After a long wait we received the new Mod Tone mini-mod effects pedals. These pedals feature true bypass and low prices, all priced at under $50. All of the mini-mods are constructed very well. We found that the jacks lived up to the marketing being very solid and the metal cases are super tough. The true bypass switches seem to be high quality too. One thing we noticed with all these pedals is how quiet they are. Even the distortion and overdrive pedals, which usually have a lot of extra noise, are quieter than normal, even using single coil pick ups.
The big impact of these pedals is their small footprint. These pedals are about 2/3rds the size of the standard “bud box” size pedal with a tapered end forming a wedge shaped pedals that allows for fitting in tightly packed pedal boards. After playing for a few minutes, this is what we found out:
Mod Tone Mini-Mod Delay: Nice slap back echo sound and very adjustable. Warm echo sounds out of this digital delay. The only drawback is that the delay time is very short, maybe 500ms at the top end. This limits is use in certain situations but, tough construction, true bypass, and $49.95 price, you can find some good uses for it.
Mod Tone Mini-Mod Chorus: Some tone thickening but generally found this pedal lacking in any type of rich chorus sounds, just some slight modulation. You won’t be able to do any Johnny Marr imitations with this pedal and we recommend that unless you need just a little chorus and hard up for space that you pony up a little more mullah for a MXR Micro Chorus or an Electro Harmonix Nano Clone.
Mod Tone Mini-Mod Flanger: This was by far our favorite of the Mini-Mods. Excellent flange tones from Van Halen thickening to 60’s psychedelic. You cannot find a better flange tone, with true bypass, in this price range.
Mod Tone Mini-Mod Overdrive: The standard overdrive model painted yellow instead of green. No surprises – just good basic overdrive with the traditional mid-range hump expected from most overdrives. The tone was warm and the tough construction and true bypass puts it a notch up for most overdrives in this price range.
Mod Tone Mini-Mod Distortion: We found the clipping to be quite harsh on the ears using P-90s. It just sounded very artificial with no warmth. To be fair, I am not a big hard distortion fan and have found few distortion sounds that pleases in pedals that were priced below $150. Old ears perhaps!
Mod Tone Mini-Mod Fuzz: Excellent old school fuzz. Everything from Satisfaction to Kinks buzzing. This was our second favorite pedal of the bunch. Cool thing about it is that there are few fuzzes with this build quality, footprint and price out there. Go ahead and put one in the gig bag just in case – perhaps when you are playing that club that requires the China Strat instead of an American standard.
There are some definite tone keepers here – especially for the small footprint and price with these pedals. They are tough and you should feel confident in gigging situations. If nothing else, these pedals are perfect for that smaller pedal board as well as situations that you do not want to expose your boutique pedals to the wilds of the gigging world.
Peace and Joy,
Jack
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