Catalinbread Talisman Ghost Reverb Pedal with Dual EMT 140 Plate Simulation

Catalinbread is big on creating devices that serve as exacting models of vintage equipment, but part of reimagining old technology is stepping outside the boundaries of possibility. Sometimes, that can look like dramatically increasing the decay of a spring reverb to simulate springs far larger than those found in amps, and other times it can look like a room reverb if the room were an infinite number of square feet. In the plate reverb realm, the Talisman already pushed the boundaries of what a real EMT 140 could sound. In that pedal, Catalinbread expanded on an EMT 140’s impetus, a giant sheet of metal suspended in a frame with springs and clamps, adding a handful of tasteful appointments designed to create controls where once were none. The Catalinbread Talisman Ghost Reverb Pedal takes a step outside of even that framework to answer what would happen if you configured two EMT 140 plate units to work in modulated tandem. The result is a luscious chorus-like effect, applied only to the reverb trail. This ground-up reimagining took a careful look at the diffusion characteristics of a real EMT 140, bolstered by the luxury of having a second 600-pound behemoth running in parallel, which most studios did not. This tasteful modulation dramatically opens the spatial effect of the reverb by giving you the sound of two plates co-mingling with one another in satisfying ways. This serves up a slick post-process doubling effect that lends a sense of dynamics to a normally static reverb decay.

Controls

Tone is the Ghost mod. It’s a tasteful modulation dramatically opens up the spatial effect of the reverb by giving you the sound of two plates co-mingling with one another in satisfying ways. This serves up a slick post-process doubling effect that lends a sense of dynamics to a normally static reverb decay. The Mix control allows you to dial in the amount of affected signal, from completely dry to 100 percent wet. The Pre-Delay control adjusts the time between your dry signal and the onset of reverb reflection. As you turn the Pre-Delay knob up, you can hear the reverb detach from the dry guitar signal, up to about 100ms. If you want your guitar signal to cut through the mix more and be less obscured by the reverb tail, this is where the Pre-Delay control comes into play. The Vol knob controls the overall output volume. The Time control adjusts the length of the reverb tail, ranging from a short ‘small room’ decay to an almost infinite pad.

Power Supply

The Talisman can be powered by any center-negative 9-18V DC power supply that is designed for use with effect pedals and can provide at least 100mA of current. When powering multiple pedals with one supply, make sure that the current rating of the power supply is greater than the sum of all the individual pedals' current draws.