Catalinbread’s Tribute is a potent overdrive and a very nice low-gain-to-cleanish boost as well. But the Tribute is also a powerful EQ device—one that can recast a flat or ill-fitting tone into an ideal or unexpected sound in a flash. And though the simple parametric EQ takes a bit of practice to master, it’s highly intuitive, fun, and easy to use by feel.
Tribute’s fundamental drive flavor is hard to characterize because the EQ creates so many variations on that voice. I replicated a few favorite Klon-style tones and more midrangey TS- and SD-1-style sounds with ease. But approximating these baselines only scratches the surface. The range of frequencies that you can boost and cut—1.4 kHz on the midrange side to 70 hz on the bottom end—is considerable. So is the +/- 12 dB boost or cut at your disposal once you’ve isolated the frequency you want to emphasize or remove. The way addition and subtraction of these frequencies adds focus, body, civility, mass, or aggression is impressive and often liberating.
The Tribute will be invaluable if you switch between humbuckers and single-coils in performance.
The Tribute will be invaluable if you switch between humbuckers and single-coils in performance. It could be even more indispensable in the studio—not just for the subtle-to-nasty range of drive and boost tones you can access, but the ease and speed with which you can find them.
