Catalinbread Round-Up

ManualsBrandsCatalinbread ManualsDelay/Echo PedalsEffect Pedal For Electric Guitar

ROUND-UP

CATALINBREAD ROUND-UP £137-£185

Meet the American boutique stompbox guru with a unique approach to tone

that’s bringing back cult sounds from the 60s and 70s

OPERATING

out of

Portland,

Oregon, Catalinbread produce a range of

boutique effects pedals that are a step above

the norm. Where other manufacturers

would develop and build a vibrato unit,

Catalinbread’s builders make their lives a little

more complicated by trying to replicate the

distinctive sound of the circuitry in early 60s

‘Brownface’ Fender amplifiers. The result is

the brilliantly named Pareidolia Harmonic

Mesmerizer. Joining that pedal in our

round-up are the Topanga Spring Reverb, the

Dirty Little Secret Brit valve head simulator

and the incredible sounding Echorec, which

repeats the sound of a cherished 60s echo

machine. Each unit’s gubbins are squeezed

into the same-sized regular stompbox casing,

and can run on nine-volt to 18-volt mains

adaptors. The higher the voltage, the greater

the headroom, says Catalinbread. The Dirty

Little Secret and Pareidolia can also subsist on

a nine-volt batteries.

CATALINBREAD

ECHOREC

£185

CATALINBREAD DIRTY

LITTLE SECRET

£137

Delays expected, in a good way

The stack-in-a-box

THE ECHOREC is based on the classic

Binson echo unit of the same name,

which saw service with Hank Marvin

and David GIlmour. Catalinbread’s

ultra-compact version boosts the

original unit’s 300ms delay time to

1,000ms and is spookily accurate, with

everything from a room reverb to

multi-head UFO impressions. Run it in

‘trails mode’, via an internal switch, and

the last note fades out naturally even

after you’ve turned it off.

WE’LL LET you in on the secret. There’s

a little switch on the inside of this pedal

that selects between one of two modes:

Super Lead and Super Bass. That’s right,

the Dirty Little Secret mimics the tone

of a pair of classic British heads. Super

Lead offers more gain for 70s rock fun

and games while Super Bass nails the

60s era with less overdrive. Tonally, this

is as good as stompboxes get. Our only

niggle is you have to unscrew the

backplate to get to the mode switch.

88 MARCH 2016

CATALINBREAD PEDALS

ROUND-UP

TGR277.gear_round2.indd 88 29/01/2016 10:07

Summary of content (2 pages)

PAGE 1
ROUND-UP CATALINBREAD PEDALS CATALINBREAD ROUND-UP £137-£185 Meet the American boutique stompbox guru with a unique approach to tone that’s bringing back cult sounds from the 60s and 70s OPERATING out of Portland, Oregon, Catalinbread produce a range of boutique effects pedals that are a step above the norm.
PAGE 2
GEAR ROUND-UP CATALINBREAD TOPANGA SPRING REVERB £159 Surf’s up for reverb junkies THE HEIGHT of reverb’d cool was reached during the surf music boom of the 1960s. The Topanga recreates the sound of the Fender 6G15, the greatest outboard reverb unit of all time and every surf guitarist’s dream. Turn up the Dwell control, smack your strings, and there’s an explosion of reverb, like rattling the springs in one of the old Fender units. It’s uncanny how authentic it sounds.