April 1999

MIGHTY MITES

By Lisa Sharken

Japan's Guyatone Company has been building musical instruments and accessories since the late 60's. Their Micro Effects Series includes some of the tiniest boxes available - they're small enough to fit inside the palm of your hand. It's not all about size, however, as hardcore pedal enthusiasts have touted the sound quality of the series for years. And now, five of these mini stompboxes are finally available in the U.S. and Canada: The Fuzz, the Harmonic Distortion, the Micro Chorus, the Micro Digital Delay, and the Wah Rocker.

Each pedal operates on a single 9-volt battery or an optional AC adapter. Changing batteries is quick and easy - just remove the rubber strip around the pedal's bottom edge, separate the top and bottom housings, swap the battery, and get back in action. I like this clever "no tools" scheme.

The input and output jacks are located on the front of each pedal, so several Guyatone pedals can be placed flush against each other to keep your pedalboard as compact as possible. And although the pedals are very small, the controls aren't cramped together. Even stubby fingers can negotiate parameter changes on one knob without bumping against another. The bypass switches are electronically silent.

HD-2 HARMONIC DISTORTION
The HD-2 ($80) offers output-level and distortion controls. This box is ideal for players who seek the grind and girth of an overdriven tube amplifier. The HD-2 uses a three-transistor circuit that is electronically similar to an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, albeit without the tone control. What you get is pretty much full-tilt overdrive, no matter how low you set the pedal's distortion control or the volume on your guitar. The relative lack of adjustment isn't a problem, however, as the HD-2 does what it's supposed to do: Saturate your signal for solos. The HD-2's weak output makes it less suitable for amp overdrive, however.

MD-3 MICRO CHORUS
The MC-3 ($100) is a monaural chorus with depth and rate controls. The chorus sounds nice and thick, but a high-end boost compromised my guitar tone - it was as if I turned the treble knob on my amp from 5 to 10 - and added a lot of hiss to the signal. Additionally, the pedal boosts the output volume, which I found annoying. Other chorus pedals, such as the Boss CE2, do not change the character of the input signal so drastically. The MC-3 was my least favorite of the Micro Effect Series because it really messed with my guitar sound. The added noise, in particular, was a drag.

MD-2 MICRO DIGITAL DELAY
The MD-2 ($130) lets you adjust delay times from 30 ms to 800 ms, and includes a handy switch that splits the options between short delays (30 ms to 200 ms) and long delays (120 ms to 800 ms). You also get effect level and feedback controls. The parameters can effectively dial in all the essential delay textures, from echo washes to slapbacks to long, ambient reflections. Most impressive, however, is the MD-2's sound. The tonality of every repeat is thick and warm - there is no hint of the sterility associated with many digital delays. In addition, the pedal responds rapidly and accurately to performance dynamics - the initial repeat not only snaps right back, it sounds exactly like what you play into it. Some pedals color or "mush up" the sound of the first repeat, and the succeeding repeats often crap out. The MD-2 sounds so good that I'd use it in place of my analog delay pedal with nary a worry.

TZ-2 THE FUZZ
With a circuit electronically similar to the old Univox Superfuzz, the TZ-2 ($90) can produce "Satisfaction"-style fuzz and Kurt Cobain-inspired buzz. Increasing the TZ-2's depth control makes the effect raunchier and dirtier (with more overtones and compression), and the volume control can be used to drive your amp harder for those cool fuzz/overdrive textures. A good choice for classic-fuzz connoisseurs.

WR-2 WAH ROCKER
The WR-2 ($90), a touch-sensitive auto-wah effect, offers threshold and decay controls. The former is used to set the dynamic level at which the wah effect appears. When set at zero, a harder picking attack is necessary to trigger the effect; turning the threshold to maximum triggers the effect at the slightest touch. The decay control affects the speed of the wah; zero is slow, maximum is fast. The effect reacts swiftly and accurately to picking dynamics, and produces a slightly cocked wah timbre that's comparable to the Boss TW-1 T Wah. If you can't get your foot to work a wah-wah into true funkiness, the WR-2 can cover some wicked 79's funk figures for you.

HOT BOXES OR HYPE?
With the exception of the noise produced by the MC-3 Micro Chorus and the anemic output of the HD2 Harmonic Distortion, Guyatone's Micro Series deserves the hype it received before the pedals were available in the States. The pedals sound very good, and, in some cases - most notably with the MD-2 Digital Delay - sound better than more established brands. However, as the sound quality and tonal control of the series is comparable to offerings from Boss and DOD, the main advantages of the Micro Series are the compact size of the pedals and the convenience of the top-mounted jacks.