CMC Proto Type MKII

The CMC Proto Type MKII is an analog bass distortion and overdrive pedal from CMC, designed to work with most basses and to cover everything from clean to medium-heavy distortion¹. It sits in the distortion family, with the maker listing its effect type as distortion and filter, and it is a natural companion to other bass pedals¹.

How the circuit works

The pedal is based on a CMOS inverter chip, the kind of chip found in the Way Huge Red Llama. The designer says of this approach: "I've been building pedals based on this chip and love the touch sensitivity and the slightly fuzzy character of the drive"¹. That puts the Proto Type MKII in the same broad territory as CMOS-based overdrive designs rather than fuzz or boost pedals, though the maker describes the drive character as slightly fuzzy.

The signal path splits at the input into two paths: one is distorted, and the other is a fully-transparent clean path. The two are mixed toward the end of the circuit, right before the TREBLE control¹.

Why there is no BLEND knob

Many bass distortion pedals give the player a BLEND pot to set the clean-to-dirt mix. The Proto Type MKII instead mixes the two paths at a fixed percentage. The designer explains the choice: "I've decided to not include a BLEND pot, as I often find there is only a small sweet spot where I like the sound"¹. In practice, the fixed blend adds weight to the driven tone while the overdrive circuit remains what you mostly hear¹.

Controls

The maker's description of the circuit covers the split, the mix and the TREBLE control; no other controls are named on the product page¹.

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