Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
CatastroFX combines High Velocity and Southerly Harmonic Overdrives in its singularly potent and fantastic sounding Dual-Voiced Outbreak pedal
My friend Charlie has done a killer job of squeezing two of the best loved overdrives into a singular compact enclosure. This is pretty much a blow-by-blow remake of those High Velocity and Southerly Harmonic Overdrive circuits while they’ve been combined here onto the one circuitboard. The precision-honed exercise uses all the same parts values across the same high quality THT components. And in the process of combining those two circuits - I think there’s only a single component / resistor that Charlie was compelled to leave out - it just didn’t make sense in the circumstance - and didn’t add or remove anything of significance either.
I have long owned both the pedals that the Outbreak is based on, and I can vouch for the fact that that Charlie has done a superb job in carrying the full feel and dynamics of those originals across to that single board.
Controls : Level, Tone, Drive, Stage : Up is High Velocity / Down is Southerly Harmonics - and adds a hard-clipping gain stage into the mix.
If you know the original circuits - you totally know this pedal too - it really sounds just as amazing - and you get twice the flavour! I’m not even going to dwell on the economics of the pedal - which is spectacularly well priced - I’m rather going to focus on the practicalities of having two of he best loved overdrive circuit in the same enclosure - which means it’s even easier to fit both of them onto your board.
The Outbreak is a highly striking design - beautifully UV-printed onto a Silver Sparkle enclosure - it’s already a marvel of a pedal - but then you find out it’s only £80, in fact when I bought mine it was discounted to £60 - I think it still is! You simply can’t get a better overdrive for that price (let alone two!) - in fact you’re paying just £30 for each circuit for that discounted price. I rarely tell brands to raise their prices - while I feel this one would be perfect as a £99 secret gigging weapon - I think it easily justifies that price point.
Charlie used to build only mid-size 1590-BB enclosure pedals - including his well-loved Deface Fuzz. Where he's now fully levelled up to compact enclosures - with far more striking artworks (and updated logo). The Outbreak might be a budget pedal - but it's absolutely a first class killer one too. Two fantastic overdrives in one pedal - both have those great dynamics and textures that typified the originals. If you know the original High Velocity and Southerly Harmonic Overdrives - you will know which high echelon of quality this Outbreak inhabits.
If I were to offer just one constructive criticism - as I often do - and particularly when we're dealing with binary options. It's relatively easy to flick the switch with your toe - but that switch may be compromised long term by those antics - instead carry that function across to a second footswitch - so you can more easily stomp / flip flavours on the-fly!
Everything about the Outbreak screams quality, and it sounds so good and reacts superbly - across both the lower gain and higher more harmonic gain options - a lot of people aren't aware of this one yet - but when they finally are - this is the kind of pedal that's going to be sold out most of the time! It's rare that you get this level of quality and innovation at this price point, and as CatastroFX continues to grow and rise - I do expect the prices to go up a little eventually, For now this is mostly about reputation building.
As a first introduction to the brand - this is wholly exceptional - I'm not aware of anyone else operating to this quality at this sort of price point (and particularly at £60) [Funny Little Boxes and SoundLad Liverpool are also amazing at £99 - which is one price band higher - while I expect CatastroFX to rise to that level before long]. If you want to dip your toes into High Velocity and Harmonic Overdrives - this is the perfect jump off point!
The Outbreak is built in small batches and sold via the CatastroFX Store on Reverb.com - as of my writing there are just three remaining Outbreaks in stock from this batch - I except them to be snapped up within minutes of my article airing!
This is just the first proper foray for Charlie's CatastroFX Imprint - he's massively levelled up here, and has some further intriguing compacts coming down the line - including a Rat-Muff / Muff-Rat combined circuit - which mixes up those two flavours in a fairly unique way. Keep your eyes peeled - this is one to watch for sure!
Alas these are so hot off the press - that there are no official demos out yet - so I will allude to the sound samples of those classy originals - as below :
Sound Sample References from the Original Source Circuits
