Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret Overdrive Pedal

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zZounds Gear Experts Say...
Meant to be an "always on" overdrive, the Dirty Little Secret channels Marshall Super Lead and Super Bass voicing to disguise your amp as a British stack.

Go from clean to scream with the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret overdrive pedal. This compact powerhouse dirties up your output with wide-reaching tones, from a classic plexi sound, to that awesome early-'70s Marshall Super Lead or Super Bass sonic force. You have master, treble, middle, bass, and preamp controls at your disposal to craft your sound. Meant to be an "always on" overdrive, this pedal works magic alone, but it's also a great foundational tone-setting companion for axe-slingers with an abundance of hardware on their pedalboards.

The Foundation for Your Tone

Your Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret overdrive pedal works wonderfully as a standalone overdrive pedal, but it shines as a foundation-setting effects pedal that goes hand-in-hand with a whole host of other effects. If you choose to always leave it on and want to get a clean and clear output, simply roll back the volume dial on your guitar. This simple adjustment will go a long way and is easy to manipulate even while you're in the middle of your set.

Two Pedals in One: "Super Lead" and "Super Bass" Circuits

This overdrive pedal acts as two pedals in one, with an internal slider switch. The "Super Lead" circuit functions like a Marshall Super Lead amplifier. This circuit acts as a high gain setting with a breakup range that goes from a classic plexi all the way to modified JCM800 levels. Your axe's volume control works wonders on this circuit. Flip the internal slider switch, and you get the "Super read more Bass" circuit, which references the early plexi sound of Marshall Super Bass amplifiers. This is that "between dirty and clean" sound that pairs well with fuzz pedals. "Super Lead" mode focuses on those higher midrange frequencies, while the "Super Bass" mode places an emphasis on those lower and low-mid frequencies.

Fashioning Your Sound

To hone in on the sound your ears are thirsty for, the DLS puts a simple set of control dials at your disposal. 3-band EQ controls shape your high, middle, and low frequencies, and the master control sets the master volume level of your output. The pre-amp dial determines how much overdrive you want. Play around with your guitar's volume control to see how dynamic this pedal gets. If you're a pedalboard fanatic, then take some time playing alone with your Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret overdrive pedal to understand its individual nature, and then break it into your arsenal of pedals to explore some seriously vibrant overdrive possibilities!

Features:

- Overdrive pedal with two circuits modeled on classic amps
- One 1/4" instrument input
- One 1/4" output
- Master, treble, middle, bass, and pre-amp controls
- Dynamic gain range
- Two circuits in one -- super bass and super lead
- Circuits are selectable via an internal slider switch
- Compact pedalboard friendly size
- Powered via 9-volt battery or external power supply
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- Power: Can be powered with a standard 9V battery or an external 9V - 18V DC regulated center-negative power supply.

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Phone: 503-841-5098
Web: https://catalinbread.com/

Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret Pedal

The Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret gives you classic plexi to early 70s Marshall Super Lead and Super Bass sound and response. Marshall amps helped supercharge the performance, and shape the sound of rock and roll. When the house lights dimmed, all you could see through the hazy darkness was the array of red pilot lights shining from a backline wall of Marshall stacks. It was the ultimate prelude to the impending rock. In the absence of your own personal wall of Marshalls and the necessary road crew required to lug them around, the Dirty Little Secret (DLS) is the perfect secret weapon in your tone arsenal.

This is your "always on" pedal, designed to be the "foundation" of your pedalboard, transforming any amplifier into those raging British stacks. It forms the core of your guitar sound which you can enhance and embellish by adding boosters, fuzzes, filters, and other overdrives in front of it - just like you would in front of a real amp. And the reason you can leave it always on is that you can get a great clean sound just by rolling back your guitar's volume knob! That's the way the old school Marshall players did things!

Two classic circuits, selectable via an internal slider switch:

- Super Lead: The "Super Lead" mode gives you the great rock sound of a Marshall Super Lead amp with awesome harmonics, touch sensitivity, cab thumb, and kerrang. Higher gain than the Super Bass mode, Super Lead mode is perfect for use with humbucker-equipped guitars. Its gain range goes from classic plexi all the way to modified JCM800 levels. And, just like a great plexi, you can go from clean to scream with just a twist of your guitar's volume knob. Like a Super Lead, its voice is all about thump and upper-midrange kerrang. This is THE rock sound!
- Super Bass: The "Super Bass" mode gives you the tone and gain structure of a Marshall Super Bass (which is very similar to a JTM45, JTM50/100, or very early plexi). This mode was voiced to really hone in on that elusive in-between "not quite clean, not quite dirty" response that old tube amps were so good at getting. And it was specifically voiced to make fuzz pedals sound great (especially two-transistor based fuzzes like the fuzz face). Its voice is deeper bass, and an emphasis on the lower midrange band and sounds especially great with Fender style guitars.
- Tone stack: The DLS is two pedals in one. When you switch from SL to SB mode it completely reconfigures the tone stack and key first gain stage parameters to give authentic Super Lead or Super Bass type response. The SL/SB mode switch doesn't just add a bit more bass to make it a "super BASS". The treble-middle-bass tone control complement exactly reproduce the tone stack circuits of the Super Lead and the Super Bass amps. So when you switch from SL to SB mode, the tone circuit gets reconfigured to the Super Bass circuit.
- Mode Switch: The Super Lead and Super Bass are two remarkably different amps, and so the DLS is essentially two pedals in one....not a two channel pedal. You will hear the difference in the way the tone controls work, the way the gain character feels, and the way the overall frequency response sounds.

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 5 out of 5 stars. (5 ratings)
Submitted January 19, 2018 by Brett Huhn in Columbia, MD

"Friend Recommended This, I Still Have a Friend"

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I had been looking for an Overdrive that was not a typical Boss or OCD. I started watching Youtube Videos and found this pedal there. SO many reviews. I asked my buddy about it and he says he has on at home and at his recording studio also. HE says it it unreal with its Bass tone as well as treble and mids. He then says it adjusts just like a Marshall Amp so I ask, but, you already have a Marshall? HE says he doesn't have to run his Marshall at deafening tones to get the break up that this one provides and that I should quit bugging him and just get it and thank him later. I thanked him later. I have to use three different pedals stacked to get the tone of this thing. It hardly uses any power so I can run it for a very long time on a Battery if I wish. IT is my favorite pedal on my whole board

Musical Style:

ROck, Metal, Blues. Anything that makes my neighbors say, dude that song the other day was great!
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