Mythos Chupacabra

The Mythos Chupacabra is a two-knob overdrive pedal from Nashville-based builder Mythos Pedals, designed by Zach Broyles¹. It is built around a CD4049UBE CMOS hex inverter chip, the same family of chip that underpins the Way Huge Red Llama, and it is aimed squarely at players who work their guitar's volume and tone controls rather than stacking pedals²¹. Mythos describes the gain range as running from a tweed-style amp push to "your amp about to die" pseudo fuzz-like tones, with a fairly flat voicing and a slight bump in the lows and highs².

The design goal behind it was specific: Billy Gibbons' thick, Texas snarl on the first few ZZ Top albums¹.

Overdrive, fuzz, or both?

Mythos sells the Chupacabra as an overdrive, but reviewers have consistently placed it on the fuzzy end of that category. Premier Guitar called it an overdrive and fuzz pedal, concluding that "overdrive and fuzz are closer relatives than I thought," and noting that "even at more moderate settings there's always a bit of fuzz hanging around"¹. Guitar.com's Michael Watts described it as a hand-made boutique analog distortion/fuzz pedal³.

The maker's own description bridges the two: the CMOS hex chip gives it a large output and gain range, and the voicing is fairly flat with a slight lift at the frequency extremes rather than a midrange hump like a Tube Screamer-style circuit². Mythos positions it as a drive "made for those that love using their guitar controls," which fits the CMOS approach: these chips clean up noticeably as you roll back the guitar's volume.

The controls

The control set is minimal by design. As Mythos puts it, "Sometimes two knobs are all you need"².

Premier Guitar's reviewer found the layout "dead simple with a volume and gain knob" and reported it was hard to find an unusable setting¹. There is no tone control, so the pedal's flat-ish voicing and your guitar's controls do the shaping. A bright green LED indicates when the pedal is engaged³.

History: Zach Broyles and the Red Llama connection

Zach Broyles builds the Chupacabra at Mythos Pedals in Nashville¹. The circuit's lineage traces back through the Way Huge Red Llama. Guitar Pedal X notes that many say the Chupacabra is based to a degree on the Red Llama⁴, and both pedals share the CD4049UBE chip at their core¹³.

The Red Llama itself was rooted in Craig Anderton's Tube Sound Fuzz design, a DIY circuit published with minor commercial tweaks by Way Huge⁵⁶. The original Red Llama was discontinued in 1999, and the current Way Huge version is a continuation of that circuit rather than a reproduction⁷. The name, incidentally, is a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference⁸.

So the family tree runs: Anderton's Tube Sound Fuzz design, then the Red Llama's commercial version of it, then CMOS overdrives like the Chupacabra that carry the same chip and the same basic trick of overdriving logic chips into distortion⁵⁶⁴.

What reviewers said

The two published reviews of the Chupacabra come at it from different angles¹³.

Premier Guitar (2026) framed it around the ZZ Top design goal and found it easy to dial in, with the caveat that the fuzz character never fully disappears at lower gain¹. Guitar.com (2018) took the fuzz comparison further. Reviewer Michael Watts wrote:

That comparison applies at full gain, and it is a description of character rather than a claim that the circuit resembles a Fuzz Face, which is a germanium transistor design rather than a CMOS one. Watts also praised its rhythm sound, calling it "hands-down one of the best blues-rock rhythm tones we've heard for some time"³.

Price

Premier Guitar listed the Chupacabra at a street price of $179 in 2026¹, matching the $179 figure Guitar Pedal X gave in 2021⁴. In the UK, Guitar.com reviewed it at £179 in 2018³.

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