Mask Audio Electronics, Collector//Emitter Partner Again for the Cascader

October 31, 2021 · 4 sources

Mask Audio Electronics and Collector//Emitter announced their second collaboration, the Cascader, a fuzz pedal that revisits one of the makers' earliest designs. The pedal lists for $175 and was set to be available to preorder on October 31¹.

The Cascader has its roots in the same period as the earlier Part Garden pedal, and Pro Music News described it as a revisiting of the early stages of that pedal's design². Delicious Audio reported that the makers decided earlier in 2021 to revisit one of the earliest designs and breathe new life into it³.

As a one knob fuzz, the makers describe the Cascader as loud and aggressive, a tight mix of fuzz and distortion. The circuit is inspired by Devi Ever and EHX fuzzes, combining a smooth fuzz with a low gain gated fuzz⁴.

The pedal carries three controls and a second footswitch⁴:

• Loud: overall output volume of the fuzz⁴
• Yuh: changes the amount of compression, selecting between open and gated voices⁴
• Cascade: adds an additional fuzz at the beginning of the signal chain for more saturation and sustain⁴
• Left footswitch: brings in an additional fuzz at the beginning of the chain, overloading the other stages for an extremely saturated signal⁴

Guitar.com reported that the cascade footswitch engages another fuzz at the beginning of the circuit to overload the later stages, giving a more saturated, gainy sound¹.

The Cascader runs on a standard Boss style 9VDC power supply with a 2.1mm center negative plug⁴.