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If you could only have one fuzz 🤔 Expresso FX Fuzz Bender Mojo Edition (MKII & MK1.5) | Jules Leyhe
Two legendary Tone Bender circuits. Three NOS Mullard CV7005 transistors. One toggle switch. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
The Expresso FX Fuzz Bender Mojo Edition is played by Oakland blues guitarist Jules Leyhe, running into the Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior with a Wolftone Meaner Dog Ear P-90, into a 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A with a Weber CVA-8 pre-broken-in 8" alnico speaker. The Effectrode Tube Vibe joins from 06:21.
Expresso FX builder Sof has built his Fuzz Bender line around one of the most historically rich fuzz lineages in existence — the Sola Sound Tone Bender family. The Mojo Edition houses both the MKII and MKI.V circuits in one enclosure, selectable via toggle switch, with a side-mounted Bias knob for further tweaking. The MKII (explored from 00:42 and 08:41) is the three-transistor circuit that defined late-1960s British rock in the hands of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton — an extra gain stage slamming the circuit harder for more sustain, gain, and midrange density. The MKI.V (explored from 03:46) sits in transitional territory between the raw, maximally-saturated MKI and the more refined MKII — looser, more unpredictable, deeply expressive. Having both voiced with the same trio of transistors makes for an extraordinary A/B experience.
At the heart of the Mojo Edition: three hand-selected NOS Mullard CV7005 germanium transistors — two black glass, one metal can. Military-spec, same family as the celebrated NKT275, delivering a warm, articulate, touch-sensitive voice that responds to every nuance of pick attack and guitar volume. NOS WIMA TFF polyester film capacitors, NOS Philips and ROE electrolytic capacitors, NOS Allen-Bradley carbon comp resistors, premium Cliff UK jacks, 22 AWG solid core silver-plated copper wire with Teflon insulation. Fully hand-wired on genuine Vero stripboard. True bypass. Three-year warranty.
The Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior — reclaimed old growth Redwood body, one-piece Honduran mahogany neck, 24.75" scale, 5.75 lbs, wood harvested from 800-year-old timber — pairs with a Tone Bender-style fuzz in a way that rewards the exercise. The Wolftone Meaner Dog Ear P-90's midrange character feeds the MKII's front end with exactly the right signal, acoustically vibrant enough that the guitar's resonance opens up through the fuzz rather than compressing or flattening.
Jules Leyhe brings slide and fingerstyle blues to both circuits — including a genuinely impressive slide performance on low-action 9-gauge strings from 09:29.
🎛️ Expresso FX: https://expressofx.com
🎸 Grez Guitars: https://www.grezguitars.com
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🎸 Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior | Reclaimed Old Growth Redwood | Wolftone Meaner Dog Ear P-90
🎛️ Expresso FX Fuzz Bender Mojo Edition | NOS Mullard CV7005 Ge (2x Black Glass, 1x Metal Can) | MKII & MKI.V Selectable | Effectrode Tube Vibe
🔊 Vintage 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A | Weber CVA-8 Pre-Broken-In 8" Alnico Speaker
🎵 Guest Artist: Jules Leyhe
Recording Rig: Absolutely no virtual/IR/direct sounds. 4 mics on a real cab. Royer R-121, Lauten Audio LS-208, Ohma Ribbon on front of cab, Royer R10 on back of cab. All mics sent through Universal Audio Apollo x4 with default preamps and no digital preamp emulation plugins, mixed in Ableton Live 12.
The Most Unique Guitar in my Collection | Mule Resophonic Mulecaster | Feat. Jules Leyhe
The Most Unique Guitar in My Collection... A hollow steel body tuned to B Standard. A four-person shop in Saginaw, Michigan. And Jules Leyhe playing slide and fingerstyle blues through a 5-watt tweed. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode, the Mule Resophonic Mulecaster T-Style is the story — running into a 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A with a Weber CVA-8 pre-broken-in 8" alnico speaker, with the Effectrode Tube Vibe along for the ride. Played by Oakland blues guitarist Jules Leyhe.
Matt Eich founded Mule Resophonic in 2012 out of a garage closet in Saginaw, Michigan — a man who had trained at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery and spent years building instruments for Huss & Dalton in Virginia before a single concert changed everything. Watching Kelly Joe Phelps play slide on a metal resonator and send a crowd into a frenzy, Eich left the venue with one question: could he build a resonator that looked more like the raw material it was made from, and sounded warmer and more acoustic than anything the format had historically produced? He had never cut or welded a piece of metal in his life. He figured it out anyway. Mule is now a four-person shop with a waiting list that keeps growing and a roster of players that speaks for itself — Dan Auerbach, Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, Ariel Posen, Joey Landreth, Jeffrey Foucault, Jason Momoa, Celisse Henderson, Rebecca Lovell, and Kristian Matsson of The Tallest Man on Earth.
The Mulecaster is Mule's bridge between the resonator and the electric guitar worlds. Single and double-cutaway variations on Strat and Tele-inspired outlines — this one is the T-Style single-cut — with hollow steel bodies, a 25" scale length, and availability in both standard and baritone tuning in a range of powder coat finishes. The Mulecaster featured here is tuned to B Standard baritone — a full step-and-a-half below standard E — and fitted with Mule's own Tom Thumbucker mini-humbuckers, hand-wound in-house. The hollow steel body creates what Mule players consistently describe as a 3D quality to the sound — a resonant, acoustic bloom beneath the electric signal that no solid or semi-hollow wood body can replicate. Eich himself has said these instruments wake up his ear like nothing else, and when he goes back to other guitars he hears them in a new way. That's exactly right. Put one in your hands and your playing changes.
At B Standard baritone pitch, the Mulecaster's deep fundamentals interact with the hollow steel body's natural compression in a way that rewards both slide and fingerstyle playing with an expressive, vocal quality that sits in its own sonic universe. Into a 5-watt, single 6V6, Class A tweed Princeton and the warm alnico character of the pre-broken-in Weber CVA-8 8" speaker, the Mulecaster finds a platform intimate enough to let every nuance of Jules's playing breathe at full volume.
Jules Leyhe is a Berklee-trained Oakland blues guitarist who has shared stages with Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Charlie Musselwhite, and Taj Mahal. Premier Guitar called his playing the best blues slide since Derek Trucks — maybe even Duane Allman. The Effectrode Tube Vibe adds its all-tube photocell-and-bulb univibe swirl — triode tubes at real amp plate voltages, Classic and Smooth LFO modes, Chorus/Vibrato switching.
This is the Mulecaster doing what it was built to do.
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🎸 Mule Resophonic Mulecaster T-Style | B Standard Baritone | Mule Tom Thumbucker Mini-Humbuckers
🎛️ Effectrode Tube Vibe
🔊 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A | Weber CVA-8 Pre-Broken-In 8" Alnico Speaker
🎵 Guest Artist: Jules Leyhe
🎙️ Recording Rig: Absolutely no virtual / IR / direct sounds. 4 mics on a real cab. Royer R-121, Lauten Audio LS-208, Ohma Ribbon on front of cab, Royer R10 on back of cab. All mics sent through Universal Audio Apollo x4 with default preamps and no digital preamp emulation plugins, mixed in Ableton Live 12.
If You Could Only Have One Fuzz 🤔 | Expresso FX Triple Fuzz feat. Jules Leyhe
If You Could Only Have One Fuzz – Expresso FX Triple Fuzz feat. Jules Leyhe!
Three circuits. A matched pair of NOS Mullard CV7005s. A Tropical Fish capacitor build. And Jules Leyhe behind the Mulecaster again. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode, the Expresso FX Custom Ge Fuzz / Ge Boost / Octave Up takes center stage — played by Oakland blues guitarist Jules Leyhe, running into my Mule Resophonic Mulecaster loaded with Mule Tom Thumbucker mini-humbuckers, into a 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A with a Weber CVA-8 pre-broken-in 8" alnico speaker. Guest starring the Effectrode Tube Vibe.
Expresso FX is the work of Sof, a UK-based builder widely regarded as one of the great NOS transistor specialists in the boutique fuzz world. This is a fully custom three-circuit build in a large-format genuine Hammond enclosure finished in Red Sparkle — a Germanium Fuzz, a Germanium Boost, and an Octave Up, each individually voiced and hand-wired with Sof's signature obsession for component quality. The interior is point-to-point turret construction — no PCB anywhere in the build — with hand-routed color-coded wiring and a component density that makes the inside of the pedal as visually remarkable as the outside.
The Fuzz circuit is built around a matched pair of NOS Mullard CV7005 germanium transistors — military-spec devices with a warm, full, touch-sensitive voice closely related to the NKT275 family. Classic Fuzz Face architecture: extraordinarily reactive to guitar volume and pick attack, covering the full spectrum from barely-breathing whisper-clean to full blooming germanium saturation off your guitar's volume knob alone.
The Germanium Boost is built around a NOS Mullard AC107 germanium transistor, fitted with a 7-way rotary switch selecting from treble-focused to mid-focused to bass-focused voicings across seven distinct NOS capacitor-selected tonal positions. Not just a volume boost — a germanium preamp that shapes and enriches your signal before it hits the amp.
The Octave Up is the wildcard — a standalone octave-up circuit using germanium and silicon diodes for the asymmetric clipping interaction that generates the upper-octave harmonic above the fundamental. It can be engaged on its own or stacked with either or both of the other circuits. At B Standard baritone pitch through a semi-hollow steel-bodied Mulecaster, the octave bloom is a genuinely extraordinary sound — deep fundamentals interacting with the octave effect in a way a standard-tuned guitar simply can't replicate.
Component quality throughout: NOS Mullard C280 Tropical Fish polyester capacitors, NOS Philips chicklet film capacitor, NOS Philips electrolytic capacitors, NOS Allen-Bradley carbon comp resistors, premium Cliff UK jacks, Alpha 22 AWG solid core silver-plated copper wire with Teflon insulation, and Kester lead-free silver-based solder. True bypass. Three-year warranty.
Jules Leyhe is a Berklee-trained Oakland blues guitarist who has shared stages with Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Charlie Musselwhite, and Taj Mahal. Premier Guitar called his playing the best blues slide since Derek Trucks — maybe even Duane Allman. His command of slide, fingerstyle, and flat-picking blues through a baritone steel-body into a 5-watt tweed is as inspiring a session as you'll find on this channel.
Subscribe for more boutique tone explorations.
🎸 Mule Resophonic Mulecaster | B Standard Baritone | Mule Tom Thumbucker Mini-Humbuckers
🎛️ Expresso FX Custom Ge Fuzz / Ge Boost / Octave Up | Matched Pair NOS Mullard CV7005 (Fuzz) | NOS Mullard AC107 (Boost) | Ge & Si Diode Octave Up | Red Sparkle Hammond Enclosure
🎛️ Effectrode Tube Vibe
🔊 1957 Fender Tweed Princeton 5F2-A | Weber CVA-8 Pre-Broken-In 8" Alnico Speaker
🎵 Guest Artist: Jules Leyhe
🎙️ Recording Rig: Absolutely no virtual / IR / direct sounds. 4 mics on a real cab. Royer R-121, Lauten Audio LS-208, Ohma Ribbon on front of cab, Royer R10 on back of cab. All mics sent through Universal Audio Apollo x4 with default preamps and no digital preamp emulation plugins, mixed in Ableton Live 12.