Pigtronix Disnortion

The Pigtronix Disnortion is an analog overdrive, fuzz and octave-up pedal in one enclosure, made by the US effects firm Pigtronix¹. It is a large, three-footswitch pedal²³, with each of its three effects on its own switch so you can use them alone or stacked. Pete Thorn, demoing it, described it as "a vintage stle overdrive a fuzz and an octave effect all in the same pedal"⁴.

The original pedal was in production from 2005 to 2015³, and gearnews reports that the original Disnortion pedals ceased being made in 2015⁵. The design did not disappear: Pigtronix later released the Disnortion Micro's larger sibling, the Disnortion Micro, a compact version carrying over the same analog fuzz and overdrive circuits⁶.

Octave, fuzz and overdrive working in parallel

The Disnortion's defining idea is that its three effects are independent and can run at the same time. MusicRadar's Trevor Curwen notes that "the original had three independent effects"². Analog Man's product page for the OFO Disnortion, the version it sold, describes the routing in detail: parallel fuzz and overdrive, with the octave circuit wired in series before them⁸. That means the octave-up feeds the dirt circuits rather than sitting alongside them.

Each circuit has its own character:

• Overdrive: a touch-sensitive circuit using a proprietary 5-stage gain architecture that Pigtronix says retains the natural tone of the instrument while gradually breaking up as you play louder⁸. Thorn called the overdrive side "a real warm fat vintage style overdrive"⁴.
• Fuzz: Pigtronix's own take on diode clipping, which the maker describes as providing plenty of compression and controllable feedback while preserving dynamics⁸.
• Octave: a frequency-doubling octave-up⁸, the circuit Pigtronix later expanded into the standalone Octava Micro.

The whole pedal is described by its maker as extremely low noise, with controls tuned to give the widest musical range from each circuit⁸. In his demo, Pete Thorn found the pedal flexible enough that it worked with almost any guitar and amp combination he tried⁴.

The controls

Each of the three sections has its own small control set, which is what the three footswitches and large enclosure allow.

The fuzz's shape control is the one Thorn spent the most time on in his demo: at its lowest setting versus higher settings it radically changes the fuzz tone, getting thin and then super fat⁴.

The Disnortion Micro simplifies this. It has knobs for Gain and Output volume², with a single gain knob controlling the saturation of both the fuzz and overdrive circuits simultaneously⁹³. In place of the shape control it uses a rotary tone control filter switch providing 6 musical EQ curves through a complex passive network³. The Micro also adds Series/Parallel switching³, where the original's fuzz and overdrive worked only in parallel². Its six filter positions include No Filter and Low Pass (Bass)³.

What reviewers said

MusicRadar's review of the Disnortion Micro describes Parallel mode as a blend of fuzz and overdrive, more overdrive in nature, ranging from clean boost to gritty just-breaking-up sounds to natural distortion with a crisp fuzzy edge and individual string clarity². Among its listed pluses is its compact size².

Pete Thorn's demo video covers the full pedal:

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Pigtronix's launch material for the Micro leaned on the original's reputation, saying it "is loved for its limitless headroom, making it compatible with any instrument, from th"e weakest '60s pawnshop single coils to the most belligerent humbuckers, as well as 5-string active basses and modern synth rigs³.

A related pedal, the Aria Disnortion, is an analog overdrive with a 3-band active EQ (Bass, Mid, Treble) that Premier Guitar's reviewer found "very flexible"¹⁰¹¹. Their buying advice on the Aria: buy it if you want a flexible fuzz covering many tones including bass fuzz, skip it if you want a low-gain transparent overdrive¹¹. Pigtronix claimed the Aria would "make you write new songs"¹⁰.

In his demo video, Pete Thorn found the Disnortion flexible, reporting that it worked with almost any guitar and amp combination he put it with⁴.

Who uses it

Pigtronix's 2017 press material says the original Disnortion "remains in constant use with world-class bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Aerosmith, Living Colour, and Muse."³ On the bass side, Bass Gear Magazine notes the Disnortion "had been used for years by bass players, including Tony Levin"¹², which lines up with the maker's headroom claims for 5-string active basses³. The Micro's sound design is credited to David Koltai³.

The Disnortion Micro and later Pigtronix fuzzes

The Disnortion Micro is a micro-sized pedal², a micro version of the classic Disnortion³. Delicious Audio dates it back to 2014¹³, while Pigtronix announced it in 2017 and described it as available at retailers worldwide³. Its CMOS overdrive responds to playing dynamics using a unique 6-stage gain architecture⁶, and it packs the 18V headroom of the original analog fuzz and overdrive circuits into the small box³.

Pigtronix has since continued in fuzz with pedals like the Star Eater and the Gas Giant, but the Disnortion remains the design that put the company's parallel-routing idea on pedalboards.

Videos

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Questions