Catalinbread VariOboost

This is the new "Professional" version, controls for Gain, Cut/Boost and Frequency, which is now a continuous tapper instead of the 6 position switch on the old version. No manual but you don't need one, a little knob tweaking is all it takes to get a ton of awesome sounds.

Tried it at the shop with a Marshall Silver Jubilee 2553 stack and a Gibson V (I have a similar set-up at home). Using it as a boost to push the amp over the edge produced just about any classic Marshall high-gain tone I could imagine. From Iron Maiden "Piece of Mind" crunch to vintage Slayer growl, this pedal pushed the Marshall in ways no other boost I've used ever has, BRILLIANT!! It lets you choose a specific area of the mids and cut OR boost them, it's VERY effective. Very quiet as well, also works great as a boost for other pedals. I achieved similar results using it to boost an MI Audio Crunchbox (AWESOME pedal as well). It's almost like having an old Neve EQ module in your chain, it's amazing.

Built great, no worries.

I play METAL (Iron Maiden to Morbid Angel) and this pedal really adds a lot to my sound. As a boost for rhythm or a solo boost, this pedal delivers. I haven't seen it advertised on Catalinbread's site yet but it is out there for sale and I HIGHLY recommend it!

This pedal will need you to have basically Good Ear to listen to it.

Fenders on # 3, Gibsons on # 4, Bases on # 5.
It will better your sound no matter what.

Dependable.

Nicholas will help.

I play Reggae and Jazz and Rock and Blues,
This will help you to nail the sound you want/

I have been using testing out the VariOboost with 5 very different guitars into 4 very different amps and I have no trouble dialing in several varying and cool sounds. No manual supplied but Nicholas was kind enough to quickly answer the emails that I sent him regarding the pedal.

Pedal has a 6-way switch which cuts out various mid ranges from the bassy to trebley (mid ranges that it). Depth controls the amount to the dip and gain adjust the volume of the signal. Gain can push it into breakup. I find that positions 1-4 are best with humbuckers and 3-6 are best with single coils.

Setup: asat, sg, archtop, ebmm axis sport, starfield, into univalve, traynors, champ and garnet with variety of other pedals in chain

Noise: TB pop for first couple of minutes only. Adds a very small amount of noise but I am being really fussy when I notice it; certainly not enough to worry about. AC doesn't add noise unless I run it off my daisy chain in which case I get a bad hum which could easily be one of my other pedals reacting with it.

Variety of Sounds: This would rate at a 20 if possible. There are so many great sounds in this pedal that it is really hard to believe. I play a wide variety of music and armed with a tele I can convincingly cover any genre of music with this pedal and a dirt box. Single coils can sound fat and juicy, thin and raspy, p90'ish, humbuckerish, archtop'ish and everything in between except for acoustic.

You can dial in sounds that won't work for you but they are not bad sounds at all...ie. that thin funk sound doesn't really fly if you are flogging drop D.

EVERYTHING SOUNDS BETTER WITH THE PEDAL ON...anything I throw at it sounds more "alive and 3-d'ish" This isn't an eq pedal but I'll let Nicholas explained it to those who are wondering.

The only weird sound that I got was using a wah with clean sounds and the VB...you can get some strange stuff at VB certain settings mixing with certain wah frequencies. However, when using the Wah with mild to ver heavy distortion the VB helped to eliminate the usually problem of wah washout with non-buffered wahs; in fact it sounds seriously great with lots of distortion wah. Sounds great with compression, distortion, flange, clean..everything that I have tried.

I was going to give it nine because I don't like giving tens but I really couldn't justify it not getting a ten. It is the only pedal that I see staying on the whole time.

Too new to say but the components are top shelf and I understand that Nicholas stands behind his products.

Have had a few email conversation in regards to the pedal and Nicholas was prompt and helpful in all cases...that is why I am calling him Nicholas instead of the maker -- he takes the time to make you feel o'tah. Can't give a ten until I have a problem that needs rectifying and gets solved fast and well.

Most of my rating reasons have been stated above. I have been playing long enough to make your ass hurt thinking about it and I have going through the "lots of stuff" mode and I am now in the "only good stuff" phase. This pedal rocks! It sounds great and avails the wide range of sounds that I need to so I don't have to go swith guitars everytime I change the genre of music that I am playing. I find that when I can go through each of the 6 channels and the sounds actually inspire me to take my playing in the direction that sound points....good for creativity.

Any questions, you can find me on HCEF: post about the VariOboost and I'll find you (no spam that way). I will be posting some clips on HCEF because that will explain the variety far better than my words can.
The pedal looks great: brushed aluminum finish with a suble silk-screened logo on the top, housed in a small box...looks great next to my Keeley Comp (same size and colour with same switches and plugs).


Pretty rare at this point: I have 4 of 6 made.