Early Slowdive in a box - but that’s all it is!

The Catalinbread FX40 is a very specialised reverb pedal with one aim in life - to accurately reproduce the sound of Slowdive circa 1993. As such, it does that extremely well. It’s been designed to basically mimic the ‘Soft Focus’ patch on the Yamaha FX500 which was reportedly used by many of the original ‘Thames Valley’ shoegazers of the early 90s, most notably, Slowdive, especially on their second record, ‘Souvlaki’. Mix and Volume are pretty self-explanatory, and the Volume goes way past Unity, adding some clean heft to the sound. Reverb sets the reverb time, and Modulation and ‘Symphonic’ controls add the flangey chorus swirl (and also the ‘shimmer’) which turns this into a proper shoegazing delight. Yes, you can turn off the modulation and use it just as a reverb if you wish. But frankly, don’t bother - it doesn’t exactly excite as a standard reverb. It’s meant to be dimed with everything flat out on max to get ‘that’ sound.

Versatile it isn’t, that’s for certain, but it’s definitely ‘Slowdive in a box’. Keeley’s Loomer pedal contains a similar preset, but this seems to be a richer and more successful take on it. Bring your own overdrive and delay and you’re all set for some nostalgic fun.

Great Sound, Could Play Better With Others

So I’m not a huge fan of pedals that are meant to make you sound like another band, but this one gets a pass for two reasons. First, it’s based on a preset on a rack unit rather than trying to specifically sound like a certain band (Slowdive). Second, Souvlaki is one of my favorite albums ever, so I’m not going to complain about a chance to cop some of its tones.

The pedal sounds fantastic overall, if you have an affinity for over the top ‘90s digital effects. The plate reverb is absolutely massive, so much so that it can easily get out of control (and this is coming from someone with 3 different reverb pedals on her board at all times). The modulation (chorus) on the other hand is quite subtle, and excellent for a clean input signal. Similarly, I love the shimmer setting. I tend to like shimmer reverbs a lot more in theory than in practice, but this one is subtle enough to avoid the cheesiness I generally associate with the octave up being too pronounced.

So what’s the downside? The pedal just doesn’t take other effects very well. I tried turning the modulation off so I could combine it with separate modulation pedals, and all of it just sounded muddy (weirdly, the similarly over the top Rainbow Machine played nicest with it). Moreover, I don’t find the reverb all that compelling when you strip it of the shimmer and modulation. For me, this is a box that you use mostly by itself (or with a distortion with a good high frequency range), and not one you mix with other pedals. The one exception I’ve found is that hitting it with a clean digital delay works out well, if you want to get that “Souvlaki Space Station” sound. With an analog delay, though, it’s a muddy mess.

If you’re a ‘90s shoegaze and dream pop fiend, or if you just want a really massive shimmer reverb and have been let down by other options, this is an easy recommendation. If not, you’ll probably find it way too specific and single-use.

From Gear Setup

slowdive in a box

Strange pedal, you can get some really basic reverb sounds to ethereal reverbs out of it. Because of that fact it actually makes it quite versatile. used any time you hear reverb in “Not So Kino”.

Powerful reverb

Really nice reverb pedal, well built, and holds it's own against more expensive reverbs. Crank the voltage up and it packs a real punch!

From Gear Setup