I ’ m here today to talk about the new Formula 55 “ foundation overdrive ” from Catalinbread . This new take on a Fender Tweed Deluxevoiced overdrive pedal came about when Howard Gee , Catalinbread ’ s chief pedal designer , learned that some of the parts in the Formula 5 were no longer available . Rather than spending time testing and specifying new parts , Howard broke out the bread board and started anew .
INCREASED HEADROOM AND LOW FREQUENCIES While the Formula 55 shares some family resemblance to the Formula 5 , it has its own thing going on . The Formula
55 has been one of my favorite overdrives for home playing for years . I love the feel , the responsiveness , the flubby bass , and the way it compresses just like a real Tweed Deluxe . Of course , every time I try to use it with a band , those attributes that make it a blast at home become impediments . It ’ s just too spongy and too compressed . Luckily , for the Formula 55 Catalinbread designed a Tweed-flavored pedal that imagines the 5E3 preamp mated to a much more powerful output stage . It ’ s sort of like that trick where someone takes a Tweed Deluxe and modifies the power amp to take 6L6s
or even EL34s . You still get the all the touch and feel of a Tweed Deluxe , but with a HUGE bump in low end and head room .
WIDER GAIN RANGE You also get a much wider range of grit in the Formula 55 . On the Formula 5 , things were dirty with the Gain turned all of the way down and they only got crazier from there . The Formula 55 sports a Volume control rather than Gain control . And it also offers a push button control for selecting between Hi and Lo Gain settings . With Volume all of the way down , you get no output . Between 8:00 and 10:00 , you get sparkly
GEAR SPOTLIGHT
CATALINBREAD
FORMULA NO 55
REVIEW BY PHILLIP DODGE STREET PRICE $ 179.99
I ’ m here today to talk about the new Formula 55 “ foundation overdrive ” from Catalinbread . This new take on a Fender Tweed Deluxevoiced overdrive pedal came about when Howard Gee , Catalinbread ’ s chief pedal designer , learned that some of the parts in the Formula 5 were no longer available . Rather than spending time testing and specifying new parts , Howard broke out the bread board and started anew .
INCREASED HEADROOM AND LOW FREQUENCIES While the Formula 55 shares some family resemblance to the Formula 5 , it has its own thing going on . The Formula
55 has been one of my favorite overdrives for home playing for years . I love the feel , the responsiveness , the flubby bass , and the way it compresses just like a real Tweed Deluxe . Of course , every time I try to use it with a band , those attributes that make it a blast at home become impediments . It ’ s just too spongy and too compressed . Luckily , for the Formula 55 Catalinbread designed a Tweed-flavored pedal that imagines the 5E3 preamp mated to a much more powerful output stage . It ’ s sort of like that trick where someone takes a Tweed Deluxe and modifies the power amp to take 6L6s
or even EL34s . You still get the all the touch and feel of a Tweed Deluxe , but with a HUGE bump in low end and head room .
WIDER GAIN RANGE You also get a much wider range of grit in the Formula 55 . On the Formula 5 , things were dirty with the Gain turned all of the way down and they only got crazier from there . The Formula 55 sports a Volume control rather than Gain control . And it also offers a push button control for selecting between Hi and Lo Gain settings . With Volume all of the way down , you get no output . Between 8:00 and 10:00 , you get sparkly
48 TONE GEAR SPOTLIGHT TALK // How // To Catalinbread Master Your Formula Jazzmaster NO 55