Catalinbread Unveils the Giygas Fuzz Pedal

May 21, 2020 · 6 sources

Catalinbread announced the Giygas, a three-transistor fuzz pedal with a mid boost and a clean blend circuit. The Portland-based maker had released the pedal earlier in May, and press coverage described it as "super fuzzy and loud, but voiced to avoid muddiness, and engineered to give you options"¹.

Inside, the signal path runs the fuzz into a gyrator-based mids boost, then into a tilt EQ circuit¹. The name was inspired by the antagonist of the Super Nintendo game Earthbound².

The pedal carried five controls:

• Fuzz for the fuzz amount
• Mids for the mid boost
• EQ, a tilt control
• Blend for mixing in clean signal
• Loud for output level³

Both the Mid and EQ knobs used detented controls, flat at the 12 o'clock position. Turning either clockwise boosted frequencies above 900Hz and turned down frequencies below that center point⁴.

Alex Maiolo, Delicious Audio¹

The Giygas listed for $199.99 and was available for preorder⁵⁶. Preorders had begun, with units shipping out on June 1⁴. The pedal ran on an external 9-Volt power supply and did not use batteries⁵.

Gearnews' reviewer was impressed, finding the pedal flexible EQ-wise and noting that its ability to handle lower-tuned instruments would be a huge bonus for many players⁵.