Catalinbread Formula 5F6

Description

What we did with the Formula 5F6 was reproduce the key circuit elements of the Bassman “5F6” preamp circuit’s bright channel using JFETs instead of tubes and then fine-tuned and refined it for ultimate low to medium gain response in front of any good amp set clean. You get the same preamp structure (gain stage -> volume control -> gain stage -> tone stack) as the Bassman, key to getting not just the tone, but the feel and response right.

But wait, there’s more! After we got the Formula 5F6 circuit dialed in to reproduce the beautiful vintage tweed Bassman response, we asked: “Hey what if we supercharged and gained this thing up but pretended we had never heard of a Marshall?” Some tweaking to the gain structure and tone circuit and boom! we got a great new voicing – much higher gain, a bright attack, and as full as you want it. It was so cool we decided to build it into the pedal, accessible through an internal switch.

Additional information