Caroline Guitar Company Hawaiian Pizza 24K Golden Limited Edition

Caroline Guitar Company Hawaiian Pizza 24K Golden – Limited Edition Fuzz-Drive with NOS Motorola 5089

Limited Edition · 2 × NOS Motorola 5089 · Silicon fuzz-drive · Fuzz Face/Fuzzrite lineage · Voltage starvation · Pickup simulator · True bypass · 9V

The Caroline Guitar Company Hawaiian Pizza 24K Golden is a limited, hotter version of one of Caroline’s most loved fuzz-drive circuits. It keeps the original Hawaiian Pizza’s “three knobs and the truth” philosophy while replacing the standard transistors with a pair of NOS Motorola 5089s, delivering more available gain, a slightly more aggressive edge and a lower noise floor.

And this is not simply a Hawaiian Pizza wearing a gold suit. The 24K Golden Pizza combines its special gold finish, gold footswitch and oxblood-style knobs with a genuine change at the heart of the circuit.

In terms of circuit lineage, the Hawaiian Pizza descends from the world of classic 1960s two-transistor fuzz circuits, broadly in Fuzz Face/Fuzzrite territory, but it is not a direct clone of either. Caroline and Electronic Audio Experiments’ John Snyder used that architecture as a starting point and pushed it into a far wider range, capable of moving from boost and crunch through thick overdrive, singing fuzz and completely broken gated textures.

The 24K Golden retains that versatility, while the Motorola 5089 transistors turn the temperature up: more gain on tap, additional bite and an especially unruly response when you begin starving the circuit.

The Input control determines how hard your guitar drives the fuzz stage. At lower settings it can deliver crunch and overdrive-like textures; turn it up and the circuit progressively moves into denser and more saturated fuzz.

The real secret is Voltage. Rather than functioning as a conventional tone control, it changes the voltage available to the circuit. With more voltage you get an open, dynamic and sustaining response. Reduce it and compression, sputter and dying-battery / voltage-starved fuzz begin to appear, eventually reaching gated, broken and almost glitch-like textures.

Finally, Output controls the level hitting your amplifier. The interaction between these three controls is what makes Hawaiian Pizza special: rather than relying on traditional EQ, you are changing the way the circuit itself operates and falls apart.

An internal passive pickup simulator also preserves vintage-fuzz-style interaction when the pedal is placed after buffers, wireless systems or active circuitry. When running directly from passive guitar pickups, it can be disengaged for direct pickup-to-fuzz interaction.

The Hawaiian Pizza 24K Golden may be a collectible limited edition, but more importantly it is an especially aggressive version of a circuit already capable of moving from sweet drive to total sonic collapse.

Key features

• Limited 24K Golden Pizza edition
• Based on the original Caroline Hawaiian Pizza
• 2 × NOS Motorola 5089 transistors
• More gain than the standard Hawaiian Pizza
• Slightly lower noise floor
• Fully analog fuzz-drive
• Inspired by classic 1960s two-transistor fuzz architecture
• Fuzz Face / Fuzzrite sonic lineage, with Caroline’s own circuit design
• Covers boost and crunch through thick fuzz, sustain and gated textures
• Voltage control for starvation and dying-battery sounds
• Highly responsive to guitar volume and playing dynamics
• Internal passive pickup simulator
• Works well after buffers, wireless systems and active circuitry
• True bypass
• Special gold finish
• Gold footswitch
• Oxblood vintage-console-style knobs
• Designed and built in Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Controls

• Input: sets how hard the guitar signal hits the fuzz circuit, from light crunch to heavy saturation
• Voltage: changes circuit supply voltage, moving from open headroom to compression, gating and dying-battery fuzz
• Output: sets final output level

Internal adjustment

• Pickup Simulator: recreates passive-pickup interaction when buffers, wireless systems or active circuits are placed before the pedal

Technical specifications

• Type: analog fuzz / overdrive
• Transistors: 2 × NOS Motorola 5089
• Architecture: modified two-transistor fuzz
• Controls: Input, Voltage, Output
• Bypass: true bypass
• Input: 1/4″ mono
• Output: 1/4″ mono
• Power: 9V DC center-negative
• Do not use voltages above 9V
• Manufacturer-listed dimensions: 6 × 4 × 3 in
• Listed weight: 16 oz
• Made in Columbia, South Carolina, USA
• Edition: limited

Find the Caroline Guitar Company Hawaiian Pizza 24K Golden at onemorepedal.com.

The same pizza recipe, baked with two NOS Motorolas and considerably less interest in behaving itself.