Manson Guitar Works Manson Supermassive Black Fuzz

The Manson Supermassive Black Fuzz is a fuzz pedal from UK guitar maker Manson Guitar Works, a company with a long history building guitars for Matt Bellamy of Muse. It is the company's first pedal, developed with Bellamy over several years and co-designed with UK builder ThorpyFX, and it is tonally inspired by the fuzz sounds heard specifically on the Muse song "Supermassive Black Hole"¹². Manson promises "vintage traditional fuzz tones as well as otherworldly distortions"³.

What sets it apart from a straight fuzz box is its filter. The core fuzz sound runs into an aggressive filter with variable Q, and a Peak footswitch engages a boosted allpass/static phase filter². Between the EQ toggle and the two Peak modes, a player gets four distinct voicings from one pedal.

The controls: Magnitude, Gravity, Warp and Dimension

The four knobs carry space-themed names that map to familiar functions. As Guitar.com's reviewer Cillian Breathnach put it: "you've got Magnitude, Warp, Dimension and Gravity, which are respectively volume, tone, filter Q and gain"². Guitar World's Trevor Curwen confirms the Magnitude and Gravity knobs set the output level and gain respectively¹.

The knobs themselves are milled from aluminum, engraved with custom designs, and Guitar.com found them extremely sturdy². Guitar World likewise notes aluminum knobs intricately engraved with custom artwork¹. The enclosure is a double-sloped engraved aluminum box with a spacey black hole design that extends over the back edge².

One practical complaint from reviewers: the control knob settings can't be seen very clearly, which Guitar World listed among its reasons to avoid¹.

The Peak footswitch and the four filter modes

The Peak footswitch is where the pedal earns its multi-mode character. Manson counts four configurations: 2 x EQ On-and-Off across the 2 Peak Filter Footswitch Modes (Bandpass / All-Pass)⁴. The right footswitch is bypass; the left toggles the Peak Filter Boost modes between Band Pass and All-Pass static phase filter⁵.

What the Peak switch does depends on the EQ toggle:

• EQ off: a practical level jump and increased presence that would work for solos¹
• EQ on: a radical tonal shift to any sound you have dialed in¹

With the EQ off entirely, Guitar World found the tonal character well balanced across the frequency range, with plenty of top-end and perhaps just a hint of midrange scoop¹.

Power and connections

The pedal runs on a 9V DC adaptor, which is not supplied¹. The two reviews disagree on current draw: Guitar World lists 35mA¹, while Guitar Pedal X lists 200mA⁴. Connections are a standard TS input and TS output, and there is no expression input for the filter, a lack Guitar.com noted².

Where it came from

Manson Guitar Works launched the Supermassive Black Fuzz in Standard and limited Gold Editions³. At launch the price was £259, with £59 deposit pre-orders in the UK⁴. The circuit consists of 3 OpAmps, 3 silicon transistors, and 2 blue LEDs⁴.

The circuit uses 3 op-amps, 3 silicon transistors, and 2 blue LEDs⁴. Guitar.com's reviewer found it is not really a Fuzz Factory-inspired design, at least not from a controls perspective, and its tone stack sets it far apart from any specific vintage lineage².

What reviewers said

Guitar World rated the pedal four and a half stars out of five, concluding¹:

Guitar World's reasons to buy included its compact size; its reasons to avoid included control knob settings that can't be seen very clearly¹. Guitar.com called it "powerful and varied fuzz sounds" and noted the lack of an expression input for the filter². Another reviewer described it as a potent, versatile fuzz straddling all 3 main fuzz food groups, but said the nonsensical labels and lack of knob markers make it a more challenging pedal than it needs to be⁵.

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