Midgeapocalypse Vintage Fuzz

The Midgeapocalypse Vintage Fuzz is tailor-made for anyone who likes their fuzz gnarly, spitty, gated, and mean. The “Midge” is inspired by the classic FY-2 fuzz. It sports a distinctive vintage voice and tonal enhancements as modern as its looks. This one is not for the uninitiated.

An unholy gnarl bomb of fuzzy, buzzsaw bliss.

If you know what the FY-2 is, you vaguely know what you’re getting with the Midgeapocalypse Vintage Fuzz. If you don’t know, just consider it has been used with killer results by artists ranging from The Black Keys to Radiohead to The Jesus and Mary Chain. But as great as the original pedal is, it has its limitations: namely, an overwhelmingly scooped frequency response and famously low output level. So, we set out to create a modern, more versatile distant cousin in the Midegapocalypse.

First, we added a BOOST control that allows you to dial in just the right amount of midrange, making the available tones more fluid, raw, and distinctive than they already are. Second, we added a SPLAT knob to control the bass entering the circuit, which can yield tones from a single buzzing gnat, to a blooming mushroom cloud of zombie midges. Lastly, we fixed that pesky output volume problem; the Midgeapocalypse can bring any amp to its knees with ease.

“If the Black Keys never formed, and I decided to form a band just like them today, this is the first weapon I would strap to my pedalboard.”

– A customer that doesn’t yet exist, but when they do, we expect they’ll send this feedback (… just think about how multiverse that is)

Controls

• VOLUME: Sets the overall output level of the pedal. Clockwise for more output; counter-clockwise for less.
• TEXTURE: NOT a fuzz or gain control! This control subtly changes the character and, well, texture of the fuzz.
• BOOST: Clockwise to add more midrange frequencies to the tone, counterclockwise for less. Adding more mids will boost the overall volume of the pedal. This is normal.
• FAT: Cuts or adds bass content entering the circuit, allowing more low end to pass through as it is adjusted clockwise. This has the effect of changing the intensity and character of the fuzz. Extreme clockwise settings can create a pleasing, splatty, compressed fuzz tone with “bloom”.

True-bypass switching. Top-mounted audio and DC power jacks. No battery snap provided. The pedal is industry-standard 125B in size.

Midgeapocalypse Vintage Fuzz Nerd Notes

• Rugged powder-coated and UV-printed enclosure
• Awesome solid aluminum knobs
• Genuine Fairchild silicon transistors
• 1% Royal Ohm metal film resistors
• Alpha potentiometers
• Neutrik audio jacks
• Kobiconn power connector
• GØRVA Mechano 3PDT soft-touch latching footswitch
• WIMA and Kemet film capacitors
• Nichicon and Panasonic electrolytic capacitors
• MLCC C0G capacitors in the audio path (for the hardcore tone nerds out there)

The Cleveland Music Co. Midgeapocalypse Vintage Fuzz is handmade in limited runs in Cleveland, Ohio.