Catalinbread Tribute User manual

MANUAL

OVERVIEW
Ahoy ahoy, you’ve just accessed the lore of the Tribute, a pedal that literally every guitarist
needs. Yes, even you, outlaw country fan, and you, person wearing indecipherable metal
logo band shirt. You see, the Tribute is an all-analog circuit that combines an extremely
expressive high-headroom drive engine with an obscenely powerful and flexible tone
control. The back end of the Tribute pays—ahem—homage to one of our oldest designs, the
VariOboost. This circuit gives you a supercharged one-band parametric EQ in lieu of a tone
control for some serious studio-esque tone sculpting power. Playing rhythm? Dial in a
low-mids grunt and boost that band for some fat chords. Playing leads? Flip that thing and
inject some sparkle into your sound. Want to fake a cocked wah pedal to nail your cover of
“Money for Nothing”? Want to simulate some Peter Green-esque out-of-phase pickups?
Want your single-coils to sound like humbuckers? What about the other way around? Sure,
why not? Want all of that and more? It’s time to play Tribute.
TONE: After dialing in the
Freq[uency], use this control to
boost or cut the selected frequency
by 12dB. This control is equipped
with a center-detent potentiometer;
just click it to noon and the
frequency is flat; this means that
nothing is boosted or cut regardless
of Freq position. Clicking the Tone
knob to noon effectively removes
the VariOboost component.
VOL: You like it loud? Good thing!
The Volume control gives you plenty
of the good stuff.
FREQ: This control is part of the
original VariOboost circuit, and Freq
and Tone work in tandem. Freq
selects a frequency between 70Hz
and 1.4KHz, which is then cut or
boosted by the Tone control. See
diagram on the next page if this
makes no sense right now.
DRIVE: The Drive control utilizes a
dual-gang potentiometer. This means
that turning the Drive knob affects
two parameters at once instead of
just one. Here, those two controls are
clean blend and overdrive gain. At
minimum you get your pristinely
buffered clean signal with a gentle
treble filter. Turned all the way up,
maximum gain is achieved with no
clean signal present. Anywhere in
between gives you a carefully
balanced clean-drive combo that lets
your tone breathe at all positions.
CONTROLS

“Hertz”, abbreviated Hz, is the unit of measurement of frequency, which is how your ear perceives sound.
One Hertz is equivalent to one cycle (or “event”) per second. Want to make a 1Hz oscillator (signal
generator) right now? Bang your fist on the nearest surface once per second. Want to make a 2Hz
oscillator? Do it twice as fast. You see where this is going. If you can somehow beat your fist on your
table 100 times per second, you will generate a tone whose frequency is 100Hz. Guitar strings vibrate
when you play them, and they vibrate a certain amount of times per second. For simplicity’s sake, your
pickups “pick up” these frequencies, and then your amp amplifies them. A guitar tuned to standard
generates 80Hz from an open low E, and up to whatever the fretboard allows on the high E. Whatever you
add after that is between you and the amp. Most electrical music gear splits the frequency range into
three makeshift “bands,” bass, middle and treble, each with their specified range of Hertz. For those of
you unaccustomed to thinking about sound in this way, we’ve created a simple chart to explain how you
might apply these numbers in players terms:
NUTS & BOLTS
70-100Hz: Sub bass.
Boost this section to
bring out some tones
that are more felt
than heard. Cutting
this band is
guaranteed to incite
far fewer arguments
with your bass
player. In standard
tuning, your low E
fundamental lives
here at 82Hz.
Downtuned guitars
love this frequency; a
low C# fundamental
is close to 70Hz.
250-500Hz: Low
mids, also known as
“warmth”. Bring this
up to, as we say,
“warm up” your tone.
Some careful
adjustments to this
band will lead to
some truly amazing
rhythm tones. Cutting
this band, sometimes
called the “mud
band,” provides a bit
of harmony within a
crowded mix. For
reference, your high E
fundamental lives
here at 330Hz.
100-250Hz: Bottom
end, also known as
“grunt”. Increase this
to add some low-end
push, fatten up some
thin pickups, give a
little extra push to
stubborn amps or
bring some overall
weight to your tone.
Cut this to keep your
guitar tight in the
mix, or if you’re
playing leads. Your A,
D, G, and B
fundamentals live
here (110Hz, 147Hz,
196Hz, 247Hz,
respectively).
500Hz-1KHz: Mids, also
known as “body.”
Boosting this band lets you
really stand out in even the
densest mixes with
multiple instruments. If
you’re playing in a band
that occupies one of the
many subgenres of metal,
this is likely where you’d
“scoop the mids,” aka
“lower the mids level
relative to the surrounding
frequencies.” Quite frankly,
if you’re in a death metal
band, the Tribute just
became your new best
friend. Faking a different
pickup type usually
involves some careful
adjustment in this region;
boost to turn single coils
into humbuckers, cut for
the opposite.
1-1.4KHz: High mids and
treble, also known as
“presence”. If you’re
feeling saucy, boosting
this band augments your
solos because it amplifies
the frequency band in
which your pick attack
lives. This is also where
some harshness can live
so adjust sparingly.
Slightly cutting here can
shave a little top end from
your sound if you’re
playing with other
instruments that normally
occupy this space. Deeper
cuts can simulate
out-of-phase pickups (in
the middle position) for a
somewhat hollow, but
very unique tone.
70Hz 100Hz 250Hz 500Hz 1KHz 1.4KHz

DESIGNER’S NOTES
I originally built the “rough draft” of this pedal for my dear friend Tom Keithly years ago. As
good as it was, it wasn’t perfect. When it came time to design the Tribute, I thought “we
have so many pedals that sound like other amps, but what about your amp?” I got hold of
the prototype and took it back to the drawing board, stripped it down to a component level
and markedly improved every aspect of it in an organic and agonizingly pedantic way.
Firstly, I’d like to say that despite the dual-ganged Drive control, the Tribute is not based on
one of those “K-style” overdrives. While that circuit is great, it just wasn’t what I was after.
However, I did borrow one thing from that circuit: the charge pump. +18V and -9V (27V
rail-to-rail) is just about the maximum I could push the charge pump while allocating
enough current to supply the rest of the circuit and not melting the ICs.
The front end of the Tribute is front-loaded with a very powerful transistorized buffer
circuit, which is, might I say… overengineered… in a good way? It uses a lot of components
for a seemingly inconsequential payout, which is an extremely transparent and warm
rendition of your dry tone. This preps your circuit for the split into clean and drive pathways
to maintain maximum signal integrity while avoiding a tone-sucking passive split. It also
runs at +18V internally.
One of Catalinbread’s earliest designs that I remember playing was the VariOboost; the
shop I worked at had an original “horizontal” model and I always liked that circuit quite a
bit. By itself it was great, but when paired with a dirt circuit the results were unquestionably
stellar. Now that I find myself able to work with that IP, putting it into this circuit was a
no-brainer.
In my prototype drive circuit, I used a two-band passive tone stack; and while that did the
job well enough, I always wanted a more precision control with a ton of power. That’s where
the VariOboost comes in. Unlike the original, the second half of the Tribute runs on the
same supercharged 27 R2R volts for a high-headroom version of our original circuit. This
ensures that it will envelop anything you throw at it with ease.
This design pays tribute to my pedal from long ago, to the amazing VariOboost, to Tom, and
to you, the player that deserves such a device. I now defer to you and your equipment.

POWER SUPPLY
MEASUREMENTS
The Tribute ONLY accepts a 9V center-negative DC power supply capable of supplying at
least 50mA of current (over is fine). Plugging in anything other than this (center-positive,
AC, higher voltage) will damage the pedal, perhaps irreparably. And if that happens, you
are guaranteed to have a bad time. Check your supply and make sure it says all the right
stuff. Plugging in the wrong supply will void the warranty and possibly let the magic
smoke out. Neither are desirable.
Input impedance: 1.6M
Output impedance: 8K
Current draw: 50mA
Dimensions: 4.33” x 2.36” x 1.96” (110mm x 60mm x 50mm)
Weight: 0.5lbs/227g