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Lately I have put Musitronics pedals on my search lists. Being a huge fan of the early albums by Stanley Clarke and George Duke, I always knew that Musitronics effects were used on their recordings, not to mention Stevie Wonder's work in the '70s. The effects aren't very common here in Europe as it seems. And my big question is: why do they have their own internal power supply?!

I haven't had a look at the schematics and circuits. Can the pedals be operated with a simple 9V battery, at least in theory? The pedals look cool, but they are so big and clunky. I bet that there are overall more 110V versions - maybe the reason why they aren't widespread in Europe? Or am I on a wrong track?

And apart from the Bi-Phase and the Mu-Tron III, which are for sure droolworthy - what are the Musitronics pedals that are worth to be hunted down and why? Or are they all obsolete nowadays, because of tinier and cheaper models from other makers?

They all probably operate at different DC voltages internally but are all probably 9-12v DC after the power supply. The phasors may actually use AC power to make their LFOs (they are OTA).

Phasor II is a great pedal (as is phasor I). The octave divider is really great (thanks Chankgeez!) With a strong ringer and fuzz octave down (and an awesome cleaner "no ringer" setting that is like an awesome ehx octave multiplexor that is actually good). I see the phasors go from 180-350 depending. Picked up a nice II for 215 with original knobs.

The Mu-Tron V is also a great little pedal I think. It goes well with fuzz and has a pretty nice envelope to it. Also it is battery or 9v only (I think it is a 3.5mm jack iirc). I've seen them go for 120-150 USD.

All of them are really great solid pedals...I haven't used the new mu-fx line though (octave divider, tru-tron, boostron).

With the later mutron iii (or maybe most of them) they have an external power supply....finding the jack type, you could probably make a stand in.

Beigel designed the riddle:q, Bi-Filter, and q-trons for ehx...so those are something to look into. The q-trons, IMO, are pretty weak. I think the maxon copies are better sounding and really based on the Mu-Tron. Stay away from HAZ. Moody makes a Mu-Tron clone out of Sweden, but I don't know how good it is (but he has always done good stuff, so I would assume it is cool).

He will be making a new tru-tron that is smaller soon too...so maybe wait for that? But he is charging way to much for things like autographs.

It's worth taking a look at this site if you haven't already: http://www.mu-tron.org

And this Dan Armstrong site is OK too: http://www.danarmstrong.org/menu.html

Pepe wrote:And my big question is: why do they have their own internal power supply?!

If this is any indicator of their standard (http://m.bareille.free.fr/biphase/the_vintage.htm) it is because the circuitry runs bipolar, +/- 15 volts, which is a clunky nuisance via a primitive battery supply - though it can be charge pumped these days.

Okay, in the case of the Bi-Phase that makes sense. But all the other pedals could have been so much more affordable for the common musician without the internal power supply unit. And how many Musitronics pedals went to the scrap yard because of blown-up PSUs?

The Flanger seems to command the most money (approx. $1400-1800) on the secondhand market. You really only see them in the hands of super collectors like Tom Hughes and Dennis Johansson.

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