Mozztronics | MS-1 Mehrschall

There are a few iconic valve guitar amps that we at Mozztronics adore. Apart from the  AC amp used by the Beatles & Brian May, the American ’59 bass amp loved by guitarists, the amp favoured by Pete Townshend, the other is the iconic 800 series british amp. We have used the 800 version and made our emulation into a solid state footswitchable pedal, which we have named the “Mehrschall” in honour of its parentage. Mehrschall is german for “more sound” which we think is very appropriate. This pedal is not a dirt pedal as such, it’s our emulation of this classic amp.

To do full justice to the original amp, and to get the maximum in tone versatility we included the full 3 knob tone stack in this pedal. A single tone control, or just a bass & treble control wasn’t going to cut it with this pedal. We did tweak the tone stack slightly, as the bass control in these amps is notorious for having little effect, as its frequency is set very low.

GAIN controls the amount of gain from the first stage, BASS, MID and TREBLE are the classic 3 knob tone stack as found in the original amp . VOLUME adjusts the overall volume out of the pedal.

As with the amplifier this pedal replicates, classic 60’s and 70’s rock sounds live here,  turn up the gain for added rawkus-ness.

Leo Sayer recently started using the Mehrschall MS1 and the Harp pre HP1 pedals for his harmonica, when he wants a chicago style harp sound. Leo runs his mic into the MS1 Mehrschall, then the HP1 harp pre, then straight to the PA as the HP1 has a built in DI.
Says Leo “its my favourite pedal (the HP1 harp pre) – just the right amount of breakup and a delicious tone. I’m using a bulletini harp mic which has a Shure crystal element in it…  and i love the Mehrschall pedal too”

Many people have asked me, Moz, why did you choose these five amps to make pedal versions of. Each of these amps is (in my view) a classic amp. Each of these amps has a totally different tone stack design. Each of these amps, while having a push pull power stage uses different phase inverters and power tubes. The ’72 Orange has a bandaxall tone stack, cathodyne phase inverter & EL34 tubes, the Bassman has a fender tone stack, long tail pair phase inverter & 6L6 tubes, the Hiwatt has a hiwatt tone stack, long tail pair phase inverter & EL34 tubes, and the AC30 has a Vox tone stack, long tail pair phase inverter & EL84 tubes and the JCM-800 has a Marshall tone stack, long tail pair phase inverter & EL34 tubes. Each tone stack, phase inverter and tube type will give a different sound, breakup differently and respond to playing style differently.
In my opinion, all other amps can be classified as variants of these five classic amp designs, so if you want a bogner, soldano or boogie type sound (for example), grab a tonemeister or a mehrschall  pedal and turn the gain up.
I know i said my EX1 expandrive does the JCM800 type of sound very well already, but i reserve the right to change my mind, and the MS-1 Mehrschall was born. It sounds different to the EX1 expandrive, and gets the cranked JCM sound, so i have now added this to the existing set of four amp simulator pedals, which is now five.
TM1 Tonemeister, DL30 Driveline, HW1 wHoWatt, OR1 Orange-e and MS-1 Mehrschall.

Mozztronics uses the industry standard Boss style 2.1mm center negative 9V DC socket for the power supply connection.