!
Hello and welcome to your new
Formula No.55!
The Formula No.55 is our next generation 5E3 Tweed Deluxe-inspired foundation
overdrive - we’ve painstakingly reproduced the preamp section of the classic tweed 5E3
amplifier in exacting detail with the volume and tone circuit replicated part for part just
like a vintage 1950s Deluxe. We then expanded upon that classic recipe to widen the
playing experience by grafting the 5E3 preamp section to what feels like a MUCH
bigger power section at your pick - the effect of which results in feeling like you’re
playing through a larger cab with more than one speaker. All of the tonal characteristics
of a small tweed combo but tuned to have the dynamic response of a big amp - woody
and resonant!
In place of tubes, the Formula No.55 utilizes JFETs configured for the most tube-like
dynamic response and harmonic content. And just like a vintage 5E3 the volume and
tone controls are interactive giving you a wide palette of tones and pick responses to
choose from. Since the design goal for Formula No.55 was to offer the widest range of
the 5E3 experience as possible from Grant Green cleans to Neil Young Crazy Horse
meltdowns (Whizzer not included), the dynamic response needed to be incredibly wide from a smokey, full-bodied clean jazz vibe to full on raging amp distortion all courtesy of
your guitar’s volume knob and/or picking hand. A tall order for sure, but one we think we
nailed and we hope you do too!
A quick word about the build - to achieve the sonic goal for the Formula No.55, several
different types of parts were auditioned in the search for the ideal sound, feel, and
dynamic response. We ended up using premium parts here not because we wanted to
say we used “premium parts” but because they were critical to achieving the desired
result. To that end, the Formula No.55 incorporates all carbon comp resistors and the
capacitor types were carefully chosen for their selected positions. Catalinbread pedals
have always used this philosophy for design - we use the right parts for the right sound!
Okay enough talk - let’s fire this baby up!
QUICK START GUIDE
This section will give you a quick overview of your new Formula No.55. Plug in and follow
along and then come back and read the rest of the guide for more insight into the controls
and how to incorporate the Formula No.55 into your pedalboard.
First, let’s start by plugging the Formula No.55 into your amp without any other pedals in
the chain. While the Formula No.55 works fine with non-true bypass pedals, this will give
you the truest feel for what it’s response is like. Then later we will go over its role and
placement on your pedalboard.
Now set your amp for a relatively clean, neutral tone. On a typical Fender-style amp, the
controls would read: Volume 2-3, Treble 6, Bass 3, and Mids 6.
OK, got your guitar all tuned up? Let’s start by setting the Formula No.55 in
LO/GREEN mode (mode switch in the up position), PRESENCE - noon, TONE - noon,
VOLUME - noon, and MASTER around 10:00. Go ahead and jam for a while through this
setting. You should hear a nice mild cleanish overdrive (you may need to turn up the
VOLUME control a little more if you’re using lower output pickups) with a fatness in the
low mids that is inherent to the design regardless of TONE setting. Roll the volume
control on your guitar back and you should hear the sound clean up really nicely. Now, go
ahead and explore the PRESENCE and TONE controls to hear how they affect the
EQing. Okay once you’ve got those two set to where you like them let’s crank up the
VOLUME control all the way - play a palm-muted chord line and listen to the quality of the
grit and the low end resonance that makes it seem like your cab is breathing. Nice, right?
Now rip an open chord and let it ring - lots of grind up front that has fullness and clarity as
it decays. Notice that ‘cab thump’ when you palm muted has disappeared and the low
end got more focused and tightened up when you hit it hard? Now lay back with your
picking hand with the guitar volume up full - IT’S CLEAN! Those are dynamics, my friend.
We love them here at Catalinbread!
Okay on to the HI / RED mode!
BEFORE YOU PUSH THAT BUTTON let’s roll the VOLUME control back to about 9:00 you’re basically picking up where LO / GREEN mode with the VOLUME cranked left off.
Notice the signal feels more ‘hyped’ - hotter, with lots of stored potential at your pick. Hit it
hard and let it ring! Now lay back and brush the strings lightly - yep, still dynamic. Take
the VOLUME up to noon and camp out here for awhile paying attention to the attack and
dynamic characteristics - it’s fuller but still tight with lots of string definition when you lay
into it. And of course it's still cleaning up when you want it. Nice. Now let’s do what you’ve
probably already done when you first took it out of the box - dime that VOLUME control!
Oh God. Yep. There it is.
Feel that? That elastic ‘sag’ when you smack it that blooms out bigger than the initial
attack? So good. But wait - lay back again and brush those strings - WHOA. Now roll
back your guitar volume and get at those tweed cleans. You’re probably gonna lose an
hour or two here so it seems like a good time to bring this section to a close. Enjoy!
!
The MASTER volume control has a heaping
helping of output on tap, allowing you to dial in a
huge, fat, woody clean tone or to push your
amplifier into overdrive all on it’s own.
The PRESENCE control governs frequencies in the
5khz range allowing you to tune the top end
response to your particular pickups and amplifier.
The TONE control sounds and behaves just like it
does on the actual Deluxe amplifiers - you will
notice that as you wind up the VOLUME control
that the TONE control’s influence becomes more
subtle when the VOLUME is maxed out. At lower
VOLUME settings, you can set it at noon for the
flattest response; to the left of noon for those
smoky jazz cleans; or crank it up for more barking,
greasy upper midrange tones that slice through the
mix.
The VOLUME control is essentially your gain
control. It works in concert with the HI/LO switch
enabling you to set your maximum desired level of
dirt - from squeaky clean to DAMN THAT’S
STANKY! Want to clean it up? Simply roll back your
guitar’s volume knob!
CONTROLS IN DETAIL
The HI / LO switch offers two discrete gain modes:
The HI / RED mode is the raging, hot-rodded 12AX7 mode with more gain and saturation. You’ll
notice that your pick essentially turns into a ‘throttle’ of sorts - lay off the attack and it cleans up but
there’s always that potential there for ‘acceleration’ when you lay into it!
The LO / GREEN mode is lower gain overall - as if your amp were now sporting 12AY7 preamp
tubes. Cleaner and more immediate in the pick attack with more ‘bounce’ when you’re chord
comping, but still has that fat, juicy harmonic response.
POWER SUPPLY
You can power your Formula No.55 with a 9v battery or any good quality filtered and
regulated 9-18vDC power supply with a center-negative tipped plug designed for use with
effects pedals. If you want more volume, headroom, and percussive attack, try running an
18vDC power supply. A 9vDC power supply will have a slightly softer sound that saturates
more easily - it's sort of like the difference between a 50 watt and 100 watt amp! Definitely
try it at 18 volts though - there's quite a difference! 18 volts is great for playing with the band.
You'll get great attack and clarity with power to cut through the mix. You can also try a
battery that is drained down to as little as 3-4 volts to get an even softer sound that is great
for late night jam sessions when you don't want to wake anyone up!
To change the battery, just remove the four screws on the bottom plate. There are no other
user controls under the hood. As usual, when running with a battery, unplugging the input
jack will turn off the power.
WHERE TO PLACE YOUR FORMULA No.55 IN YOUR
CHAIN OF EFFECTS
The Formula No.55 is one of our Foundation Overdrives - pedals that can give you big,
cranked up amp response at non-cranked volumes. To use it as intended, you’ll want
your amp set to a relatively clean, flat response. While you can (and should) just
experiment and find out what works for you, this section will give you insight on how to
use the Formula No.55 as intended.
The Formula No.55 becomes the foundation of your pedalboard. It gives you clean to
crunch response with a flick of your guitar’s volume knob. It acts like an amp with
boosters and fuzzes placed before it. So let’s do a little exercise here and build up a
pedalboard using the Formula No.55 as its foundation.
First, we start with the Formula No.55 in LO/GREEN mode, with the VOLUME set on
either side of noon-ish. We could stop here and get a nice range of tones just from our
guitar’s controls and our playing attack. But now we want to add in some reverb or delay.
Typically, you’ll add those after the Formula No.55. But in some cases, you might place a
delay pedal in front such as if you’re using our Belle Epoch tape echo and want it to
sound like you’re running it into a cranked up amp. If you want your reverb or delay to
sound like it’s in the effects loop or run post, place them after the Formula No.55
(assuming your amp is set fairly clean). Now, all those boosters, fuzzes, and tube
screamer style overdrives you’ve collected? Put those in front of the Formula No.55. It
was designed specially to respond like the amp would with those in front of them. In
general, the Formula No.55 should be the last dirt or gain pedal in your signal chain.
You’ll find that using the Formula No.55 as your basic guitar sound and then boosting it
with your collection of boosts and fuzzes will give you a huge tonal palette to work from!
Wah-wahs and filters? Most likely you’ll also want to run those in front of it as well.
Phasers? Probably in front too. Flangers and chorus? Hmmm. Those could go either way.
Here is a list of types of boosting effects that you’ll get the best result from by
plugging them in front of the Formula No.55:
Clean boosts and treble boosts
Fuzz pedals
Octave up and octave down pedals
Overdrivers such as tube screamers and klons.
Wah-wahs and filters
The main idea with a Foundation Overdrive is that you leave it on the entire time and get
your range of gain by using the guitar’s volume controls to get clean sounds and to use
boosters and fuzzes in front to get higher gain sounds.
GUITARS AND THE FORMULA No.55
Like the actual amp, the Formula No.55 is responsive to the type of guitar you’re playing
into it. If you’re playing vintage output Fender guitars, the tone will stay cleaner longer
as you turn up the VOLUME knob. If you’re playing a humbucker or other higher-output
style of pickup, the Formula No.55 will break up sooner on the VOLUME knob. But you’ll
always be able to get cleans by turning your guitar’s volume down.
AMPLIFIERS AND THE FORMULA No.55
Generally speaking, the Formula No.55 works best into a tube guitar amp set relatively
clean and neutral. However, it can work great to further overdrive an amp that is already
overdriven as well, although this was not its design intention. If you are running a
Fender style amp, try setting the tone controls as follows Treble 6, Middle (if your amp
has it) 6, Bass 3, and Volume between 2-4. This is generally the best response from a
Fender amp and in fact are the basic settings used in the development lab when voicing
our pedals. A note about tubes in your amp. For the best tone and response from your
Formula No.55 (and your whole pedal chain, really) make sure you have good sounding
tubes in your amp. In particular, the first tube in the pre-amp stage of your amp is
critically important as your Formula No.55 will be driving this tube. A cheap or faulty tube
can make your pedals sound weak, too gritty, farty, or just plain uninspiring. Do some
research on tubes for your amp and experiment with different first stage preamp tubes
in conjunction with the Formula No.55 to really fine-tune your tone.
SPECIFICATIONS
True Bypass switching
4.375” (11.11 cm) x 2.375” (6 cm) x 1.875” (4.76 cm)
5mA power draw at 9vDC, 10mA power draw at 18vDC
Input impedance: 1m
Output impedance: 15k
9vDC - 18vDC or Battery Operation
DESIGNER’S NOTES
I’ve been designing pedals at Catalinbread since around the beginning of the Obama
administration and, wow, now it’s 2017 and I’ve certainly learned a lot over my two
terms of designing pedal circuits. Just as it is with songwriting or guitar playing, as
your skills mature you don’t necessarily get more complicated, but rather, your work
becomes more refined, more elegant, more essential. So, when I was informed that
some of the parts we were using for our first tweed-inspired design, the Formula No. 5,
were no longer available and could I approve some substitutions, instead of doing that
I jumped at the opportunity to take what I’ve learned and apply it to the concept of a
tweed-inspired Foundation Overdrive. My mantra as I started from scratch with the
circuit design was, “I want to be able to go from Grant Green to Neil Young”. I wanted
to make it even more accurate to the 5E3 preamp design. I wanted it to have a wider
clean-to-overdriven range. I wanted it to have more output. I wanted it to feel even
better to play. I wanted it to stack even better with other pedals. I dove into the
breadboarding process with all this in mind. After two or so months of intensive
development, which means sitting in front of a breadboard with a guitar in hand and
playing and tweaking the circuit until it SOUNDED right and it FELT right, I emerged
with a simple, elegant circuit that has the widest range of clean-to-dirty yet. At
Catalinbread, we do everything in-house, so then our hardware development team set
out to do the circuit board layout and all of the other details to transform the circuit into
the pedal you see on this page. We care too much about the sound and quality to let
anyone else have their hands on the process! The production team hand-calibrates
each Fn55 to the spec I laid out so you know you’ll be getting what I intended.
Thanks for considering the Formula No. 55 for your pedalboard. Please check it out
and play one for yourself and I hope you will find it as rewarding to play as it was for
me to develop.
… Howard Gee
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