Pigtronix doubles down on Compact Analog Guitar Synth Pedals with its new Ringmaster Analog Multiplier
The NAMM promo videos are coming thick and fast now, and the second one below sees Pigtronix announce the arrival of the slightly quirkier twin brother to the Mothership 2 - the Ringmaster as the name suggests combines Ring Modulation into the synth mix, but it does a lot more besides - including - Analog Harmonizing, LFO Modulation, Sample & Hold Modulation, Pitch Tracking Ring Modulation and Pitch Tracking Tremolo.
The Mothership 2 has been on my wishlist for quite a while and I was just waiting for it to hit UK distribution - which it did at the start of the year. It also has an extremely high current draw at 18V and comes with an 18V 300mA supply, but I am told the 250mA that a Strymon Zuma puts out at 18v should be more than enough, so I obviously will have to pony up for that too, which makes either pedal quite expensive overall - but it’s not the only factor. In any case, before I could pull the trigger on the Mothership 2 - there is an even cooler new one announced - so I guess I’ll wait for that one instead!
Pigtronix Mothership 2 Analog Synthesizer Pedal - £247
I've mentioned this wonderful pedal several times already on a variety of articles - and awarded it as runner-up in my 2017 Pedals of the Year Award. It's 5 concentric dials are a marvel of pedal engineering - as is its diminutive size (it's less than 1/3 of its predecessor). Only Pigtronix and Digitech regularly use so many concentric dials, but Pigtronix is currently taking this to new heights. Funnily this pedal was all set to replace my current DigiTech Dirty Robot pedal - the Mothership 2 has only recently arrived within UK dealer networks. I firmly believe it is the finest compact synth pedal you can get currently - at least until the new Ringmaster came along and confused matters!
Pigtronix Ringmaster Analog Multiplier - £247 (est.)
The quirky new Ringmaster Promo is an excellent introduction and overview to this new pedal - I fear I may prefer this one even to the amazing Mothership - they're both analog synhs at their core, but the Ringmaster has more modulation effects in the mix, and I feel I might get slightly more out of it. I'm sure Pigtronix would want me to buy both, but they need to be aware of cannibalisation too - as I feel that more people may be drawn to the Ringmaster now which will likely affect sales of its predecessor. I'm definitely leaning in that particular direction now...
