TWA's Krytical Mass Brassmaster-style Octave Fuzz unleashes a Gods of Thunder Monster Low-End Rumbling Wall of Sound

I confess that I’m not an expert on the Maestro Brassmaster Bass Fuzz - as even though I have a fuzz collection numbering over 600, I don’t have many Brassmasters at all, and certainly none quite so potent as this new TWA Krytical Mass.

It really has the most extraordinary upswelling low-end rumble - punctuated by upper octave harmonics - and is one of those magnificent fuzzes that you are constantly wrestling for control - it ebbs and flows and blooms of its own accord, and in its raw state is an absolute beast of a fuzz in the very best way. Doing double stops higher up the fretboard yields a really cool upswell followed by a sort of decaying dive bomb - you’ve got sustain for days here.

And likely this fuzz will be a little too much for some - but it’s the kind of fuzz that I love coming across - a proper force of nature - which has a number of tricks to help you tame it - while I’m mostly about letting it run wild! Meaning you don’t get me running other pedals into or out of it to soften its output - I’m all about the full flavour!

Controls - Sensitivity (Fuzz Gain / Intensity), Dry Level, Fuzz Level, High Pass Filter, Low Pass Filter 1, Low Pass Filter 2, Mids Cut : Alpha / None / Delta (around 1kHz), Edge / Sizzle, Bias / Voltage Starve, Phase Inverter : Positive / Negative.

The first knob is sort of a combination Fuzz Gain and Sensitivity control so you can get more kind of dig-in dynamics further down the curve, but for me it needs to be at around 3 o’c really to deliver its magic.

The second Dry control is more of Dry Level - as I tend to have this quite high at around 1 o’c for maximum harmonic impact. And the third ’Level’ control I tend to have set to around 3 o’c.

Then the second row is all about fine-tuning the output - firstly via 4 toggle switches that carve out very particular frequency clusters to deliver further interesting variations on texture and harmonics. I believe those exact frequency focuses are well guarded secrets and very little is revealed in the manual about exactly what frequencies they are targeting - all you need to know is that each reveals further layers of harmonics. It’s really just a matter of selecting them individually and in combination to see how they best affect the texture to your own preferences. For me I have the HPF and LPF2 on, and the Mids set to the Alpha / Up position - that delivers the most magnificent texture for my preferences - while the different combinations here all deliver slightly differentiated output - really clever actually and it makes this fuzz particularly versatile.

The Edge control is then a sort of Bite / Presence type function which I like to have fairly high up the scale - to balance the heft of the low end. And then I tend to dial the Bias all the way back - as a Voltage Starve - to deliver the best texture for my preferences.

There’s a further Phase switch on the side which allows you to invert the polarity - which carves out a little of the low end if it’s too much for you - I tend to like a lot of Bass for home playing - while possibly if you’re gigging you would want to tone that down a touch.

There are some internal controls too where the lower middle one allows you to adjust the Q bandwidth of the Mid Cut - I did not feel it necessary to do anything with that. And then there was a dip-switch and Speed trimmer for the Display which just cycles round on its own timer. I did not note any discernible differences between Active and Still mode - possibly that becomes more apparent if you adjust the Speed trimmer - which I did not feel the need to do.

All in all this is a very distinct, huge, raw sounding booming wall of sound octave fuzz with superb texture and inner ebb and flow. Noisemakers like I live for this kind of thing - and I think Bass players in particular are going to really love it - this is a sort of weapons-grade fuzz! For guitar players it will likely be a somewhat acquired taste - and if you love plenty of low-end rumble, then this is most definitely the one for you.

Many thanks to my now good friend Trevor Shaikin - a kindred spirit - who was instrumental in my getting my hands on this pedal - where I understand I’m one of the very first in Europe to get my hands on one. Totally Wycked Audio have definitely hit a home run with this one! It’s so cleverly calibrated!

The Krytical Mass is available for pre-orders right now - for $299, via the TWA Effects Webstore, or parent company’s Godlyke Distributing Webstore.