MT-10

Overlooked distortion is now a secret weapon in Nashville

 

 

The GT MT-10 distortion rack effect module compares to the original Ibanez MT-10 Mostortion and recent Danelectro Roebuck pedals.  Many players passed this pedal up in the early 90's because there were better distortion pedals available.  However, if you look past the distortion, you'll find great tube-like boost and overdrive tones

 

Description

The Ibanez MT-10 Mostortion made a brief appearance on the market beginning in 1990 and was yanked in 1992 or 1993.  That would suggest a pedal that had little appeal.  However, if you go looking for one, they are difficult to find (since not many were produced), but also very expensive.  Why so expensive if they aren't that good?  And why are used ones so often re-housed in different enclosures?

We have a theory about the MT-10.  Our theory is that it was marketed as a distortion pedal, but there were plenty of better distortion pedals at the time, so it didn't catch on.  However, it is a great boost and overdrive.  Many in the know in Nashville have been using them that way for years.  They are very popular in that group of players, sort of like the Nobels ODR-1 (see our Teledrive).  They are often rehoused because the originals weren't true bypass and had some cheap jacks and switches unlikely to stand up to the abuse of the road.  Players not only use them, but are even willing to go to the trouble to rebuild them to get that boost/overdrive tone.  Danelectro released a near-duplicate of the circuit recently as their Roebuck pedal.  The main difference between it and the original is the introduction of an optional clipping diode switch, a common option offered by boutique builders for many years.

The circuit uses a MOSFET op amp to produce distortion that sounds similar to tube distortion.  The tone stack comes between the two distortion stages, giving you some control over how the distortion sounds.  It is pretty unusual to find a 3-band tone stack on an Ibanez pedal, or most other brands for that matter.  That gives you extra control, particularly over the mids.  Scoop or boost, anyone?  And all three controls, Bass, Mids, and Treble, have a good range.  The clipping design is a bit odd.  The circuit uses a MOSFET input/CMOS output op amp to get some of that tube-like distortion FET technology offers.  But the clipping is symmetric pairs of silicon diodes.  More tube-like clipping generally results from asymmetric clipping, which would be a pair on one side and a single diode on the other.  And why not MOSFET clipping?  In addition, pairs of diodes reduce the clipping, compared to a single diode per side.  Reduce the clipping in a distortion circuit?  That may be the reason why it didn't catch on as a distortion pedal.  At low Drive levels, the pedal is cleanish.  Cranked all the way up, it maybe gets past heavy overdrive, but it doesn't really go into high gain, high clipping distortion, and probably fell short of expectations for those looking for a proper high-gain distortion.  The tone is fairly tube-like, though.  The result is that it sounds more like a driven amp with a good tone stack than a distortion pedal.  But if you called it a boost/overdrive pedal instead, you have a winner - right, Nashville?!?!

We offer several mods for our MT-10 module, but we'll only mention a couple of them here.  As you know, the more bass you let into a distortion stage, the better your chances of getting mud out the other side.  So those trying to use or mod the pedal as a distortion would find a Bass Cut option useful since the circuit lets in quite a bit of bass and the tone stack comes after the distortion, meaning you can’t control the bass going into the distortion.  So we offer a Bass Cut option.

The circuit uses soft clipping diodes to generate distortion.  While the stock config is pretty good for overdrive, we like having clipping options.  That provides an easy way to get another base tone option.  Crunchy red LEDs?  An asymmetric design or MOSFET transistors used as diodes for more tube-like tone?  It’s a pretty good option to experiment with, which is probably why Danelectro added it to their Roebuck.

Or maybe you want to go all in on the boost/overdrive and let the distortion go.  If so, we can bump up the voltage to give you more clean headroom. 

The standard config is pretty good, but maybe some tweaks give it that little extra something, something you might be looking for.  However you configure it, we encourage you to think of it as a boost and overdrive rather than a distortion.  Probably not what you want for high-gain metal, but blues, country, and classic rock, oh yeah.  Should be good for stacking with other drives, too.

 

Configurations

  • MT-10 - compares to the Ibanez MT-10 Mostortion.  Also compares to the Danelectro Roebuck if you choose the switchable clipping diodes option.

 

Options

  • Custom Clipping Diodes - You can change up the clipping diodes.   Perhaps an asymmetric config?  MOSFET transistors used as diodes?  Crunchy red LEDs?  
  • Switchable Clipping Diodes - If you wish, you can switch between two different configurations.  You can also have your two selections on a 3-way switch where the middle position is no clipping diodes, perhaps for cleaner boosting?
  • Custom Bass Cut - we can change up the amount of bass going into the clipping stage.  By default, it cuts at an odd point sort of between guitar and bass.  We can change it to cut more bass for guitar, or cut less bass for bass.
  • Switchable Bass Cut - Leave the original bass cut setting on one position of a 3-way switch.  Add a smaller bass cut (for bass) and a larger bass cut (for leads) on the other two positions.
  • Higher Voltage - If you want to run with more headroom, we can change the standard 9V voltage to 12V or 15V
  • More Gain - The amount of gain available is only part of what determines the tone of the distortion when you crank it up.  We can increase the max amount of gain available.  It won't sound like a lot more gain, but there will be an increase.  The lower gain range is not changed, only the maximum is extended a bit.
  • Custom Components - There's not much to change up, except for the op amp and the two transistors used in the buffers.  We can build with the CA3260E op amp and the original transistors, which we do by default.  The type of transistors doesn't really make much difference.  Choosing a different FET op amp probably also won't have much impact, but you could try a TL072.  If you want to sub in more common transistors and a TL072 we can probably shave a couple bucks off the price, but it won't be a big saving.

 

Front Panel

  • On/Off indicator LED
  • Volume
  • Distortion
  • Treble
  • Mids
  • Bass
  • (optional) Clipping switch
  • (optional) Bass Cut switch

 

Rear Panel

  • Audio In
  • Audio Out
  • On/Off Footswitch
  • On/Off Override
  • DC Power
  • DC Power LED

 

Module Width

  • 2" standard
  • left and right wing configurations are not presently available

 

Power Consumption (aprox)

15 - 20mA

 

Base Configurations

Part # Description List Price
MOD-MT10 MT-10 module $234

 

Options

Part # Description List Price
MOPT-MT10 Custom Bass Cut $0
MOPT-MT10 Switched Bass Cut $19
MOPT-MT10-VOLTS Higher Voltage $0
MOPT-MT10-GAIN More Gain Option $0
MOPT-MT10-DIODES Custom Clipping Diodes $0-TBD
MOPT-MT10-SWDIODES Custom Switched Clipping Diodes  $19-TBD
MOPT-MT10-COMPONENTS Custom Components $0-TBD