The Mateus Asato Signature Pedal, the ASABI, is a distortion and
overdrive pedal that contains a HUGE array of tones and is also the
world's first pedal to feature analog distortion plug-ins!
To keep things interesting on your pedalboard, we developed the
technology to create replaceable distortion plug-ins so you can swap the
distortion circuit in the ASABI without having to buy a completely new
pedal! Because we all like to try out new pedals, these affordable
plug-ins allow you to buy the pedal once and update it with new plug-ins
all the time!
The name ASABI, which means, "of unusual birth" was chosen by Mateus
because it speaks to the unique nature of this pedal, as well as his own
family heritage. Keep reading below to learn more about how the ASABI
can bring your tone to life in new and creative ways!
STOCK DISTORTION OVERVIEW
The stock distortion plug-in of the ASABI is called the MODERN HIGH
GAIN and is a high-gain, hard-clipping circuit that is based on the
Marshall JCM800. Because of this, the resulting tone is very open, crisp
and addictingly fun to play! Everything from 80's hard rock to more
modern high gain tones can easily be found in the ASABI!
TRUE ANALOG PLUG-INS
The most groundbreaking feature of the ASABI, is that we developed
the technology to create true analog distortion plug-ins! These plug-ins
allow you to completely change the distortion circuit in the ASABI
without having to buy a completely new pedal! These are not software
updates that load a different preset; they are completely analog circuit
boards that contain all the opamps, transistors, diodes, resistors and
capacitors that make up a distortion pedal!
The ASABI comes
preloaded with the MODERN HIGH GAIN plug-in. This plug-in harnesses the
power and gain of the legandary JCM800 amplifier and puts it into pedal
form! Depending on where the GAIN knob is set, the MODERN HIGH GAIN
plug-in will do everything from classic rock to the heaviest rock known
to man!
Because we all like to try out new pedals, these
affordable plug-ins allow you to buy the pedal once and update it with
new modules all the time!
DISTORTION PRESETS
The ASABI allows for 4 different presets of clipping diodes which
themselves drastically alter the tone and feel of the way the distortion
clips.
To select a clipping preset, press and hold the DIST footswitch for
more than 1 second and the clipping program mode will become active.
When in this mode, the DIST led will flash to indicate that you are in
programming mode. A quick tap on the DIST footswitch will cycle the
clipping presets and you’ll be able to hear these presets change as you
cycle through them, assuming that the drive circuit was active when the
clipping program mode was entered. Once you arrive at a distortion
preset that you want to use, press and hold the DIST footswitch for more
than 1 second and clipping program mode will exit.
Preset 1 - AMBER: Guv'nor Style. Two
LED’s are used to symmetrically clip the top and bottom portions of your
guitars waveform evenly. The LED’s allow MUCH higher headroom so your
tone will stay more open and less compressed much like a vintage
Marshall.
Preset 2 - GREEN: 808 Style. Two symmetrical silicon diodes give the classic drive and compression that the 808 is known for.
Preset 3 – BLUE: ASYMMETRIC HIGH GAIN.
Three asymmetric diodes (two silicon and one LED) will clip the top and
bottom portions of your guitars waveform differently resulting in a more
complex and interesting tone. This sounds great when laying down
aggressive rhythm parts!
Preset 4 - MAGENTA: SYMMETRICAL HIGH
GAIN. Four symmetric silicon diodes will clip the top and bottom
portions of your guitars waveform evenly which gives a more focused and
direct tone.
Changing clipping diodes are a great way to radically change how a
distortion pedal sounds and feels but oftentimes the change that you
perceive has more to do with a change in volume than an actual change in
tone….until now!
When we were designing the ASABI we knew we wanted to give the distortion
section a lot of tonal flexibility and most importantly make that
flexibility useful on stage. So when changing clipping presets we
included circuitry that level matches the output of the pedal as various
clipping diodes are selected. So now you can select between all four
clipping options, your volume level will remain constant. More
importantly, the difference that you hear between the clipping presets
will be because of the difference in how those clipping diodes sound and
not because your volume is jumping all over the place as it does with
other designs.
GAIN CYCLE
GAIN CYCLE takes the GAIN knob setting, which selects your maximum
gain, and divides that level of gain into 4 equal parts. Say for
instance you have your GAIN knob set at the maximum setting or in other
words, 100% gain. Every time you press both footswitches simultaneously,
the gain of the pedal will jump up 25% until you get to 100%. The
following press after 100% will cause the gain cycle to start again at
25%.
TIP: Set the GAIN control to around 3:00+ to have 4 distinct distortion settings as you cycle through the gain!
My goal with the GAIN CYCLE feature is to allow guitarists to easily
ramp their gain up without having to bend down and change it or try to
adjust it with the edge of their foot while playing live. Here’s a
perfect use case!
Let’s assume the GAIN control is set to 100%
Verse 1 – Gain cycle set at 25% – Lightly distorted tone.
Press GAIN CYCLE
Chorus – Gain cycle set at 50% – Distinct distorted tone.
Press GAIN CYCLE
Bridge – Gain cycle set at 75% – Heavy distorted tone.
Press GAIN CYCLE
Solo – Gain cycle set at 100% – Heavily saturated distorted tone!
TIP: Add the DRIVE to push the overdrive even harder for endless sustain!
It’s important to remember that GAIN CYCLE setting #4 (100%) will be
as much gain as you have the GAIN knob set for. Think of the GAIN knob
on the ASABI as your maximum gain with each GAIN CYCLE setting being a percentage of that maximum value.
The brightness of the DIST led will change to let you know which
percentage of gain you have selected. The higher the percentage, the
brighter the DIST led. For instance:
GAIN CYCLE #1 – DIM LED – 25% of GAIN knob value.
GAIN CYCLE #2 – BRIGHTER LED – 50% of GAIN knob value.
GAIN CYCLE #3 – BRIGHT LED – 75% of GAIN knob value.
GAIN CYCLE #4 – VERY BRIGHT LED – 100% of GAIN knob value.
3-BAND ACTIVE EQ
To top it off, the distortion circuit of the ASABI has a 3
band active EQ. The EQ circuit features a studio grade EQ that gives
tremendous tonal flexibility to the ASABI. Based on the legendary
Baxandall EQ that is featured in countless studio EQ’s, the ASABI EQ
takes this circuit and tailors it for guitarists!
DRIVE OVERVIEW
To push the distortion even further into clipping, and to cut
through the mix perfectly on its own, the overdrive side of the ASABI
features an incredibly touch sensitive overdrive circuit. Designed for
maximum transparency, the overdrive on the ASABI is completely flat in
its frequency response with no mid hump or unnatural artifacts. The
ASABI overdrive is your tone, perfectly pushed.
This circuit, which is in its own true bypass loop, can be used
independently of the distortion circuit and is very useful for boosting
the front end of the distortion circuit for even higher gain.
Just like the distortion side, the overdrive circuit in
the ASABI features 4x clipping options to perfectly dial in your
overdriven tones.
To select a clipping preset for the overdrive channel, press and hold
the DRIVE footswitch for more than 1 second and the clipping program
mode will become active. When in this mode, the DRIVE led will flash to
indicate that you are in programming mode. A quick tap on the DRIVE
footswitch will cycle the clipping presets and you’ll be able to hear
these presets change as you cycle through them, assuming that the drive
circuit was active when the clipping program mode was entered. Once you
arrive at a overdrive preset that you want to use, press and hold the
DRIVE footswitch for more than 1 second and clipping program mode will
exit.
Preset 1 - AMBER: Vintage Marshall.
Two RED LED’s are used to symmetrically clip the top and bottom portions
of your guitars waveform evenly. The LED’s allow MUCH higher headroom
so your tone will stay more open and less compressed much like a vintage
Marshall.
Preset 2 - GREEN: Classic Screamer. Two
symmetrical silicon diodes give the classic drive and compression that
the Tube Screamer is known for.
Preset 3 – BLUE: Asymmetric Clipping.
Three asymmetric diodes (two silicon and one red LED) will clip the top
and bottom portions of your guitars waveform differently resulting in a
more complex and interesting tone. This sounds great when laying down
aggressive rhythm parts!
Preset 4 - MAGENTA: Symmetrical
Clipping. Four symmetric silicon diodes will clip the top and bottom
portions of your guitars waveform evenly which gives a more focused and
direct tone. Two notable pedals that uses this style of clipping are the
Timmy and the King of Tone.
MIDI FEATURES
It's 2020 and it's time to expect more from an analog pedals! Since
the BROKEN ARROW came out in 2019, our more advanced overdrive pedals
have featured MIDI control over clipping presets, gain cycle options,
drive eq options as well as ON/OFF of the overdrive and drive circuits
and the ASABI is no exception.
We always want to make sure that our pedals are as easy to integrate
into complex rigs as they are into simple rigs and MIDI makes that
happen!
CABLE INFORMATION: In order to use MIDI on the
ASABI, you will need a cable that converts a MIDI (DIN-5) connector to a
TRS cable. This is the cable that we have used with great success and
can't recommend it enough.
For
those building their own cables, the ASABI receives MIDI information
via the RING connection on a TRS (Tip, Ring, and Sleeve) connector.
MIDI CHANNEL
By default, the ASABI ships with MIDI Channel 1 being the selected
channel. This can be changed by pressing and holding the DIST footswitch
while applying power to the ASABI. Press the DRIVE footswitch to
increment the MIDI channel number.
You’ll notice that as you
continue to hold the DIST footswitch, the DRIVE LED will flash to
indicate which MIDI channel you have selected. IE – 7 flashes = MIDI
Channel 7. After the LED flashes, we inserted a 2-second pause so you
could tell when the LED was finished flashing. The LED will continue
flashing as long as you are holding down the DIST footswitch. Once you
have selected the MIDI channel you want and have verified it by counting
the flashes, simply release the DIST footswitch and the pedal will save
this MIDI Channel to the internal EEPROM on the microprocessor and
reboot.
MIDI DETAILS
Accessing the MIDI features of the ASABI is done by Control Changes.
Below is a list of the features of the ASABI that can be accessed via
MIDI as well as how to access them.
CC #1 – DIST ON/OFF (value of 127 = ON value of 0 = OFF)
CC #2 – DRIVE ON/OFF (value of 127 = ON value of 0 = OFF)
CC #3 – DISTORTION CLIPPING PRESETS
(value of 1 = Guv'nor Style)
(value of 2 = 808 Style)
(value of 3 = Asymmetric High Gain)
(value of 4 = Symmetric High Gain)
CC #4 – GAIN CYCLE
(value of 1 = 25% GAIN)
(value of 2 = 50% GAIN)
(value of 3 = 75% GAIN)
(value of 4 = 100% GAIN)
CC #5 – OVERDRIVE CLIPPING PRESETS
(value of 1 = Vintage Marshall Style)
(value of 2 = Tube Screamer Style)
(value of 3 = Timmy Style)
(value of 4 = King of Tone Style)
VOLUME
Acts as a master volume for the distortion circuit.
PRES
Acts as an overall tone control for the distortion circuit. Can be
used as a master tone to adjust the pedal to brighter or darker rooms.
The higher this control is run, the higher the gain and brighter the
overall tone.
GAIN
Sets the maximum gain for the distortion circuit.
BASS
The 12:00 position is totally flat with +/-20dB drive/cut on either side of center.
MIDDLE
The 12:00 position is totally flat with +/-20dB drive/cut on either side of center. The mid frequency is centered around 660hz.
TREBLE
The 12:00 position is totally flat with +/-20dB drive/cut on either side of center.
VOL
Acts as a master volume for the overdrive circuit.
TONE
Sets the tone of the overdrive circuit. Righter is brighter.
DRIVE
Sets the maximum gain for the overdrive circuit.
TECHNICAL SPECS
- True Bypass (relay) for each channel
- Input Impedance: 1M
- Output Impedance: 100k
- Power Supply: DC
- Voltage Input: 9V MAX
- Polarity: Center Negative
- Min Current Required: 120mA
- Dimensions: 2.7” x 4.875′