DOD Chthonic Fuzz Pedal

The Chthonic Fuzz (pronounced THAH-nik) emerges from an alternate dimension to bring you fat, corpulent, and sludgy fuzz tones that pair brilliantly with single-coil, P90, gold-foil, and DeArmond style pickups. Built around a beloved single-knob ‘70s fuzz circuit, DOD enhanced this design by adding a subtle tone control (Lustre) and separate gain control (Fuzz), creating a simple yet powerful pedal with distinctly earthy, dark character. The straight-up transistor clipping uses a pair of 2N2222 transistors, allowing for guitar volume knob clean-up similar to classic fuzzes, but with its own unique sonic signature.

While designed with brighter guitars and clean amps in mind, the Chthonic also works brilliantly with PAF-style humbuckers. The striking Kraken/Cthulhu graphics come courtesy of the same artist behind the Carcosa Fuzz artwork, positioning this pedal as a psychotic dizygotic dark companion that takes its rightful place in the pantheon of the underworld.

For optimal performance, place the Chthonic first in your signal chain to allow proper interaction with your guitar’s pickups and volume control. Rolling back your guitar volume slightly yields the best results – dial it to 7 or 8 for nice overdrive tones, or drop it to 5 for sparkling clean sounds. Keep your input cable short and avoid buffered pedals before the Chthonic, as the pedal’s sensitivity to capacitance and impedance is crucial to its character. Start with all controls at their 12:00 midpoint, then adjust to taste based on your instrument’s output level, amplifier, and playing style.