Roland Funny Cat

The Roland Funny Cat is a vintage effects pedal from Roland, released in Japan during the early Seventies. It is a combination of distortion and envelope follower (VCF), meaning a distortion stage feeds a voltage-controlled filter that opens and closes with how hard you play. Guitar World placed it among the strangest vintage effects of all time, describing how "the Funny Cat spews and mews unpredictably, with the effect often becoming more pronounced the softer, or the higher up the neck" you play¹.

What it does

The Funny Cat pairs two circuits in one box. A distortion stage clips the signal, and an envelope follower tracks the dynamics of your playing to control a voltage-controlled filter (VCF). The result is a sound that changes with attack and with where you are on the neck: Guitar World notes the effect often becomes more pronounced the softer you play or the higher up the neck you go, the opposite of how most envelope pedals respond¹.

Where the name came from

In a JHS Pedals interview, Roland engineer Yoshi Ikegami recalled the era's naming habits: "At that time [we saw] the famous Crybaby Wah, so everybody says, 'Use the funny name.'" The Funny Cat's name sits in that tradition of playful pedal names that followed the Crybaby³.

The DIY replica

The original Funny Cat is long out of production, but the circuit lives on as a builder's project. General Guitar Gadgets offers what it calls "a Roland™ Funny Cat™ replica project," based on a circuit from the GEOFEX site called "Silly Feline"². Builders who want the Funny Cat sound without hunting a vintage original can construct the replica from that project.

Related Roland pedals

Roland's early pedal range included other oddities alongside the Funny Cat, such as the Roland AF-60 Bee Gee and the Roland Torcido. For modern takes on the same territory, see Filter Pedals and Distortion Pedals.

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