catalinbread [Autumn SUPER SALE] Crooner (Preamp)

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The "Crooner" is a model that recreates the RCA BA-31, one of the greatest studio preamps ever made, in a size that is easy to incorporate into a pedalboard. Despite its unassuming appearance, this preamplifier has produced rich bass and astonishing clarity on numerous classic albums. Building on the design philosophy of "Airstrip," the Crooner's input stage is equipped with a UREI-style discrete operational amplifier. This allows you to actively overdrive the preamp circuit, and when the gain is set to maximum (full up), you can get a rich, sticky, saturated sound. Furthermore, it covers every type of distortion sound, from clean boost and overdrive to distortion and even intense fuzz. Have you ever listened to classic albums from the golden age of pop music and wondered how that smooth, deep, and wonderful vocal sound was created? While I cannot provide a map that perfectly recreates the entire picture, I can tell you that many classic albums started with RCA microphone preamplifiers, and that one of the most popular models at the time was the "BA-31". We developed the "Crooner," which is based on the BA-31 circuit, while continuing the legacy of the vintage-inspired "Airstrip Console Preamp." This pedal extends the dynamic range of the Airstrip circuit, producing a clean preamp sound at low gain settings and a sticky, compressed distortion sound at maximum gain. This preamplifier, equipped with germanium transistors and transformers, employs a discrete operational amplifier inspired by UREI in its input stage. By simply turning the "Push" knob, you can go from a state with no gain change at the minimum setting to obtaining a powerful gain at the maximum setting, allowing you to push the delicate behavior of RCA preamplifiers into the "red zone" (overload state). If you want an even more intense "sag" (compression caused by voltage drop) or melting harmonics, you can use the "Trim" control to increase the gain of the BA-31 circuit itself, and you'll get a trance-saturated distortion sound that would make even Neil Young jealous. Between these two extreme settings lies a range of unique and superb overdrive/distortion sounds, among the finest in the pedal world.Power supply: 9-18VDC center negative Current consumption: 3mA Controls: Push, Filter, Volume, Trim Show more