Catalinbread Manx Loaghtan User manual

USER’S GUIDE
USER’S GUIDE
INTRODUCTION
If you're reading this, it is probably because you've gotten your hands on a Catalinbreaad Manx Loaghtan
fuzz… Or because you plan to do so soon!?! In either case congratulations! My goal is to write a manual to
provide insight on my design philosophy and help you get the most out of the Manx for your setup!
WHAT IS THE MANX LOAGHTAN?
Simply put it is a sustaining fuzzbox that provides tons of heavy low end and a ripping high end. The Manx
Loaghtan is based o one of the most sought after fuzz pedals on the planet. The fuzzbox that has delivered a
range of sounds created by Gilmour to Thurston Moore to J Mascis to Adrian Belew to Black Keys to Jack White
to Smashing Pumpkins to Dead Meadow. With a roster like this there is no wonder why it is a classic fuzz circuit.
One that has captured my imagination for many years.

Design Philosophy
When I set out to design the Manx Loaghtan I knew I didn't want to slavishly clone the topology. I especially
had no interest in choosing a specic example in the lineage and simply groking that - then calling it a day. As I
saw it, there were too many opportunities to push this pedal forward rather than merely limit it to dwelling in
the past! The rst thing I wanted to address was the tone control. The classic tone circuit is a shared bass/treble
balance control that always functions as a compromise between bright & thin or dark & fat. Unfortunately,
when you nd that right balance of bass and treble you wind up with a midrange decit that results in your
instrument getting lost in the mix. So I asked myself, why not separate the bass and treble into two controls?!
Enter the Manx Loaghtan's tone stack, a meticulously tuned Baxandall tone control! Many years ago when I rst
studied the behavior of the Baxandall tone controls I knew it could be tuned to replicate the useful bass/treble
balance tone control sounds EXACTLY… But not only that, it also could be dialed in to provide a at tonal
response, a boosted midrange, more extreme scooped midrange and treble/bass responses independent of
one another. Later in this manual I will give setting examples illustrating how the Baxandall works and the ben-
ets & applications of each setting.
After the tone stack was squared away the next thing I tackled was the SUSTAIN knob behavior. I wanted it to
have extra saturation when cranked and when dialed back I wanted it to have a great lower gain overdriven
crunch sound without being hashed, spitty, and under biased sounding. I
took a twofold approach to achieve this. Careful gain staging and a bit of
treble/midrange bypass on the Sustain pot. I will spare you the nerdy
specics here! Basically it boils down to a Sustain knob that is extraordi-
narily exible and remarkably wide ranged. In other words the Manx
Loaghtan can do low gain to high gain and everything in-between with-
out compromise! No joke!
Finally, I made sure this thing sounds GIANT, plenty of low end on tap
without getting abby regardless of what you put in front of it. Seriously,
I stacked tons of other pedals into the Manx Loaghtan, and it just took the
abuse and mockingly asked for more.
Quick Start Guide
At rst, I encourage you to try your Manx Loaghtan straight into your
amplier without any other pedals. This gives you the best read of the
pedal itself and makes sure your instrument/amplier system is in tip top
shape. You can use the Manx into any amp, clean or cranked, solidstate or
tube. Personally, I'd start out with a clean tube amp that has a reasonable
amount of headroom on tap. This insures you're able to get the most out
of the low frequencies that the pedal can put out. (Of course later on you
may nd that you appreciate the woolliness resulting from running the
Manx into a cranked amp!)

Knob Settings
Let's start with dialing in comparable classic settings. First is the "Triangle Setting" noted for a moderately high
gain and shallow midrange scoop. The Manx Loaghtan can deliver this EQ curve and sustain characteristic easily.
Single notes, played up high with the neck pickup have a nice utey singing sustain, chords stay full and relatively
present in the mix.
Triangle Setting
Next lets dial in a "Ram's Head" sound. This setting has a much deeper midrange scoop and a touch less gain. Even
though it has less gain it still sustains nicely, but the EQ curve makes for cutting through the mix a bit more
tricky… It feels really awesome to play through though! Great for musical passages where the guitar is more or
less the only instrument, and/or for layering guitar parts. Ram’s Head Setting

Now I want to take you to an "Extreme Scoop Setting". When you crank the BASS/TREBLE you get a midrange
scoop way beyond any classic circuit that I am aware of. Cranking the SUSTAIN you get more saturation and gain
than any historical unit as well… This setting is insanely fun to play, it sings and sustains forever. It has ridiculous
amounts of low end… As a matter of fact it does attenuate low end until way below the human hearing/feeling
range (not too many ampliers can reproduce these frequencies anyway).
Cranked Setting
About the Baxandall
As I said earlier, the Manx Loaghtan features a "meticulously tuned Baxandall tone control". So far you've seen in
the examples how to dial the Baxandall to deliver classic scooped sounds, and that is pretty neat! I really like how
when you roll the BASS back below noon you maintain a bump around 200Hz, while progressively cutting
frequencies below that. Whats the benet to this you may ask? 200Hz in a band mix is the frequency that you'd
bump up to keep an instrument sounding thick without interfering with the kick drum and bass guitar and other
low register instruments.
The TREBLE knob gives you complete control over your presence frequencies, dial it in for the perfect amount of
cut. Roll it back a bit for a at (relative to your midrange) response, roll it even further and it will cut out progres-
sively more and more high end making your sound seem more and more distant. Again this control is independ-
ent of the BASS knob.
Hopefully you are now wondering what happens when you roll both the BASS and TREBLE counter clockwise!?
GIANT midrange boost! This can be really useful for ampliers that naturally lack midrange. Turn up the VOLUME
knob to make up for the perceived drop in volume as a result of cutting frequencies.
To summarize, crank the BASS and TREBLE for more traditional scooped tones. Roll either or both back to taste for
special eect!

Power Supply
The Manx Loaghtan runs o of 9V-18V DC "negative center" power adapter. For a slightly more responsive
and softer feel, try a battery! The unit draws 4mA, so a battery will last a good long time!
In Closing
The Catalinbread crew and I spend a lot of time and creative energy to deliver the best pedals in the universe!
The Manx Loaghtan is no exception to this. I'd love to hear what you think! So feel free to email me about
your experiences with it!
[e-mail]
Create something!
Nicholas Harris
Circuit Designer, Founder and President Catalinbread LLC.