Malekko Plus Ultra 213

This is an old school Fuzz pedal if you cant tell by the 70s car on the case. Malekko Heavy Industry is a pedal company out of Portland Oregon in the USA. They special in old school boutique pedals with cool names. This pedal is the Plus Ultra 213 and it has tons of fuzz tone. It has a couple cool features that make it more versatile as a fuzz pedal if that is even possible. The controls are pretty normal for a fuzz for the most part. Across the top you get Frequency, Sustain, Tone and Volume. You get two switches on the pedal. One turns the pedal on and the other is a all pass filter that is tied in to the frequency knob.

UTILIZATION

The pedal itself is kind of a pastel pink color. The writing on it is purple which kind of makes it hard to read. There is no way you would be able to read the pedal in a dark room. The knobs are clearly marked so you can see those. The LED's on the pedal are red and one tells you when the pedal is activated and the other tells you when the Filter is on. There is an extra jack up top for an expression pedal. You can tie an expression pedal into the filter sweep and it takes place of the frequency knob and you can rock out wah style. I preferred to just set the frequency where I liked it. The filter sweep that way gave a huge lead boost.

SOUND QUALITY

This pedal is really good if you are into doom more stoner music. It has that classic gain structure with just enough of that sour top end crunch. You can get a wide range of fuzz tones as well. You can get a really nasty fuzz tone if you turn the sustain all the way up. If you turn the frequency knob all the way down and hit the filter its like having a fuzzed up bass guitar hit the sound. With the frequency knob turned up its like you have a cocked wah in front of the fuzz. The frequency shift can give you a nice lead boost. Turn up the tone knob a bit and you get a dryer desert rock fuzz tone. Turn down the fuzz knob and you get more of a blanket over the amp type of sound.

OVERALL OPINION

A pedal like this could replace a couple pedals in someones pedal board. It can cover a wide range of fuzz sounds from really thick and solid to gritty and nasty. With the frequency shift function you can get an extra boost on the sound that puts this fuzz over the top. The ability to use an expression pedal with this unit makes it a kind of pseudo wah as well. A pedal like this isnt cheap but for the features and the built quality it is not bad at around 200 USD.