Catalinbread Fuzzrite Mini

The Catalinbread Fuzzrite Mini is a compact fuzz pedal from Catalinbread, the Portland, Oregon builder, built on the exact same circuit as the company's full-size Fuzzrite¹. Announced in October 2025 alongside a mini edition of the Epoch Boost, it packs the Fuzzrite circuit, a 1960s design, into a rugged, pedalboard-friendly enclosure¹². Catalinbread describes the Fuzzrite sound as "buzzy, spitty, and abrasive texture" with a "mid-heavy snarl that cuts through a mix with an aggressive, vintage character"¹.

Delicious Audio described the result in plain terms:

The controls: Volume and Depth

The Mini keeps the Fuzzrite's two-knob layout. Catalinbread's product page describes each control¹³:

Depth is where the Fuzzrite's character lives. At the minimum setting you hear the first transistor on its own, which Catalinbread describes as "cleanish and fat"⁴. As you increase Depth, the maker says you will notice:

• more voltage-starved, gated sounds
• pseudo ring mod-style upper octave harmonics
• at max settings, a thinner, more aggressive saturated sound with a ripping top-end attack and huge bloom to the notes⁴

One thing to know about the circuit's behavior: no matter where the Depth control is set, the signal travels directly through a small capacitor that cuts the low end⁵. The Fuzzrite is not a thick, low-end-heavy fuzz by design; it is a mid-focused one, and Delicious Audio characterized the Mini's voice as a "mid-heavy snarl that cuts through a mix with an aggressive, vintage character"¹.

Note that Delicious Audio's launch coverage described the two knobs as Volume and Fuzz, while Catalinbread's own product page names them Volume and Depth⁴¹. The maker's page is the reference for what is printed on the enclosure.

The Fuzzrite circuit and where it came from

The Fuzzrite dates to the late 1960s. The original Mosrite Fuzzrite used germanium transistors in its earliest units, while later versions moved to silicon transistors, across a variety of construction methods; one surviving eyelet-board example carries the date "12/67" engraved on its battery cover⁶². The silicon version appears to have been much more widespread than the germanium one⁷.

Catalinbread's Fuzzrite is a faithful recreation of the original classic circuit, based on the silicon version of the circuit that first appeared in the late '60s⁸⁹. According to Aion FX, the company teamed up with the Moseley estate and Ed Sanner to release an official reissue of the Fuzzrite, with a germanium version following in 2023⁷. Premier Guitar's review of the standard Fuzzrite noted its build quality, describing a robust box with the circuit board secured by small steel braces affixed directly to the enclosure⁸.

The circuit itself is simple: two separate gain stages, with the Depth knob acting as a mix control between them. You never hear the second stage by itself, only the first stage alone or the two blended⁵. That blend design is what lets the Fuzzrite range from trashy distortion to full-on fuzz with hints of upper octaves, as Delicious Audio's buying guide puts it¹⁰.

The Mini and Jr editions

In October 2025 Catalinbread brought two of its pedals into mini format as two-knob Jr editions: the Epoch Boost and the Fuzzrite¹¹. Guitar Pedal X reported the Mini editions at $129³. For players, the appeal is straightforward: the Fuzzrite's buzzy, spitty, abrasive texture and mid-heavy snarl in an enclosure that saves pedalboard space¹.

How the Mini relates to the Silicon Fuzzrite Mini

The Silicon Fuzzrite Mini is the mini edition of Catalinbread's silicon-transistor Fuzzrite, and it carries the same Volume and Depth controls as its compact sibling³. The Fuzzrite Mini line and the Silicon Fuzzrite Mini sit alongside each other in the catalog, both descended from the same late-1960s silicon circuit¹⁸.

Catalinbread also makes a Germanium Fuzzrite, a take on the early germanium version of the Mosrite Fuzzrite, voiced after an original unit, with two NOS PNP germanium semiconductors and a polarity inverter IC so it plays nice with all forms of power¹²⁹. Reviewers have compared the two flavors: Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson wrote of the silicon and germanium versions,

Power

Catalinbread's guidance is to avoid cheap, unregulated supplies, since the Mini's page specifies filtering and regulation for clean operation⁴.

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