Hello Gearheads! Today’s Gearheads Feature is brought to you by STACKS FX, a fantastic operation based in Long Beach, California Co-Founded by Miguel A. Vasquez and Brian Frederick. I met Miguel some years back buying gear of course! I bought a big box Deluxe Memory Man he had from some previous stock and have kept an eye on his company since. The STACKS FX Acid Cat is one of the 2 current pedals in their “OHMS Series” and it is by no means a tender pedal… this cat has some teeth! Like many fantastic newer offerings in the effects & pedals market, Miguel worked up the Acid Cat during the time spent in lock-down during the Covid-19 closures - what better way to spend that time than cooking up killer circuits!?
The Acid Cat at it’s foundation is a brutal, thick and saturated fuzz. I believe it’s circuit was birthed in the Fuzz Face genealogy but beyond that it’s totally it’s own thing. With just 4 controls there’s quite a big world of tone in this kitty. You can garner anything from thick Big Muff type fuzz and distortion to jangly British overdriven amp tones all by adjusting the controls on the pedal as well as your volume knob on your guitar. Much like the Fuzz Face, there is great clean up at pretty much even the highest gain settings. There’s a nice dance between your guitar volume, the Acid Cat’s volume and input/gain trimmer. I found that adjusting those 3 elements to be quite rewarding tonally.
“An original circuit that takes your signal and sends it into brutally heavy territory. You can also achieve some classic blues/rock tones by rolling back the input control. It is very dynamic and responds really well to your guitars volume level. There’s loads of output volume available for driving the input of your amp or stacking with other pedals. This pedal can sound radically different with different guitars. Let’s your instruments character shine through while saturating to your taste.
Controls are;
-Volume: Lots of output!
-Input (small trimmer): Acts as a gain control.
-Fat: 3 way toggle switch selects between 3 levels of bass response.
-Tone: 3 way toggle switch selects between 3 level of lo-pass filtering”
Control wise, I found the input/gain trimmer to be the most tactile and immediate control on the pedal. It moves from medium gain structures all the way to Smashing Pumpkin-esq saturation. You never lose sight of the clarity though, which is key element to anything that has this much gain on tap. I typically find that fuzz boxes and distortion pedals that get in this territory of gain usually fight with sounding thin or undefined. Not the case however with the Acid Cat… it straight up smacks you across the face and you retain all the precious harmonic content your guitar delivers.
Both 3 way toggles offer additional elements of control over the response and tone. I found most settings to be pretty subtle but useful. It’s the kind of thing that if you’re auditioning the pedal by itself (especially at bedroom volumes) you probably won’t hear much, but when your using it in a band mix either on stage or in a track it becomes quite present. Subtle EQ and feel shifts that nestle the tone right where you want it to be. Much like the important moves we make when using a studio quality EQ or compression. Small, incremental movements make the biggest overall compensations.
In my demo, I used some different instruments and amplifiers to showcase the versatility of this pedal. I really enjoyed using it on all the guitars for light, medium and higher gain tones. Even though the Acid Cat has a formidable voice of it’s own, I dug that you can really hear the intricacies of each element. This is a great circuit that would make the blues dude as happy as the modern metal maven. Capable, clear and immediately awesome! As an homage to our first meeting, I couldn’t pass up using that Deluxe Memory Man I bought from Miguel…
Thanks for checking this Gearheads Feature on the STACKS FX Acid Cat. If you’d like to learn more about Miguel and his work please do check out these sites for more information.
https://stacksfx.com/collections/ohms-series/products/acid-cat-fuzz-distortion
https://www.instagram.com/stacks_fx/
Until next time Gearheads, please take a moment to Like, Subscribe & Share this Feature and I’ll see you all very soon!