Catalinbread Hyperpak

[tayste_2000]

Now this is an odd and rare little beasty, now I have serial 73 which is cool because I didn't realise so many had been made since Catalinbread only sell them via Ebay when he can make them.

To get an idea of the size I took a picture of a box that Tone Factor generally use to send 1-4 pedals next to the Hyperpak box



Info from Catalinbread

This pedal is an incredibly small "tube like" overdrive/boost named Hyper Pak.
The first 30 Hyper Paks were single knob units. This is the updated TWO knob version.

Q: Is the Hyper Pak True Bypass?
A: Of course it is with a LED too.

Q: What is it?
A: The Hyper Pak was inspired by an early 60's MOPAR aluminum block Slant Six engine that weighed a whopping 80 lbs combined with a very-long-ram intake manifold for a 4 bbl carb. Giant power to weight ratio...

Q: What is it REALLY?
A: The Hyper Pak is a boost/drive pedal that utilizes cascaded MOS gain stages instead of the clipping diodes common of most other overdrives. This is the main contributing factor to the Hyper Pak's tone and feel. It's feel is open and uncompressed. It's tone is balanced and organic. The gain ranges from clean and boosted to overdriven and TOO LOUD.

Q: That thing can't be big enough to fit a battery inside!?
A: Right-o the Hyper Pak's footprint is tiny therefore no batteries will fit inside. It is powered by standard DC jack.

Q: What if the pedal breaks?
A: All Catalinbread pedals big or small have a lifetime warrantee on workmanship and parts.

Q: What if I bust the pedal cause I am a reckless individual?
A: YOU ARE TOO!? If the story is good enough I may waive the cost of parts & labor for the repair.

I had him stick a blue led in mine so it sounds better. But the whole point of getting it was I had to make a choice between my Tone Factor Mule and my Tone Factor 442 so I went on the lookout for something similar to the Mule but smaller if that was possible I knew about the Hyperpak and was told that they might be similar, but WOW oh WOW I did not realise how similar.

You can see the size of it here



Here are the sound clips

Hyperpak

[url="http://www.grygrx.net/Pedal%20Reviews/Catalinbread/Hyperpak/Catalinbread%20Hyperpak.mp3"]http://www.grygrx.net/Pedal%20Reviews/Cata...%20Hyperpak.mp3[/url]

Hyperpak and Mule being switched between, it starts clean then Hyperpak then Mule see if you can hear the difference. The pops you can hear is the switching between the 2 pedals.

[url="http://www.grygrx.net/Pedal%20Reviews/Tone%20Factor/Combined/Hyperpak%20vs%20Mule.mp3"]http://www.grygrx.net/Pedal%20Reviews/Tone...20vs%20Mule.mp3[/url]

OK so I've had this a few weeks now and have used it quite a bit and had a great gig with it as well.

Firstly let me explain my preference for gain I like my fuzz's old school and smooth sounding and my distortions quite hi-fi and modern and I have both on the board for the following uses. The fuzz tends to stay on for most of my set but I will change to using the distortion if I have a song where I'm using my fingers and have the distortion volume slightly higher to make up for the volume loss between me going from a pick to fingers and the added clarity also evens out the sound so I tend to use this on our power ballad type songs and things where I need some reall punch and clarity yet still a dirty sound if that makes sense.

This was also my first gig where I bi-amped running a clean and dirty rig and my god the sound was amazing I used this pedal for intro stabs and as it gets that extra punch a vintage fuzz doesn't and it was like being hit in the chest. There is no bass lost at all on this pedal so the previous clip the mule must be slightly louder but man oh man using this I didn't miss the mule at all, true they are very very similar in sound but it's so small even the most crowded of pedalboards can take it. Does it show I like this pedal

Other things I've noticed with my time with it is the Hyperpak can get cleaner than the mule almost verging on a nice tubey overdrive sound but it doesn't have quite as much gain as the Mule but my perferred sound is available on both so no big deal. In terms of volume both have way more than you'll ever have to use with the Hyperpak being slightly louder I think.

Enjoy

Edited April 22, 2008 by tayste_2000

[truegeminis]

Thanks for that. I've been looking at this pedal for a while, sounds good.

Wouldn't mind seeing some reviews of the other pedals on your pedal, like the quasar or the barge concepts. And what is the unmarked pedal in the top left for?

[tayste_2000]

[quote name='truegeminis' post='183251' date='Apr 22 2008, 10:13 PM']Thanks for that. I've been looking at this pedal for a while, sounds good.

Wouldn't mind seeing some reviews of the other pedals on your pedal, like the quasar or the barge concepts. And what is the unmarked pedal in the top left for?[/quote]

The unmarked pedal is just a switcher for my basses and amp

If you go over to www.talkbass.com you'll find in the wiki the effects database and I've done clips of every pedal I own/owned (it's a hell of a lot)

[BassBalls]

The links are not working for me...

[tayste_2000]

[quote name='BassBalls' post='183297' date='Apr 22 2008, 10:47 PM']The links are not working for me... [/quote]

I've updated the links

[BassBalls]

[quote name='tayste_2000' post='183371' date='Apr 22 2008, 11:50 PM']I've updated the links[/quote]

Cheers, sounding good. Is it the mule you are using at the end of the second link? I prefer the sound of that one. Sounds a bit more 'fuzzy.'

[tayste_2000]

I'm playing and switching between them randomly it was more to show how similar they sound, the Mule is a better pedal overall but the hyperpak is so small it was the only way I could keep distortion on my board