Olinthus Cicada review: “Okay it’s a bit silly, but who doesn’t enjoy a bit of silliness?”
$99, olinthus.com
No your eyes do not deceive you – that isn’t some comically oversized stunt guitar neck we’ve photographed this pedal up against. That’s a normal guitar neck for conventional human hands, it’s just the pedal it’s sat atop that is tiny – so tiny in fact that it claims to be the smallest working guitar pedal ever made.
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You’ve probably not heard of the brand name either – Olinthus is a new one for me too, probably because this is its first ever product, sold in collaboration with Reverb. Olinthus’ website, in addition to revealing that they also now sell audio jack dangly earrings ($19), claims that they are dedicated to creating “products and experiences that inspire inventive ideas, spark joy, and make you laugh”.
With that in mind, before you continue with this review, I recommend that you get all your ‘oohs’ and ‘awws’ out of the way up top so as to suitably compose yourself for the remainder. It’s a perfectly natural reaction of course, but it’s also one that leaves me wondering – can a guitar pedal that could fit in a matchbox be anything more than mains-powered gashapon?
Image: Adam Gasson
Olinthus Cicada – what is it?
Some time in the early 2000s, I can only assume that Mike Fuller, Mike Piera and Brian Wampler signed a contract written in blood with the devil himself that promised the then nascent boutique pedal building community unprecedented success in exchange for one thing – that every single one of them, and all those that came after, would be required to produce a Tube Screamer clone regardless of whether the market really needed it.
All of which is to say that Olinthus’ first pedal is of course, a ruddy Tube Screamer. But… BUT! Many of the most important and interesting pedals of the last 25 years have been in some way derived from Susumu Tamura’s wonderfully effective and versatile circuit… and look, let’s be real, this is certainly not just another TS clone.
Because, and it bears repeating, this thing is tiny – just 30 x 45 x 22mm if you want to be exact – and that in itself makes this pedal a fairly remarkable engineering achievement. In order to do this, the pedal has ditched the stuff that is default on pretty much every other pedal.
So, output jacks? Nah mate, don’t need them. Instead, the pedal ships with a single TRRS mini-jack socket that, with the combined three-way splitter cable that you can plug your input, output AND power into. And a footswitch? No room for that here pal. Instead the whole pedal is a switch – the metal enclosure has no sides and is hinged at the top allowing a press of the whole thing to turn the thing on and off.
All that leaves room for is three teeny tiny knobs controlling the classic level, drive and tone, and an on/off LED. And it’s green, of course, because… Tube Screamer!
Image: Adam Gasson
Olinthus Cicada – build quality
The first thing that anyone is likely to ask about is that switching method – to turn it on and off you are quite literally bending the case and pushing the top bit down onto the very clearly visible PCB inside.
Cicada has foreseen this concern however and reassured us that it has been tested to withstand up to 250 pounds of force, while at the same time cautioning that this is not called a ‘stompbox’ for a very good reason. The switch on the pedal is sensitive enough that a gentle press with finger or foot will activate it – I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to risk stomping my large frame on it in anger.
With that in mind, the build quality does feel pretty rugged and reassuring – and the advantage of its unique sideless structure is that you can check out the internals easily, and it’s all neat, tidy and nicely soldered.
The supplied TRRS jack is not exactly the most rugged cable I’ve ever seen, but it’s as solid and reassuring as most basic pro-audio equipment in that regard.
Image: Adam Gasson
Olinthus Cicada – sounds
Such is the nature of the Cicada, in many ways the sounds are about the least interesting thing about it – not that it’s a bad thing. Plugging into the TRRS cable with a Strat into a clean amp and things sound very, well, Tube Screamer-y? It does a nice job of accentuating the mids, adding dirt and growl to the amp, pushing things more and more dirty as you turn up that drive knob.
Put it in front of humbuckers into a more heavily distorted amp and you get the extra body and oomph that has made the TS such a wonderfully chamelonic effect, genre-wise. Is it doing anything that I haven’t heard from many other green overdrive pedals over the years? No, but it’s a very solid Tube Screamer sound, and that’s rather the point.
Image: Adam Gasson
Olinthus Cicada – should I buy one?
There are definitely some potential use cases for the Cicada – if you’re the sort of player that only needs a Tube Screamer, the Cicada could become the ultimate portable pedalboard. Hell, if you were worried about it getting trodden on, you could even affix it to your guitar or strap and be able to tweak it just as easily as you could a volume pot. Also, if you had a compact board and wanted to use Cicada as an always-on boost, you could easily stash this next to your PSU underneath most standard pedalboards.
Ultimately, the Cicada is a bit of a gimmick – but a fun one. As Olinthus states on its own website, “We’re aware that an overdrive pedal this tiny is a bit ridiculous” and it absolutely is – but that’s the fun here. The guitar world can take itself far too seriously a lot of the time, and occasionally you need a product to cleanse the palette somewhat and remind you that this stuff is meant to be a bit of a laugh. As the FAQ on Olinthus states: Why is it so small? Why are other pedals so big?
Olinthus Cicada – alternatives
There are no shortage of small Tube Screamer-derived pedals out there – perhaps not as tiny as the Cicada, but bijou nonetheless. First among them is the Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini ($74.99/£49.99) – a fantastic compact take on a classic.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
