By Fletch Whipp

Matt Johnson, the genius behind Tortuga sure knows how to make eye-catching pedals, luckily, and not surprisingly, he also knows how to make GREAT sounding pedals. Matt knows tone, as sharing a similar background to myself, he too worked in a high-end guitar shop for a decade. The Mai Tai phaser pedal falls under Matt’s ‘liquid refreshment’ area of pedals that also host such pedals as the Martini (incredibly tasty Dual Analog Chorus/Vibrato) Single Malt (Dual vintage delay) & the Neptune (Dual Vibe) which also happens to be another Tortuga pedal I’ve had the pleasure of demoing, being a giant Vibe fan. One day we may have some Tortuga pedals on our clients boards for you to enjoy yourself!)

Here is Matt’s take on his creation. The Mai Tai™ is a beautiful take on a classic “script” era phaser. It has a warm and sloshy midrange sweep that encompasses everything we want in a great phaser and even travels a bit into “vibe” territory. As with any Tortuga effect, the Mai Tai™ does not take anything away from your tone; it only enhances it, makes it bigger and simply more lush. It also has a dual set of depth (Mix) and rate (Rum) controls that can be set separately and switched between so it’s like having two Mai Tais in one. I mean, we all know once you start, you can’t have just one Mai Tai™.

The RockStarzUSA take on the Mai Tai: In an increasingly overcrowded world of pedals, which includes phaser effects, Matt’s offering does stand out-enough to warrant my purchasing it and adding to one of my own personal boards. Firstly, it offers two footswitchable modes of phase, which instantly appeals to my desire of both a fast and slow phase without need to adjust the dials. The range of speed is actually completely useable, neither too slow to the point of dragging it’s heels during phase, nor so fast that it becomes a gimmick.

Some pedals really molest the tone signal, however the Mai Tai does not do this, the integrity of the original signal remains clear, yet the effect at once blends together with the original signal and yet still offers that nice chewy goodness classic phasers offer. It is as ‘warm’ sounding as another Phaser I own, the MXR Phase 100, yet is literally double the pedal of the MXR example. The Mai Tai offers super bright LED lights which actually does contrast some of my other pedals that have regular, dull red LED’s installed.

Finally, the Mai Tai just says FUN! The cool graphics over the white base literally inspire me to create. The board which houses the Mai Tai has 16 pedals, and is almost always the first pedal people comment on. Now some tone purists may scoff and say it has nothing to do with looks, but how many times have you picked up a new guitar, effect unit or amp, which though may be like 1,000 others out there, just seems to allow something new and original surface while playing…..

For more information, contact Matt at matt@tortugaeffects.com or visit www.tortugaeffects.com