Manson Guitar Works Supermassive Black Fuzz

The Supermassive Black Fuzz is a fuzz pedal from Manson Guitar Works, the UK guitar maker with a long history with Matt Bellamy of Muse, a company in which Bellamy is the majority shareholder¹. It is the company's first pedal, and Bellamy and the Manson team worked together over several years to develop it². Tonally, it is inspired by the fuzz sounds heard specifically on the song Supermassive Black Hole, and Manson promises "vintage traditional fuzz tones as well as otherworldly distortions"¹³.

The pedal was designed in collaboration with UK-based builder ThorpyFX, which also constructs the enclosure, keeping the whole thing UK-made¹². Its core fuzz sound runs into an aggressive filter with variable Q, with a Peak footswitch engaging a boosted allpass/static phase filter¹.

The controls: Magnitude, Gravity, Warp and Dimension

The four knobs use space-themed names, but underneath they are familiar jobs: Magnitude is volume, Warp is tone, Dimension is filter Q, and Gravity is gain¹. Guitar World's reviewer Trevor Curwen describes the same layout: the Magnitude and Gravity knobs set the output level and gain respectively, while the tone can be tempered by a filter brought into the circuit by the EQ On/Off toggle switch².

With the EQ off, the vibe of the pedal is full-on thick vintage fuzz from the get-go, with the Gravity knob gradually ramping up the intensity². With the EQ on, it delivers a radical tonal shift to any sound you have dialled in². Guitar.com's buying guide calls it an extremely powerful EQ filter with adjustable bandwidth⁶.

The Peak footswitch and its filter modes

The left footswitch toggles Peak Filter Boost modes between Band Pass and All-Pass Static Phase Filter, while the right footswitch is bypass⁵⁴. Guitar.com's reviewer describes the Peak footswitch as engaging a boosted allpass/static phase filter¹, and Guitar World's reviewer found it adds a boost with a tonal element².

Its behavior depends on the EQ switch. With EQ off, it offers a practical level jump and increased presence that would work for solos; with EQ on, it delivers that radical tonal shift to whatever sound you have dialled in². Guitar.com's buying guide sums it up as a footswitchable "peak" mode for fruity feature sounds that will leap out from any mix⁶.

Power and connections

The pedal runs on a 9V DC adaptor, which is not supplied, drawing 35mA per Guitar World's review². Guitar Pedal X's earlier review lists the port as 9V DC center negative at 200mA, with TS input and TS output jacks⁴. The two reviews disagree on the current figure, so if you are planning a power supply, treat 200mA as the safer ceiling. Connections are a standard input and standard output².

Matt Bellamy and Manson's first pedal

Matt Bellamy and the Manson team worked together over several years on the pedal, which became Manson Guitar Works' first pedal, the Supermassive Black Fuzz². Guitar.com describes it as a fuzz pedal that is "absolutely one for the Muse fans"¹. MusicRadar's review gave it an overall verdict of four and a half stars, finding that its radical approach to shaping the sound, along with alternative footswitched options, make it a pedal that can fulfill a host of requirements².

The enclosure itself is part of the appeal: a double-sloped engraved aluminum box with a spacey black hole design that extends over the back edge¹. Guitar.com's review positions it as a pedal with particular appeal for Muse fans¹.

Standard and Gold Editions

The pedal launched in two versions³:

The standard edition lists at £259³². A Gold Edition is limited to 100 units, each signed by Bellamy, and comes with a guitar pick tin and polishing cloth³. MusicRadar lists the pedal's compact size among its reasons to buy, while noting that control knob settings can't be seen very clearly².

What reviewers made of it

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