Catalinbread Sinkhole

The Catalinbread Sinkhole is a modulated reverb pedal that combines what Catalinbread calls a harmonically rich "hole" reverb with a four-voice chorus, plus an onboard preamp that can be used as a clean boost on its own¹². Guitar World described it at launch as Catalinbread's "most ethereal reverb to date," a pedal capable of "rich harmonic reverb, deep chorus, tunable modulation and extended decay"¹.

The chorus side of the pedal is unusually deep for a reverb's modulation section. Catalinbread's own description says the four-voice chorus is "outfitted with a feedback control and gentle high-cut filter, with reverb trails stretched to near-freezing decay"³. Players looking for a straight chorus pedal rather than a chorus-soaked reverb may prefer Catalinbread's dedicated units, such as the Catalinbread Callisto or the Catalinbread Wake.

What the Sinkhole does

The Sinkhole is built around two ideas working together: a reverb circuit with extended decay, and a chorus circuit with four voices feeding into it. The MOD control sets the rate of the chorus modulation, and at its minimum the LFO (the low-frequency oscillator that drives the modulation) slows to a barely discernible rate, so the effect can sit anywhere from a subtle shimmer to an obvious, deep chorus⁵.

Because the chorus feeds the reverb rather than sitting beside it, the two effects interact. The FDBCK control is the most interactive knob on the pedal: it adjusts the amount of feedback in the chorus circuit and at the same time controls the depth of the chorus². Guitar World called it "a highly interactive parameter" for exactly this reason¹.

The onboard preamp is the third part of the circuit. With the MIX control all the way down, your clean signal still runs through this preamp, so the pedal colors the dry path even at zero reverb⁵. The VOL knob sets the preamp's gain, and Catalinbread says it works as a fine clean boost with or without the reverb engaged².

The controls

Gearnews noted that the VERB control in particular sets the Sinkhole apart from a typical reverb pedal: rather than simply adding more reverb, it changes the character of the effect by pushing signal back into the circuit and lifting the midrange⁶.

Bypass and trails

The Sinkhole has an internal switch that selects between true bypass (T.B.) and buffered (BUFF.) operation, and it ships from the factory with buffered mode selected². The choice comes down to how you want the pedal to behave when you switch it off:

• True bypass: reverb trails are chopped off the second you disengage the pedal².
• Buffered: trails continue ringing out after the pedal is switched off².

Catalinbread frames it as a simple question of preference: do you want the trails cut immediately, or do you want them to fade naturally²?

Power

The Sinkhole accepts a center-negative (the standard) power supply between 9 and 18 volts DC, and it needs at least 100mA of current. Catalinbread says you can exceed 100mA and the pedal will be fine, which matters if you share a higher-current output on a pedalboard power supply².

Running the pedal at the 18V end of its power range has one practical benefit: the onboard preamp can slightly clip at very high VOL settings with some guitar and pedal combinations, and Catalinbread says this is not an issue at 18V².

Versions

Alongside the standard Sinkhole, Catalinbread has offered a limited Halloween edition, the Sinkhole Reverb (Halloween), restricted to 50 units and announced as shipping mid-November⁵. Its controls, power requirements and bypass switching match the standard pedal⁵.

What the press said

MusicRadar reported that the Sinkhole was available immediately, priced at $199 in the US and £169 in the UK⁴. Thomann's listing likewise carried the pedal at $199.00⁶, matching the US price at launch.

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