Pigtronix has just dropped some fresh ordnance for your pedalboard, a high-gain, all-analogue fuzz pedal with a switchable noise gate that goes by the name of Gas Giant.
The Big Apple-based guitar effects pedal specialist says it is inspired by vintage 1970s units from its fellow New Yorkers, which of course places it sonically on the Big Muff continuum. Under the hood, there is a circuit that features quad-matched transistor sets that Pigtronix says is a guarantor of consistency whenever you step on the pedal.
“Each and every unit is perfectly dialled in to the ‘sweet spot’ that can be so elusive to find in vintage pedals,” says Pigtronix.
But there is plenty of scope for dialling in further and finding your own sweet spot. There are metal dials for Volume, Tone and Gain, all relatively straightforward and self-explanatory, with Volume controlling the overall output, Tone the frequency response of the filter, and Gain the fun dial.
Those knobs are complemented by a pair of switches, one applying a quick-fix adjustment to the EQ voicing of the pedal’s Tone control, allowing players to toggle between a “Bump” and “Scoop” mode, where the latter gives you that “traditional heavy bass, searing top-end and midrange” scooped EQ profile of the vintage fuzz units that inspired this, and the Bump mode putting those mids back on the menu.
Fuzz can be notoriously difficult for some guitarists, who find their electric guitar tone can disappear in the mix, so having a few helpful EQ options on the pedal can be a life-saver. Pigtronix has designed the Gas Giant to play nice with all kinds of electric guitar pickups, humbucker and single-coil alike.
The second switch is more utilitarian but not less welcome. It activates an in-built FET-driven noise gate to keep things quiet. This portion of the circuit is imported from Pigtronix’s Gatekeeper, which is definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for a noise gate in a mini pedal format. It’s a buzz killer in the right sense of the word.
Back to the Gas Giant, you have input and output jacks on the top of the pedal. It takes 9V DC from a pedalboard power supply and draws under 100mA.
Helpfully, the Pigtronix website has some serving suggestions for the Gas Giant; set it with all knobs just past noon for a “quintessential ‘90s grunge tone”, dial back the Fuzz for an warm, throaty ’n’ sparkly overdrive that’ll give you those J Mascis and Neil Young tones, engage the midrange bump, engage the noise gate and keep Gain just below noon, et voila, some nice articulate fuzz sounds for chord work.
All this and more for $149. See Pigtronix for more details.
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