Mask Audio Electronics Black Math

The Black Math is an analog fuzz pedal from Mask Audio Electronics, built around the Big Muff NYC Reissue circuit designed by Fran Blanche. Mask Audio describes that circuit as having "a bit more compressed and scooped sound. When boosted into saturation it gets an even more compressed, blown out sound"¹. On top of the Muff core the pedal adds a pre-fuzz op-amp boost and a Blowout switch that removes diodes from the circuit, pushing it further into ragged, high-gain territory than a stock Muff.

The project began as a personal one. Mask Audio's founder has said of the pedal's inspiration: "Black Math originally started as a passion project. I'm a huge fan of the garage rock coming out of Detroit in the early 2000's"².

A compressed, scooped Muff-style fuzz

The Big Muff family has been a foundation for boutique builders for decades, and the Black Math is one of many takes on it. Delicious Audio notes that "The Muff circuit, in all of its variations, is a source of never-ending inspiration for boutique pedal builders"². The specific branch the Black Math follows is the New York reissue line: Electro-Harmonix's first NYC reissues appeared in 2000, using the same circuit and design as the earlier Red and Black versions⁴.

What separates the Black Math from a straight reissue is the added circuitry. The boost stage sits before the fuzz, so it drives the Muff clipping stages harder than the gain knob alone can, and the Blowout switch changes the clipping character itself. Under the hood, trim pots let you set the amount of midrange dip or boost², which addresses the classic Muff complaint of a scooped midrange getting lost in a band mix.

For context on how wide the Muff variant field is, the DIY community at Guitar FX Layouts counts "a lot of muff variants out there like the black arts pharaoh & LSTR, blackout effector musket, frantone sweet" and the Mojo Hand Iron Bell, among others⁵. The Black Math's distinguishing combination is the boost stage, the diode-removal switch, and the internal midrange control.

The controls

The tone control behaves like the tilt-style control on other Muffs, rolling from wooly bass on the left to treble on the right¹. The gain knob's treble pass at low settings means the pedal can be dialed back for a lighter, brighter fuzz rather than running full saturation all the time.

The Blowout switch is the pedal's signature feature. Delicious Audio's buying guide called it "a blowout switch, effectively an auto-Jack White mode that makes your pick attack brutally compress and shred every note"⁶. Technically, the toggle removes diodes early in the circuit, which leaves the signal with a more ragged texture and additional gain compared to the standard clipping arrangement³.

The MIDS trimmer is internal, so setting the midrange dip or boost means opening the enclosure¹. A player who wants the traditional scooped Muff voicing can leave it dipped; one who needs to cut through a loud band can trim it toward a midrange boost.

Power and connections

The Black Math uses a standard Boss style power supply: 9V DC through a 2.1mm center negative plug¹. Current draw is 50mA³, which is modest by pedalboard standards and well within what a typical isolated supply or even a daisy chain output delivers. Input and output jacks are top-mounted¹, which saves horizontal space on a crowded board.

History and enclosure

The circuit traces to the Big Muff NYC Reissue designed by Fran Blanche¹, the version of the Muff that Delicious Audio says Detroit garage rock players of the early 2000s favored: "It's common knowledge among guitarists that all of of that sound came from big old NYC Reissues"². The pedal began as a passion project inspired by that Detroit garage rock scene², and Mask Audio later built it out with the boost, Blowout, and mids trimmer as a production pedal.

The enclosures are hand screen printed by Pinebox Customs², a finish that gives each unit a hand-made appearance rather than a machine-printed one.

Mask Audio Electronics has since expanded on the Black Math idea across its range, including collaborative fuzzes such as the Cascader with Collector//Emitter and the STOP! Dual Fuzz with Holy Island Audio, plus the budget, Muff-inspired Hot Water.

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