MWFX Judder

The MWFX Judder is a mid-fi looper and momentary sampler that switches between record and playback to create choppy, instantly renewable loops on the fly¹. Built by MWFX, a maker of unique guitar pedals handmade in the UK since 2008¹, it sits somewhere between a looper, a delay and a glitch effect: it silently records in the background until you press the momentary footswitch, then drops what it captured back into your signal as gated echoes, stutter, vibrato, chorus or pitch-shifted repeats¹².

MWFX describes the main effect as a sample and loop function, with an LFO and envelope detector producing tremolos, stutter, gated echoes, clickless muting, vibrato/chorus and pitch-shifted echoes, and the pedal can also be set up as a normal echo/delay¹³. Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio found it suited to a wide range of styles:

What it does and how it works

The Judder works as a mid-fi momentary sampler: it records continuously and silently in the background until the momentary footswitch is pressed, at which point it plays back what it just captured². Because the switching is fast and clickless, you can cut into repeats and treat the pedal like a standard echo/delay, or use it for abrupt gated freeze effects²³. The circuitry is analog, with clocks and switching separated to minimize noise and crosstalk¹, and the echo device is the PT2399, the same faux analog echo chip found in many delay pedals¹.

The two footswitches shape how you interact with it:

MWFX's own setting examples give a picture of the range: slapback, pitch shift, time warp, gated echo, tape echo, chorus, doubler, sample and hold, and arpeggio⁶.

The controls

The current Judder front panel carries four knobs and five toggle switches¹:

The Wooden Version uses slide switches instead, with a JUDDER/LAYER/MUTE switch for single sample, sound on sound or killswitch modes, an AUTO switch that turns on LFO/envelope control for a triggering or ducking effect, a RANGE switch for long, medium or short sample modes, and an LFO/ENV switch². It also has two internal trimmers for sample length and sample volume². A BPM dial on the enclosure gives a rough guide for each sample range setting³.

The expression pedal input controls the central knob and accepts 22/25k expression pedals, CV, and third-party PT2399 tap tempo boxes¹. On the Wooden and Mini versions it controls sample length instead, at 20k nominal, TS and TRS compatible, and will also accept CV of up to 5V²⁷.

Power and connections

All versions run on a standard 9V DC supply:

• Voltage: 9V DC¹²⁷
• Current draw: 35mA¹²⁷
• Connector: 2.1mm, standard center negative¹

The true bypass version has a high impedance JFET input and low output impedance, which MWFX says helps reduce noise over long cable runs and makes it best suited at the start of your chain¹. The latest batch also has solid core wiring and copper shielded jack inputs¹.

History and versions

The Judder dates back to 2008, when the earliest version was a glitch momentary sampler with a hold, gated freeze effect². Most of the 2009 to 2010 units went to LEP International in Japan, and the maker reckons it was the first glitch pedal¹. MWFX pedals are hand-painted boxes with laser engraving¹.

The line has since grown into several versions¹²:

Pricing has moved over the years: a July 2021 release was listed at £250, about $350 to $365⁸, while later listings put the Judder at £275¹, with one-off color experiments at £300 and original blue ones at £275¹.

Who uses it

• Declan McKenna uses the Judder pedal and its raw freeze effect, with the expression remote mounted on his mic stand, on his North American tour¹⁷. Unit number 500 of the first Judders was signed and artworked by him¹.
• Everything Everything used the Judder on several parts of "Run the Numbers", recorded at Parr Street Studios and produced by James Ford⁷.
• The Lesson GK provided demo music for the Mini Judder using one of the units⁷.

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