By 
Mythos Golden Fleece Review – The only drive you will ever need?
Introduction
This is a review I have been wanting to do for ages! The Mythos Golden Fleece! I got this pedal a while ago and really wanted to put it through its paces! Why? Because it only has one control! So I wanted to see how much I could get out of it! I wanted to run it through various amps, guitars and also other pedals! I would argue that this is one of the most popular pedals that Mythos sell! At least in the top three! I wanted to see if it was for a good reason or if it was just pure hype!
As always, we will discuss what the Mythos Golden Fleece is, go through the controls (it shouldn’t take long) and then check out some sounds and my thoughts! This is a super exciting review that I have been putting together for a while, so let us dive right into it!
The Mythos Golden Fleece
What is the Mythos Golden Fleece? Inspired by a fuzz pedal called the “Fuzzy Nuts”, it is a pedal that flutters between a fuzz and an overdrive pedal! A pedal that Mythos aimed to be a set-and-forget kind of pedal! Encouraging the user to control the amount of gain with their volume knob on their guitar! Mythos wanted to create a fuzz which doesn’t change the sound of your guitar and make it go to fizzy or unusable! They wanted a smooth and responsive fuzz that can be used in almost any situation!
The aim of the Mythos Golden Fleece is to be able to go from thick fuzz and overdrive and roll back the volume all the way to a sparkly clean! While maintaining clarity and original guitar tone throughout all sounds!
As always, why don’t we go through the controls?
- More: This is the master volume for the pedal. Up for more and down for less!
More on the Mythos Golden Fleece
That is it! One knob pedal! Something charming about a pedal with only one or two controls! Simple and easy to use and forces you to get on and play! All of the sounds and work is coming from a very special silicon and germanium diode pair which has been hand-picked by Zach to give the Mythos Golden Fleece its unique sound.
As with most fuzz pedals, it is prone to reacting in various ways! For example, where you put the Mythos Golden Fleece will massively depend on what it sounds like. There isn’t a right or wrong; there is only difference. Power will also affect the pedal! Mythos recommend that you use a high-quality power supply with isolated power and high-quality cables.
The Mythos Golden Fleece is side-loaded for input and output and top-loaded for the power jack! You can pick it up from selected retailers for around £130. They don’t appear on the second-hand market that much. That is either a really good sign or not so good! We will find out! So why don’t we get onto the sounds?
The Sounds
For the demo songs, all I am using is the Mythos Golden Fleece into the front end of my Nano Cortex. All delay and any other effects are added in post! I used this set up for both demo songs! A super simple setup and a setup I didn’t have to play around with to get a good sound from at all! Was very much a plug and play experience! I think for both demo songs, the Golden Fleece was set to about 2 o’clock (or around there).
For the sound sample clips, the Golden Fleece is just running into the front of my Neural Nano Cortex (Full Review). I was running my Custom RD Amp capture. The reverb is coming from the Nano Cortex. You will hear two sound clips, one with the Amp set up clean(ish) and another with the amp with a good amount of crunch!
What are my thoughts?
The Design
The design? What is not to like! It looks amazing and feels super well built! The Golden Fleece itself is super small! Very compact! If you wanted to build a micro board then this would be the perfect option! We will go over sounds more soon but you can cover so much ground with this pedal that you could use it as your only gain pedal!
Inside the box you get the Golden Fleece, a lovely carry bag and a really well designed sticker! No instructions inside the box, however, you really don’t need them at all! Just keep turning the knob until you get sounds you like!
My last point about the design is the knob! Due to it only having one of them, they have put a nice large control on there! Super nice and obvious about how the pedal is set! Not that you would need to, but if you did want to adjust it mid-song, then you would easily bend down and do it. Or even use your foot!
"Mythos describe this pedal as a blend of distortion, fuzz, and overdrive, and I honestly couldn’t agree more!"
The Sounds
Sounds? You can expect a lot from this pedal in regards to sounds! It covers a lot of ground! From thick fuzz to sparkly cleans! Everything you could want from a single pedal! Set the pedal up to where you get a nice fuzz sound at full volume, then using the guitar’s volume to clean up the sound! The Mythos Golden Fleece can get really clean as well! With a nice set of single coils, you can expect to get sparkly clean when you turn the volume down, then bringing it back up will unleash the pedal’s full potential! Huge amount of gain!
So how does it work with Humbuckers? Well, sounds great! But I expected this! It doesn’t clean up as you would expect with single coils, but you still get a nice clean-up. However, the girth and meat to gain is another level with Humbuckers! A really nice fuzz sound that is so usable! You never use that clarity or pick sound! So it will sit in a mix nicely, and you will be able to hear the notes and chords just fine! There is a big part of me that prefers this pedal with full-blown humbuckers over single coils!
More on the Sounds
Mythos describe this pedal as a blend of distortion, fuzz, and overdrive, and I honestly couldn’t agree more! Crank everything and you will get a thick fuzz! As you bring your volume control down, you will go into distortion and then overdrive! Why is this useful? Well, once you get used to it, you are able to get 3 or 4 overdrive sounds from your volume control! Such a freeing and nice feeling!
For me, I feel this pedal performs best into an amp that has a good amount of crunch on it! The extra gain from the amp just allows the Golden Fleece to clean up nicer, I found! It works wonders on a crystal-clean amp, but set your amp up with a good amount of gain, and you will open the pedal up even more!
The Drawbacks
Now, the price! It isn’t a cheap pedal! I understand the build process and the quality; however, for a simple “one knob” fuzz pedal, it is an expensive purchase! I am not saying that the price is justified; I am saying that it is a lot of money to drop on a single-knob, “one-trick pony” pedal. £130 on a fuzz pedal is a lot! You could argue that Mythos is a small company and it is a boutique pedal, which I would agree with! Just a good amount of money for someone to spend on a single-knob, miniature fuzz pedal!
I did plug the Mythos Golden Fleece into my Boss Katana to see how it worked with digital and solid-state amps. It worked well but did react differently to a tube amp and even the Nano Cortex! I would say the tube amp and Nano Cortex were almost identical, whereas the Boss Katana was slightly different! Still a fat that lovely full fuzz tone but didn’t clean up as much! Still very usable though! I guess that is something to consider; it will react differently to different guitars and amps! It isn’t that it will sound bad, it is just that it will react differently!
"For the size and just huge amount of tones you can get from the Mythos Golden Fleece, it is definitely worth giving it a go!"
Final Thoughts
After hearing all the amazing things about this pedal, I was very excited but skeptical about trying it out! In spite of all of that, I can hand on heart say that the Mythos Golden Fleece is an insane pedal! If you are unsure if it is something you want to give a go, try not to think about it as a fuzz pedal! Think of it as a gain pedal which allows you to control the gain amount through your guitar’s volume! Once I stopped thinking and treating it like a fuzz pedal, I really started to enjoy it and found so many more ways to use it and play with it.
For the size and just huge amount of tones you can get from the Mythos Golden Fleece, it is definitely worth giving it a go! Will be able to slide onto anyone’s board and open up so many tones while also giving you more freedom!
Conclusion
Are you a big fan of fuzz sounds? Love a fuzz pedal? Then this is a must-have pedal! Yes, it is on the higher end of the scale when it comes to purchase price, but I am happy I bought it and feel I will be using it a lot for a lot of different sounds in my rig! Whereas, if you aren’t a big fan of fuzz sounds or can’t find a fuzz sound that you like, then this could be the answer! It walks the line between fuzz and overdrive so well that you could use it for either!
If you want to try out a Mythos Pedal for yourself, you can pick one up from the affiliate link below! Our affiliate links are a great way to support the site without costing you anything more! Use our links below to buy something, and when you do, we get a small commission! Helps me to keep bringing reviews and sound samples to you!
If you want to support the site then please give us a follow on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube.
Mythos Golden Fleece Links:
- Mythos Golden Fleece Website
- Mythos Golden Fleece (Thomann Affiliate)
- Mythos Golden Fleece (Andertons Affiliate)
- Andertons Affiliate Link
- Thomann Affiliate Link
Check out our other Articles here
One thought on “Mythos Golden Fleece Review – The only drive you will ever need?”
Comments are closed.