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The Dirty Little Secret has earned itself a well-deserved reputation for replicating the sound and feel of a classic-era Marshall amplifier, supplying one of the most iconic guitar sounds in music. When the JFETs used as the base for the Dirty Little Secret were discontinued, and as the designers' stock of them began to dwindle they knew they had to find ones still being manufactured. However, rather than simply re-voicing around these new JFETs, we decided to push the envelope and provide an amazingly robust feature-set, from ever evolving listening and circuit skills, and pure power of intention. This isn't just "a" Marshall in a box, it's the most versatile and dynamic Marshall-style overdrive out there!

The "Super Lead" mode expands the range of the DLS MkII with more gain available and more control over your tone sculpting with the addition of the midrange control while still enhancing the touch-sensitive dynamic qualities that make the DLS so great to play. The gain range now goes from classic plexi all the way to modified JCM800 levels and can get even more raw and open than any previous DLS.

The "Super Bass" mode is a new voicing that gives you the tone and gain structure of a Marshall Super Bass (which is very similar to a JTM45 or JTM50/100). This mode was voiced to really hone in on that elusive in-between "not quite clean, not quite dirty" response that old tube amps were so good at getting. And it was specifically voiced to make fuzz pedals sound great.

The Dirty Little Secret (DLS) is an overdrive pedal designed to bring you the sound and response of a classic Marshall amplifier. It, like the other pedals in Catalinbread's Foundation Overdrive range of pedals, is designed to be a "foundation" pedal - it is your "always on" pedal that forms the core of your guitar sound which you can enhance and embellish by adding boosters, fuzzes, filters, and other overdrives in front of it - just like you would in front of a real amp. And the reason you can leave it always-on is that you can get a great clean sound just by rolling your guitar's volume knob back! That's the way the old school Marshall players did things!
Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret (Marshall Amp Emulation) Guitar Effects Pedal

collapse expand iconFeatures

  • Complete redesign with two Marshall modes
  • Super Lead and Super Bass to suit your sound
  • Fantastic cleanup with your guitar's volume control
  • Ideal for stacking with fuzzes, ODs and boosts
  • Exact tonestack circuits from SL and SB amps for true-to-amp response

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4.78

9 Reviews

100%

of respondents would recommend this to a friend

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  1. Responsive3
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Reviewed by 9 customers

  • Best new pedal I have bought in years

    5

    submitted5 years ago

    byLawrence of Leucadia

    fromFallbrook, CA

    Super fun

  • Good Effect But A Little Muddy

    4

    submitted7 years ago

    bydgr

    fromSan Diego

    I really wanted to like this pedal but I found it was a bit too muddy. If you play fast licks and you are looking for a pedal that doesn't hide your precision then I would suggest the RAH over the DLS. The DLS is nice and can work for many song as long as you are ok with it compressing your crafted finger work. I had to buy online since no GC near me stocked this until. I prefer to always buy local before online as I hate to return anything. GC would have made it much easier if they stocked it as I would have tested it in store and left with the RAH.

  • I would probably buy again.

    4

    Verified BuyerVerified Buyer

    submitted7 years ago

    byGary

    fromundisclosed

    I'm really enjoying this pedal. Has a cool sound.

  • More than just "A Marshall in a box"

    5

    submitted9 years ago

    bycarlos spiceyweiner

    fromoregon

    This pedal is almost always on. Very transparent and responds well to player dynamics. I like to use it with 18volts which gives more headroom and slightly more gain. Pedal also gets along well with others. I have had this for about a year and it has never given me any problems.

  • Where have you been all my life?

    5

    submitted9 years ago

    byMark B.

    fromNew Castle, PA

    This is really the best overdrive I've ever tried. I can't say enough good things about it. It really does sound and feel like an old Marshall. My plan was to use a Fender Twin for the cleans and a Marshall Super Lead for the dirt but now I don't have to tote two amps or even a stack. I'm just going to run this into the Fender Deluxe Reverb and call it a day. It really sounds amazing.

  • Where have you been all my life?

    5

    submitted9 years ago

    byMark B.

    fromNew Castle, PA

    This is honestly the best overdrive pedal I've ever tried. It really does sound like my old 1972 Marshall that I lent to my brother and he sold. My dream setup was to have a Fender Twin for my clean sound and a Marshall for dirt. Now I don't need the huge stack or even the big Fender amp. I'm going to put this through my Deluxe Reverb and call it a day. It really sounds amazing. This is my favorite purchase for my guitar rig so far.

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Have a question about this product? Our expert Gear Advisers have the answers.

  • submitted6 years ago

    asked byOldeRocker Tom

    fromLittleton, CO

    Probably a dumb question but I own a Marshall DSL20 CR amp but I have to crank up the gain and volume to get the classic Marshall sound I am looking for. My question is whether the Dirty Little Secret pedal plugged into my DSL20 can give me that overdrive sound I want at a lower decibel level? Does is make any sense to connect a Marshall sound pedal to a Marshall amp? Or would this just be redundant?

    Probably a dumb question but I own a Marshall DSL20 CR amp but I have to crank up the gain and volume to get the classic Marshall sound I am looking for. My question is whether the Dirty Little Secret pedal plugged into my DSL20 can give me that overdrive sound I want at a lower decibel level? Does is make any sense to connect a Marshall sound pedal to a Marshall amp? Or would this just be redundant?

    Open Reply - Ronald
    It could help, another option is to turn the amp up a bit more then use the volume on your guitar. That should give you more of a crunch, but you'll have to balance it out a bit to avoid feedback.