EarthQuaker Devices - Gary - Automatic Pulse Width Modulation Fuzz and Dynamic Natural Overdrive

EarthQuaker Devices is proud to introduce you to your new best bud, Gary. This little big guy was dreamt up by the one and only Lee Kiernan from the crushing and most necessary band IDLES!

Gary started as a simple request to create a compact version of the now discontinued Gray Channel®, which was a mainstay on Lee’s board and a big part of his main drive tone. This was all fine and good, and sounded quite sick, but Gary was demanding that we look deeper and explore his dark side a little more, Gary after dark, Saturday night Gary. So, we sat him down and began the trek of figuring out old Gare-Bear once and for all. The result is a dynamic and destructive pulse width modulated fuzz paired with a natural-sounding op-amp overdrive.

Design Notes

Gary’s right brain consists of a dynamic and destructive fuzz that is both domineering and interactive. It is a ripping fuzz tone with an envelope-controlled variable pulse width and enough volume to blow everything up. This nasty little fuzz turns the signal into a square wave and allows you to dynamically adjust the duty cycle with pick attack. Yes! controls the sensitivity of the envelope. When this is all the way down you will get an unadulterated thick and heavy square wave fuzz tone that will sustain for days and go dead quiet when you stop playing. As you increase the Yes! control, the envelope becomes more interactive, and the pulse width narrows the harder you hit it. As the pulse width narrows, the tone becomes more nasal and biting until it gets so narrow that Gary goes to his dark place and disappears completely. In other words, with higher sensitivity settings, the sound will disappear entirely and come cruising back to Gary’s big guy tone. With proper playing dynamics, this creates a very cool effect that can sound like an exploding amp coming in and out of life, blown through a phase shifter.

Gary’s left brain displays his softer side. This is a simple and natural sounding overdrive that keeps your tone lively and drives your amp crazy. This side is based on the green channel of our Gray Channel, which is our take on the classic little yellow overdrive that started it all for us. Lee used this pedal with the clipping switch permanently set to the middle position, which removes all the diodes from the circuit, producing a full-bodied, cutting opamp distortion with plenty of volume on tap. We have reproduced that tone here with exacting precision. Go sets the opamp drive and can range from a simple full-range clean boost all the way up to a smooth and natural distortion. In conjunction with That’s It, which is the master volume for the drive side, you can use Gary’s softer side as a clean boost to push your amp into overdrive or turn up Go and use all of Gary’s internal magic to create the finely tuned dirt you desire.

Controls

Go: Gain control for the overdrive. Turn this up to increase the opamp gain to a thick and full distortion, or turn it down and turn up That’s It to use it as a clean boost.

That’s It: Master volume for the overdrive side.

Left Footswitch: Overdrive

Yes!: Sets the sensitivity for the envelope that controls the duty cycle for the square wave fuzz. The envelope is highly dependent on the level of the incoming signal, which can be affected by any gain pedals in front of Gary, pickup strength, source instrument, etc.

Oosh: Master volume for the fuzz side.

Right Footswitch: Fuzz

TECH SPECS

Dimensions: 4.75 x 2.50 x 2.25 in. (121 x 64 x 57 mm) with knobs

Current Draw: 20 mA

Fuzz

Input Impedance: 1 MΩ

Output Impedance: <1 kΩ

Overdrive

Input Impedance: 500 kΩ

Output Impedance: <1 kΩ

TRS expression pedal wiring

Tip: Wiper

Ring: +3.3V

Sleeve: Ground

Flexi-Switch® Technology

This device features Flexi-Switch® Technology! This relay-based, true bypass switching style allows you to simultaneously use momentary and latching style switching.

• For standard latching operation: tap the footswitch once to activate the effect and then tap again to bypass.

• For momentary operation: hold the footswitch down for as long as you’d like to use the effect. Once you release the switch the effect will be bypassed.

Since the switching is relay based, it requires power to pass signal.

Power

This device takes a standard 9 volt DC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel. We always recommend pedal-specific, transformer-isolated wall-wart power supplies or multiple isolated-output supplies. Pedals will make extra noise if there is ripple or unclean power. Switching-type power supplies, daisy chains and non-pedal specific power supplies do not filter dirty power as well and let through unwanted noise. DO NOT RUN AT HIGHER VOLTAGES!

WATCH THE DEMO HERE