Celestial Effects Cancer Wah The Fuzz

The Celestial Effects Cancer Wah the Fuzz is a hand-built multi-effect pedal that packages four individual effects into one enclosure: a fixed wah, an octave fuzz, a muscle fuzz, and a tube overdrive, in that signal order¹². Celestial Effects announced it on 7 October 2012, and it weighs 23 oz².

The idea behind the pedal is a wide palette of tones from effects designed to work with each other at the source, rather than four unrelated circuits sharing a box³. Premier Guitar's reviewer summed it up as a pedal that "combines tube overdrive, muscle fuzz, octave fuzz, and fixed wah in a way that provides a nice combination of familiarit[y]"¹.

The four sections and their controls

Each of the four effects has its own control set, and the pedal's layout earned praise from Premier Guitar, whose reviewer found that "the layout is smart and functional" and that "things don't feel at all cluttered even though the housing is relatively compact"¹.

Fixed Wah

The fixed wah is first in the signal path². It is not a rocker wah you move with your foot: the only front panel control is the WAH TONE knob, and the rest of the voicing lives inside. Under the bottom panel there are four trim pots for gain, mids, input impedance, and width-of-sweep, or Q control¹, plus a jumper block that selects one of four center frequencies for the WAH TONE control³⁵. That gives a player a settable, stationary wah voicing rather than a sweepable one, which is the main way it differs from a standard wah pedal.

Octave Fuzz

Next in the signal path is an analog octave fuzz based on the Octavia design²³. Its controls are FUZZ, VOLUME, and a switch to turn the octave feature on and off². Premier Guitar's reviewer noted that "the addition of a mini toggle allows you to switch the octave on or off, essentially making it two different specialty f[uzzes]"¹. With the octave off, the maker describes it as a great alternative to a Fuzz Face type effect that can go from mild to wild and cleans up nicely when the guitar volume is rolled back².

Muscle Fuzz

The muscle fuzz section started life based on a Ram's Head design, but with a revamped tone section and a clean gain stage added after the tone section². Vintage Guitar described it as a fuzz section with two tone EQ shapes⁴. This is the section that drew the strongest review praise, covered below.

Tube Overdrive

The last section is a real tube overdrive built on a stripped-down version of Celestial Effects' Taurus Blues Overdrive circuit, with Gain, Volume and Edge controls⁵. The gain and volume controls are, in Premier Guitar's words, "pretty self-explanatory"¹. The maker encourages experimentation with new and NOS tubes, including 12AU7 and 12AT7 models⁵.

Circuit basis and the fixed wah frequencies

The pedal's four circuits each trace to a known lineage, which is part of why reviewers found it familiar despite its unusual format¹:

• Fixed wah: a stationary wah filter, voiced by internal trim pots and a four-position center frequency jumper¹³
• Octave fuzz: the vintage Octavia design²⁵
• Muscle fuzz: a Ram's Head design with a revamped tone section and an added clean gain stage²
• Tube overdrive: a stripped-down Taurus Blues Overdrive circuit with a real tube⁵

The fixed wah's internal trimming is the deepest part of the pedal. The four trim pots (gain, mids, input impedance, and Q or width-of-sweep) let a player tune how pronounced the wah peak is and how it interacts with the guitar, while the jumper block moves the WAH TONE control's center frequency to one of four positions¹³. Pedal of the Day called the octave fuzz "another simple but powerful sonic tool, based on the vintage Octavia design"⁵.

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar's 2021 review was positive overall, with the muscle fuzz drawing the highest praise¹:

The reviewer called the muscle fuzz the favorite fuzz sound in the unit by far, describing it as versatile and easy to push from fizzy to buzz saw to sludgy, and fantastic when combined with the fixed wah¹. On the octave fuzz, the reviewer found it "tends to sound richer and more focused" than typical octave fuzzes, with horn-like effects and ring modulator tones possible, though the fuzz itself is not quite as strong as a regular fuzz; at full throttle it produces "the paint-peeling sounds of the octave fuzz"¹. The tube overdrive section "sounds great," and the reviewer loved it in front of an AC30 and paired with an old 12-watt Fender Musicmaster Bass amp, though it "won't get you all the way to true amp-style overdrive"¹.

On value, the review was blunt: it "costs as much as four individual stomps, so no bulkbuy value," though the reviewer concluded the pedal "covers a lot of distortion needs with some bonuses," offers lots of sonic choice without being overwhelming, and "would make one hell of a secret weapon in the studio"¹.

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