Wampler Pedals has unveiled the Mofetta, an overdrive/distortion pedal inspired by the out-of-production Ibanez MT10 Mostortion, loaded with MOSFETS and “supercharged” to offer players a wider range of amp-like gain.
If the MT10 Mostortion is not high on your list of vintage guitar effects pedals that might be because it was only around for a relatively short period in the ‘90s. It was not a particularly high-end pedal, either.
And, as is often the way with stompboxes, its usefulness to guitar players only really became apparent after the fact. Once it was discontinued it became sought-after, and some of the prices people are paying for this thing online… Good lord, upwards of 400 bucks. What is it about Ibanez and little green stompboxes?
Over the years, other pedal builders have made versions, such as the Danelectro Roebuck, released in 2020. Wampler’s Mofetta is not a straight-up clone. Some elements are the same. Brian Wampler has given this the 3-band EQ, just like the original, but he has taken the design and ran with it.
“Think of the Mofetta as a supercharged Mostortion, reborn and amplified,” he says. “I made sure that it delivered the classic, amp-like overdrive, massive headroom, and versatile 3-band EQ that made the original so famous. But I also wanted more and added a Texture switch that introduces actual MOSFETs into the pedal’s overdrive section for a bolder, more articulate tone.”
Just as it deals in amp-like gain and response, the Mofetta has an amp-like control setup. There are Level and Gain controls, adjusting output volume and the level of gain in the circuit respectively.
The Bass, Middle and Treble controls, meanwhile, can wholly change the character of the drive, allowing players to dial in a full-range drive, a transparent drive, or jack up the mids and treble for a focused boost to push your guitar amp. Also, it’s been designed to stack well with other drives.
Wampler says there are some misconceptions about the original Mostortion units. They didn’t use the MOSFETS for the overdrive; that was the job of the clipping diodes.
“This left me thinking, ‘What if I built one that could actually use MOSFETs for the clipping, using multiple gain staging like a tube amp?’ That’s what the Mofetta’s Texture feature is all about,” says Wampler. “It takes the pedal from smooth overdrive to fiery distortion with the flick of the Texture switch.”
The Mofetta is not a high-gain drive pedal but Wampler says his approach gives it a wider range of gain. Its cascaded MOSFET gain stages make the drive harder, louder, and tighter.
Priced £/$199, the Mofetta is available now. See Wampler Pedals for more details.
