Catalinbread Giygas Fuzz

CATALINBREAD GIYGAS OVERVIEW

Catalinbread means business! The Giygas is an all-powerful fuzz tool with enough options to enhance any tone across literally every genre and band configuration. The three-transistor fuzz circuit is harmonically rich, with serious amp-pummeling potential and tons of creamy sustain when cranked. This feeds a JFET-equipped clean blend circuit that can get 100% dry or wet with zero harmonic distortion. After the blending, the signal feeds two cascading EQ stages—the first being a 10dB mids boost or cut at 900Hz, and the second being a tilt-style EQ that simultaneously boosts and cuts frequencies above and below 900Hz up to 10dB. Bass players can flip an internal switch that recenters both Mids and EQ to 250Hz—we <3 rhythm sections! The Giygas can replace a whole board’s worth of dirt boxes, leaving more room for, well, more pedals!

Input Jack

¼” mono cable from instrument

Output Jack

¼” mono cable to amp or other effect

9V jack

Accepts 9V DC ONLY with at least 18mA

Bypass

Turns the Giygas on and off, true bypass switching

CONTROLS

EQ

This is a detented control. The center position is flat, no frequencies are affected. The EQ control is a tilt style with the center frequency at 900Hz. When rolled up, this knob boosts everything above 900Hz and cuts everything below. When rolled down, the knob boosts everything below 900Hz and cuts everything above. The maximum boost and cut is 10dB on either side.

Mids

This is a detented control. The center position is flat, no frequencies are affected. The Mids control is an active mids boost or cut at 900Hz, with up to 10dB of boost or cut. This helps the fuzz jump out of the mix with ease. The width of the mids boost is wide enough to interact with the EQ knob in interesting ways. Try it!

Blend

This knob blends between clean and fuzz sounds, from 100 percent dry to 100 percent wet. This lets you preserve some natural guitar tone or pre-dialed frequencies which lets your tone breathe. Be aware that you will have to adjust the volume accordingly when turning this knob.

Loud

This control is very aptly named. When the Blend knob is rolled all the way back, full Loud will give a slightly boosted signal. But when the Blend knob is all the way up, everyone within a one-mile radius will call the cops.

Fuzz

Goes from “a little” to “a lot.” There are a ton of different flavors on tap, and the Giygas is equipped with a small “treble retention circuit” that keeps the chime present even when Fuzz is at zero. Rolling the Fuzz control back brings all sorts of lower-gain garage rock textures to the surface.

UNDER THE HOOD:

Guitar/bass switch

This switch changes the center point of both EQ and Mids controls from 900Hz to 250Hz for a much more natural feel when playing bass. Be aware that this affects the 40Hz trimmer (see below).

40Hz trimpot

This control functions just like the Mids knob except it provides up to 10dB of boost or cut at 40Hz, very useful when recording or for when you want your bass to have a little more oomph. This trimpot is not affected by the Guitar/bass switch. The factory setting is fully down (10dB cut). BE CAREFUL with this control, especially with the EQ and Mids knobs set to bass mode. With this trimpot set higher than noon, the EQ control will compound-boost the 40Hz band.

ROUTING:

                              |----[DRY]----|

                              |                   |

[INSTRUMENT]----*             [BLEND]---------[MIDS]---------[EQ]---------[LOUD]---------[AMP]

                              |                   |

                              |---[FUZZ]---|

CONSIDER THIS:

As seen in the signal routing, the Blend control terminates after the Fuzz circuit but before all equalization. Therefore, you can roll the Blend control all the way back and use the Giygas as a powerful, studio-style standalone EQ. If you roll up the Blend control ever so slightly and crank the Fuzz knob, it can provide some light breakup reminiscent of console-style distortion.

When you run another effect into the Giygas, that effect is now your “clean signal” when you turn on the Giygas and roll the Blend all the way back. You can then use the EQ and Mids controls to adjust the tone of any pedals before the Giygas. Rolling the Blend up crossfades between the chain before the Giygas and the internal fuzz core, then lets you EQ the signal sum. This is for you multiple fuzz users!

The Giygas runs on a 9VDC adapter, but it includes a charge pump circuit that runs the EQ internally at +/-9VDC for 18V of rail-to-rail headroom. Both EQ controls feature precision R2R op-amps for the lowest noise and highest headroom possible.

POWER SUPPLY REQUIREMENTS:

The Giygas requires a 9VDC supply with 18mA of current. You can, of course, give the Giygas more current than it needs. However, because of the charge pump circuit, do NOT run the Giygas on anything higher than 9V. Bad things will happen, including and not limited to your warranty being voided.

MEASUREMENTS:

Current draw: 18mA

Input impedance: 3meg

Output impedance: 18k

Dimensions: 4.33” X 2.36” X 1.96”

Weight: 0.5 lbs