Introducing the Catalinbread Airstrip, a full-featured console preamp based on the Trident A-Range desk that gives you everything from rich cleans to amp-melting fuzz. The Airstrip houses a germanium-and-transformer-equipped preamp which distills legendary tones into a stompbox-sized console preamp with a handful of extras on offer.
Key Features
- Boost With More Power – Power the pedal from 9V to 24V. The more power, the more headroom, volume and clarity you will get!
- Versatile Reactive Gain – Adjust to suit all tastes, from the tones of Lou Reed to the fuzzy freakouts of Frank Zappa. And of course, when pushed, console preamps distort, saturate and heave, dripping with harmonics and other desirable tonal artifacts.
- Trim Control – The “trim” control allows for a fine adjustment to the incoming signal level, essentially acting as a small gain adjustment to precisely calibrate the signal.
- Simple Interface – This interface is simple yet effective – get stuck in and dial in impactful tone in seconds.
A Reactive Germanium Preamp
A discrete op-amp based on a vintage UREI design pushes the front end of the console into blissful gain if you want it. On the back end, a tasteful treble filter sets the luminosity of the pre to suit your rig and a specially-selected transformer adds a touch of iron to the signal. Capable of every gain sound imaginable from warm, “mastered”-style cleans to gnarly collapsing fuzz, the Airstrip puts the mixing desk on your pedalboard in a much more manageable package.
Power Up To 24 Volts
The Airstrip accepts a center-negative DC power supply at anything between 9 and 24 volts. The more voltage you give it, the more headroom, volume and clarity you will get. Please do not use any adapter deviating from the above (AC, center-positive, voltage under 9 or above 24), you will let the smoke out, possibly permanently damaging the pedal, but definitely damaging your warranty. It’s not a good time!
Controls
- PUSH – This is where the Airstrip goes from a mild-mannered enhancer to a collapsing wall of fuzz with one simple twist.
- VOLUME – Keeping both Trim and Push controls at their minimum settings and cranking this knob offers a superb and very loud clean boost with a tailored tonal profile that makes your guitar sound pre-mastered right out of the box.
- FILTER – Serving up a gentle treble filter, the Tone control cuts treble at its minimum and adds a trebly topnote to the final product at its maximum.
- TRIM – This knob controls the amount of gain from the preamp itself, as the knob adjusts a variable resistance from within the circuit.
