gain for even more kick!
The sound is very clear, with no muddiness whatsoever. Unlike many other pedals, I don't believe there's any compression involved. It cleans up well when rolling off the volume. The pedal responds very well to playing dynamics, and is perfect for borderline distortion sounds.
Here is a picture of my 'Mule'. It was one of the first branded differently than today.
I was always on the hunt for a modulation pedal (especially a vibe), that would take my fuzzes well. A thread on the ToneFactor forum brought me to the Luna.
After buying, testing and lots of conversations, this was my final verdict on the Luna (long read ahead).
I have to divide my impressions on the Luna in two categories: 1. clean without fuzz 2. with fuzz
My primary (more to that later) test setup is: Tele > MJM > Timmy > Luna > Tweed RI and Tele > Luna > MJM > Timmy > Tweed RI
clean:
The Luna is simply gorgeous. The depth knob (I call him voice knob in the meantime) lets you dial in so much different shades of vibe and chorus it puts any other modulation pedal I have ever owned to shame. Between minimum settings and 12 o'clock you get a beautiful and very lush sounding chorus/vibe Between 12 and 3 o'clock there are all shades of deep throbbing vibes one can imagine. Between 3 o'clock and max it starts to get crazy somewhat as if a tremolo, vibe and vibrato are combined.
All these settings sound organic, rich, simply fantastic
fuzz:
I have mentioned it before, first impression was, lets say mixed. Then I discovered the broken tubes in my amp and it was better, but not satisfactory ... The high frequency content was too much and it sounded harsh, especially in the throbbing cycle of the Luna when the high frequency end was reached. This was the moment Robert and I started to PM. I have to say that Robert is one of the most helpful and dedicated persons I have ever communicated with
Suggestions were: Isolating the fuzz and the luna Bringing the volume of the fuzz down and compensate with the luna. Bringing in the Timmy in front of the Luna to reduce high frequency. Change the sequence of pedals (i.e. Luna > MJM).
My problems still persisted. To me it sounded as if the Luna was masking my tone completely. I even lost my pick attack on higher fuzz settings. It became tolerable, when I brought the volume of the guitar almost complete down (as you know the MJM reacts very well)
So I decided to give the Luna a test at live volumes (maybe I am deaf right now, or too picky or whatever)
My setup for band practice:
Tele > MJM > Timmy > Luna > Tweed RI and Twin RI
First we played as classic power trio (drums, bass, gtr) with individual amps no PA. At the clean settings everybody that listened, was totally impressed and intrigued by the Luna. Playing really loud also helped the fuzz sounds with the Luna but the magic was gone.
Then we switched over to a four man formation (drums, bass, gtr, gtr/voc) playing through PA, with a friend of mine doing the part as sound engineer.
The sound was ok so far, but the moment I engaged the Luna I completely disappeared from the mix.
The sound engineer finally found out what was happening (to be honest, I had been thinking the same, but was not sure)
The Luna has a 100% wet output, that only can recognized, if you play with fuzz or in a band context. This is the reason why I lost my pick attack.
Next thing we did was, I incorporated the Luna in my rack system (complicated thing with a signal splitter and a rack mixer). The Luna then was set to 50% wet in my rack mix.
Guess what, tonal heaven. I haver never heard a better modulation effect, whether I played clean or with all out fuzz.
Problem is, I want the Luna for my analog board. So I asked Robert if he can build a mix control in the Luna. He told me he will look into the possibilities, but it could take some time. He also told me about your (gururyan) Luna, that has two outputs. This is what Robert wrote: "I would prefer a mix knob on the Luna, but the idea of using jack number 2 connected directly to the fuzz and bypassing the vibe, while output jack 1 sends the vibe signal to the amp, provides for an interesting discussion on the forum."
In the meantime, while I wrote this, a new PM has reached me.
"I would be happy to offer you the a new Luna with Mix in exchange for your Luna. Please use the Luna you have now as much as you like and don't worry about conserving it in new condition."
This is what I call support This is one of the best messages (as musician) I have ever gotten I hereby promise that I will sing the praise for the Luna and Robert for years to come
Posts
