When we know a pedal from the Phaser department is headed our way, we tend to get pretty excited. When it’s coming from Catalinbread, we get STOKED. Today’s pedal, the Many Worlds Phaser, produces classic tones, gorgeous modulation and adds to your sound in a myriad of different ways. Full of options and marvelous signal manipulation, this is one of the best we’ve had the pleasure to peruse… The Many Worlds is...
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One of the first pedals we ever reviewed here at Pedal of the Day was from our friends at Catalinbread (the Semaphore Tremolo) and we’ve been marveling at every new release they’ve had since then. Today, we’re proud and honored to help introduce the world to the Tribute Parametric Overdrive, a 4-knob, amp-driving, tone-shaping powerhouse that’s sure to find its way onto pedalboards across the globe. Let’s...
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The Catalinbread catalog features effects pedals that include just about anything you could want, or need, or want to need. They’re got a new one out that we’re going to take a look at today, the Cloak Reverb & Shimmer, an ambient beauty that instantly sends your tone to the outer reaches of space. Perhaps invoking a bit of black magic to produce these sounds, this pedal can add a little flavor or overtake your tone...
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HOT DAMN! It’s our second tap tempo tremolo pedal in one week, and boy, are we stoked! Nothing beats the pulsing, racing, ebbing and flowing of a good tremolo, pedal OR amp, and today’s featured effect covers just about every base you will ever need. EVER. The Semaphore from Catalinbread features the coveted Tap Tempo functionality, as well as a slew of other options that make it a well-rounded, amazing and essential piece...
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Preamp and buffer pedals seem to get swept under the rug these days a bit, in part due to the incredible modulation, delay and drive pedals seemingly coming out every other week. However, these pedals are an absolutely essential part of any rig, and today’s pedal harkens back to a classic circuit and tone that has yet to be almost exactly replicated – until now. The Epoch Pre EP3 Preamp Buffer from Catalinbread emulates...
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There’s a decent chance you’ve heard of the famous Echoplex EP-3 Tape Delay from Maestro, made popular in the 70’s and 80’s by Andy Summers, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, and Brian May, among others. You may also know that these older units are finicky, tricky to repair, costly at times and not always the most road-worthy for the touring musician. That’s where today’s pedal comes in: the Belle Epoch...
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There are some pedals that come along and really make you think about sound; how it works, how you can manipulate it and how, sometimes, you just need to let go and throw out everything you thought you knew about effects. Today’s pedal embodies all of these things, and more, by being a true original in a time of klones and copies, but in a way that almost transforms the delay genre, flipping it upside down and inside out, taking...
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Speaking of crazy pedals….no, for real, today’s featured pedal is a real nut, and one we attempted to fully embrace. The Heliotrope is a harmonic pixelator from Catalinbread, and if you’re not sure what that is, neither are we. Still. However, it is a must-have box for all musical experimenters, and one that we had an absolute blast trying to decipher. Basically, a Harmonic Pixelator is Catalinbread’s way of...
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The crew over in Portland at Catalinbread have been pumping out some awesome pedals for years now, and we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing some of their best ones (in our opinion, anyway!). From overdrives to analog echoes to “Sabbath In A Box”, the diversity and craftsmanship are second to none, which is why we were so excited about checking out’s today’s featured pedal, the Adineko Oil Can Delay. From...
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Don’t you just love to hear the sound of a good tape echo delay coming out of your amplifier, or stereo speakers, or a YouTube video? Of course you do, we all do! Problem is, to be able to get that authentic sound, you have to find AND be able to purchase a big, clunky machine, which may or may not even work properly, then take a short 6 week course on how to use it, switch tapes and keep up the general maintenance of the unit....
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When you think of the term “heavy metal” and it’s origins, what name inevitably pops into your head? That’s right, it’s Black Sabbath, and if you said anything else, you’re incorrect. And when you think of this legendary band and how it shaped the sound of heavy music today, who do you mostly associate that with? Nope, it’s not Ozzy, but you’re close: Tony Iommi. His dark tones and heavy...
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One of my favorite overdrive pedals from Catalinbread is their Formula No. 5 – it hasn’t left my board in years, and I can always find a use for it somewhere in my playing, regardless of style or volume. That said, I was super-stoked to test out it’s big brother, the Formula 5F6, whose circuit is based on the old tweed Bassman amplifiers. As soon as I plugged it in, I loved the sound, and after messing around with it...
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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...
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The Formula No. 5 from Catalinbread is modeled after the famous Tweed amps used by some famous guitar pickers (Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Neil Young, etc), and gives off a powerful but somewhat soothing tone. The No. 5 can boost your amp’s natural sound a little or a lot, and with the Gain knob up to the max, can really make it sing. Although the tone is definitely in the ‘overdrive’ category, it emits an...
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The Semaphore Tremolo Delivers classic tremolo sounds from the smooth and buttery coaxing of vintage “harmonic vibrato” to more modern aggressive hard chop “repeat percussion”. There are of course plenty of non-traditional trem-based sounds too – pulses, swells, blips, & surf amplitude modulation can all be found inside. It wouldn’t be a Catalinbread pedal if it didn’t do some weird stuff too, right?...
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(This article comes from our friends at GuitarTricks.com – check out their site for tons of guitar-related tips and tricks!!) Favorite Pedal Brands for Specific Pedal Types By Shawn Leonhardt for Guitar Tricks and 30 Day Singer, the original platform for online guitar lessons. Of course many guitar effects unit builders create pedals that provide a variety of methods to change the signal. If you like sticking to one brand, that...
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(This article comes from our friends at GuitarTricks.com – check out their site for tons of guitar-related tips and tricks!!) Effects Pedals for the Guitarist Who Has It All By Shawn Leonhardt for Guitar Tricks and 30 Day Singer, the original platform for online guitar lessons. If you’re a guitarist who has moved beyond beginner guitar lessons, you might have all the standard guitar effects pedals you’d need. Now you may be...
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After the Catalinbread Tribute Parametric Overdrive a couple days ago, we’re honored to get to share in the release of another brand new drive pedal today, this time coming to you from J. Rockett Audio Designs. Based on the classic tones of a bearded Texas legend, El Hombre is the ideal overdrive for those feeling the blues or ready to rock all night. Capturing the nuances and touch sensitivity of an amplifier, El Hombre can go...
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Richard Fortus St. Louis Guns N’ Roses https://www.4tus.com/ https://www.gunsnroses.com/ Past bands – Pale Divine, Psychedelic Furs, Love Spit Love, Thin Lizzy, Honky Toast, Rihanna How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? Started on violin when I was 5 and studied the Suzuki method. Also started playing drums around the same time. Started on guitar around 12. My father was an accountant,...
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Greg Loiacono & Tim Bluhm Marin County, CA / Fairfax, CA The Mother Hips motherhips.com Greg Loiacono Band gregloiacono.com Green Leaf Rustlers Tim Bluhm w/ The Coffis Brothers timbluhm.com How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? Greg Loiacono: I started playing guitar at age 11. I wanted to learn as soon as I heard “Purple Haze” for the first time. I stopped for a bit and got back...
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We love a good phaser here at Pedal of the Day, and we say, the bigger the better! Well, today’s featured pedal is about a big as they come, bringing a vintage classic back to life, and combining incredible phasing with a wee bit o fuzz on top. The Warm Audio Jet Phaser recreates a classic 70’s phase shifter made popular by Larry Graham (Sly and the Family Stone), giving you gooey swirls and pulsing rhythm for days…...
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Nick Johns & J.B. Brisendine Atlanta, GA Brother Hawk brotherhawkatl.com facebook.com/BrotherHawkATL twitter.com/brotherhawkatl youtube.com/brotherhawkatl instagram.com/brotherhawkatl How long have you guys been musicians? How did you get into it in the first place? Nick: I had always been surrounded by a family of musicians my whole life and started picking songs out on the piano by ear when I was 4 years old. I started piano...
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Kevin Wilson Guilford, Indiana Wilson Effects www.wilsoneffects.com How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I started playing guitar in the 4th grade and dropped it for a while. I picked it back up when I was around 17 and have been playing ever since. I was an 80’s metal thrash kid so Metallica, Slayer all contributed to my willingness to pick it back up. Ultimately Pearl Jam became one of my...
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Jamie Stillman Akron, OH EarthQuaker Devices www.earthquakerdevices.com How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I’ve been a musician since I got my first drum set around 5. I didn’t pick up playing guitar until I was about 12. I’ve always been into music as long as I can remember. A couple of my uncles were musicians and taught me some basics and I just took it from there. Who have been some of...
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Sef, lead guitarist in the band Your Favorite Enemies. Montreal, Quebec, Canada www.yourfavoriteenemies.com www.facebook.com/yourfavoriteenemies www.instagram.com/yourfavoriteenemies www.youtube.com/yourfavoriteenemies www.twitter.com/yfeofficial As you can see in some of the pictures, we have the crazy privilege of living in a former catholic church that we turned into our own professional studio a couple of years ago. It’s pretty...
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Jesse Aycock (Tulsa, OK) www.jesseaycock.com / www.facebook.com/jesseaycockband Hard Working Americans (everywhere USA) www.thehardworkingamericans.com Paul Benjaman Band (Tulsa, OK) www.paulbenjamanband.com / www.facebook.com/paulbenjamanband Lauren Barth (Tulsa, OK) www.laurenbarth.com / www.facebook.com/laurenbarthmusic How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I guess I’ve been a...
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Tim Bluhm San Anselmo, CA The Mother Hips www.motherhips.com/ How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I’ve been singing since I was a kid, in church choirs and in school choruses. I started playing guitar right after high school. In my second year of college I started the Mother Hips with Greg Loiacono and we started getting gigs really quickly. Who have been some of your major musical...
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Neal Casal nealcasal.com Chris Robinson Brotherhood www.chrisrobinsonbrotherhood.com Hard Working Americans www.thehardworkingamericans.com Circles Around The Sun Skiffle Players (with Cass McCombs) Phil Lesh And Friends Gospelbeach How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I started playing guitar in 1981. I was obsessed with the Rolling Stones and the bands I saw in the Gimme Shelter film....
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Dave Schools Widespread Panic (Modulus Q-6 basses, D’Addario strings) widespreadpanic.com facebook.com/widespreadpanic reddit.com/r/widespreadpanic IG: @widespreadpanichq IG: @dashole Hard Working Americans (Modulus Jazz, G&L L-2000, Epiphone Jack Casady basses, D’Addario, LaBella tape wound strings) thehardworkingamericans.com facebook.com/hardworkingamericans IG: @hwamericans How long have you been a musician? How did you get...
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Forrest Whitesides Function f(x) Elk Grove Village, IL www.function-fx.com We have five partners: Dave F., Brian, Dave B., Jerry, and Forrest. Three of us are just outside of Chicago, one guy is a breath away from Nashville, and one is in NJ about 50 miles west of NYC. (Forrest has provided the answers below) How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place? I first started playing guitar in 1989. Just...
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If you’d like to gain more exposure for your company, and help expand our site throughout the global music community, please contact us HERE. If you like the site and what we’re doing, and would also like to contribute, you can send a donation HERE. These companies and distributors have selflessly contributed gear for review to Pedal of the Day, making this adventure a reality. We can’t thank them enough for their...
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(8/8/14) Guitars: PRS Custom 24 SE w/ Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB Trembucker (bridge) & SH-2N Jazz Humbucker (neck) “The Trooper” Fender Standard Telecaster w/ Seymour Duncan STL-1b Broadcaster Lead (bridge) & STR-1 Broadcaster Rhythm (neck) Alvarez AD60SC Dreadnought Acoustic-Electric Amps: Ampeg GVT 15-H All-Tube Amp Head > Dr. Z 1×12 Cabinet (loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30) Orange Micro Terror 20W...
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