Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret

Classic plexi to early 70s Marshall Super Lead and Super Bass sound and response. 

Two classic circuits, selectable via an internal slider switch:

Super Lead: The “Super Lead” mode gives you the great rock sound of a Marshall Super Lead amp with awesome harmonics, touch sensitivity, cab thumb, and kerrang. Higher gain than the Super Bass mode, Super Lead mode is perfect for use with humbucker-equipped guitars. It’s gain range goes from classic plexi all the way to modified JCM800 levels. And, just like a great plexi, you can go from clean to scream with just a twist of your guitar’s volume knob. Like a Super Lead, it’s voice is all about thump and upper-midrange kerrang. This is THE rock sound!

Super Bass: The “Super Bass” mode gives you the tone and gain structure of a Marshall Super Bass (which is very similar to a JTM45, JTM50/100, or very early plexi). This mode was voiced to really hone in on that elusive in-between “not quite clean, not quite dirty” response that old tube amps were so good at getting. And it was specifically voiced to make fuzz pedals sound great (especially two-transistor based fuzzes like the fuzz face). Plug a Strat into a Fuzz Face with the DLS in SB mode and you’ll see what we mean! It’s voice is deeper bass, and an emphasis on the lower midrange band (in contrast to the Super Lead mode’s upper midrange emphasis) and sounds especially great with Fender style guitars.

Tone Stack: The DLS is two pedals in one. When you switch from SL to SB mode it completely reconfigures the tone stack and key first gain stage parameters to give authentic Super Lead or Super Bass type response. The SL/SB mode switch doesn’t just add a bit more bass to make it a “super BASS”. The treble-middle-bass tone control complement exactly reproduce the tone stack circuits of the Super Lead and the Super Bass amps. So when you switch from SL to SB mode, the tone circuit gets reconfigured to the Super Bass circuit.

Mode Switch: The Super Lead and Super Bass are two remarkably different amps, and so the DLS is essentially two pedals in one….not a two channel pedal. When you switch between the two modes and  explore the differences in the way the pedal reacts, you’ll see what we mean. You will hear the difference in the way the tone controls work, the way the gain character feels, and the way the overall frequency response sounds.