Nashville’s Mythos Pedals has joined forces with That Pedal Show for the Argo Boost Deluxe, an intriguing twofer pairing octave fuzz with a footswitchable clean boost circuit, that takes the original and makes it more configurable, more practical.
The original Argo was of course not without its charms. That Pedal Show’s co-host Mick Taylor has been a fan of it, having watched Doyle Bramhall II use it. Mythos’ Zach Broyles originally designed it as a take on the Prescription Electronics COB (Clean Octave Blend), a pedal that allows you to dial in your clean signal with the octave fuzz, and it was very cool.
With the Prescription Electronics COB retails for about 800 bucks online. The Argo made perfect sense for some. But Taylor argues that an octave fuzz pedal is something of a Friday night effect – a great pinch hitter for your pedalboard but something that wouldn’t be an evergreen choice.
But the original Argo had hidden depths, namely when the Fuzz and Blend controls were dialled back it was a superb booster. So good, in fact, that for the Argo Boost Deluxe Taylor approached Broyles and asked if the boost could be made switchable. And here we are.
There are four dials, two footswitches. The topology of the pedal remains unchanged but the big red Boost knob and its dedicated footswitch allows you to use it independently, giving the front end of your guitar amp a dunt, and then applying that octave fuzz as and when you need it (such as on Friday nights).
“Instead of pairing a new booster inside this new pedal, think of it as changing lanes inside the pedal,” says Mythos. “This allows you to have a pair of gain stages that are perfect in front of a drive pedal or drive amp. The boost lets you increase the overall push, and with the push of the Fuzz footswitch you can unleash the full Argo octave fuzz sound.”
The other dials include Volume, Fuzz, and the all-important blend knob that lets you adjust just how much of your unprocessed electric guitar signal is in the mix. This as on the original makes it a super musical choice for your ‘board.
There is also a highs switch inside the pedal that can be adjusted to add some extra top-end when you activate the boost. By default, it ships with the switch in the off position but good to know it has another tone-shaping feature.
The Argo Boost Deluxe is true bypass. Feed it 9V DC from a pedalboard power supply. It is available now, priced $/£229. The original Argo will set you back $/£179.
See Mythos Pedals for more details.
