Goya Panther fuzz/treble boost

[Tomm Williams]

I'm posting this here as I think it connects to my Goya Barracuda amp questions. First off, there seems to be a bit of a following of these fuzz units?

My Barracuda head also has built in fuzz and treble boost just like a Panther. Is there any way I can determine if it's essentially a built in Panther?

[WRGKMC]

Man I dug for several hours on that Barracuda the other day and there was so little info on them.

The ONLY way you can know if they are the same circuits is by comparing the schematics and/or the circuits visually which is something a tech needs to do. Chances are, if they were made by the same company, they may have used the same circuits, but after the in depth research I did it was tough finding who actually built the gear.

 

Goya was mainly an acoustic guitar company. They expanded to electrics but they were mainly branded guitars made by another Swedish company Hagstrom. It makes no sense whatsoever for a company building acoustics to expand to making electronic gear is they aren't even making electric guitars. They would need to hire engineers, set up factories, assembly lines, sources for parts etc. I found no historical info on the company doing that so they likely had a local company in NY or NJ make branded amps and electronics for them.

 

Of course if the Panther was made later it may have been made in Japan by a company like teisco, but it wasn't that same company at that point. There was also a company in Italy (possibly the same company that made the Italian Vox gear) that pirated the Goya name for awhile too, but they had nothing to do with the original company.

[Tomm Williams]

Am I correct that the Panther is kind of a "Cult-Status" pedal or no?

[WRGKMC]

I don't know. They are so rare, I'm not sure how they could grow to a cult status.

 

I did find a schematic however. Looks to be a Fuzz Face Clone combined with a Range Master Treble booster.

I also read here,http://www.kitrae.net/music/Fuzz_Big_Muff_Timeline.html the Goya may have been a re-boxed pedal made by an obscure company called Applied who made the Applied Fuzz and Treble Booster. Applied even more obscure then Goya was.

 

Companies that made clones (Japan made a ton of them) aren't given the same recognition of the manufacturers they clone, but that Goya is old and rare so I'm sure some collector would be willing to pay $750 for one. Paying $250 each for 3 germanium transistors that cost fifty cents back in the 60's seems ultra ridiculous. The pedal sold for $40 so its cost to build couldn't have been more then $10. The thing is thr raw materials haven't increased enough to justify the costs.

 

You can still buy the same transistors for a few bucks and purchase most of those parts and a box for less then $50. Old may be better to some people but its what I call, stupid. I get the fact people want to own something historic. My parents and grand parents sold antiques for a living, and I got most of the electronics to refurbish. You'd find these kinds of pedals in flea markets selling for $5 all the time, usually needing some restoration. This one would be something you can make a killing on today, simply because people don't know their rear from a hole in the ground about electronics. I'd feel guilty selling one for those prices, but if it makes them happy I'd be laughing with them on the way to the bank.