The Roland Funny Cat pedal is one of those effects where ya go, "what do you think they were trying to say with this one"? Like some conceptual painting in the Museum of Modern Art, you give the artist the benefit of the doubt, or don't want to seem like a dullard to everyone around you. Then as you hear advanced art students heaping praise on this 6X9 foot gray canvas with an orange square in one corner, entitled: "three hairy nipples in opposition", you finally realize that the Artist has a better than average sense of humor, and is pulling your chain for the fun of it!
Queue up the laugh track people, it's Funny Cat time. Released in the same series as the ponderous "Bee Baa", which nearly turns your guitar into a massive six string Bass, Roland was probably looking for some balance with the little sounding "Bee Gee" pedal, and the insane "Funny Cat" of this series.
This pedal features SDS, a soft sounding, compressed fuzz tone, as heard in the first half of Funny Cat One sample below, then the "Harmonic Mover" is kicked in with its own, second footswitch: this is an envelope filter effect that becomes more pronounced by playing higher up the neck. Very Strange, since almost all envelope followers on planet Earth work better on lower notes.
In the second half of sound file one, and in number two below, the degree of the effect becomes more pronounced until; by the last half of file two below, it sounds as if the cat is, gargling or drowning. Now, Gary Larson fans: please supress your laughter. This is a rather literal description of the sound of the Funny Cat in action: Please note: no felines were abused during the recording of this effect. Not even a little bit, for just a couple of takes. (Despite what it sounds like). The engineers at Roland were just taking the kitty; and your ears, for a little walk on the Wild Side, just for grins. Check it out!
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