Matthews Effects The Thief is a fuzz pedal built around a single control. The maker describes it as "The Thief" One-Knob Fuzz, and its whole interface is one knob that dials in the amount of fuzz. Matthews Effects says that with that single knob a player can dial in the perfect amount of fuzz to suit their style, which makes it a pedal you set by ear rather than by tweaking several parameters at once. It sits in the broader family of fuzz pedals, where circuits range from multi-control designs to simple, single-knob units like this one1.
What it does
The Thief delivers what Matthews Effects calls a dynamic palette of rich, saturated tones, marrying vintage warmth with modern aggression. In practice, that means the pedal takes a clean guitar signal and pushes it into saturated fuzz territory, with the single knob setting how much of that effect comes through. Players who want more control over gain, tone and bias will find it on pedals with larger control panels, but the one-knob approach keeps the footprint small and the setup quick1.
The compact design is paired with what the maker describes as rugged and road-worthy construction, so the pedal is built to handle life on a pedalboard and on stage1.
The Thief is listed as sold out on the Matthews Effects site as of 26 October 20261.
Price and availability
The maker's product page lists a sale price of £100.00 GBP. The pedal is currently shown as sold out1. A Users Guide is available for the pedal on the maker's page1.
Sources (1)
- The Thief, Matthews Effects