Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret Drive

Classic Marshall amp tone is revered by many guitar players, and it should be, because it sounds incredible. However, the majority of us don’t have an extra $2000 laying around to blow on an early ’80s JCM800 (or whatever your particular flavor happens to be), so we need something in pedal from that will help transform whatever amp we are currently using into a pseudo-Marshall. The folks at Catalinbread have come up with a hell of a solution: the Dirty Little Secret.

The one I own is the original design, which I personally think looks so much better than the new ones…but, we’re not hear to chat aesthetics, are we? Tone knob controls the treble/bass output of the pedal, Loudness make is louder or softer and Gain goes from mild grit to full-on, crunchy, Marshall-y overdrive. Also featured is the cool Rock/Rawk switch, which adds a little more boost and gain into the mix, creating some really down-and-dirty aggressive tones. Lots of pedals make the same claim that you can get a true Marshall tone out of any amp, and most fall short. Not the case with the Dirty Little Secret – this thing is a workhorse housed in a nice, small enclosure, perfect for fitting onto any crowded pedalboard.

I am definitely in that category of “can’t afford the Marshall of my dreams”, but you can pick up a used on of these for a little over $100 if you are patient. A true amp in a pedal, the Dirty Little Secret has to be heard to be believed. If your favorite rock tones have been eluding you for years, as they have for so many of us, your long and arduous search may finally have come to and end.