Catalinbread is embracing the darker side of summer with the launch of its limited-edition Blackout Series – a collection of fan-favorite pedals dressed in stealthy black-on-black finishes. Available for a limited time, the Blackout Series highlights some of the company’s most enduring designs, including the SFT overdrive, Echorec delay and Talisman plate reverb. Let’s get into it!
Shop the Catalinbread Blackout series: Sweetwater
Catalinbread SFT Blackout Delivers Classic Ampeg-Inspired Overdrive
Among the standout entries in the series is the SFT, Catalinbread’s long-running tribute to the legendary Ampeg amplifier sound. Designed as a foundation overdrive, the pedal captures the character of vintage Ampeg circuits that helped define everything from classic rock to modern stoner and desert-rock tones.
Unlike many of its contemporaries, Catalinbread drew heavily from hi-fi design principles, incorporating unconventional tube configurations, cathode-bypass-free gain stages and Baxandall EQ circuits that set it apart from the Fender and Marshall formulas dominating the guitar world.
Echorec Blackout Revives a Legendary Drum Echo
Also receiving the Blackout treatment is the Echorec, Catalinbread’s acclaimed recreation of the legendary Binson Echorec. Originally favored by players such as David Gilmour, the Binson’s unique magnetic drum design produced rhythmic echo patterns unlike anything available from traditional tape delays.
The pedal retains the Echorec’s famous multi-head architecture, allowing users to blend multiple playback heads into complex rhythmic patterns, but adds functionality that the original hardware could only hint at.
One of the most significant additions is extended and variable delay time. While the vintage Binson was limited to approximately 300 milliseconds of delay, Catalinbread’s interpretation stretches those boundaries considerably, allowing the interaction between the four virtual playback heads to create far more expansive and evolving rhythmic textures.
Talisman Blackout Brings Studio Plate Reverb to the Pedalboard
Rounding out the lineup is the Talisman, Catalinbread’s take on the classic studio plate reverb sound (unlike the Paint pedal). Inspired by the massive electromechanical plate reverbs that dominated recording studios throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the pedal recreates one of the most influential ambience effects ever developed.
Catalinbread’s interpretation condenses that sound into a compact stompbox format while incorporating studio-inspired controls that allow players to shape the reverb much like engineers would in a professional recording environment. The pedal captures the lush ambience, richness and subtle depth associated with vintage plates while providing the flexibility required by modern guitarists.
The company jokingly notes that the Talisman is 479.99 percent smaller than a traditional plate reverb unit, which is nice.
Shop the Catalinbread Blackout series over here at Sweetwater.
