The Thornicus is a dual-channel fuzz pedal designed in collaboration between Ian Thornley and Kevin Suhr. The goal was to create a thick, rich-sounding fuzz with the ability to switch in an octave mode for mind-bending expression. Ian Thornley, best known for his work with Big Wreck and Thornley, is no stranger to fuzzed-out, in-your-face guitar tones. During development, we found that the best way to use the octave circuit was to give it its own dedicated controls. This allowed the ability to have your own favorite settings for each channel without sacrificing the sweet spots of either channel with shared controls.
Circuit & Features
The Thornicus contains a multi discrete transistor fuzz circuit as its core tone. It also contains 2 channels, one named Fuzz that is controlled by the left half of the pedal, the other named Octave that is controlled by the right half of the pedal. The foot switches are mutually exclusive, meaning only one channel can be active at a time. Pressing either foot switch will engage that channel and automatically turn off the other. Pressing the foot switch of the currently active channel again will bypass the pedal using the internal true-bypass relay.
The Octave side is identical to the Fuzz side, with the addition of an added octave fuzz circuit stacked in series before the core fuzz circuit. The Octave channel also includes individual Sustain, Mids, Tone and Level controls to dial the channel independently, allowing for finer control of the overall tone between channels. Channel selection can be controlled via MIDI with Program or Controller Changes for modern MIDI equipped pedal boards.
