Mas Effects promises extreme high-gain with “a touch of class” from its new Sona Fuzz

Mas Effects has launched a new high-gain fuzz pedal that’s designed for extreme fuzz sounds with a sophisticated twist.

Well, Mas, describes the fuzz sounds offered as having “a touch of class”, which in effect means you can take the paint off the wall with the Sona Fuzz but when you roll your electric guitar’s volume knob back it cleans up nicely. 

The Sona Fuzz delivers presents this versatile but feral fuzz in a three-knob enclosure that has controls for Fuzz, Volume and Tone, plus a Body toggle switch for fattening or thinning the signal going into the pedal – which sounds ideal when switching between guitars fitted with humbucking or single-coil electric guitar pickups.

Mas promises plenty of range on that Tone control and has fitted the pedal with a soft-touch footswitch.

In what is music to our ears, Mas Effects, or really Illinois’ Mark A Stratman, for he is the builder behind the designs, promises “insane amounts of gain” but understands that one player’s insane is another’s tame and vice versa. Therefore, under the hood you’ll find a trimpot to set the fuzz ceiling, allowing you to dial in a less fire-breathing maximum fuzz level.

There is also a bias trimpot should you want some gated splutter. The pedal evolved out of a much-shared DIY fuzz circuit, with Stratman crediting Doug Hammond, Gus Smalley and Aron Nelson as primary contributors for its design. 

Other things to note: jacks are top-mounted so it should sit nicely on your pedalboard; Sona takes a 9V DC power supply drawing 19mA and has relay switched true bypass.

Oh, and you’ve got a choice of three finishes, too. Priced $149, the Sona Fuzz is available now. Head over to Mas Effects for more details.