Purple Moon

The Purple Moon is a vintage-style “fuzz ‘n’ vibe” pedal – it combines a chewy Uni-Vibe style analog vibrato effect with a built-in fuzz circuit. It’s Carl Martin’s take on capturing the psychedelic late-60s guitar sounds (think Jimi Hendrix “Band of Gypsys” or Robin Trower tones) in one box. Notably, it’s a dual-speed vibe (you can toggle between two preset speed settings) and the fuzz can blend with the vibe to various degrees. So, Purple Moon = analog Uni-Vibe (vibrato/chorus) + vintage silicon fuzz, all true bypass and analog.

The Purple Moon is designed to have both effects active together – there isn’t a separate footswitch to independently turn off the fuzz or vibe. There’s one footswitch to bypass/engage the pedal (when on, vibe is active), and a small toggle to select between two vibe speeds. The fuzz is built into the circuit and controlled by the Fuzz knob. However, you can dial the Fuzz knob to zero for essentially no fuzz (just vibe effect), or crank it for thick fuzz combined with the vibe. So while not independently switchable, you can get just vibe (fuzz down) or vibe+fuzz (fuzz up). It’s really meant to emulate the combination of fuzz and vibe used simultaneously in those classic recordings, but it’s flexible in that you can minimize the fuzz if you want a cleaner warble.

Yes – the Purple Moon is true bypass (which is somewhat unique given it has an analog modulation; many vibe pedals are buffered but Carl Martin managed true bypass here). So when it’s off, it’s completely out of your signal chain. No tone loss or change when bypassed. And since it’s analog, there’s no latency or conversion. One thing to note: because it’s true bypass, if you switch it off, any ongoing vibe modulation (and fuzz) cuts out immediately (there’s no effect “trail,” which is expected for modulation pedals).

It’s inspired by the classic Uni-Vibe (Shin-ei Univibe) unit that Hendrix, Trower, Gilmour used, and also incorporates a Fuzz Face flavored fuzz. In a sense, it packages the combination of a Fuzz Face into a Uni-Vibe. The vibe portion gives that “liquidy” rotating speaker-esque modulation (the pedal can do both chorus and vibrato sounds – internally it’s a vibe circuit). The fuzz portion is a vintage-style silicon fuzz; it’s described as thick and saturated, very period-correct to late ’60s sound. When combined, the interaction is magical: the fuzz into the vibe creates those swirling, harmonically rich lead tones (think the Woodstock “Star-Spangled Banner” or Trower’s “Bridge of Sighs” vibe). So while not a clone of any one pedal, Purple Moon is definitely built to nail a specific era of tone by marrying two legendary effects in one.

Not exactly – the vibe circuit is always on when the pedal is engaged. Even if Depth is at minimum, there may still be a slight tonal coloration from the vibe circuit (though practically at zero depth it’s very subtle). The design intention is that you’ll always use some vibe with the fuzz. If you wanted strictly fuzz, you might need a separate fuzz pedal. That said, you could set Depth to zero and Speed anywhere (the modulation becomes nearly imperceptible) and use it as a fuzz box in a pinch. But truly, Purple Moon shines when you let the two effects interact – if you want a standalone fuzz, Carl Martin has other pedals or you could simply dial your fuzz pedal into Purple Moon’s vibe input (some users run an external fuzz into Purple Moon with its fuzz turned down, for different flavors).

It uses standard 9V DC (center-negative) at about 50–60 mA. Like other Vintage Series Carl Martin pedals, it does not have a battery compartment (no battery use) – the expectation is you’ll run it off a pedalboard power supply. Being analog and having a small incandescent lamp or LED circuit for the vibe (Uni-Vibes traditionally used a light cell), keeping it at a steady 9V is recommended. If you feed it an isolated, filtered 9V, you’ll get the lowest noise performance. And do note, because it’s analog and true bypass, you won’t get any weird digital noises or anything – it’s just power it and go.