Hiwatt Custom Motto Oto Boost

The Motto Oto comes out of Hiwatt's Japanese heritage: it was developed in the 1980s as the preamp of the Hiwatt Custom Tape Echo, and the Custom Shop has rebuilt that circuit as a standalone pedal.

A single transistor sits at its core, which is what lets one control range run from clean boost through light overdrive to full distortion. It is touch sensitive and dynamic rather than a fixed level lift, so the guitar's volume knob does most of the work. Level and Tone are the only controls, with a 1/4-inch instrument input and a 1/4-inch amp output.