“The brand new AirTrash from Mattoverse Electronics is pedal for guitar or bass that sounds like absolute garbage” – and if you hear this from none other than the manufacturer, you can sure believe it’s true!
Fortunately, the AirTrash is not a Klon’s clone or a refined Tube Screamer evolution, but some kind of lo-fi fuzz with a tad of ring modulation (or sample reduction maybe?) thrown in for good measure-so it’s actually supposed to sound like garbage!
This is how the company’s circuit designer and CEO Matt Olson stumbled upon the circuit:
I was breadboarding an idea and happened upon some absolutely sickening sounds, like really bad, but couldn’t stop playing it. I spent a lot of time trying to refine and improve it, make it less noisy, more controllable etc. but these changes always ended up sucking the fun right out of it so decided let it be the simple disgusting beast that it is.
If you are wondering what the three knobs do, Matt is only able to explain with words what one (the blue one) does: it controls the volume output.
I could not come up with words to properly describe what the red and yellow knobs do, so I created those little icons in an attempt to illustrate what words could not describe.
All this sounds very promising for the wild experimenters among you! If you are wondering what kind of sounds this “thing” can produce, check out the videos below.
Mattoverse AirTrash Fuzz, Builder’s Notes
The AirTrash is a pedal for guitar or bass that sounds like absolute garbage. I was breadboarding an idea and happened upon some absolutely sickening sounds, like really bad, but couldn’t stop playing it. I spent a lot of time trying to refine and improve it, make it less noisy, more controllable etc.. but these changes always ended up sucking the fun right out of it so decided let it be the simple disgusting beast that it is.
This pedal is not for everybody, not for most folks, completely impractical in any traditional sense. After I let one of my bandmates check it out he said – “this is the last thing I would want to step on during a show”… but 15 minutes later he was still playing with it, making disgustingly awful sounds. Your mileage may vary.
It “works well” with guitar or bass and sounds best with the guitar or bass plugged straight into it (first in the pedal chain), didn’t do much for me at all on synths or drum machines. It’s very sensitive to pick attack and input volume.
The blue knob controls the output level. I could not come up with words to properly describe what the red and yellow knobs do so I created those little icons in an attempt to illustrate what words could not describe.
The prototype circuit did not end up getting changed at all so the three prototype demos below will work as accurate sound examples.
- True Bypass / Top Mounted Neutrik Jacks
- Standard Center-Pin Negative 9VDC Power only (not included)
- Enclosure Dimensions – 4.77″ x 2.6″ x 1.39″
