Formula B's Eighty Master is one of the most instantly satisfying of MIAB Overdrive and Distortion Pedals

I typically do the ’Boss’ thing when testing most pedals - and therefore start with all controls in the middle of their range and then tweak in either direction as is appropriate. On the Eighty Master that means all knobs at noon, Gain Structure at 50W, and Comp in the middle - and boy does it sound glorious from the get-go. It has the perfect Marshall flavour with just the right amount of zing - and you get there with the absolute minimum of effort - it really does sound incredibly impressive at the very first encounter - which is actually fairly rare for most pedals.

Controls - Bass, Treble, Gain Structure : 50W / 100W, Mids, Gain, Comp : Some / None / Lots, Modeling (Presence), Volume.

I then add a little more of what I prefer - and end up with most of the knobs at around 3 o’c - with just the Mids left in the middle. I like the open and perfectly balanced harmonics of the 50W mode - the 100W adds in further compression, texture density and saturation - which reduces some of the ’air’ in the signal that I so like.

Besides my key fuzz categories - Marshall style pedals take the biggest slice of my reference collection with more than 40 in that category at last count - possibly over 50 now - I lose track occasionally. In any case - you usually need to play with the Mids a little for most of those pedals to hit the optimal and perfect Marshall texture - while for the Eighty Master the voicing is so cleverly calibrated that it’s instantly there pretty much by default.

There’s a lot of range to this pedal too - you can dial it back more toward JTM45 style output, and you can crank up the Gain on 100W Mode for more of a saturated JCM800 flavour - while for me it’s the Plexi-ness of the 50W Mode that is the big winner here - it just sounds perfect - and is so well balanced texturally.

I’ve said before that I typically like BB-size pedals in vertical orientation - but when the output is this good then the form-factor matters less. This is a really  killer all-rounder MIAB full-flavour monster - and is heartily recommended to all tone-chasers. There’s definitely some magic going on inside this circuit.

My Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1 has a few more gears to it - but is trickier to dial in than the Eighty Master. There are so few pedals that properly give you instant satisfaction - and require the absolute minimum of tweaking to reach optimal output. All helped by predictable and even tapers on all the dials - and plenty of range to spare too.

Some Compression on the 50W Mode just sounds superb - while you don’t really need any compression on the 100W Mode - and to my ears the max setting should only be used for relatively low-ish gain applications - for most people it will be too much.

This pedal does everything it’s supposed to to and it does it so well - it also has a really pretty metallic-tinged facia plate - which you can’t adequately capture in photographs - it’s a very handsome looking pedal in the flesh too - I would possibly have gone for a Aqua coloured crystal / LED to more closely match the facia colourway - while it looks really cool as is.

Officially when you switch between ’50W’ and ’100w" modes you are recalling / replicating the 50w JCM800 2204 and the 100w JCM800 2203 respectively. While to my ears this pedal easily covers JTM45, Plexi and JCM800 tones with the minimum of effort!

I have several favourite Marshall-style pedals - and this one is definitely top-tier. Available from the Formula B Webstore, and at leading International dealers right now - including my good friend Jim Button at Boost Guitar Pedals. Many thanks to Jim and Marco for making this happen - I feel this pedal is going to do very well indeed! The Eighty Master is priced at €255 / £225 and equivalent.

Jim did ask me to record some of my superior sounds - while my iPhone doesn’t adequately represent the richness of my rig’s output - I need a better stereo recording device! Possibly something like the Tascam Portacapture X6/X8 or similar - until I get a fully mic’d up recording solution - which will prove to be very pricey for how I want to do it - and currently I would rather spend those funds on more pedals! There will come a day though when I start doing the occasional sound samples - but I’m already at capacity levels - so all that extra sound editing just isn’t a possibility currently - I already work as much as 20 hours in every 24!