The Dirty Little Secret Deluxe represents the next logical step in Marshall Plexi emulations, reaching beyond the preamp circuit and adding the rest of the amp for an extremely authentic take on everything inside the chassis. 

Our original DLS circuit has been tweaked and upgraded throughout, now featuring a phase inverter, power amp sim and output transformer as well as some new features and the most requested modifications for the original. 

One such addition is a toggle switch on the outside to select between Super Lead and Super Bass modes, and we’ve also externalized the Presence knob to easily dial in your preferred Marshall flavor. Also added is a piece of the Dirty Little Secret – a single preamp tube simulator – as a built in boost circuit that can be used independently of the main circuit. 

You can run the boost and DLS in any order you like: put the boost before the DLS for a high-powered saturated tone or after to pummel the front end of your amp. A new tightness knob lets you shave off the sub-bass for a little extra clarity or completely attenuate the low end for some cool thrash medal tones. 

A Line Out jack gives you a dedicated +10dB output that you can use with a mixer or DAW, and you can use both outputs simultaneously. Between the Boost, order selector and the external Super Lead/Super Bass modes, the Dirty Little Secret Deluxe is engineered to be a total performance tool that does the line justice.

Manual Overview

If you’re reading this, the secret is out! What started as a fourth version of our flagship Dirty Little Secret ended up as this, the Deluxe version, which I’m sure you’ve already played before reading this. Quite frankly, we don’t blame you, and right up front we want to extend a hearty “hope you enjoyed it,” which you undoubtedly have. If you haven’t, good news! This manual will explain everything in great detail, be you a “play it first, who needs a manual” type or a “whoa there, let’s check the paper first” type.

The Dirty Little Secret Deluxe is dedicated to all things Marshall, featuring an all-discrete circuit with a preamp, phase inverter, power amp sim and output transformer. A built-in foot switchable boost modeled after a clean Marshall preamp and effect order switch gives you a fully-customizable amp-in-a-box experience.

Controls

MASTER: A descriptor that’s normally a formality, this knob occurs before the phase inverter and output transformer rather than at the end of the circuit, just like a real amp. We designed the output stage to be more impervious to input saturation than most power sections, so really cranking it doesn’t alter the tone in an extremely noticeable way. However, those that plan to use the DLS DLX as an always-on can find some subtle sag and gentle compression living within the whole of the volume knob.

PREAMP: We’ve taken the original preamp control and tweaked it to deliver a wider gain range with more cleans on the lower end and more cranked Marshall tones on the higher end.

PRESENCE: Formally an internal trimmer on the original, the Presence control is a powerful low-pass filter that attenuates frequencies by 3dB above 1.59Hz when turned all the way down, and the cutoff point climbs to an indistinguishable frequency by the end of the turn.

BOOST:  The boost circuit is actually one of the tube emulation building blocks that make up the DLS itself. When you run the boost before the Dirty Little Secret, it acts as another “preamp tube” added to the front end of the device for some saturated JCM900 tones. When run after, it makes everything louder without sacrificing the clarity.

Learn more about Catalinbread’s Dirty Little Secret here.

Catalinbread introduced the Callisto MKII, an all analog chorus featuring a feedback control that can blur the line between chorus and flanger. It is priced at $209.99, and has a three year warranty.

After spending some time on the operating table, we are proud to release the Callisto MKII back and better than ever. We’ve painstakingly recreated the robust engine of our original and added in some extra features, too. For starters, the Callisto MKII is still 100 percent analog just like the original for some classic trembling warmth you can really feel. Just how much wobble you want can be dialed in with the Mix control, which achieves 100 percent wet or dry in either direction.

Turning it all the way up delivers a wonderfully-tuned pitch vibrato that can add some spice to your solos or some disorienting tape-like warble for your next bedroom pop record. Classic Rate and Depth controls go beyond the basic two-knob chorus and into hi-fi territory that makes your guitar shine and sound equally great for both lead and rhythm applications, or any other instrument you find may be lacking in thickness.

We’ve also taken the liberty of adding a cool Feedback control, which dumps a varying amount of signal from the output of the BBD chip back into the circuit after the filtering occurs, for a striking regenerative tone that blurs the line between chorus and flanger, even if it never quite reaches the latter. That sound and many others live inside the Callisto MKII within its intuitive set of controls.

Controls:

RATE: Controls LFO speed. Clockwise for faster; counter-clockwise for slower LFO speeds.

FDBK: Sends the modulated signal back into the input of the bucket brigade. Turn all the way down for the cleanest chorus sound; turn up for more intense modulation and phase shift/flanger type sounds.

MIX: Controls dry/wet mix. Keep at noon for classic chorus sounds, turn down for more subtlety and up for true pitch vibrato sounds.

DEPTH: Controls the amount that the wet signal is modulated.

Signal Chain Placement: The Callisto MKII can accept very hot signals with ease, including effects loop outputs, so running it after your dirt just makes sense. If you have other mod pedals, the order in which they are arranged among themselves is not crucial, so feel free to experiment!

The Callisto MKII ONLY accepts a 9V center-negative DC power supply capable of supplying at least 10mA of current (over is fine). Plugging in anything other than this (center-positive, AC, higher voltage) will ruin your pedal. Plugging in the wrong power supply will void your warranty. Don’t do this!

CatalinBread announced the CB Tap. It is their external tap tempo mechanism that was built to connect to their Belle Epoch Deluxe. The CB Tap not only adds tap functionality to the Belle Epoch Deluxe, but also connects to anything with a tap-tempo out (excluding BOSS pedals and other non normally-open taps).

The CB Tap comes with a Catalinbread-branded six-inch 1/4” TRS patch cable to connect it to whichever pedal you decide to use.

To use the CB Tap with the Belle Epoch Deluxe: Plug one end of the 1/4” TRS cable into the expression output of the Deluxe and the other end into the “DLX” input of the CB Tap, then start tapping and the LED indicator will follow along.

To use CB Tap with another pedal (even simultaneously as the Deluxe): Plug one end of the 1/4” TRS cable into any non-BOSS pedal’s tap out and plug the other end into the “Tap” input of the CB Tap, then start tapping. The LED indicator will not light up when using non Deluxe pedals.

The CB Tap will set a delay time which can then be multiplied into uniform subdivisions by adjusting the “Echo Delay” knob.

One caveat to note is that the CB Tap will not tap anything outside of the Belle Epoch Deluxe’s delay range. For example, it will not tap slower than 800ms. This caveat only applies when tapping the Belle Epoch Deluxe.

The CB Tap is priced at $65.00. Catalinbread offers free domestic shipping and a 3-year warranty. Shipping times are slower than expected, due to COVID-19.

Catalinbread released the Cloak. Right now, there is Early Black Friday pricing on The Cloak. It is currently priced at $178.49. (Regular price: $209.99).

Catalinbread describes The Cloak this way:

The Cloak began after unearthing some ancient texts containing some forbidden incantations on how to introduce spectral elements within a decaying echo. Ok, we’re embellishing a bit; but the inspiration came from the land of academia and the acoustics department at Stanford, where a treatise on the optimal shimmer effect was penned a handful of years back. In a similar pursuit of perfection, we’ve drawn inspiration from a combination of research and our own endeavors to craft a truly superb take on shimmer reverb.

At its core, the Cloak is a “room” style reverb that sounds amazing on its own, but with a twist of the Shimmer knob, rich, harmonically-laden overtones creep in, emphasizing three different orders of harmonics out before they get to out of hand and wreck up the signal path. The size of the room can be effortlessly dialed in, from a cramped broom closet to as close to infinity as we can possibly muster.

This comes in handy when deciding on which type of switching you prefer; The Cloak offers up true bypass switching the cuts off the reverb trails when The Cloak is disengaged, or buffered bypass, which keeps the decay going even after switching off – your pick. Either way you slice it, the Cloak is ready to impart a little black magic unto your rig.

Controls:

Room Size: Simultaneously adjusts both reverb decay length and a slight gain enhancement for a more natural decay

Mix: Adjusts the amount of dry signal present in the output, from 100 percent dry to 100 percent wet

High Cut: Cuts higher-order harmonics from the signal to soften the edges at higher Shimmer settings

Shimmer: Mixes the amount of shimmer present in the room reverb. Fully CCW gives you a rich room reverb and fully CW serves up a harmonically rich shimmer