Premier Guitar features affiliate links to help support our content. We may earn a commission on any affiliated purchases.

Catalinbread Releases Montavillian Echo

The Montavillian Echo was designed to sound and feel as big as tube-driven echo units.

Portland, OR (December 1, 2010) -- Catalinbread has released their latest pedal, the Montavillian Echo. The Montavillian Echo was designed to sound and feel as big as the tube-driven echo units in their shop. This is what the company had to say about the release:
"Spoiled by the various tube driven echo units we have around the shop, we wanted the Montavillian Echo to sound and feel just as BIG! So we went all out on the audio path on this thing... We took painstaking efforts to make the dry signal sound and feel better when on than with the pedal bypassed. We decided that the corksniffer OPA2134 Burr Brown opamp was the best sounding option to achieve this.

"The Montavillian Echo utilizes the PT2399 chip, one of the more common delay chips used in modern delays, however, rather than slavishly following the datasheet, we threw it out and ventured out on our own, using our ears to guide us, and what we achieved is a fantastic sounding delay, with a slew of sounds in a small, easy to use footprint. The Montavillian Echo is also a "companderless" echo... This is a critically important part of the Montavillian Echo's character. So many companded echos have unattractive repeats, they sorta bubble, chirp, and become messy as the repeats get quieter… The effect ruins the illusion of SPACE and ambience. The Montavillian has no compounding, therefore the echos trail off almost forever over the horizon, disappearing into the ether rather than crash landing back to earth. The resulting echos function to provide a sonic soup, a bed of ambience to play over. The illusion of space and size that the Montavillian provides, makes it one of the few stompboxes I have that comes close to my big old tube echos.

"Basic and useful features include 9-18V DC operation for additional headroom, 50mS-600+mS delay time, “CUT” control which tailors where your repeats sit in the mix low pass filter with a musical bump that ranges from 400Hz to 1400Hz. Our goal with the Montavillian Echo wasn't simply to make yet another echo pedal. We set out to make a solid delay pedal you'll love to play for years to come. Enjoy!

The Montavillian Echo is available now for $159.95.

Watch the company's demo video:

For more information:
Catalinbread