Catalinbread Carbide

The specialist's opinion

Officially, to get the "chainsaw sound" as it is now called, all you have to do is plug in a Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal and push all four buttons.

The Catalinbread Carbide starts from this base, then modifies most of the distortion circuit to achieve maximum crunch.

Instead of giving you paltry mix control, the Carbide splits your signal into two paths; one path goes to a powerful clean boost specially configured for downtuned instruments, the other goes to the distortion gears. Each path has its own volume knob before being mixed in parallel, allowing you to fine-tune the amount of distortion needed. An Emphasis control tightens the extreme lows while reducing the highs, allowing the boosted frequency bands to come out of the mix.