Catalinbread Perseus Sub-Octave Fuzz

Catalinbread Perseus Fuzz

The Catalinbread Perseus is an octave-down fuzz that allows you to select either one or two octaves down mixed with a fuzz sound that you can blend to any mix of the two. For example,  just the fuzz or just the sub-octave.

The Perseus can track the sub-octave note accurately no matter where on the neck you are playing!

The Catalinbread Perseus In Use

Sub-octave fuzz so massive and thundering, that you’ll regret turning it off. The Perseus is an octave-down fuzz that allows you to select either one or two octaves down mixed with a fuzz sound that you can blend to any mix of the two you want, including just the fuzz or just the sub-octave.

We believe the Perseus is the coolest analog octave-down fuzz out there!

Try playing one note and holding it. With a bit of practice, you should be able to get it to sustain almost
indefinitely! Now let go of the note. Dead silence! A carefully tuned gating circuit allows you to have your cake and eat it too!

Catalinbreads demo can be seen here

Controls

Perseus octave fuzz controls:

• Volume
• Cut
• Blend
• Octave Switch
• and your guitar volume and tone are part of this very interactive octave fuzz pedal

Volume

You’ll notice that Perseus has PLENTY of output so you can pummel your amp to your heart’s desire! Unity volume is around 10:00.

Cut

Ahh, now what’s this knob for? It reduces the bass content of your signal. Why would you want to do that?

Two reasons:

1) To allow you to use the Perseus into a cranked, overdriven amp without “flubbing” out from too much bass;

2) So you can create cool textures for lead playing.

Turn the Cut control full-counterclockwise for maximum bass frequency domination. Turn it clockwise to trim the fat.

If you’re playing your Perseus into an amp that is cranked up (say, oh I dunno, how about a Marshall Plexi at
full bore), the awesome bass signal from the Perseus may start to “flub” or “fart out” your amp’s input.

Simply turn the Cut knob clockwise until you get a nice fat sound with no flub! You are the master of your
universe.

Or, even if you’re playing into a clean amp you might want to use the Cut knob to take down some of the bass
frequencies so you’ll cut through your band mix more.

This knob may seem simple, but it is very useful!

Blend

This control allows you to mix the fuzz and octave sounds in any amount you want.

Full-counterclockwise will let you use just the fuzz sound. That’s right, you can use the Perseus as a cool-sounding fuzz pedal and use the Cut knob to adjust the fuzz’s tone!

Full-clockwise will give you just the octave-down sound! Fire your synth player!

You can get a lot of different textures out of the Perseus with this knob. Fat synth bass lines, reedy lead
sounds, and much more!

Octave Switch

This switch allows you to switch between one or two octaves down.

Although the fuzz signal remains the same, you may notice that it seems more prominent on the 2-octave
setting. This is because the sub-octave sound is separated from the original octave farther now. On the
1-octave setting, there is more overlap of frequencies so the fuzz sound blends into the octave sound more.

When switching the octave switch you may want to adjust the Blend and Cut controls to get the sound you’re
after.

On the 2-octave setting, the low notes on your low E string will be so low you can hear each cycle of the sound wave! Woo hoo!

Guitar volume knob

Try turning down the volume knob on your guitar for some different sounds. You’ll see that you can get
some cool, slightly gate-y sounds this way! If your guitar has hot pickups or humbuckers, you may want to
turn the volume knob down just a tad to get the best tracking.

Guitar tone knob

As mentioned in the Quick Start section, the best tracking happens with the tone knob on your guitar rolled
all the way back. If you’re using the neck pickup, you can usually get away with rolling the tone knob back
up on most guitars and still get great octave tracking.

Guitar pickup selector

Your neck pickup will give the best octave tracking.

But…. let’s say you want some glitchy octave sounds that seem to jump randomly… flip to the bridge pickup
and roll the guitar’s tone knob to the brightest setting. Now play. Don’t bother with muting the strings. Go
ahead and try playing some chords. Like what you hear? Like making fun noises? Then proceed with vigor!

Remember, your guitar’s volume, tone, and pickup controls work in conjunction with the Perseus.