The Wilson Effects Mordant is a third cousin of the Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround Fuzz, one of the lesser-known historic fuzz circuits, but it still inspires plenty of boutique builders and musicians with its tight low-end, mid bump, and prolonged sustain.
“Third cousin” because it’s actually a reiteration of the Uber Fubar Fuzz, which was based on the Buzzaround but employed 3 Motorola Germanium PNP transistors in place of the NKT213 Germanium ones of the original. The Mordant uses that exact same circuit embedded in a much smaller compact enclosure, also offering two different voicings through a Shape toggle switch that gives you the stock BBBA sound and a looser fuzz sound.
The older version had a 6-position switch for even more options and featured a battery option that V2 doesn’t have.
Here’s the video of it, we added this pedal to our article about the best Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround Fuzz clones and variants.
Wilson Effects Mordant Fuzz, Builder’s Notes
The Mordant is a reiteration of the Uber Fubar Fuzz that is based off of the Baldwin Burns Buzzaround circuit. True to the original it uses 3 Motorola Germanium PNP transistors and can go from light fuzz overtones to a downright nasty fuzz tone. This pedal uses the exact same circuitry but has been downsized a bit to fit into the smaller enclosure. I decided to remove the 6 position switch and use a toggle switch to toggle between the stock BBBA sound and a looser fuzz sound. The stock sound is a bit tighter sounding. This pedal is great for everything from Rock to Blues to Doom and Metal. It has been one of my favorites for a long time and I’m excited to share it with you again. As with most of our pedals it is true bypass but the battery option has been removed due to space restrictions as all of our pedals use through hole components. The Mordant operates on an industry standard 2.1mm center negative power supply. All pedals are covered by a one year warranty on parts and labor and is hand built right here in the U.S. If you should happen to have any other questions about the Mordant please feel free to contact me through the contact form on the Home page of the site.
