Mythos The Fates review – a chorus classic gets an overhaul

$229/£185, mythospedals.com

“There’s no fate, but what we make ourselves” is one of the defining lines of the Terminator movies – the good ones at least. And so it’s fitting then that Zach Broyles and his team at Mythos haven’t named their latest pedal The Fates, given that chorus is something else that most people agree was never better than it was in the ‘80s and early ‘90s…

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What is Mythos’ The Fates?

Mythos sensibly only alludes to what the inspiration for the fates is, saying only that it’s inspired by ‘Japanese chorus pedals of yesteryear’ but we all know what they’re talking about – it’s the big daddy of them all, the Boss CE-2.

However, Broyles and the Mythos team haven’t stopped at just making a by-the-numbers CE-2 clone, oh no. Instead they’ve spared no expense by adding a JFET buffered bypass/input stage that utilises the infamous MN3207 chip.

That’s not all; The Fates also includes one of the most commonly done and requested mods for vintage CE-2’s – a tweaked vibrato section that leaves out the harsher warbles this pedal is capable of producing.

Is The Fates easy to use?

As far as controls goes, The Fates is a simple two-knob affair that can be easily dialed in and have you channeling your inner Purple Rain in no time. You have rate and depth, coupled with a toggle switch that lets you select either chorus or vibrato. Rate controls the speed and depth controls the amount of chorus/vibrato in your signal. Simple and easy.

What does The Fates sound like?

Plugging my Vintera II Jazzmaster into my PRS Sonzera 20 I found myself gravitating towards the chorus side of the pedal where you can find the sort of lush swirls that would make David Gilmour beam with joy.

The sweet spot for me involves keeping the rate knob at noon and slightly turning up the depth knob, and just like the pedal it was inspired by, the dynamics of my pick attack invoke a similar response to the CE-2. All very nice and enjoyable.

Surprisingly, the chorus section equally shines when paired with a solid dirt pedal, like the 1981 Inventions LVL. This yields a sound that can be very subtle and smooth but is rarely overpowered by the harshness that is usually introduced when adding a drive pedal, and yielded a tone that was akin to a more beefed up I Don’t Live Here Anymore-era Adam Granduciel.

I often find that the vibrato section on a CE-2-style pedal tends to be the least usable part – often quite frustrating due to it being a sound that only the most adventurous of guitarists dare try to tame. So it’s a pleasant surprise then to discover that it’s much more nuanced and dialled back on The Fates. It sounds closer to the settings on a big box 80s Deluxe Memory Man – more sitting behind the signal than overtaking it. All of this adds up to The Fates being one of the cleanest-sounding chorus pedals that I’ve played.

Is The Fates worth it?

For a company that has primarily been associated with creating boutique dirt pedals of various flavours since Broyles started the company back in 2010, The Fates feels like an important pedal, showing that Mythos’ engineers can branch out into other areas with just as much success.

It’s also a killer recreation of that classic CE-2 circuit, with some really smart tweaks and quality-of-life upgrades that elevate things above a mere clone.

Mythos The Fates alternatives

• Boss CE-2W $219/£219
• Walrus Audio Julia V2 $219/£199
• Universal Audio Astra Modulation Machine $399/£349