Blue Colander Black Emperor Mini 2024 - Army Green

Black Emperor, the V8 muff recreated.

I've been sourcing and examining dozens of black muffs for this long-time project to find out there's no precise 'black muff sound' - they do vary a lot, thanks to poor quality of used components with really wide range of out of tolerance values. Comparing two black muffs can lead to an unexpected conclusions (well, the same for green ones, etc.), since they may work like completely different pedals. Eventually I found the unit sounding really good with it's tremendous low-end and extravagantly heavy feel. No surprise, many of it's components appeared to measure up to 40% out of indicated values, what resulted in very distinctive sound. I took it's recipe and added some EQ flavour from another, early 6-screw unit which I'm fond of for it's particularly bold, aggressive attitude... and that's how Black Emperor was born.

Black Emperor is voiced for relatively high gain fuzz feel, with compressed, bursting attack and earth-shaking bass content surpassing even the fattest green muffs I've tried. While it's bass capacity results in sound almost collapsing under it's own power, good amount of treble presence secures fuzz clarity.

Mini version comes with many new sounds available via two toggle switches. Both up follow 'stock' Black Emperor circuit design.

Left toggle switched down replaces typical muff type 'tone' control with RAT style 'filter', providing substantial volume boost due to whole lot of midrange recovered. Filter turned fully CCW allows for flat EQ, turn it CW to gradually roll off treble. This mode transforms Black Emperor into a completely different fuzz sound than possible with traditional muff circuits, not sacrificing even smallest bit of its remarkable power.

Right toggle switched to 'blast' mode alters a few aspects of pedal behaviour. Notes attack gets nasty, aggressive feel, with more definition and bite instead of smoother and compressed response of 'sustain' setting. Low-end is even further increased at higher gain range. In 'blast' mode gain control is frequency selective, what means at max gain sound is extremely fat and fuzzy, while reducing gain makes it less overloaded, but noticeably brighter, more dynamic and cutting-thru.

NO BATTERY OPERATION IS ALLOWED BY BLACK EMPEROR (mini). Feed it only with standard 9V DC negative center power supply only. Use of higher voltage may cause permanent damage. Current draw is 35mA.

MINI VERSION CHANGES:
- 125b size (approx. 6.5 x 12.5 cm)
- relay-based true bypass with no-click switch (Incandenza bypass design by Steve Demedash)
- PCB partially factory-populated with high quality SMD components
- two toggle switches with new tonal features