MojoHand Mule Overdrive

[tugboat]

Been on a bit of a gear acquisution kick lately now that I'm back into playing but the last piece has been purchased. Wanted an OD pedal so I can use overdrive on my amp at apartment friendly volumes so I bought a MojoHand Mule on an old recommendation from Kap'n on a Red Llama clone. It arrived Saturday and have had a chance to play around with it. Funny thing is when I opened it up to put in the battery i saw inside it and thought, that's it? Looks like you could build one of these things easily. There's just not much to it.

It does sound tweedy when the kick stays under halfway. Crank up the kick and it sounds like a fuzz pedal. Roll down your guitar's volume with the pedal on and it cleans up just like a good tube amp.

Have only played with it a couple hours so far, and due to volume limitations can't completely put it through the paces, but It's a cool pedal. With my Korina SE and the kick about 1/3 of the way up it's instant Black Keys tone.

[Kap'n]

Yep, they're real easy to build. I believe the Mule is actually the Tube Sound Fuzz circuit, rather than the WHRL modification of the circuit.

What I like about these is that they're really sensitive to picking attack and volume level. I've got two Red Llamas from General Guitar Gadgets in one box - the Pushmi-Pullyu. Two different settings and "Neil Young" if you have them both on.

[Don]

I'm gonna have to take Kap'n's advice and buy the GGG kit! I think I'd like this pedal a lot.

[Kap'n]

They're on sale for the next week or so.

If I was to build another, I'd put in a toggle to change the value of R4. In the Llama it's 1K, in the TSF it's 100 ohms. The 1K gives a bit more sag/squash to the circuit, which is probably the biggest difference between the two. I modded one of the Llamas in the Pushmi-Pullyu to have the 100 ohm resistor.

[Kap'n]

Supposedly the Mules with the bar code graphic are made by Robbie Wallace, the guy who made the Dirty Dan TSF pedal, as well as the Bad Bob Boost.

[Rickenjangle]

Kap'n, are there commercially available double-enclosures to build the Pm-Pu kits?

I'd love to have something like that all in one box...

[Kap'n]

I just asked the GGG guy to take their large box and drill it for four knobs, two switches, two LED's and two jacks. I don't think he charged extra. If he did, it was insignificant. They've got some templates on the website.

I etched my box using some iron-on resist and PC board etchant. It didn't work so good. The surface wasn't perfectly flat, so the resist didn't stay on like it I wanted it to. Now it looks "rustic."

[Kap'n]

Oh, the other thing I did was to socket mount the IC's. Not like there are really any other IC's you can use in there, but I could be a little sloppier with my soldering skills.

[Kap'n]

Kap'n, are there commercially available double-enclosures to build the Pm-Pu kits?

I'd love to have something like that all in one box...

I went back and looked over my correspondence.

I ordered two kits without a box (four actually, I made one for a friend too), and then ordered a 1590BB three-knob/two switch box, but had JD drill out for four knobs. Just shoot him an email and he'll work it out for you.

All told for the four kits/two boxes including shipping it was $157.80, or less than $80 a Pushmi-Pullyu. Not a bad deal, IMHO.

[Don]

I'm gonna have to take Kap'n's advice and buy the GGG kit! I think I'd like this pedal a lot.

Done!

Nice pedal! I like it a lot. It doesn't offer a ton of gain (that's good), sounds kinda like a cranked amp and cleans up nice with the guitar's volume or picking technique.

I might try it on my board.

[tugboat]

My Mule OD sounds a LOT like a cranked Tweed through my 1X10 5F1. Crank the kick and it sounds like a fuzz pedal. It gets a little fizzy at mild OD levels and mild volumes but other than that I'm a satisfied customer.