Catalinbread mesmerizes with the Pareidolia
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Three things are becoming evermore common coming out of the Pacific Northwest – gloomy weather, terrific seafood and quality effects pedals. The latest subject in the final category comes from the fine folks at Catalinbread, which steered away from the amp-in-a-box trend they had been following with the Dirty Little Secret, Wiio and Formula No. 5 and moved to a sort of modulation gumbo with the release of Pareidolia Harmonic Mesmerizer. Equal parts Tremolo, Vibrato and Filter, the Pareidolia has its roots in the 1961 Fender Twin Amp, with offered a vibrato that favored tremolo voicings. So… does the Pareidolia deliver the trance-inducing swirl it suggests?
No pedal released in 2009 created as much buzz as the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret. Word of mouth for the small silver (now available in many colors) pedal was positive from the first web demo onward. Catalinbread calls the DLS a ‘foundation’ pedal – a sonic platform to build the rest of your tone upon. For vintage, Marshall-y goodness, the Dirty Little Secret knows no equal in its price range. After whittling a list of about twenty pedals down to one, the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret was the last stomp standing, and thus our Pedal of the Year for 2009.
Nick over at Catalinbread let us know that the company will offer up its long-awaited Ottava Magus II octave pedal beginning next week. The new version of the pedal sports a Saturation control that alters the playing feel making it more saturated and spongy. It also adds some more gain into the mix. Catalinbread also has refined the Intensity control providing better control over the usable range of sounds. Finally, the crew altered the original circuit a bit allowing it to sound more appealing plugged into a completely clean amp, a little more meat, less rasp and an even more articulate octave up sound. The OM2 will be available starting 21 December for $179.
The lads at Catalinbread are making a limited edition stomp designed to invoke a Hiwatt-style tone. Dubbed ‘WIIO’, the pedal is expected to have three knob controls – Volume, Bass and Treble. No pics yet because there is still some fine tuning to do, but we do know there will only be 100 made. Catalinbread says they have no plans to add this stomp to its standard line of effects pedals. The crew is weary of going too far down the amp-in-a-box road given the recent Dirty Little Secret and SFT releases. If you want a WIIO, you need to e-mail Tone Factor 
Twitter followers of Oregon-based pedal gurus Catalinbread got a sneak peek of the maker’s latest offering – the SFT drive pedal. The company has let little info slip on the new stomp beyond a few video demos on their website. It can do 70’s Rolling Stones rumble as well as higher-gain crunch. The pedal did start its life as a bass overdrive, so those tendencies are still built in. The stomp has four knob controls – Volume, Gain, Treble and Bass, which means you’ll be able to run light and dark with this beauty. Word on the street is that the pedal will be before summer’s end. Hopefully we’ll have more info on availability and, of course, price very soon. Stay tuned! 
The crew at Catalinbread has begun sketching up a schematic for a potential sequel to its Ottava Magus octave, ring-mod, fuzz stomp. According to the guys, thus far, preliminary features on the updated pedal include Volume, Blend, Gain and Tone contols as well as a toggle for octave up defeat. The company assures that the original Ottava Magus will be used as the ‘heart of this box.’ Catalinbread is striving to achieve the character of the original pedal with the addition of new, great features. If that is achieved, the company will likely move to produce the pedal. Stay tuned!
Oregon’s own Catalinbread is moving forward with the development of its S.F.T. pedal, which started life as a bass overdrive. Not much is known about the pedal other than the prototype boards are due to be ordered this week and the current version of the pedal offers up everything from cool stoner rock tones a la Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age to 70s-era Rolling Stones rawk and more. The S.F.T. will be fine tuned throughout the summer. No release date has been set. Elsewhere, Catalinbread has given its Teaser Stallion pedal a makeover. The new version is vertically configured and boasts circuit improvements. Peep the prototype design in the thumbnail!
The fine folks at Catalinbread are teasing what appears to be a new OD/Distortion pedal dubbed the Dirty Little Secret. A pic of this pedal, in two different configurations, appeared online a while back, but there was no official comment from the company. Now, there are two official teasers for the pedal, which is expected to be revealed in all its glory at the Winter NAMM show next week. There is a webpage tease on the Catalinbread site issuing the promise of Rock or Rawk… which is how the pedal’s sole toggle is labeled. Then there is a YouTube teaser of a pair of the stomps, but no clip. We’ll have more info soon, but you can see both pics after the jump!
West Coast pedal purveyors Catalinbread, makers of the popular Silver Kiss overdrive, have a couple of new YouTube videos out teasing their new Heliotrope ‘differential modulator’ stomp. The pedal offers up bit crushing-style sounds that push into ring modulator territory. Nic at Catalinbread told forum members at Tone Factor that, unlike ring modulators, the Heliotrope only subtracts from the signal spectum. Ring modulators both add and subtract, which is why it is tough to predict the output pitch. The Heliotrope is said to be much easier to control. Pricing and availability are yet to come, but check out one of the demo videos after the jump!