Catalinbread Many Worlds

The Catalinbread Many Worlds is an eight-stage phaser pedal from Catalinbread, announced in March 2022 and still sold as a current pedal. Catalinbread built it around the core of the classic "orange box" phaser circuit, then layered on eight selectable phase control parameters, six LFO waveforms and two envelope-dependent phase shift modes¹²³. The name comes from the "Many Worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics, a theory by Hugh Everette about parallel universes, which Catalinbread borrowed to describe the many parallel sounds living inside one box⁴.

Catalinbread says you can get "classic, swirly and rich, vibe-esque phaser sounds" from it, but the pedal also reaches sounds a stock orange box circuit cannot¹. It is an analog pedal³, made in the USA⁵, in an enclosure measuring 112 x 67 x 51mm⁵.

An eight-stage phaser built on the orange box

A phaser splits your signal and shifts the phase of one copy across a series of stages, then blends it back with the dry signal, creating the moving notches players hear as swirl. The Many Worlds uses eight stages, which gives a deeper, more pronounced sweep than the four-stage circuits many classic phasers use. Catalinbread's own description of the project says the idea began when the company was "experimenting with different LFO shapes for a phaser project," starting with the core of the classic orange box phaser and adding features from there⁴.

Premier Guitar's reviewer framed the design the same way: the Many Worlds "takes a vintage reference point, in this case, an iconic single-knob stompbox, but pairs it with" expanded control knobs and eight LFO options⁷. Where the original box gave you one knob, the Many Worlds gives you five, plus an eight-position LFO selector.

The controls

The enclosure carries controls for Freq/Attack, Mix, Depth/Freq2/Sens, Feedback and an eight-way LFO selector². Several knobs change jobs depending on which mode you are in.

Delicious Audio notes that when one of the envelope modes is on, the Frequency and Depth knobs become Attack and Sensitivity, setting how the phaser reacts to your playing dynamics⁴.

Battle mode and the envelope modes

The eight-position LFO selector covers six LFO waveforms plus two envelope modes and one "special" mode called Battle⁴.

• Six LFO waveforms: MusicRadar lists sine, square, saw, reverse saw and triangle among the shapes², and Pedal of the Day describes the LFO engine as having "classics like sine and square sharing the same control with reverse sawtooth" and two independently controlled, intermodulating sine waves⁹.
• Two envelope modes: the phase shift is driven by your pick attack rather than an LFO, and it can push the shift both up and down, letting you control the sweep with your picking dynamics⁹.
• Battle mode: this is where the double LFO action happens, one LFO modulating another⁴. In this mode the FREQ2 knob sets the frequency of that second LFO¹.

Power: 9 to 18V, 100mA

The Many Worlds runs from 9 to 18 volts using a standard DC center-negative pedal power supply, and Catalinbread advises a supply that provides at least 100mA¹.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com covered the Many Worlds, which carries a UK list price of £159⁵. One reviewer found the pedal capable of "instant high-lonesome country sounds. Classic and lush, with a slightly pinched nasal quality" with the sine wave selected, mix at 10 o'clock and the frequency, depth and feedback knobs around noon⁷. Pedal of the Day's reviewer addressed the pedal's intimidating control count directly:

At launch the pedal was priced at $199.99⁸, with MusicRadar and Guitar.com both reporting $199 availability in March 2022²⁸; by Premier Guitar's September 2022 review the price was listed at $169.99⁸¹⁰².

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