Catalinbread releases the Topanga Spring Reverb, a stompbox based on vintage outboard spring reverb units.
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This pedal is designed to reproduce the surf guitar sound and other reverb-laden tones that outboard tube reverb units helped popularize in the sixties.
Outboard tube reverb units are known for sounding organic and dynamic, often times considered as big feeling musical instruments unto themselves.
An important difference that outboard reverb units have compared to those bundled with amps is that they are run in front of the amp, adding more intensity and subtly distorting the reverb signal. Now Catalinbread took the advantages of these bulky reverb units and packed it into a compact stompbox.
The Catalinbread Topanga Spring Reverb pedal is specifically based on the Fender 6G15 outboard spring reverb unit. According to the brand, “The Topanga is the product of many years of listening and playing old units and months of fine tuning.” They also add that they “captured all the drip, flutter, cluck, clang, and splash of the original tubes and springs unit in a small pedal format”.
Like the original outboard unit, the new Topanga pedal comes with a Dwell knob that controls how hard the springs were getting hit by the guitar signal. The tone knob is also present, allowing you to shape the reverb sound, while the mix knob lets you mix the dry and wet signal to taste.
Another important characteristic of old outboard reverbs is that they color the tone with their preamp. To replicate this, Catalinbread added a discrete preamp to the Topanga pedal that you can control via the volume knob. You can use this knob to get a clean boost should you need it.
Check out this informative demo video:
To add more excitement to the pedal, Catalinbread embedded a hidden mode with a distinct reverb voicing. You can access this by powering up the pedal with the Tone knob set to minimum.
All the features of the Topanga Spring Reverb fit inside a regular sized pedal, making it easy to integrate into your existing pedalboard. It is powered using a 9-18V negative ground DC power supply and features true bypass.
The Catalinbread Topanga Spring Reverb is now available with a retail price price of $195. You can head over to Catalinbread for other details.
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