Ugly Truth: Fulltone Catalyst

Lately I noticed that a couple of the Fulltone pedals have been marked down to a reasonable price. $80 for a Fulltone pedal used to be unheard of. The Catalyst and Fat Boost have both been marked to a discount price. I don't keep tabs on Fulltone, so I don't know when this happened, but everything looks like it has been recently. Used prices are still floating around previous levels. I was reading about the Catalyst on some forums and found where someone was over the moon to find one used for $99. I had a little experiences with the pedal a few years ago. I was playing some sessions with a group of guys, and used some borrowed gear. I dug the pedal then, but it was traded/sold. I haven't thought much about the pedal since, but when I saw that it was so affordable I decided to visit it again.

It's Flexible

You read the description on the Fulltone website and it makes this pedal sound like it can do anything. Boost, Overdrive, Distortion, and Fuzz. There are tons of pedal that want to do "everything" but few actually do more than one thing very well. Once you start to play with this pedal, you notice that it achieves several sounds. You might not like all of them, but there is probably a few you might. I ran this into my Vox AC15. It wasn't magic right away. I am a pretty big fan of the Vox on its own, but I did like the Catalyst as a Boost/light OD. It thickened up the sound and acted like a nice EQ. It sounded nice with Chords, but I think this pedal is more flexible than articulate.

It's Underwhelming. 

For a pedal that debuted well over $100, it kinda under-preform. This pedals actually acts better when the front of the pedal is hit pretty hard. I put a Klone in front of this pedal and it really opened up. This pedal seems to have plenty of head room, which is odd for a dirt box. So I'm guessing that it's a holdover from it being capable of a clean boost. However the boost isn't very "clean". It colors the tone in a very noticeable way. I liked it with my Vox. But I found that heavier gain setting were better with my American voiced amp.

I Like It

But I don't love it. It comes up a little short of awesome. My biggest complaint is that is not articulate enough. Chords sound thick and rich, but the single note runs don't translate well. Also, picking patterns get muddy. That's my biggest complaint, but you don't buy a fuzz to be clean and clear. But you think that your fuzz could be a boost, or work as and overdrive... So maybe Fulltone didn't really hit it out of the park with this one.

Conclusion

Fulltone may be clearing out the Catalyst and Fat Boost. They aren't the most popular pedals. They haven't been updated. Mine still say V1 on the PCB. This pedal is a little confused, but it still has a some good sounds. Its flexibility and versatility are what set this pedal apart. Would it be better if you had single pedals that did fantastic jobs of each one of the things that this pedal can do? Of course. However, this pedal is enough to do several different functions, and it has a voice that is unique. If you considered picking one of these up, then it may be time to grab one.

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New Pedals Are Something We Can All Get Excited About. (EHX Glove)

So back it October Electro Harmonix debuted a new line of Overdrives and Distortions. Being a fan of the brand (mostly the Big Muff and derivatives there of) I was interested to see what they had done. The features are attractive. The range of the new pedals span the whole range of OD and dirt pedals. EHX released their new pedals: Glove, Hot Tubes, Soul Food, and East River Drive (not to mention the Big Muff Pi nano). I'm really looking forward to taking a close look at each of these pedals. I've spent some time with one, and this is what I've found:

The Glove pedal is a mosfet drive in the vain of the famous OCD from Fulltone. My personal experience with this pedal has won this pedal a special place in my heart (and possibly my pedalboard). There has huge possiblities with unit. Reported to be able to clean boost. I won't know. My amp is very easily overdriven. A set of hot humbuckers and a boost will send my clean channel into breakup. So I don't know about "clean" boost. It definitely has some boost. The tones possible are great, but whats get my attention is the options on this pedal. First you notice the big three knobs. Everybody know the three, no matter what they are called, they do the same function. Drive, Tone, and Volume are present and accounted for, but take a closer look and you notice a mini-toggle. At first I thought it was a switch that bypassed the tone circuit, it isn't. It actually changes the tone stack. "On" is a high-mid boost and "off" is a flatter mid section with a little focus on the low-mids. Both ways produce some nice tones. Your tone and guitar's character still shine through with this pedal. But thats not all. On the inside there is a switch to change from 9 to 18 volt operation. Modders have been adding this function to their pedal for as long as I've been aware of modding, its nice to see some forward thinking. This pedal is a breath of fresh air, and you can find this for less than $60. The design may not be 100% original but I really like what they did with this pedal

Now the Ugly. To get to the internal voltage switch (or change the battery for that matter), you have to open up the box (screwdriver not included). The slight inconvenience isn't my may concern. I have the habit of cracking open my stomp boxes as it is. I did happen to notice that EHX have turned to the darkside in the name of profits. There is heavy usage of micro-sized passive components. This is bad news for modders and boutique snobs. If Boss can sell a $50 dirt box with real sized resistors and caps, then it serves to think that so can EHX. Oh wait, they are made in the USA.

So I dig the pedal, Love the features, and the price outstandingly low. It looks like a win in my book, just don't look behind the curtain.