Mythos dials MN3207 for modulation as it launches The Fates – a BBD tribute to legendary Japanese chorus pedals of yore
The Fates is Mythos Pedals' debut modulation unit, and it is truly for the analogue connoisseur, with the all-important toggle switch for selecting Chorus and Vibrato modes
Mythos Pedals has made its modulation debut with the launch of The Fates, a bucket bridage analogue chorus pedal inspired by vintage Japanese pedalboard candy.
The star of the show here – though it’s a close run thing with the clean two-knob design and super-tough enclosure – is the MN3207 BBD chip, which is sure to warm the hard of even the coldest of analogue circuit nerds.
But just let that do its thing, where it needs to be, while the rest of the pedal presents itself to players as a super-straightforward way of accessing some heady, swirly, three-dimensional chorusing.
All you have are two large black chickenhead knobs for Rate and Depth. Rate controls the speed of the LFO. The Depth controls, well, the depth, and just how wide and pronounced you want that modulation.
With the toggle switch in Chorus mode, it behaves like a chorus. In Vibrato, it takes out the clean signal, but Mythos has tweaked this vibrato setting so that you won’t get to extreme warble on the Depth control. Indeed, Mythos describes the range of sounds as running “the gamut of swirly shimmer to rotary speaker like vibes”.
In other words, it’s a chorus/vibrato but like all good modulation units it can cover a lot of ground without complicating things. This is part of the charm of these old-school style units. What you lose in exacting control over every single detail of your electric guitar tone, you gain in convenience.
“This Analog Chorus is not for those who want presets, infinite controls, and other modern feature sets,” says Mythos. “The Fates is for the player who wants to plug in and enjoy the simplicity of iconic Chorus tones with ease.”
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Mythos also takes you under the hood for a little more information about how its circuit works. The Fates has a JFET buffered bypass input stage that not only makes the pedal run quieter but pushes the signal for a “sweet output bump and EQ voicing” that will be suited to super-clean or overdriven guitar sounds.
The LED is worth keeping an eye on, too. When the pedal is activated, it will pulse in time with how you’ve set the Rate knob – so if it’s going to go ray-gun wobble on you with the Rate knob dimed, you’ll see it before you hear it.
And that is it. Stick it on your ‘board, feed it 9V DC from a pedalboard power supply, and it’ll draw 19mA. The Fates will cost you £184 / $229, and it is available now. Just head over to Mythos Pedals.
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Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
“We are honoured that our company’s relationship with the legendary guitar player continues to this day”: Dunlop salutes wah pedal pioneer Eric Clapton with a gold-plated signature Cry Baby
“Honestly I’d never even heard of Klons prior to a year-and-a-half ago”: KEN Mode’s Jesse Matthewson on the greatest reverb/delay ever made and the noise-rock essentials on his fly-in pedalboard