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

Left Brain

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 Gray Channel, which is a take on the classic little yellow overdrive that started it all for Earthquaker. 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. 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.

Right Brain

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.

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