CATALINBREAD
KATZENKÖNIG
REVIEW BY YOEL KREISLER
STREET PRICE $169.99
Here at Tone Report we
sure do love our distortions,
and today’s catch of the
day comes from a pedal
company in our home
base of Portland, Oregon
notorious for concocting
cool and strange new ways
to get some of our favorite
tones. That company is
Catalinbread, and that
pedal is the Katzenkönig,
or “cat king” in English.
Claiming to combine the
wild unpredictability of a
vintage Tone Bender with
the tightness, control, and
versatility of a Pro Co RAT.
That’s a tall order, and after
reading the description and
hearing Andy’s amazing
demo, I couldn’t wait to
50
GEAR REVIEW
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sink my teeth into the
Catalinbread Katzenkönig.
The pedal is housed in
a yellow enclosure, and
features graphics that
look like the sigil of a
royal family. As always,
Catalinbread’s latest
offering not only looks
good, but feels good. The
knobs on the front are
very high quality, made of
knurled aluminum (think Tele
knobs). This not only adds
to the aesthetic but adds to
the overall quality feel.
There are four controls on
the front for Gain, Volume,
Filter, and Input. The Gain
knob controls the main gain
stage, and the Input knob
controls the input gain.
Catalinbread Katzenkönig
Although the two sound
very similar in character, the
input gain has a bit more
clarity, and alleviates some
of the high-end congestion
in this circuit. I like to think
of the Input gain as closer
to a Tone Bender, and
the regular gain as closer
to the RAT. Combing the
two creates a nice singing
sustain, but the more
extreme settings aren’t very
defined. Personally, I don’t
find this pedal to sound
like a Tone Bender at all.
To me it sounds more like a
hot-rodded Klon with more
focus in the upper mids
and less high end clarity,
probably attributed to the
RAT section of the circuit.