Review: Tone Factor/Mojo Hand Mule

One of my favorite tones ever is that opening riff to the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.” It’s one of the first things I play when I’m at the guitar shop. It’s kind of the tone that is stuck in my head that I use as a baseline comparison when I’m checking out gear. Keith Richards has famously been using a Fender Tweed Twin. I love that kind of nasty drive that tweeds are known for. I’ve been on the search for a “tweed in a box” pedal for a while. I came across the Mojo Hand Mule (available from tonefactor.com) which has been pumped up as having tweed tone in spades. So, I plugged in the little two-knobbed box and hoped that it would transform my tone into Keef’s, but leave my physical appearance unharmed.  I plugged in my Fender Baja Telecaster into the Mule into my ’74 Princeton and hit that riff. Hello tweed! The Mule gave me that gnarly drive for sure. Just really rude, loose distortion. The thing that struck me most about the Mule is how open it is. Kick on an Tubescreamer and you’ll think you have a blanket over your speaker. The Mule sounds big, like you’re on stage in front of 30,000 fans with stacks of amps behind you. There’s quite a range in drive available using the drive knob. All the way off, you get just a tiny hint of breaking up. It’s like this up to about 9-10 o’clock where it starts getting more pronounced. One you get the drive knob cranked, you’re definitely approaching fuzz territory. Maxed out, you’re not looking at heavy metal distortion, though you’ve never seen a tweed do that anyway. There is plenty of boost on tap with the level knob. You can easily overdrive your amp with the output from this pedal. It also cleans up very well by using the volume knob on your guitar.  While I love the drive from the Mule, the lack of tone control is what keeps this from being a perfect pedal. The Mule is very bright in the upper mids and treble. With my Tele, I was reaching for the tone knob constantly to keep my ears from bleeding. With a darker amp and guitar, your experience may be much different. On the neck pickup, the bass can get pretty muddy, though, to the extent that I only used it on the bridge pickup. The Mule was close to getting me that tweed tone, but ultimately the lack of tone control left me wanting more.