The Black Cat Superfuzz is a fuzz pedal made by Black Cat Products, described in its manual as a two-stage octave doubling fuzz1. It sits in the octave fuzz corner of the fuzz pedal world, part of the broader family of octave and pitch pedals, and its character comes from how the two amplifier stages interact: the more signal you let pass from the first stage to the second, the more distortion and octave doubling you hear1.
Controls
The pedal has three controls, and the manual explains each in plain terms1.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| DISTORTION | Controls the amount of signal that passes from the 1st stage amplifier to the 2nd stage amplifier. More signal passing gives more distortion; turning up gives a fuzzier octave doubled sound. |
| TONE (switch) | Two-position switch. Up gives a straight fuzz sound; down gives a muted "NOTCH" filtered sound. |
| EXPANDER (VOLUME) | Controls the overall output of the unit. |
How it sounds, according to the manual
The maker's manual describes the range of the pedal in terms of the DISTORTION control's position. To get what it calls a screaming FUZZ sound, the manual says to turn the DISTORTION CONTROL to about 3 o'clock, while turning it all the way up gives a fuzzier sound with the octave doubling coming through at higher settings1.
"Turning up the DISTORTION control will give you a fuzzier octave"
Two modes
The TONE switch selects between two different operation modes, which is the pedal's main voicing choice: a straight fuzz with the switch up, or the muted, notch-filtered sound with the switch down1. That makes it a two-voice fuzz rather than a pedal with a sweepable tone control, and the notch position is the more filtered of the two1.
Videos
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Aaron Ginn
Sources (1)
- Black Cat Superfuzz manual, Analog Man, 2015
