“Our most ethereal reverb unit to date”: Catalinbread sets its sights on celestial ambient tones with the Sinkhole Modulated Reverb – which doubles as a clean boost
Catalinbread has continued its strong end-of-year form by unveiling its “most ethereal reverb to date”, the Sinkhole Modulated Reverb.
As the name would indeed suggest, this is a reverb pedal with some additional modulation flavor for extra tonal intrigue, combining a harmonically rich “hole” reverb with “an impossibly deep four-voice chorus”.
In practice, the reverb and chorus effects have two parameters to themselves. The modulation is dictated by Feedback and, unsurprisingly, Modulation knobs, the latter of which simply controls the rate of the LFO from “barely-discernible” to “dramatic”.
The latter, meanwhile, serves two functions: not only does it adjust the amount of feedback in the chorus section, it also controls the overall depth of the effect. It also is said to be a highly interactive parameter that yields varied sonic results depending on the settings surrounding it.
A Volume control works to adjust the gain of the Sinkhole’s onboard preamp – meaning the pedal can also be used as de facto reverb-less clean boost, if so desired – while Verb is described as “a second gain control and a mids control all in one”.
Likened to the behavior of a real tube amp’s variable feedback, the Verb knob feeds a variable amount of signal from the output back into the middle of the circuit, which elevates the midrange and provides “gooey saturation”.
A final control, Mix, is implemented to perform the basic task of blending the wet and dry signals in any desired concoction.
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All of this, according to Catalinbread, results in a pedal capable of “rich harmonic reverb, deep chorus, tunable modulation and extended decay” that can be used to create “otherworldly sounds and warm pads”.
“We’ve stretched the reverb trails out to their absolute limit, with the maximum decay time almost freezing your signal in space,” the brand added. “Extreme settings evoke warm synthesizer pads, reminiscent of vintage analog-digital hybrids, holding your modulated note indefinitely.”
The Sinkhole Modulated Reverb is available now for $199.
Head over to Catalinbread to find out more.
As we mentioned, the pedal maker is having a strong finish to 2023. Just last week, it got in on the DIY pedal hype with the Knight School Overdrive – a self-assembly overdrive based on a circuit favored by Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer and Paul Gilbert.
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Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
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