Catalinbread releases STS-88 flanger and reverb pedal

July 17, 2023 · 3 sources

Catalinbread has released the STS-88, a flanger and reverb pedal, MusicRadar reported on March 30, 2023, at a US price of $172.74¹. Guitar.com published a review of the pedal on July 17, 2023, rating it 9 out of 10².

The pedal has four knobs. Depth sets the amplitude of the LFO, Rate sets the LFO speed from 0.077Hz to about 6Hz, Mix sets the wet/dry blend, and Reverb sets the length of the reverb trails³¹. MusicRadar wrote that with the Reverb knob fully counterclockwise the STS-88 behaves like a regular flanger pedal¹. Inside the enclosure are an adjustable gain trimmer and a buffer switch for true or buffered bypass; the pedal ships with the buffer switched on³. Catalinbread says it embedded "a very gentle noise gate to stifle inherent guitar hiss and LFO clock noise"³.

The STS-88 runs on 9 to 18 volts DC from a standard center-negative supply providing at least 100mA, and does not run on batteries³. Catalinbread describes the circuit as the product of studying classic units including the Boss HF-2, Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress, MXR Flanger/Doubler and DeltaLab Effectron ADM256³.

Guitar.com's reviewer Richard Purvis wrote that the flanging is "deep and sinuous, with a metallic edge that doesn't get too clangy," and that the reverb "actually sounds fine on its own"². He also wrote that the pedal is "maybe not quite as jet-swooshy" as the Boss BF-2².