Catalinbread launches Airstrip console preamp pedal

January 1, 2025 · 2 sources

Catalinbread launched the Airstrip CB-Range Discrete Console Preamp, a preamp pedal based on the Trident A-Range console, at $179¹. Guitar Pedal X reported the launch in a survey of console-style preamp pedals published on January 20, 2025¹.

The Airstrip has four controls: Volume, Tone (a treble filter), Trim (percentage of preamp gain) and Push (main gain)¹. Guitar Pedal X described the layout as "a very straight-forward control topology - with kind of dual Gain Controls," and wrote that it does not offer much tonal shaping but "ramps up the different levels of gain / saturation nicely"¹.

Guitar Pedal X placed the Airstrip alongside four other console-style preamps: the Hudson Electronics Broadcast at $285, the JHS Pedals Colour Box V2 at $449, the Cachalote Audio Console Preamp at $205 and the MXNHLT Effects ConSol Preamp at $189¹. The same article noted uncertainty over how console preamps differ from channel strips, and whether discrete transistor construction is required¹.

Guitar World, in a review of the JHS Pedals 424 Gain Stage, listed the Airstrip at $179 and described it as "a recreation of the Trident A-Range console, which formed a huge part of the UK recording scene between the 1960s and 1980s"². It said the pedal "behaves similarly to the 424 Gain Stage, but with slightly different source material"².