Catalinbread Special Edition Dreamcoat & Skewer Box Set Catalinbread

Please Note: Very minor blemishes on the pedals.
Catalinbread has recreated the tools that inspired Ritchie Blackmore so they can inspire you. This box set is not meant to nail Blackmore’s tone, but rather be a toolkit to help you make your own sonic footprint. The DREAMCOAT has the exact specs of the Aiwa TP-1011 reel-to-reel preamp that Blackmore used; with some extra features. It can be an unruly, velcro-y, and sputtery beast, but one that can be tamed at low levels for a more classic rock approach. Think of it like a console being blown out but completely under your control. The SKEWER operates similarly to Catalinbread’s Naga Viper pedal, but rather than being based on the Dallas Rangemaster, it is based on the Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster–another iconic piece of Blackmore’s gear. All the pedal geekdom about what is in these pedals can be found in their manuals on Catalinbread’s website.

Catalinbread have released two brand new Ritchie Blackmore inspired pedals in a special edition combo box, the DREAMCOAT and the SKEWER. The pedals will be sold exclusively as a box set for one month and at a discounted rate. After the first month, people can get each pedal a la carte but at full retail price. The pedals were designed to be used individually, but they really come to life when used together. The artwork of the two pedals flow into each other as one cohesive piece.

Dreamcoat
What began as an exploration of Ritchie Blackmore’s tone evolved into a multidimensional gain machine capable of anything between unruly sputtery fuzz and classic rock chime. This is not meant to make you sound like Blackmore, it is meant to inspire you from using the tools that he did, that would otherwise be inaccessible in pedal form. The heart and soul of the Dreamcoat is a near-exact recreation of the preamp circuit from the Aiwa TP-1011 reel-to-reel deck that Blackmore used on many of his recordings. All of the functionality of that unit is present, from sparkling cleans to powerful crunch and glassy leads, but the “Sat” control gives you an extra layer of grunt, allowing the Dreamcoat to range between near-dry tonal indifference to complete “melting-amp” Neil Young-esque tweed sounds. Blackmore’s sound wasn’t just a tape deck, though. His guitar tech, Dawk Stillwell, installed a passive inductor-based frequency “booster” into Ritchie’s Strat that cut both sides of the spectrum around the resonant frequency of his guitar, giving the appearance of frequency boost. To that end, we’ve added a frequency booster circuit that doesn’t cut anything, giving you a richer tone with a little oomph where it counts. To top it all off, we’ve included a clean blend circuit that begins after the frequency boost and ends after the tape preamp, so you can EQ the sum of your clean tone and dirt, all while preserving your pick attack and presence. The whole shebang runs at 20V, just a hair higher than the original Aiwa, expanding its capabilities and delivering tons of headroom.

Current draw: 44mA
Input impedance: >1MOhm
Output impedance: <5KOhm
Dimensions: 4.33″ X 2.36″ X 1.93″
Weight: 0.4 lbs

Skewer
One of Blackmore’s most recognizable pieces of gear is his old Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster, a version of the classic effect used by too many artists to list. While almost all of them used a Rangemaster, the Hornby-Skewes version came stock with a silicon transistor for a more biting sound that cut through even the densest of mixes. The SKEWER stays true to that circuit, giving the old JHS unit the same treatment as our Naga Viper. This lets you dial in the desired frequency range from rich and full to treble-heavy, as well as control the amount of boost. You can also vary the amount of transistor gain for some extra juice. Of course, because it’s Blackmore we’re talking about here, he had his original Treble Booster modded to play nicer with the rest of his gear. We’ve taken the liberty of giving you that mod as well, which is fully adjustable via the trimpot inside. Further enhancements include a noise reduction filter and anti-pop switch circuitry. This one bites just a little harder than our Naga Viper, and sounds fantastic with the DREAMCOAT.

Current draw: 1mA
Input impedance: 100k
Output impedance: 8k
Dimensions: 4.33″ X 2.36″ X 1.93″
Weight: 0.46 lbs