Catalinbread SFT Overdrive

Catalinbread SFT Overdrive

The Catalinbread SFT overdrive pedal is an Ampeg voiced foundation overdrive. It bridges the “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!” (Stones) and the Desert Sound (Stoner) eras.

We’ve always been smitten by Ampeg. Early on the company was a Jazz purist company. They completely overlooked (possibly looking down on) more popular genres like Country & Western and Rock that Fender and Marshall openly embraced.

Design

From a design standpoint, they were taking more queues from the hi-fi world than they did from guitarists. They have gain stages without cathode capacitors and implementation of the Baxandall tone controls.

And they were no slouches to innovation either. “Flip-top” combos are a great example. Not to mention there is at least one model of amplifier that has a torsion bar to adjust the tightness of the speaker baffle!

Stones Move to Amp

The most important Ampeg innovation was their 180-degree turn in regard to the musical genre. This took place in 1969 after the Rolling Stones had their entire Hiwatt backline confiscated at the Canadian/US border.

Ampeg stepped up to the plate. They provided an entire backline of 8 prototype SVT amplifiers and a tech to support them on the tour.

Anybody who has listened to “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!” knows that BIG, bouncy, full sound of the guitars and basses.

A defining sound for the Stones until the mid to late 70s when they were using VT40s and VT22s. To read more about AMPEG® get yourself a copy of “Ampeg: The Story Behind the Sound“!

The Ampeg SVT continues to be the standard bass amp for rock and roll, while their guitar amps have fallen into relative obscurity.

That was until some dude in California named Josh Homme started using them playing shows out in the Palm Desert to a bunch of stoners.

His tone and band, Queens of the Stone Age was arguably defining the sound of rock guitar throughout the naughts.

Thus our inspiration for the Catalinbread SFT Overdrive!

It was painstaking to accomplish that elusive not-clean yet not-dirty sound where you turn it up halfway. So and there it is – not totally clean but not really crunching either. It breathes, bounces and it responds.

Getting a pedal to do that is not easy and making the pedal able to become a pummeling JFET fuzz pedal is even harder.

We persisted until we got there! It was all about gain staging. Finding the right bias points. Tuning the tone stack. Making the circuit resonate just right so the pick attack is right.

The Catalinbread SFT is one of our Foundation Overdrives. Pedals can give you a big, cranked-up amp response at non-cranked volumes.

Using it as intended, you’ll want your amp set to a relatively clean, flat response. In fact, the new SFT is our widest-ranging Foundation pedal yet and responds particularly well to fuzzes, boosts, and overdrives.

Controls

Modes:

• Stones
• Stoner

Knobs:

• Treble
• Bass
• Gain

To get acquainted with your new SFT, let’s plug it in by itself, without your other pedals. Start off with a clean sound from your amp.

STONES/STONER MODES

First, let’s talk a bit more about the STONES/STONER MODE switch.

This switch completely reconfigures the SFT and makes it become a completely new beast. Think Jekyll and Hyde! Two pedals in one! STONES MODE is super-refined and STONER MODE is raw and unleashed!

If you want the most authentic big Ampeg tube amp response, use STONES MODE. If you want a rippin’ high gain distortion sound that can achieve huge fuzz tones, use STONER MODE.

Since the Catalinbread SFT basically offers you two pedals in one, we’ll go through how the controls work for each mode.

STONES MODE

TREBLE/BASS knobs

Set to noon for a relatively flat response. Below noon to cut and above noon to boost. These are treble and bass shelving controls and have been carefully voiced for the SFT.

How do I control the midrange?

In Stones mode, setting all controls at noon will give you a flat response with a slight emphasis on the lower mids to give that big-bodied Ampeg sound. To get more of a mid-hump response, try starting with Bass at 9:00 and Treble at noon.

The Treble control is voiced to boost not only the highs but the upper mids as well so you can turn the Treble control up a bit to get more mids to crunch through.

Try setting the Treble from noon to about 1:30 to boost some upper mids without increasing the treble too much. Also, turning the Gain control up will provide more push in the midrange as well.

And if you want to scoop the mids, just turn the Treble and Bass controls up. This is most effective when you run with lower Gain settings.

Range of BASS KNOB

Turning the Bass control down from noon gives a high-pass shelving response around 200hz and so allows you to tighten up the response and attenuate those woolly and woofy frequencies.

The other way boosts all those frequencies. You’ll notice as the Bass control is turned towards maximum there will be a huge bump in the low end. Huge. For most purposes that is too much boost of the low end! That huge amount of low-end boost is there so you can crank it for the fuzz setting in Stoner mode.

Range of TREBLE KNOB

Turning the Treble control down from noon gives a low-pass shelving response at around 1000hz.

Typically you’d turn it down below 12 in the following situations: you’ve got the Gain set low for a clean response, and in Stoner mode dialing in a woolly fuzz tone, or you’re playing bass.

Turning up the Treble control first gives you a nice kick in the upper mids from noon to 2:00 and then beyond that, the sound will get increasingly more trebly.

For most uses on guitar in Stones mode, you’ll probably find yourself setting the Treble from noon to 2:00.

GAIN KNOB

In STONES MODE, the range of the GAIN KNOB has been tuned to be very similar to that of the volume control on a big non-master volume tube amp.

So, from minimum Gain to about 10:00, the response will be clean and bright. 10:00 to noon, you’ll get an edge-of-breakup response that is very sensitive to pick attack and between 12 & 2 there is the overdrive sweet spot, just like that of most tube amps. At  2 on, you’ll get increasing crunch and saturation.

Now, just like with real tube amps, the amount of overdrive you get with the SFT depends on the type of guitar you’re using.

Like a real amp…

So, if you’re using a Fender-style guitar with vintage output pickups, you’ll have to turn up the Gain more to crunch it out or use a booster/fuzz pedal in front. Just like how you would with a real amp.

Or, if you’re using something with a humbucker, you’ll have to turn the Gain down to get a cleaner response. Some guitars with high-output pickups may crunch out the pedal even with the Gain turned down. Just like with a real amp!

Also, just like a real amp, SFT responds really well to turning your guitar’s volume down. So you can set the SFT up for a nice saturated crunch and clean up instantly by rolling your guitar volume back.

Also just like real non-master volume tube amps, you’ll find that you set the tone controls differently depending on where the Gain is set.

If you’re going for a clean sound with the Gain set below noon, you might end up using less Treble but more Bass.

And conversely, if you’re going for a cranked-up amp sound, you’ll find you’ll want to turn the Bass down and the Treble up to get a good crunch sound that cuts through the mix.

VOLUME KNOB

The SFT gives a huge amount of output even with clean low gain settings.

So, if you’re running the Gain control really low, you’ll find that there is plenty of output on the Volume knob to boost that clean sound quite loud!

But if you’re running higher gain sounds, especially in Stoner mode, you’ll find that you won’t have to turn the Volume control up much at all.

STONER MODE

When you’re in STONER MODE, the controls still work basically the same way but you’ll find that you will run the TREBLE, BASS, and GAIN KNOBS lower than you would in Stones mode due to all the extra gain and frequency content.

And be forewarned! In STONER MODE, turning up the controls to extreme settings will result in extreme sounds and potentially noise!

If you want tighter distortion sounds in STONER MODE, just start with the TREBLE, BASS, and GAIN KNOBS at the lower settings and go from there. Also, don’t forget about the Volume and Tone controls on your guitar.

You can use those to tame Stoner mode and still have room to unleash the beast when it’s time.

See the full SFT manual here and some Catatlinbread background here

Power with 9V DC battery or 9-18V DC centre negative supply. Draws approx 4ma