Roland AG-5 Funny Cat

The Funny Cat is a combined envelope filter, though called "Harmonic Mover" and a distortion circuit that goes by the name "Soft Distortion Sustainer". Both effects have their own controls and can be used independently.
Using it is fairly hands on but the controls are somewhat limited, the SDS only has an output level control and the envelope filter has a dry/wet knob in addition to a three position mode selector. Thats it. A few more knobs such as a gain control for the SDS and a sensitivity knob for the Harmonic Mover would have been useful. Instead one has to adjust the volume on the guitar to get the right sweep.

I play a few electric guitar but my main axe for the past 8 years has been a Blade strat with a Seymour Duncan JB jr in the bridge position, usually played trough a Peavey Studio Pro 112 combo and as may fx pedals as I can find.

The envelope filter in this pedal is seriously one of the weirdest I've tried. It has three modes of which "C" is the really freaky one. It's some kind of resonant lowpass filter but it scream and bubbles like crazy, almost as if there is some weird fuzz or ringmodulator effect in there somewhere.
Modes A and B sounds more like normal envelope filter but they still have quite a bit of character to them.

It is a unique effect indeed but there is really not that much you can do to tweak the sound which makes the envelope filter part a bit of a one trick pony.

But lets not forget the SDS, in my opinion the best and most useful part of this pedal. It doesn't have any control sans a level knob but switch it on and you get an incredibly sweet mildly distorted and compressed sound with an almost singing quality. Very bluesy and goes perfect with a strat, especially for solo playing.
As mentioned earlier it lacks a gain control but you can push it by placing a preamp, boost or something before this pedal to amplify the signal. Doing so results in a gradually more squashed fuzzy sound as you turn the gain up.

Haven't gigged with it so I can't really say but I haven't had any reliability issues with it. It is built into a solid metal box so It should be able to a fair amount of abuse.

Haven't dealt with them and this thing must be at least 25 years old so I think we can safely say that whatever warranty it once had has expired.

I also have a homebuild clone of a Mutron III which beats the Funny Cat hands down in terms of versatility, it can do highpass, lowpass, bandpass, sweeps up a down etc, and can do every thing from funky chords to the paranoid android solo. But when it comes to character, it doesn't have much to offer against the Funny Cat which is a truly unique beast.

The envelope follower is loads of fun to play with, however my favourite feature is still the SDS which gives me a really neat tone that I have not been able to replicate with other pedal.

Really easy, two pedals, three knobs. Yup

I tend to use this after my russian big muff with tone and drive on full but the volume backed right off to just find the trigger point on the cats envelope filter. Using it like this you can get some nutso synth tones by manipulating your guitar volume. I am assuming that the output intended to feed this little kitty was considerably less than my Ibanez cos unless you go down this route it seems to be permanently peaked out. This is a pedal made by people who were trying to get new sounds and they did well since I haven't heard anything else quite like it.

What can I say? It was built in the sixties and it still works, even though I don't treat it like an antique. Seems like I'm the only one who thinks pedals were made to be stomped on

Obviously Roland would be fine at being helpful and friendly, but lets face it, nobody who made this still works there and they probably don't have the equipment in their factory to repair it or the parts.

well I bought it for #22 from idiots who didn't know what it was and its by far the most individual pedal i've ever owned not much good for lounge jazz but surprisingly ace for mathcore

pretty easy to use, since you dont have too many knobs to tweak, but dont get me wrong, it takes a little time to get a sweet and inspiring tone out of it.....it is weird and you have to mix it with some other boxes to get a usable sound. (more of this later). thats why i give an 8 now.
I got mine from an old retired musician and got the original box, but not the manual, but anyway, dont need it at all....the unit is completly original, no mods and looks like new.

setup: fender 1984 strat or Sammy Sanchez Custom guitar--roland funny cat--Ibanez tube screamer--Vox Wha--MXR Phase 90--Ibanez analog delay--Shin-ei Echo/Reverb Master--Fender Pro Junior Amplifier.
As i said, this is not a domesticated little cat....it screams and pretty loud....can be noisy, but in a good way....never use it without hitting the SDS mode....put this baby and some overdrive together and prepare yourself for soulfull tone and crying guitar leads.....just what i wanted....and is very usefull for electronic landscapes if you use it with some delay and reverb tweaking.

it was made before i was borned and it is in perfect conditions.....lovely....it seems to be very solid and clean..so...it is reliable.

sorry, never tried it.

i play mostly whatever comes to my mind...so having such a weird and unusual box with me is a blessing....if it were stolen...surely i wouldnt rest until i find the guy and punch his face with the sharp corners of the funny cat..and then take my baby back home with me....:)

It is pretty impossible to get a lame sound out of one of these pedals, they rock. This beast has two sections: Harmonic mover and SDS(soft distortion sustainer). Each section has an independent footswitch on/off. Harmonic mover is a VERY STRANGE envelope follower with three modes and an amount knob. SDS is a smooth light distortion.

I use the pedal along with an EH graphic fuzz and microsynth plugged into an Ampeg VT-22 and it sounds great. The effect, especially the SDS is a tad noisy however. The effect also swallows up your signal level, throwing your volume off. It lacks the driving output of most other effects such as it's brother, the Bee-baa. One thing must be said, it is one of the most unique envelope followers ever produced. Try the third mode, it is insane.

Stainless chassis, very rugged. Hasn't broken yet, however it is just too rare to take to a gig and not worry.

Rorland might not remember this beast, it is among the first effects they ever produced.

Certain people could not bear to part with their fuzz face, univibe, or bi-phase. I will leave my bi-phase behind and take my funny cat to the grave.