The goings on and an exclusive 20% off FLASH SALE for newsletter subscribers!

Hi folks. We’ll keep it short and fuzzy this time. Here’s what’s happening.

Midgeapocalypse, Stockyards, Woollybear and other fuzzes coming soon

In the last newsletter, we said this summer would be all about fuzz. And that is still the plan. We’re putting some finishing touches on a handful of fuzztrocities that will bring your amp to its knees. Not all of these pedals are guaranteed to make the first release, but here’s a preliminary roundup.

Midgeapocalypse Fuzz – Clevelanders understand the reference immediately. Remember the last time the midges were so thick they showed up on radar? Either way, if you like your fuzz girthy, spitty, and gated, this one is for you. Inspired by the infamous FY-2 with additional controls to thin out, thicken up, or add mids to your tone.

Woollybear Fuzz – Named for the famous Woollybear Festival in Vermilion, OH, Dick Goddard would be proud. If you don’t know who that is, no worries. Just know the Woollybear is a creamy, squishy bender-like fuzz with external bias control and heaps of tone-shaping capabilities.

Bleepcakes Fuzz – Not named for anything in Cleveland, it’s an homage to one of the greatest cult classic marketing pieces of all time. The Bleepcakes is our spin on the mysterious Harmonic Percolator, featuring additional tone and wave shaping capabilities. It’s seriously bleeping killer.

Stockyards Fuzzdrive – Sort of a fuzz. Sort of an overdrive. Totally a non-selective frequency tripler. The Stockyards can yield sweet overdrive tones at lower gain and makes a great boost pedal. But at higher gains the gloves come off: things get odd, splatty, and fizzy. And we know you like that sort of thing.

Old Brooklyn Razz – Not the Brooklyn you’re thinking of, but rather, Brooklyn, OH. The Razz is a sort of analog synth envelope wave shape filter adapted for a fuzz pedal. Yeah, that’s a mouthful. Basically, in addition to a gnarly, crackly fuzz, it can also create resonant VCF fuzz or “razz” sounds when you set your passive instrument’s tone knob just right. More fun to play with than it is to explain.

Exactly when some or all of these fuzzes drop is up to the supply chain gods. Stay tuned. And if you’re wondering what happened to the Salt Mine Reverb and the Snow Belt Delay we mentioned in the last newsletter, they are still on the way; they just slid down the priority list based on customer feedback.

True Bypass? Yes. Switchable Class A Input Buffer? Also Yes.

All of our pedals now feature a switchable unity gain Class A input buffer. True bypass die-hard? No problem: flip the switch to the left. Got too many true bypass pedals in a row? Or maybe you’re using a 20 foot cable? No problem there either: flip the switch to the right to engage the buffer and unsuckify your tone.

Going forward, all Cleveland Music Co. pedals—except a few where noted (like fuzzes)—will include this feature. This is a market differentiation for us and a boon for you. To switch between the two, simply remove the back of the pedal and slide the switch.

New Quick Start Guides

Sometimes, how best to use a pedal isn’t obvious. The Flats Distortion, for example: with 4 knobs and 2 switches, some folks might even be a little intimidated. To solve this problem, we now provide Quick Start Guides for select pedals.

The guides can always be downloaded from the pedal’s product page on the website. They’re in PDF format to make it easy to refer to them on your device of choice, or to print. The Flats is the first Quick Start Guide to be made available.

Thank you once again!

Seriously. That’s a heartfelt thank you. When you buy our gear, sure, we make a little money. But there’s more satisfaction in designing and creating music-making devices that incite your creativity or fill specific needs. Whether that’s in the studio, on the road, or at the dive bar on the corner. We are passionate about developing and building high-quality products at reasonable prices, and we’re confident you’ll find real value in anything with our name on it.