Tone Bender + Rat = One Bad Kitty.
It’s no secret that most modern fuzz and distortion pedals are based on designs from the 1960s and ’70s. But revisiting old circuits doesn’t rule out creativity. Consider Catalinbread’s Katzenkönig, which weds a great ’60s circuit to an equally classic ’70s one while adding meaningful refinements—spawning a talented new offspring that often outshines its parents.
Art School Confidential
I seldom dwell on stompbox cosmetics, but damn, this pedal looks cool. The image of the Katzenkönig (“Cat King” in German) presiding over his latest kill evokes early 20th-century Vienna Secession graphics. It’s gorgeous.
The circuit resides in a standard B-sized enclosure. You can power the pedal by battery or with any power supply voltage between 9V and 18V. The internal construction, with its modern, hand-populated circuit board, seems solid and damage-resistant.
Bender Basics
To understand what Katzenkönig does and why it’s special, it helps to understand the circuits that inspired it. (Skip ahead if you know this stuff.)
The front half of the circuit is based on the Tone Bender MKII, widely considered the most desirable of the Tone Benders. (Not by me, for what it’s worth—the MKII is my least favorite of the four incarnations.) In the original, a germanium transistor makes the signal loud. A second transistor makes it very loud. A third one makes it ridiculously loud.
It’s one of the hottest fuzzes ever, with a heavily distorted signal plus enough level to bludgeon almost any preamp tube into overdriven submission. Lowering the two knobs on an original MKII (gain and volume) tends to neuter the impact, and there are no tone controls.
Bending the Rat
Katzenkönig employs silicon transistors, which can mean an even louder, nastier Bender. Not here though—after the third transistor, the signal encounters the second half of a Rat circuit. On that pedal, an op amp generates gain, after which the signal encounters a pair of clipping diodes and a clever single-knob tone circuit.
On Katzenkönig, the diodes focus the blaring, splattery MKII sound. Lows get tighter and heavier. The filter control works wonders, enabling shades you’d never obtain from a MKII. Bright settings sizzle, but not excessively so, while dark tones maintain impact.
Another useful addition is an input trim control. On a Bender, it’s generally more effective to reduce gain by turning down your guitar volume than by adjusting the pedal’s gain knob. Here, the input pot does the job. (You can still use your guitar’s volume knob, but this arrangement is great for players who prefer to keep their guitar volume maxed out.) The control is perfectly scaled to compensate for output variations between pickups types.
Ratings
Pros:
Unique distortion/fuzz hybrid. Ferocious yet focused distortion. Highly versatile.
Cons:
Noisy.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$169
Catalinbread Katzenkönig
catalinbread.com
Got Gain?
Even cooler is the reimagined gain control. Vintage Benders crap out when you lower the gain, but Katzenkönig’s gain control provides killer tones throughout its range. (Geek detail: Instead of altering the voltage from a transistor to ground, it tweaks the resistance of a negative feedback loop between two transistors. I can report this with confidence because the pedal’s extraordinarily useful and detailed user’s manual includes a circuit schematic.)
I listened to Katzenkönig alongside accurate homemade MKII and Rat clones. Compared to a MKII, Katzenkönig is tighter, heavier, and more modern-sounding. You don’t quite get the low-end tightness of a Rat, and, for better or worse, there’s less of an ’80s metal feel. Meanwhile, the added and redesigned controls make the pedal vastly more versatile than either of its inspirations. But as on both MKIIs and Rats, high-gain settings can be noisy—you may need to ride your guitar’s volume knob or apply a noise gate to keep the buzzing in check.
Paired with a pre-CBS Strat, Katzenkönig fattened tones and smoothed highs—imagine a tighter-sounding Fuzz Face with a snappier attack. When I switched to a Gibson Trini Lopez with humbuckers, the sound was heavy but tight, with nicely balanced lows. Both pickup types delivered a focused fatness that lent complex harmonies and low-register harmonic intervals a clarity you’d never obtain from a MKII.
Someone clearly took the time to refine the ranges and tapers of all knobs. Katzenkönig provides genuinely useful sounds at nearly every setting—something you certainly can’t say about Benders or Rats.
The Verdict
This spawn of a Tone Bender MKII and an early Rat doesn’t sound like either of its forebears. Instead, it splits the difference between the two. You get fiery fuzz with uncommon tightness—or, to put it another way, tough distortion with a strong dose of explosive fuzz. The pedal’s new and redesigned controls greatly extend its range, making it suitable for metal, punk, indie, or any style that benefits from aggressive yet disciplined guitar tones. Katzenkönig is well made. It looks great. The price is more than fair. It has tones of its own. This one’s a winner—all hail the Cat King!
Watch the Review Demo:
The incendiary giant of psychedelic guitar concludes his 21-date world tour this weekend in New York City. In this photo essay, PG’s editorial director reports on the opening date of the sonic architect of Pink Floyd’s historic five-concert run at MSG.
NEW YORK CITY–There’s a low, sustained tone that David Gilmour extracts from his Stratocaster at the beginning of Pink Floyd’s “Sorrow.” It’s the intimidating growl of a robotic tiger–or, more realistically, a blend of low-string sustain, snarling overdrive from a Big Muff, and delay that saturates the air and seems to expand into every bit of open space. It’s almost overpowering in its intensity, but it is also deeply beautiful.
That tone, and so many of the other sounds that Gilmour has conjured in his 46 years of recording with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist, inspired me to leave Nashville to attend the first concert of Gilmour’s five-night stand at Madison Square Garden, on November 4. I’d been lucky enough to catch Gilmour’s tour supporting 1984’s About Face and two later Pink Floyd concerts, but the guitarist is 78 this year, so I felt that the 21 dates he’s playing in a mere four cities might be my last chance to be in the same room with all of his extraordinary tones. Plus, Pink Floyd, and especially Gilmour’s solo recordings and his brilliant Live at Pompeii concert film, was my wife, Laurie’s, and my refuge during the Covid lockdown. This was our opportunity to experience the sorcerer at work in one of his temples, where he and Pink Floyd first played in 1977.
Gilmour wields his Black Cat Strat, which he also played on Luck and Strange’s opener, “Black Cat,” in the studio.
Photo by Emma Wannie/MSGE
Was it worth the price of two concert tickets, flights, two nights in a Midtown hotel, and a subway ride? If you need to ask, it’s likely you’re not as familiar with Gilmour’s playing as I suggest that you should be. For guitarists, outside-the-box musical thinkers, and lovers of exceptional songwriting–and even concert lighting effects and live sound–this show was a perfect 10. Gilmour and his ensemble, including his daughter Romany, performed a well-chosen set of tunes by Pink Floyd and from Gilmour’s solo work, including his recent album Luck and Strange, which is more about composition than guitar exposition. Live, this was not the case. “Luck and Strange,” “A Single Spark,” and others from the album were expanded to include 6-string excursions that–in his signature style–took the lyrics as their inspiration and expanded their emotional architecture.
A close-up of Gilmour’s famed Workmate guitar, a 1955 Fender Esquire that once belonged to Seymour Duncan.
Photo by Emma Wannie/MSGE
Repeatedly, Gilmour displayed his ability to play the perfect parts, and especially solos, for each song. Some, of course, like “Time,” require sticking to text, but his expansions of “Breathe” and other numbers incorporated subtle improvisations dappled by pitch-changing, his emotive string bending, and numerous shifts in tone and phrasing that nonetheless always respected his unmistakable core sound. In Nashville, a frequent compliment is that a musician “always plays the perfect part.” For me, that’s a warning that I’m probably going to hear very professional and predictable playing all night long, and that’s usually boring. But Gilmour’s ear-opening sounds and phrases are constantly peppered with surprises–a hallmark of his characterful virtuosity. In the first of his Garden shows, he stepped outside the box while always respecting its contents, and it was a pleasure to hear him repeatedly practice that high art.
Guy Pratt remarked, while speaking to the audience before the show, that his first gig at MSG with Gilmour had been 37 years and one day earlier. Live, it was clear that Pratt is Gilmour’s right-hand man, as he set up cues for the other players.
Photo by Emma Wannie/MSGE
A pre-tour rumor was that Gilmour would not be playing any Pink Floyd numbers. That seemed unlikely, given his role as the composer and vocalist of so many of the band’s showcase songs. And, indeed, “Speak to Me,” “Breathe,” “Time,” “Marooned” (with its pitch-defying solo), “Wish You Were Here,” “High Hopes,” “Sorrow,” “A Great Day for Freedom,” “The Great Gig in the Sky,” “Coming Back to Life,” and “Comfortably Numb” were all present during the roughly two-and-a-half hours of music. What seemed remarkable throughout was not only the perfection of Gilmour’s playing but his ability to still hit every vocal high note with the same energy and accuracy of the original recordings, including his superb recreation of the scatting in “Wish You Were Here.”
Gilmour’s acoustic guitar, especially on “Wish You Were Here,” sparkled with clarity and articulation, and his scatting on that song proved that at 78 he can still summon the power and precision to hit the high vocal notes.
Photo by Emma Wannie/MSGE
“Wish You Were Here” was his first acoustic guitar excursion of the concert, and he and supporting guitarist Ben Worsley made the song a trip in the Wayback Machine, effortlessly conjuring the introduction’s vibrant appeal and deep emotionalism. Their acoustic instruments sounded crisp and resonant through the arena-sized PA, which should not have been surprising given Gilmour and Pink Floyd’s high standards for live sound. And all night, Gilmour’s vocals enjoyed the same clarity, making every lyric understandable, which is quite a feat for any large-hall show. The only quibble is that the drums echoed off the Garden’s back wall, which, given its 19,500 capacity, was on par.
Guy Pratt, David Gilmour, and Ben Worsley keeping the rock in arena rock. In addition to his Fender Jazz Bass, Pratt also played an Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray, and an upright. For electric guitar, Worsley slung a PRS S2 SSH.
Photo by Emma Wannie/MSGE
Romany Gilmour played a vital role in the show, with her voice navigating the Celtic-influenced melody of “Between Two Points,” from Luck and Strange, before joining the already formidable voices of Louise Marshall, and Charlie and Hattie Webb, in the band’s chorus. All four took turns singing lead on Dark Side of the Moon’s wordless masterpiece “The Great Gig in the Sky,” as Marshall played piano and Gilmour took one of his turns on the table-steel guitar.
A crowd’s-eye view, with lighting-enhanced stage fog. At right, just out of frame, is famed keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, who first joined Gilmour’s ensemble as part of the Rattle That Lock tour of Europe and appears in the Live in Pompeii concert film.
Photo by Emma Wannie/MSGE
“In Any Tongue,” from Gilmour’s 2014 album Rattle That Lock, was, of course, a musical highlight, ignited by that grizzly tone, but furthered by expressive, powerhouse solos from both Gilmour and Worsley. The song’s anti-war theme was enhanced by the same back-projected, heart-breaking video shown in 2016’s Live in Pompeii film, which conveys the idea that military violence spares neither the often-reluctant invaders nor the invaded. And last, of course, came “Comfortably Numb,” with Gilmour’s holy grail guitar solos, perfectly executed as he and the band played from behind an allusive wall of light. With their deep, idiosyncratic bends, rich, howling midrange, and his perfect, vibrato-laden bends, squealing harmonics, touch, and phrasing, these solos were the ultimate 6-string microphone drop.
Gilmour and his Black Cat Strat–partners for the concert’s closing number, “Comfortably Numb,” from Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
Photo by Emma Wannie/MSGE
If that was my last opportunity to hear Gilmour live, it’s understandable. He’s a legend who has earned his status through nearly a half-century of remarkable playing and composing. He has no need to create or perform on any terms beyond his own. I’m simply happy to have been able to bear witness, and to share the experience with you.
D'Addario's new Bridge Pin Puller and Tour-Grade Peg Winder are designed to make string changes a breeze.
The Bridge Pin Puller is designed to be the fastest, easiest, and safest way to remove bridge pins from an acoustic guitar. Small enough to fit in your pocket, the standalone bridge pin puller is a great way for acoustic players to avoid fumbling with bridge pins during string changes and maintenance. The ergonomic design comfortably fits in hand but won’t place extra pressure on the instrument or bridge during use. Best of all, the clamp design encloses the pin, keeping it secure inside the puller until it’s released.
The Tour-Grade Peg Winder offers next-level performance for luthiers, techs, or anyone who wants to change strings with maximum speed and ease. The multi-tool design brings together a ball bearing, non-damaging socket for smoother winding, molded grips, and a spring-loaded bridge pin puller, delivering an all-in-one option to handle most standard string changes.
From the straight-forward simplicity of the Bridge Pin Puller to the all-around convenienceof the Tour-Grade Peg Winder, D’Addario has your string changes covered.
For more information, please visit daddario.com.
With built-in effects, headphone output, and AUX connectivity, these compact devices are designed to provide ultimate versatility for practice sessions at home or on stage.
Aguilar is introducing the amPlug3 Tone Hammer, a portable headphone amplifier inspired by the iconic Tone Hammer sound. Ideal for practicing anywhere, this compact device packs dual channel Clean and Drive modes for ultimate versatility. To help keep practice sessions inspiring, the unit includes reverb, chorus, and compression as built-in, onboard effects and a built-in rhythm feature to keep any players favorite basslines in time. Lastly, the amPlug3 features AUX connectivity to allow players to play along with tracks, or via a TRRS cable, record straight to a phone or laptop with ease. Whether at home, in the studio, or on the road, the amPlug3 Tone Hammer offers a convenient practice solution without compromising tone.
In addition to the amPlug 3 Tone Hammer, Aguilar has revamped their iconic Tone Hammer Preamp pedal. Built upon the original design that has become an essential tool for bass players seeking tone and flexibility. Incorporating customer feedback and refining key features, the new Tone Hammer Preamp offers enhanced drive functionality featuring an expanded gain range with a separate "drive" control for greater tonal precision, allowing users to refine their overdriven and clean tones independently. New Practice-friendly features include the addition of a headphone output and auxiliary input, allowing the pedal to double as the perfect practice companion at home or on the road. The updated, compact enclosure has a modern aesthetic, complementing the Tone Hammer series of amplifiers.
“We are thrilled to expand the Tone Hammer family with these new products,” said Jordan Cortese of Aguilar Amplification. “The reimagined Preamp/DI pedal and the all-new amPlug3 Tone Hammer provide bassists with even more options to achieve their perfect sound, whether they’re on stage or practicing on the move.”
Street Prices:
- Tone Hammer Preamp Pedal $299.99
- amPlug3 Tone hammer $59.99
Aguilar amPlug 3 Tone Hammer Bass Guitar Headphone Amplifier
amPlug 3 Tone Hammer Mini AmpWith buffered bypass and top-mounted jacks, this compact pedal is perfect for adding punch to your playing.
Carl Martin has introduced the Tone Tweaker, a 12dBboost pedal designed to unleash the full potential of your favorite gear. This subtle yet powerful booster pedal is built with an internal voltage booster that provides extra headroom and makes your beloved tube amp sound even better. It is perfect for cutting through the mix during solos and adding extra punch to your rhythm playing.
Tone Tweaker features an efficient 3-band equalizer, allowing you to fine-tune your sound with dedicated controls for Mid, Treble, and Bass. Whether you want to add warmth to your midrange, more sharpness to your treble, or extra depth to the low end, Tone Tweaker gives you the tools to shape your sound with exceptional effect – subtle yet powerful.
Key Features
- 12dB Boost: Instantly enhance your signal with a clean, transparent boost that preserves the integrity of your original tone.
- Internal Voltage Booster: Increases the amount of voltage sent into the pedal’s circuitry, providing extra headroom and boost.
- 3-Band Equalizer: Customize your sound with precise adjustments using the Mid, Treble, and Bass controls. It's far more powerful than you think.
- Buffered Bypass: Preserves signal strength and tone quality, ensuring your sound remains consistent even when the pedal is not engaged.
- Top-Mounted In/Out Jacks and Compact Design: Designed to take up minimal space on your pedalboard, with top-mounted jacks saving space and providing a cleaner setup.
You can purchase The Tone Tweaker for $149 directly from Carl Martin and, of course, also at leading music retailers worldwide.
For more information, please visit carlmartin.com.