Mojo Hand FX Sericon

The Mojo Hand FX Sericon is an overdrive pedal built around the circuit of the Klon Centaur, what the maker calls "the gold standard of overdrives," but with more gain shaping options than most pedals in that family¹. Where a typical Klon-style pedal gives you two knobs, the Sericon splits the gain structure across three controls, Gain, Drive and Blaze, and adds a low-pass filter in the final stage¹². It was unveiled in December 2021 at a price of $199³⁴.

The pedal is a limited item. Mojo Hand FX finished it as a court-directed continuation of a project originally commissioned by ProAnalog Devices, producing a limited number of individually serial-numbered units, and stated it would be discontinued once the parts and enclosures on hand were used up⁵⁶.

A Klon-style overdrive with three gain stages

Most pedals in the Klon family copy the original's control layout closely. The Sericon takes a different approach: it splits the original design's single Gain control across the circuit's two op-amp stages, giving each stage its own knob, and then adds a third adjustable gain stage at the end¹⁵. Delicious Audio described the result as "a highly tweakable and interactive version of a 'professional' gold overdrive"⁵.

The signal path runs through three gain stages. The signal is first split into the two op-amp stages, each with its own control, and those meet at a third gain stage, which is where the Blaze knob and its low-pass filter live⁵. Gearnews summed up the appeal for players who want more than a straight clone: "This Klon-style overdrive has three gain stages, plus a handy low-pass filter for added flexibility"².

Visually, the pedal keeps things simple: five red dials on a silver painted enclosure, as MusicRadar described it at launch³.

The controls

The five knobs divide the work across the three gain stages plus a tone control and an output level. Here is what each gain-shaping control does, as documented by Delicious Audio⁵:

The Blaze control is the unusual one. At its core it is a low-pass filter rather than a plain gain knob. At lower Gain and Drive settings, turning it brings in low-end warmth; at higher settings, counterclockwise it tightens the low end and clockwise it adds beef and thick saturation⁵. Gearnews described the Drive knob in similar terms: it changes the level of the first gain stage along with the harmonic elements of the tone in the later stages².

Because Gain and Drive each feed a different op-amp stage, the two interact: the level set at the first stage determines how much harmonic content the second stage and the Blaze filter have to work with¹⁵. That is the main practical difference between the Sericon and a two-knob Klon-style pedal, where one gain control sets everything at once.

History: the ProAnalog Manticore V2 circuit

The Sericon did not start life as a Mojo Hand FX design. Its circuit is identical to the ProAnalog Devices Manticore V2, a five-knob Klon-style overdrive that followed the original Manticore in 2018⁵⁴⁷. ProAnalog Devices was a maker of analog devices known for the Manticore Overdrive and the MKII Fuzz⁸.

The connection runs through manufacturing. When the Manticore V2 arrived, ProAnalog's Scotty shifted manufacture of the pedal to Jon Cusack of Cusack Music, the operation behind Mojo Hand FX⁴. On That Pedal Show, Dan and Mick discussed the V2's origins: "it sort of started life as a clone type circuit and then it sort blossomed"⁹. The original Manticore had already appeared on the show in 2018 as part of a wet/dry/wet rig demonstration¹⁰.

When the ProAnalog project came to a court-directed end, Cusack finished the circuit under the Mojo Hand FX brand to recoup expenses, in a limited number of units⁵. Guitar Pedal X put it plainly: the Sericon "is simply a re-badge of the Manticore that Cusack Music / Mojo Hand FX was already manufacturing"⁴. Guitar Pedal X also groups the Sericon with other five-knob Manticore-topology pedals, including the Toketone Manticore, all sharing the Savage/Blaze low-pass filter and dual Gain controls⁴.

So if you are comparing the Sericon against the ProAnalog Devices Manticore V2, you are comparing the same circuit in a different enclosure and finish⁵⁴⁷.

What reviewers said

Gearnews reviewed the pedal at launch and found it stood apart from the average Klon copy: "Overall, it is a nice take on a Klon-style circuit, and not just your average Klone trying to replicate the original circuit," noting it may deliver more girth thanks to the low-pass filter².

Guitar.com has since listed the Sericon among Mojo Hand FX's range of innovative and affordable pedals, alongside the Mr. O phase shifter and the Swim Team chorus and flanger¹¹.

Power and practical notes

Other practical details from the launch coverage⁶:

• Individually serial-number plated limited production issue
• Made in USA
• Lifetime warranty
• True bypass switching¹

Because production was limited and discontinuation was planned once parts and enclosures ran out⁵, the Sericon is a pedal to look for on the used market rather than expect as a current catalog item.

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