CatalinbreadDirty Little Secret Foundation Overdrive Pedal

Love Catlinbread pedals, I've got the Fuzzrite Germanium, Many Worlds Phaser, and a Topanga, great pedals, but this one missed the mark in sound and craftsmanship. Almost no volume out of it on my clean or dirty channels, very little real clean gain, and scratches and a chip in the paint on the bottom plate. I recommend these guys to everyone, and I'm giving this a 5 star so that it won't tank their ratings, but this particular pedal just missed quality control or something and I'm guessing there's a cold solder joint someplace in there. I still highly recommend their pedals, just got skunked on this one in particular..

I've been using guitar effects for over 35 years, professionally, and can tell you hands down, this is what a distortion pedal is supposed to sound like. I just got finished selling some gear I haven't used in a long time, finding that I owned some 17 overdrive/distortion pedals. This may sound a bit over the top, but is really a normal thing when you play on a lot of recording sessions - you acquire various brands, sometimes from endorsement deals, sometimes because you see a great demo and know you simply have to have that sound in your arsenal. I sold around 7 of them, but even though it was for a very good purpose ( a great new amp) I wish I could have kept at least 5 of them. The point being, they were all worthwhile pedals, and on certain songs each one would have been great. But you have to settle for two or three pedals (unless you're a touring player with endorsements out the wazoo) at most, to represent your own distorted sound(s) if you're like most working players and don't have roadies to carry your stuff for you.Funny how some pedals that have sounded indispensable at one time, have become much less so over the years, as newer, better ones usurp them. There are literally hundreds of boutique effects pedal manufacturers today. A great many of them are making excellent products and it's not easy or cheap(!) to find what stands out from the others, without doing a lot of research. So I did some homework and kept coming across the same name for the past two years - Catlinbread's "Dirty Little Secret."Catlinbread's "Dirty Little Secret" pedals, versions I II and III are all hailed as excellent dirt boxes by discriminating players with good ears. I was going to wait for version III, when a great deal arose on the web recently, and I took advantage of it, buying version II. I'm truly glad I did.Guitarists are always being told "This pedal really does sound like a Marshall amp in a box!" After a while that claim had become like background noise to me, and I quit believing that it was achievable. People pay $400 every day for a certain pedal with this motto. I nearly bought into it (!) myself, but I'm glad I didn't - especially now.And I have to be honest, I've never owned a Marshall amp, though I've played through several in Nashville studios. I don't need to emulate the sound of a Marshall amp so much as I need to have a great overdrive and/or distortion sound at the ready. And this pedal really does deliver. It can be as aggressive as a Marshall and does have a scary resemblance to a raging Marshall stack, while it's being used in an amp with a single 12" speaker at relatively low - even bedroom - volumes. When you turn your rig up loud, it's right there, and really does sound as natural - maybe more so - than any dirt pedal I've used. And it loves other distortion pedals, marries their characteristics with its own, and absolutely sings as sweetly or as raunchy as you care to be.There are some great demos of this pedal to view and hear on Youtube. Look for the ones that have 15,000 or more viewers, so you know you're watching something that a lot of people checked out. There was a demo I watched with just under 16,000 hits that was a great demo because the guy doing it didn't try to show off his hot licks. He knew that the pedal was the star, not him, and he played the guitar in a way that allowed me to hear what I needed to hear from the pedal.But the bottom line is - if you're looking for a great distortion pedal, you've found it in the Dirty Little Secret. I would recommend versions II and III, because they learned a lot since the first version and freely admit it. It's not much of a secret anymore!

It does have a nice sound to it and it’s simple to use and I can get a variety of lead tones out of it so I would recommend it. I also bought another one and sent it to my friend who probably is never gonna use it.

I was on the hunt for a Marshall amplifier to complement / counter my 5f6-a Bassman, to have both American and British tones covered. Through research and determination, I found reviews of this pedal. I was very hesitant to rely upon a pedal to recreate the feel and tone of a real tube amplifier, since there are so many variables that are needed to achieve that sound. I watched several videos, read several reviews, and then I decided that I would not buy an amp, and instead turn my Bassman into a Marshall by using this pedal.I need to first mention some specifics about my particular setup, as it relates to the circuitry: the DLS' Super Bass (SB) setting just so happens to very closely relate to the 5f6-a Fender circuit, since the early Marshalls were based on this circuit, down to the very component values found in each circuit. Running this pedal through a Bassman allows all of the lows (and highs) through, and so the SB setting sounds like the Marshall equivalent of a Bassman...which is what the first Marshalls were, up through the Super Lead, with only a few changes to the tone stack (and aluminum chassis and different transformers). Being that there are so many similarities between the pedal and amp, there is a very natural sound to this pedal, and it really nails that early Marshall / JMP / JTM feel and tone. If you have a Tweed Bassman (even the reissues), you should give this pedal a go.Using a fuzz pedal in front of this pedal in SB mode is truly a phenomenal experience (Jimi Hendrix "Experience" is more like it): my Fuzz Face JH (Mini) is a silicon-based unit, and it sounds horrible with every other pedal and amplifier and combination thereof that I have tested it with. I was getting ready to sell this pedal and save up for a nice germanium pedal of some sort, but with the DLS, I found it's home. I wanted that touch sensitivity and Hendrix growl out of my fuzz pedal, and I get it with ONLY the DLS pedal. This Fuzz Face silicon really works as advertised when in SB mode. I could not believe it, and I am glad that I did not waste my money on the FF mini. My '92 Les Paul Classic (with after market PAF pickups) can achieve nice Cream sounds if you know what you're doing, but this mode sounds best with a Stratocaster ('56 Custom Shop). With a Strat, you really do get the classic sounds you would expect when playing through a Marshall.The Super Lead mode is all that I expected it to be, and it really nails that Marshall 1987 through JCM 800 sound. As advertised, fuzz pedals are not all that friendly in this mode (too much bass is cut in the tone stack), but that does not mean you should not test out your fuzz box. Expect that your Strat or Les Paul will sound wonderful, as though you are playing through...a Marshall.I half expected that this pedal would be all that it was advertised to be, since the creator of the pedals created his own YouTube demos of his product line, in a way that exemplifies the everyday players' rigs. He made a Princeton Reverb sound like an old Marshall, playing Jimi's "Catfish" song with toneful precision.If you own a Fender or Fender-style amp, or if you are wondering how to mod that older Fender "Normal channel" to Marshall/Plexi specs, leave it be, and get the Dirty Little Secret Mk III instead. You will not regret plugging the DLS into your Fender amp.