Magpie Effects Moccus

The Magpie Effects Moccus is a hand-built fuzz pedal from the south of the Netherlands, and the first pedal release by this Dutch boutique builder¹. It belongs to the fuzz family, but it is not a straight copy of anything: Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio describes it as "a Russian Muff evolution, upgraded with a bigger bottom end, non-scooped mids and crisper highs"¹.

What it does

At its core the Moccus is a fuzz built on the Russian Muff circuit, the classic Russian fuzz design known for its heavy, thick character. Where the original design scoops the mids and rolls off the top, the Moccus is upgraded with huge bottom end, non-scooped mids and crisp highs, complimented by a screaming octave-up¹. That added octave-up gives it an extra edge, putting it in territory shared by octave and pitch pedals as well as distortion pedals¹.

Two controls set it apart from the Russian Muff template:

• A "Squeal" knob that makes the pedal do just that, a peculiar addition De Gregorio highlights¹
• The octave-up circuit, which layers a screaming octave above the fuzz¹

The enclosure carries its own visual quirk: the two LEDs on the case, in place of the bull's eye a classic Muff-style pedal would have, are actually VU meters¹.

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