Catalinbread Karma Suture Harmonic Fuzz Pedal

The Karma Suture from Catalinbread is an interesting Harmonic Fuzz pedal that wants to deliver a crushing amount of fuzz but with a lot of added harmonic content that brings out the definition in each note you play. From calm to extreme this pedal has a wide range of different sounds under the hood that are easy to dial in.

What Makes It Tick

This pedal is really interesting as when listening to it you don't necessarily notice the extra even order harmonics that is part of the signal but when changing to a fuzz/overdrive pedal without it you will hear a lot less clarity. Another interesting feature is the fact that this is both an overdrive and fuzz at the same time. The Diodes and Density controls as well as the Input all help you control the exact sound you want to get your of this pedal.

The Controls

The Input and Output controls work as you would expect, as gain and volume controls respectively. The Diodes control is certainly one of the more interesting controls I have seen. As you turn it up you introduce more diode clipping into the circuit compressing the sound making it sound smoother at lower volumes. The Density control is what makes this pedal work in almost any rig, you can use this to control the response with your amplifier to get the perfect match.

Here's what Catalinbread say about the Karma Suture Fuzz

At the heart of the circuit is a NOS PNP germanium transistor coupled with a silicon NPN transistor. We found the magic pair to give you the sweetest harmonic generation and most dynamic playing response. The Karma Suture is capable of a wide range of sweet, even-order harmonic distortion responses - from heavily saturated fuzz tones, to big and open overdrive, to a sparkling boost. And no matter how you have the pedal set, the tone and response is always alive, sensitive to your every playing nuance.

The original Harmonic Percolator had only two controls, "Harmonics" and "Balance" controlling the input level (fuzz) and the output level respectively. We kept these controls, renaming them with words that describe the attributes that they actually control INPUT and OUTPUT. To overcome the control surface limitations of the original circuit, we developed the exclusive DIODES and DENSITY controls that give you complete control over the amount of clipping and compression and frequency response. The addition of these two controls permits the Karma Suture to be paired with virtually any guitar and amp.

You'll find that the Karma Suture will have the potential to enhance your pedalboard in a huge variety of ways. Use it as an amazing fuzz. Use it as a harmonically enhancing boost after an overdrive to really get that part to stand out in the mix. Use it as your only overdrive pedal. Use it to add new life to your wahs, phasers, and other effects. It can be subtle. Or it can be over the top.