Tim Mahoney

Tim Mahoney is the guitarist of 311 and, in his own words, an admitted pedal junkie who keeps trying, buying, and playing new stomps¹. His live setup is built around two pedalboards, two amps, and a rack of effects, with the Mu-Tron III envelope filter at the center of his sound. He traces that obsession back to Jerry Garcia: when he found out Garcia used the Mu-Tron III, he bought one and realized, "Holy shit, this is my holy grail."¹

The Mu-Tron III at the center of his sound

The Mu-Tron III is an envelope filter designed by Mike Beigel's Musitronics in the 1970s, and Mahoney owns four or five originals³¹. In a Premier Guitar interview he called it his absolute favorite pedal¹. His first envelope filter was a Boss TW-1 T Wah before he moved to the Mu-Tron¹.

The original pedal carries Mode, Peak and Gain knobs plus Range and Drive switches, all of which appear on the modern Micro-Tron III reissue: Mode selects Lowpass, Bandpass or Highpass filters, while Peak controls the filter response from very weak to very strong⁴. The Micro-Tron III adds an OUTPUT level control and footswitch selection between UP and DOWN drives⁵. Musitronics describes it as providing "all the classic Jerry tone and Bootsy funk, in a pedalboard-friendly size and powered by industry-standard 9V DC," and says it works on guitar, bass, keys, horns, harmonica and more⁶. A Mu-FX Micro-Tron 3 sits on Mahoney's main board².

For players weighing an original against a reissue, originals are expensive secondhand these days, which makes the Micro-Tron III a lot more affordable⁴. Under the hood, the original runs an 18V swing with the LED between +9V and ground, and its Low-High switch does not create distortion, it just focuses the envelope detector on bass or treble tones⁷.

Amps, overdrives and the rack

Mahoney's live rig splits across two amps: a Bogner Überschall for high gain and a Mesa Triple Crown for clean, each with a Lexicon PCM42 delay in its effects loop². Two 1/4-inch stomps control bypass on the PCM42s, and a MIDI Mouse handles presets for the Free The Tone Flight Time delay². Running delay in an amp's effects loop is a common way to keep repeats clean; BOSS's own guidance notes that if keeping the delay ultra-clean is a priority, the amp's effects loop is the place for it⁸.

His overdrives are a Paul Cochran Timmy OD and an Xact Tone Solutions Precision OD, both on the path into amp B². A One Control Loop Box sends signal out to the party board and back². In 1997 his rack held Rocktron processors: he used the Replifex and Intellifex, and a Rocktron All Access MIDI Controller ran both his rig and Nick Hexum's during live performance⁹.

His main board signal chain:

1. LA Sound Design buffered pedalboard input
2. Boss FV-300L volume pedal, with a TC Electronic PolyTune 2 in the tuner out
3. CAE wah
4. Boss OC-2 Octave
5. Mu-FX Micro-Tron 3
6. Vintage MXR phaser
7. Xact Tone Solutions "The Pusher" (Pegasus boost)
8. Way Huge Blue Hippo Chorus
9. Maxon AD-9 analog delay, in a One Control loop box
10. A/B amp select box²

The Boss OC-2 octave pedal has been on every single 311 album since Unity in the early '90s¹. On phasers, he loves the MXR Phase 100 and Phase 45 and owns both, but for him the quintessential phase box is the Phase 90¹.

Studio effects and guitars

His studio rig holds some cherished effects, including a Mu-Tron III envelope filter and an original Univibe, but the signal chain is otherwise similar to his live setup, with a few insert spots for swapping effects². He also uses a Strymon TimeLine in his studio setup², and a Strymon Brigadier was previously on his pedalboard². He is listed as a preset contributor, with 311¹⁰.

On delay, his verdict is plain: "the best delay pedal I've played through is definitely the Ibanez AD9." He uses it live to thicken his clean tones with a short delay, and points to "Made in the Shade" as an obvious song to hear its shimmer and warmth¹. In 2017 he demoed Ernie Ball's Ambient Delay and Expression Overdrive pedals, saying of the Ambient Delay: "I really like this delay pedal. It seems like a unique take on a delay, to be able to access that control with your foot"¹¹.

He tours mostly with PRS guitars plus a Clapton Strat, and his favorite is usually "Ol Blue," a PRS Standard 24 with an all-mahogany body from 1999².

The party board

Alongside the main board of about 20 pedals, Mahoney travels with a secondary party board holding about a dozen fun noisemakers¹. Strymon's rundown describes his command of "a hearty 'main board' and supplemental 'party board'" with an eclectic combination of delays, reverb, overdrives and more². The party board chain runs:

A Strymon Favorite Switch works the El Capistan, and the board feeds input B of the Mesa Triple Crown².

Questions