With many things in life, it’s best to start out small, and that’s exactly what Olinthus has done as the brand new effects company makes its debut with the world’s smallest stompbox, the appropriately named Cicada.
We might need a citation on that. It is a bold claim. But this is the guitar mini-pedal taken to its logical conclusion – it’s the Tube Screamer clone you can keep in your shirt pocket as though it were a packet of cigarettes, and a lot healthier for you, too.
Heck, it is the Tube Screamer clone you can mount on top of another pedal on your ‘board, bringing an all-new meaning to the idea of stacking pedals.
Available exclusively via Reverb, Olinthus’ design has definitely got the crowded and compact fly-in pedalboard in mind. Even so, the size… Well, even Olinthus admits it’s “ridiculous” all things considered.
"Yes, we’re aware that an overdrive pedal this tiny is a bit ridiculous. But by challenging our notions of what an effects pedal has to be, a new world of possibilities opened up that we never expected,” says the company. “Turns out, making it small also makes it pretty awesome.”
The Cicada (now, that would be a great name for a fuzz pedal) is based on the legendary Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer, one of the most successful drive pedals of all time, and also the most cloned. Almost every pedal company has its own take on them.
Some are straight-up clones. Some such as the JHS Pedals Bonsai offer nine different TS-style circuits in one enclosure. Others had features inspired by popular mods, such as the Wampler Moxie, which manages to maximise its mini-pedal form factor by adding a Fat mode toggle switch and a Voice switch.
And of course, there is the original, and just 10 days ago Ibanez unveiled a hand-wired version of its TS808 that tweaked the circuit to give it an extra 6dB of output.
In short, in the TS-style drive pedal business, it pays to have a USP, and Olinthus’ is size. In fact, the Cicada is so small that Olinthus had to rethink the fundamentals of enclosure design, ultimately deciding to do away with your standard 1/4” input/outputs – and the 9V power input while they were at it (there’s definitely no room for a battery here).
That’s why you will find a 3-way TRRS splitter cable inside the box. This will handle all your connections. There is also no room for a footswitch. You engage the effect by pressing down on the bottom edge, as though the whole pedal was a switch.
We’ll need to see just how practical all this is during performance but just check out the demo video to see the size of this thing. It’s tiny. It might well be the wafer-thin mint your Mr Creosote pedalboard has been waiting for…
The Olinthus Cicada is out now, and it is priced $99. See Olinthus for more details, Reverb to order.
