Catalinbread Formula 55 Overdrive Pedal.

Description

Big and powerful, yet refined the Catalinbread Formula 55 melts into your amp, transforming it into a wide-ranging “tweed” monster! It reproduces, in exact detail, the preamp section of the classic Fender 5E3 Deluxe using an all-discrete JFET-based signal path.

The Volume and Tone controls replicate, part for part, the circuitry of the 5E3 giving you authentic “tweed” amp response. The output section is designed to give you punch and volume with a low output impedance to drive your amp perfectly. Set the Hi-Lo button to “Lo” for the cleaner response of a vintage tweed. “Hi” is like hot rodding your amp by swapping in higher gain tubes.

Controls

Master: This volume control has a heaping helping of output on tap, allowing you to dial in a huge, fat, woody clean tone or push your amplifier into overdrive all on its own.

Presence: Governs frequencies in the 5khz range, allowing you to tune the top-end response to your particular pickups and amplifier.

Tone: Sounds and behaves just like it does on the actual Deluxe amplifiers. You will notice that as you wind up the Volume control that the Tone control’s influence becomes more subtle when the volume is maxed out. At lower volume settings, you can set it at noon for the flattest response; to the left of noon for those smoky jazz cleans; or crank it up for more barking, greasy upper mid-range tones that slice through the mix.

Volume: This is essentially your gain control. It works in tandem with the Hi/Lo switch; enabling you to set your maximum desired level of dirt from squeaky clean to stanky! Want to clean it up? Simply roll back your guitar’s volume knob.

Hi (Red) Mode: The raging, hot-rodded 12AX7 mode with more gain and saturation. You’ll notice that your pick essentially turns into a “throttle” of sorts. Lay off the attack and it cleans up, but there’s always that potential there for “acceleration” when you lay into it!

Lo (Green) Mode: Produces lower gain overall, as if your amp were now sporting 12AY7 preamp tubes. Cleaner and more immediate in the pick attack with more “bounce” when you’re chord comping, but still has that fat and juicy harmonic response.

Specifications

Voltage: 9-18V DC
Dimensions: 4.33″ x 2.36″ x 1.93″
Weight: 0.4 lbs