Earthquaker devices Gary Fuzz + Overdrive

The Gary was the brainchild of Lee Kiernan of Idles, and began life as a compact, artistically darker version of the Gray Channel, one of Lee's favorite pedals.

The right side of the Gary is a powerful fuzz with variable dynamics controlled by an envelope with enough volume to make everything explode. It transforms the signal into a square wave and adjusts its gain and crackle according to the attack of the pick. The "Yes!" setting adjusts the sensitivity of the envelope. Set to minimum, it produces a thick, heavy fuzz with a square wave and lots of sustain, then becomes silent as soon as you stop playing. By increasing the "Yes!" setting, the envelope becomes more interactive and the pulse width narrows the harder you attack, making the sound more nasal and biting. With higher sensitivity settings, the sound disappears completely and then returns.

This effect can also be controlled by an expression pedal for manual operation or to find the right pulse width. When using an expression pedal, "Yes!" defines the top of the range.

The left side of the Gary is a simple, natural overdrive that revitalizes and coats the crackling fuzz while pushing the amp to the limit. It's modeled after the green Gray Channel, which is an interpretation of the famous little yellow overdrive that started it all for EarthQuaker. Lee used this pedal with clipping constantly set to the center position, which takes all the diodes out of the circuit and produces big, sharp amp-to-op distortion with lots of volume. "Go" adjusts the op-amp distortion and can range from a simple clear boost to a smooth, natural distortion. In conjunction with "That's It", which is the main overdrive volume, you can use the softer side of the Gary as a clear boost to push your amp into overdrive, or increase "Go" to discover all the Gary's magic and create the saturation you desire.