Mr. Black CAT Distortion

The Mr. Black CAT Distortion is a high-gain distortion pedal, built as what Mr. Black calls a "fully re-designed take on the classic mid-1970s distortion pedal born in a basement in Kalamazoo MI"¹. It is a 100% pure-analog design, housed in a CNC-milled genuine Hammond enclosure, and Mr. Black says the tone is "just as raunchy, with all the aggression and attitude that birthed a classic"¹. One practical detail players will like: Mr. Black says the pedal "cleans-up via the guitar's volume knob," so you can roll back for lower-gain sounds without touching the pedal¹.

The pedal is a Jack Deville original design, made in the U.S.A.¹.

History and design: a re-designed 1970s circuit

The CAT Distortion's story starts in the mid-1970s, in a basement in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where, as Mr. Black tells it, "two engineers were working to reliably create that aggressive, raunchy sound on demand"¹. The CAT Distortion is Mr. Black's modern re-design of the distortion pedal that circuit became, keeping the character of the original while rebuilding it for current production.

The mid-1970s Kalamazoo distortion family has a wider footprint than this one pedal. The Ibanez FC10 Fat Cat, a distortion pedal from Ibanez's Power Series, is another member of that lineage²¹, and the circuit has been re-imagined more than once by modern builders. Fuzzrocious's Cat King is described by RockBoard's PedalPedia as a circuit "based on a well-loved, classic distortion that make a clean amp dirty and a dirty amp disgusting"³. The CAT Distortion is Mr. Black's entry in that same family of re-designed takes.

Controls, power and connections

Mr. Black gives the electrical picture in full. The pedal draws only 9mA at 9VDC, so it is light on a pedalboard power supply, though the maker recommends a regulated supply rated above 100mA. Power comes through a 2.1mm negative center-pin jack, the Boss-style standard, or an internal 9V battery, which is not included¹.

The pedal is true bypass, so your dry signal passes through unbuffered when the pedal is off. Input impedance is 470KΩ and output impedance is 1KΩ, figures consistent with a straightforward analog distortion in front of an amp¹. The compact footprint, 2.65" x 4.45" x 1.85", leaves room on a crowded board¹.

How it compares

Within Mr. Black's own line, the CAT Distortion sits alongside other high-gain designs like the Mr. Black Thunderclaw, originally released in 2014. Compared with other re-designs of the same 1970s Kalamazoo circuit, the CAT Distortion is the maker's own fully re-designed version, where the Fuzzrocious Cat King takes the same classic as its base with a different builder's choices¹⁴³.

Price and availability

The CAT Distortion lists at $219.95, with a sale price of $149.95 on the maker's page as of October 2026¹. It is made in the U.S.A. in a CNC-milled genuine Hammond enclosure¹.

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