Catalinbread Karma Suture Ge Germanium
The Catalinbread Karma Suture Ge Germanium is what happens if you take:
- a NOS PNP germanium transistor
- an NPN silicon transistor
- a germanium and silicon diode
… and throw them into the alchemist’s pot and stir it up with plenty of Catalinbread sauce!
You get a bubbling cauldron of even-order harmonics that will enhance any guitar rig! So, you’re thinking, is it a fuzz?
Is it a boost or an overdrive?
Yes! Is it an overdrive and a sparkly boost?
Controls
Karma Suture’s four-control layout allows you to dial in a huge range of harmonically rich tones. These sound great into clean amps and into overdriven amps, or into a foundation overdrive, such as the Dirty Little Secret.
We’ve expanded the potential by adding the exclusive Density and Diodes controls coupled with months of fine-tuning to get everything just right.
You’ll find great sounds throughout the rotation of all the controls. No matter how you have the pedal set, the tone and response is always alive, sensitive to your every playing nuance.
Density
The Density control goes from a thick fuzz tone that can sound like an amp ready to explode all the way to a tight harmonically rich overdrive that screams “rock and roll!”. This control is the key to dialing in the Karma Suture with any rig. It allows you to fine-tune to find the exact sweet spot.
Diodes
The Diodes control allows you to set the threshold of the diode clipping circuit – from full clipping to get the most distortion and compression all the way to no diode clipping for a wide-open (and LOUD!) sound.
Input
The Input knob controls how much of your guitar signal gets to the harmonic generator. Set it low for a lively boost, laden with even-order harmonic content. Or crank it all the way up to get fuzz blasts!
Output
And Output controls the volume level. This pedal is capable of some serious output in certain settings!
What guitars work best?
It can work equally well with vintage single coils and hot humbuckers. Because Karma Suture generates predominantly even-order harmonic distortion, you will notice amazing clarity even with extreme settings.
You can even play complex chord voicings and yet every note rings through clear! Try that with your average fuzz or distortion pedal!
And even at maximum settings, the Karma Suture retains an open and responsive character.
Even though it has an open character, you can get amazing sustain with the Karma Suture on, especially if you’re hitting a cranked up amp with it.
Harmonics come in waves, undulating in and out as you hold that epic power chord.
Soap B (verified owner) –
Good pedal