| Not Malfunction, Stephanie: The Catalinbread Formula No. 5 In The Bass Paradigm
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ALTERNATIVELY TITLED: My Wife Smells Better In No. 22
The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, introduced in 1971, is the benchmark fuzz. I've had three black Russians (one in high school, one in college, one by mistake), and I just repaired my green Sovtek, after a record year of having no means to power it (the battery leads were broken). At some point, every pedal user will end up owning a Big Muff, often Russian. It's a fabulous pedal, but it is a fuzz. If you want a more...tube-y...sound, you will be left wanting with a Big Muff. This was the situation in which I found myself some time back.
I was playing through a Peavey TKO 115, which is a solid-state amp. In fact, I've always played through solid-state amps, and continue to do so. They're better than tube in almost every way. And, if I am to believe Howard Davis, I would say they're better in every way. Except, they aren't as good in one key aspect: They don't have that magic; that grit; that edge; that grind. With maybe two exceptions, solid-state amps just don't do the guitar and bass justice. [TANGENT] Those exceptions, by the way, are the Roland Jazz Chorus (I use the 55, but the 120 is the more popular example) and the Acoustic 360, and the Roland will figure into this review, as it is the amp that I have used in every one of my, well, plugged-in playings since I bought it in 2010. [/TANGENT] Towards that end, I needed an overdrive that would at least attempt to solve that golden riddle, and wasn't having the best of luck finding one that suited my sound. I wanted the magic. More specifically, I wanted the sound that Davey Johnstone got on "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," which is similar to the "Billion Dollar Babies" guitar sound. I came close once - only once, and that was with the deservedly-maligned Line6 AM4. Yes, it's all down to Marshall amps, but I play solid-state, remember? So, we have a problem.
Until Monday.
Last week, Kyle quit the band. But, I also finalized the trade of my Electro-Harmonix Stereo Polychorus for a Catalinbread Formula No. 5. With the purchase of the Moog ClusterFlux, I found myself not needing the assistance of Polly anymore, [TANGENT] and, given its...difficulty...I wasn't devastated to drape her into a dull brown raincoat, and give her a one-way ticket to Oceanside, CA. Oh, sorry. Actually, you know what, as much as it pains me to acknowledge that article I penned, whose name was censored to such an extent that I have steadfastly refused to refer to it by its new title, I'm tempted to add that final chapter. I want a film noir-y ending, and by golly, I'll write one.[/TANGENT] Monday, January 23, 2012, saw a day on which I caught some bits of older “Top Gear” episodes that my illegal copies do not feature (seasons 1-3 were, I guess, recorded off of Ted, rather than directly off of BBC Two). It also saw the arrival of a tiny little box from Portland, by way of Southern California. My third proper foray into boo-teek pedal-ry, because Moog is mainstream (they're a brand musicians know; mind you, they know the synthesizers, but they're made by the same people in the same factory in the same Asheville, in the same North Carolina), the Catalinbread Formula No. 5, and now I get to actually talk aboot the thing.
LAY ME DOWN IN SHEETS OF LINEN: In the interest of full disclosure, I must declare that on my Pedaltrain-1, addition to the Formula No. 5, there are two Moogerfoogers (MF-103 and 108M, respectively), a green Sovtek Big Muff, a Boss footswitch, and a Boss TU-3. I say this, because there is a recurring pattern with me: I play large pedals. This is a behavior that must eventually be corrected, but as long as I have a rotation to my pedals, I'm not in any great urgency to do so. Luckily, the boo-teekers are trending towards small. Malekko makes pedals that are the size of a pack of Luckies. Happily, Boss and MXR have established the standards to which the sizes of pedals should, in theory, adhere. This Catalinbread is roughly the size of an MXR Phase 90. It fits nicely on my Pedaltrain.
So, to bring back that old favorite, 0 means “ClusterFlux,” 10 means “Absolute Metaphysical Certitude,” I give this an 8.
I'M A PLINKO MAN, BUT I DO LIKE THAT YODELING FIGURINE: It was a trade. I did pay for shipping, and I essentially wasted a half an hour at the Oak Park, IL, Post Office. I will never ship anything Priority Mail from a United States Post Office where THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO PENS. It's no wonder that the USPS is going to go bust in August, and I will do my part to ensure that it comes sooner. Since the C-Bread McCall “Breaker Breaker, Formula 1-9” costs like $170, I think I got a good deal.
On a scale of 0 to 10, with all criteria still in effect, I give it a 9, because I didn't get it for free.
SMELLS TWICE AS NICE FOR HALF THE PRICE: Catalinbread allows me to play either a 9v or an 18v pedal. For the sake of argument, I have done both. In a perfect world, I would play it as an 18v, with the ability to plug the other pedals in at 9v. While I do not live in a perfect world, I do have enough spaces in my Voodoo Lab to make that happen. There are distinct differences in the sound, which for obvious reasons, I will withhold until I get a few hundred more words into my review.
There is no sliding scale, and Eleanor Clift can't complain about this, because it's a fact that is not to be disputed.
FEED THE DAMN THING FRIED CHICKEN, AND THIS IS WHAT YOU GET: I never realized just how much tiny, focused lights annoy me. To be fair, I'm actually thinking about the Red Llama clone I got today, and not the Formula Fiction. It has a red LED, and it's only annoying at 1:30am, when you haven't been able to fall asleep, and have to move three tons of lead and sulfuric acid. By hand. At 6. Alone. Other than that, it fits in well with all of my other pedals, because everyone else seems to like using red LEDs. Yes, I know why: when the LED was first made practical in 1968, red was the first color (wavelength) available, and that's why red LEDs are everywhere.
On a scale of...you know what; it's a 10. This past Monday, I was reminded of two things: 1. I hate sharing hotel rooms with my dad, and 2. Exactly WHY I hate sharing hotel rooms with my dad. The reason is this: He sleeps with a television on. I do not. There's also the fact that he turned the furnace to the same temperature as a TiG welder. I prefer sleeping in an environment more akin to a Slurpee. While I did get to watch an episode of “Doc Martin,” which does feature Katherine Parkinson before “The IT Crowd,” I wanted to sleep, not half-listen to Martin Clunes be an enormous feminine hygiene product that one would use on a summer's eve. And the bag that it came in (yes, those are “Big Bang Theory” quotes).
WE HAVE TO FIND A REAL TOILET: [TANGENT]I have a horrible taste in pop culture, I admit. References to “Doc Martin,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Top Gear,” “The McLaughlin Group,” “Convoy,” and “The Venture Bros.” in one review is perhaps a little excessive; but I'm a geek. I can't deny what I am. I have to do that. It's my defense mechanism, and I need to do something more insightful.[/TANGENT] Fake HTML aside, I have now come to the point of this review where I discuss the sound of the pedal. I'm not sure that there is a substantive difference between a proper Fender Twin Reverb tube amp and this. Well, there are some, but I can't attest to the sonic differences. Either way, it isn't like any other overdrive I've ever used. It doesn't leave me wanting for more. Well, it kind of does, but in the same way that Fender amps leave me wanting something else. I like Vox amps, but I didn't get a Catalinbread CB30. Yet. However, there are significant differences between 9v and 18v – the 18v has some wolf-noting. It brings a dimension to the distortion that I never knew I wanted. I am going to change the order of my pedal chain to where the Catalinbread is going to be at the end of the chain. I wouldn't do this if it were any other pedal, and I'm still not convinced that putting my drive at the end is the right idea.
As much as I like the pedal, and I really do, it isn't what I expected. I was sort of thinking it would do light grit a little better. Mind you, I've owned the pedal for three days, and I just got my Red Llama clone yesterday, so I could very well be a moron. Actually, that's not correct: I'm a blithering idiot. Regardless, I don't actually know how to properly use the pedal, so any insight would be, well, insightful.
On a scale of 0 to 10, 0 meaning “Running your farts through a Boss DS-1,” and 10 meaning “Absolute Metaphysical Certitude,” I have to give this thing, at this juncture, a 6. It's great, but I'm not getting what I want. This is, naturally, taking into account the fact that I have owned the thing for three days, as of this writing. However, it has the potential to grow on me, and the outlook is positive. I think it will eventually go to an 8.5. It may even become one of two pedals that will, under no circumstances, leave the pedalboard (the other is the Boss TU-3, because it's a tuner), but I will let history be the judge.
I PUT IT TO YOU, GREG: I need to have dinner. Apparently, I have a load of work to do tomorrow, and I have to eat. But, since it's the end of the review, I can wait. At any rate, I've discovered that I do have to incorporate an overdrive into my sound, and that I now have one that I like. I don't love it just yet, but that will change. I'm still exploring the possibility of another overdrive, like a Way Huge Red Llama. Actually, a clone of it would be just as good, and probably smaller. Smaller is good, in this case. Happily, I have such an overdrive. I will talk about that, too, but that is a privilege that shall be reserved for its own review. Out of time. Bye bye.
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Electro-Harmonix #4, Fretless #44, P-Bass #431, Lefty Union #141, MXR #4, Peavey #13, βΘИΞКЯŲŜĦÏИĞ® #37 |
