Pre Loved Catalinbread Formula 55 Overdrive

This pre owned item is in excellent condition.

The Catalinbread Formula 55 is an "amp-in-a-box" overdrive/preamp designed to recreate the sound and feel of a cranked 1950s Fender 5E3 Tweed Deluxe amplifier. Rather than sounding like a typical overdrive pedal, its goal is to emulate the response of the amp's preamp section, including its touch sensitivity, compression ("sag"), and dynamic interaction with your guitar's volume control.

Tonal character

The Formula 55 is known for:

Warm, woody cleans with thick low mids.
Edge-of-breakup crunch that responds to picking dynamics.
Rich, harmonically complex overdrive with the classic tweed "bark."
Compressed, saggy feel at higher gain settings, reminiscent of an old tube amp being pushed hard.
Excellent clean-up from the guitar's volume knob, just like a real tweed amp.

Players often associate it with tones ranging from Grant Green's warm jazz cleans to Neil Young's raw, ragged tweed overdrive.

Controls

The pedal has five main controls:

Volume – Sets the amount of preamp drive (effectively the gain).
Tone – Works like the original Tweed Deluxe tone circuit, becoming less influential as the gain is increased.
Presence – Adjusts the upper treble and bite, helping match different guitars and amplifiers.
Master – Overall output level, with enough volume to drive an amplifier harder.
Hi/Lo switch
Lo mode emulates the lower-gain feel of a vintage tweed with 12AY7-style preamp behaviour.
Hi mode increases gain and saturation, similar to fitting hotter 12AX7 tubes.