Catalinbread Semaphore Tremolo Demo Video

Post by **Mike** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:37 am

James kindly had this sent via me when he bought it on ebay, so thanks again James!

Very cool Trem pedal

Part I
[youtube][/youtube]

Part II
[youtube][/youtube]

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:52 am

Hahaha, slow mode at it's slowest is really silly.

Otherwise very nice sounding tremolo

Post by **Mike** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:55 am

Yeah I don't really know why the slow mode exists to be honest

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:57 am

Danelectro is comparing quite favourably, but I don't think you can really bugger up tremolo that much.

suede · Post by **suede** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 3:53 pm

sounds very nice...I am in need of a tremolo now...

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:12 pm

Zaphod wrote:Danelectro is comparing quite favourably, but I don't think you can really bugger up tremolo that much.

boss managed it...

Post by **Doog** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 6:20 pm

Top walkthrough Mike, nice one- definately one of the more flexible AND useful trems out there. It addresses/doesn't feature some of the things I don't like about the Pulsar, albeit at a costly price.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:30 pm

I think James got a good deal on it, but yeah they are pretty expensive. I had a sneaky peek inside, and I have to say it's an extremely well built pedal. It could survive an Army of Garys.

Will · Post by **Will** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:18 pm

Good stuff there - I imagine there isn't a trem sound you can't get out of it.

James · Post by **James** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:25 pm

Mike wrote:I think James got a good deal on it, but yeah they are pretty expensive.

Not that great

I've seen perhaps 3 for sale since I've wanted one (one other on ebay, a couple on forums although those two were in America and reluctant to ship). There are of course the guys who sell at rrp in buy it now auctions on ebay, and vintage and rare who I think are the only catalinbread dealers, but I figured with the second-hand resale so high I'd just wait, get one at that and then sell it at that and not have much risk.

Thanks for doing the video. It has such a range that it's hard to show off well in video form. You did a good job, cheers.

I actually think the slow mode isn't that bad. In triangle mode with the depth on a more subtle setting it can be good up to about the 12 o clock position. The slowest part of it's range is definitely too slow though.

James · Post by **James** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:49 pm

I'm not knocking Mike's explanation, but for the visually minded here is what the shape knob does to your signal. Squarewave on the left in blue and triangle on the right in green.

The vertical axis on those waves is amplitude. The nearer the top the louder the signal.

The depth knob when fully clockwise/right is as in the pictures. As you reduce it the difference between the full signal (signal at the top of the waveform) and the quietened signal decreases so the effect becomes more subtle and you still hear sound during the lower reaches of the waveform.

Making that picture has made me wonder if a sine wave would sound any good.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:19 am

I think the transitions on a sine wave are too gradual to sound as pleasing to the ear in terms of volume attenuation. I "think".

Nice diagram.