Issues with Catalinbread pedal co.

#21
Roland GR 88 said:
Catalinbread LLC vs Gee et al | Trade Secret | Complaint
Your answers are here ^^^^. You may change your tune after reading it.
Obviously the company is in terrible shape but trying to stay afloat as best they can. If I were you, I'd ask for an exchange. Either one of the same or something with less gain/noise. I'd ship it back with a pre-stamped & addressed return box to make it as easy as possible for them.
Figuring that they should fold up because it took 4 (yikes!!) whole days to reply to you is just ridiculous.
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What a sad story.
The founder dies when a tree falls on his car; what are the chances...
Really horrible if this theft of intelectual property and the idea that employees tried to harm the company is true.
OTOH, it sounds like leadership, management, and communciation was at a very low level.
How could the new owner of any company not immediately know why production was so low and not take steps to rectify the situation either through firing and suing the staff or by trying to deal with the obvious unrest within the company?

Doubtful that anyone will know the real truth but illustrates the fragility of a small company that does not have provisions in place for moving forward in the case of the owner's death.
Potential warranty support as well as factory helps disappears when there is a problem with either a company that builds as a hobby or is not set up to run by normally accepted business practices.
 
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#22
For anyone wondering, yes I also reached out to their instagram account to be assured over a week ago that someone would contact me right away...well, I messaged them again yesterday, and they have been on and have seen my message since, yet no reply. There is ZERO excuse for a company to run this way. Lawrence Petross Designs charges no more money for his pedals than Catalinbread, yet he is PERSONALLY in touch with all of his customers and goes above and beyond to make sure they are satisfied and he is a true ONE MAN opperation. I regret not buying one of his Sixty-eight drives instead...but the Catalinbread pedal was the exact tone I wanted (Being a life long Sabbath freak) and It sounded good in the demos I heard. I truly feel ripped-off....
 
#23
Buys overdrive pedal / complains it is “too noisy.”

Seriously though- not sure how anyone here can help you with your problem. If the company is still manufacturing pedals, I’m sure they’d at least be able to look at it / give it a once over to make sure it’s operating the way it’s supposed to.

Noise coming from any sort of pedal setup could stem from numerous sources— are you running a daisy chain vs. a Pedal Power 2? Is the wiring in house causing the issue? Any fluorescent lights nearby? Is your actual instrument inherently not “noise-free?”

There are too many possible culprits at play here. I’m not sure you’ve done enough troubleshooting on your end to earn the right to call out a company for selling a shoddy, broken product.
 
#24
cataract said:
Buys overdrive pedal / complains it is “too noisy.”

Seriously though- not sure how anyone here can help you with your problem. If the company is still manufacturing pedals, I’m sure they’d at least be able to look at it / give it a once over to make sure it’s operating the way it’s supposed to.

Noise coming from any sort of pedal setup could stem from numerous sources— are you running a daisy chain vs. a Pedal Power 2? Is the wiring in house causing the issue? Any fluorescent lights nearby? Is your actual instrument inherently not “noise-free?”

There are too many possible culprits at play here. I’m not sure you’ve done enough troubleshooting on your end to earn the right to call out a company for selling a shoddy, broken product.
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Did you read the whole post? Where they WON'T reply to me in any type of a timely manner and that I tried MULTIPLE amps/power sources/istuments and have no other issues even with other "overdrive" pedals. If you're so sure they'll be willing to look at it for me, why don't you use the magic contact info you must have to make a human being respond to me. Seriously thanks for the condesention while not reading my whole post and the complete lack of constructive input...wow.
 
#25
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#26
2010P said:
I too found it curious that he got a reply from "Nicholas."
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No big deal. Any email program worthy of the name allows you to set up a “signature” block. Most people put their name and contact info there. When you hit send it automatically gets put on the bottom of your message. I’m guessing it’s still set that way for Nick’s mailbox.

I get communications all the time from businesses that are signed by names no longer with the firm. Especially if I sent it to a mailbox with a department name like [email protected]. It’ll go on for few months until their replacement notices and either gets IT to change it or they change it themselves.
 
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#27
BCRichguy said:
"The Sabbra is our highest-gain pedal and generates a much higher noise floor than the rest of our line. If you purchased it from a retailer, you may wish to try another one, but I cannot guarantee that it will be quieter than the one in your possession. A 9V battery is the best bet for a lower noise floor, followed by its own non-chained 9V adapter, followed by an isolated power supply, then lastly a daisy chain. Running it at 18V will increase the noise floor. Unfortunately, it will never be a quiet pedal, even our master copy here at the shop has a high noise floor. Best, Nicholas"
I replied that this was not acceptable and that the retailer will not take back a four month old pedal and that this is not resolved...
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1. The Sabbra is a foundation pedal. As with all of Catalinbread's Foundation series pedals, they are designed to convert the sound of your amp's CLEAN channel into the amp of your choice. I have a Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret that makes my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe sound exactly like a cranked Marshall Plexi. All of the foundation pedals are designed to go LAST in your effects chain. Some will not interact well with other effects placed after them so, place it LAST in the chain, run it at 9vdc, and see if that solves your particular issue.

2. They answered your question. They said it was noisy. If it's outside the return window of the store that you bought it from and outside the warranty period, sell it on eBay, just note in the listing that you think it's noisy, someone will buy it.
 
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#28
1. I placed it direct, solitary, in-line with 9v battery power and it was still 10x noiser than a Ibanez ts9. It would be completly UNUSABLE in any type of live setting as the actual noise it produces is running OVER the guitar tone. Its WORSE than a Boss Metalzone...for a $200 pedal...its junk.
2. If the answer doesn't even include a wilingness to inspect the pedal at my shipping cost...they just couldn't be bothered.
Anyone wanna buy a slightly used really loud pedal? Ugh.
 
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#30
I had a Sabbra Cadabra a while ago. I have to agree, pretty noisy, though your descriptions seem noisier than mine. I put mine in the loop of a gate, and it was great. Overall, I think it sounded great, and nailed his early tones, but I couldn’t deal with all the grainy treble.

For my uses, it has been replaced by an AmpTweaker FatMetal on one board and a DOD Gunslinger on another. Both get my Iommi fix done no problem, and the DOD can be had very cheaply.
 
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#31
BCRichguy said:
1. I placed it direct, solitary, in-line with 9v battery power and it was still 10x noiser than a Ibanez ts9. It would be completly UNUSABLE in any type of live setting as the actual noise it produces is running OVER the guitar tone. Its WORSE than a Boss Metalzone...for a $200 pedal...its junk.
2. If the answer doesn't even include a wilingness to inspect the pedal at my shipping cost...they just couldn't be bothered.
Anyone wanna buy a slightly used really loud pedal? Ugh.
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You seem understandably frustrated, I say hang in there. Often these things get resolved, I suggest remaining polite and persistent. Lots of companies interact via email, and you have no idea what the situation at the other end is.
Not good customer service granted, but I find most people/companies (even online) are not really out to screw you.
 
#33
Jim C said:
What a sad story.
The founder dies when a tree falls on his car; what are the chances...
Really horrible if this theft of intelectual property and the idea that employees tried to harm the company is true.
OTOH, it sounds like leadership, management, and communciation was at a very low level.
How could the new owner of any company not immediately know why production was so low and not take steps to rectify the situation either through firing and suing the staff or by trying to deal with the obvious unrest within the company?
Click to expand...
Obviously none of us are employed there and can say for sure what's going on behind the scenes, but popular opinion (at least what I've seen outside of TB) sides with the employees being sued. Seems most folks place the blame for the mismanagement of the company on Nick's mom.
 
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#34
I had the same issue with an EQD fuzz and told my Sweetwater rep about it. He made a phone call and I received an email from EQD with a (free) repair code and mailing address. Problem solved. I've found that most pedal makers take pride in their product and are willing to fix them even past warranty. Obviously not all pedal makers have this post-sale philosophy.
 
#35
Rolling Thunder said:
I had the same issue with an EQD fuzz and told my Sweetwater rep about it. He made a phone call and I received an email from EQD with a (free) repair code and mailing address. Problem solved. I've found that most pedal makers take pride in their product and are willing to fix them even past warranty. Obviously not all pedal makers have this post-sale philosophy.
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Yeah, I plan on calling zzounds again on monday and try and make someone in cutomer service aware of whats going on. I just wish I had bought a L.P.D. overdrive instead.
 
#36
cataract said:
Buys overdrive pedal / complains it is “too noisy.”

Seriously though- not sure how anyone here can help you with your problem. If the company is still manufacturing pedals, I’m sure they’d at least be able to look at it / give it a once over to make sure it’s operating the way it’s supposed to.

Noise coming from any sort of pedal setup could stem from numerous sources— are you running a daisy chain vs. a Pedal Power 2? Is the wiring in house causing the issue? Any fluorescent lights nearby? Is your actual instrument inherently not “noise-free?”

There are too many possible culprits at play here. I’m not sure you’ve done enough troubleshooting on your end to earn the right to call out a company for selling a shoddy, broken product.
Click to expand...
Actually, I'm calling them out for their NON EXISTANT customer service. Its impossible to even get a person on the phone. When the most timely reply you get comes from their social media platform, asking for your contact info so they can have someone contact you "right away" a week ago, and still no call...then yeah, I'm gonna say its a crap company.
 
#39
BCRichguy said:
Yeah, I'm not gonna stick someone else with my broken crap.
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It’s not broken - it’s a high gain pedal with a high noise floor and someone will not mind. How do you think that Dwarfcraft is still in busines? Some people just don’t care as much as others about noisy pedals, while others (like you and me for the record) can’t stand them.
 
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#40
Maybe I need to post this in @Joe Nerve ’s recent “Typical Talkbass” thread, but here goes.....

Someone buys equipment that does not work as expected and is clearly faulty, tries to resolve it via normal channels, gets nowhere, and comes to the community for advice. These threads wind up a compendium of people defending or excusing the company in question, OP getting told he does not understand what he purchased, people suggesting OP troubleshoot more by doing the exact things OP already did, and the occasional plug for a similar product from a different company that gave no trouble.

What rarely happens is that the OP gets the advice they seek. Talkbass is usually very supportive but these “my gear is broke and I can’t get help” threads are tough reads.

In this particular case it does sound as if @BCRichguy has bum gear and neither the manufacturer nor the retailer are being helpful. What would extremely helpful is if anyone had an inside contact with whatever remains of Catalinbread or even ZZSound.

At the very least @BCRichguy you have Catalinbread owner’s name now so maybe that is the in you need. Could be quite the redemption story if you can turn this around.
 
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