The Mu-Tron / Mike Beigel / Mu-FX Thread

[Chankgeez]

Make sure you ask for payment in gold coins.

[Ugly Nora]

When I was in college working construction one summer for $6 an hour cash, it was payday and my boss came up to me and said he was going to go to the bank to get my money. I made a joke and said something like " I want it in small unmarked bills". Asshole came back with 300 $1 bills.

[Chankgeez]

[actual]

You can't just post that with no info
Is it a Pi-Phase?

[Chankgeez]

Nope, actual Mu-Tron.

Don't really know anything about it yet.

Appeared here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BdLnB2Uh2_0 ... =mutronusa

[actual]

Fuck, looks like they're reissuing it.

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, but there's been some weirdness lately. Not sure if Mike Beigel will remain w/ the company.

There've been two Reverb Shops and two Instagram accounts recently.

New:
https://reverb.com/shop/mu-tron

https://www.instagram.com/mutronusa/

Old:
https://reverb.com/shop/mu-fx

https://www.instagram.com/mu_fx/

[Ugly Nora]

That thing will be cost-prohibitive for us average folks.

[Chankgeez]

Well, even if the initial retail price isn't anywhere near it, idiots'll be flippin' 'em for close to the price of a vintage Bi-Phase.

[echorec]

Yeah, but there's been some weirdness lately. Not sure if Mike Beigel will remain w/ the company.

There've been two Reverb Shops and two Instagram accounts recently.

New:
https://reverb.com/shop/mu-tron

https://www.instagram.com/mutronusa/

Old:
https://reverb.com/shop/mu-fx

https://www.instagram.com/mu_fx/

My guess/hope is that HAZ Laboratories may finally be relinquishing the Mu-Tron name and logo to Beigel and his partners. HAZ previously owned the Mu-Tron logo & they're based in New Jersey. This new Mu-Tron USA page says they're based in Cardiff, California. Beigel Tech is listed as being in Encinitas (Cardiff-by-the-Sea is the southern edge of Encinitas).

----I also looked at the feedback for the official Mu-Tron Reverb store and several of their listings were titled 'Mu-Fx / Randtronics.' I'm guessing Randtronics is a nod to Elliott Randall, a longtime session player, who must be giving Beigel some financial backing.

https://reverb.com/shop/mu-tron/feedback

That Micro III looks to be the same model that Beigel unveiled last year. It's also my understanding that Beigel has never been happy with HAZ or the circuit they've been using for their III+ model. It has always seemed unlikely that Beigel would begin to cooperate with HAZ, based on his public dissatisfaction with their efforts.

http://www.hazlabs.com/

I've never really understood the framework of HAZ. They've got virtually no Web presence, they seem to produce one product, and have never really shown any interest in actively promoting their Mu-Tron III reissue (no demos, no social media, no product support page). The hands-off, passive approach of HAZ has never made any sense. Why weren't they already producing a Phasor or an octave unit? ----They're a puzzling enigma, that seems to have never really embraced the potential of the Mu-Tron name or legacy. I don't even know if HAZ builds the pedals or uses overseas labor to ghost-build the III+.

One last note on that Bi-Phase pic. It seems to be using the exact same drilling template as the Pi-Phase. The spacing of all the controls look identical side-by-side. I wonder if Mike at ProphecySound has been involved. A while ago Beigel had the Pi-Phase at his own Mu-Fx trade booth, so perhaps they've come together on this.

Best case: HAZ has surrendered or sold the trademark and Beigel has other investors to help ramp up production. I hope Beigel isn't moving on, because I'd still like to see him revisit his unfinished projects from the 70s & 80s.

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, but there's been some weirdness lately. Not sure if Mike Beigel will remain w/ the company.

There've been two Reverb Shops and two Instagram accounts recently.

New:
https://reverb.com/shop/mu-tron

https://www.instagram.com/mutronusa/

Old:
https://reverb.com/shop/mu-fx

https://www.instagram.com/mu_fx/

My guess/hope is that HAZ Laboratories may finally be relinquishing the Mu-Tron name and logo to Beigel and his partners. HAZ previously owned the Mu-Tron logo & they're based in New Jersey. This new Mu-Tron USA page says they're based in Cardiff, California. Beigel Tech is listed as being in Encinitas (Cardiff-by-the-Sea is the southern edge of Encinitas).

----I also looked at the feedback for the official Mu-Tron Reverb store and several of their listings were titled 'Mu-Fx / Randtronics.' I'm guessing Randtronics is a nod to Elliott Randall, a longtime session player, who must be giving Beigel some financial backing.

https://reverb.com/shop/mu-tron/feedback

That Micro III looks to be the same model that Beigel unveiled last year. It's also my understanding that Beigel has never been happy with HAZ or the circuit they've been using for their III+ model. It has always seemed unlikely that Beigel would begin to cooperate with HAZ, based on his public dissatisfaction with their efforts.

http://www.hazlabs.com/

I've never really understood the framework of HAZ. They've got virtually no Web presence, they seem to produce one product, and have never really shown any interest in actively promoting their Mu-Tron III reissue (no demos, no social media, no product support page). The hands-off, passive approach of HAZ has never made any sense. Why weren't they already producing a Phasor or an octave unit? ----They're a puzzling enigma, that seems to have never really embraced the potential of the Mu-Tron name or legacy. I don't even know if HAZ builds the pedals or uses overseas labor to ghost-build the III+.

One last note on that Bi-Phase pic. It seems to be using the exact same drilling template as the Pi-Phase. The spacing of all the controls look identical side-by-side. I wonder if Mike at ProphecySound has been involved. A while ago Beigel had the Pi-Phase at his own Mu-Fx trade booth, so perhaps they've come together on this.

Best case: HAZ has surrendered or sold the trademark and Beigel has other investors to help ramp up production. I hope Beigel isn't moving on, because I'd still like to see him revisit his unfinished projects from the 70s & 80s.

Not sure about your speculation on HAZ Laboratories.

Mu-Tron could've also just copied the Pi Phase layout?

Here's Rand though:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIeeC5SDgFc

[Iommic Pope]

HOLY SHIT.

[lordgalvar]

Beigel/Rand had the prophecy bi-phase at namm 2015 in their booth. I think they are working with them. Probably some swapping of schems/layouts going on there.

It's all most likely just a change of enclosure to simplify things/Get things made faster and available to make money. Also, I think they have to change their preorder/business model at least 3 times...so maybe this is a way to avoid those delays and angry customers by pumping out less creative enclosures and tried and true schems. Mike did just liquidate a whole bunch of personal pedals and some "last one ever" mu-fx stuff signed at high prices.

They probably got the name back. If you search Google on mobile, the page preview for mu-tron.com has the micro III but the website is just an old address copy image. Looks like musitronics is owned by some guy in Utah as of 2012 and there are several mu-tron trademarks owned or previously owned by haz guy, Utah guy, og musitronics, and Korg. Most are dead.

Anyway, looks like the haz trademark was for 6 years starting in 2008/2009 (like apply/granted). It's still live.

Mike started mu-fx in 2014 and probably just stuck with it and maybe just finally had the cash or whatever to apply for the name back?

Hope Mike is doing well and recovering.

HAZ is one guy (those are his initials) in a repair shop in NJ. I think it was just an opportunistic pick up that came down the NJ line. He has pretty good distro for no web presence.

Oh, late night ramblin.

Nu-Fuzz is open for tm.

[Chankgeez]

The word from ProphecyMike:

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index ... /25528243/

"Yes, you are 100% correct, doing a clone of a pedal, where the clone has much more compact design in terms of box, controls and PCB layout, a industry-original/unique 9V/12V -> +/-15DC converter, and nails the original sound at - what? - 1/3rd the cost of a roughed-up original is merely 'stealing'.

Someone emailed me about this topic, and here's what I was going to reply, but will paste here instead:
"The 2018 MuFX Biphase is a legit product, all text on MuFX's website is used by agreement and enthusiasm by us, and we're really excited to be able to exit the FX biz but also have our hard work not lost in the sands of time. I'm personally rather chuffed that the mk1 version I engineered and assembled by hand (for way too long!) has evolved to the mk2 version and now to this point. Rand @ MuFX has done an amazing and superhuman job of assisting Mike to move MuFX forwards and I really hope they sell a bucket load of these pedals."

'We' in this case equates to myself, and the other Prophecysound directors. I'll be on-hand to support current Prophecysound product owners and dealers indefinitely at the same email address, but the company itself is frozen.

Mike"

[Chankgeez]

Mu-Tron could've also just copied the Pi Phase layout?

So, it seems the "new" Mu-Tron Bi-Phase may just be a rebadged ProphecySound Pi-Phase?

That'd be the easiest thing for Mu-Tron to do, right?