New Catalinbread Manx Loaghtan 2012 Reissue Muff-Style Fuzz Guitar Effect Pedal

There aren’t many circuits out there with as much providence and versatility as the Big Muff. As celebrated as the circuit is, it has hundreds of variants, with even small value adjustments making big differences in tone and feel. And for being a fuzz unit, it’s much more topologically complicated than others in its category. Our Manx Loaghtan is a forgotten classic that’s on many of our own pedalboards, which got us wondering why we ever stopped making it. It’s a sterling example of the classic Muff circuit, featuring a much more powerful EQ section—often cited as the weakest link of the Muff. Ours scraps the single-knob dual filter approach in favor of a much more robust Baxandall type, which lets you dial in every flavor of equalization from crisp highs to boomy lows, but further exploration lets you adjust the midrange content by boosting or cutting both bands at once. The surrounding circuitry has been expertly tweaked to serve up chunky chords, woodwind-like sustain and even some low-gain OD tones.

Controls

HIGHS: Adjusts the level of the treble shelving filter. This control is configured to add (or subtract) just enough treble to sound usable in every position.

LEVEL: Does what you expect!

LOWS: Adjusts the level of the bass shelving filter. Like the Highs control, this adds or subtracts bass in a tasteful manner. Cranking both knobs creates a ~-5dB mids scoop. Rolling both back achieves the opposite effect.

SUSTAIN: Lets more of the first stage into the core distortion engine, you can think of this control as “Fuzz” even though the originals shied away from explicitly saying that. This knob is equipped with a treble retaining subcircuit to keep the highs present when rolling it down, the lack of which is a major reason why many older pedals of this type sound strange when doing so.

Power Supply

The Manx Loaghtan accepts anything between 9V and 18V with a center-negative DC power supply (though we recommend 9V). Plugging in anything other than this (center-positive, AC, higher voltage, etc.) there’s a good chance that you will put your Manx out to pasture. Save yourself some time and headache and plug the correct adapter into the pedal the first time, otherwise you run the risk of voiding your warranty, and a fuzz with no fuzz is a paperweight.