Catalinbread announces StarCrash Fuzz in '70s Collection

April 17, 2024 · 4 sources

The Catalinbread StarCrash Fuzz was reported on April 17, 2024, as one of two new pedals in the company's six-pedal "'70s Collection," alongside the SideArm Overdrive¹. The other four pedals in the series are older Catalinbread circuits with new green finishes: the Valcoder, Adineko, SFT and Katzenkönig².

The StarCrash is a silicon fuzz design built around the Fuzz Face. Delicious Audio describes it as "a Fuzz Face evolution" that "reimagines what the builders of the original Fuzz Face should have done when they famously decided to swap the original Germanium diode with a Silicon one," a change that made the pedal behave more consistently at different temperatures but noticeably changed its sonic character¹. MusicRadar calls it "a silicon Fuzz Face variant that gains some features, and loses some"².

It has three controls: Volume, Bias and Low Cut³. There is no Fuzz knob; Delicious Audio says the pedal lacks one "because almost everyone who's ever used a Fuzz Face keeps that knob cranked at 10 all the time"¹. The Bias control starves the circuit, giving what Delicious Audio describes as "velcroy and spitty tones" at lower settings and smooth vintage tones higher up¹; MusicRadar says the sound is "pretty much like a regular Fuzz Face" at noon². The Low Cut is a high-pass filter cutting bass between 30Hz and 500Hz¹, with a 3dB cut per octave, most noticeable past the halfway point⁴.

Pricing is reported differently. MusicRadar gives $149 and says the pedals are available now²; Guitar World gives $149 each⁴. Guitar Pedal X lists the StarCrash at $179, with the collection's prices running from $179 to $209 for the Adineko³.