Catalinbread Karma Suture Si
A bubbling cauldron of even-order harmonics that is the Catalinbread Karma Suture!
“It will reward your good tone intentions by lacing up your sound with awesome harmonics that bloom and bloom, turning your power chord into a tantric event!”
We try out a lot of different circuits at Catalinbread when looking for new ideas. During one such prototyping session, one circuit really stood out.
Harmonic Percolator
We’re talking about a rare and obscure circuit known as the Harmonic Percolator.
Wow! There’s something to be mined here!” This circuit has the amazing property of generating predominantly even-order harmonics. So it creates an amazingly sweet and clear distortion.
You may know of this circuit from its use by Steve Albini. He owns one particular unit that apparently has magical properties no other unit seems to have.
We could search for holy grails and chase rainbows, but we saw a potential beyond one person’s use of it. Oddly enough, the ‘Percolator has a reputation for creating an ugly sound, albeit a cool and ugly sound.
But we found something beautiful in it. So beautiful that you could play complex jazz chords through it and every note rings sweet and clear. So, using the original circuit as the springboard, we created the Karma Suture.
The Catalinbread Karma Suture line is inspired by the rare Harmonic PercolatorTM.
Not just a clone, we’ve expanded the potential by adding the exclusive Density and Diodes controls.
You’ll find great sounds through 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.
Silicon Karma Suture
The Silicon Karma Suture ups the gain, output, and brightness compared to its cousin. With two silicon transistors, still in PNP/NPN configuration, along with a pair of silicon diodes, configured for asymmetrical clipping.
This version will cut through the mix with epic authority!
Whether you’re using the Karma Suture as your standalone dirt box into your amp or you’re using it to boost, overdrive, and enhance your existing dirt pedals, you’ll be greeted with harmonic distortion laden with even-order harmonics – sweet and musical, even with complex chord voicings.
Both models provide you with amazing even-order harmonic distortion with distinct personalities. If you’re familiar with the difference between a germanium and silicon fuzz face, then those qualities apply to the Karma Suture as well – germanium gives you a thick, sweet response with a softer picking attack. Silicon provides a more immediate picking attack with a more aggressive tone.
Fuzz? Overdrive? Boost – What is it!
Is it a fuzz? Yes! Is it an overdrive? Yes! Is it a sparkly boost? Yes, again!
Karma Suture’s four control layout allows you to dial in a huge range of harmonically rich tones that sound great into clean amps and as well as overdriven amps. Or into a foundation overdrive, such as the Dirty Little Secret. 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 unlike a lot of fuzzes and distortion pedals.
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.
Controls:
- 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, allowing you to fine-tune to find the exact sweet spot.
- 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 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: Controls the volume level. This pedal is capable of some serious output in certain settings!
Requires 9V DC battery or 9-18V DC power supply centre negative – Draws approx 1ma
You can find out a bit more about Catalinbread here and access the Karma Suture manual here
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