“An overdrive pedal this tiny is a bit ridiculous. Turns out, making it small also makes it pretty awesome.” Roughly the size of a nine-volt battery, the Cicada may be the world’s smallest effect pedal
When is a stomp box too small to stomp?
When it's as small as the Cicada, a tiny new overdrive pedal from California-based Olinthus. Measuring just 1.2 inches wide by 1.8 inches long and .9 inches deep, the Cicada has a ridiculously compact footprint for an effects pedal and weighs a mere 1.1 ounces.
The idea behind Cicada was to stuff the biggest dirt sounds inside the smallest enclosure possible. To that end, Olinthus took tonal inspiration from the original Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer and shoehorned it into a rather ingeniously engineered box that doubles as chassis and on/off switch (more on that below). With a price tag of $99, it's about $50 cheaper than the Ibanez TS808 reissue.
First up, the electronics. The Cicada is an analog overdrive featuring a single-stage soft-clipping circuit with filtering before and after the gain stage. Three sound-shaping controls — level, drive and tone — reportedly allow Cicada to cover “a wide variety of sonically complex overdriven tones.”
As for its diminutive size, making guitarists smile is part of goal at Olinthus. Describing themselves as “a small team of musicians, designers, and engineers,” Olinthus aims to create products “that inspire creative ideas, bring joy, and make you laugh.” The company admits that “an overdrive pedal this tiny is a bit ridiculous," but adds, "making it small also makes it pretty awesome.”
It's worth pointing out that this isn't the first tiny Tube Screamer clone we've seen. Two years back, Pedal Pawn unboxed a boutique TS808 not much bigger than a nine-volt battery and gave it a proper demo shortly after.
But that mini TS was made in limited numbers and hard to find. The Cicada is very available through at Reverb.com.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Given the pedal's size, some compromises had to be made. For one thing, Cicada has one TRRS {Tip, Ring, Ring, Sleeve} jack that comprises the pedal’s input, output and power. Fortunately it ships with a dedicated breakout cable, but you’ll need to provide your own nine-volt DC center-negative power supply (minimum 50mA).
As for that ingenious design, you'll notice there is no obvious on/off switch. That's because the entire pedal is the on/off switch. The green anodized aluminum chassis is hinged at the top — just press below the knobs to turn it on, and again to turn it off. Olinthus says not to worry — you can use your foot and you won’t damage the knobs, even if you step on them by accident. The switch mechanism can withstand up to 250 pounds of force.
All of which means you'll probably misplace it sooner than you'll destroy it.
Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of GuitarPlayer.com and the former editor of Guitar Player, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.
“I had just put together a beautiful white Stratocaster. So I said, 'Okay, I'll trade you.' ” Jeff “Skunk” Baxter recalls the questionable deal he made with Jimi Hendrix in the mid 1960s
“There were a few guitars kicking around. But it just didn't fit in this electronic-based track.” The world’s most famous charity rock song lost its guitar parts in 1984. They’re finally back for 2024