CATALINBREAD
SFT
REVIEW BY ERIC TISCHER
STREET PRICE $179.99
I imagine most companies
would love to have this
problem: What do you
call a pedal that’s a great
clean boost, transparent
overdrive, fuzz box and, oh,
yeah, nails the guitar tones
used on what most consider
The Rolling Stone’s best
records? Well, Catalinbread
calls that pedal the SFT, a
play on the famous Ampeg
SVT bass amp used by
The Stones (and maybe an
acronym for Sticky Fingers
tone), that seems limiting,
but a wonderfully versatile
gain box by any other
name...
To my ears, Ampegs sound
like Fender Twins with hi-fi
blankets thrown over them.
56
GEAR REVIEW
//
If that sounds like a crazy
description, then you have
a sense of how impressive
it is that the SFT nails that
sound. The low end is full
and round, the top end
is present and smooth;
there’s a springiness to it
that’s reminiscent of a Twin,
but the tonality is darker.
Perhaps more importan tly,
as the gain goes up, the
distortion is much spongier
than what you’d hear in
a Fender.
So the SFT is voiced to
capture all of the above,
and the Treble and Bass
controls make it difficult
to not cop that tone when
in “Stones” mode. Stones
mode is the SFT’s low-gain
Catalinbread SFT
mode; the high-gain mode
is called “Stoner,” and you
can toggle between the
two via a button. While in
Stones mode, it took a while
to stop playing “Midnight
Rambler.” I mean, a long
while. I threw on some
reverb and felt like I was
cutting the track myself.
Eventually I broke the spell
(after a too-long detour
into “Brown Sugar”), and
decided to see if I could dial
in a flat clean tone. I could.
At which point I realized
that the SFT has a lot of
output, even without the
Gain up. The Treble control
gets bright fast, but the
pedal’s overall character—
notably its emphasis on