MWFX 8 Bit: 16

The MWFX 8 Bit, 16 is a guitar effect pedal that converts your guitar signal into a square wave using an analog, transistor based circuit¹. MWFX describes it as responding to guitar in a similar way to a standard fuzz pedal, but with a synthesized tone that falls in pitch as the signal trails out². In practice that means each note you play triggers a flat, buzzy square wave that droops downward in pitch as the note decays, a sound closer to a crude synth pedal than to a conventional fuzz.

It is one numbered unit in a series of re-releases of the original MWFX 8 Bit pedal from 2007/8, each individually handpainted and finished in oak wood¹. The 8 Bit, 16 is listed at £175.00³.

A square wave synth that responds like a fuzz

The core idea of the 8 Bit is simple: instead of clipping your signal into distortion, the circuit converts it into a square wave, the raw building block of vintage 8-bit game and synth sounds. MWFX says the pedal "responds to guitar in a similar way to a standard fuzz effect, but with a synthesised tone that falls in pitch as the signal trails out"². That pitch fall is the pedal's signature: rather than sustaining a steady note, the synthesized tone slides downward as your picked note decays, giving each attack a swooping, glitchy character.

Because the conversion is analog and transistor based rather than digital, the effect tracks your playing dynamics the way a fuzz does: pick harder and the circuit triggers differently, roll back your guitar's volume and the response changes. The pedal suits both guitar and bass¹, and the internal sensitivity setting lets you match the trigger threshold to your instrument's output.

Controls

So on the outside the pedal is deliberately minimal: one volume knob, a footswitch, and true bypass¹. The voicing happens inside, where the sensitivity setting and the sample length and sample volume trimmers shape how the square wave conversion behaves⁴⁵. MWFX's page for the 8 Bit range also describes "a setting inside to control response"⁶, which is this same internal adjustment.

History and versions

The 8 Bit is an MWFX pedal from 2007/8²⁷⁸. MWFX brought it back as a run of individually handpainted re-releases, each finished in oak wood, with the numbered suffixes distinguishing the individual units: the 8 Bit, 16 sits alongside siblings such as the 8 Bit, 1, 8 Bit, 3, 8 Bit, 5, 8 Bit, 15, 8 Bit, 18 and the 8 Bit Pride¹²⁹. All of them share the same analog square wave circuit, true bypass, exterior volume control and guitar-and-bass suitability¹².

The re-release units were produced in limited batches. Earlier numbered units in the series went on sale on Friday 30th July at 19:00 UK time, with remaining stock released after back orders were dispatched¹⁰, and the 8 Bit, 16 itself is listed at £175.00³.

Questions