Wednesday 2 December 2020

Catalinbread Formula No. 5 V2

 


3 comments:

  1. The resistor from Q3 source to ground ought to be 2,2k instead of 2,2M. Other than that, it works! Didn't have any 2N5457s, so I used PN4393s in Q1 & Q3, with BF245As in Q2 & Q4 (PN4393s all around yield more gain, but are woofy from the very start). A good sounding overdrive! Doesn't fight your dynamics, and cleans up gorgeously. But I've yet to find a Tweed-style overdrive that really blows up completely at max gain, and this didn't end my search. Maybe I'll try the Soma 63 next?

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    1. I'm a sucker for the tweedy thing. The V1 does that Powderfinger thing, if that's what you mean. A simpler version but I might prefer it to the V2 No. 5. I don't think that I knew that the Soma was in that same style. Might have to try that.

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    2. I think, technically, the Soma is supposed to be a blonde Fender preamp, but the demos suggest it gets hairy like an earlier Fender. I'm just wary because, in a lot of the demos, folks use a low-powered tube amp and crank the pedal's output, so the overdrive you're hearing is the amp, not the pedal. Biggest disappointment in this regard was the Catalinbread CB30 V2 - that thing had STOOPID output, but stayed clean as a whistle all the way up.

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