Saturday, January 13, 2018

Ugly Guitar Truth: NUX Masamune Booster Komp

NUX is mostly known for making affordable pedals with plenty of options. However, they have recently released some pedals that look strikingly similar to Strymon. Now, I don't think you are going to actually confuse one of these for an actual Strymon pedal, but it seems that they are going for a more premium look. And they'd have to look a little more premium, because when asking what these pedal will go for. I was told, by NUX that they would fetch $160 street.

Here's what Nux Says about the pedal:

Booster and Compression Pedals are the gigging guitarist’s secret weapon.  Both pedals are now available in one convenient metal housing, and it comes with selectable signal routing.  The Boost Section comes with Boost Level, Drive, and Hi-Cut controls.  The Compressor Section comes with Komp Level, Sustain, Blend, and Clip controls.

NUX Masamune is a sound-crafter pedal.  It forges your dry-signal, enhancing your sound before sending your signal to your amp, and/or any effects unit.  The Booster adds beneficial color to your signal, and, if necessary, after you adjust the boost & drive levels, you can cut high frequencies on your Input signal with the Hi-Cut Toggle Switch.

Masamune’s Kompressor does a remarkable job managing and enhancing your signal:  Komp Level knob adjusts the final Output level for the Compressor, perfectly balancing your Input and Output signals.  Sustain knob adjusts the compression ratio, and increases sustain. Higher sustain levels will squash your signal harder when you hit the strings and creates a longer, richer sustain.  Blend knob adjusts the compressor transparency from 50% to 100%, so you can dial-in the exact amount of compressed dry-signal blend you want.

Clip Toggle allows you to choose the clipping range of your Input signal.  The Toggle-UP position will squeeze the signal for voluminous sound, and Toggle-DOWN will open up more space on your clipping range.

NUX Masamune Booster & Kompressor has inside routing with 3 Functions:
1_Use both effects in parallel connection.
2_Choose which effect you want to come first on your signal chain.
3_Toggle-UP the MUTEX to engage only one effect at a time.

NUX Masamune has an external foot-switch jack Input. You can add Masamune to your pedal chain, and/or you can operate the pedal by using an additional remote switch.

Conclusion

$160 is not an insane amount of money for a nice pedal, but NUX has made a name for its self as being an affordable direct from China. It would be hard to recommend this pedal when there are similar pedals made much closer to home (or rather, assembled here). There is a big difference between buying a cheap Chinese pedal for $20 and buying a $160 pedal from a company halfway across the world. What happens if it breaks? How's the customer service? There is an inherent risk of buying a pedal like this and the high than average price tag takes away one of the strongest advantages to buying from a Chinese manufactorer.

2 comments:

  1. Poor and lazy comment. Did you thought plug the pedal

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  2. I have to agree with the other commenter, taking a position that you comment recommend a pedal because you think it's too much money, but apparently coming to that conclusion based solely on what this company sells other products for, isn't really a convincing argument. You kind of doubled down on the heavily prejudiced opinion that because it comes from China that THAT alone is enough to judge the value and quality is an opinion that really just screws over the person with that opinion because it would mean missing out on a lot of REALLY nice gear that's been coming out of that area lately.
    I'll agree that historically gear coming from China was synonymous with budget focused every level equipment. I can see how that would lead to making assumptions about the level of quality is just how it is with things built there, but as a person who's been guitar repair tech for 15 years, and amps for close to 10, they're are a lot of insanely high quality/low cost things coming out of China.
    I finally was able to get my hands on a Shijie strat copy after watching and reading so many reviews that all fall over themselves in saying how unbelievably nice they are. I figured it was going to be akin to Harley Benton; more cost guitars and gear that have a much higher quality than the price would indicate, I was wrong. These are some of the best built Strats I've seen in years. I ended up buying 5 because the shipping was so damn expensive that I worked out if I bought a larger quantity the price drops considerably, and I could keep one, sell the rest and get my money back and make a few bucks on the side. The reviewers were completely right that they are unbelievable. I found the quality of the $700 chinese Strat to be considerably higher than any of the Fender American production models at the $1400+ mark, and even at that price the Fender wouldn't have some of them features.
    The fact of them matter is, that the reason most of the products from China are on the lower end of the scale is because THAT'S what the American merchants (if you're buying it as it's been money), or American manufacturer orders for their budget friendly import line. They after capable of a product on par with anything an American company produces, it's just that most of the stuff out there doesn't come from this line.
    At the very least, you need at at least try it, I don't really understand the point of writing a review/opinion if you don't actually have anything to actually review.

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