cleans . The range from 10:00 to 3:00 are where you find the edge of breakup tones and had me alternating between Black Crowes riffs and classic Tom Petty . From 3:00 to 5:00 you get a big crunchy tone that works well for AC / DC riffs ( certainly not a sound you ’ d expect from a Tweed Deluxe ). You have the grit and the grease of the Tweed sound , but with plenty of low end and punch — it ’ s a best-of-bothworlds tone . Switching to the Hi Gain settings , you move into the heavier Tweed tones . Once again , with the volume all of the way down , you get no signal . As you turn it up , you start to get more sag , more compression , but still more low end than you might expect . It ’ s worth noting that the tone gets a little thicker in low-mids when you switch to the Hi Gain setting . The tones between 3:00 and 9:00 are wonderfully dirty , but they still clean up with lighter playing . As you turn the dial beyond 10:00 , you enter the land of Neil Young and Crazy Horse — instant feedback . and it sounds like your amp is going to explode . There ’ s gobs of compression , but the bass never falls apart the way it would with a real Tweed Deluxe . The new design is set up like a Master Volume amp but behaves more like an attenuator . The Volume control adjusts both volume and distortion and then the Master controls the amount of sound hitting your amp . With either of these turned all of the way down , you get no output .
INTERACTION BETWEEN TONE AND VOLUME Just like a real Tweed Deluxe , there is a lot of interaction between the Tone Control and the Volume control . As you increase the Volume control , the Tone control makes less of an impact ( especially in Hi Gain mode ). But with the Volume lower , turning up the Tone adds extra harmonic complexity , grit , and compression . And of course , the Presence control is there to attenuate some highs ( when needed ) and to tune the Formula 55 to a mixture of guitars and amps .
STACKABILITY Like all of the Catalinbread Foundation Overdrives , the Formula 55 was born to stack and it behaves like an amp when doing so . If it ’ s set relatively clean , hit it with a big boost and get a big jump in volume . When it ’ s compressed and distorted , hitting it with that same boost just adds to the compression and sustain . I had fun pairing it with a Catalinbread Naga Viper , a Way Huge Green Rhino , and a Catalinbread Belle Epoch — heck yeah it sounds good with delay running into it !
The Formula 55 offers a wide range of Tweed-flavored tones in a simple , rock solid , and affordable package . It feels like a real amp and excels and grafting vintage Fender Tweed flavor onto any amp .
For straight up Tweed Deluxe emulation ( warts and all ), the Formula 55 doesn ’ t quite equal its predecessor . But given the option , I ’ ll take the added features and functionality of the 55 .
cleans . The range from 10:00 to 3:00 are where you find the edge of breakup tones and had me alternating between Black Crowes riffs and classic Tom Petty . From 3:00 to 5:00 you get a big crunchy tone that works well for AC / DC riffs ( certainly not a sound you ’ d expect from a Tweed Deluxe ). You have the grit and the grease of the Tweed sound , but with plenty of low end and punch — it ’ s a best-of-bothworlds tone . Switching to the Hi Gain settings , you move into the heavier Tweed tones . Once again , with the volume all of the way down , you get no signal . As you turn it up , you start to get more sag , more compression , but still more low end than you might expect . It ’ s worth noting that the tone gets a little thicker in low-mids when you switch to the Hi Gain setting . The tones between 3:00 and 9:00 are wonderfully dirty , but they still clean up with lighter playing . As you turn the dial beyond 10:00 , you enter the land of Neil Young and Crazy Horse — instant feedback . and it sounds like your amp is going to explode . There ’ s gobs of compression , but the bass never falls apart the way it would with a real Tweed Deluxe . The new design is set up like a Master Volume amp but behaves more like an attenuator . The Volume control adjusts both volume and distortion and then the Master controls the amount of sound hitting your amp . With either of these turned all of the way down , you get no output .
INTERACTION BETWEEN TONE AND VOLUME Just like a real Tweed Deluxe , there is a lot of interaction between the Tone Control and the Volume control . As you increase the Volume control , the Tone control makes less of an impact ( especially in Hi Gain mode ). But with the Volume lower , turning up the Tone adds extra harmonic complexity , grit , and compression . And of course , the Presence control is there to attenuate some highs ( when needed ) and to tune the Formula 55 to a mixture of guitars and amps .
STACKABILITY Like all of the Catalinbread Foundation Overdrives , the Formula 55 was born to stack and it behaves like an amp when doing so . If it ’ s set relatively clean , hit it with a big boost and get a big jump in volume . When it ’ s compressed and distorted , hitting it with that same boost just adds to the compression and sustain . I had fun pairing it with a Catalinbread Naga Viper , a Way Huge Green Rhino , and a Catalinbread Belle Epoch — heck yeah it sounds good with delay running into it !
WHAT WE LIKE
The Formula 55 offers a wide range of Tweed-flavored tones in a simple , rock solid , and affordable package . It feels like a real amp and excels and grafting vintage Fender Tweed flavor onto any amp .
CONCERNS
For straight up Tweed Deluxe emulation ( warts and all ), the Formula 55 doesn ’ t quite equal its predecessor . But given the option , I ’ ll take the added features and functionality of the 55 .